Daughter of the Alpha

Chapter seven

AJ hurried home, desperate not to miss dinner and having to explain where she had been. The slushy snow left in the street smashed as she trampled through it, leaving her pants wet to her knees. She tried slowing down as she approached the house, trying to get her breathing even, there was no point letting it show she had been running. But the two men stationed outside the front door made her hurry even more.

"What's going on?" she demanded when she reached the porch.

One man pushed himself away from the wall and walked the few steps down towards her. "Evening, AJ," he greeted politely. She knew him, she knew both of them very well. Her father's Enforcers, only the strongest wolves were picked for those positions. And the biggest. She could barely look around him for mere bulk. "Nothing to worry about, only the usual pack business," he said as he blocked her way.

"Since when does pack business take place at the Alpha's home and not the Gathering house?" she asked while trying to step around him, but he quickly blocked her path again. "Noah, let me through?"

"I can't do that, AJ," he breathed, running his hand through his greying short hair, "No one is to disturb, not even the Alpha's daughter."

"This is my home," she argued. When he still didn't budge she growled and stepped back down on the ground. "As the Daughter of the Alpha I demand that I pass," she said, her arms crossed over her chest.

"Sorry, AJ, but we are under orders directly from Alpha Winter," the other man piped up from behind Noah. "It's not going to work this time."

"Oh shut it, Clive," AJ huffed angrily. Orders from her father? He was trying to keep her out? She felt the chills of premonition run down her spine. And she was scared. What the fuck was going on? She turned her back to them, pretended to walk away, even took a few elaborate steps, before she attempted to bolt past Noah. He jumped in her way to stop her, but she had anticipated that and quickly changed her direction to the other side of him, running past him up the short flight of stairs. Clive lunged his large arms out in front of the door as fast as he could, but AJ ducked just in time and he missed her. Reaching the door she wasted no time slamming it open and jumping inside and then slamming it shut again, clicking the lock, leaving the two men cursing outside and AJ inside trying to catch her breath.

"AJ," she heard her father in the living room. He sounded angry and she almost didn't want to turn around, but she did. She leaned back on the door when she found her father, hands on his hips, staring angrily down at her from the fireplace. Her mother by his side, she couldn't read her expression. She could, however, read the expression of every single member of the Elder Council, sitting comfortably on their couch and armchairs. Annoyance exuded from them, harsh stares that indicated she was interrupting something, a few huffs and a few clicks of their tongue only confirmed this. "We were not to be disturbed, AJ, didn't Clive and Noah tell you?" her father continued.

AJ could still hear the two Enforcers hammering on the door, trying to get in. Right, well this had been a bad idea, the last thing she needed was even more attention drawn to herself in front of the Elder Council.

"I- I didn't mean to interrupt," she managed to get out in a stutter.

Before her father could reprimand her, a shaking figure rose from the armchair closest to him. It was the female member of the Elder Council. AJ feared her the most. Councilmember Ava Stone. She was the only female former Alpha, and she was also the meanest one by AJ's experience. AJ wasn't even sure how old she was, or how old Alpha wolves even got, looking at her she must have been around one hundred. What little hair she had left on her head was long and stringy, a dark gray that matched the dark circles under her eyes on the face made of wrinkles. "We were done," she announced to the Alpha. Using a bony hand with long jagged, unkempt fingernails, that seemed to have come straight out of AJ's nightmares, she gestured to the rest of the Elder Council to stand.