Pack Lands

Chapter 10 Deacon's Story Part 1

Deacon had arrived back at Pack Lands 6 year ago after travelling around the world with The Moon Pack - an elite pack within the werewolf community. The Moon Pack policed all the werewolves across all nations of the world. Any time there had been an incident involving a werewolf, The Moon Pack had been sent in to prevent information leaking to the public and to try and rectify all the issues around the event tactfully and effectively. Deacon had spent most of his twenties in their service and had learned to handle issues both with brute force and with diplomacy – as the situation required. His return had not been voluntary. Deacon had been happy to work within the werewolf community and pay his dues, assisting to keep their kind under human radar. Family responsibility had ended that part of his life for ever.

When Deacon’s parents had died, he had thought their pack and all obligations would be handed to his older brother Axel with no questions asked. By the time her arrived back at Pack Lands, not long after their deaths, the pack was caught up in an ugly internal struggle with many of their ranks highly unhappy with the status quo. Many of the pack did not deem Axel to be Alpha material, nor did they believe he could lead the pack effectively and without violence. A small faction within their ranks sided with Axel and chose to overpower the remaining group left on the estate. It led to bloodshed and spilled over into the town too. Deacon understood what was happening and the implication of Axel having absolute power and knew the only way to prevent the takeover was to challenge him to the role of Alpha. Nobody other than Deacon could have taken that stand against him and it seemed to be expected that he would step up for his family and their subordinates. Before the fight for Alpha could take place that next sunset, Axel, and his crew had defected and left Pack Lands, graciously handing the role of Alpha to Deacon by default. The weight of the new title was heavy on Deacon’s shoulders.

What happened after that could not have been previously foreseen, but looking back, Deacon hated that he had not thought of it as a possibility. Axel and the wolves he had taken with him, started by targeting neighbouring wolf packs and slaying their leaders and their successors. They did not use the traditional manner of Alpha challenging, but instead organised brute assaults using their full numbers in surprise attacks at each separate location. It left the surrounding packs leaderless and looking to Deacon for help. Deacon did the only thing he could do and stepped forward, claiming them under his rule and becoming the Alpha for the largest pack across the country.

For a werewolf who had worked tirelessly at keeping pack life away from the scrutiny of humans for years and working out of the public eye, he was thrust to the forefront of human dealings and pack relation. He also had to deal with safety – which soon became his major focus. His younger brother Dylan was called back to the estate to assist with internal family and pack matters and the running of the estate and grounds. Pack Lands was used as the central location for the pack and different pack representatives visited throughout the year. The rest had fallen into place from there. Pack Lands become a stronghold for many neighbouring packs and soon Deacon had been voted as the continental representative. He held the highest ranking of all the weres in the country and was well known and well respected worldwide.

Axel and his wolves managed to evade capture after their spate of attacks but cropped up every now and then creating chaos as far as they went. Their attacks became more public and required an increasing intensity of effort to keep the truth about werewolves from the human populace. Axel’s plans had not yet reached their culmination, which Deacon was sure included an attempt to overthrow him and take the full power his position now carried. Due to his actions the evening before, he had been caught and there was currently a man hunt under way to capture the remaining band of wolves who had worked with Axel on his plot to capture Alexis. They hoped Nikita would lead them straight there and she was currently being tailed.