The Unmarked Mate

Chapter 51

Liam

After the meeting, Eli asked me to gather the forty Crimson Moon Pack members who were here to have a talk, to explain them the plan. I left the dining hall to go fetch them, leaving Eli with James. When I looked at them, I remembered how, when we were younger, we would talk of how I'd be friend with her mate, of how we would be unstoppable warriors. I never liked Lucius, even before everything happened, and he certainly never liked me. I hated what he made of her, he wanted nothing but her title and a weak little thing to share his bed and shut her mouth. This wasn't Elestren, he had had to poison her to make her so. And even then, he had failed. When she was with James it was so different, I found again my best friend I had lost the cursed day she met Lucius. At her birthday, when we found out with Maisie she hadn't danced since she had joined Yew Tree Pack, I realized how much that wretched man had wounded her. Eli dancing drunk at a party used to be a weekly occurrence.

But she rebuilt her life, she found herself again. And then she found James. The man protected her, he defended her honour against that stupid lycan woman, he stayed by her side at the hospital, never feeling threatened by her, never overstepping. He saw her as his equal. The few times we had spent together made me enjoy his presence. We trained together as she didn't want to train with him, fearing he'd be soft on her. He definitely wasn't soft on me, but having trained with Eli for years, I was able to land a few punches and headbutts, surprising him. Our parents would have loved him. My dad would have talked politics with him as we had at training, and I bet Richard would have bonded with his brother, maybe he would have even opened up about his past interactions with his lycan wife's family. However all that was never too happen. Eli would kill Lucius and I would tear apart Alfred for what he had done to Maisie.

I got back at the packhouse with all of them, talking with Freddy on the way who wouldn't shut up about me being Beta. His father Frederick was talking with an older black woman with white dreadlocks, Mrs. Williams. She was so happy to see Elestren and I again. I couldn't believe at first Lucius had forced a sixty-five-year-old woman into an attack, but Mrs. Williams was the mate of Richard's Gamma, Tyrone, who died a few weeks after Richard. The doctor told her he had a heart condition. I never believed that story, neither did Mrs. Williams. But she stayed, she had children to protect and the pack was her family even with Lucius at the head. Over the years though, she had become more vocal about Lucius' way of handling and ruling the pack affairs. It was no doubt the reason why he forced her into attacking Yew Tree. She used to sit on the council before Lucius but of course he gave away her seat to some dumb young strongheaded warrior. He viewed her age and gender as a weakness when he should have drawn wisdom from her experience. He even proposed her sons to take the Gamma title, but Elijah and Carter refused. I looked around and saw her sons and daughters behind her, two twin sons and three daughters, two of them twins too, surrounding her, protecting her. They were older than us growing up, but we knew them, they were the Gammas' children, as we were the Alpha's and Beta's. They used to be our role model, we wanted to be as good as they were...

We joined Eli's table. Eli stood up to greet Mrs. Williams.

"Alisha, how are you feeling?" Eli asked to Mrs. Williams who had been wounded during the attack.

"Much better Alpha, thank you." she bowed respectfully.

"Alisha, you're an elder, a council member, a Gamma, you bow to no one." At Elestren's words, Nora looked at her with deep respect in her eyes. She looked a lot like her mother, she had the same locks and the same pride in the way she carried herself. She had been a great friend for the last ten years, sneaking me food when I was locked up, coming along during my long patrols or when I had to clean up Lucius' mess with the human towns. Eli had the biggest crush on her when she was a teenager. She wouldn't shut up about Nora being a great fighter, about Nora going to university, about Nora being so elegant... Mrs. Williams took Eli's hand into hers.