an Everlasting Pursuit

thirty eight

**guess what? Double update!! Read 37 first gang! ***

The next day, a pack meeting was called. I did not know, not being a wolf, so it surprised me when Eve burst into my room and dragged me away. She pulled me to the second row of the crowd filling the cafeteria style kitchen. Luckily, I was dressed, having not been long since coming back from the lake and showering.

"Listen up!" Asra bellowed.

The murmuring of the crowd fell to a dead silence as everyone waited for their Alpha to speak.

"Alpha Blake is coming tomorrow to go over our treaty alliance." He announced. "Be aware of him and his men and try not to get in their way."

I frowned, wondering who this Alpha was. Asra stepped down and dismissed everyone and, as the buzzing murmurs of the crowd disappeared, I turned to Eve with questioning eyes. Her arm wrapped around my bicep and she shook her head before pulling me away. We walked back to my room, and I fell onto my bed, waiting for her to sit before asking my questions.

"Who is Alpha Blake? Why was it so important to have a meeting?" I rushed.

She groaned lightly, shaking her head. "He is the seventh Alpha. Remember how Alpha Asra is the sixth, well this guy is the seventh. He is the worst."

"The worst, as in grinds your bones to dust?" I squeaked.

"No." She snorted. "He is overly confident, despite being low down on the Continental Alpha list. He is arrogant and loud, but there are rumours that..."

She trailed off, frowning.

"Rumours?" I urged.

"That he was part of the attack that killed the luna." She murmured.

My eyes widened, and I shook my head in disbelief. "How? Didn't she die during battle?"

She sighed, her head gazing out of the window. "It's not a story that is told often."

"Please... I'd like to know more about the pack." I gave her my best puppy eyes.

Eve grunted, giving into my wishes. "It was about seventeen years ago... In human years, Alpha Asra was around sixteen and his father, Alpha Nikolai, was in charge."

"Wait, he's... he's thirty-three?" I gasped.

She laughed lightly. "Wolves don't age like humans. They age about five times as slowly."

"That's... Wow. Okay, slow aging. Got it." I shook my head in disbelief.

"Anyway, it was a normal afternoon. The pack was going by as normal, but then, just as the sun was about to go down, there was an ambush. Rogues broke the border and the patrol wolves were shot dead." She explained, her lips drooping into a frown. "We were unprepared for battle. In usual circumstances of war, women and children rush to the bunker beneath the pack house. But somehow, they knew. Someone who knew the land had led the rogues there, or at least tipped them off. The Luna fought all fifteen of them off with the help of a few other female wolves. She died from her injuries once she got the women to safety."

"That's awful." I mumbled, fiddling with my comforter.

She nodded, sighing softly. "I was one child that she got to safety, but I barely remember it. The Alpha wasn't the same since. For a wolf to lose a mate, it usually kills them. It crushes their soul, breaks their heart. A mate is a wolf's other half, the other part of their soul, so to lose that half... You lose yourself."

My heart raced with sympathy as I breathed in sharply. I couldn't imagine losing someone so dear to you. I have had no one like that, my father the only genuine person I really loved so intensely. Arabella may come a close second, but I barely knew her once they sent me to live with Darius.