Raised Among Alphas

28 - After Party

Alora POV

That night, I had a blast.

Kasthor stopped me the second I walked out of the front door of the pack house on my way back to the bonfire.

"Alora, let's go back in time, before all this mess. Tonight I need my best friend to party." He offered me his hand, and with a huge smile, I accepted his proposal.

We walked together to the bar, where we challenged each other to drink and drink and drink. Kasthor's eyes glared with his usual shine and his soul radiated joy. He was drunk and having a good time. Jathred joined in the fun, and the three of us connected in a way we hadn't done in months.

All of our lives, we have done everything together. For every important milestone in our lives, we have had no one but each other. It's a hard realization how fast life changes, in only a matter of months, both Jathred and I have found our mates.

Jathred is going to have a baby. I have no clue what the next step will be with my mate, but I do know I want him. Kasthor couldn't be more heartbroken yet so free of doing anything he wants with his life. For the first time in his life, he's free of me.

Life has been a roller coaster. It treated us hard at a very young age, and then it blessed us with calmness and peace for a good while before it got complicated again.

At that moment of the three of us together at the bar, remembering funny anecdotes and laughing at each other, it hit me. Nothing is for granted, and this could be one of our last celebrations together.

War is coming, or actually, we are going to it. Even if we all make it out alive, I might leave if I accept my mate. Worst than that, if he marks me, I'll be the Luna of a foreign land I do not know, and travelling back to the Desert might be a once-in-a-blue-moon kind of trip.

It was a bittersweet moment, but there was no point in wasting the glory of a precious encounter with depressing thoughts. I can think about those in the morning.

When the tequila started to make its presence known in my body, I convinced Jathred to bring out his guitar to play for everyone. Obviously, I asked him to play some of my favourite songs so I could sing along. Nothing in the world feels better than singing a bolero with Jathred on the guitar.

Most of the newcomers were shocked to find out about our hidden artistic talents. They rounded up around us and enjoyed the experience with joy. Even the quiet and distant Forest wolves came close and asked us to play another song.

The atmosphere was warm and empowering. Our expectators swarmed us with their applause, between dances and even joined us in the songs they knew.

Wolves from the Desert and the Forest were creating a friendly alliance. We played games, danced, drank, talked, joked, got to know each other. I had the chance to speak with some of the Forest wolves. They were shocked to see we weren't the savages they were expecting. All of them treated me with respect and maintained their distance from me. Clearly, they caught up on the latest news of my fated mate. Hard to miss it when I am wearing his sweater.

I'm sure I have Becker's scent permanently on me. That must have been his plan during our earlier ritual. That little stunt warned other wolves about the presence of a male, in his case, an Alpha male, even if I wasn't marked yet every wolf could tell I was claimed by scent.

During one of our party conversations, a couple of our allied wolves were skeptical of my battle skills. They believed Jathred and Kasthor were exaggerating when they said Thana was tougher than some Alphas. Some of the wolves challenged me on the spot, but I was not going to perform intoxicated, so we arranged a face-off for our next training session together. Even Jathred and Kasthor agreed to participate.