Scottish Rose

Chapter 6 -

Damon had woke in the early hours wishing he'd never had to wake again, he was done with life and wished not to wake every single night, he still grieved daily for his mate, losing a mate would typically drive a were to death themselves shortly after, very few survived it, elderly mates would typically pass within hours of each other but Damon was immortal,

Which meant he'd suffered the pain of wanting to die every single day since but couldn't, he'd endured hundreds of years of misery but couldn't leave without an heir, he had been informed that the Scottish Princess had arrived which meant hopefully the heir wouldn't be so far off, he had the best trained weres in the world, they were the real inventors of IVF and thanks to their expertise and immortality in the royal pack, they still had that technology available to them post apocolypse,

They had invented IVF originally to help weres with human mates, when weres and female humans mated it lead to multiples and often killed the mother during pregnancy or birth, IVF was originally a way to ensure a female human mate would only carry one pup as were pups were extremely demanding on the human, it meant the survival rate would be much higher and less mates losing another, the technology was so successful that they had passed the technology onto the humans to help with their infertility problem and as usual the credit given to a human for it's invention,

Damon fully intended to make use of IVF with the princess because his wolf couldn't stand the thought of touching anyone other than his mate, his wolf Thorn absolutely refused and even threatened to kill another female that tried, His wolf had turned feral after their mates loss and no longer had much to do with Damon unless necessary, he blamed him for being pig headed and not marking their mate immediately as he'd wished.

Damon hadn't marked her immediately because she was human and didn't know about werewolves, she was so meek and shy so he'd not wanted to scare her and planned to introduce her to his world slowly, he'd since regretted that decision, every single day for hundreds of years, he wished he'd listened to Thorn and marked her during their first mating, she'd have atleast survived childbirth even had she still been taken.

Daniel had to go to the clinic today in order to begin the process, he rarely left his wing these days as he'd got a very short temper since his loss that he struggled to control, he'd often end up hurting or even killing others in his rage and would hate himself even more after, he'd chose to remain locked up in his wing mostly in the gym to pass time when he wasn't dealing with pack business,

He'd realised he'd become unapproachable to his pack and knew he needed to hand over the reign sooner rather than later for the packs sake, they deserved better and that's why he'd taken the Scottish king up on his offer of his daughter to carry his heir,

A princess would know the ins and outs of a royal pack and would be able to raise an heir capable of taking over from him, it seemed the most logical way to leave his legacy and release his pack from his awful reign,

As he was leaving his wing he'd caught a scent, it smelt like Shea butter and almonds, it was delicious and he was about to track it down when his beta linked him

"We've got an emergency at the south border, we need you"

Damon had to rush off and help but would definitely come back looking for the source of the scent later.

****
A hoard of Skin walkers or as many knew them vampires had tried to rush the border and they had been fighting them off for hours, They now referred to them as skin walkers because they were no longer the strong beasts they once had been, now without human blood they were almost like zombies but intelligent and desperate, a stake to the heart or decapitation dealt with the otherwise immortal beings easily for wolves, once they had finally been dealt with Damon headed back to his wing to Shower,

He wanted to clean the smell of death from his skin then he'd investigate the scent he caught earlier, he was feeling more relaxed after Thorn had been allowed out to release some anger defending the boarder, By the time he'd cleaned up and dressed he'd had the beta remind him The mating ball was beginning,

Damon had completely forgotten the annual ball they held, he'd never actually been to one, maybe that's where the scent had come from, it was probably one of the unmated wolves here for the mating ball he thought,

He headed down to the mating ball and scented the air but didn't find the scent he was looking for, he smelt plenty of rogues but they typically weren't bad people anymore, most were those who'd lost packs to the war so most were able to attend things like this without issue, in fact the mating balls often led to the rogues joining a pack and feeling whole again which was a great thing all round,

His pack members must have picked up his scent because they all turned to stare, Damon considered leaving but realised it was still very early and they could arrive later so he decided to head to the chairs at the back

Damon sat there feeling really uneasy, was he making a mistake? Had he imagined the scent? What if they didn't like him? What if he forgot about his first mate? What if he couldn't love them like he did his first mate? Questions spinning around his mind had him completely in his own world when a shewolf had sat next to him,

at first he didn't pay much attention too caught up in his own insecurities, the only thing that had crossed his mind is that someone had been brave enough to dare sit next to him, most were absolutely terrified of him, even his closest friends, his beta, gamma and delta dared not sit so close, just as his interest was peaking at who dared sit so close the wind swept in from the window,

Thorn leapt to the forefront of his mind "MATE" those were the first words Thorn had spoken to Damon in many years, he scented the air and there it was Shea butter and almonds, he turned to the source and locked eyes with the most beautiful shewolf he'd ever seen, before he could react Thorn had forcefully taken control and marched the terrified little thing to their bedroom, Thorn wasn't taking any chances this time.