Fighting Fate

Chapter 24

That next week I was driving the seven hours that it would take to get to Atlanta. My excitement hadn't allowed me to sleep the night before. I just wanted to be with Erik and start to rekindle things. Even now our bond seemed too strained. I could feel him but neither of us were at our strongest. And my lack of sex life was causing my body to tangle into knots.

I pulled up to the packhouse at around five. There were children outside playing, trying to make the most of the last of the sunlight. It took a moment to look at the whole house. It was quite large and spread out. Two stories but still very homey. I grabbed my suitcase out of the car. By the time I turned around, Erik was standing on the porch. He looked at me with wide eyes. Excitement and elation. He rushed over to pull me in close. I allowed myself to breathe and took a couple deep inhales. I wanted to absorb his smell and energy. "I'm so glad you're here." he whispered into my hair. I pulled back and looked to see tears had fallen from his eyes. Which of course, made me cry too. It was actually nice. Too often I worried he didn't really miss me.

"I love you," was all I could say. Our lips met and the world around us disappeared.

"Damn Alpha give her her mouth back," we heard and pulled apart. I turned to see a group of children of various ages. some as young as about twelve and the speaker in his later teens. I laughed and nuzzled into Erik's chest.

"Vaughn, mind your business, I know you all have chores to do."

"Alpha Luke never made us do chores...Ow!" said one of the younger girls.

"That's because the 'lower born' did things for everyone but that's not how we work. No one is born underneath anyone else. The Alpha is a role of caretaking and respect."

"See...you just had to get him started," Vaughn muttered.

"We are one pack and we will all support one another. That includes chores. So who is supposed to be in the kitchen helping Claudette with dinner?" a couple of hands slowly raised. "And how is she supposed to make dinner for forty people with no help?" They rushed off leaving the others. "Vaughn, you can take Amour's suitcase inside and to my room please."

"Amour, that's a lovely name," he said with wiggling brows. I laughed and Erik growled.

"That is your future Luna, you show some damn respect," he told the boy in a low gravelly tone. Vaughn;s mood changed to fear quickly. I elbowed Erik.

"It's fine. I mean it's not, you definitely shouldn't do that to people my age or in positions of power," I explained to Vaughn, "But a little leeway will be given for your teen mind." He nodded then grabbed my things. The others were quite shocked at his behavior. I assumed because Erik always seems so together. So seeing him get emotional about me must have done it.

"You met Vaughn, I'll introduce you to the rest later. Dinner is at seven. Six thirty for the kids. They eat first. New rules. Along with the chores. Everyone is kind of hating me right now," he admitted.

"that's okay. They'll get over it. It's the best. Children with chores grow up with a better sense of responsibility and children should eat first."

"But they're so used to this rank first mentality. You should see some of the fights that happen at mealtimes or training." I leaned into him as we walked up the stairs and onto the porch.

"But it wasn't like that when your dad was Alpha, right?"

"No. These are all Luke's rules. I just didn't think it would be so hard to get everyone to accept being treated equally. you should see how timid some of my wolves are. Especially the males. Luke tended to favor women. In fact, don't tell Vaughn, but I'm starting to think Luke was his father too. I feel like I'm living in one of those horror cult TV shows you make me watch."