Wild and Free

Chapter 2: Little Town

(Mason's POV)

"You've got to be kidding me," Greyson spat, looking at the small town below us.

"Nope."

"It's tiny, not to mention it's in the middle of freaking no where," He complained, stating the obvious.

Riley came up on my other side, "Yeah I hate to break it to you Mason but he's right. Why this place?"

"Well probably because it's tiny and in the middle of nowhere," I replied, glaring at Greyson. "I don't really know. All my father said was that it's the perfect spot. One of our allies isn't too far and the land is right on the river. The town would be where we get supplies and maybe even go to school if we wanted."

Riley put his hands on his hips and looked out from the cliff where we stood, "Alpha is always right. I guess I can see it more now."

"Tell your father that he should pick a spot with more girls in it next time," whined Greyson, earning himself a whack on the back of the head by Riley.

"Shut the hell up, don't talk about the Alpha like that," he spat, "Or the future one either," he whispered, a poor attempt at trying not to let me hear.

"Heard that."

"Sorry."

"Whatever," I sighed, jumping off the rock onto the ground, away from the cliff. "My father and the rest of the pack is going to explore the woods and look for our ally and see if this is the right place to settle. He said that we could go and scope out the town for and leeches or anything that says we shouldn't stay here."

"I could name a few things," Greyson muttered, getting another slap to the head.

Riley was definitely the smarter of the pair. He respected the Alpha as he should, whereas Greyson was a little preoccupied with finding his mate at the moment.

"Look on the brightside, if you want to find her so fast, it's a small town, it shouldn't take that long," Riley told him.

"You idiots shouldn't be so focused on finding your mates, you should be focusing on finding a home and not getting attacked," I spat, forcing the walk into town in silence.

Our pack's old territory got taken over by one of our rivals, the Shaw pack. Sneaky assholes chose to ambush us when we were at our weakest. A deadly sickness swept over the pack, rendering us weak and defenseless. Without a Luna's power, there was nothing we could do to stop it. Some who caught it were able to recover. Others weren't as lucky. The Royal pack wasn't even considered a pack anymore because we lacked any power or intimidation that we once had.

And of course, survival of the fittest, one of our enemies got word of it and took their moment. They raided our pack house, ran everyone out of our territory. Anyone who was still sick was left to die. They gave everyone from the Royal pack the choice to join them and stay, or they'd be exiled. We lost a lot of members but were determined to get back to the top where we were. It would just take time.

My father, Pearce Royal, was our Alpha. He decided to move our territory here because he said one of our smaller, but powerful, allies have land not far and were willing to join our packs together.

"Are you thinking about going to the school?" Riley asked, jogging up to my side and breaking the thick, tense silence.

I shrugged, "Not sure yet."

"I think it'd be nice to have a diploma in case for some reason we can't find a place to settle," he went on.

"You mean you'd rather just pretend to be human?" Greyson asked in a disgusted voice. "Dude, you do realize that would mean, never shifting, no pack, and you'd have to get a job or something to pay for your living," he counted out on his fingers.