New Age Werewolf Series Book 2: Hunter's Daughter, Alpha's Mate

Part 46: The Day After the Day Before

I emerged from the cave with Kyros the following afternoon. We'd been gone a little over twenty-four hours, but it felt like a lifetime ago. After yet another shower he swore he needed, and making me laugh about it , I was lounging on the balcony. He insisted that he felt dirty. Right.

It worked, didn't it?

I nearly jumped out of my skin, hearing Kyros's voice in my head. I looked around. What--

Yes, it's me, darling. Side effect of consummation, so be a good girl and stop thinking about our shower this morning. It's distracting me beyond reason!

I laughed at that. I turned my thoughts to Shenandoah, which was tomorrow. I wondered if we were being dropped off in the woods or mountains, which river we could follow.  I wondered if we were going shopping. I wanted to go. 

Come down to the study, honey.

I almost felt like I'd been pushed. I made my way to the study, almost getting lost. So many doors had been closed to me, but now I had run of the castle. Kyros said that I am Luna, so that entitles me to know it all since I am, for lack of better words, lady of the manor. He told me to make changes if I wanted to, but I actually see nothing wrong with it, and Heather is wonderful in the kitchen. She wanted updated appliances and a firepit outside. Done and done.

I entered the office to see Asa and Gordon standing there. "Yes, Alpha?"

"Come here, honey," He pushed back his chair and opened his arms and legs. "Why can you see the Shenandoahs the way you do?"

"What?" I sat in his lap.

"You have a map of it in your head, honey. You were remembering roads and everything, I've never seen anything like that--"

"Or heard," Asa nodded. "It's a permanent memory if it's that strong."

"My dad." I swallowed hard.

Kyros saw the tears in my eyes. "Okay, everybody out--"

"No!" I shook my head at them. "We're all family here, right?" I stared at my hands for a second. "My father spent many years--summers--training me, and one of our training grounds was--"

"The Shenandoahs?" Gordon's eyes widened.

"Oh, Goddess be praised!" Asa clapped his hands. "A break!"

"What's wrong, honey?"

"Nothing, it's just that...we trained there more than any other place...like he knew."

Gordon cleared his throat. "The Shenandoahs, Great Basin--"

"Alaska Range," I said with him. The room grew silent. "We trained in all of these." Kyros, Gordon and Asa looked at each other. "What?"

"Your father trained you in every site of the Wolf Trials," Kyros frowned. "Who was he? How did he know about them?"

"It's time," Asa said. "It's time to look in the Book of Wolves."

"Book of Wolves?" I repeated.

"That's what we call it," Gordon nodded. "It shows many family lines of wolves. Your father had to be more than we thought." Gordon brought the book to us. 

Kyros began flipping through. "Your parents names?"

"John Martin, Elaine Locklear."

"Locklear?" Asa repeated. 

"Yes."

Asa turned and got another book. "This one is incomplete, but Locklear? That might be Western US."

"Uh-oh," Kyros stopped flipping. "You're a Martin."

"Yes, my grandpa was Douglas."

"One second, honey," Kyros said, and I rose from his lap. We put the books next to each other. "Do you know your grandmother's name?"

"Grandma Allison...Begay."

"Aw, wow," Kyros frowned. He tapped the Martin name.

"Goddess," Asa breathed, looking at it too.

Suddenly they all looked at me. "What?"

"You are the descendant of two packs!" Kyros's eyes were wide.

"What?"

Kyros traced the lines. "Douglas Martin, who was the first born son of alpha John Martin I, loved Allison Begay, who was the daughter of Lana and Lance Begay. Begay was of an alpha pack years ago. He was the one who left the pack."

"We picked up that territory then." Gordon nodded. "If he would have stayed or if his father would have blessed the union, that would be a separate territory to this day."

"Yes," Kyros nodded. "Douglas and Allison had your father, John the second, and he met Elaine, whose family served your father's pack...and I'm not sure if Elaine was entirely human. Her family served John's. Her last name was Locklear, and that has a pack lineage that is not completely filled out. No sons, I guess."

This was incredible. "What is it about sons?" I asked irritably. "A woman can't do it?"

Kyros shook his head. "One of the questions amongst packs today. There was a time that females only made the book if they gave birth to sons. Bad decision. Now, I hear there is a female alpha now in the west, and she's getting more and more powerful every year." He frowned over the pages. "Your maternal great great grandfather might have been wolf and taken a human mate, and their daughter took a human mate, and then your mother married your father."

"So?"

"You are the union of two packs that merged with larger packs," Kyros said. "But the blood that flows through you? No wonder you have more wolf tendencies. You just can't change. Roll of genetic dice."

"I'm feeling better," Asa smiled. "lots better about the challenge."

 "Yes," Kyros nodded. "No shopping, by the way."

"What?"

"Part of the challenge is to gather what we need here at the manor," Kyros explained. "If we don't have what we need it is seen as weakness of the alpha and the pack."

"Is my camper here?"

"Yes."

"We have everything," I assured.