The Prodigal Daughter

V

The cookout  was surprisingly fun. I found out almost everyone I had grown up had met their mates and had at least two kids. Mom insisted on introducing me to everyone, and Will was close. He was close, but never too close and I appreciated it more than he would know.

"Hey Abby  is this the last of the ketchup bottles? Anything else?"

"You're good Ally! Take it in and then that should be it! We can handle the rest!" I smiled at Abby and grabbed four bottles and headed to the house. When I reached the door Mom opened it. 

"Sweetheart! I'll take those!" Mom took the bottles. "Will was asking for you." She wiggled her eyebrows.

Ugh. Not Now.

"Look, I was hoping but the way that boys looks at you, it's like you're the most beautiful person in the world." I followed Mom into the kitchen.

"Not now--"

"I know, honey. I know." She kissed my cheek. "But, don't push him away, okay? I like the way you light up around him."

I shook my head. "Where is he?"

"Business floor." I nodded and walked to the elevator and pressed the button for the third floor.

The business floor is where Dad conducted meetings and where his personal office...is. He and  Rick worked from the main house so that they would be accessible to whoever would need them. Charlie would occasionally do paperwork here as well.

The door opened and there's  now a large oval  table with ten men sitting at it everyone talking. I saw Will leaning against the wall being silent. I walked in and all eyes landed on me.

"Hello boys." I walked over and Rick came and gave me a hug. I smiled at Will. 

"It's good to see you Ally, but what are you doing here?" Clay, Lily's husband asked. A few other men had the same look but they didn't have the balls to say anything. 

I bit my cheek. "For eighteen years my father groomed me to take care of this pack, and before you say the A word, don't." I walked over and stood at the front of table by Rick. "I'm here, and I'm involved, whether you like it or not. This is still my father's pack. Don't even try to shut me out."

Clay laughed wryly. "What training do you have?"

My eyes bulged  out of my head and I about let a lot of unkind words out of my mouth before a familiar voice spoke up. 

"She designed most of the exercises and battle plans we use to defend this place. And take my word for it: she could kick  all  of our asses." Daniel, Rick's son must have just gotten in to White Oak. I smiled. 

"Good to see you,  Danny."

"Well," Rick stood. "Now that it is all settled, we need to read everyone in on the current situation."

Everyone sat up straight. I looked at Will but he looked...tense.

"Who killed him?" I turned to Rick, everyone else looked at me like I had three heads. "Dad was the Alpha who eliminated most of the rogues. He was a target. I didn't think he just had a heart attack. And your--" I waved my hands around  the room. "--reactions confirm my suspicion."

"You've been gone a long time,  there's tradition to uphold as far as who gets to ask what." One of the older wolves, LJ, sat up, He worked with my grandfather. He's old school.

Rick spoke up. "She's his daughter and the rightful heir."

"She's not an Alpha." LJ said with his gruff voice.

"I just lost my father. You don't want to tell me this isn't my pack." I felt tears come to my eyes.

"Ally," Rick looked at me. "We have a suspicion, and we are reading everyone in. Please, gentleman and doctor. Let's go through what we know and then we can form a plan. We need to keep White Oak safe while we have mourners arriving. Matthew was a beloved leader, and I don't want anyone at risk."

Everyone nodded in agreement. 

"Alright, so far we have 650 guests signed up to come to the Games, food is already taken care of but I want to talk about perimeter....."

*

I sat on my bed looking at some patient charts. Work does follow you home and whoever disagrees is a liar. 

Shiga toxin poisoning, did not give antibiotics, gave the pt an IV of fluids. 

I was just about to finish out the rare Shiga case when I heard a knock at my door. I tightened my pony tail in my scrunchie as I answered the door. 

I opened it and saw Will with two bottles of beer in his hands. "May I come in?"

I looked down at my fuzzy slippers, my PJ pajamas with 'hottie' written on the ass and my grumpy cat t-shirt. Not to mention I had just applied pimple cream. Basically I'm a hot mess. and I'm wearing my glasses. 

"Uhhhh...sure."

I let him in and he sat on the corner of my bed. I sat down too and he opened our beers. 

"Cheers to my first meeting with the big boys."

"Cheers."

I took a sip. Will laughed under his breath. "I know you said you wanted to handle this with caution, but are you okay?"

I grinned. "You're the first person to ask me that." I looked at my beer, fidgeting with the labels. "Right now, yes. I'm glad that I could be of use, but Mom is going to be a mess on Sunday."

Will stood up and saw my chart info on the bed. "Work?"

"Yeah, I needed something to distract myself." Will kept looking around my room, inspecting. "We talked about security,  but not much about Dad. It's like they're avoiding  it."

Will looked at me and nodded.  "Yeah, they want to get through these next two days before they drag the Luna into this. She--and you--have been through enough."

"I agree," I stood to  meet him. "But what about the attack? Mom  said he died of a heart attack in his sleep last night. Is there some sort of poison?"

"I know some packs do that to make sure the job gets done for high profile targets."

"And that makes me feel better?" I blinked my eyes at him like are-you-fucking-kidding-me. 

"Everyone was eliminated that attacked. They set up a spy network and notified other Alphas. We have the entire East Coast helping us, everyone knows now is a time to mourn."

Will was looking at the picture of Dad and I at the Gala. His black suit with his brown watch. 

"Dad looks good, doesn't he?" I smiled and reached over to touch the picture. 

Wills finger met mine and I felt a spark. It felt so right. "You look beautiful, too."

I looked into his eyes and felt the urge to kiss him when I had to force myself to stop.

"Will, I.....I need to get some sleep." He looked at me and snapped out of our weird trance. 

"I don't want to." He spoke with sadness. "But like I said, I'm here for you, whatever you need." He grabbed my hand and fished a pen from his pocket and wrote numbers on my skin.

I smiled. "I feel like we're in grade school."

He grinned. "For when you're ready, or just need to talk."

He's letting me move at my own pace...

and its making him 10x more attractive.

AU: don't worry, the story will pick up. I wanted to try to unpack this as organically as possible.  I don't expect her to be excited over meeting her mate when she is about to  bury her father ya know!

Please stay tuned and comment!