Mated to the Alpha: The Complete Collection, page 31
He didn't get any words yet, but he did feel a wave of sympathy and support, which caused him to smile. The emotions always came first, then conscious thought. It was a new level of their Link at least. Sighing again, he looked over at the Clan Thornblood member who was still waiting, probably to start the cleanup. "Tell me, is there any place that I can relax, just get some time to myself and not be bothered by anyone except my family?"
The man nodded. "Yes, my Lord. Lady Thornblood maintains a meditation room and a library on the third floor."
Keith thought about it for a moment, then nodded his head. "I think meditation will do more for me than reading right now. Follow me to my bedchambers, let me change and then show me the meditation room. The cleaning up can wait a few minutes."
After changing, Keith followed the Thornblood up to the top floor of the Hall, where the man stopped at a door. "The door is not locked, but only you and Lady Thornblood are allowed up there. Should I tell her?"
"No, but if she or any of my family ask, you can show them up here. Thank you."
The Thornblood Lycan bowed quickly and left, leaving Keith to open the door himself. He reached out and grasped the handle, stopping as he turned. Would it offend Akiko if he used this room? It obviously had meaning to her, if it was a place only to be used by her or (Keith assumed) Nioclas when he had been alive. Stepping back, he let go of the handle, only to be surprised when he heard Akiko's voice, she had been so quiet on approaching him.
“Go on, it’s all right," she said. He turned and saw that she too had changed, wearing a light tank top and black pants that again reminded him of martial arts pants. "I didn’t mean to surprise you, but I saw David coming back from here, and I assumed that’s where you were headed. Your face said you needed peace."
"I need peace in many ways," Keith said. "I need peace, but I feel the price of peace is great bloodshed."
Akiko nodded, then reached out, turning the handle on the door. "Come with me, Keith. While this place was special to Nioclas and myself, it’s only for the mind."
Just past the door was a flight of narrow stairs, which Akiko climbed gracefully. After two dozen steps, Akiko stopped, opening another door with a tiny doorway and leading Keith inside.
"This is a sanctuary I use when I need to clear my head, and remember what is important," Akiko said as Keith squeezed through the portal. "The door is to remind us that all must humble themselves before the powers of the world, of things we cannot always control."
Keith looked around the room, noticing the pegged floor construction and walls covered in panels of Japanese style rice paper. "A reminder of home."
"Of perhaps the most important lessons I received from my parents," Akiko replied. "Come, sit. Don’t worry about posture, that’s for monks and those who are trying too hard. Sit as you would if you wish to unburden your body of your mind."
Keith sat down on one of the two cushions on the floor, while Akiko sat down on the other, crossing her legs into a lotus position. "There is one primary rule that exists for this room. Whatever is said here, whether it be good or ill, kind or evil, will never be shared with anyone outside these doors. If you wish, you don’t have to share with me even."
Keith nodded, then looked towards the wall. Noticing a faint light, he got up and slid the panel aside to reveal the early evening sky, with a quarter moon rising above the horizon. "You must get pure moonlight in here on full moons," he said, turning back to look at Akiko. "I am afraid, Akiko."
"Fear is a normal thing for every living creature," Akiko replied. "I feel fear every day. Fear that I will make a mistake in leading this Clan. Fear that I’ll be placed in a situation in the future where Clan Thornblood and Clan Lockwood will once again be at odds. Fear that I am too old to truly be a member of the family that has welcomed me so openly. And yes, fear that some day I will be an old Dame, alone in this Hall with no child to pass this on to, and nobody to love me. What is your fear?"
"I fear screwing up," Keith said quietly, turning to look out at the night again. "Not just for the Lockwoods or the Thornbloods, but for all of us, and for nobody other than Melanie, Kim, and Jay. Even more than Edward and you, I'm sorry to say."
"Nothing to be sorry about. I have not done enough to be in the same place as your Mate, your sister or your son. Do you fear dying?"
Keith turned to look at Akiko, who looked at him calmly. Part of him wanted to say no, but there was no reason to lie here. “Well of course I do," he replied, coming back over and sitting down. "I fear going away on some mission in this war, and not coming back. I fear my son growing up without me, and Melanie being left in the lurch."
"Do you think your Clan would let that happen? Do you think I would let that happen?" Akiko asked, still in the same quiet, calm voice that she had used ever since they had come in. "I can promise you that Kimberly wouldn’t let that happen. Nor would I. Jay will have a place to grow and become the Lycan he is meant to be, regardless of what that is."
"You don’t assume him to be an Alpha already?" Keith asked, surprised. "Not what I expected from you."
"We are all born with the ability to be so many things. We are then shackled by circumstances both within and beyond our control. The fortunate among us are either shackled by things that we want to be shackled by, or are able to break free of those shackles through force of will and spirit. If I would have it my way, Jay Waldwyck will be strong enough to choose his own path. If he wishes to be an Alpha, I am sure that he will be. If he chooses to go another way, he will be able to do that too. Or perhaps he could create a third way, a way beyond our imaginations, a third path that allows him to be both an Alpha and free simultaneously. I had the same wish for Kensuke and Morrigan, and I regret my failures there."
Keith sighed. "You understand my fear well, Akiko. I don’t want to fail Jay. Or anyone else for that matter.”
Akiko stood up from her cushion and came over, standing next to Keith. "Come with me, Keith."
Keith took Akiko's hand and let her lead him to the glass panel to outside. Reaching down, she turned a secret latch and opened the hidden door, leading him onto the small balcony that extended past the room. In the silvery moonlight, Keith could smell the earth around him. The light, even though it was too weak still, stirred his soul and the wolf inside him, which prowled, wanting to get out. "You feel it, as I do, as all our kind do," Akiko said in her quiet voice. "It’s both our strength and our weakness. We are separately the Yin and the Yang, the hard and the soft, the fire and the ice. Regular humans have both inside them all the time, warring with each other, while we have at least some separation. But it is that very nature that makes us able to achieve so much. We can recognize our weakness as well as our strength, and the opposite within each."
"And when we forget?" Keith asked, turning his face to the moonlight. "When the beast overwhelms the man?"
"Just as the moon rises and sets, so does the beast in our souls. Sometimes the beast must run free, only to be reigned in after it has exhausted itself," Akiko replied. "But that is what love can do. It gives us those who will help us reign in the wolf when it is needed. You are a very lucky man in that regard."
"How so?" he asked, turning his face away from the moon to look at Akiko. She smiled and touched him on the shoulder.
"You have not just one woman to assist you, but three," she said. "And none of us will leave your side or let you fall. On the other hand, that has drawbacks as well."
"Oh, what are those?" Keith asked.
Akiko grinned, her eyes flashing and her teeth growing slightly as she let her inner wolf peek out. "Three times the bitchiness," she chuckled, her voice dropping into a growl. "Good luck with that."
Her eyes cleared, and Keith laughed, leaning his head back and letting his fear purge itself into the clear night sky. Finally, he felt himself come back under control, and he looked down at Akiko. "Thank you, Akiko. You’re a wise and wonderful counselor."
Not really understanding, but just going with the flow, Keith pulled Akiko in for a hug, holding her close. There was no passion, no sexual desire in the embrace, and both of them knew it. It was an acceptance of who Akiko was, filling a role similar to Kimberly, yet so different as well. As Kimberly was his peer, Akiko was his older Sister. Akiko returned the embrace, then stepped back. "Come," Akiko said. “I’m sure Edward must be exhausted by now, as well as Kimberly. Let us dine, forget the stress of inbred prejudiced imbeciles, and forge our future together."
"In other words, go kick some ass?" Keith said as they went back inside and Akiko closed the door. She closed the panel and turned, her eyes flashing again.
"It's time to let the beast out to play."
Chapter 49
The first active strike of the war wasn't undertaken by Keith, or Kimberly, or Melanie. Instead, in Seattle, a member of Clan Mac Tire, with the unfortunate name of Franklin Richards, who went down in Lycan history instead. Ironically, Franklin, who insisted on going by Frank, wasn't even a Lycan.
Frank Richards was forty eight years old, and stood five foot eight, a hundred and seventy nine pounds. For twenty years, ever since graduating high school, he had worked the night shift at Mac Tire Imports and Exports, making sure that the main warehouse was secure.
He had met Lindsey Mac Tire when he was twenty, and she looked about thirty. She was the eldest daughter of Connor Mac Tire, the president of the company, and would often come in late at night to work on paperwork for the company. One night, during one of the frequent evenings when Seattle was in that strange state somewhere between foggy and rain, she had been working late when she saw Frank making his rounds, shivering and sneezing from a nasty head cold he had picked up. Still, the young man made it into work, and was doing his best without complaint, even though he was obviously miserable.
Lindsey, who unbeknownst to Frank was actually over three times his age, left her office to bring Frank a simple Cup O'Noodles that she happened to have in her office. They had struck up a conversation, which grew into a friendship, and two years later, a Mating.
For twenty four years, Frank lived simply, but happily. He didn't mind that he was the least educated member of the leading family, or that Lindsey had access to more money than he’d ever imagined. He didn't even mind the little jokes and jibes some of the other Mac Tires made about his height or size, which were mostly said in good humor. He had his Lindsey, who loved him for his heart and the way he made her laugh. They had a beautiful daughter that they named Katherine, who looked so much like her mother it made Franklin's heart ache at times. Lindsey had even turned down Alphas from other Clans, a thing that still made him shake his head in disbelief as his stomach spread and he started to look older than his still beautiful Mate. Sure, he would live a long time, but he still didn't think he was anything special compared to his beautiful Lindsey, with her rich brown hair and sea green eyes.
They had discussed him becoming a Lycan, but he couldn't. A rare condition in certain humans made the Change impossible for them, as the body would tear itself apart and never knit itself back together in wolf form. It had put a dim on their Mating, but only a slight one.
Then, two years before Melanie met Keith, Lindsey had been driving from Vancouver to Seattle after a business meeting when she had been pulled over by the Washington State Police, supposedly for a broken taillight on her Jeep. Frank, who had gone to work at the warehouse that night, didn't think anything was strange until he got home at seven in the morning and found the driveway of their three bedroom house empty. When she hadn't come home by noon, he called Connor Mac Tire, his father in law and Alpha Male of the Clan. It was then that they discovered that Lindsey had been shot, supposedly in a road rage incident where she attacked a police officer.
Clan Mac Tire, in their tradition, collected the body, which the coroner released without any problems. After all, the suspect was dead, and the police were blameless, according to the testimony of the two officers who were on patrol that night. It wasn't until the Clan did their own autopsy that they discovered the traces of silver embedded in the splintered remains of Lindsey's skull, as well as the odd fact that she had been shot with a fifty caliber handgun, definitely not State Police issue.
The officers who had shot Lindsey supposedly disappeared, taking medical leave for "post action stress adjustment," only to never be seen again. Clan Mac Tire buried their dead princess, and Franklin was left alone, forty six, his daughter grown and Mated to a Clan in Texas. Katherine called, but had her own life, and the stress and politics of being a mid to high level female in a growing Clan.
He still went to work every day, guarding the warehouse that had been his job for twenty five years. He still would smile and greet every Clan member who spoke with him. He even accepted the invitations from Connor Mac Tire to dinner on occasion or to other social events.
But, the light was gone from his eyes. His quick sense of humor, which had been one of the things that his Lindsey loved about him, was gone. He didn't have little jokes for everyone any longer, and rarely laughed if something funny happened. Instead, he just walked his rounds, his feet dragging and shuffling as if he were carrying a heavy burden, if not on his shoulders than on his soul.
When the news of the war, and the reasons behind it, reached Clan Mac Tire, Franklin suddenly became more animated than he had been in two years. His middle age paunch, which had gone from slight softness to outright pudginess, reversed itself, and he was seen using the Clan gym for the first time in as long as anyone could remember.
When Clan Mac Tire learned that there was a silberjagger supply depot south of Seattle in Olympia, Frank had quietly gone to Connor Mac Tire and had a deep conversation. Nobody knew what it was about, but when Frank came out, he was pale faced and sweating, but determined. He left the Mac Tire estate and got into his Jeep, the same Jeep Lindsey had been driving when she had been killed, and drove off. Connor Mac Tire would not say anything about his conversation with Frank, stating that it was family business. Nobody would question the word of the Alpha Male, and the matter was dropped.
Two days later, a mysterious explosion ripped through Argentum Chemicals, which wasn't all that unexpected. The company was one of the largest fertilizer dealers in Washington, and when you have hundreds of tons of ammonium nitrate and other chemicals around, things can happen.
Fifteen people, all men, died in the explosion, which destroyed three quarters of the Argentum facility. While the fire department stated that the cause of the blaze was unknown, nobody commented on the body that was so torn apart that even identification by dental records was impossible. Without a reason to suspect foul play, no DNA analysis was done on the remains, and the incident was labeled as an accident, at least by those in the news media.
Only among Clan Mac Tire, where a small headstone was erected within the area normally reserved for members of the Alpha's family, was the truth known at first. They didn't tell the other Clans the details of Franklin Richards' life, just that he was a hero who struck the first blow.
* * *
"It's beginning," Keith said as he came into a huge, dimly lit cavernous space that Edward used as his gym, and had picked up a bit of infamy within Clan Lockwood. It was the place where Lycans went to be humbled. For Melanie, who didn't even have Lycan abilities, to use the facility was seen by many as a sign of either hardcore dedication to getting herself back in shape or absolute insanity. The jury was still out.
Melanie's body dripped with sweat as she circled the punching bag, six feet of surface which had been made out of bolted together car tires to resist the power of Lycan and Aklark punches and kicks. She had pushed herself for eight punishing rounds today after donning thick gloves and shin guards. She'd seen similar bags before in poor gyms or on Youtube, but it was a lot different punching two hundred plus pounds of reinforced rubber. Even Lycans walked out with swollen and sore knuckles after using the punishing training device.
Ignoring Keith until the bell went off, she turned and pulled off her gloves. "What's beginning?"
"The first attack," Keith said. "Connor Mac Tire just contacted me. A member of his Clan blew up a Hunter supply depot. The war is on."
Melanie nodded and knelt down, unstrapping the shin pads from her legs. Kimberly's promise of quickly 'bouncing back' from pregnancy was correct, and she'd already lost most of the weight she'd gained. Her hips were wider, the bones and muscles permanently adjusted from carrying Jay inside her, but to Keith she was just as beautiful as ever. Standing up, she wiped her hands on the fabric of her shorts then looked at Keith. "What?"
Keith looked around the gym, and saw that there was only one other person in it, a single Lycan male who was currently working hard with a set of dumbbells. Keith didn't have the heart to tell the kid that he was busting his ass with weights that Edward handled as a warmup. Finding himself ignored, he closed in quickly with his Mate before lifting her like a feather in his arms and kissing her. Within seconds, their lips were mashed together passionately, a growl rumbling in Keith's chest as the wolf inside him howled in triumph at the news of the successful attack. Lifting her up, the smell of her honest sweat and warmth of her body left him massively aroused as she wrapped her legs around his waist. He knew that Kimberly and Edward were watching Jay, and it had been so long since his Mate, his Melanie, had been like this in his arms. Eyes glowing, he glared across the gym. "You. Out. Now."
The young Lycan turned to see who was addressing him, his anger at his workout being interrupted evaporating as he saw who was giving the command. Nodding quickly, he practically sprinted out of the room, leaving his weights and water bottle behind. Keith watched the door close, and carried Melanie over to the door to lock the door. Turning his eyes back to Mel, he saw the perfect understanding in her eyes, and the hunger that flared within.
