The Fragility of Fate ✔️

01 | Patience

"The fuck is this?!"
"James, get the others now! I'm in the pack house!"

Bile rising in my throat, I begin to panic. Losing all rationale of why we infiltrated this place to begin with, all I can think is, it wasn't supposed to be like this.

The smell. I smell her.

My pulse quickens like rapid fire, eyes darting in the blackened emptiness. Where? Who? Mate.

Narrowing in on the faintest dew drops of honey, I try to focus. For fuck's sake, think God damn it!

~

Gabriel

-six months earlier-

I fucking resented how I became Alpha, in fact I hated the connotation it implied. A role I stepped into six months ago when my father lost his life in his gallant attempt to protect his pack, and his legacy. A loss that left a gaping wound in our pack, not withstanding the fact the uprising had been lead by his own son, and my brother, Jacob.

Our father had been weakening for years... however from the foundations of respect that he had built, our pack still trusted him to lead as he had done for his entire adult life. Not all packs were as lucky as ours. How a territory is led is up to the Alpha who runs it. Some are more authoritarian, where as others maintain leadership out of respect rather than fear.

In the time leading to his downfall there were whispers from neighboring packs that my father's leadership was faltering. It was unnerving for us that there was the prospect that Cross Rivers would be taken. Our local allies were trusted, however some further south couldn't be. This of course made the humiliation worse because the enemy was actually one that was masquerading as one of us the entire time. The Alpha's son.

For many months, Jacob had been spending less time with the pack and more time out roaming with friends... Friends who we later found out were Rogues that he was recruiting for his uprising. He never brought them onto the territory, knowing that we would catch their scent. I assume he removed it from himself by washing in the river to rid himself of the stench before coming home, leaving all of us none the wiser.

When it happened, there was no indication that the day would be different to any other. Yet it's memory marred me. What looked like a Rogue attack was really a guise for the selfish ambition of my brother. We were slaughtered. Despite being considered to be one of the longest standing packs, it was destroyed in an instant. What I will never forget was the lugubrious lifeless stare paling from my father's eyes as he knew his time was over. To have such grace taken by the jaws of a Rogue was the greatest disrespect. He deserved a better death.

Of course there were also feelings of regret. I had perhaps the idealistic and misguided belief that my father could handle them with the warriors and juveniles we had. He wasn't young, but he was undefeated... until then. I had tried to take on the Rogues with my father... But at his insistence I had to defend the few we had left, herding the women and children to the pack house with the support of James and Neve, my most trusted childhood friends.

I'd initially thought that my father felt he could reason with Jacob. He was his son after all... But what I'd come to realize was that he knew it was his fate. His offering to Jacob was a distraction that brought my getaway. Brought my pack's getaway. My father sacrificed his life to save our fate. The epitome of a true leader, he was selfless to the end.

I lost count of how much blood was shed that day, both Rogue and pack. After slaughtering whatever Rogue were before me, I went to hunt Jacob to finish it. He'd left like the cowardly dog he was to regroup before coming back to finish us off. Finish me off. I am sure that was his intent. I'd spent the time since hunting for him. There were only a few territories left I had yet to enter with the support of their Alpha, but his scent was no where. It was as if he vanished into thin air.

The betrayal was still raw, despite the time that had passed. My pack, though trusting of my new leadership, remained on edge. How Jacob got away that day remains the greatest head fuck of from the whole god forsaken turn of events.

I will kill that fucking cunt...

The irony wasn't lost on me, and the guilt, well not even the whiskey could subdue it's unrelenting echoes that strangled my ears. For, by way of the moon, or my ineptitude... it was my father who lost that day, when for all intents and purposes it was me that Jacob was out for. Me. Gabriel. First born son of Nicholas, by that of a few minutes, and as the moon would have it, now the Alpha of the Cross Rivers Pack.

Slowly we began to rebuild. Both literally and figuratively. Since he'd enlisted the support of the Rogues through the promise of power, land and women, so many of my pack lost their lives... homes... mates... For so long, it felt like all that was left were hollowed hearts and empty hands.

Nothing has quelled the brewing of my thirst for revenge.

But I had to play smart.

~

"Thanks Clara," I state monotonously, taking the cool beverage from her hands.

My vision pulls away from the vast, green expanse in front of me, as I turn to smile softly at my Beta's mate.

"And is the youngun keeping you up all night yet?"

Her burgeoning, ripe belly is clearly uncomfortable for her frame. I feel bad for the poor woman.

Before she can reply, James interjects, "Don't I know it, their kicking is even keeping me awake!"

As expected, this earns a playful jab from Clara. James winces, acting like he's been mortally wounded, complete with hand on heart.

"I've told you before James, happy wife, happy life!" Sending a wink Clara's way, I gesture for James to follow me into the pack house.

The scent of mahogany dances in the air as we enter my office. My closest team are assembled, waiting to share updates on the task at hand. "And you're certain of this Neve?"

"Yep. The Shadow Moon Pack dissolved with the loss of their Alpha in childbirth some months ago now. They fractured... Some took East, but most travelled further North. There's been whispers that those that stayed relinquished control to the Rogues in exchange for staying on their ancestral land."

Neve was my most trusted strategist. We'd been looking at possible locations where Jacob would try and stake his claim as an Alpha. Of course it would only be a pack reeling in chaos and grief without a leader. Jacob wasn't Alpha born, but even I couldn't deny that he was a fierce warrior. He couldn't defeat an established Alpha, but he could take the remnants of a pack for himself and no-one would be game to challenge him on that.

"How do we know this is where he is though?" James asks. I allow the question, not willing to prepare for something half assed. This has to be methodical. Planned. Decisive.

Neve was unflinching in her response, "One of the women from Shadow Moon made it to the territory line of the Sand Stone Pack, she said they were taken over by Rogues and asked for sanctuary. It was granted by Alpha Greyson."

I gestured for my team to leave my office, giving me the much needed opportunity to think alone. I knew my brother better than anyone, and this was way too easy. That woman survived for one reason and one reason only. Jacob wants me to know where he is. Surely with my warriors and neighboring allies he knows he doesn't have the strength to challenge me for Alpha of Cross Rivers... The question is then, what does he have that he could possibly use to defeat me?

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