“I think so?” Steve asked more than said. “Jennifer, have you heard that?”
“Not that exactly, but I’m not sure how the guy can have such a bad reputation outside of his pack if he has a good one inside. Those rumors must be coming from people in Green Field.”
Brian almost felt sorry for this Rupert Jackson. Leading any pack was hard, leading a new-to-you pack even harder, which was something he could attest to from personal experience. He didn’t want to imagine doing it without the support of the very people he was leading. One good thing about Purple Sky was that they had been thrilled to have him join their pack. They were grateful to him for being their Alpha.
“Can I ask why we’re going to Green Field, Alpha?” Steve asked.
“We may have similar goals and I’m hoping we can work together to accomplish them.” He didn’t want to share his thoughts about jointly acquiring the river between their packs when he didn’t know if it would be a viable option. And even if it was, he would have to educate his pack members about the benefits of the river, explain to them that they could build canals and hydrate their land, ensure that they understood the reason the pack would invest so many resources in such a project. All of that would take more time than a car ride.
Thankfully understanding that their Alpha’s brief response indicated the end of that topic, Steve and Jennifer spent the rest of the drive chatting about the latest happenings in Purple Sky. Though he paid them enough attention to make an occasional comment, Brian mostly let his mind drift from the conversation in the car to the limited information he had about Green Field and how he planned to approach his meeting with the pack Alpha. When they entered the Green Field land and he saw that despite their name, their fields were more brown than green, hefelt confident that they had the same need for a water source as Purple Sky and his plan would be well received.
As they drove further into their territory, he noticed that the homes looked as worn as the prairie surrounding them. And the few people he saw outside didn’t look much better. He didn’t have Jobe’s intense connection with the spiritual part of their world, but even he could sense a darkness in that place.
“I don't like it here,” Jennifer said after being silent since the moment they crossed into Green Field.
“It’s creepy,” Steve added.
“Uh huh.” She leaned forward to look through the windshield and turned her head from left to right. “Totally creepy.” She shuddered and rubbed her hands up and down her upper arms.
They were right—the vibe was completely off. So much so that Brian considered turning the car around and leaving Green Field, never to return. He could figure out another way to raise the funds needed to purchase the river abutting Purple Sky or maybe negotiate something with the humans who owned it. But deeper than the dark, slimy, and yes, creepy atmosphere surrounding them, Brian sensed something else, something good, something necessary. It was so subtle he could barely recognize it let alone identify it, but whatever it was called to him. He had been raised to trust his gut, so he listened to his instincts and kept driving in the direction of the Alpha house.
“We won’t be here long,” he assured his pack members. “I’ll keep my conversation with Rupert Jackson brief.”
Before long, they pulled up to the imposing Alpha house.
“Wow,” Steve said.
“Seriously,” Jennifer added.
“After the run-down homes and shops we passed on the way here, I didn’t expect the Alpha house to be this huge.” Steve squinted out the window.
“Or this nice.” Jennifer sounded awed.
Though he didn’t say anything, Brian sneered in disgust. What kind of Alpha lived this extravagantly while the people under his care struggled? No Alpha worthy of the title. He didn’t want to enter into any kind of partnership with that type of leader. He put the car in reverse and drew in a deep breath, intending to calm himself before starting the drive back to Purple Sky, but while a sense of peace infused him, it wasn’t from the air he had inhaled. That ambiguous energy he had sensed upon entering the territory was stronger there, and when Brian concentrated, he realized it was coming from inside the Alpha house.
“Fuck,” he swore under his breath. He couldn’t leave without finding the source of whatever it was he was sensing. He put the car back in park. “Stay close to me. I don’t want either of you on your own while we’re here.”
“I can handle myself.” Steve flexed his impressive biceps.
“So can I.” Jennifer cracked her knuckles.
They were two of the strongest shifters in Purple Sky, which was one of the reasons he had chosen them to accompany him on his first visit to this unreputable pack. Even so, he didn’t want them out of his sight. His every instinct told him something was very wrong in Green Field. And incongruently, those same instincts told him he couldn’t leave yet. He felt a bit like Jobe Root, blindly following his gut when all reason indicated he should do the contrary.
He was now the Purple Sky Alpha, but as Jobe had once told him, he’d always be a son of Red River. And the Red River pack respected Mother Nature and trusted the messages she sent them. Happy at the reminder that his roots would always be a part of him, even if he now had a new home, he opened the door and stepped out of the car. “Let’s go.”
“Why are you smiling?” Steve asked, following him out of the car. “Doesn’t this place give you the creeps?”
“It does,” he reluctantly acknowledged. “But I believe we’re meant to be here, and I trust the two of you to stand by me while we fulfil our purpose.” Even if he no longer knew what that purpose was, because he sure as hell wasn’t going to share details of Purple Sky’s weaknesses and his ideas of how to resolve them with the Alpha whose pack exuded that type of soul-draining energy. But he didn’t need to trust Rupert Jackson to walk into his house; he trusted that Mother Nature had a good reason to bring him there and he trusted himself to handle difficult situations. With that in mind, Brian squared his shoulders, put one foot in front of the other, and walked toward the front door, feeling as though he was approaching his destiny.
Chapter 2
“Please, Alpha. You need to eat.”
Curled into a ball on the mattress, Keith Iredell forced his weak head up, parted his dry lips, coughed, and rasped, “Not your Alpha.”
“Well, would you look at that. I finally got you to speak,” Rosemary said, creases prominent beside her kind eyes and smiling lips.
He had no cause to look in a mirror and his life consisted of one endless, unchanging miserable day so time held no meaning for him, but he was reminded of the passage of years when he looked into the aging faces of his packmates.
