Having the chance to correct his mistakes and reunite the pack, by allowing them a say in how the pack was run, Keon felt he’d started redeeming their family name. It wasn’t how an Alpha should behave, but he was never meant tobean Alpha. The truth offered leeway he’d never anticipated.
After Weston left, he spent an hour making dinner, a pasta with pancetta and salad, thanking Grier for being fond of human foods.
Piling the finished meal into a thermal box, he packed his mother’s favourite picnic basket, left the house, and walked the path to the clearing. The one place he could find comfort and peace to think and reconcile the problems lurking in his head. The place where he escaped the pressures of life and reconnected with nature.
Stopping in the centre of the clearing, he took time to appreciate the land. The wildflowers, the scents in the air, the breeze. Trees as big as skyscrapers circled the clearing, stretching to a soft-rose sky, barely a cloud in sight. In the distance, the soft tune of a tisuresonated through the early evening, culminating in a refreshing night far from the crowds of the pack, his house, and reminders of Vega.
Sinking to his knees, he opened the basket and laid a blanket across the long grass. Keon unpacked the book, food container, and wine, kneeling in the centre of the blanket to bow his head and breathe deep of the clean air. Centring his emotions, calming his racing heartbeat, becoming one with nature.
As his heartbeat steadied, Keon emptied the basket and opened it into a flat tabletop. He placed four wine glasses around the edges and filled them halfway, placing a candle at the stem. He lit them with Teowulf’s old lighter, found beside his cigarettes.
Lifting one glass, he raised it to make a toast. “I’m home, as promised. Settled and an Alpha. I figured you’d want to see this,” he admitted, pointing his glass to the left. “Mum and Dad, I love you and miss you like crazy.” To the right, he bit his tongue, for once. “Simeon, you bastard, I forgive you for doing this to me, but you’ll pay for the amount of paperwork you’ve left,” he warned, focusing on the last candle. “Teowulf, you and I have a lot to talk about. Until we meet again, know you did nothing wrong. You behaved like an asshole, but you course-corrected in those last months, and they meant everything to me. I never appreciated you when I had you,” he confessed, overcome by the ache of his loss.
“I want you to know?” Keon cleared his throat and sniffed to hide the impending tears. “?I investigated your mate, as I have the records at my fingertips. Your true mate is Francis. He and I played as kids, and went to school together.” He’d known Francis: red-haired, freckled, short, and feisty. A true pocket-rocket, as Teowulf would say. “You’d have loved him, because he doesn’t take shit from anyone. He was seventeen when he sensed you as his mate, but you got sick…”
He couldn’t imagine what Francis went through, realising the horrible truth. The paperwork said he’d gone to Grier, sensing Teowulf’s mating to Vega was untrue, but hadn’t told a soul. He’d kept the secret, willing to accept Teowulf if he recovered, but when he’d died, Francis had chosen to leave the pack.
The mating had spread as rumour, at first, with Vega unable to keep his mouth shut. No one was happy about it, but the pack respected the Linwood family, and the combination of his mother’s recent passing and Teowulf’s recurring sickness kept their mouths shut. Francis’s loyalty was touching.
Keon swiped his wrist under his nose. “He’s a strong, smart guy who would have been an asset to our pack. After you died, he asked to be relocated, never telling anyone what he knew,” he explained, marvelling over the strength it took to put his feelings aside to save their family’s reputation. The fault was Vega’s, but the village would never have forgotten a slight against the Fates. “He took a chosen mate years later. He’s happy, mated to a good woman, and has three beautiful children. He named his first son Teowulf to honour you.”
Keon fought the tears, closing his eyes to the sudden breeze brushing the hair from his forehead.I feel you,he whispered to the wind, carrying the scent of fresh fottai smoke and lavender.I feel you, Teowulf.He raised his glass higher. “He did you proud, brother. He was a true mate. I wish you’d had the chance to meet him.” Taking a deep breath, he opened his eyes. “I miss you and wish you could see what I’m doing. I hope you’d be proud.”
Despite losing his entire family, Keon couldn’t hold on to his grief forever. It was time to move on. He’d lost Vega, but had a purpose to get through the days. His crush had been childish, formed on minor experiences and a true mate bond he’d had no say in. Everything he’d felt had been the product of the mate bond, and the sooner he broke it, the sooner he’d be free.
The Fates had screwed with his mind and emotions, but Keon was home, his family in his heart. They were all he needed to survive. “To family?” He raised his glass, toasting his family and the strength they’d given him to get this far. “?and making you proud.”
Chapter Nine
Keon
Three Days Later
KEON WOKE TOa beautiful sunrise breaking through the cover of the trees. He should return to the house or Weston would discover him missing and freak out. An unhappy Beta made for a hell of a headache.
The sun had barely risen, and Keon liked the feel of the breeze through shaggy brown fur. Scent came alive in the morning hours, promising secret treasures. Knowing the movements needed careful placement unless he wanted to scare his prey was part of the game.
Rising from where he’d curled at the base of a tree overnight, Keon stretched his m’weko muscles, relieved to take his second form whenever he wanted. The hardest part of living in Dnara was the lack of freedom for m’weko.His back ached pleasantly, a joint popped in his leg, and his ears pricked with the instinctive need to mark every movement of the forest. Everything was clear and bright in the morning sun.
Keon tipped his head to the sky and basked in the warmth, silently musing over a night of odd dreams. Vega attacking, ending up broken and bloody at his feet. Kerr bounding through the meadow while a massive tiger lay in the long grass, chuffing his pleasure. Sea-green eyes belonging to a small m’weko.
Most of his dreams made sense. His anger toward Vega rumbled beneath his skin, his m’weko unwilling to forgive. Having Drew and Rylee inE’Boolouwas a dream he hoped to fulfil, and he didn’t doubt it would play out exactly like his dream. The last surprised him. M’weko descended from the original pack, similar to human wolves, and he’d never known one this small, barely to his shoulder. The dream m’weko was half the size, with fear in startling green eyes. Something about the dream was important, but he couldn’t fathom why.
A problem for another day, he hoped.
Keon yawned, cataloguing the demands of his day, as he walked without urgency through the forest, in the direction of the boundary. Keon didn’t want to be the Alpha who half-assed anything, because of pressure or because he lost track of time.
No word had come from Farley. He’d finished revoking Simeon’s laws, laid out his, and offered to announce them to the pack. Weston thought it best to leave a notice by the podium to let people read the laws at their leisure to prevent knee-jerk reactions. He didn’t doubt it was the best plan, but it left Keon wondering how they felt about the changes.
Knowing his pack, he’d hear complaints soon.
The pack had never been accepting of anyone different, but knowing it and being on the ‘unaccepted’ side of the pack were two different matters.
The time for protest was over. No bargaining, no arguing, and no compromises.
If his father could accept him, Keon refused to worry about anyone else. His father had been the most important person in his life and, when Keon came out, Nyseth hadn’t screamed or yelled. He’d cried and held Keon, promising to protect him from a world that would never understand him. He’d been accepting from the beginning, but knew obstacles would stand in his way, afraid Keon would never find happiness in Vihaan. Brave enough to give him a choice.
The choice was simple: stay inE’Boolouto face the oppression, or travel to Dnara to experience life with acceptance. A vision of a better life, though imperfect, had been the catalyst. No matter how much he loved Drew, appreciated Rylee, and considered the guys at the fraternity family, he couldn’t abandon Vihaan.
