Chapter 2

• Maleah’s p.o.v.
• I listen to some music as I drive down the highway, I contemplate to call Dad to let him know that I am on my way home. “Let’s surprise Dad.” Fortune, my Lycan, responds to my thoughts and I smile at her as I nod my head. I doubt my Mother will be home as she has been disappearing for longer periods of time the last few months, I am actually glad she hasn’t been around much and I have even noticed a chance in Dad’s behavior.
• My Mother rejected my Father after I had turned five and despite Dad accepting her rejection she kept living in the house with us. Dad refused to let her move out with me and this was her way of getting even with him, she would make sure he barely spent any time with me when he was home. I know Dad never blamed me for it, but I hate my Mother for what she put both of us through over the years.
• She would leave me behind whenever Dad was on assignment and I know I wasn’t the only Pup that happened to, but the main difference was that I was the only Pup that didn’t have an Omega at the house twenty four seven. An Omega would only drop by to place a meal in the kitchen and then they would leave me to fend for myself, just like my Mother had instructed them.
• A notification sounds on my phone and I press a button to have it read to me as I keep my eyes on the road, Message from Pauline: Two weeks from Tuesday is the best opportunity. I hear the robotic voice say and I smile as I press the call button on my touch screen. Pauline answers within a second and I tell her about last night, we talk about what I found out. I disconnect the call after she promises me to get me all the information I want her to find for me.
• When I was fifteen my maternal Grandparents died and they left me a sizable amount of money, I always knew I wanted to be able to travel and with my sense for fashion I decide to buy a boutique in a nearby town. Within six months I had made enough profit to invest in a second boutique a few towns over and my imperium slowly grew in the following months. By the time I was seventeen I owned six boutiques in different towns and cities.
• I allow starting designers to use my boutiques to sale their items and I design clothes myself as well. My income from my boutiques is more than I can ever spend and each year I ask my employees to nominate a good cause to donate money to, something they really appreciate. I never hide the fact that I am the one donating the money, but I also make sure they know who nominated them.
• Traveling around for my job is what Fortune and I love, we love seeing other places and different people and I will keep doing this for as long as I can. But we love coming home even more, because unlike a lot of other Wolves and Lycans we live in a Pack and I love the connection I have with other Pack-members. Shifting into Fortune while we are in a town or city isn’t impossible, but it is something that comes with a lot of rules and regulations.
• Towns usually have one place within their boundaries where you can shift and you are not allowed to take your clothes off out in the open, there are cubicles where you can strip down and shift. We only use them if we really feel the need to shift, but in most cases we drive to a nearby forest to shift and Fortune loves running around the forest more than the parks within towns or cities.
• Our ancestors started to move into the towns and cities that got abandoned by Humans, taking over the world more and more from Human kind and centuries ago Human kind went extinct. Our Pack stayed the way we had been living from the early ages on and I am glad I never grew up in a town or city because of the rules and regulations, it is not something I could have lived with.
• Fortune softly growls at the thought of growing up outside a Pack, she feels as if the Wolves and Lycans that live in a town or city are only living half a life and we have sensed that they are weaker than a Wolf or Lycan that was raised within a Pack. I never stay long enough to find out how the hierarchy within a town or city works, but I know it is different from the hierarchy within a Pack and the only thing I know for sure is that they answer to the same Laws a Pack has to answer to.
• We all have to answer to the Council of Elders if we break the Law, they make sure we don’t go around killing someone that doesn’t deserve it and that we don’t abuse another. If you want someone to pay for his or her crime you present your case to the Council of Elders and they decide if your request is grounded, they will determine what the punishment is going to be.
• It has been like this for centuries and so far it has worked out for our kind. My phone ringing draws me from my thoughts and I furrow my brows when I see the caller-ID, it is my Mother. I take a deep breath before I answer the call, “Mother, what can I do for you?” I ask her coldly and I hear a soft growl in the background. “When will you be home?” My mother asks and for a moment I am quiet. “You have my schedule, Mother. You know when I will be coming home, so why did you call?” I ask again.
• This time the growl in the background is louder and I wonder who is with her or why she has me on speaker. “Just wanted to check if your schedule was still up to date, I have learned from your Father that schedules can change at a moment’s notice.” She replies, but something tells me that this isn’t the reason why she called and I ask her again why she called me.
• “In all the years I have been traveling for my job you have never called me before to ask about my schedule, so cut the crap and answer my question.” I growl at her and I hear her sigh deeply before she finally answers me, “Because I have found another Mate and I would like you to meet him.” I have to control myself from not laughing out loud and I take a few deep breaths before I allow myself to respond, “Mother, I would like to meet him some day, but right now I am too busy with a few projects.
• I will ask Pauline to check my schedule and to contact you to make an appointment. Right now I don’t have the time to do it myself, I am nearly at my destination and I will be busy the rest of the day.” I reply and whoever is growling in the background doesn’t like the way I talk to my Mother, not that I give a flying fuck about it. “Sweetheart, I want to discuss this with you and not with some assistant.” My Mother says and I decide to show her it would have been better to accept my offer.
• “Fine, Mother. I will contact you the first chance I get to check my schedule and then we can discuss when I will meet your new Mate. Just remember I am a very busy business woman and for me to do this personally as you requested might take a while. Don’t bother calling me, I will get back to you when I have the time.” I growl before I disconnect the call, but I can hear a mighty roar before the line goes quiet and Fortune is laughing her ass off in my head.
• “Sounds like she found a Mate with a short fuse or a High-ranking Mate.” I say to Fortune. If I had to take a bet I would go with a High-ranking Mate, my Mother is not someone that would settle for something less and it is something I have heard her say to Dad many times over the years. I still don’t understand why she didn’t leave the Pack years ago, but then again there is a lot I don’t understand about my Mother and I doubt I will ever understand her.
• I pull to a stop outside the gates of our territory and the Wolf on duty looks a little strange when he sees me, “Don’t let my Father know I am here, I want to surprise him.” I say to the guard and when I hear him whisper “How many more surprises can he handle?” I ask him what that is about and for a moment he looks at me with a dumbfounded look on his face, “He didn’t expect you to hear him.” Fortune states and I smile up at the guard.
• “Your Mother arrived here about an hour ago, she told your Father that the two of you were moving out of the territory to join her new Mate’s Pack. She even handed Alpha Dominic the transfer papers and I can guarantee you that your Father is pissed off.” He answers me. “Link the Alpha and tell him not to sign my request. Also send a few Warriors to the house, they might need to protect my Mother and her new Mate before I kill them. And don’t mention to anyone what you just saw.” I growl.
• He gives me a smirk as he nods his head and I drive down the dirt road towards the house I have lived in with my parents my whole life, “That is why she wanted to know when you would be back.” Fortune growls and I know that she is right, Mother wanted to make sure I couldn’t stop her from moving my stuff out and to hand my transfer request to one of our Alphas.
• I see my Mother looking at Dad with a triumphant look on her face, but it drops the moment she sees me driving up to the house. Dad looks heartbroken as he turns towards me and I jump into his arms before he can say anything, “I am not going anywhere, Dad. I don’t know what Mother told you, but you are stuck with me.” I whisper into his ear and I hear the same growl behind me I heard on the phone.
• My Dad pulls back a little to look at me and I see a huge smile on his face, Dad knows that what I say is the truth. I have never lied to him in my life, I might not have told him everything but I know he will understand why I never told him. I hear someone clear their throat behind me and as I turn around I see a bulky Werewolf in the doorway holding my vanity mirror, “Could you let me pass?” He asks because Dad and I are blocking his way.
• “No, you can turn around and put that back exactly where you found it and that goes for every piece of furniture you took out of that room. Everything you took out of that room will be placed back and you better get a move on, I need a shower and some rest.” I say coldly to the male and I feel an aura slip from the male standing next to my Mother, of course she found herself an Alpha.
• “Remember where you are, Alpha Bradley.” I hear an unknown voice say from behind me and when I turn towards the voice I am looking at a huge male, a cold look in his eyes as he looks at me. I feel Alpha Bradley rain in his aura as four Warriors step next to the Giant, I wanted to say something but I am interrupted by my Mother, “Sweetheart, this is no place for you to life. You are so much better than anyone that lives here.”
• I get out of my Father’s arms to turn towards my Mother, “Let’s show her what we are made of.” Fortune growls in my head and I allow her to push forward to show my Mother I have a Lycan. “This is my home and no matter how often you keep asking me I will never move from the territory. I am done with you and your dislike of this Pack, my Father and me being Wolfless, once my stuff is out of the truck and back in my room I want you to leave.
• I don’t ever want to see you again, you never gave a damn about me and I am sick and tired of trying to understand why.” I growl at her and everyone around us can feel the deadly aura that seeps out of us, an aura an Assassin uses to instill fear into his or her victims. My Mother is cowering into her Mate’s arms and even he as an Alpha has trouble with my aura pressing against him.
• “Maleah, please calm down.” I hear Dad say behind me and after I push out another burst of my aura I rain my aura back in, before I turn around to step into my Father’s waiting arms. I let my Father’s scent sooth me, I listen to his steady heartbeat as I try to calm both Fortune and myself down. My face is hidden in my Father’s chest as I listen to footsteps walking in and out of the house, when I hear one of the men say they are done I step out of my Father’s embrace.
• “I will determine if you are done. You don’t leave until I have checked if you placed everything back where it came from and you better not object.” I say as I look Alpha Bradley dead in the eyes, I walk into the house as my Mother tries to reach for me and Fortune growls at her in a menacing way to make her back off. The moment I step into my room I sigh in relief because everything is where it is supposed to be and I link my Father that they are free to go.
• My bags are still in my car but I will get those once I have had a shower, I really need to wash the events of the past week and a half of my body. Not that I don’t shower in the hotels I stay in but I never feel as if I can wash everything off of me until I am home and as I step into the shower Dad links me that we are to have dinner in the Pack-house, non-negotiable.
• “Sounds like we will have some explaining to do.” I say to Fortune, but all she says in return is that they will understand why I kept it hidden and I pray to the Goddess that she is right. I had left my hair down this morning, but tonight I will braid it as I always do when I am not at work and show off the artistic lines in my undercut. Fortune always loves it when my hair needs a trim, because my Mother would have had a fit if she saw what I had done with my hair.
• I smile when I remember my Mother’s remarks when she had seen one of my models with an undercut and just to rebel in silence I had the hairdresser give me an undercut. I never really hid it but I didn’t show it off either and I can already imagine her reaction if she would ever see what I had done to my hair, but I couldn’t care less about what my Mother thought was the correct way for a female to behave.
• My Mother has very specific ideas on how a female should dress or how she should do her hair and make-up, but her ideas were always the total opposite of mine. If it had been up to my Mother I would have been wearing skirts and dresses, but I just love my pant suites and even though I love the right type of dress or skirt I will always chose a pant suit if I can get away with it.