Young King

7

Meki's POV

"Where the hell have you been?" Nick all but shouts as soon as we're on pack land.

"Siberia." I answer without hesitation.

"Why?" He demands.

"To train."

Nick sighs irritably shaking his head and turning his back to me. Muttering, "I can't deal with this shit right now."

Mila stayed silent by his side, only watching me. I decided now was good a time as any to give my speech.

"I-"

"Don't start." Nick points at me. "Don't talk unless you're going to give us a real answer. Not one of your one worded bullshit."

I nod, clear my throat and muster the English words to come out of my mouth. It's been a while since I've had to speak it.

"I found one of our relatives in Siberia. She took me in and let me stay with her pack and her mate. Told me that if I stayed she could teach me how to be an Alpha. A good one, not the way our father was teaching me. So I did. I stayed and she showed me kindess instead of brutality. How to take care of my pack and of you." I paused before saying, "I didn't want to leave you. But I knew if I stayed I'd end up just like him. And I couldn't do that. I wanted to be a good person and I was loosing that battle every day. I know I hurt you, I broke our bonds and I'll live with that for the rest of my life. But I'm here now."

There was silence for a while. My siblings just watching me.

"Your eyes?" Mila finally asked. My heart stuttered. I hadn't heard her voice yet. It's changed so much. And so has she.

Nick looked almost the same. Four years hadn't done much else than deepen his voice and make him grow into his muscles. But Mila, she had only been ten when I left. Now she was nearly all grown up. A beautiful young woman who holds a painful resemblance to our mother. Though only Nick and I remember her.

"Red." I answer her.

She nods and says, "Why now? Why not wait until your training was completed?"

I looked between the both of them. The dense forest inviting me to shift. To mark it with my scent and rid it of my father's. This land was mine now. And one day it'll be my child's.

The image of him reappears in my mind causing me to take in a sharp breath.

"I felt our father die. I felt the moment his power became mine. When I was made Alpha. This land, this pack, our family, I was never going to leave it permanently. The plan was to always come back, when it was the right time."

"And now it is?" She asked sceptically.

"Yes." I say without hesitation. As if I needed any more proof than my mate being here, this is where I'm meant to be.

Nick shakes his head again as he walks towards me, just like he did before he punched me in the face. But as I close my eyes, waiting for the impact, I instead feel his arms circle around me.

"You ever leave us again, it'll be the last thing you do." He warns.

I nod against him, my arms coming to hold him close. Making sure to get my scent on him as much as possible.

We seperate and I look to Mila who still eyes me warily.

"I learned this trick when you were gone." She starts. "I can smell the pheromones of people. I'm the youngest recorded wolf who has the ability. And I can smell it on you."

I stare wide eyed. Wolves that could track down pheromones were very talented and usually end up being the beta of the Alpha because of their abilities to know when someone had ill intent or not. You could tell a lot from someone's pheromones and I'm sure mine were off the charts right now. 

"My mate. I found them. Him." I admit, uncertain if I should share that's it's Nick's teammate when we'd just started on even ground. But keeping secrets wasn't any better.

"Is he back in Siberia?" Mila asked.

I shake my head, looking to Nick. "I didn't think I had one. I never felt anything after I turned eighteen. It was something I eventually accepted, that they were dead. But the second I stepped off that plane I felt him."

Mila nods in understanding, "you didn't come to that basketball game looking for us."

"Not initially, no. It's not that I didn't want to find you two. But the pull of it was so strong and after so many years of thinking I'd be alone, I couldn't resist it. And when my wolf brought me to him and you, I knew this is exactly where I need to be."

Quiet filled the air, the soft rustles of the forest calling me once again. I breath in the familar air that still lingered with my father's scent. As soon as this was over I'd shift and mark it as my own.

"Kaiden." Nicks says out of the blue.

"What?" I falter in question, my attention brought back to him.

"Your mate, it's Kaiden isn't it? You were looking right at him. And judging by the way he looked at you, he was feeling it too."

My chest skips a beat, my wolf howling in the sheer glee that we had our mate's name. Kaiden.

Kaiden. Kaiden. Kaiden.

I couldn't help but smile, though I tried to fight it.

"He's a human, as you probably know." Nick continues. "And he just broke up with his girlfriend."

Girlfriend? My wolf snarls, wanting to hunt Kaiden down and find anything that smells of her and mark it with my scent. I push that urge down. Because he is human, he won't understand this. And my risk of being rejected just skyrocketed.

Rejection between wolves is the rarest occurrence. A mate is considered the upmost gift the moon could give us. And to reject is was an afront. The rejected wolf dies over a day, while the other that did the rejection dies much slower. Like a kind of punishment. But humans can act irrationally, their base instinct is clouded by their emotions. If I wasn't careful I could kill us both.

"Will you help me?" I ask, knowing Nick was thinking the exact same thing that I was.

He nods. "Kaiden's my friend and I don't want to see him dead."

I knew he didn't want me dead either. Nick's instinct is to be protect his Alpha, but he is also my brother. We are family, after all. No matter how broken our father made it.

"I'll help as well." Mila says. "You'll need it. Kaiden trusts me. And after seeing his best friend punch his brother in the face, he might not trust you so much. But we don't know for sure. I think the safe route is going slow."

"Agreed." Nick says.

I look at the both of them, astounded by how fast they were to help me. Even after all I've done. "Thank you. And I promise I'm here to stay. I'm going to fix our bonds and our relationships. We'll have to relearn each other, gain each other's trust again. But we were family once. And we will be a family again. I say that not as your Alpha, but as your brother."

Nick sighs and finally Mila comes to hug me. I welcome her with open arms.