Change (published)

Chapter 9

Eight hours on the freeway and four territories where we went off the road to greet the Alpha of that district. We had to, three Alphas crossing a border was too much power to ignore. Richard had prearranged the meetings and the Alphas all brought their trainees. It seemed everyone had at least one Alpha and one Beta in training. They all greeted Matt like a long lost friend and each and every one stared at me. Matt assured me they could feel some extra power but not too much because they assumed it was him. Laughingly he told me everyone would now think he'd grown in strength under Richards tutoring. If there were multiple Alphas gathered you couldn't pinpoint who had what power unless they let it free and that only happened in challenges.

It was a national park. The place we went to at the end of the road was a rangers station and there were wolves everywhere. We could sense them, smell them and see the odd one on the side of the track but none approached until we stepped out of the cars. They waited until the doors were closed before two huge wolves stepped out of the trees, one pure white and one auburn. Cracks followed breaking the silence and soon after two big men stepped out as well. I smiled at the stray thought that their muscles had muscles and boldly met their eyes. At the last stop I'd changed into a pretty light pink skirt and a white blouse with a mandarin collar. I was even wearing ballerina flats, thankfully Miri conceded that just heels would never work for me.

One of the, clearly warriors, looked surprised when he saw me but the other just nodded and took a step closer. Andrew tried to step in front of me but Callen pulled him away to Richard. The big man pointed to me and took another step, the others I was with all moved away. Andrew and Matt under force, Richard's order sounding in our mind. I knew this game so I stepped closer to the man and the huge wolves that he was now standing between. All three moved closer and I let them, I was still smiling. My posture was relaxed and calm, they wouldn't smell fear because I had none but everyone knew that was what they wanted. I took a better look at the man that was approaching me step by intimidating step. He was extremely tall, almost two heads taller than me. He was build like a tank with shiny black hair, dark skin and black eyes. Most importantly he was clearly left handed. I recognized his tell from the left handed warriors, his left hand was a loose fist by his side.

Right in my personal space he stopped. The wolves sniffed my bare legs and one actually lifted my skirt. I hit his head and snapped. "I'm not your mate!" It was the most non committal thing I could say to correct his behaviour. The white one rubbed his face against my side, slowly going up so I put a kind hand on his head before he could reach my chest. "Not yours either buddy. Back off." I smiled at him. He chuffed and sat down with his whole body touching mine. "That's not backing off, you're practically sitting on my feet. Move." I was more firm this time. He growled at me and lifted his head that was almost at the same height as mine. His teeth gleamed, power rose in him. I snarled in reply and repeated. "Move!" He stepped away and I finally looked up at the man that was suddenly close enough for our clothes to touch.

His cargo pants brushed my skirt and my chest was almost against his abs. 'Awkward' I thought, my wolf laughed. 'Careful he might piss on your shoes if he is going to mark his territory.' I almost laughed out loud and allowed her to take control.

"What color wolf are you?" My mouth asked. It wasn't something I would have thought to ask, I didn't seem important, but my wolf was in charge right now.
"We are Midnight." He replied. My wolf backed up in my mind and I was once again in control. She was right there in my mind. 'He has power. I think he is one of the Midnight Alpha bloods. We must not move back or release power.'

My lessons had taught me that the Midnight wolves originally came from Russia. They were part of the four original lines of Wolves to become human. The man before me was more black wolf than man if the rumors and legends were even half right. As my wolf predicted he took the final distance between us and wrapped his hand around the back of my neck like a lover as I kept firm eye contact.