An Alpha's Claim

Hierarchy

J wasn't sure how long she'd laid there for. At some point she may have drifted to sleep, as when she woke, she found Callie curled up next to her. In the distance, Lee, Rayna and Lorna sat in a small circle, occasionally sparing her a glance.

J sat up and stretched, ruffling Callie's ears. The girl seemed to spend most of her time in her wolf form. J would miss her.

As though sensing her thoughts, Rayna stood and walked over, offering her a hand up.

"Thank you," they both said in unison, before giving a hollow chuckle and embracing.

"You were right," Rayna said as they pulled apart, "I knew you were getting worse, I just...I never wanted to be Alpha, you know? It wasn't-that's not why I came to you-"

J smiled, cutting her off, "I know. You came to me because you needed a home and you found one. You made the Wild Mountain's pack what it is, I was just along for the ride. You will make an amazing Alpha, Rayna."

Rayna smiled and nodded, she spared a glance down at Callie and frowned, "she's not in the pack. I realised earlier when the packlink clicked into place. She pledged herself to you, not to the pack."

J frowned, hope fluttering dangerously in her stomach. "Callie?" Callie's green eyes looked up at them both, as if only just noticing they were there. "Are you going to join Rayna's pack?"

J could barely breathe.

Slowly Callie stood up and stretched out her front legs, then her back legs. Then, she moved to stand beside J and nuzzled her leg. J smiled and looked up at Rayna, "looks like she's made her choice."

Rayna nodded and pulled J into another hug. "We're going to head out first thing tomorrow morning."

J nodded and began to walk towards the house Black Oath were staying in, realising it was probably nearly time to be there. "Ok, good. We'll run through what they've got today, and then...then it'll be time to go and find me a rogue." Rayna nodded and fell into step beside her.

"Have-have you ever considered that maybe the rogue is Logan?"

J shook her head, "no. The rogue's been here for months and I've only just got back. He's gone Rayna."

*

In one of the abandoned houses, the Black Oath pack had transformed the kitchen counter into one large desk, littered with laptops and paperwork. Rayna, Lee, Lorna, Callie, Cassidy, Liam, Kelsey, Jake and the Black Oath pack were crowded around it, studying a map of the surrounding packs. That, however, was not what caught J's attention.

Whilst they discussed how the rogues had moved, and how to work out which rogue had done which attack, J studied the living room wall. They'd pinned page after page after page of pack hierarchy's. Like little family trees, each showed the alphas, the betas, their enforcers and the subsequent pack members.

J had already spotted the Black Oath pack's, her hand trailing over Logan's name, before she'd moved on to the others. Some of the pack names she recognised, some of them she knew she'd killed – that was a less fun reminder. The Rootbridge tree held her attention though, because to her surprise, at the top just under Cassidy and Jake's names, her name was listed as one of their betas.

They must not have realised that she'd left the pack. J had also never realised she was a part of their pack, she hadn't submitted to either of them. She'd also never seen her name belong like that before. It made her chest tighten and sent warmth pooling in her middle. The life she could have had – nearly had. The home she'd almost earned.

But she had belonged. To these people, to this pack. Something settled in J, something that was fractured, healed just a little.

Will, from Black Oath, saw her lingering on her own name and walked toward her. He motioned with his head towards the piece of paper, "we didn't know you'd left. Otherwise we'd have one for your pack too."

J nodded, her hand dropping to her side, that wasn't why she'd lingered on it, but he didn't need to know that.

"Do you recognise any of the names on the list Trev' gave you?"

J spared a glance over her shoulder to the piece of paper she'd left on the coffee table, "some of them. I think I killed nearly all of the packs on there. I think Logan-" her voice caught on his name, Will flinched. "I think he killed one too."

Will's eyes widened in surprise, so J quickly added, "defending me. They were – they were on their way to challenge me. I killed a couple of their enforcers, but I think he killed the alpha." Will's eyes narrowed on her for a split second and then he looked away, hiding his thoughts.

J shrugged and looked back at the wall, "you did all of this?"

Will readjusted his glasses and nodded, shyly.

"It's impressive."

Will shrugged and moved away to a small table with more pack hierarchies piled up on them. "It was quite interesting actually. We've got lots more. Mostly from packs that don't exist anymore. We, uh, we have the original one that you were in. Alpha Harrison's..." He trailed off at the sharp look from J.

She tried to pull back her anger, to settle her bones, but just the mention of his name...

"Sorry," Will mumbled apologetically.

J nodded but didn't say anything, instead she went back to staring at the wall. How they'd done this, she had no idea. They must have talked to thousands of people, piecing each of them together. There was something...comforting about it. To know that someone, somewhere, knew that she'd been here – that she existed.

She couldn't bring herself to look at the hierarchy of Harrison's pack. She wasn't even sure she'd be on there. Did 'the Alpha's bastard daughter' have a place on that kind of thing? And what about her mother, would she be mentioned?

J cricked her neck and sighed, it saddened her to think that no one would remember her mother, her grandmother- 

J slowly tilted her head towards Will, who was watching her silently, "could you find someone? Well, find where they went?"

Will blinked, obviously not expecting her to ask that, but nodded anyway. "Who are you looking for?"

J bit her lip, aware of the dangerous game she was playing. She could find out something she didn't want to know. She could break her own heart – but hadn't it been broken enough already?

"My Grandmother. He-Her name was Kendal. I don't know her surname. She was in Harris-"

"I-I think I remember seeing her name. Yeh, she transferred to...umm, Goddess, what was it? I-...let me go through them, I'll find it."

Hope soared in J's chest, shock rooting her feet to the ground.

"I'll uh-can I get back to you? It's in this pile somewhere...I think..." He offered, leafing through the pages and not really paying her much attention.

"Thank you, Will." She darted forward and hugged him, sending pages skittering to the floor as he jumped at the motion. She released him and stepped back, a blush crawling up his neck.

"N-N-No problem."

J stepped back and turned around, to find everyone watching their exchange. J gave them a hollow smile and headed for the door. She needed to...breathe...run...get some fresh air.

She needed to...Think.