by JM Klaire
Thomas' body was laid out, in his human form, on the bed in the cabin he'd shared with Ziva. Elam wove his way through the cabin full of pack members, some in human form, some in wolf form, pulling Emma along behind him by her hand.
A path opened up before them, everyone moving aside so their new Alpha could get to the deathbed of their old Alpha. Some murmured as the pair passed, making comments about Emma's hand in Elam's.
Emma couldn't take it all in, being pulled behind Elam so quickly, but it seemed to her that not all of the whispered comments were welcoming.
When the pair finally reached the bedroom, and Thomas, Emma could see that Kate, Galen and Ziva were already here.
Emma watched as Ziva pulled her gaze from Thomas's body and focused on Elam. She saw many emotions flit across Ziva's face at Elam's appearance, but the only one that Emma was able to pin down was fear.
Well, that's weird, Emma thought. Why would Ziva fear Elam?
The question was knocked aside though, as Ziva's gaze followed Elam's arm, pausing on the clenched hand holding Emma's, and then kept moving, locking on Emma's face.
"You can't have it! I'm not leaving!"
Ziva spat the words, suddenly turning toward Emma and Elam, blind grief mixing with anger and despair on her face.
"Have what?" Elam was first to answer, pulling his attention from his dead father and Alpha, and trying instead to focus on what Ziva was suddenly shouting.
"This room. This cabin. How dare you bring your meddling whore in here?"
"Ziva, what in the hell are you talking about?"
"Your Alpha lies dead, and you bring her! Her! Here, into this cabin? Where is your respect?"
Emma barely registered all the gasps of breath and furiously mumbled responses from every pack member in ear shot as Ziva turned to her with a tear streaked face, and venom continuing to fly from her lips.
"You think you can come here and ruin everything? After all I've done for this pack? For Thomas? And for Galen? I don't even have to have wolf blood to smell you two. Have you mated yet? Have you marked her? Have you taken Reine's bitch for your own?"
With that last sentence, Ziva turned on Elam again, suddenly attacking him with fists pummeled against his chest and more words thrown at the two of them.
Galen was the first to react, as Elam just looked down at her as she tried in vain to inflict pain on him, her adopted son.
Galen pulled her slight body into a bear hug, holding her and her flailing arms against his chest as she vented and sobbed.
"Mother, stop it! Elam is our Alpha now, your Alpha, and that is no way to talk to him."
"Elam will never be my Alpha. Never! It was supposed to be you, Galen. Not this half-breed shape shifter's bastard son. It wasn't supposed to be Reine, and it wasn't supposed to be Elam. It was all for you!"
Galen lifted Ziva then, taking her out of the bedroom with him. He shot a look toward Kate, who quickly excused herself and followed the two, leaving Elam and Emma alone in the room with Thomas's body, and a cabin full of shocked and mumbling pack members spilled out all over the cabin.
14
The rest of the viewing and funeral for the pack's old and very respected Alpha went off without any other major disturbances. Someone had given Ziva some kind of pill to calm her down, citing grief, and she floated through the pack's customary services for her mate in what seemed to Emma to be kind of a fog.
Thomas' sendoff was beautiful, with every wolf present saying words over his body before Elam, as the new, presiding Alpha, lit the pyre to send Thomas's soul to join those who had gone before, to watch over the pack.
Emma tried to get to Kate, to talk to her friend about all that had gone on over the past few weeks, but Kate was busy, tending to Ziva in her grief.
Later, when Emma had Elam to herself for a bit, she asked him some of the questions that were bugging her, starting with what Ziva had meant by saying she 'couldn't have it.'
"Don't mind Ziva, she is grieving. No one is quite themselves when grieving their mate."
"I get that. But why was she saying I couldn't have her cabin? Why would I want her cabin?"
"It is tradition that the Alpha, and his mate, live in the biggest cabin. Once Thomas passed, technically her cabin became my cabin. And she obviously sees what I see, that you are destined to be my mate, and therefore the cabin would be yours, as well. Eventually. When you decide to stop fighting this and be mine."
He tried to tease her with those last words, pulling a small smile from her lips against her will, even as she nudged him in the side with her elbow, quite convinced that this was neither the time nor the place for that discussion.
"Are you really going to force her from her home? The home she knew with Thomas?"
"At some point, but I'm not in any rush."
"But why do it at all? Can't she just stay there? Who'd care if she stayed there? Why make her move?"
"After a while, it would be a sign of weakness if I did not claim the best living quarters. I'm in no hurry, like I said. I don't mind giving her some time, of course. But after a while, I would lose face. It would confuse the, how do you say... the pecking order. At first everyone would understand, but then, after a while, it would undermine my position to not take it over. It is my right. To not assert my right on something so small would lead some to believe that I can't, or won't, assert my right on larger matters. It's complicated. Ziva is an elder now, an old Alpha's mate, and as such she deserves respect. But she also needs to acknowledge the change in leadership. She is no longer the Alpha's mate, as Thomas is no longer Alpha. That position is mine, whether I wanted it or no.
If Galen had taken Alpha, she would be beside herself to acknowledge that. After the normal, allowed period, she would hand over the cabin to Galen, proudly. So to not do the same for me would be a huge statement on our tradition, the tradition she had no problem accepting when Reine moved out of that cabin, and she moved in."
Emma wanted to ask him why she would gladly hand the reins to Galen, but not to him, since she was the mother to them both, and to zero in on why Ziva would refer to him as a half-breed shape shifter's bastard son, but his statement about her own mother eclipsed all of that.
"That was Reine's cabin?"
"While she was Alpha, yes."
"What happened during my mother's challenge? I've heard that your challenge was different than any other, that no one ever claimed multiple animal forms before. I know Ziva keeps saying that it all started with my mother, but why? How?"
"I wasn't here, then. But I have heard."
"Tell me, please. I'd like to understand more. To understand her more."
"Reine and her brother, Thomas..."
"Stop right there. Thomas was my mother's brother?"
"You didn't know? Emma, come on."
"Dad never told me anything, remember? Anything."
Elam just looked at her, sadness and confusion warring with anger that she had been told nothing about her history.
With a sigh, he settled in.
"Yes, Thomas and Reine were brother and sister."
"Thomas was my uncle, and I didn't even know it. And now it's too late. Wait, that means Galen is my cousin? And you, too, I suppose. Although not by blood."
Emma's words held heartbreak, and her own sadness and confusion of why she'd been kept in the dark for so long.
After a minute she apologized, saying "Go ahead, continue. I'm sorry, I just didn't realize."
"It's OK. I just don't understand what keeping you in the dark was supposed to accomplish. So, Thomas and Reine were the only children of Alpha Aiden, your grandfather, I suppose."
Emma just nodded, registering the name of another relative she didn't know she'd had.
"Aiden was killed by humans. He'd gotten shot in the heart, while he was out hunting. He was after an elk, but had veered too close to the human's homesteads. They were roused by the dogs barking. The humans saw a wolf and took Aiden out, even though he'd meant them no har
m. It happens pretty often, unfortunately.
Anyway, once Aiden passed, it fell to his children to challenge for Alpha, like you saw a few weeks back. There were a few differences, though.
Our challenge was different, because Thomas was still alive. He called the challenge because he wanted to know who would follow in his footsteps, whereas most challenges either happen after the Alpha's death, like with Reine and Thomas, or because someone challenges the Alpha himself, which hasn't happened here in many generations, although it is still common in some packs.
Reine had already taken a mate, Henry, your father. Thomas had already taken Ziva to mate, both of which are stories for another time.
Thomas was favored to win. Our pack had never had a female Alpha, although no one was really against it. It just hadn't happened yet. Thomas had been groomed for Alpha, but Reine was expected to challenge."
"Like with you and Galen."
"Exactly."
"Did mom want it?"
"I don't know. I wasn't around, remember? I just know the story of how everything went down, not the story behind it."
"So, just the facts, ma'am?"
Emma tried to tease, and Elam smiled at her, knowing she was trying to make things easier on both of them.
"Yep, just the facts. And the fact is, your mother kicked Thomas's ass."
"Yeah?"
"Oh yeah. At least how I've heard it told. Challenges are open to everyone, and there was a third challenger, but he didn't win. He was a lower pack member, just trying to step up. Unfortunately, he was also killed by humans, not but a year or two later, but yeah, your mom kicked both of their asses, but good."
"Did she do anything unexpected? Like turn into a bear, like you did?"
He laughed. "No, nothing like that. She just surprised everyone by her intensity, that's all. The way I heard it, she went after the other wolf first. He was going after Thomas, trying to knock out the stiffest competition first, before saving his leftovers for your mother, I'd guess. But boy was he surprised. Your mother had a protective streak a mile wide. And someone going after her brother set it off big time, even though she herself was to fight her brother. Poor guy didn't even know what hit him. He was out pretty quick. Then it was just your mom and Thomas."
Emma didn't interrupt, but she did enjoy a quick snorting laugh at the idea of her mom tearing up anyone for going after her family.
Elam continued, "Your mother just had a bit more, that's all. She had more stamina, she had more speed. They were pretty evenly matched, but she just had a bit more. Anyway, soon it was over, and there Reine stood- the first female Alpha."
"And that pissed Ziva off to no end, huh?"
"I think she felt like she'd somehow let her old pack down, since she was mated to Thomas, the supposed next Alpha, in part to unite the two packs."
"She mentioned something about that, when she was getting Camphor for Thomas. I thought Ziva was human. How did she come from another pack?"
"The histories of werewolves is not a proud thing."
"Neither is the human's."
"Good point. Many years ago, humans were sacrificed to werewolf packs for protection, amongst other things."
"I take it Ziva was one such sacrifice?"
"Yes. Her human village chose her to give to the wolf pack that provided them with protection. It wasn't this pack, but a pack that adjoined this one. Every so often, sometimes yearly, sometimes every few years, a human girl-child was given to the wolves to raise. As a slave, usually.”
Emma shivered at the mere thought of it.
“I’ve heard of boys also being sacrificed on occasion,” he said, continuing. “I think that may be where your stories of Tarzan-types may have originally come from, but boys were rarer as a sacrifice. They made for stronger slaves, physically, but females could serve double duty, eventually become used for breeding as they got older. Somehow humans have better luck carrying a wolf cub than female wolves do. Plus, it kept the bloodlines fresh, and provided protection from the pack, for the village that gave her up. How the village decided who- I have no idea. Thankfully, all of this is a tiny bit before my time. We don't do that here, in this pack. But some still do, I've heard."
"So Ziva was handed over to live with and serve wolves? When? How old was she?"
"Five-ish, is my understanding."
"Wow, that's just..."
"Barbaric?'
"Sure. I was going to say shitty, but barbaric works. For starters."
They sat in silence for a beat, thinking their own thoughts.
"So, she was slave traded to a nearby pack. How did she end up here?"
"Thomas's wolf claimed her. They were at a meeting, some kind of a treaty meeting between this pack and the one that used to share our borders. Aiden was Alpha, and took his son, the presumed next Alpha, and a few others, to a meeting spot between the two packs. Thomas said his wolf recognized her as his mate the instant he saw her. He made it known as well, much to Ziva's dismay.”
Emma couldn’t help the laugh that escaped her.
Elam grinned back at her before continuing.
“My understanding is that she wasn't all that happy to be claimed. Her pack gave her up rather easily though. Which makes some sense, I guess. They were probably expecting to fight and hammer out some kind of treaty, and here instead all it took was the Alpha's son claiming their human slave to keep the peace. Hell, they didn't even have to give up anyone of any importance to them."
"Holy crap. Traded twice, to two different packs? How old was she then?"
"Twenty, I think."
"And she didn't want to go?"
"Her pack was all she'd known. But she went willingly enough. Her pack practically shoved her out the door, but she stepped up, a lot. She went from a human slave, basically, to the mate of the next Alpha. So, it couldn't have been too bad, right?"
"You are seriously asking me that?"
"No." He said with a self-depreciating laugh. "No, our heritage is not a proud one, like I said."
"I'm torn between going all women's lib on you and stating how unfair it is to not mate for love, and asking you about your personal heritage. You were found wandering in the woods, were you not? All these rumors about you, since the whole bear thing..."
"Ah yes, the shape shifter talk."
"What is a shape shifter, exactly?"
Before Elam could answer yet another of Emma's questions, they were interrupted.
Galen approached Elam, asking to speak to him in private.
He looked pained, to Emma's eyes, but she couldn't blame him. He'd lost his place, and his father, both in such a short time period.
As Galen led Elam off, after Elam had said a goodnight to Emma, all Emma heard as they walked away was Galen's rushed, "I know of only one way to fix this, brother. I mean, Alpha."
15
Emma had only been back in her own cabin for a few minutes, after saying that quick goodbye to Elam and Galen, before someone knocked on her door.
She opened her door wide, to see Kate standing on her porch, with a bottle of wine and two glasses, asking somewhat sheepishly if she could come in.
"Of course you can come in," Emma exclaimed. "Wait, I was talking to the wine. You, on the other hand..."
"I know, I know. I've been M.I.A. I've been trying to be a good daughter-in-law, but damn, that Ziva is needy. Then I feel like a major bitch for thinking that, I mean her mate just died, after all. And she has no friends to speak of, really."
"Hmm, you don't say. I can't imagine why."
Kate just laughed and rolled her eyes, and proceeded to open the wine bottle and pour a very generous amount into each glass, handing one to Emma before taking quite a large swig from her own.
"I wanted you to hear it from me, first." Kate choked the words out, barely swallowing her wine before starting to speak. "Can we sit?"
"Of course. Hear what from you first?"
Emma led Kate to the couch, tucked her legs underneath herself, and se
ttled in to talk, like old times.
"Galen is asking Elam now, but it's going to happen. With or without Elam's blessing."
"Shit. What is?"
"Galen is leaving. He said he has much respect for Elam, but he can't be a Beta wolf. He waited until Thomas's passing because he didn't want to upset him, but he won't be second in command."
"So he's just going to leave? Be a lone wolf? It's his right, I guess, but..."
"I'm going with him, of course. As his mate should. So is Ziva. And some of the others."
"But..."
"That part is happening, regardless. What Galen wants to talk to Elam about though, is keeping it civil. Galen said he will take us far away, if needed, but he wants to stay close, to take over the abandoned area adjoining this pack's property line."
"That wasn't abandoned. That pack was wiped out by humans."
"That was a long time ago. And it is where Ziva used to belong."
"This town ain't big enough for the both of 'em?" Emma teased.
"This pack is already divided. I see it and I'm still new around here." Kate smiled at Emma's joke, but pressed on, determined to speak.
"It's because we came here, isn't it? Because I came here." Emma asked, sadly.
"I don't know. If we weren't here the challenge would have still happened. Elam probably still would have won."
"Or he wouldn't have tried so hard. Maybe if I wasn't here he wouldn't have, I don't know...tried to show off? He would have just gone through the motions?"
"From what Thomas said during the challenge, that everyone gives their all when the wolf form takes over, it probably would have happened anyway."
"But I make it worse, don't I? For Ziva, at least. She has something against my mother, and therefore, me as well."
"I wish I knew what she had against your mom and you, but she won't say. She just says, 'it never would have happened, if it wasn't for Reine's challenge.'"
"What wouldn't have happened?"
"I don't know. She won't say any more."