7, The pack

Rayvin was more nervous than she wanted to admit as they walked back to the pack house. Mikael had a firm grip on her hand and she tried to focus on the feeling of the sparks dancing over her skin where he touched her.

This was a big step for her. She hadn’t even told her own pack what she was. Alpha Brutus knew, of course, as did his son and their gamma that had trained her. But that was it. Now she had told Mikael that he should tell everyone.

It was scary, but she felt it was necessary. If she was going to do this, if she wanted to give this a real chance. She knew she couldn’t keep any secrets.

Mikael seemed to notice her mood. He stopped before they got to the door and looked at her.

“Are you okay with this?” he asked her.

“I’m nervous, but okay,” she smiled at him.

“You would tell me if you weren’t, right?”

“Of course I would. When have I ever told you what you wanted to hear?” she said, tilting her head as she looked at him.

“Good point,” he nodded, and started walking again.

He took her to the dining hall at the back of the pack house. It had been set up to hold a pack meeting. All the tables had been cleared and rows of chairs had been placed to face the small platform at one end of the hall. The head table for the alpha and his closest pack members usually stood on the raised platform. Now it was empty.

The walls of the halls were covered in murals, depicting the packs history. Here and there were blank spaces to fill in with future events. Rayvin saw a scene she didn’t recognise and realised it was a compilation of the rebellion of the rogues and the packs’ victory over them.

She would have wanted to study it closer, but they didn’t have time as Mikael gently towed her onwards.

They were a little early. Pack members were still arriving and there were clicks of people standing around, talking, while others tried to find a seat. Mikael tugged on her hand to get her to follow him toward the platform. Ben was standing there together with a woman.

“Ray, this is Diana. Ben’s mate and the best gamma the pack has seen. Diana, this is Rayvin, my mate,” Mikael beamed.

Rayvin looked at the stunning woman in front of her. She was almost as tall as Rayvin and had jet-black hair, soft brown eyes and olive-coloured skin.

“Hello, nice to meet you,” Rayvin smiled.

“Hi. It’s a pleasure meeting you luna. I have heard so much about you,” Diana smiled back.

Rayvin flinched as she was called luna. That would take some getting used to.

“Really, I hope you don’t believe anything these two have told you,” Rayvin said, looking at Ben and Mikael.

“Of course not, if the tales these two tells were true, the two of them would have killed armies of vampires using only a toothpick,” Diana huffed, and the two women laughed.

“We will have to sit down some day and I will tell you the true stories. Have Ben told you about the time he got stuck by his pants in old Bill’s fence?” Rayvin asked.

“He has not. But I feel I need to hear that story. We should have coffee and talk,” Diana grinned.

“Mike, help,” Ben said.

“Don’t look at me. I have no control over this,” Mikael told his friend, and seemed happy about it.

“And you can fill me in on all of Max’s old flames, so I know what I can expect to have to deal with,” Rayvin suggested.

“Max?” Diana asked.

“Alpha boy over here,” Rayvin smiled.

“Oh, that would be my pleasure. I think we will get along splendidly,” Diana nodded.

“Ben,” Mikael said. He had got a panicked look in his eyes.

“Hey man, I have no more control than you do,” Ben said, raising his hands.

Rayvin smiled. She liked Diana, and she suspected she was right, they would get along just fine.

“It’s time,” Mikael said and tugged on her hand to make her follow him onto the platform. She took a deep breath as they walked to the centre of the platform. Most of the pack members had taken their seats and the one still standing hurried to do so when they saw their alpha walking to start the meeting.

“Good evening, and thank you all for coming. Today I want to introduce you to someone special. Those who have lived in the pack for a while will already know Rayvin,” Mikael said and let go of Rayvin’s hand to place it on the small of her back and gently make her take a step forward.

Rayvin looked out over the surprised faces of the pack. She didn’t see anyone that looked unhappy or hostile, most of them actually looked happy. That was until she spotted the former alpha. He was sitting in the back corner and glared at her with as close to hatred as she had seen.

It didn’t bother her. She hadn’t expected him to be happy to see her.

“For the newer members, Rayvin was previously a member of this pack. Due to ungrounded accusations and lack of leadership, she was forced to leave. She is now a member of the Mistvalley pack,” he told them.

There was a soft murmur in the hall as the pack looked even more surprised.

“I have been looking for her for eight years to right the wrong this pack did to her. But today she strolled into my office and I couldn’t have been happier. She is my mate,” he declared, and the hall burst out in loud cheers.

Rayvin couldn’t help but smile and she felt Mikael’s arm go around her waist and pull her into him. She looked up at him and he looked truly happy. After letting the pack cheer for a while, he lifted his hand, and they fell silent again.

“As many of you know, Rayvin is a hybrid. Her mother was a wolf from this pack, but her father was not. This is why she stayed away from the pack for all these years. She was trying to protect us. I have convinced her we are strong enough to face any trouble coming our way,” he continued, and there was a murmur of agreement.

“Rayvin wants you to know the truth, so I’m going to tell you everything. But this information is to stay in the pack. This is not something that is to be shared with others. Am I making myself clear?” he asked. The pack nodded and murmured their consent.

“Good. Rayvin’s father was a dragon. As dragons are rare, her father’s family would prefer her to live in the dragon community. Rayvin does not want this, and her family is trying to force the issue,” he simply said.

There was complete silence in the room. Rayvin understood it was a lot to take in.

“We won’t let anyone take our luna,” a man then said. The pack roared in agreement.

Rayvin felt overwhelming gratitude for the support the pack was showing her. And she felt a pang of guilt for putting them in danger.

“You are right, we will make sure our luna is safe,” Mikael smiled. “But as a safety precaution, we will take the courtship a little slower than usual. But make no mistakes, Rayvin is your luna and I expect all of you to treat her as such starting from today,” Mikel told everyone, and Rayvin felt her stomach clench at him calling her luna.

After Mikael was done speaking and thanking everyone for coming, he and Rayvin stepped off the little platform and joined Ben and Diana again. Many of the pack members came over to them to congratulate them, welcome Rayvin back, and talk about old memories.

Rayvin was surprised that she remembered most of the older pack members and she was even more surprised that they remembered her. Many of them also told her how sorry they were that she had to leave the pack in the way she did.

Mikael stood back and let Rayvin do most of the talking. He had his arm around her waist the entire time but was satisfied with smiling, observing and adding a few words here and there.

“Are you ready to go home?” he whispered to her when the number of pack members had thinned out.

Rayvin had had a long day and a relatively sleepless night before that. She felt exhausted, even if she did her best not to show it. She nodded.

“I think we will call it a night. I want to have a meeting tomorrow after breakfast with you two to go through what you found at Thomas’ place. Ray might help us with a new perspective of things,” Mikael told Diana and Ben.

“Of course,” Diana nodded.

“The old gang back together, it will be as in the old days,” Ben smiled.

“Minus Milly,” Rayvin said.

“You will get me instead. I’m a much better team member,” Diana said. “Sorry, love,” she then said to her mate.

Ben shrugged and gave her a kiss on the cheek. But Rayvin saw the moment of pain in his expression. She looked up at Mikael and could see that he had noticed it as well.

“Come on, you have had a long day,” he told Rayvin.

“See you tomorrow,” Rayvin told Ben and Diana.

“Sleep tight, luna,” Diana nodded.

They walked back in silence as Rayvin thought about the expression on Ben’s face. Mikael ushered her into the mudroom and helped her off with her jacket.

“What is on that mind of yours?” he asked as they walked upstairs.

He took out a beer from the fridge and handed it to her. He sat down at the breakfast bar. Rayvin could have taken a seat anywhere on the five stools left. But before she thought about it, she had hopped onto the one next to him. He smiled at her and took her hand.

“How bad are things between Ben and his sister?” she asked, and interlaced their fingers.

“You saw that, huh?” he sighed and kissed the back of her hand.

“Hard to miss,” she nodded.

“It’s pretty bad at this point,” he sighed and sipped on his beer before continuing.

“After you were forced to leave, I ignored Milly. If we were in the same room, I pretended I couldn’t see her. When she spoke to me, I left. She wasn’t banished from what she had done, partly because there wasn’t any evidence that she actually made it up. But mostly because of who her father was,” he told her.

Rayvin nodded, and her thumb gently made small circles on top of Mikael’s hand. He looked down at their joint hands and there was a hint of a smile on his lips.

“Then I became alpha,” he said.

“And you couldn’t keep doing that,” Rayvin said.

“No, I couldn’t, even though I badly wanted to. If I were to be her alpha, I couldn’t treat her like that. She had a right to have an alpha like any other pack member,” he agreed.

“That must have been difficult for you,” she said.

“It was. For the last nine years, I have wanted nothing more than to throw her out and forget about her existence. Instead, I have lived with her as a shadow. As soon as she sees me with a woman, she is on me like a leach,” he sighed and rubbed his face with his free hand.

“And there have been a lot of these women?” Rayvin smiled.

She saw him freeze and how his hand slowly fell from his face. Mikael looked visibly pale, and it looked like he had trouble looking at her. She had to laugh.