Listen to the Call
I respected my father, he had been the Alpha to our pack for over a hundred years. But the tension between us had been building for a couple decades. I was his only daughter, we lost William to idiotic poachers who killed him while he was leading one of our hunts. No one in the community cared if the Alpha was a woman or not, but they cared if the Alpha was mated. Which I wasn't. He had been pushing me to use various shamans, spells, and other magical entities to try and locate my mate. But none of them have worked so far. I sighed as I waited outside his office. He had summoned me formally for a meeting, it couldn't be good news. He wasn't the only one that was distressed at my lack of mates.
Only thirty five in human years, I was starting to think there wasn't going to be a mate for me, which meant turmoil for our entire pack. And our pack was huge, we commanded most of the eastern side of the United States in various other sects that answered to us or looked to us for solutions to their problems. The impact of my lack of mate on the fate of the pack kept me up at night. I knew it was important, but if I couldn't find my mate, maybe there wasn't one for me. I anticipated he was going to propose that Cillian, his right hand Beta, would take the pack over. Cillian found his mate, Siobhan, several years ago and they had already produced several pups from the mating. Yeah the irony of their irish names was a running joke in the pack.
I didn't want to concede my position as a future alpha, but I knew if it came down to the pack's future, I would submit to anything. I couldn't put my pride in front of the health and safety of half the continent's subjects. That was part of what being an alpha meant. I was just as remiss at the lack of finding my mate as the whole pack was. My father was getting older by the day. While we lived a lot longer than normal humans, we weren't immortal.
Our oracle stode out of the office doors with a sad smile and bowed to me, "You may enter," said my father's head of security, Jamie. I nodded at him and took a deep breath. My father was sitting in his archaic style throne, it was meant more for tradition than anything else. We were pretty big about keeping traditions if we could. I entered the room as the door closed behind me and I knelt before my father.
"Dana, I know we have discussed this topic before," I stood now and waited for the decision that would change the fate of the pack. "I've decided," a small tear fell from his face and my heart throbbed. I had only ever seen my father cry when his parents died. "To exile you until you find your mate." My mouth gaped open and I waited for clarification. "It has been brought to my attention that you cannot find your mate in our grounds and therefore you must seek elsewhere." He was crying silently now as my lips trembled. "But-" he cut me off.
"The decision has been made, you will be provided with some means to transport yourself, you will go alone outside the pack lines, and I encourage you to execute discretion in your travels. A future Alpha arriving unannounced will provoke tensions." I had never left the pack area in my entire life, while that was still a large area, it was uncharted territory outside those lines.
"I have the authority to provide you with a few months to find your mate. That is all I can provide, if you cannot find your mate," he couldn't look at me now, "then I will have to concede our familial line to Cillian." I fell to my knees, I knew this was coming, but it didn't make the blow any lesser as it hit my soul. He stood and walked to the window behind his throne, "As royalty of the pack, they have to see us be us, even when we aren't. Therefore I know you will come out of this situation better equipped to lead the pack. I know you will come back with a mate. You have to." He didn't turn to face me as my face was littered with tears.
"I have taught you everything I know, Dana, I do this out of love, please forgive me." He still didn't look back to me as I knew it was my cue to leave. "Yes, Alpha, it shall be done," I stood and had to fight the urge to run towards the exit. "I love you Dana, please, remember that." I hesitated before I clasped the door handle, but I didn't want to hear anymore.
Outside the door, Jamie was waiting with a bag in hand. "My lord, I have things inside this bag you may need, including keys to the SUV for you to leave in." I nodded at him without meeting his eyes and took the bag. As I strode away I heard him speak again, "I know you will find your mate, you have to." I was glad there wasn't an audience for me as I approached the SUV parked outside my father's house. I got in, shut the door, and peeled out of the complex through blurry, teary, eyes.
It took almost a whole day of driving before I crossed the line of our pack's territory. I had no idea where I was supposed to go or what I was supposed to do. In the bag Jamie had given me, there was several thousands of dollars. It was nothing compared to the amount the pack had developed over the years in various realtor schemes and stock market acquisitions. I didn't even have a phone. I supposed my father was right as I battled the situation I was presented with the whole drive to this point.
I knew I needed to just follow my wolf to my mate, or the luna hadn't blessed
me with a mate to begin with. I sighed and followed on the highway until I was at risk of crashing from lack of sleep. I pulled off at the next exit which seemed to not even have vacancies anywhere until about five miles away from the main road. I got a room with cash, and settled in. I took a shower, cried in the water, then stepped outside onto the balcony of the motel. There wasn't much activity and I was kind of grateful for it. If my father was trying to push the fates to produce a mate for me, he was heavily outplayed.
I slept between fits of crying in the motel room. The sounds of nefarious activity permeated my peaceful sleep. I wasn't sure what I should be doing or trying to listen to, so I continued on in the morning.
As my money was starting to run thin, almost two weeks now, I knew I had to get a job. I didn't want to but there was that, or pronounce myself to the pack's territory I had slipped into without announcement. So I traveled for a few more miles and found a sleazy wanna be diner modeled after the fifties. It was generic enough and I had worked in the compound kitchen and served before at some of our pack restaurants before so it wasn't intimidating. The owner was enthusiastic enough about my work history that I knew I was hired from three seconds into the interview.
I had enough to stay at the motel down the street and I could walk between the diner and my sleeping area. It was perfect. As perfect as something could be for someone who had just been exiled from their entire known existence.
My first day was pretty normal of the expectations I had of a sleazy diner with mostly passing through clientele. There wasn't even a standard uniform outside of the used totally stolen Home Depot aprons. There wasn't much training but I didn't need much to make good tips. I knew how to charm strangers, being trained to handle diplomatic relations from my childhood came in handy. I worked the lunch shift as my first shift and everything went off without a hitch. I cried myself to sleep in my single room motel room that night. Where was the luna goddess trying to point me for my mate. Did I even have a mate? Was this how I was going to spend the rest of my days, alone from my pack and family?
I awoke to some commotion outside. I peeked through the blinds and saw a couple arguing but I couldn't quite make out the words. The woman was throwing various personal items over the railing to the parking lot below while the man was trying to console and pick up his items simultaneously. I couldn't see either party clearly and didn't care much as I had to awake for my shift soon anyway. I gathered my apron and walked to work. When I got there, there were a few staff members surrounding a worker I hadn't met yet. She was ushered out the back by some of the staff before I could see her clearly.
