Chapter 2 - Jace
The driver turns into the compound, and my stomach churns. It’s strange to be back after so many years. Six? Seven? It feels like a lifetime ago that my eyes wandered over these fields and down across the view of Devil’s Lake.
It’s just as beautiful as the day I left. In fact, it looks like nothing’s changed at all.
But I have.
I have changed in almost every possible way.
Driving into the compound seems to exaggerate the intensity of the difference in me as a thousand familiar scents drift into my nostrils.
“Smells like home, doesn’t it?” Miles says, his eyes turned out to the opposite window. “And everything is right where we left it. Exactly the same.”
“It does smell like home,” I nod. Even though home is an abstract thought to me at this moment. I’ve been gone too long to understand what home is.
“Feels weird though. I don’t feel like the same person,” he says thoughtfully.
“You aren’t the same person, Miles.”
He nods. We both know exactly what I’m talking about.
We’re harder. Colder. We’ve done things that neither of us will discuss.
Home.
Even when I was young and stupid and running through these wild spaces as a kid, I didn’t understand what a home was. My father never gave me a home. He gave a place to train and learn. Every moment of every day, he was preparing me to be the Alpha. That was my childhood.
I haven’t even taken the role of Alpha yet, but I am already carrying the burden upon my shoulders. I’ve been carrying it since the day I was born. Over the years, it just got heavier.
I will do right by this pack. I will rebrand it and bring it into the new age. No more outdated traditions. No more relying on elder rituals and archaic practices. We are in a new era, and I’m going to be the one to pull us to the front of it.
When I left for Black Ops training, there was no Alpha to protect the pack, so three elders took the role.
One of those elders is my father, Jeremy Greenwood.
A man with much power, but no Alpha blood in his veins.
The bloodline skipped a generation, leaving him perhaps a little bitter, but still determined to provide a son that would be the best Alpha this pack has ever seen.
I think that’s why he was so hard on me.
The elders took charge while waiting for my return. Even without an Alpha, a pack still needs leaders to follow.
My father is standing at the entrance to the pack house, a massive mansion in the center of our territory on Rose Falls Reservation. The driver parks, and Miles and I climb out of the car, walking up the stairs to greet the elders.
“Jace, my son, welcome home,” he growls roughly. “Welcome back, Miles.”
He holds his hand out to shake mine, and I take it firmly in my grip.
He was never specifically a father to me. Not as fathers should be. He didn’t raise me as a son. That luxury was not mine in this life. For this reason, although I call him father, I don’t see him as one. He was my superior. To be obeyed. But even that is no longer the case.
By sheer size, I outweigh him two to one. The muscles ripple over my body as I stand next to his aged frame. Don’t get me wrong, my father is a beast of a man. But his glory days are past.
His face is older, etched with more lines than I remember.
Age and the sun taking their toll on his skin, despite the wolf genes he carries in his blood, giving him a much longer life than a human.
I guess age catches up with everyone eventually, even wolves.
His black hair is speckled with grey streaks, and his dark beard is peppered with grey too.
His eyes, however, are as blue as they ever were.
It’s the one thing that I did not inherit from him in looks.
Blue eyes. Mine are as black as midnight.
My mother’s eyes. My sweet mother. She died in childbirth, which might have been a mercy of sorts, because if she had to watch how my father raised me, she would have been heartbroken for the childhood I never had.
It’s been years since I came home. Years of brutal training.
Constant, exhausting, consistent training that quite literally broke us before it started rebuilding us into the true hunters we are today.
The first two years there tore us apart, stripped away anything of who we were.
After that, we started piecing ourselves back together.
Bit by bit until we were stronger than we ever were before.
Every day brought us to our knees. Every single day pushed the limits of what we thought we were capable of.
The one thing that I will never forget about our training is this…
You are capable of so much more than you think you are.
When you think you’re at your end, unable to take another step…
you’re wrong. You can still run another mile.
When we weren’t training, we were hunting rogues and rogue packs, practicing war on those who denounced their Alphas and went out on their own. Trouble makers and thieves who deserved no mercy. We gave them none.
Miles came with me. My best friend, my Beta. And now he stands at my side as the man I trust more than any other person on this earth.
And he stands at my side, he has the same expression on his face that I have on mine.
A forced smile.
It’s strange how being home makes me feel out of place. It’s quiet, even with the excitement of our arrival. It’s calm and peaceful. In complete contrast to where we came from.
“It’s good to be home,” I nod politely. The other elders are alongside my father.
Lexus steps forward and lifts his hand to grip my jaw, pushing my face left, then right, as he examines the changes.
“I see many new scars, young Jace,” he muses.
I say nothing but feel my jaw clenching in annoyance as I pull my face away from his grasp.
They forget they will no longer be in charge now that I’m back.
These old men don’t like giving up power, but not a single one of them would dare challenge my position as Alpha.
And I don’t appreciate him manhandling me and treating me like a child.
“Now that I’ve returned, we have a lot of work to do. I will take my place as Alpha and…”
“Before we discuss anything, we must arrange the ceremony,” Jeremy says, interrupting me.
“Ceremony?” I mutter, narrowing my gaze.
These old ways are so outdated. I understand the need for them. I understand that packs are led by the Moon, and the Moon Goddess grants us all we need in life. But here in the real world, there are so many other things we need to focus on in order to improve our way of life.
I’ve had years to piece together a plan for my pack, and I’m eager to get going with it.
“Yes, Jace. The traditions will be upheld. You will be welcomed into the pack and take your role as Alpha by the Laws of the Moon,” my father says sternly.
I swallow hard and nod in obedience. The last fucking thing I want to do is prance around following some ancient ritual.
But I doubt that my first action upon coming home should be to go against a decision they have already made. They are, after all, still in charge until I am sworn in.
These traditional ceremonies are outdated and mostly pointless for anything other than show.
It’s just entertainment for the other pack members.
But I’ll suffer through it. When I’m officially Alpha, I’ll make all the changes I want.
For now, I’ll play the game and earn points for doing so.
The elders have been running the pack for years in my absence, which means they have the respect of the pack. I must honor that too.
“Fine, let me know the arrangements. In the meantime, Miles and I are starving. Can you have the kitchen prepare us a meal?” I ask.
Jeremy nods.
Lucas gestures towards one of the Omegas standing nearby. “Melinda, have whoever is on kitchen duty prepare two of the biggest steaks available in the fridge. And roast potatoes and…”
“No, don’t worry about roasting them. It will take too long.
We want to eat now,” I groan. My stomach can’t wait for the time it will take to get those damn potatoes crispy.
I knew we should have called ahead to let them know we were on the way, but I was also hoping to make less commotion upon our arrival.
If we’d warned the elders, I could bet a hundred bucks they’d have laid out a red carpet and had seven Omegas dressed as cheerleaders to welcome us home.
No thanks. Not interested. I want to eat and crash into my bed to sleep for a solid night.
I haven’t slept a full night through since I joined Black Ops.
Every night, there was a drill or an attack on rogues.
Every night, something pulled us from rest to push us harder.
Melinda grins at me, her eyes glittering with hope. A pretty girl. I’m sure all of the Omegas are going to be tripping over their little feet to impress me. Each dreaming that they are destined to be the Luna of this pack.
I feel nothing toward her, and my smile is more of a grimace than anything else.
The right time will come for me to claim my fated mate. Now is not that time. I have too much to do. Too much to focus on.
Priority…eat.
Sleep.
Start taking control of my pack.
***
I wake before dawn, instantly alert and confused by the array of unfamiliar scents.
I don’t smell gunpowder or the gruel the chef would make us for breakfast. I don’t smell the sweat of the other Alphas who got up early and hit the gym.
I don’t smell the red dust that became part of my skin, hair, and clothes at Black Ops.
I smell dew. Fresh earth. Green grass. From somewhere outside, I hear the first birds waking up, talking to each other.
I smell the clouds, about to break open with a soft, misty rain. Nothing too heavy, just a refresh before the day begins.
And I smell warmth. Sunrise. It’s close.
The hairs on my arm stand just before I hear the soft knock at my door.
It gets pushed open before I answer, and Miles walks in.