White Rose Pack (Chapter-30)

Adina’s POW

“No. No, I don’t know what you are trying to do here, but you are not her.” the alpha’s voice sounded unsure. Adina looked at him with surprise.

“I am her. I’m the Beloved One,” Adina assured him.

“No, you can’t be. I would have known,” he insisted. This made her even more confused. To be honest, everyone in the warehouse seemed confused.

“And why would that be?” she asked, staring at the alpha in front of her.

“She is my mate,” he retorted. What was he talking about? This did not go as she would have thought.

‘What is he talking about?’ Both Sean’s and Cernack’s mind linked her.

‘I have no clue,’ she answered.

“Well, I don’t know why you would think so. But I can assure you we are not mates,” Adina retorted.

“I know that. Don’t you think I know that? That’s why you can’t be her.”

Okay, this was getting out of hand. Time to take control of this situation, Adina thought. She was glad Colin had stayed in the car. This would not have gone down well with him.

“I think we are all a bit confused. Let’s start from the beginning so we all can understand each other,” Adina stated. “Let’s start with why you think the Beloved One is your mate.”

“She told me so,” Dean said.

“The Beloved One?” Sean said, utterly confused.

“No, the oracle.” Dean took a deep breath and seemed to pull himself together. “Once a year, our pack witch makes a prophecy about the year to come.” He explained.

“In this year’s prophecy, she told us that the White Rose would find her mate, the alpha of the pack that she would live with this year. We didn’t think too much about it; it was happy news, but it didn’t concern us.”

“But then I heard that our pack would have been the pack that she would have stayed in. But some small thing made the council change their minds. And I knew the prophecy was about her and me. I couldn’t just leave it be. We are mates and she needed to know.”

“That is why I need to see her in person. It sounds crazy when you try to explain it. But if I could see her, we would know,” he finished and Adina realized the misunderstanding.

Sean gave her a look, and she knew he got it too. This was a mess, and they had some cleaning up to do.

“Alpha Dean, I assure you I am the Beloved One, the White Rose, or whatever title you would like to use. And your witch was correct. I found my mate a couple of weeks ago.”

“But it was not you, but the alpha from the pack in which I’m living in now. I was always supposed to go to that pack from what I gather. The small thing that excepted your pack from the running must have been faith’s way of nudging us in the right direction,” Adina said with a smile.

“That can’t be”

“It is. I’m afraid that this is something you need to accept. I’m sorry if this gave you false hope. But please believe me when I say that we are not destined to be mates. But I need to know how you got information about the fact that your pack would have been chosen.” Adina insisted.

Dean looked at her, having a hard time adjusting his view of reality with what she told him.

“You found your mate?” he asked.

“Yes, he is outside this building. I will not bring him in. For one, if he was involved in this conversation, he would likely try to harm you, and it is likely he would succeed. For another, I don’t want anyone to identify the pack I’m in now.”

Alpha Dean took a step forward. Sean moved without hesitation, placing himself between Adina and the alpha, and let out a warning growl.

“I would suggest you stay at a distance,” Adina warned him.

“I need to make sure it is really you,” Dean said.

“Alpha Dean, we have met before, in the joint laboratory. Is that not so?” she asked.

He nodded.

“Well then, you know it’s me, and since we didn’t match then, you should have known we wouldn’t match now. We were both over eighteen years old when we met. You need to stop trying to fit reality to how you want it to be and accept reality as it is,” she said, a bit more sharply than she meant.

“Give me the name of the person who told you that your pack had been chosen.”

He sighed, finally resigning to reality.

“I don’t know. I got a phone call about two weeks ago. The voice on the other end told me it was a pity that I had needed to travel so much during the year, else the Beloved One would have been living in my pack. It was a male voice, but I didn’t recognize it. It came from an unknown number. We tried to trace it but couldn’t.” alpha Dean told them.

“Thank you. Anything else you think we need to know? Anything else we can do for you?” Adina asked in a mild tone.

She had compassion for the alpha. She understood the disappointment he must feel. Every wolf searched for their destined mate. It was a part of them that was deeply rooted. The alpha sighed.

“He had an accent. It was faint and I couldn’t place it. Maybe European of some sort.” he said. Adina nodded and waited.

When alpha Dean didn’t speak again, she looked at Sean and Cernack and they both nodded.

“Thank you for the information, and again, I’m sorry this ended the way it did. We would have loved to have spent time in your pack alpha,” Adina said with a small nod towards Dean.

“It is I that needs to apologise. This behaviour has not shown my best sides, I’m afraid,” the alpha replied.

 “No need, we all get a bit overexcited when we think we are close to finding our mate,” she smiled, and he nodded.

“I guess this means you will stay in one pack from now on?” he asked her.

Adina became tense. That was a complicated question. Both on a personal and on a security standpoint, it was a big decision. She was certainly not comfortable discussing it with this alpha.

 “That has not been decided at this point,” she said. “Now, alpha, excuse us. I don’t know how much more patient my mate will be, and we have quite a long drive home,” Adina concluded the conversation.

Without waiting for a response, she turned around and walked the same way as they had entered.

‘I need to talk with Colin alone, I’m sorry but you have to ride with Cernack,’ Adina mind linked Sean as they were walking out.

He nodded and joined Cernack in the second car. Colin stood leaning against the first car, arms crossed in front of him. He would have almost looked calm if it wasn’t for the intense look and the small wrinkle between his eyes. Adina tried to give him a reassuring smile.

“What happened?” he asked as she got closer.

“I’ll tell you in the car,” she replied, and gave him a peck on the jaw.

“That bad?” he stated as he trailed Sean getting into the other car.

“Yes, and no. I’m glad that it is over,” she answered, urging him into the car.

Once they both were inside, she made sure the partition between the front seat and them was up to give them some privacy. Then she told Colin everything. As she expected, he didn’t handle it calmly.

“Next time I see bastard I will kill him,” Colin fumed. “You are MINE,” he growled.

“I know honey, but he didn’t know,” Adina soothed, sliding closer to him and rubbing his arm.

“He should have known you weren’t his. What kind of alpha is he?”

“Yes, he should have known that we had already met and nothing happened. But you know how hope can mess with your head,” Adina switched tactic and put her hand on the side of his face. Making him turn towards her and making eye contact.

“I’m yours. You know that, I know that, and that is all that is important”

“I want everyone to know,” he huffed.

“I know. I would like that as well. But you know why we can’t do that now,” she patiently said. He responded with a puff of air. “The bigger issue at the moment is that we have a leak in the council,” Adina said, worried.

“Yes, that is worrying, I’m sorry babe,” Colin agreed.

He took her hand in his and intertwined their fingers. Adina appreciated his support. He understood the anger, frustration and heart-breaking sadness that enveloped her when she realized that one of her pack members was betraying her.

“Colin, this means your pack is in danger,” Adina said.

“I’m so, so, sorry. But if that person knew that, the Clear River pack was up for choice. That means they may also know what pack I’m in now and they could give that information to the Order.” Adina just realised that and looked at Colin.

“It’s okay Adina. Calm down. I understand, but we will deal with it. We don’t know anything for certain yet. We can’t panic.” he said calmly, stroking the top of her hand with his thumb.