White Rose Pack (Chapter-43)

They took a car as the last family lived away from the town. In the first family, they were greeted by the mother and father. They were invited into the living room, and Colin introduced Adina. They started having a conversation just as the adults where Colin answered questions the parents had.

Adina mostly listened but tried to be reassuring when the mother was nervous about letting her thirteen-year-old son live away from home. After a while, the father called for their son, Roy, to join in. He was a polite boy. Colin and he talked a bit about what he wanted to do in the future and how his grades were.

Roy gave respectful answers, and it turned out he had plans to study economics, which Colin found interesting, and he had one of the highest grades in his class. After a pleasant conversation, it was decided that Roy would move into the pack house the upcoming Sunday, his parents would bring him.

At the second family, things went similarly. They were offered coffee and cookies. Adina offered to help the mother, but the offer was declined. The child, in this case, was a girl named Rose. She was also thirteen, but extremely shy.

She had a hard time looking at Colin, not to mention answering his questions. Adina felt sorry for her, so she stepped in. She stood up and went over to sit next to the girl. Adina tried to make herself look as kind as she could and softly started speaking with the girl. After a while, Rose seemed to relax a bit and focused on Adina. It was decided Rose would also move to the pack house on Sunday.

“You handled that better than I did,” Colin said as they drove to the last family.

He held her hand, letting his thumb stroke the top of her hand. She knew he did it without realizing it, and that made it feel like a habit. She smiled as she looked out of the window, watching the trees go by.

“I was like that girl when I was younger. I just wanted to hide in the corner or sit in a quiet place so I could talk with Sean. But I had duties and needed to be social. I can still remember people who did things to make me feel at ease or to make me feel more comfortable. This is my way to pay it forward, I guess,” she said.

“When I was that age, I hated dealing with people. I just wanted to be on the training grounds or hanging out with my friends. I had no clue how to relate to the issues my father dealt with. Still, he insisted on dragging me along, and I used to give him such a hard time about it.”

“Then, when I needed to step up and take over as alpha, I wished I had had more time with him. There was so much I still needed to learn.” Colin confessed, and Adina squeezed his hand.

She understood how confusing it was to do something that you did not know how to do, to live up to expectations that other people had on you.

It took them thirty minutes to reach the house. It was a small house that was built in a clearing in the woods. The yard wasn’t untidy, but it looked like no one cared for it and the house had a shabby feel to it. As Colin knocked on the door, it was opened by a man in his late fifties. When he saw Colin, he greeted him by lowering his head, but Adina could see a glint of something in the man’s eyes that was defiant. Colin had noticed it as well, because Adina could feel that he tensed up.

“Brian, we are here to talk about Johnny. Can we come in?” Colin said, but his tone had an edge to it that Adina hadn’t heard from the previous families.

“Of course, alpha, come in,” Brian said, taking a step back to let them in.

At the same time, his eyes looked at Adina for the first time, and something in them made Adina extremely uncomfortable. As she tensed up, she could feel that Colin reacted to it. She attempted to relax. Colin was already on edge. He didn’t need her to make it worse.

“Barb, we have company, the alpha is here,” Brian shouted into the house as he showed them the living room and asked them to sit in the armchairs that were placed in the room.

There were five of them and Colin guided Adina towards the sturdiest looking one and when she sat down, he sat on the armrest, draping his arm around her shoulders.

This was also new. Sure, Colin always tried to keep a physical connection between them. But in the other two families, this had comprised holding her hand or placing his hand on her knee. This was a clear sign he felt the uneasiness of the situation the same way she did. This was his way of protecting, claiming, and calming her. It worked to some effect.

Into the living room came a woman around the same age as the man. She looked like she could use a week’s worth of good sleep. She looked nervous. As usual, Colin introduced himself and then Adina. The woman greeted them, but the man’s eyes kept going back to Adina, sizing her up.

“Is Johnny around?” Colin said, skipping the first part of the conversation.

“I’ll get him,” the woman said, turning around.

Before she had taken one step, the man bellowed out his son’s name and they could hear footsteps from the floor above them.

 “What?” a young man slandered into the room, looking irritated.

“Johnny, this is alpha Colin and luna Adina. They are here to speak to you.

“Hello Johnny” Colin greeted.

“Hi” Johnny said and looked Colin in the eye without even a hint of submission. Adina was shocked. That was a clear challenge. A low snarl rouse from Colin. All three of the family members startled, and the two adults avoided Colin’s gaze. But Johnny still didn’t look down. Adina studied him and he looked genuinely confused and afraid, but still didn’t lower his eyes. She could feel Colin becoming more tense. He wasn’t far away from jumping the teenager.

Then Adina realized Johnny didn’t know how he should behave. He felt the need to fix the situation, but he didn’t know how. Adina placed a hand on Colin’s knee to calm him.

“Lower your eyes Johnny, you need to bow your head and show your neck to show your submission. To look the alpha in the eyes is how you challenge their authority,” she spoke to Johnny in a strict voice.

He shifted his eyes from Colin to Adina in surprise.

“You do not look at her,” Colin snarled, and Johnny finally understood and lowered his eyes and exposed his neck.

The tension was high and Adina felt the need to do something. Her hand was massaging Colin’s knee to make him relax a bit. Something was off in this family, but she didn’t know exactly what.

“We would like Johnny to come live at the pack house for a while since he just shifted. How old are you, Johnny?” Adina took charge of the conversation.

“Fifteen” he answered, looking at the rug. That was a bit on the latter side of shifting for the first time, but not unheard of.

“We have two more pack members your age that are coming to live with us on Sunday. Would that suit you?” Adina continued.

“I don’t know if this whole thing is something for our family,” the father said. “We need Johnny back home.”

“We don’t force anyone to come to live at the pack house. That is voluntary. We expect them to start their basic training when they become sixteen years old, and we expect Johnny to be a full member of the pack now that he has shifted. That means following pack law.” Colin said in a firm voice.

“Yes alpha, we understand,” the man said.

But Adina didn’t feel comfortable leaving it at that. Her intuition said that if Johnny stayed at home, he would find himself in trouble. He didn’t seem to know anything about how to behave in a pack. That was dangerous.

Part of the reason that there was a hierarchy, and that you taught werewolves to restrain emotions I order to obey pack law, was because of the strength that even the weakest werewolf had. To unleash that without restriction was dangerous. If Johnny didn’t know how to control himself, he could hurt someone, or someone could hurt him. This was going to lead to him ending up dead or a rogue.

“Johnny, would you like to come live at the pack house?” Adina asked, ignoring the sudden glare his father shot at her. Colin growled in warning to the man, who quickly looked down.

“I don’t know,” Johnny replied, shrugging his shoulders.

“I think it would be a good opportunity for you,” Adina continued.

“I know moving into a new place with new people can be scary. But I also know that once you do it, it can be a lot of fun and you will grow as a person,” she gently coxed.

Johnny quickly looked up, glancing at her before continuing to stare at the rug.

“I guess it would be okay,” he said.

“Good, then we decide you will join us on Sunday.” Colin said openly, focusing on the father, daring him to oppose.

He didn’t, and it was decided that Colin would send a car to pick Johnny up. As they were leaving, the father showed them out and Adina could feel him looking at her body from behind as they walked toward the front door. She turned around, but he had already averted his eyes.

When Adina was in the car, she finally let out a sigh of relief. She could feel the tension in Colin. He looked like a storm cloud as they drove off. She reached out for his hand, and she intertwined their fingers.

“Why were you so adamant that Johnny should live in the pack house?” Colin asked after a moment of silence.

“Because otherwise he will get killed, injured or become a rogue. You saw how he reacted to you. It wasn’t because he wanted to challenge you or to prove something. It was because he didn’t know how to behave in a pack. He is a pack member, and we need to help him,” she answered, looking over at him.

“You have a kind heart, little dove, but he is fifteen years old. Do you think we can teach him, or is it too late?”

“We need at least try. We can’t give up on a pack member just because they come from an unpleasant family situation”

“You are right. I need to find out why no one has reacted before. We should have caught this sooner.” Colin said, not happy about the situation. They continued in silence. Both focused on their own thoughts.

“We have half an hour before our meeting with Doc to discuss the ongoing vaccinations. Do you want to stop by the coffee shop?” Colin asked as they got closer to the village. Adina felt excited and could barely contain herself.

“Yes please, we can get ice cream,” she said happily. Colin looked at her.

“It’s freezing outside, I was thinking more along the line of hot coco.” he said bewildered.

“But have you tried their ice cream section? But I guess we can go for hot coco.”

“Babe, you can have whatever you want. If you want ice cream and turn yourself in to an icicle, then we will get you ice cream,” Colin said with a smile. Adina beamed back at him.

“Yay” was all she said, and she felt like a kid on Christmas morning.

Colin parked the car outside the coffee shop, and they went inside. As usual, everyone in the shop stopped what they were doing to greet Colin.

“Alpha, luna. It is nice to see you. What can I get for you today?” Joonas smiled from behind the counter.

“I’ll have a black coffee, the biggest one you got,” Colin said. “I think Adina might have her heart set for some ice cream.”

“I sure do,” Adina replied as she was already heading over to the different ice creams on display. Joonas went over to the ice cream counter with a look at Colin that asked a silent question.

“I know, but she really wants to try your ice cream,” Colin said with a shrug.

“Don’t tell me that both of you are too weak to have a little ice cream just because it gets chilly?” Adina teased. “I thought werewolves were supposed to be hot-blooded”.

The men traded looks but didn’t seem to get the allure of ice cream. Adina looked at the different ice creams and tried to remember which she already had tried. She had slowly, but surely, been working her way through all the flavours.

“What will it be today?” Joonas asked her.

“They all look amazing. But I think I will go for one scoop of strawberry and one scoop of lemon, please,” she decided.

Joonas scooped up her ice cream and handed it to her and handed Colin his coffee.

“Happy?” Colin asked as they were walking out of the shop.

“Mhm” was all she could answer as she just had put a spoon of lemon ice cream in her mouth. She was satisfied with life. The ice cream tasted amazing. She had Colin’s arm around her waist, and she felt at home for the first time in a long time.