Chapter 9

He looked at the huge desk in front of her littered with paperwork, letters waiting for to be read and answered, missives waiting to be approved and different invitations to be accepted or declined.
"That seems like an awful lot of work." He watched as she read a letter.
"You can ask for help you know." She folded the letter and added it to a pile.
"Alright then, don't ask. I who unlike you am not blinded by arrogance so I'll just offer my help like the humble person I am." She began to scribble something on a paper complete;y ignoring him
"Where shall I sit?"
She folded the paper and stamped it with the pack's seal and rang for a servant.
"I have a feeling you are deliberately ignoring me."  Someone knocked on the door.
"Enter."  She called. And as the door opened, a footman walked in.
"Take this to the household of the Buchanans."  she said
"Yes my King." The servant bowed and turned to leave.   
"Bring me something to sit on. Preferably one made from feathers."
The servant took in his dirty livery which he hadn't been opportuned to clean and looked at him from his worn out also dirty poor quality boots to his disheveled hair and reversed the motion.
"Get it yourself or sit in the sty with the rest of the pigs." He huffed and left.
It took a lot of restraint to keep his true identity as an Alpha hidden alot restraint to keep his wolf form in control, Breathe in and out he thought to himself and turned to see Athena with a small smile on her face.  
"You find that amusing? You said I was to be respected just a few minutes ago, but it seems that applies only when you want, doesn't it?" 
"Precisely." 
He looked at her smiling face and all the anger was forgotten, he wished he could tell her how much that smile warmed his heart and was about to until she looked at him caught him staring at her with a dreamy expression and immediately straightened up expression back to the norm.
"What is it?" She asked in a warning tone. 
"Uh… Nothing. Nothing it's just that I really think that beneath all that stony look and devil may care aloofness, you just might have a sense of humor." 
He went out of her sight and came back a few moments later with a pile of books each about 11 inches wide 14 inches in length and set them down at the other end of the table. 
"There, I may lack power but I am well endowed with brains." He winked at her. 
"Now, since you have such a huge difficulty in speaking, I'll read and you write whatever your reply is."  He picked the letter closest to him and opened. 
"Greetings Alpha!" He exclaimed in a false deep throaty voice."It is with great sadness I write to inform you of the strange disease that has consumed our farmlands in the southern part of Wuthering County it is spreading fast and the source of the disease is unknown. Our harvest cannot last much longer and we fear that if care is not taken we shall soon be reduced to begging. We plead with-"
" Burn it. " He was certain he heard wrong.  
"Excuse me?" he asked shocked.
"I don't like to repeat myself."   
"You can't be serious, they will starve if-"   
" if I repeat myself a I will see to it you burn with the letter."   
He heaved a sigh and and threw the letter into the fireplace and watched as the flames consumed the paper until it was no more than ashes.
"Continue."  
It became harder to read or write as the day slowly faded into night, the candles were gradually melting away.  
Alexander stifled yet another yawn as he read a letter from an aging widow who requested the Alpha to give her husband -who has been dead for 12 years- a land to farm on.  
"That'll be enough." As if as an afterthought she said "For today."  
"You know, a normal person would say 'Thank you, I appreciated your help.' "   
He stood up and stretched while groaning.   
"Ahh.. my tailbone needs a massage."  
He then faced her.  "But then again at this point I know you are definitely not normal." 
"Good night my enchantress."  He left after blowing her a kiss.
The atmosphere was a cool one the next night. Elders and children of various ages gathered around the fire, few chatting away, some playing games,others laying with their backs to the grounds gazing and marveling at the sky.
"What's this?"
Alex whispered to Athena who sat on his right and of course she completely ignored him staring into the fire. "The Cortez ceremony is a tradition that has been practiced for as long as I can remember. Every ten years the oldest of the pack tell the history of not only the pack but of werewolves from the beginning till date." The beta sitting to his left explained.
"Thank you."
"No thanks necessary ."
"How old is the beta."
He whispered to Athena nudging her this time.
"I stopped counting at 407 years. You should be easy with her on the questions, she doesn't know most these things." The beta answered
"She didn't attend as a child?" Alex asked
"She wasn't given the opportunity."
"She didn't grow in the pack?" Alex asked again, clearly confused.


"You'll find out later, the farrad is here. He is the oldest living werewolf of the pack he is to be the narrator today."
As cleared his throat everyone sat up, stopped what they were doing and paid attention to the frail old man.
"Since the beginning of the earth there were animals and humans and those that had the spirit of both woven into their souls giving them heightened senses, longer life span, strength both physically and health wise, more resistance to diseases that constantly ail humans, so much speed and agility and the ability to shift form into gigantic wolves. 
There were called werewolves, feared by animals and humans alike, they were above all species. They preyed on humans even as the humans hunted them. They were three who had each studied one out of the four elements then they together using their abilities created a dark creature born of the element neither of them could master. 
Fire. 
They created the Carrlean to protect the human race from werewolves. The werewolves suffered in agony for a great time until The Great Alpha proposed a treaty with the humans; they shared the lands and each species lived their lives in peace as he intended.
But the Carrlean wasn't satisfied with peace it wanted bloodshed and so it attacked. Not just werewolves were victims, humans, animals. The Carrlean spared nothing, the earth itself was affected. 
The Great Alpha gathered an army to fight it, and though The Great Alpha and majority of the army lost their lives the Carrlean was destroyed but where it had touched became consumed by it's dark powers and when other people made contact with this places her powers became a part of them turning them into what we call witches. 
The son of The Great Alpha Llewyn was the one who started the battle against witches. Many after him have continued this war but like the Great Alpha their names has been lost to us, we can only hope that the battle against the witches was truly won for there was no way to know for sure if all the witches had been killed, they had no physical distinctive features they looked like any normal werewolf or human." 
He stopped to clear his throat then continued to mention The Alphas of Antarti pack from Llewyn and Athena zoned out until he began to hear familiar names.
"Alpha Bendel ascended the throne at age thirty and two, died at war left behind a son. Succeeded by child, son.
Alpha Sandal ascended the throne at age eighteen and died in his sleep left behind three sons and a daughter succeeded by child, son.
Alpha Llewyn ascended the throne at age twenty and eight died of grief after his queen also cará passed away left behind seven sons. Succeeded by child, son.
Alpha Caden ascended the throne at age twenty and was murdered in a drug induced sleep left behind a son succeeded by child, daughter.
Alpha Athena, ascended the throne age twenty and three. Ruling Alpha."
And he bowed with everyone following in pursuit except of course the insolent idiot, she should have put a blade in his heart the first time she laid her eyes on him.
The farrad had retired to bed and some people were now in cliques discussing within themselves, others were mostly children who were now asleep and a few others simply observed everything else going on.
Cassandra was one of those few. Though her attention was mostly on Alex as he told the stories of the stars to a group of children. She listened as he told them of how the moon and sun fell in love and gave birth to the stars.
She remembered the events of the previous night and frowned. He was using her and worse of all she was allowing it, but then she looked at her finger while twirling the and reminded herself that it was not her. it was the ring. It was the ring.