Chapter 31 Mark

(Mark POV)

I've been working for the Ulrich's since Alexander was a young boy. I trained him in combat. David and Oliver enlisted after community college so they also have undergone military training.

I was a teenager during the war between The Rogue Lord and The Clan of Wolves. I was too young to join, but old enough to know what happened. I, unfortunately, lost my father in the war. Not a day goes by that I don't swear my revenge on The Rogue Lord.

After witnessing what the Rogue Army did to towns and cities, I knew what I had to do in case The Rogue Lord starts a war again, I enlisted in the military.

After I finished a tour in Afghanistan with the army, I was hired by Howard Ulrich to oversee Alexander's training. Alexander is like a younger brother to me and now that he's mated, Hope is my little sister. Happy that little rascal found his mate. I was starting to worry he'd end up like me, old and mateless.

I could never find a mate. I travelled around the world with Alexander, but never got around to finding the right she-wolf. I must stink or maybe it's my horrible smile, because the ladies seem to shy away when they see me unlike this she-wolf sitting from across me, drinking and chatting away like I'm the Goddess's gift to women. What a faker.

She thinks I'm already drunk and can't notice her skin is peeling off her face. I don't know how in the world Derrick was able to stomach kissing her if this is truly that same brunette he took to his hotel room last night.

I can't get Hope's screams out of my head. It was a gawd awful sound. I stopped what I was doing in the car room and ran towards the mansion. I thought someone was at it again...trying to kill her.

Then I heard her say the name Leia. Damn, that horrid woman was back. I used to tail her when Alexander was head over the moon in love with her. Something about her didn't sit quite well with me. Sure, she's from a wealthy pack and she was well-educated and beautiful, but you can see it in her eyes...the envious looks she gave her older sister, her bored look at events, the glares she gave her parents. So, I did what I usually do, I did some digging.

The Hemming family is the head of the Midnight Moon Wolf Pack of Montana and are known for their cattle. Like the Ulrich family, their family also invested their money well and eventually went into the entertainment industry. After the war, Lawrence Hemming, the former Alpha and father to Luciana, Lucian, Lance and Leia, decided to go into television, music and modeling and almost everything that came with it.

Before Alexander met Leia, she was already a rising star in the modeling arena. She was young, rich and had long legs that went on forever. She had already done some catwalk gigs and was already being asked to sign with her father's agency. I don't know what made her turn her back on the glitz and glamorous lifestyle of a model because when Alexander and Derrick went off to London to finish college, she followed suit. She knew the conditions of University life; you are like any other student. No mansion and no servants. I was the only exception since I was part of Alexander's training, though he did ask me for favors.

In London, Alexander treated Leia like she was his queen. He carried her books, brought her breakfast and dinner, did some of her schoolwork, and did her laundry. Well, fine, I did her laundry. I always had this huge urge to mix the whites with her colored clothing every single time I had to do it. Damn that woman. She was a real pain in the neck.

I remember the time she saw this expensive sapphire necklace while they were out on a date and looked at Alexander with that "I just have to have that necklace" look. Buying that necklace got Alexander in trouble with his parents, yet earned him a mate when he gave it to Leia and Leia finally agreed to be his mate.

Yep, I tried talking him out of dating Leia especially when I caught her playing around with one of her professors. He wouldn't listen to me. I knew the only way for him to see the truth was to find out on his own.

At the end of their freshmen year, a fraternity was going to throw a party to celebrate the end of the school year. Coincidentally, Alexander had booked us, including Leia, tickets to fly home to prepare for their mating ceremony on the same day that party was going to be held. Alexander and Leia agreed to meet up at the airport for their flight home.

Alexander waited for her. When they called the passengers of our flight to board, I told him let's just head home and he can just rebook her flight if she still wants to go through with it. Alexander looked at me like he finally heard me. He said he knew where she was. I wanted to tell him I knew who she was with. We got in a cab and went to that fraternity party.

It wasn't difficult to sniff the both of them out. We found Derrick and Leia in the laundry room doing the nasty. She ran after Alexander trying to explain while Derrick fixed his fly, raised his bottle and said, "Cheers!" I gotta tip my hat to him. He did Alexander a favor.

Lawrence Hemming wasn't too happy when he heard the mating ceremony was off. Not postponed to a later date...it was cancelled. He asked Alexander the reason for cancelling his mating ceremony to his daughter. Alexander, being the gentleman he is, said it was much better if Leia explained and not him. He assured the old man the cancellation was a mutual agreement between them and will not in any way get between the alliances between packs.

After the summer, Alexander went back to London to complete his studies. We saw Derrick from time to time, however no Leia. I found out she went back to the Big Apple to continue modeling. Was doing well too until a scandal came up. It took a lot of Lawrence Hemming's money to keep it quiet. I don't know if Alexander heard about it. He knows people in high places unless they were also "paid" to keep quiet. That's the world of the rich for you. You can always pay someone off one way or the other. You just have to make sure you have something they want.

Then, the unthinkable happened, Leia became an outcast, a rogue. That was the last I heard of her until now.

The lady seated in front of me excuses herself to go to the ladies to retouch. I guess she noticed I wasn't listening to her anymore. I usually don't watch tennis, but the game on TV was much better entertainment then this babbling brunette.

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(The Pretty Brunette POV)

I excuse myself from the man whose attention was at the TV rather than me. My magic must be slipping. I needed to retouch.

I knew he was one of Alexander's men. He had that same menacing smile. What's his name again? Marvin? Matt? Ugh. Who freaking cares?! Where in the world is Alexander?

I go into the Ladies', enter a stall and revert back to myself then, I change back to the brunette, all fresh.

For the past few days, I was always at the mansion lurking. I had trouble peering through Alexander's room when I had no trouble before. Oh yes, I watched them fuck on the bathroom floor the day before. Unfortunately, today was different. All I saw was a background of gray. It only meant one thing. The daughter of Adella is starting to cast her own spells.

Another thing, I heard on the news the flash flood I had created diverted unto a cliff sparing the village below. I was not expecting that. I expected a flooded town with a number of both humans and wolves dead. Well, one man was dead after all that. Poor Beta.

Maria was right. When the daughter of Adella reaches her 18th birthday, she will gain the power of her mother, a Lupa, who belongs to a long bloodline of High Priestesses from old. She believes the daughter to be much stronger than her mother. Why she says this, I have no idea. Maria has vanished again to some unknown place in the world to prepare for the coming of the daughter of Adella.

I was getting impatient. If I didn't need information for The Rogue Lord, I'd have killed Alexander's man an hour ago. He smelled like a toilet.

Alexander had done well for himself over the years. I have watched him from time to time seeing the sadness in his eyes until he arrived back at the territory with a tall young woman. After seeing those gold eyes of hers, I knew I was looking at the daughter of Adella. Only the firstborn of a Lupa was blessed with those eyes. To my aghast, she was to be Luna to Alexander.

Unfortunately, mating with the daughter of Adella was a complication for Alexander. The Rogue Lord undoubtedly wants her dead due to the prophecy. He even gate-crashed their mating ceremony and tried to kill her father. What an idiot. If you want the daughter of Adella dead, kill HER. If I didn't need him and his army to wreck havoc on the packs, my former pack especially, I'd do everything on my own.

I look in the mirror and see the face of a brunette woman sneering. Oh yes, father, soon, I will come for you.