The Alpha’s Dynasty

Zane’s POV

Five years back, my father mysteriously left the pack and has never been seen since. No one knew why he left, or where he was. For the last two years of his rule, my father had become increasingly horrible. He drunk a lot, spent pack funds extravagantly on meaningless things, and refused to be accountable for anything. He stopped caring about his children and nearly drove our mother crazy. It was when he started hitting her that I cut off ties with him.Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

The pack was going down really fast and people were becoming fed up of him. Because of that, there were several attempts at ending his life. Everyone close to him tried to convince him to mend his ways for everybody’s sake. One day, his bodyguard was found dead in the alpha’s residence and my father was gone.

The vision I had seen of him when I touched the roses showed he was in a cave I knew very well. I had spent a big part of my childhood playing in it with my friends. I felt angry that he had chosen to hide there when he knew how much it meant to me. What he could possibly want, I wondered as I made my way through the thick, tall and leafy trees of Misenium forest.

When I entered the cave, Joseph Carrington’s scent became stronger. I stood at the entrance. The cave was a very large one with some holes in between the rocks that looked like rooms. You could go inside some of the compartments, which were roomy enough. The main part of the cave was lighter than the inner parts which were quite dark.

“Joseph Carrington,” I said in a loud, commanding voice. “Come out, you coward.”

I waited.

A minute later, a figure in dark clothing emerged out of one of the inner rooms of the cave. My father’s body had remained the same, big and muscular but he looked older and more rugged than before he left. The hairs of his beard had turned grey.

“Son,” he said.

“Why are you here?” I asked, my voice steady and unwavering.

“I’ve returned to reclaim my place as park leader,” he replied, a hint of arrogance in his voice.

“You gave up your place when you left without letting anyone know what was going on,” I said, my voice growing stronger and firmer. “The pack has moved on, and we don’t need you anymore. I’m the leader of the pack now.”

“I regret my actions,” he said. “I want to make it right and steer this pack to the glory it’s meant for.”

I shook my head. “You can’t just come back and expect everything to be the same. You ruined the pack and I have rebuilt it to what it is now. I will not let you take everything we have worked for.”

My father chuckled. “I learnt a lot from my time away. I can help the pack become better than what it is now. You may be the alpha now but you’re still my son. Everything you know, you have learnt from me.”

“I do not need your help,” I told him. “If you want to return to the pack, you will have to use the proper channels which will ensure that you are tried for the misdeeds you did before leaving including killing your bodyguard.”

Suddenly, my father produced a rusty knife from the pocket of his jacket and held it up. The man smiled evilly. “You, son, are weak just like your mother. I will not let you continue to run this pack while I’m here. This issue of considering everyone’s feelings, trying to achieve some kind of equality is not going to work around here. Not everyone matters. I always kept tabs on you and was hoping you could do better than me but when you spearheaded the abolishment of slavery by werewolves and vampires, I knew I had to return before you turned everyone into weaklings.”

“Enslaving other wolves has never been fair. Everyone deserves their freedom to choose how they want their lives to be. That’s one thing I hope never happens again.”

Father growled and stepped closer, his fingers tightening against the knife handle. “You’re a disappointment, just like your mother.”

“Joseph, I will not let you hurt anyone. I’m not afraid of you. If you weren’t a coward, you would’ve come straight to the pack house but not killed innocent people just to draw me to you. You know that you have no power around here.”

Joseph lunged forward, his knife glinting in the dim light. Just as the blade was about to make contact with my body, my powers kicked in sending a powerful wave of energy that knocked my father to the ground. I rarely used the powers that come from my mother’s side but I was not in the mood for a long, drawn out fight with my annoying father.

“If it wasn’t for those powers, you’d be nothing.” He said, trying to stand up. I charged against him and sent him flying to the wall. He knocked his head and fell back down, unconscious. Feeling triumphant, I walked out of the cave, leaving him there. If he thought it was going to be easy to take everything I had built from me, he was wrong.

I went back to the pack and had a short meeting with my beta and gamma to see what to do with my father. In the evening as I was doing paperwork at my house, one of my men informed me that my father had gone to the pack house and gathered the elders. Without wasting time, I went there and found them in of the cottages in the woods.

They were outside enjoying barbecue in the dimly lit yard. I stood in the shadows and watched him speak with the elders. The sight of him was enough to make my blood boil. I noticed that the elders were nodding in agreement as my father spoke and I felt anger growing inside me. I knew that that power-hungry man would stop at nothing to take back the throne he had abandoned. I stepped out of the shadows and made my way into the yard. My father did not look surprised upon seeing me. The man was arrogant and he probably believed I was no match for him.

“Joseph, what are you doing here?”

“I was discussing some matters with the elders.”

“Are you trying to gain their support so you can overthrow me?”

The elders looked at each other in alarm but no one said a word. My father stood up and faced me. “I’m the former alpha, and I have a right to be here.”

“You betrayed the pack and I will not stand by and watch you try to destroy it again.”

With that, I turned and stormed away from there. I was seething with anger, especially at the elders who were entertaining him. I was determined to protect the pack from Joseph Carrington’s poison, and if that meant removing powers from the elder’s council, I would. I wasn’t about to let him return without paying for the things he had down when he left and returned.

Lainey and the others deserved justice and they were going to get it. First, I needed to come up with a plan.