Chapter 4 Asteria

• Amarah
• Again I wake up in the middle of the night and I quickly make my way out of the Pack-house to hand over control to Minerva, giving her the chance to deal with the pain she is feeling. She doesn’t waste time as she crosses our border without being spotted by one of our Warriors.
• It doesn’t take her long to find a Rogue or to shred him to pieces and she keeps running along our borders, some of the Rogues flee the moment they see Minerva approaching. Those Rogues are left alone as they pose no threat to our Pack.
• About an hour before the sun comes up we run along our eastern border from south to north and suddenly Minerva stops dead in her tracks, sniffing the air as she scans her surroundings. “Blood, not a Rogue.” She tells me and slowly she makes her way towards a cluster of trees and boulders.
• The scent of blood becomes stronger the closer we get to it and Minerva slows down even further as she keeps scanning her surroundings. Suddenly her ears perk up as we hear soft whimpers coming from within the cluster of trees and boulders.
• Minerva slowly steps into the trees to reveal a female covered in blood with her arms wrapped around a Pup. I ask Minerva to give me back control and the female’s eyes widen as I stand in front of her. She clearly wasn’t expecting a female to show up.
• “Please, don’t send us back. Please, don’t tell anyone we are here.” She whispers in a voice laced with despair. I crouch down in front of her as I take in the cuts and bruises on her body, Minerva roaring in my head at the sight of her injuries.
• “I won’t send you back, but I need to warn our Pack-doctor. I need to know that your Wolf will be able to heal this on her own and I need to inform my Pack, so our Warriors can keep an eye on you.” I tell her gently and it takes a few minutes before she responds.
• “My Wolf says she can heal this on her own as long as we don’t have to start running again. I don’t know if I want anyone else to know that I am here, can you give me a few days to think about that?” She asks and I decide to give her some time to calm down and rest.
• I tell her I will be back in a few minutes and I shift into Minerva before I bolt from the cluster towards our eastern border. I quietly make my way into the Pack-house to gather some supplies and food for the female and her Pup.
• Once I have handed her everything I brought with me I tell her my name and I find out her name is Asteria and her Pup’s name is Inti. “I will be back tomorrow night. Get some sleep and eat something.” I say before I leave the cluster once again.
• It has been four days since the rejection and three days since Asteria showed up. Inti has come out of his shell, hugging Minerva the moment we enter the cluster and we both enjoy those moments. Asteria finally told me what had happened to them and I had to let Minerva out to deal with her anger.
• After we talked for a while longer she finally agreed with me on telling our Pack, it will give us the chance to keep an eye on them and maybe we will be able to find out if it is safe for her to return home. Not that Asteria is as optimistic about that as I am.
• I crash on my bed to get a few hours of sleep before I will inform Dad about what Minerva and I have been doing at night and about our guests hiding in the cluster. It doesn’t take me long to drift off to sleep and for the first time since my rejection I sleep without dreaming.
• As I slowly open my eyes I realize I slept straight through and even though it still hurts thinking about Damien I know that Minerva and I will survive. I walk into the bathroom to take a shower and after that I get dressed, ready to face the world again.
• Everyone acts as if I haven’t been avoiding them for days as I walk into the dining room and after I sit down I tell Dad that I need to talk to him with all of our leadership Wolves. Alastor sits beside me with his hand on my knee, giving me the calm I need as I see some females staring and whispering at me.
• I stand in front of the window, looking at some Pups playing on the lawn to the left of our Pack-house and I wish I could see Inti running with them. “Dad, I know everyone is aware of what happened. I don’t want to talk about it, but I have to tell you how Minerva has been dealing with it.” I say.
• Turning around I see that everyone is waiting for me to start talking, “The Rogues that were found near our borders were Minerva’s doing. It was the only way for her to deal with everything without hurting the ones we love.” Mom wraps me in her arms, while Dad tells me he already suspected as much.
• “Are you going to be okay?” Alastor asks as he hugs me and I tell him that it will take time, but that I am already feeling better. “Dad, there is something else we need to talk about. Did the Elders or the Council send a message about Little Cresent Pack?” I ask him and he nods his head.
• He hands me the message and the more I read the angrier Minerva becomes, “Amarah, what is going on?” He asks as everyone can feel the anger radiating from my body and I take a few deep breaths to try and calm Minerva down.
• “The contents of this message is a bunch of lies.” I respond. “Khonsu’s Brother didn’t die in a Rogue attack, Khonsu killed him and tried to forcefully mark Luna Asteria. He also tried to kill her Pup, Inti, but he failed at that as Luna Asteria protected him.
• Khonsu always wanted what his Brother had, even as little Pups. When his Brother found his fated Mate Khonsu tried to seduce Asteria, but she told her Mate about what Khonsu had tried to do and he removed Khonsu from the Pack-house to protect his Mate.
• Luna Asteria managed to escape her Pack’s territory with Inti, she kept running until she was to exhausted to continue and she took shelter in the cluster of trees and boulders near our eastern border. She is fully healed now and she and Inti are doing much better than the night I met them.” I say as I look at my Father.
• We discuss the options we have and Dad decides that I am right, with Asteria hiding in no-man’s land we won’t be lying if we say that she is not in our Pack’s territory. Instead of having a meeting in front of the Pack-house Dad links the entire Pack at once and explains the situation.
• Everyone is ordered to keep her presence a secret and with the Alpha command in place I know Asteria and Inti are safe. I follow Dad out of his office and are surprised to see that an Omega is putting clothes, toys and other items into a bag.
• “Alpha, some of our Pack-members have brought supplies for Luna Asteria and Inti. Where would you like me to put them?” She asks and I smile as Dad tells her to put it in his office and he informs me that he will accompany me tonight.
• Our Head-Warrior approaches me and Dad to tell us that every Warrior has volunteered to visit them at night and to bring them what ever they need. Happiness and pride fills my heart as I realize that our Pack considers them as one of our own.
• That night I visit Asteria with my Dad and when we tell her what is going on in our Pack she rewards us with a smile. Inti is happy with his toys and clothing, Asteria is happy with the support she has been given and tells me that for the first time since her Mate got killed she feels calm again.
• We all have fallen into a routine that works for all of us, Asteria and Inti have their day and night rhythm turned, they sleep during the day and at night they are awake. Pack-members taking turns to teach Inti everything he normally would in school and helping Asteria with whatever they can.
• Khonsu is still searching for her and still sticks to his story, even though most Packs have found inconsistencies with his story. The Elders are not eager to give him any information and so far no one has shown up on our doorstep to ask about Asteria and Inti.
• We received a message from Council-member Boaz, stating that Khonsu was still searching for Asteria and that they have questioned him about the events of that night. He had refused to come in and he had used his search for Asteria as an excuse, but the Council is not giving him much time to dodge them.
• Two weeks after Damien rejected me he informed the Elders that he had found his Mate and that had set of a new string of sleepless nights for me, while Minerva had once again taken to hunting down Rogues and shredding them to pieces.
• Dad had a video conference with the Elders and a Council-member the day he found out what happened and when Damien had reported finding his Mate they had called Dad to ask what I wanted to do. Dad told them to leave it as it was, that his Pack would feel the consequences one day.
• Realizing I needed something to take my mind of Damien Dad told me he was stepping down and that gave me enough to keep me busy. I had been trained by Dad for years and I knew I could handle the job, but I was nervous none the less.
• Today is the day I will take over from my Father and we both know that some of our allied Alphas will not agree with him. They may or may not break their alliance with us, but truth be told I don’t care and neither does my Father.
• Alastor has been over the moon to say the least, I don’t understand why as I am becoming Alpha and not him. Alastor told me and Dad once that he was glad that Dad didn’t believe only a male could take the position of the Alpha and when we had asked him why he had smiled and said, “I don’t have the patience to deal with crap.”
• Dad and I had laughed our asses off, because it is true that Alastor lacks a few things in the department of patience. Alpha Drew and Luna Jess are the first to arrive, after just one look at me they both know that I will be taking over instead of Alastor.