My Lycan Mate of Suicide Forest

Chapter 173 - Spring Growth

"Andreas has requested to speak with me," Graeme said after hanging up his phone.

He had only been awake long enough to sit down and have a meal with his sister and August, although Greta didn't actually do much eating. Sam wasn't even back from the market yet.

"And you didn't laugh in his face?" Greta gawked at him.

"Well, he was on the phone. How was I supposed to laugh in his face?" he smirked in response.

"Wow. I'm glad you can joke about it. Are you really going to just walk in there and meet with him after everything that happened?" she asked.

"Yes. It is the best thing right now. I have to at least hear what he has to say," his face turned serious again.

Greta was getting ready to argue, but he went on. "There is much more at play here than we realize, sis. The little we know so far is concerning…"

"Concerning?" Greta's eyebrows shot up in protest.

"More than concerning," Graeme interrupted. "But I think we can all agree that there is likely much more going on in this pack than that. What we have seen is only the spring growth on a deeply planted problem. How do we get to the rootball of that problem if I only go for the bright green shoots of growth at the ends?"

"We figure it out along the way. We get rid of the elders and dig it up ourselves," Greta raised her hands, offering the idea up to him.

"No. It is not good enough," Graeme shook his head. "I wish it were that easy, because trust me—I've never wanted to kill someone more," he growled, clenching his teeth as the memory of that anger arose—of his mate and his sister in danger. Of all the alyko that had been killed and harmed and who knows what else since he had been gone. But he squinted his eyes closed, remembering the root guardian and what she said.

Now was the time for wisdom. For patience. Not for reactionary thinking. He needed to be better if he was going to be the leader this pack truly needed and deserved. He owed them that.

"You will go alone?" his mate's calm voice broke through his thoughts. She had been listening to him, watching quietly. Somehow she was at peace with this, as if she had a shared memory of that conversation with her guardian. Or perhaps she just felt the wisdom of it.

"Yes," he replied, his voice matching that same calm that she offered him. "Will you be okay?" he asked.

"Of course," she smiled.

"You two don't think this is some kind of trap?" Greta asked.

"No," they both turned to her and replied in unison. August glanced back at her mate, smiling shyly.

Greta's eyes went wide. "Wow. Well, clearly you two are on the same page and know something that I don't."

"It's not that," August said softly. "It just wouldn't serve them to trap him right now. In fact, it would work against them. Since I woke up…" she glanced at Graeme again, since she hadn't had time to tell him this. "Well, actually before that… but especially since I woke up, I have felt this connection that is difficult to explain. The feeling is like all these individual strings that connect to my chest, in here," she pointed to that place in her chest where she was talking about.

August went on to explain. "I think it is somehow a connection to the pack members. I don't understand it, but I can feel their excitement at having Graeme back. When he transformed into his wolf the other day and stood against the males who were bringing me in to the council, something big shifted in them—in the pack as a whole. And it's… powerful."

"You feel all of that?" he asked, looking at her in awe.

The Luna of a pack was special of course, but this was something above anything he had ever heard described. He knew his own mother had a special relationship with pack members and felt like a kind of mother to all of them. Pack members approached her with all kinds of issues, and she always made time for them and helped them in whatever ways she could—whether by finding them resources or acting as a mediator or just listening and sharing space with them like any caring elder would. She had a compassion for them that seemed to know no bounds. But she had never spoken of something like this.

What August was describing as her experience of a connection with the pack was much more. Graeme wondered if it had to do with her being alyko—with manifesting so strongly as fae—in addition to being a Luna. He was certain there had never been an alyko Luna before in any pack anywhere—unless it had gone unreported.

It would be interesting to see how his mate experienced this role by his side. If she was so deeply enfolded within the pack's overall emotional state, it would be very beneficial to their leadership together. But he couldn't help but wonder if there would be some kind of drawback to that as well.

"If what August is describing is true, then she is right—you will be safe," Greta interrupted his thoughts. "It makes sense now that I think about it that way. You seem much more full of yourself than before."

"Full of myself?" Graeme frowned.

"No, that's not what I mean," Greta hurried on to explain, and August chuckled at the apparent offense Graeme had taken to it. "You are more fully yourself. There is something about you now that is confident and solid. Assured," she nodded, approving of her revised description. "You feel like an Alpha now," she added, the tone of her voice turning contemplative.

"I agree," August laughed softly. "You are the Alpha they have been waiting for. That is how it feels to me." She walked up to him and patted his chest proudly.

"And you two will be okay here?" he asked.

August and Greta looked to each other and nodded. "Yes."

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Let's grow G and A's story in Power Stone votes! If we can average 100 PS votes a day for one week, I will do 4 chappies mass release at the end of January.. The goal is to finally get LMSF to rank within the top 200 books on WN in PS votes by February! Every vote helps, my little wolves. <3