Alpha's One Night Bride
Alpha’s One Night Bride – Chapter 26

The fact that Rock thinks he has such leverage over Arina’s life is laughable. Jonathan wasn’t sure what he was up to, but he wasn’t buying the act and he knew Arina wasn’t either.

Yes, she signed a contract giving him more control over her life, but it was only until the baby was born. Over his dead body will Rock try to dictate anything Arina does or be a part of any of their decision-making when it came to their child.

Arina wrote in the contract that Jonathan, or someone of their choosing, would accompany her whenever she had to see Rock. She knew Jonathan wouldn’t allow her to see Rock alone; not that she would even want to.

It’s been a few days since their meeting with Rock and Arina has hardly said a word about it.

Since mentioning that Emlin had an affair with Boris Conway, Arina’s been apprehensive about going to Silverside to take photos of Makenna Conway’s 16th birthday party. Jonathan couldn’t blame her, that was a lot of information to take in all at once, and according to Nikini’s recent email, the party was only a few days away.

“Sir, Mr. Harris is here to see you,” Cathy, Jonathan’s secretary, said via the small speaker laid out on his desk.

Cathy was an older woman, in her mid-50s, who has been Jonathan’s secretary for years. Before she was Jonathan’s secretary, she was Regan’s.

“Bring him in,” Jonathan ordered.

After a few moments, Cathy’s petite image appears at the doorway. Adjusting her glasses, she motioned for the gentlemen, standing nearby, to enter.

The man towered over Cathy; he was probably around the same height as Jonathan. He appeared to be in his early 40s. He wore a dark suit, but it seemed almost unnatural for him to wear. As if he doesn’t wear suits that often and threw one on before going to Jonathan’s office. The man had his short dark hair brushed back with a mound of hair gel keeping it in place. His cleanly shaved features made him appear younger than he was. But the age wrinkles around his eyes and the greying of his hair proved otherwise.

He nodded his thanks to Cathy as she made her way back to her desk, closing the door behind her.

“Edward,” Jonathan said, standing up to greet him. Edward sat in one of the chairs in front of Jonathan’s desk.

He looked nervous.

This wasn’t the first time Edward made an appearance in his office. He didn’t remember a time when he ever looked nervous though.

“We have a problem,” Edward began. Jonathan sat back down and waited patiently for Edward to continue. “Our hunting grounds have been breached.”

“Breached?” Jonathan asked, lifting an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

“Outsiders have been hunting on our territory and leaving their markings,” he said. “A few of us were out hunting earlier and we could smell it. They even left rotting animal corpses in its place.”

“So, we widen the security to be sure no outsiders hunt on our grounds. Get hold of Chief Miller and get his deputies to patrol the area,” Jonathan ordered. “Tell him it’s under my orders.”

“Yes sir,” he said as he stood up.

“Edward?” Jonathan said before Edward could walk away. “Do we know which pack has been hunting on our grounds?”

“No, we don’t,” Edward answered.

“Have the deputies meet me in the woodland forest. I’d like to join them,” Jonathan said.

Edward nodded as he left the office.

“Cathy?” Jonathan spoke through the speaker.

“Yes sir?” She answered.

“Hold my calls for the rest of the afternoon. I’m going out,” he told her.

…

As Jonathan searched through the woodland forest in his wolf form, his senses were heightened. He could hear and smell everything for miles.

Almost instantly he could smell the outsiders.

Wolf packs weren’t supposed to hunt outside of their territories. It’s been the law since the beginning of history. It was created by Benjamin Davis, one of the first to lead the werewolf revolution during the territory war.

At the time there were only 5 Alphas; they were the first Alphas ever known. Each Alpha had its own pack. However, some werewolves didn’t belong to a specific pack. They were called “lone wolves”.

Benjamin was a lone wolf.

Even though there were 5 packs, there weren’t any specific territories for these packs. It was unorganized and they all hunted wherever they wanted. The Alphas of these packs grew greedy and wanted most of the land for themselves.

Causing a war to break out. It was a war of greed.

Benjamin, being a lone wolf, watched as the war escalated and the land began to tear apart. He didn’t want to blindly stand by as his kind tore one another apart when they were supposed to be living in harmony as one unit.

So, Benjamin went around to each broken land, to each pack, and expressed his concerns about the war outbreak. He told them they should be sharing the land, not fighting over it. By doing this, he grew a small following. Other werewolves no longer wanted to be a part of the territory war and wanted to follow Benjamin instead.

As Benjamin’s following grew, they eventually made him into the 6th Alpha. Benjamin and his pack became stronger over time. Over 5 years, Benjamin killed the other 5 Alphas and became the sole leader.

Due to that victory and the killings of the 5 original Alphas, most werewolves bowed down to Benjamin as their leader.

However, not all werewolves were willing to accept Benjamin as their leader and still wanted the land to themselves. Afraid that another war would break out, he knew he needed to create some ground rules and keep an overwatch on the packs.

Benjamin decided to appoint others to become Alpha’s, including a new Alpha for his pack so that he could keep watch as Overseer for all packs. He wanted to ensure that the rules he created, were being followed.

To make matters easier, he created different territories and hunting grounds for each pack. They were to stay in their territories and only hunt on their given lands. The Alpha’s were to rule their packs on their territories only and try to live in harmony with one another. Benjamin also created other rules as well to keep everyone on track and to ensure safety.

Over time each territory became the town that Jonathan knew today. Of course, there were way more than 5 now. As the werewolf breed grew, the need for new Alphas and new towns increased.

For years, Benjamin remained the Overseer to ensure that each pack kept to his rules and played nicely with one another. He had eyes and ears everywhere; there wasn’t much of anything that Benjamin wasn’t aware of.

As he settled into his role as Overseer, he fell in love with a shewolf, Mylah. They married and had children. The plan was, once Benjamin dies, the oldest-born son would become the new overseer.

That plan worked for a few generations until it stopped.

Jonathan, and most werewolves today, have no idea what happened to the Overseer role and what happened to the kin of Benjamin and Mylah.

It was a common history lesson that every werewolf learns growing up; they knew better than to hunt outside of their marked hunting grounds and the fact that someone was hunting on Sabrebites territory was a strict violation of that law.

Even though there’s no Overseer, the law is still very much in place. It’s something that most werewolves still take very seriously because it keeps the peace among the packs. Even the Grey Howlers enforce that law and will prosecute any violators. Unless invited by the Alpha’s, there would be no hunting in other territories outside of their own.

Areas that aren’t occupied by specific packs were free-range, which made them good hunting grounds for lone wolfs. So, if this was a lone wolf that decided to hunt on Sabrebites hunting grounds, they were about to be in for a rude awakening.

The deputies, along with Chief Miller, showed up shortly after Jonathan. They were already in their wolf forms; Chief Miller being the biggest.

“We’ll need to span out to cover the whole territory,” Jonathan told them through their mind links. “Whoever was here, is long gone but their scent is all over the place. We might be able to figure out their whereabouts.”

“Do you think it’s a wolf from a different pack?” Chief Miller’s voice went through Jonathan’s head.

“Let’s hope not. Because if it is, that means it’s a territory invasion and we might have a bigger issue on our hands,” Jonathan told him. He was trying to keep the worry out of his voice.

“If that happens, there could be a war,” A deputy said from behind.

“Exactly,” Jonathan agreed. “So, let’s hope it’s just a lone wolf that lost their way.”

“We’ll start the search and report to you any findings,” Chief Miller assured him before taking off through the woodlands.

The deputies followed pursuit, running off into different directions.