Tatum

''Tatum.''

''Yes Alpha?'' I stood to attention, pulling away from the comfort of the furs that engulfed the large bulge of rock in the centre of my room that I now called my new bed.

''Gather the wolves. It's time to leave.'' My father's deep voice commanded, letting slip the slight displeasure on his strong face that mirrored mine.

The Snow Ridge Pack wasn't known for being amazingly social with other packs. We did what we had to in order to survive on our own without other packs' interference. However, my father wanted to be civil with these wolves as they so graciously let our pack move here for the game, but we all knew why they had let us come so quickly, we weren't oblivious to their underlying request.

They needed a pack to help take care of their rising rogue problem. My father usually kept out of other pack problems but rogues were something he kept close to his heart because my mother, his mate, was killed by an unexpected attack from a rogue pack. It was a dark time for the whole pack but dad kept it together for the sake of the pack.

''Yes, Alpha.'' I nodded and he left.

I spent the next few minutes weaving through tunnels of hallways to rooms and to the main chamber that was at the opening of the cave which served as a living room/throne room of sorts to gather the dominant higher ranks, middle ranks and lower ranks for the full moon gathering.

Making my way over to my father who dwarfed the entire pack, I gave a curt nod to let him know the pack was together and he took his place above the gathering human forms onto a stage carved of stone where he gave a general overview of what a full moon gathering was for these packs, his deep-set dark chrome eyes scanning over everyone.

''These are very important events to the surrounding packs. You will do your best to be civil. We're very fortunate that Alphas Rick, David and Reid so graciously accepted our move here so be sure to respect these alphas and their packs. Am I understood?''

A chorus of 'yes, Alpha' filled the cave before he nodded and continued his speech where he explained the dynamics of each of the packs without divulging too much information. There was no need to share every detail of how each pack worked with everyone in our pack.

 After a few minutes of speaking generally about the night's expected occurrences, he went on to explain how there would be omegas at this gathering and the pack blatantly disregarded the fact that it was almost expected of them by the other packs to find a mate either it being an omega or a ranked wolf.

''I will not tolerate any degrading of the pack omegas. Keep your opinion to yourself. We can't afford to be in a disagreement with these packs. There's no going back for us.'' Dismissing the pack after gruff replies, he turned to me and pulled my shoulder close to him.

''Keep them in line when I can't. You know your responsibility.'' He patted my shoulder and led the group out of the cave, the wolves shifting after placing clothes in bags that they would have lower ranks carry.

Following the pack out, I started to remove my shirt under the moonlight's embrace. The light enveloped the whole pack with eerie warmth but it was a welcomed one, a welcomed source of light.

''I can't believe they want us to mingle with omegas.'' Dustin, a brown haired, broad shouldered middle-rank pain in the ass grumbled to his posy of dim-witted friends.

''And this is why you'll never be anything but a middle rank.'' I growled over to him, catching the attention of his group.

''I suppose you'd mate with an omega. Am I right, Tatum?'' He sneered.

''I hear they're good at taking orders. All the better in bed.'' I grinned mischievously, walking away before looking over my shoulder at the group and growling. ''And they'd probably be better to have around than a bunch of damn middle ranks who can't even bring in a kill once a day because they're too busy disappearing and acting like omegas.''

Growls sounded behind me but I brushed them off, carefully placing my clothes in a bag and giving it to a lower rank female who blushed and hurried way from me as I shifted into my black wolf and walked towards my father who was further down the cliffs.

Walking down a path and jumping from boulder to rock to path again I made it to the front of the pack where higher rank wolves along with my father and his beta Alic were.

Alic was a strong and proud beta. He took great pride in this pack and his family. Being on the darker side of a grey and black coat it showed how much his body basically leaked power. His wolf was large, larger than mine by a few inches and definitely more muscular. My muscle was there but more from working everyday hunting, dragging prey and doing my job whereas his looked like they were about to rip his flesh in half the way they bulged and dipped.

Looking to my father, I saw his wolf mirrored mine with the ink like charcoal coat. He as well was a few inches taller than myself and even one or two taller than Alic, however his muscle tone was more like mine, built from hard work with working out in his free time and the usual Alpha responsibilities and not from excessive working out as Alic's lifestyle had shown.

''How old are you now, pup?'' Alic's voice cut through my mind and sounded playful as he said pup which was a large contrast to how he spoke to the pack with authority and an iron fist backing him up, but I was used to this side of the giant. He always said it was his right as my uncle to mess with me, and that he did.

''Twenty three. How about you old man?''

''Hey there pup. I ain't as old as I look.''

''Yea sure old man. You're ancient.''

''Forty-three is not ancient.'' He bumped his shoulder with mine and my chest vibrated with wolfish laughter.

''It's almost time for you to take the pack.'' All joking aside, his deep brown eyes locked with my grey-silver ones and I nodded my heavy head.

''I know.''

''Have you found a mate yet?''

''No.''

''You better start looking pup. It's almost time and you know you can't take the pack without a mate.''

''I know uncle. I know.'' I sighed as we continued our trip to the border in silence.

Coming up to a huge bonfire across from a shallow river that bordered pack lines, we walked across it to come face to face with a pack of wolves of shades of browns, a pack of shades of red and orange and a pack of wolves with a blend of all three coats, the packs mingling between different packs, drinking and eating or soaking up the heat of the fire in either wolf or human form.

''Lance, it's good to see you.'' A tall burly man with short black hair and dark brown eyes approached my father. His outfit he sported was black heavy combat boots, beige cargo pants and a plain white, rolled sleeve t-shirt. His whole demeanor screamed Alpha.

''Rick.'' He nodded confirming my suspicions before introducing us all. ''This is my beta, Alic and my son, Tatum.''

''My, he is large. He gets it from you and your brother.'' The man joked with my uncle and father.

''He needs it for his job.''

''I guess so.'' His eyes narrowed warily before taking on their original relaxed expression. ''He'll be Alpha soon won't he? ''

''In spring.'' My uncle cut in ruffling my hair getting a groan of frustration from me which he seemed to be looking for as he grinned triumphantly.

''That's not long at all. I, along with the other packs, have heard you haven't taken a mate yet.'' He looked around and we all saw the glances pack members kept giving our group. ''I hope you can find one tonight.''

''We all do.'' My dad patted me on the back and left along with Alic and Rick.

It was no secret that the other packs wanted a closer alliance than just sharing bordered lands. They wanted a mated agreement but they knew we didn't take in members from other packs. We mated from within our ranks. It was hard for a wolf to assimilate to our way after changing over the last few hundred years but it wasn't impossible. We had taken in a few wolves over the years through mating but they had admitted it was something that no one could take as a light decision and I wasn't willing to deal with it.

I spent the rest of the night by the bonfire talking only when it was necessary to the deep orange almost brown headed, medium built Alpha Reid and the brown headed, wide-shouldered Alpha David and politely brushed off the females and sometimes males that came to try and grab my attention in hopes of me becoming interested in them.

It wasn't that the female opened their shirts a little more and pushed out their chests, it wasn't that the males stood a little taller to appear stronger and more desirable by a traditional dominant male, it was that they simply didn't interest me no matter how high they held their head or tried desperately to grab my attention in any way possible.

''Tatum.'' My head shot up at the sound of my name and my eyebrows furrowed as Rick made his way towards me, smiling his straight-toothed smile. ''My pack is going to get going now. We have my nephew at home sick and my mate won't stop worrying about if he's safe or not.''

''A human?'' I questioned in disbelief. I had heard they had taken to keeping their omegas but not humans.

''No, he's an omega but he's...complicated, special.'' He laughed to himself. '' Anyway, it was nice to meet you and I hope someone caught your eye.'' He smiled and made his way back to his pack.

''So did they?'' A voice I knew all too well bellowed behind me.

''Sorry, Alpha?''

''Catch your eye.''

''No, Alpha.'' I shook my head and his face was stone. I couldn't tell his emotions even if my life depended on it.

''Let's go.''

''Yes, Alpha.''

On our way back toward the cliffs I tried to ignore the heavy-hearted longing cast from Reid to David as they went in opposite directions, David's gaze fighting to never leaving the ground in front of his boots, but it was hard to miss the connection, it was impenetrably strong but I seemed to be the only one to catch it and for that, I couldn't work out if it was a good thing to know or bad.

I guess I'll find out in the future.

What do you guys think of Tatum's point of view?

But semi-more importantly.... What do you think of Reid and David?!!? Even though I didn't cover them much I feel like they're my favourite so far haha how weird is that. Even in my other book He's My Mate, the main characters weren't my favourites. le gasp. Shhh don't tell them that.

Also what do you think Tatum's 'job' is? Why is Rick so weary of him all of a sudden??

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