‘I, Hudson Shadow of the Shadow Rock pack, reject you, Quinn Redwood as my mate and Luna.’
‘You can’t reject me, the Moon Goddess doesn’t make mistakes’
‘Well, she did this time’
‘Are you sure? You want to break our bond?’
The sound of voices floated through the eternal darkness that swam around the teenage Alpha.
Blinking suddenly, Hudson’s eyes snapped open, staring around himself wildly, confusion crippling him as he took in the outside of the school that he attended.
‘Are you sure?’ came the voice again. Glancing downward he almost stumbled back at the redhead who was looking up at him, devastation written on her face.
‘I already rejected you . . . didn’t I?’ he asked, wondering what the hell was going on. Had he zoned out? Had he dreamed everything? The war, the deaths? What was going on?
In front of him, Quinn nodded at his words, taking a step back before turning on her heel and hurrying away, leaving him alone outside the tall building.
Pushing her from his thoughts, Hudson headed toward his car, fumbling for his keys as he ran. He didn’t have time to deal with the Omega, he needed to get back to the pack house, and he needed to see his parents and his sister, he didn’t even know what happened to Tilly if anything at all as it looked like he’d dreamed the whole thing.
Slamming his car into gear, he peeled out of the school parking lot, ignoring all speed limits as he pushed his car to the limit, screaming past the guards at the territory border and skidding to a halt out the front of his home.
Scrambling out, he didn’t even wait to shut the door, slipping on the gravel as he ran into the pack house and up the stairs, slamming through his father’s office door making the Alpha and Beta jump in shock.
‘Son?’ Alpha Carlton called out worriedly, pushing back his chair from his desk where he and the Beta had been studying papers, ‘are you alright? Did something happen? Did you find something out about the new student?’
Hudson almost tripped as he ran to his father, throwing himself into the older man’s arms and clinging to him. ‘Your not dead’ he whimpered, gripping his shirt as he hugged him.
‘No, am I supposed to be?’ Carlton replied in confusion.
Pulling back slightly, Hudson wiped at his face, trying to hide the tears, ‘I saw . . I think . . maybe it was a dream?’ he stuttered.
Alpha Carlton nodded to the other werewolf who bowed before leaving the office and shutting the door. Helping his son to a chair, the older wolf lowered the young Alpha onto the seat before crouching in front of him.
‘You had a bad dream?’ he asked, ‘you haven’t had one of those since you were a pup and certainly not one that would work you up like this.’
Hudson gulped in some air, ‘it was so real’ he mumbled in confusion, ‘mum . . you . . the pack . . ‘ He raised his gaze to his father, ‘you were all dead’ he whispered.
Carlton face hardened for a second, ‘you dreamed we all died?’ he asked, ‘you saw mum?’
Hudson nodded, ‘the pack was attacked, I wasn’t here, you mind linked me as I came home. Garrett and I, we ran, tried to get to you.
His dad was dead, ripped apart, then when I was trying to get to you, someone killed mum. I . . . I tried to reach you, but then she . . ‘
The teenager’s voice faltered as the image of Quinn’s lifeless body slammed into him, the feel of her blood running from his claws as he watched her shift back into herself, her life over.
‘It was just a dream though son’ his father said soothingly, ‘as you can see I’m fine, and mum is in the kitchen with the Omegas, they’re making cookies. I think they might be for you, but your mum isn’t admitting to it’ he added teasingly, trying to lighten the mood.
Hudson gave him a weak smile, suddenly embarrassed about his behaviour. Jesus, he sounded like Tilly, running here because of a nightmare, he was supposed to take over the pack, how could he do that if he was acting like a baby about a bad dream.
‘Sorry dad’ he said, straightening up, ‘I’m not sure what the hell that was about, I’d not normally lose it over a dream.’
Carlton studied him closely, ‘you look a little tired son’ he said with a frown, ‘maybe you should skip the rest of school, get some sleep.’
Hudson nodded as he stood up, his father climbing to his feet beside him and clapping him on the shoulder. ‘Yeah’ he breathed, ‘I think I will, thanks dad, and . . sorry again, I didn’t mean to burst in on your meeting.’
Moving toward the door, Hudson pulled it open and made his way outside, heading toward the stairs. He kept his head down in embarrassment as he passed Floyd who was walking the other way, back toward his father’s office.
At the bottom of the stairs, he turned right, moving toward the kitchen, pushing open the door before entering the huge room filled with top of the range appliances.
Omegas rushed around preparing food for the warriors lunches whilst over to the side, the head Omega, Delilah and his Mother, Harriett, were busy rolling out dough and cutting shapes with metal cutters.
The tightness in his chest eased when the young Alpha laid eyes on his other parent. Though he knew his father was telling the truth, Hudson just couldn’t calm down until he saw the woman with his own eyes.
Feeling his gaze on her, Harriett glanced up a surprised look on her face before she dusted off her hands on her apron and hurried over to him.
‘Hudson, why are you home?’ she asked worriedly as she reached out and pressed her hand to his forehead, ‘are you sick?’
The teenager shook his head as he gazed at her, ‘no’ he murmured, ‘I just didn’t sleep well last night, had a weird dream, dad said that maybe I should take the day off from school and get some shut eye.’
Harriett frowned, her fingers brushing his hair out of his eyes, ‘you know you need your sleep young man’ she scolded, ‘you always got cranky as a little boy if you didn’t get eight hours, nothing has changed just because you think you’re a man now.’
Hudson laughed as he wrapped his arms around his mother, ‘I am a man mum’ he replied.
‘Not to me you are not’ his mother replied haughtily, ‘you’ll always be my little Hudson Hornet.’
The teenager groaned though his smile remained in place, ‘muuuum’ he moaned, ‘stop embarrassing me, I’m not a pup anymore.’
Harriett grinned, ‘you’ll always be my pup’ she argued, pinching his cheek before stepping back and giving him her perfected mum glare. ‘Now, get upstairs and get some sleep’ she ordered pointing back toward the door he had just entered.
Pouting, Hudson sniffed the air suddenly, his head swivelling to the oven where Delilah had just removed the first trays of cookies. ‘Are they chocolate chip?’ he asked hopefully, his eyes never straying from the trays as they were carried to the island to cool.
‘Yes, but they are for later’ his mother replied sternly.
‘But I’m not well’ Hudson complained, making puppy dog eyes at the woman who had birthed him, ‘I need cookies to keep my strength up, what if I collapse halfway up the stairs? You’d have to live with the guilt that you could have saved me if you’d just given me a sugar boost.’
Harriett crossed her arms over her chest, ‘I thought you said you were fine, just tired?’ she replied, eyebrow raised.
‘Well I THINK I’m OK’ Hudson sighed, ‘but should we really take a chance? I’m not a doctor after all.’
Snorting, Harriett, glanced at Delilah who shook her head as she picked up two cookies, wrapping them in a napkin and bringing them over to him.
‘You spoil him Del’ Harriett warned in mock annoyance, ‘he’s got you wrapped around his finger.’
Delilah laughed, ‘please Luna, I changed this boy’s butt as a pup, he can’t charm me, as much as he likes to think he can.’
Hudson took the napkin and placed a kiss on the Omega’s forehead, ‘you are too good to me Delilah, no-one makes cookies like you.’
Delilah grabbed a tea towel, whipping it at his butt as he yelped and dodged out of the way with a smirk, ‘need to be quicker than that old lady’ he added as she growled playfully.
‘Get out of my kitchen you little scamp’ the Omega ordered, threatening him with the tea towel again.
‘I’m going, I’m going’ he replied, kissing his mother’s cheek before taking his leave.
Heading up to his room, the young Alpha walked up to his room on the top floor, kicking open the door and striding inside before shutting it again behind him.
Placing his cooling cookies onto his bedside table, he threw himself down on his bed, pulling out his phone to find a text from Garrett.
‘Dude, where are you? No-ones seen you since the beginning of school’ he Beta had written.
Clicking reply, Hudson’s fingers flew over the keypad as he shot a reply back, ‘needed to see my father so went back to the pack, decided to take the rest of the day off.’
Placing his phone beside him, the teenager rolled onto his back, kicking off his trainers as his mind wandered to the two women downstairs.
Delilah was the only Omega that Hudson allowed to speak to him like a child. What she had said was true, she had indeed helped to raise him. When the Alpha and Luna had to travel, it was Delilah who had read him stories, helped with his homework and tucked him into bed each night.
She’d been the one to soothe his brow when he had nightmares and put band aids on his knee when he fell over and his wolf was still sleeping.
Delilah was also connected to the reason that he couldn’t even think to take an Omega mate or allow himself to grow close to an Omega. He’d done that once and it had almost broken him, he would never make that mistake again.
Moving to his side, he pushed away memories that were trying to surface, his eyes starting to close as he allowed sleep to take him.