Alpha Daniel began, "You may not know this, but my father was the first Alpha in my family. He challenged the existing Alpha and won, and the rest, as they say, is history. Unfortunately, as his only son and heir, I was extremely arrogant as a young man. I did a lot of sleeping around and didn't show the wolves a lot of respect, and it eventually got me into trouble when I got a young she wolf pregnant. Or so I thought. The she-wolf was from a prominent family within the pack. To keep from shaming my father and them, I agreed to Mark her, making for my mate.
I had never been one of these wolves that held out for a fated mate. My parents were not fated, and they seemed to get along fine. So it wasn't that big of a deal to me. However, not long after we had the marking ceremony, I was out on patrol when a young omega ran towards my future Beta and me and told me that my mate was in the pack hospital, and it looked like she was losing our pup. What you need to understand is that since I marked her, I had not gone near her, for I was sulking at being forced to be mated with her, she was never my type. I only went for the pretty popular girls, as I was a shallow young man, and this particular girl was okay enough to mess around with, but nothing else. I thanked the young omega and went straight to the hospital. Even though I cared little for her, she should not go through a miscarriage on her own. Only when I got there was I not allowed to see her. I even tried to use my Alpha tone, but as I was not yet the Alpha of the pack, it didn't work. I had only been in the waiting room for fifteen minutes when a nurse told me she had lost the cub. Although I asked to see her, I was told she wanted to be on her own. I tried for a while to be a good mate to her. I gave her whatever she wanted to cheer her up. I was so incredibly selfish that I actually thought trinkets would be enough to outweigh her grief at losing our child".
Smiling sadly, first at Me and then towards the rest of them, he continued "I'm sure you understand the she-wolf is Sylvia, your mother/Luna". Before I could correct him, he held up his arm and said "I know she is not your mother, but for this story, I will refer to her as such. If that is okay with you Grand Luna"? I nodded my consent and felt Jonas squeeze my hand in support.
"Well, you can imagine what a blow it was, not just for losing my pup but for the complete waste of time the Marking had been as I really didn't need to be mated with her at all. I approached my father and asked if I could get out of this mating, My father on the other hand would not let me reject her and so the relationship continued. As I became the Alpha of my pack I began to see changes in Sylvia. She was dressing better, and she had more pride in herself but the biggest difference in her was her attitude towards the pack members, her pack members. She started having only a few chosen people around her, and she refused to take care of the she-wolves in the pack, not bothering herself with the pack's business. All she liked to do was lord her position over the lower members of the pack and she became very good at the subtle art that is gossip" Alpha Daniel said despairingly.
I was shocked at what I heard, but it did mirror my own experience with Sylvia. That women only did things to show off to people. as long as you made her look good you could stay around her. When she was fed up with you, a salacious piece of gossip would start to circle around the pack, and Sylvia then had the perfect excuse for dropping them from her little fan club. I asked Alpha Daniel to continue, "we had been together as a mated pair for nearly 12 years before the moon goddess gifted us with another pup. When Lucas was born, I was so happy, I finally had an heir, which meant my family name would continue as Alpha of the pack. As I had been an Alpha for many years at this point and had successfully mediated between two packs close to the fighting and possibly starting a blood feud, I was awarded a seat on the council of elders as a junior member. This took me away a lot, as I'm sure you remember Genevieve" and he gestured toward me, I of course remembered his absences from the family home. My heart squeezed at the memory of being alone with Sylvia.
"I was oblivious to what was going on in my home, to what was going on with my family, and the type of mother Sylvia was. So when the elders approached me with a baby and asked me to raise the child as one of my own, I was filled with trepidation, but of course, I agreed. My only issue was my own apprehension of Silvia's reaction, but I never dreamed she would eventually show her true colours at the expense of a child".
"And so Genevieve, I come to the part of the story you are familiar with. I watched you grow into a shy but beautiful young woman, and was just as excited for you to get your wolf as you were. I knew you would be important to our kind, and I was immensely proud that you were mine. I was also relieved to see how close you were to your brother Lucas and how protective he was of you.
After the fiasco of your 18th birthday party, I was surprised to see you had no wolf. I choose to believe in the elders, and after that night I told your mother that I needed to go and see the council. As usual, anything to do with my work with the council had to involve Sylvia, so she could belittle those pack members who are too low in rank to be privy to any details. When we got home from seeing the elders, it was the same day that you received your wolf and met Jonas. I was delighted for you, but Sylvia seemed annoyed it had happened. The rest, you know, up until you left with Jonas. I was intrigued that we had gotten the date of your birthday wrong. How had that happened? As after we had you, Sylvia and I both met with a member of the council. Sylvia wanted to know more about your birth date, etc. and asked if she could speak to the elder about it. As I was so busy at the time, I didn't think anything of it when she set the meeting up on her own. I was happy to see her taking an interest.
I want you to know Genevieve, I am so sorry for the part I played in your unhappiness as a child. I didn't know what was going on, and I should have. But, because my relationship with Sylvia was never a happy one, I decided to "work" as much as possible and leave the main rearing of the children to her. I noticed over time that she was closer to Lucas, but I was never worried. As it turns out, I should have been very worried, for as far back as our relationship went, I found out it was all based on lies".
"After you left with Jonas it was brought to my attention that Sylvia had played me for a fool. The information was given to me anonymously, I still don't know who sent it. It turns out she was never pregnant with the first cub, she had planned it all along. Not satisfied with her life as an omega she and her family plotted for her to become Luna. The omega that had run to tell me she was having a miscarriage was a cousin of hers, the nurse in the hospital was an aunt who was willing to lie to the future Alpha. All to make sure the family succeeded in getting Sylvia to bare my mark. Sylvia has been like a puppet master with all our lives, Genevieve, when I found out about your childhood and then found out that she had changed your birth date to advance her own status it was the last straw for me. I approached her with everything I had found out and when she realised that the proof of her scheming ways was overwhelming she became violent. I had to restrain her, as I was holding her so she couldn't cause any harm to anyone I asked her why she did what she did to you".
This time Alpha Daniel had tears in his eyes as he explained what had happened with the birthday. ''Sylvia knew you were a gift, given to us from a higher power. She also knew that one day you would have outshone her, and she simply could not stand the thought. She started to be mean to you as a child, and into your teens, you knew that you had little or no relationship with your mother. So, her plan was to bring your birthday forward a few days by telling the elder that the date they had given us as your birth date was the same as our son's. Sylvia asked and got permission to move the birth date five days before the actual date. But with the understanding that you would be aware of this and therefore know your real date of birth. I didn't pay close enough attention, and over the years I didn't realise the date changed."
Alpha Daniel was on his knees again now and was only looking at me, pleading with his eyes for me to understand.
Rosemary asked, "I don't understand why she would want to change the birth date, what could she possibly get out of it?".
Again, Alpha Daniel had a sad look on his face when he answered the question.
"Sylvia wanted Genevieve out of the way, she had hoped that when no wolf arrived at Genni's 18th birthday party, Genni would accept she was a human. Sylvia had already spoken to Genni about this and even got her brother involved with the lie by blackmailing him. Lucky for us all, at the time when Sylvia planned to kick her out, she met you, Jonas. And I thank the goddess every day since.
Alpha Daniel was openly crying now and had his head bowed. He seemed to whisper a prayer for the moon goddess to forgive him, for me to forgive him. I looked at the man I had called father for 18 years. As he kneeled in front of me, I reached forward and held both his trembling hands in mine.
''Thank you for telling me all this. I appreciate it, and I know my mother has already forgiven you, so please don't fret anymore". I brought his hands to my lips and heard my father gasp as he felt the feather-light breeze cover his hands. He looked into my eyes and understood who the breeze was from. He closed his eyes and let his tears fall, weeping all the more as he continued to whisper his thanks to the goddess.
Jonas looked quickly at me, and with a frown on his face he said "your mother"?
I smiled at his frown and said, "Yes, my mother. You all know her as the Moon Goddess, Selene".