"Victoria! What have you done to yourself!? Are you crazy!?" Carol shrieks as if her whole world just came crashing down around her
Unlike humans, who see men having extramarital affairs as a big deal, shifters don't really. Male shifters to be precise. In our world, a man, especially an Alpha, can decide to have a mate, a wife, and a concubine all at the same time
A one true mate is the one Moon goddess pairs us with. The one with the essence we can't do without. A man-wolf, especially an Alpha who already has a mate can also decide to legally get married to another she-wolf or a human for that matter if let's say his mate isn't well-learned or isn't capable of standing beside him at social gatherings.
He can also decide to keep a concubine if he's a very sexual man and doesn't get enough from the women in his life or if he's someone like me who doesn't find his mate or wife sexually attractive. Or he can decide to legally get married to his mate as Ella and Ivar did with each other.
In the eyes of the law, a wife is equal in status to a mate but a concubine isn't. She is four–five notches below a wife and a mate. Which makes me wonder why a beautiful she-wolf like Victoria would choose to be a concubine rather than wait for her own mate.
Maybe she thinks if I accept her offer, I might eventually upgrade her status to a wife. She might be right though. Who knows, maybe when we get to know each other better, I might end up accepting her offer if I find myself liking her. Who knows, I might even marry her eventually, especially when my mate seems to me like a fake. A lot of maybes but now is not the time or place to consider them.
'Am I going to accept her?' I repeated Ivar's question to myself before replying.
'I don't know her that well yet. In the meantime, let's concentrate on staying alive and seeing the end of today, we don't know what these bastards have in stock for us.'
'Yeah we don't know, so let's start going already, we've wasted enough time as it is.' Eric says.
I look in exasperation from Victoria who is still on one knee to Carol who hasn't stopped chanting, 'Why Victoria? Why did you have to do that to yourself!' over and over again again with tears in her eyes.
'You haven't even accepted her daughter's offer yet so why is she acting as if it's the end of the world?' Ivar says with irritation.
Ivar is right. Victoria swearing allegiance and pledging to be my concubine is not the end of the world. It's not even the end of her life, especially when I've not accepted her and our blood has not been exchanged to bind her pledge.
Even though Victoria is now an independent woman from her parents the moment she turns eighteen according to law, a parent that wants the best for her child will still show concern or be alarmed when she feels her child is going the wrong path. Just that Carol overreacted and handed this situation the wrong way.
She was right about one thing, Alphas are territorial especially where their mate is concerned. If Victoria's mate turns out to be Alpha, it wouldn't matter if I don't accept she might still get rejected if her mate gets to know she once offered herself to another Alpha as a concubine.
"Carol, Carol, Carol..." I call in a singsong manner. "I've not accepted your daughter's offer yet so quit acting as if it's the end of the world!" I snap and she immediately stops with her whining.
"Have you forgotten that for her pledge to be binding there must be acceptance on my part and an oath made with both our blood?" I say with irritation before turning to Victoria
"Get up! We will discuss this later."
I turn to the others,
"Ella and Victoria will ride with Eric and me while the rest should go with Ivar," I say, giving Carol an open invitation to either come with us or return to her house.
I shake my head in amusement when a broad smile appears on Victoria's cold face because I asked her to ride with us. I wonder if she pledged to be my concubine because she has a crush on me or if it was all an act to convince me to trust them. Yes, I'm still on the spy theory and it would take a lot of proof of loyalty than her offering her body before I can completely trust the mother and daughter.
Eric sits in the driver's seat while I sit beside him leaving the back seats for the two women.
"You're a Gamma, so tell me about your Gamma chief," I ask Victoria the moment the car starts to move.
She nods back at me with a smile through the rearview mirror.
"Cyrus is a shrewd, strict, and very stubborn old man. Despite his age, we still trained together every morning. He used to be on guard duties with us but not anymore. He's retired kinda because of his age but it's as if he never did since no visitor goes into the pack without his consent..."
"For a pack as big as Silver-Moon, every person visiting the pack for the first time must get his consent before they are allowed in?" I ask in disbelief.
"Yes. Every new visitor. That's the strict instruction he gave to us. We must inform him about anyone visiting the pack for the first time before allowing them into the pack"
"With what you've said about him, he seemed like a dedicated man," Eric says
"Yes, he is very dedicated to his job. He's also very loyal to the Luna and Justin. He's said some very mean things to us about you and your mother... Uhmmm, most of us that hate you..." She paused from talking
"I'm sorry. I want you to know that I don't hate you anymore. I'm just saying..."
"I understand. Continue with what you're saying, don't divert."
"Okay. So most of us that hate you, did so because of the bad things we were told that you did. The mass murders of innocent humans and shifters in Denmark perpetrated by you for example..."
"Wait, mass murders? What mass murders? Where did you get that crap from?" Eric interrupts in disbelief.
"I don't know. I'm just telling you what we were told. They told us you blackmailed the old Alpha and forced him to announce a duel between you and Justin because you knew you could beat him in a fight...
They told us you murdered the Alpha and my father immediately after the day of the duel was announced and you kept their bodies to prevent the authorities from finding evidence against you and also so you could fashion their skulls to your growing collection of beer goblets."
"Wow..." I say and can't help but chuckle this time. "What an interesting information!... You know I actually found it disgusting when I first heard that I drank beer directly from the skulls of my victims. I never knew until now that they actually meant I fashioned my goblets from the skulls and not drink directly from them. That actually makes more sense. Thank you for clearing the air for me." I say, my words and voice heavy with sarcasm
"Uhmm... I– I... Well, I'm sorry. I - I didn't mean to upset you. I'm just saying everything we heard about you. Trying to make you understand what made these Gammas openly defy you. As you said, I grew up with some of these shifters. They are my friends and I know they were fiercely loyal to your dad, the old Alpha. They would have never disobeyed you if Evelyn and Cyrus hadn't done a damn good job convincing them you're the enemy and..."
"I see..." I interrupted her. Is your mission here to spy on me all along?..."
~••~
Author's Note
Please note that the chapter I labelled 144 was a mistake. I mistakenly uploaded 144 in place of 114. I would have edited it but the platform doesn't give room for editing. The 144 will come at a later day in future. I'll remind you to refer back to it so you won't have to spend extra money.
Thank you for reading 🙏🏽