The Making of a Dark Gamma - Book 1
Not my choice

By ten to nine she is outside the Alpha’s door waiting, deciding she’ll knock at five to the hour, being early is a good thing, but the door opens and out walks the current Beta followed by Lance and Gareth, she can see Charlie still sitting in the office, none of them looks too unhappy, so hopefully the story of how lucky she got is getting round, but she bows her head as they pass.

“Come in Toni and leave the door open”

The Alpha’s voice is clear, but not commanding after he sees her outside the door

Walking in, head slightly bowed the Alpha is looking relaxed and almost happy and that’s not what she was expecting, in retrospect, that alone should have given her cause to be wary, but he’s asked her to leave the door open and as everyone knows the open-door reprimand is nothing to be scared of.

“You’re early I see.”

“Yes Alpha, I didn’t want to be late, Clara released me from kitchen duty early, but I’ve offered to help in tonight’s shift to make up for it.”

She explained, keeping her eyes downcast, she still managed to see the Alpha waving in another person, who closed the door behind them, that’s the point at which her stomach dropped, forget that, plummeted like a rock.

“You work in the kitchens, is that your assigned Omega duties?” Delta Alek asked

“No Royal Delta,

Everyone who lives in the pack house, bar adult ranked wolves, are on the kitchen rota, although the Luna often comes to help out.

It’s fun and means we all learn how to look after ourselves, so we are ready to move out when the time comes, and of course, it teaches us to work as a team”

She repeats the reasons they are all given and her explanation gets a nod of acceptance from him

“Alpha, can I say that’s a good system.

If you don’t mind, I’d like to propose the idea to my pack, but I will credit your pack with the origin of the idea.”

“Of course,”

The Alpha is positively beaming

She’s hoping above hope that the Delta is here only to check on the punishment imposed, but she is still left with an uneasy feeling.

“Toni, I’ve heard the rumours about how you managed to achieve your win yesterday, seems most of it was pure chance, but there’s still the fact you didn’t, as a minor, request permission to join the competition.

Do you have anything to say on that matter?”

Alpha Matthews asks, his voice firm, clearly expecting an apology.

She swallows nervously, her wolf is still sound asleep in her mind so this should work, he’s not used his command voice on her, which would wake Tyra.

“Yes, Alpha,

I apologise wholeheartedly, I should have thought to ask.

I didn’t consider the implications to the pack if someone had been hurt as I was a minor, nor how that would reflect on you as the Alpha.

I placed you in a difficult position and that was selfish, hoping only to get the additional tutoring and not thinking of the effect it would have on the pack as a whole.”

The Alpha nods his head.

“Thank you for understanding my perspective” he finally answers

She’s replaying the scenario from yesterday with Charlie, and can’t remember anything that would get her into trouble, so doesn’t understand why he is still here.

As the only one standing, she begins to feel uncomfortable, what she’d assumed at first would be a quick telling off, is now feeling as if it will be something else, her concern and worry wake Tyra

Bring it on

Her wolf growls as she wakes,

No wait, Tyra go back to sleep, please

Toni silently begs her wolf to comply.

“The Delta has some questions and Charlie is here in case you don’t remember or to give a different perspective”

Alpha Matthews smiles and it’s at this point that Toni is beginning to realise things aren’t going to go smoothly, she forces her body to relax and calm her wolf and herself.

“So you were a rogue when they found you” Delta Alek starts the questions

“I was living alone without a pack, yes Delta”

She keeps her bowed while she has an internal argument with her wolf, she doesn’t need her reactions giving her away, but again, no lies, she wasn’t technically a rogue.

“Look at me” he commands.

She hesitated for a second too long before complying and she could see his eyes narrowing.

“How long were you alone?”

Toni starts to think where the questions will go, because this is where it’s going to get sticky, if his next question is, were you born a rogue, well lying to this Delta is going to get her into trouble, if he’d been able to sense her wolf when it was buried, then he’s going to be able to feel her responses, and, if she told the truth, then she was in the shit with the Alpha after the Delta leaves.

“Not too long”

That’s not a lie, so it means her body doesn’t betray her, or maybe that’s just her since she was taught to be evasive from an early age.

In her head, two years isn’t that long in the realms of how long wolves live overall.

The issue, she is currently pleading with her wolf to head back into the depths of her mind, lying to a ranked wolf is exceptionally hard, especially if your wolf is awake and being evasive is just as bad.

Annoying a higher-ranked wolf and in a wolf pack, often means being chastised, even if that’s just being forced to submit, it’s unpleasant to have a ranked wolf’s full command aura turned only onto you.

So, if her wolf stresses when she’s evasive, his wolf will know, but the deeper she hides her wolf and gets her to sleep, the less his wolf will notice.

If she hides her physical stress response by being careful with the truth treading the grey areas but keeping to the white side of the grey even better, but first she has to push her wolf back down to sleep, that way there will be no challenge and no stress.

She may get lucky, she thinks, her wolf knows they are from ranked blood, so if she feels higher than the Delta, she may choose to be calm and nonchalant, but Royal ranks are infused with more power and she’s not yet grown into her full potential, so it’s a dangerous game to play and this Delta is skilled, he sensed her wolf after all.

To join the pack, she’d avoided being found out, because fear and lying invoke similar responses and unless you are trained, they are easy to confuse, so act frightened, obscure the facts and the final cherry, what reason would she have to portray herself in a worse light (being born to rogue parents’ versus being a runaway orphan), plus she didn’t have a full wolf to rat her out.

As she’s looking at Delta Alek, he crosses his arms at her response, raising an eyebrow, clearly not satisfied with it and to top it all off, her wolf Tyra won’t hide now, no reason since the pack knows she exists.

Tyra is currently giving Toni the wolf equivalent of the middle finger, and she can feel her rising to the top of her consciousness.

“How long is ‘not too long’?”

His tone is slightly colder, authoritative but not yet a command, but clearly demanding a better answer.

So now she either goes with the whole truth or obscures it again, like saying ‘a number of weeks’, because that could be anything from two to one hundred and two, the latter is the real number, so it’s not lying, but she still needs her wolf's co-operation.

She’s decided, it’s going to be ‘a number of weeks’ response, it’s not a lie, but as she goes to speak, the Delta speaks up, his voice firm and unyielding

“Don’t test me pup with anything less than an accurate response, you won’t like the result.”

And there it is the warning, he’s making it clear on his expectations and if he decides she’s in the shit, then all bets are off with the Alpha, lying to an emissary from the Royal Pack, is going to get her into a lot of trouble with both the Alpha and Delta.

‘Oh shit’ echoes in her head, she knows she’s already bringing attention to herself with the delay in answering him.

She’s talking to a Delta, the response should have been almost instantaneous, so if you excuse the pun she thinks, she knows she is royally screwed, this is the problem with thinking you may be smarter than your opponent, you often aren’t, not unless you’ve spent enough time to get to know them earlier.

She takes a steadying breath, this isn’t going to end well, she drops her head, swallowing before she answers, her voice quiet

“Two weeks less than two years Delta”

The gasp from Charlie and a sharp intake of breath from the Alpha are easily heard, everyone assumed she’d been found not long after her parents had died because an eleven-year-old that had survived for two years alone is unheard of.

“As I said, this is no true low-ranked wolf” Delta Alek’s words don’t bring her comfort

“You lived for two years alone as a rogue?”

Shock can be heard in his voice

“Just less, but yes Delta”

“How did you eat?”

“Hunted and gathered my food.”

See what she does here is never lie, answer the question and just the question, don’t elaborate, and don’t give them a thread to follow, her training kicking in, rule number five applies everywhere.

He sits looking at her, his eyes seem to be taking her in as if for the first time, comparing her against some form of checklist

“How was she captured?” his eyes finally leave her to look at Charlie

“She was in the river but had strayed over the boundary.

When she saw us, she realised, turning and running she went for the border, we didn’t want to use anything that could injure a pup, only to control her before she left our border.

One of the guards missed her with a net, she was fast and very agile in human form, so I shifted, pouncing and knocked her over.

Knowing she was caught she immediately stilled, bared her neck crying, submitting easily and without a fight.

She was then brought back to the pack and questioned.” Charlie answered calmly

“Is that why she was ranked as an Omega Alpha?”

She can see the Delta’s mind is going into overdrive.

“Well, yes, she had no fight in her, submitting to a wolf in a position of authority, all things we can work with to rehabilitate a rogue, even easier when it’s a pup.

Pups don’t choose to live as rogues.” Alpha Matthews explains

“Interesting.

You think a pup, that’s born a rogue, who’s had to survive without any protection for two years, protect herself against other rogues and wild animals, would be weak and immediately submit, no fight in her?

Or that she’d recognise and know to immediately submit to someone with authority unless she planned it?” Delta Alek asks

“That within the space of a year of formal education, she’d go from barely reading to consistently being in the top fifteen per cent of the class, in every subject”

It had been the first thing that Delta Alek had noticed in her file.

The shock that shows on Alpha Matthews's face is clear, things he’d not even considered.

Toni can see the realisation showing on their faces, as much as she dislikes being talked about as if she’s not there, here’s the thing, she knows that if you act like a pack expects a pack pup to act, especially when it’s in trouble, that’s all they see.

“This one will be accompanying me back to the Royal pack.” Delta Alek’s words are spoken as a command

Wait what!

Toni can feel her eyes widening and mouth becoming slack, going to the Royal pack gives her all sorts of headaches she doesn’t want to address, her eyes are darting between the Alpha and Delta.

“Please don’t make me leave Alpha, I can be good, I’ll take extra work, this is my home.”

She blurts out trying to make herself seem as weak and defenceless as she can, becoming the pup that adults automatically want to protect.

There’s a flicker of something, almost guilt, in the Alpha’s eyes, but he keeps his own trained on the Delta.

“For what reason?”

Alpha Matthews asks, but Toni realises he’s not outraged, nor shocked by the idea of losing her, he clearly knew, it was why he was relaxed this morning, it dawns on her, regardless of answers, she had been destined to leave the pack with the Delta.

‘But come on Alpha’ she thinks ‘I’m one of your pack members, you should at least appear to fight for me, at this point I don’t even care if you deny me the win, I’ll accept it honestly.’

She can hear herself saying the words in her head, but nothing leaves her mouth.

She just doesn’t want to go to the Royal pack, her mind is going so fast, she’s hoping, and knows the chances are slim, that Alpha Matthews will fight for her.

“If she was truly rogue born, then we have some even bigger issues to face.

But let’s assume she wasn’t, we still have the issue that one so young, who wouldn’t, I assume, have done any training for the last three years, can take out three strong and promising leaders who have each spent a few months training with the Royal pack.

Her wolf is going to be larger than the norm, she got it at fourteen which is unheard of for any rank of wolf, but if her story is true, increased growth and early appearance of wolves in rogues, equivalent to let’s say at least a Beta ranked wolf is something to be investigated and feared, not that I think she was rogue born.”

Alek casts a sideways glance at Toni, but her face has remained impassive.

“So, either her parents had been ranked wolves, and even then, the shift at fourteen is unheard of, or we have a bigger rogue issue, either way, we need to look into her parentage.

My view is a pack is missing a pup, rather than ranked wolves abandoning a pack, we’d have heard about that.

For her to win this competition, well I’m not even sure if one of the best of the Royal pack at her age could do that, and we start training at ten, so who trained her and from what age, especially if for the last three years she’s had no formal training?

Finally, she was able to hide her wolf very successfully from you all, burying it deep and keeping it hidden for a month is no easy task with no training, unless someone in your pack was involved.

All of this needs to be brought to the attention of my Alpha.

I fear if she’s left here, and she found out we were coming to visit to review her, she will disappear before we can assess the risks fully.

The fact was, yesterday, with so many out hunting her, she managed to break through the line and got onto the pack house unnoticed, I’d guess leaving pack land would be easier.”

Alpha Matthews nods, pretending to think about everything Delta Alek had said

“Agreed”

Oh, Goddess, this isn’t good, Toni thinks, she can but try once more, dropping to her knees head bowed

“Please Alpha, don’t make me leave, this is my only home”

Her voice is weak and pleading, letting a trembling quality come to her voice as if she’s on the verge of tears.

Alpha Matthews sighs

“Get up Toni, this is for the best”

He says calmly before turning to the Delta

“I’ll get my daughter Catherine to take her to her room, she may want to shower after her kitchen duties and pack her clothes”

Alpha Matthews continues,

“Then she’ll be brought back here”

Alpha Matthews has a look of annoyance on his face as the Delta chuckles at his words

“No offence Alpha, I’d prefer her under escort, two of my warriors are coming to take her, she won’t need much, a few clothes and any personal items she wants to take.

If you look at her performance yesterday, I’m pretty sure she could evade your daughter.....”

Shit, shit, shit Toni thinks, to make it worse, Tyra is laughing at her, she never liked Toni playing the Omega, her wolf is a proud one and wants people to know her power.

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