Chosen by Fate, Rejected by the Alpha

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Clovio     

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After the battle at the castle, where the leaders of our family had been captured or killed, Warrick and I were sent away from the city. We were given a second chance by the people that we had gone there to cause problems for, and I didn't know why they were being so nice to us. We were part of the problem, but they were our solution.     

I was sent to live in Wales, to train with the wolves that lived there with the Alpha, Cadwal. This was the largest of the three packs that made up the entire country of Wales, and they were going to teach me how to live around and work with them. The end goal was meant to be me living in and working in Colorado Springs. I would return to school at some point, and I would pay my debts to the Gray family. I would make sure that they never had to worry about my loyalties ever again.     

Warrick, my cousin and best friend, was in England, learning the same things from the Alpha named Nigel. I couldn't wait until I saw him again, to see if he had changed and how it was going. I also knew he was more eager to get back home to Colorado Springs than I was. He had actually mated with, a bond that was eternal and lasted a lifetime, Alyssa Asher-Conrad. They were meant to be together, and I wanted it to work out for them.     

I mostly wanted to apologize to Rika, I had hurt her so bad, even though that was not my intention. She was a sweet girl, true, kind and beautiful, and I was a monster for treating her the way that I did.     

And to make matters worse, for me at least, King Reece had sent Rika's guard here to watch me while I trained with the others. His name was Westin, and he hated me. He glared at me constantly. He openly said that he was going to torture me. And I knew that he felt like I had wronged Rika personally.     

Well, I guess I had. Not saying I meant to do it, but I guess I had. I wanted to talk to him, to work things out with him, but I was too scared to talk to him. Instead, I was trying to talk to the others that were here. They were wolves, and the guard Westin was a feline. I didn't know what breed, but I knew that he was a large cat that could overpower one of these wolves easily.     

"Are you seriously still worrying about him?" Drouin, one of the Welsh wolves, laughed at me as I tensed in fear. Westin had just walked out of the Alpha's house with a large bow and a quiver of arrows.     

"Can you blame me? He has a weapon right now." I kept a wary eye on the other man as he walked away from me and Drouin, into the forest and off to do whatever it is that he needed or wanted to do.     

"You have been here for two months, and he hasn't done anything yet. I think that you are safe." Drouin's laugh was filled with mirth as he watched my fear.     

"Yeah, but maybe he is just letting me think that, and he will wait until I am no longer on guard before he comes after me."     

"I think you need to get over it, kid." He laughed again. I often made Drouin and the others laugh as they saw how scared I was of Westin.     

"I want to get over it, but I know that I messed up."     

Everyone here knew the story by now. They knew that I was a Jaegan grunt that was forced to spy for my family. They knew that I turned against them, but not before I had gotten close to the Princess. Most of them didn't like me, but they knew they had to put up with me. They just told me what to do and made sure my work was done. Others, like Drouin, wanted to help me out by reforming me and befriending me. I appreciated them for that.     

Over the last two months, and even before then, I had come to understand how much I had messed up. I kept a journal that I wrote in all the time. I wanted to show it to King Reece and Rika when I got back to Colorado. I wanted them to know all of the things that I regretted, all the things that I did to them. They needed to know the full truth of it all.     

Over the months I wrote more and more. I wrote apologies to them all, even to Westin, although I was sure he wouldn't read them. I explained about that day in the park, when the others showed up during my date with Rika. I needed them to know what happened that day.     

I hadn't known they were in town, and I had actually been enjoying my date with Rika at that time. If we had continued on the way that we were, I could have fallen in love with her. I am sure about that, but I wasn't there yet. I wasn't even fully attracted to her yet, but I was starting to be.     

When I had seen those men, the ones that I knew had killed before, I had feared for Rika and Lyssa. I wanted to protect them, but there was nothing that I could do. In my apology to Westin, I actually thanked him for showing up that day. If it hadn't been for him and the other guard that had gotten there, I don't know what would have happened. Although, I am sure Rika and Lyssa would have been able to handle themselves with no issues. They are strong, brave, and so smart.     

Now that I was coming to terms with all that I had done, I knew that I needed to make amends to everyone, in due time. And the only one that I could make amends with at the moment was Westin. He was here with me after all. However, when I went to him to talk, he surprised me. He told me that he wasn't angry anymore. We had all needed to grow up and that we were good. I was still wary of him though.     

I learned a lot in my time with Alpha Cadwal and the others though. I got stronger, mentally and physically. And I learned the inner workings of a pack, and understood how different the one in Colorado really was. The fact that they had a feline watching the Princess, and also the Alpha's daughter, was like a breach of contract. Then again, they were living in the proverbial capital city for their kind, and it was home to more than just one species. So, in a way, it made sense that they were more willing to branch out.     

By the time that the reveal came, I had felt pretty confident in helping the nonhuman community navigate the tough times ahead. And I will admit that when people, the other humans that protested in Wales, found out that I was human and helping them, it did help us out. They saw that a human like me was accepted and treated well by them, so they were more willing to let things slide with them as well.     

In all honesty, I think that my presence really did help to make things blow over and smooth out more quickly. It just made the humans more comfortable to be with me. And I learned a lot more about leadership and things like that.     

I knew that it wasn't likely that I would ever be anything other than human, having burned that bridge with the Gray family already, but I knew that I wanted to help them out as much as I could. My future was going to be spent being a liaison of sorts for them. I was going to make sure that humans understood them as much as possible. And I would start it the moment that I got back to Colorado, or the moment that I graduated from university in the city. Either one would be fine with me, as long as I was able to help them.     

My apologies, my willingness to help them, my determination to make sure that the world healed from the damage from my family and the reveal, it was all coming together, and I wasn't going to let it out of my sight.     

I had gained Westin's approval and respect. I had become friends with a lot of wolves here in Wales. I had made sure that King Reece and Queen Trinity weren't angry with me. Everything was going according to plan. A life of paying them back for all the heartache that I had caused.     

Finally, when the month of August started to roll around, I felt like I was more than ready to go home. And this is, of course, when time started to act like it was crawling by slower than a frozen snail. Each day that was counting down until September, until my return to the place that I now called my home. I also knew that I wasn't the only one that was being affected by this frozen time. Westin seemed to be in the same boat. Each day feeling like it took a week to pass us by. Each moment an eternity when all you wanted was to go home.