Fantasy Life at White Creek [CLOSED/AnimeGenork]

[AnimeGenork]

Cana Lowell ~ Alpha of the White Creek Pack

Cana shook her head, letting out a huff of a sigh. “No, no, none of this submission crap. You know I don’t need that from you.” She brushed her fingers over his bared neck, shrugging. “He’s a traitor, yes, but I think we got everything out of him that we were going to get. And as much as I’d love to see it, Garrett as a bloody pulp would have been completely unhelpful. Although beating him up would probably increase the pack’s safety overnight.”

But at least he was sitting up now. “Uh, I highly disagree, I think your hand and the rest of your body needs some rest.” She looked up at him as he stood, unable to keep the admiring expression that was certainly taking over her face. Though they’d definitely said “love” already, had they been so direct about it yet? With everything that had happened the past few days, Cana honestly couldn’t remember. But she liked the sound of it coming from him, and she definitely liked the sound of a label like “lover,” as stupid as such a thought was.

She chuckled and stood up, taking his hand in hers and kissing his cheek again. “First of all, I love you, too. Second, I think I will have you by my side as long as you stop getting unnecessarily hurt. Third, let’s go. Let’s see how much more we can get out of that jerk.” Cana smiled up at him. “It was amazing watching him get knocked down.”

Turning back toward the house, she led the way back, digging out her phone so she could call someone to start interrogating Garrett again. It rung only once before Rylie picked up. “Rylie, I need someone to continue interrogating Garrett. He wasn’t giving us much, maybe someone else with less of a connection to him would do better. Get Casper to supervise, make sure they don’t go too far. Yet.”

Rylie murmured her assent, and then the line went dead. “That takes care of that.”

Only about five minutes passed before she got a call back. “Already? What did he—” She stopped as she heard Rylie’s panicked voice explain the situation. By Cana’s reckoning, she and Weston had barely been gone for half an hour. Which had apparently given plenty of time for this latest development. “Alright. Get our best trackers on it, we’ll be back soon. I’ll see what I can find then.” Hanging up the phone, she sighed and looked up at Weston. “Garrett escaped.”

Really, she could have given more of an explanation, but she felt the situation was fairly self-explanatory with those two words. Letting go of his hand, she shifted so she could get back to the house faster. The wind stung her eyes, and a growl kept rumbling in her chest. Thirty minutes. How had that jerk managed to escape in half an hour? There must have been someone else working with him, someone they hadn’t considered. That was the only way he could manage to escape so fast.

She couldn’t remember shifting back or entering the house. Everything was blurring around her in her anger as she stormed into the cells to see the damage. The blood from the earlier debacle was still there, but Garrett definitely was not. Cana’s nostrils flared as she took in the scene, noticing the cell doors standing ajar, as if he’d just walked right out. She’d locked it just thirty minutes ago. Who had dared to cut it so close?

“And the rogue’s gone, too. Great.” She rubbed her forehead, feeling a headache born from anger start pounding behind her eyes. “Do we know who did this?” she asked a nearby pack member, who was inspecting the scene in wolf form.

They shifted back and shook their head, staring hard at the ground in submission. “We’re still getting a count of everyone in the house. The elders, uh, would like to speak with you after the initial investigation.”

“Of course they would. They love to talk to me. Carry on.” Cana turned and left the dungeon, holding her face in her hand as she tried to work through this. They had the trackers going after him, somebody else taking count of who all was here. What else could she possibly do?

Weston. Cana lifted her surely tired eyes to him and smiled weakly. “Now will you please go get some rest while I handle things here? I’ll let you know what I find out. Please. If I have to start a war or something in the next twenty-four hours, I need you to not still be torn up.”

If this was as bad as she had a feeling it was, they were going to need both alphas in the building at full strength.

This Is Me ​

 

[This Is Me]

Weston Ayers ~ Omega-Alpha Hybrid of the White Creek Pack
*********************************************************************
It was slightly unsettling how normal Cana was being with Weston, as if their whole world hadn't seemingly imploded in the last few days over and over again. She was, on the outside, able to take everything in her stride, and to Weston that was the true power of an alpha - never underestimating the situation but never outwardly faltering each time things got worse. He'd managed a small chuckle as they started walking back to the pack house, somewhat reminiscing about how good it had felt to get some small semblance of payback from all the years being tormented by Garrett. Now, with leaves and broken branches crunching under their feet, the weather turning colder as the months changed, things appeared to settle into a new and tentative balance between the two. To Weston though, the difference between them couldn't be more stark.

Whilst Cana was on the phone, Weston started to piece together all the information Garrett had venomously spewed. Or tried to. There were key things that seemed to be missing and even more questions than before the two of them had gone to question Garrett in the first place. He still hadn't fully wrapped his head around the fact that his dad wasn't his birth-father, and who his birth-father allegedly was sent chills through him. Whilst he was so caught up in his mind, he hadn't caught the change in Cana's tone until the words 'Garrett' and 'escaped' snapped his attention to her just as he saw her shift effortlessly and run back to the pack house. Glancing down at his battered hand, Weston groaned and ran his good hand down his face - shifting was out of the question.

Weston skidded to a stop as he saw Cana leaving the dungeon, taking in a few deep breaths. Whilst the run back hadn't been too far, he wasn't in the best state to exert himself now the adrenaline from before had completely worn off. From the look on her face, it was clear the reports had been correct, but before he had a chance to ask questions Cana was shooing him away. He opened his mouth to object, to try and offer something helpful, but in reality she was right. As he was now was no use to her - he was unbalanced, injured and just something else she had to worry about. 'Damnit'. Glancing around, the pack trackers and warriors were swarming the grounds and pack house in full protection mode, so all Weston could do was nod his head, "Yes alpha. Stay safe." With that he turned and walked into the pack house.

Now, Weston had had every intention of going and resting, but as he'd started making his way up the stairs to either his room and the room Cana had forced him to sleep in the night before (he hadn't quite yet decided which was the best option), he stopped. Sulking away in a room just to heal wasn't going to help anyone. So, he turned around and headed to the kitchens instead.

***

"Westoooon!"

Wincing, but chuckling, Weston caught the two that threw themselves at him as he took one step into the kitchens. "Alright, alright. Now let me go you two, jeez." Staring back at him were two sets of matching blue eyes and cheeky grins, one quickly morphing into seriousness whilst the others chin started to wobble. "Now, now, let's be rational here...". He took a wary step back before he was engulfed in their arms again, one rubbing their knuckles in his hair and the other squeezing his ribs so tightly he was sure the bruises would start darkening once more.

"Don't you dare do something so stupid like that again. You're our Weston, whatever you did, but don't scare us like that again."

Weston gulped, and nodded. "I know, I know Wyatt." Wyatt and Walt, the twins that had taken Weston under their wing when they transferred to the pack a few years ago when Walt found his mate in one of the pack's trackers. Wyatt being the overprotective 'older' brother naturally followed him. With both of them being omega's they were quickly put to work in the kitchens during Weston's shifts and quickly became, in Weston's original opinion, annoyingly stuck to him despite being older than he was. 'Overprotective twin-stinct' is how Walt had coined it a few months in.

Walt's keen eyes quickly zeroed in on his battered hand and Weston indulged himself in the twins fussing over him like mother hens for some time before he started smelling a slightly burning that was most likely breakfast or dinner - he wasn't sure on what the time actually was. Weston extricated himself from their faffing hands to stand once more, and Wyatt immediately swore and peeled away to deal with whatever was happening to the food upon finally realising. "I need to go and speak with my parents." The twins finally quietened, nodding their heads in unison, and Weston assumed they understood why - his trial and everything else after that hadn't exactly been kept hush-hush. "Could you make sure Ca-, alpha has food brought to wherever she is as soon as possible, she hasn't eaten this morning."

Usually, a comment like that would get raised eyebrows from the two of them and Weston would shout at them to shout up. They understood how he felt about their alpha, but currently everyone in the pack knew the stakes of what had unfolded in the last day or two. Everyone was on edge. "You've got it Wes, now go." Weston smiled in thanks to Wyatt and turned to leave when Walt chimed in, "Don't go leaving without saying goodbye again alright?" He sighed, turning back and walking swiftly into their open arms, assenting that he'd do no such thing. How he'd left in the first place without saying goodbye was beyond him, he'd been in such a rush to do so. And maybe there was a part of him where Garrett had succeeded in making him feel lonely when in actual fact he wasn't.

***

Taking a deep breath, Weston knocked on his parent's front door - a quant cottage set away from the pack house in a little crescent of other semi-matching buildings. Seeing Wyatt and Walt had helped to re-right himself a little, make things feel a bit more normal when they really weren't, but right now all those nerves, that anger, that uncertainty was raging inside of him.

"Hi Mum, we need to talk."
********************************************************************
AnimeGenork​

 

[AnimeGenork]

Cana Lowell ~ Alpha of the White Creek Pack

Cana dreaded the trip up to the makeshift courtroom in the attic that also served as the audience room for the elders. They were just so boring, and after everything that happened with the stupid trial they’d forced Weston to sit through, she wasn’t entirely fond of them lately. Still, she had to answer to them, listen to your elders and all that. At least her authority was still mostly absolute within the pack.

“I know it looks bad, but I promise I locked his cell before I left,” she declared, breezing through the door and striding through the room toward the elders. “Trackers are already going after them, so hopefully they’ll get him back. And the rogue.”

“We hope so, Alpha Lowell. Were you able to glean anything from the beta before his escape?”

“Yeah. He’s been looking into Weston for years after witnessing his alpha side years ago. Didn’t tell anybody else about it, except apparently the rogue he was conspiring with. It sounded like he was in cahoots with Weston’s biological father, too.” She clenched her jaw. “Lycans know why, but it seems he’s determined to burn us to the ground.”

“Is that an exaggeration?”

“I wish it was.”

““Very well. Alpha, for now, please remain in the house. We can’t be sure that you’ll be safe, especially with this latest development. There are whispers of a traitor amongst us, and so we need to prioritize your safety above all. As well as Omega Ayers’s.”

Cana raised an eyebrow, not expecting the last order, but she could at least mostly agree with the rest of it. “I understand. I’ll be coordinating the search from my room. Let me know if you need anything else from me.”

“We will.”

Well. That was easier than expected. Cana was in and out of there in about five minutes. She continued checking in on the other pack members around the house, answering her phone whenever anybody called with new information. At some point, the twin omegas, Wyatt and Walt, brought her some food, and her stomach grumbled to remind her she had in fact not eaten today. Oops. She thanked the omegas and finally sat down, enjoying one brief moment of peace as she ate for the first time all day. A sense of calm came over her, and although the pack needed her, she told the nearest beta that she was going to rest for a bit. As if on cue, a headache was starting to build behind her eyes. It was all so much.

She made the pack promise to update her if they found anything and went upstairs. Instead of going to her room, however, she went into the room she’d had Weston stay in. Though she hadn’t seen him in the past few hours, she hoped he’d rested like she’d asked. But she had the sense he hadn’t. Oh, well. Maybe now that she was here, he’d listen.

“Well, it’s all gone to hell.” She flopped down next to him on the bed, staring up at the ceiling. “He’s probably left our territory by now. Jerk.” With a sigh, Cana turned on her side and rested her head against Weston’s shoulder. “I wish we’d never been friends with him in the first place. Maybe things wouldn’t have turned out so rotten.”

Cana linked her fingers with that of Weston’s good hand, bringing it to her mouth to kiss it. “The elders want us to stay in the house, for our protection. They don’t know if Garrett will come back, or if there’s going to be a war…”

She shook her head. “Enough about that. Have you been resting like I told you, or did you disobey me again?” Her tone was teasing—she didn’t mean to make him submit like an omega or anything as repentance for not doing what she asked. Though she was worried about him, at least they had their physiologies to thank for speedy healing. Cana propped herself up on her side and ran her fingers through his hair, letting out a tsk tsk. “Silly. I just don’t want you to be hurt anymore.”

Her hand drifted down to cup his cheek, and she leaned in and kissed him. “I love you, goofy boy. Stop getting hurt unnecessarily.” Another kiss, and she laid her head on his chest this time, letting his heartbeat lull her into a cozy calm. The world was falling apart around them, but at least they had this moment now. For now. But if Cana thought about how fleeting it would be, it would end before she wanted it to.

And if there was anything she didn’t want at this moment, it was for her time with Weston to come to an end.

This Is Me ​

 

[This Is Me]

Weston Ayers ~ Omega-Alpha Hybrid of the White Creek Pack
*********************************************************************
Weston had thought he'd been prepared for the conversation with his parents, but as soon as his Mum opened the door wider for him to enter, any tact he thought he'd have didn't enter the threshold with him. He practically blurted everything that Garrett had spewed, throwing questions left, right and centre as he tried to make sense of his muddled history. To then witness his Mum lose control on her own frustrations and see the tears streaking down her cheeks as she confirmed that Garrett had in fact been telling the truth, was a blow. Some part of him had secretly been hoping that Garrett was once more playing his vile self and lying through his teeth.

If the topic of conversation wasn't already difficult enough, looking at his Dad started stirring up uncomfortable feelings, ones he wasn't quite sure how to deal with. In reality, Weston would never not see his Dad as his Dad, he'd raised him after all, but still, suddenly knowing that they weren't related left him feeling unsettled. Yet, his Dad never once looked at him differently, if anything, his features simply showed concern over the wellbeing of his son. His Mum on the other hand could do nothing but apologise to Weston for the trouble she'd caused him, of which Weston could only reply by bringing her into his arms and holding her tightly. "It's not your fault, and it never has been. We've been dealt with a crap hand - all of us - but I need you to tell me everything you know. Please." His Mum nodded, sitting them all down together as Weston picked at the bandages the twins had wrapped his hand in.

"Our omega lineage goes back hundreds of years, but we weren't originally from the High Ridge Pack despite the fact that I grew up there. We come from what was known as the Forest Valley Pack, and there your great-great-great-grandmother was the Goddess-given mate of the alpha. It was your great-great-grandfather that was the first known-hybrid omega." She squeezed Weston's good hand, smiling sadly at him. "Alphard became the alpha of the Forest Valley Pack but it didn't take long for other packs to take advantage of its small numbers and so-called weak alpha. Thankfully those faithful to our family got them all out and to safety in the High Ridge Pack - which, as you know from the histories, was nothing like it is today. Alphard succumbed to his injuries from the attack a few months later and since then, our family has only been mated to omegas - mostly by choosing our mate - and our children have only been omegas."

"Of course, that was the case until I found out I was the Goddess-given mate of Balor, your birth-father." Weston grimaced, an expression his Dad mirrored. "I don't know why I ended up fated to him, he's terrifying and cruel. As soon as I found out I was pregnant with you Weston, I knew I had to get out for your sake. So I rejected our bond to weaken him temporarily whilst I ran. And that's when I was saved by the White Creek Pack and found your Dad." His Mum smiled lovingly over to Weston's Dad, and he couldn't help but feel thankful his Dad had protected and cherished not just her, but him, for all of these years. "Even though Balor is a terror, you, Weston, are every thing good in this world. Don't forget that."

Weston took a deep breath, picking harder at the bandages around his hand, before his gaze caught on the ledger his Dad slid over to him. "This is Alphard's journal. It was passed down to your Mum from her parents when she was mated to Balor. The only time a hybrid has been born in our - your - line was when someone was fated to an alpha." Weston hated the correction his Dad made. "It's yours now. Balor is ruthless, but he's a strong alpha. There's no telling what you can do Weston."

With a shaking hand, Weston fumbled to take the ledger. This could hold the answers he needed - how to control and balance his omega- and alpha-selves, and be someone worthy of standing beside Cana - as what, he wasn't sure yet. But most importantly, he hoped this would help him figure out how to protect the pack and put the High Ridge Pack in their place for ever messing with White Creek.

***

Weston had left his parent's home with tight hugs and kisses to cheeks, promising that he loved both of them dearly - they were his family. He'd eventually made it back to the room Cana had forced him to stay in and collapsed onto the bed, the weight of both the ledger and the knowledge of his lineage weighing him down heavily. He hadn't managed to rest in the slightest, his thoughts spinning, so smiled when the door eventually opened and he found Cana sprawled next to him a moment later.

"Hindsight is a great thing." He grunted, anger rippling through him as he thought of Garrett and his escape. He could, should, of expected the attempt from someone like him, but to know that someone else in the pack helped him was, as Cana had put it, shit. The kiss to his fingers brought his anger down to a simmer, and he let out a long sigh, "The elders sure have changed their tune... If anything, Garrett has gone running off to the High Ridge Pack with the rogue and whoever the hell else helped him. The man couldn't plan a thing on his own, it's not his own work here. It's Balor." Weston's jaw clenched after he spoke his name, the muscle ticking. "And we probably know what he wants too - me."

Weston's thoughts turned dark, but Cana eventually drew his focus as she leant over him, her fingers in his hair soothing his frayed nerves one by one. His gaze flickered away from her momentarily as he battled with his need to submit after directly disobeying her orders, but managed to look back after a few moments, albeit sheepishly. "Nothing strenuous. Got the twin-stinct idiots to patch me up before I went to see Mum and Dad." He forced a grin onto his face momentarily, before his cheeks flushed and all he could concentrate on was Cana's hand on his cheek and her lips on his.

"I love you too, alp-Cana." Weston's voice was slightly gravely as he kissed the top of her head from where she'd settled on his chest. He wanted to stay in this moment forever, but the heavy presence of the ledger by his side was distracting. His fingers twitched, his mouth opening and closing to tell Cana about it, but he couldn't make himself ruin the moment. Their lives had been anything but peaceful recently and he had no intention of wrecking that - he had the woman he loved in his arms.

Sighing, Weston drew on whatever confidence his alpha-self brought him and rolled the two of them over so he was hovering over Cana carefully, his weight focused on his good hand. With his bandaged hand, he cupped her cheek and smiled softly, "I know I'm not your mate, and can't ever be that for you after Christian, but I have and always will love you. Even if I am the son of the worst alpha in existence." Without hesitation, Weston kissed Cana with every ounce of feeling he had, akin to how he'd kissed her in the cells only a few days ago when he feared for his life. The kiss made him breathless, but he held her as close to him as possible. Things were going to keep changing, and he feared the upheaval his new status would bring to the pack and to Cana, but a new resolve was settling within Weston. He was starting to no longer see himself as just some 'worthless' omega, he was more - a better kind of alpha. Whatever may come he would prove to everyone that he was only a threat if there was reason to feel threatened, and he just hoped he could do so by Cana's side.
********************************************************************
AnimeGenork​

 

[AnimeGenork]

Cana Lowell ~ Alpha of the White Creek Pack

“I don’t doubt it. Garrett is a jerk, but he’s no genius. Probably just wanted a shot at leading the pack.” She snorted. “As if anyone here would let him after all this.” Cana also didn’t doubt that Balor would’ve just gotten rid of Garrett and subsumed the White Creek Pack—from the stories she’d heard about her rival alpha, he was cruel enough to pull something like that. Was it even possible for her to stand up to someone like that? She’d only become the ruling alpha fairly recently; she wasn’t nearly ready enough to lead her pack into war.

Yet she couldn’t be stressed about that right now. Not when she finally had some time to just be Cana. A girl who had fallen for the omega she’d known since they were kids. And hadn’t that taken far too long. He looked awfully cute as he tried not to meet her gaze while admitting he indeed hadn’t rested, but she could understand his reasons for not doing so. “I suppose you’re the one responsible for the twins checking up on me?” She wanted to ask more about his talk with his parents, but she didn’t want to press him, not after all the big reveals they’d both faced in the past twenty-four hours alone. Her brain could barely handle what little she had processed by now—it would probably be best to ask later.

She smiled as he kissed her head. Even though he was still struggling to address her as Cana rather than alpha, she was content. Plus, hearing him return her affections filled her with a sense of relief and wonder that she couldn’t properly describe. Just a little longer, she thought to herself. Let me stay like this with him just a little longer.

Weston seemed to have different plans, but she wasn’t opposed to them. She made a small noise of alarm as he rolled them over, staring up at him with wide eyes. Her face softened at his words, and she kissed him back, her arms tightening around him. When she finally pulled away (she lost track of the time, and really, did it matter?), she cupped his face in her palms with a small grin. “You’re not my mate right now, but don’t rule it out for the future, okay? I don’t care who your dad is, so long as you stay by my side.” Had she just accidentally proposed to him? Maybe. But she didn’t think about that as she kissed him again.

The last time she’d been this happy with another person was Christian. Though hearing his name still caused an ache to appear in her chest, it was significantly duller now that years had passed. And now that she had Weston. In a way, she almost regretted that she hadn’t noticed Weston’s affections sooner—maybe Christian’s life would have been spared. But she also knew that Christian taught her how to love, and she was thankful she’d loved him. It had prepared her to better love Weston now. She only hoped that Christian somewhere would forgive her for loving someone so strongly after she’d loved him. (Though she had a feeling he wouldn’t mind.)

Cana let go of her worries for a few moments to just be here with Weston, and it did wonders for her stress. She hadn’t realized just kissing the man she loved and telling him she loved him could do that, but considering everything going on? It was perfect. By the time she’d expended all the energy she had to kiss her—okay, what were they? Boyfriend and girlfriend? Alpha and omega? (No, wait, that was a movie.) Whatever he was to her, besides the man she loved, she rolled over to catch her breath and bumped her elbow into a book. “Ow!”

Reaching down to pick up the ledger beside her, she held it up. “Were you reading this before I came in?” It looked old. Not ancient, but definitely old, like an heirloom. She put the pieces together. “Did your parents give you this?” Cana reached for his hand and set the ledger aside, not wanting to stain it somehow.

“No pressure to read it now, but… do you want to?” She paused, brushing some of her hair away from her face as she added, “Or… we could just keep cuddling for a while?” It was worth a shot.

This Is Me ​