Chapter 30

Here is the official last chapter of Marked by the Alpha. Hope you all enjoy and just know, there will be a sequel. I love all my fans who helped get this book noticed and I love you guys for reading and not giving up on it even if it did take a long time to upload.

NOT EDITED **

Xo, zabelle06

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As I watched my father’s coffin slowly descend into the ground, a tear rolled down my warm cheek. Weston kept a warm arm around my waist for comfort, which I was greatly thankful for. My hand clutched my brothers own tightly as he kept a straight face, not sure how to deal with all this quite yet. My mom sent us a sympathetic smile, rubbing our backs.

There weren’t many people here at the funeral. In fact, the only ones here were my mom, Darren, Kelly, Weston, Sandra, and me. The sound of the heavy sobs of Sandra filled the silence as she trembled and collapsed onto the floor. I rolled my eyes. Just earlier today, she snapped at the lawyer for not giving her the amount of money she wanted.

You may be thinking, why am I crying?

Well, he was still my dad. I grew up around him and his morals. He was there to wipe the tears off my face when I had a scratch on my knee. He was there as I learned how to ride a bike. He made me my favorite cocoa and marshmallows when I had a nightmare. He was there like any other father.

And just like that, he was gone.

He left this earth with the memory of me snapping at him, refusing to be called his child, and refusing to spend some time with him. Sure, he caused me great pain, he watched as I suffered, almost killed my boyfriend, and tried to kidnap me for hopes that he would find both the Crescent and Stone Pack and the Healers.

But, again, he was still my father.

We left the burial and headed for my house, where we all just sat on the stone bench in the garden and looked at the stars the littered on the black stretch of canvas. My mom excused herself to help Aunt Feli whip up something to eat. Weston and Kelly went inside for a bit to give Darren and I some alone time.

“How’s the Pack?” Darren asked his voice loud in the silence.

“Good, actually. I was strong enough to heal the wounds just a bit, but wolfs bane still infected it. Other than that, it won’t be too serious. In fact, they’re up and at it, trying to train harder this time around.”

“That’s my little sis,” Darren smiled proudly, ruffling my hair. “What’d I say? You are strong. Tell me why again.”

“Because you’re my brother,” I laughed, reminiscing in the times he used to tell me that when I was feeling down.

“What about Warren? You haven’t updated me on that kid.”

After the fight with the hunters, we found that Warren disappeared. It wasn’t hard to find him, though. Weston just sniffed his scent trail and the blood on the floor was a huge indication. He wasn’t too far off either. Apparently, George did try to kill him. Go figure. One hunter stabbed his leg with a spear and he was limping into the forest where we found him washing out his wound in the river.

Weston kind of noticed Warren’s connection to the pack being broken, but dismissed it because he thought it was his way of dealing with his parent’s death. Weston was also angered by the thought that Warren tried to kill his mate, so on instinct, he tried to kill Warren right away. That was until Stacy stepped in and stood up for him although the crap Warren put her through.

Warren had a mental illness where his wolf shut him off because of going against his pack and hurting his mate. This caused him to go crazy. Therefore, he was admitted into a Wolf Camp and won’t be coming back until he had the proper treatment. Until then, Weston promised to welcome him back to the pack because they were best friends. Eli will be taking his spot as Beta from here on out.

It went silent for a while, the crickets making noise in the night sky. The silence actually comforted me, but I felt Darren’s tension. I looked at him, but he refused to look back.

“It’s all my fault,” Darren sighed, running his hand through his dark hair. I looked up at him in question and laid my head against his tense shoulder. “Dad’s gone because I killed him.”

I froze. This is what he was tense about? He felt it was his fault that our father is gone? He was holding this all in and not knowing how to cope with it? I flicked his ear, watching as he flinched and turned to look at him.

“Darren Saunders, don’t you dare say or even think that! You protected mom. Just think if you didn’t save mom, she’d be the one dead and possibly dad too,” I tried convincing him, but it sounded as if I was convincing myself as well.

“You’re right,” he finally gave in. “I’m just sorry, Danny, that he treated you that way.”

Again, the silence engulfed us before he cleared his throat and threw an arm around my shoulder trying to change the topic. “So, my sister being a Healer – isn’t that exciting?”

“It has its ups and downs. The thing that sucks is I have no background. I can’t even train properly. I don’t have any sources. For example, I can’t just heighten my senses like regular wolves. I can’t shift like regular wolves. It took me a while to figure it out and that’s not even half of it,” I groaned in frustration and replayed the words my dad had said to me.

“Oh, Danny, Danny, Danny. You really are a poor wolf. You can’t see the hunters that are hidden in the dark?”

“So what are you going to do about it?” He asked, nudging my shoulder.

“I’ve talked to mom,” I said, dumping the bombshell that I was too afraid to tell anyone. “She said the only way I could do this was to go down to South Dakota where the rest of the Wrodes are.”

“So, are you going to do it?”

I looked at his sad face, before nodding. “I have to, Dar. It’s the only way I could become better. It’s the only way I could stay alive.”

He flinched. “What did you say?”

“Part of being a Healer is to heal people properly. I, myself, can’t even do that. Mom told me that the Ancient Healers will take my life if I didn’t know how to use my powers correctly. It’s the prophecy.”

“When do you leave? You do know that’s pretty far from here. We live in Alabama for Christ’s sakes,” Darren said after a while. I could tell he was trying to digest all of this. “Did you tell Weston?”

“In a week and no, I haven’t told Weston.”

“Tell me what?” Weston jogged up to me, hugging me from behind. He kissed his mark before pecking me on the lips. I felt my whole body tingle and the pit of my stomach began to flutter as happiness swelled up in me. Fire ignited where his lips touched my skin and where his arms were wrapped around my stomach.

He sat down beside me when Darren made up some lame excuse to help Kelly with something. He smiled that gorgeous smile at me and nuzzled his face into my neck and bringing me in for a hug. “I’m sorry about your dad, babe.”

“I don’t know how to respond to that,” I said as I caressed is face in my hands.

“It’s okay. I didn’t know how either when my mom passed,” he quickly shook off the sadness that hid in his eyes before turning to me again. “So, what was it you were going to tell me?”

I looked into his beautiful blue eyes that I came to memorize before smiling sadly at him. “Remember how I told you that I was finding it hard to be a Healer – how I needed help from my own species?” He nodded, his smile faltering a bit. I felt my heart clench. “Well, I talked to my mom about it and she suggested I live with my family at South Dakota for a while. I need this, Weston. I need it to become stronger – to put my powers to use.” I left out the part about the dying because I don’t think he could cope with it.

“So, then, I’ll come with you,” he said, standing up and looking at the moon. “I’ll go with you and we could live in South Dakota for as long as you need and come back.”

“Wes, I don’t want you to come with me,” I said quietly, but I know he heard me. He snapped his face at me and I could tell he was hurting in the inside. He refused to show it as his eyes grew an ice cold blue.

“What do you mean you don’t want me to come with you? I’m your mate.”

“Wes, you’re an alpha. You can’t just walk away from your pack. They need you. You can’t – “

“So what? Eli can step up and be alpha,” Weston tried to reason with me. “Just until we come back.”

I dropped my smile and stood in front him, looking at him seriously. “You can’t come with me.”

“You’re my mate,” Weston said angrily, his voice rising just a bit. “I don’t care if I my position. I don’t care if I’m not in a pack when I go there. I don’t care if I’m surrounded my Healers. I just want you. You’re my mate.”

I felt my heart breaking at my next words, knowing it was going to break his heart as well. However, I couldn’t be selfish with him. I mean, I could let him follow me. I could let him drop his alpha duty just for my benefit. Because I loved him and the pack, leaving him here was the best thing to do.  Just by the way he was standing, I knew he wasn’t going to stand down until I agreed for him to come with me. So, I did what I had to do.

WESTON’S POV -

“Weston, this can’t work between us,” Danny said, a single tear rolled off her cheek.

Her words hit me like a wave, almost making me tumble to the ground. She looked serious, her green eyes calculating my every move. Every word that was said felt like a blow to my stomach. My heart felt like she was squeezing it herself. I clenched my fists, trying to ignore the pain that was growing inside me – trying to ignore my wolf’s cry. My vision blurred as tears built up in my eyes.

“Weston,” she said, softly, trying to gain my attention.

“I love you,” I said between clenched teeth. I punched the stone bench as hard as I could, my werewolf strength leaving a crack. My eyes blazed from my own anger. She was leaving me. She didn’t even care to give it a chance. I knew I’d stay faithful even if she was miles away. But, she didn’t give me a chance.

Would if she found someone else when she was there? Would if she married him and had kids with him? I felt my wolf howl in agony at the thought and a low growl erupted from my chest.

“I marked you,” my voice began to falter. “Doesn’t that mean anything to you? Don’t you love me?”

“I do love you, but we aren’t going to work out, Weston.”

There it was again – the blow to my stomach and the same clench to my aching heart. I turned away, feeling a tear trickle down my cheek. Suddenly, I was angry. “Bull shit,” I said, not turning to face her again. I felt my hands clench into fists as I walked away. “If you loved me, you’d give it a chance. Have fun in South Dakota, Daniella,” I said bitterly. I felt her flinch as I used her full name.

I ignored my wolf as I got into my car. He was howling at me to gather his mate in his arms, knowing she was crying as well. He wanted me to go back there to remind her the love that they shared. But, I refused it. I growled at him back, letting him know she didn’t care for us anymore.

As I entered the Pack House, both packs were there. They abruptly stopped their laughter and conversations as they heard me slam the front door in rage. I stood there as they took in my red rimmed eyes and the tear streaks on my cheeks.

“Move,” I ordered. Someone tapped me on the shoulder as I made my way in between the crowd, but I growled. “Touch me again and you will lose a fucking finger.”

I locked the door to my room once I got in. I put my back against the door, slowly sliding to the floor as my chest ached at the thought of Danny. Quickly standing up in another fit of rage, I grabbed everything on my side of the room, throwing it across to the other wall. I let out my growl of pain and a frustrated groan, pulling on my hair.

“Weston,” I heard Jade call from the other side, knocking on the door softly. “Open up.”

“Fuck off, Jade,” I commanded. I could already tell my statement hurt her as I heard her soft footsteps patter down the staircase and the soft murmurs of both packs.

The silence that came next was worst than hearing nothing at all. My wolf wasn’t even howling anymore, nor was he growling. He stayed silent and I knew he was just as hurt as I was. I felt my anger diminish, but it was better than what I was feeling now.

Empty.