Desert Heat (Complete)

{Third Person’s P.O.V.}

The Desert Moon pack members along with Kendrick and Melody slowly diffused the tension after Wyatt left to go be with Rylee. Kendrick and Melody both couldn’t deny the fact that Allie was right, no one handled this situation correctly, and as ranked members themselves, they also felt ashamed. Though, the Desert Moon members didn’t feel any better about it. Sin in particular. She acted hastily when the situation got out of hand and put her unborn pup at risk.

After everyone was calm again, Allie apologized for her outburst to everyone, and sincerely congratulated the pack on the birth of the Gamma pups, something no one had properly done yet. Ronan, Grace, Felix, and Zoe came as quickly as they could after hearing the commotion, or more like feeling the commotion. According to them, someone had shaken the entire castle and thought that it was Wyatt. But they were shocked to learn that it was Allie who had done so.

The Desert Moon Luna was stunned herself. She had no idea she had done that. It made sense as to why Dani showed up out of nowhere. It was then everyone realized that they didn’t contact Andre and Dani when Wyatt had requested the presence of Dorian’s ranked members. Everyone forgot that they couldn’t mind link. Dorian apologized for the oversight, but Andre waved it off saying he was glad he didn’t have to see Allie so angry.

Once everything was explained as to what caused the hullabaloo, everyone was at complete ease. What they didn’t know was that someone was watching and overheard everything. Even the fact that the newborn Gamma pups were Jade wolves. This information would come in handy for this person. They snuck away unnoticed and stopped by the Gamma’s hospital room.

Jason and Milan were fawning over their new children, and Jason was consoling Milan over something. It was evident he explained everything to her when it came to their pups, and why he was so worried the moment he saw their birth. Milan, though a fighter and one tough cookie couldn’t stop the emotions following the news that her children could possibly be at risk if the traffickers weren’t caught.

The unknown person slipped away into the night to report this information to the one who hired them. A spy if you will. One hired to gather information and report back with anything that could be of use, and boy did this person have information. The spy made sure that they were secluded and away from prying eyes and ears before making the call.

“Hello? Have you learned anything?”

“I have. I have learned a lot.”

“Tell me.”

“First, you must keep your word. If I give you this information, you promise me safe haven.”

“Done. Now tell me what you have learned.”

“Well, the fact that Luna Rylee is some kind of powerful wolf with a lot of powers. Everyone was under the impression she could only read minds and move things with her mind. That’s apparently not the case. Also, I’ve learned where the two individuals you were asking about went to.”

“I already know where they are, they are at Golden Moon.”

“Okay, well, the Gamma gave birth a few hours ago, and her pups are what everyone is calling Jade wolves.”

“What? Are you saying that both twins are a Jade wolf?”

“Yes. That’s what I heard.”

“Anything else?”

“Yes. There is a visiting pack of wolves. Desert Moon, I believe. Apparently, the three high-ranking females are hand chosen wolves by the moon goddess and also have powers of their own. Two are pregnant. The Luna and Gamma.”

“I see. This is very helpful. Very helpful indeed. Thank you for your service. You have my word that once this is all over, you will have safe haven at my pack.”

“Thank you, Alpha Xavier.”

“No, thank you, Sierra.”

{Dorian’s P.O.V.}

“I cannot believe you guys!” Allie shouted at all of us. We were in our guestroom on the fifth floor, and Allie was tearing into all of us for our behavior down in the hospital. I thought that we had buried the hatchet, but I guess that wasn’t the case for us internally. It didn’t help that Allie mind linked Ethan, Lucas, and Sam to come too, who in turn, brought Amber and Ronnie. Our guest room was quite packed.

“Gizmo, we said we’re sorry,” Brandon said. *Smack* “Ow!” he looked up at Amber who had slapped across the head.

“No talking,” she scolded him. Did I mention that Allie had us on our knees with our arms in the air? Lactic acid is no joke.

“Dorian, you’re the worst,” she said to me. “How could you belittle and practically insult Wyatt in front of his Betas that way!? And you told me to be nice!?”

“I wasn’t trying to belittle him. I was trying to help him.”

“He doesn’t need your help! He’s an Alpha himself! It’s as I said, he runs his pack the way he f*****g runs his pack! Not everyone has to do things the way we do at Desert Moon, Dorian! We’re not perfect either! We make mistakes too! It’s not like our entire pack likes us. It’s just not as obvious because our pack is literally half the size of Wyatt’s. Fewer people to hate us.”

“What started the fight anyways?” Ronnie asked.

“Wyatt growled at me, and I growled back. Then he shoved me, and well, that led to me shoving. Then the shoving turned into punching,” Dorian answered.

“Seriously, boss? You let the Alpha growling get you worked up like that?” Sam questioned while lifting an eyebrow at me.

“It doesn’t just have to do with Wyatt standing his ground. Dorian was using that as an excuse to get vengeance on Wyatt for sleeping with Jessica ten years ago when they were still together,” Allie said. How did she even know that?

“What? Seriously? You’re not over that!?” Amber asked me, but not before slapping me upside the head.

“Dorian, that was f*****g ten years ago! You didn’t even like Jessica!” Mikey scoffed at me.

“That’s not the f*****g point!” I shouted at them. “Yes! Okay!? I’m still pissed about Wyatt sleeping with Jessica. But it’s not because it was her, it’s because he belittled me for being impotent at 22! It didn’t help that it didn’t go away for another two years,” I said defending my actions. I looked around and everyone just glared at me.

“Dorian, do you realize that your actions could have cost Sin and me our pups!?” Allie shouted at me. I was suddenly filled with guilt hearing those words. I hadn’t thought about that. “Had that fight gotten any worse, and your wolves had come out, Sin and I could have had miscarriages from the stress alone! Not to mention getting hit by a wolf your size! Or any of your sizes for that matter!” she shouted pointing at Brandon and Mikey.

“Allie, calm down. Breathe little sister,” Amber rubbed her back and soothed her. Amber glared at me and shook her head.

“Dorian, Allison is right. You weren’t acting like an Alpha today. Brandon and Michael, you two weren’t acting any better. I’m sure your parents would be quite disappointed in your actions. Michael, I’m quite disappointed in you. What you three and the Blue Lake boys did was stupid and immature, to say the least. This goes to show that you have no place trying to coach Wyatt on being an Alpha, Dorian, as you yourself still have plenty to learn,” Ethan said to me. I had to admit that kind of stung coming from him.

“Grow the f**k up, Dorian,” Amber said to me bluntly. “Jessica is dead. You’re not impotent anymore. Far from it actually,” she continued and pointed to Allie’s pregnant belly. “We are here to help Wyatt and his pack and all you’ve done is make all of this personal. The only reason we are all here is to stop a group of bad people who are a risk to our kind the rest of the supernatural world. Let’s get this over with, and then we all go back to our respective packs. You guys still have Heather to f*****g deal with it, and Ronnie and I have six kids to raise, along with training a future Alpha in Cam. We do not have time for personal vendettas. Nor should there be any, period. Do I make myself clear!?” we all nodded our heads.

“Everyone go to bed. Tomorrow morning all of you who are not pregnant will be joining the Blue Lakes training regimen. Sin, you, Leah, Dani, and I will go down to the hospital to formally congratulate Gamma Milan on her twins. Then we will get checked out by their pack doctor and nurses to make sure our pups are okay. Then, we will go to the kitchen and help make breakfast. After we eat, we are packing up, and we are going to Golden Moon,” Allie said with authority.

“Hon, you go to training with the boys. I will go to Grace and Ronan and formally apologize for the ruckus my kid brother and his i***t friends caused tonight,” Amber said to Ronning and while gritting her teeth at me. Sometimes I hated having a sister twelve years older than me. We all nodded in agreement, and everyone went their separate ways.

Brandon, Mikey, and I struggled to get up since our arms felt like jelly. I have never had to keep my arms levitated for that long. I guess that was the downside of being as big as we are. We had more weight to carry. Allie and I got ready for bed, and that’s when I saw the clock. It was one in the morning which meant, I would get four hours of sleep before needing to get up for training. This was going to suck.

The next morning, I dragged myself down to the training grounds. I remember where they were from when we were younger, and I was stunned to see so many people.

“Dude, my arms still hurt from last night,” Brandon said walking up next to me. Mikey flanked me from the other side, and he looked like death. Mikey didn’t do well without a lot of sleep and I already knew that training would suck. Andre and the others showed up not too long after, and we all made our way to the back of the group. I guess Wyatt also had men and women training.

“Good morning!” four people bellowed out.

“Morning, Angelo! Owen! Hugo! Maddox!” everyone said in return.

“Are these guys the trainers?” Mikey whispered. I shrugged.

“Where are Sam and Lucas?” Brandon asked.

“Up there,” Andre answered. We all looked. Sam and Lucas joined the four others on the platform.

“For those of you who are wondering, these are Lucas and Sam Hardwick. The head trainers of the Desert Moon pack. As many of you know, they are here visiting our pack, as guests of the Alpha. Today, they will be sharing their morning regimen with us. It will be nice to learn some new techniques from strong fighters such as them. Be courteous and respectful as these outrank all of you. Understood!?”

“Yes, Owen!” everyone responded in unison.

“Good morning, Blue Lake. As Owen was kind enough to introduce us, my name is Lucas, and this is my wife, Sam. Our normal regimen is similar to yours, but we do just a little more. Desert Moon’s regimen consists of a ten-mile run in human form, 200 sits up, 200 push-ups, and group sparring. However, we also have a five-mile run in wolf form. This not only allows you to shift first thing in the morning to let your wolf out, but it also gives them exercise.”

“The reason behind the wolf-run is to keep your wolf in shape too. Just because the human in shape, it doesn’t necessarily mean that your wolf is. The wolf run is just that. A run at your fastest speed. We hear the mumbles and the whispers. People talk, and others listen. You want to know why are men are so big, even those that are not ranked?” Sam asked and a lot of the crowd nodded. “It’s because we don’t stop at morning training.”

“Sam and I are both skilled in various extracurricular activities. Sam is trained in martial arts, and me, well, let’s just say you don’t want me to hold a rifle. I can hit a target dead center mass from over 1,000 yards away.”

“We’re not here to brag, but we’re here to lend a hand. Let’s see if the biggest pack in the central United States can keep up with Desert Moon. First, we’re going to warm up,” Sam added. Someone in the crowd raised their hand.

“What is it, Justin?” Angelo asked him.

“What is the warm-up?”

“Glad you asked,” Sam replied with a smile.

“The warm-up today is going to be 100 burpees, 100 high-knees, 100 Russian twists, 100 mountain climbers, and 100 squat pulses!”

“What the f**k? That’s double what we do in the mornings,” Brandon whispered in my ear.

“I overheard Amber telling Sam and Lucas last night to punish you three,” Andre replied.

“Why punish the Blue Lake pack?” I asked upon hearing this.

“That is something their trainers want,” Ronnie replied. We all looked at him. “Apparently, a lot of their pack members had been skipping on morning training. And that Wyatt wasn’t doing anything about it.” I looked at him in shock and so did everyone else. Why in the world was Wyatt slacking? He knew better.

“Ready, Start!” Lucas shouted. Everyone grumbled and whined.

“Keep bitching and we will double it!” the man named Owen shouted. Everyone got started. This was going to be a long morning.

—–

“Oh!”

“Gah!”

“Ugh!”

“Mmmm!”

“Help.”

Everyone g*****d as they dragged their aching bodies through the castle or around it to go home after the morning workout. This was nothing new for us even if was double, but Wyatt’s pack looked like they were this far from collapsing.

“I think that five-mile run in wolf-form is what got them,” Sam said as she briskly walked past us with Lucas.

“Babe, I think some of them are hurting from you beating the living s**t out of them,” Lucas said to her.

“Lucas, Sam! Hold on!” we all stopped when we saw Owen and Angelo running up to them. They seemed to most fit out of everyone. They were still breathing.

“Yes, Owen?” Lucas replied.

“That was intense. Do you think you can write it down for us? I mean, it’s like you said, it is pretty similar to ours, but that warm-up and the five-mile run in wolf form is what we really needed. Plus, putting advanced fighters against intermediate was a good idea. We always thought it would be dangerous,” he answered.

“Why? Are you afraid that your pack members would actually kill one another during morning training?” I asked him.

“Not at all Alpha, we just never want anyone in the pack hospital so early in the morning,” Angelo said.

“They’re werewolves, they heal,” Brandon said. Angelo and Owen looked at one another and nodded. I saw their eyes cloud over. They were mind-linking one another.

“Just between us, the Alpha has been slacking when it comes to training. After the whole vampire incident, he felt that we didn’t need to train as hard. In his mind, he doesn’t believe that anything like that would happen again,” Owen explained.

“What?” we all said.

“Why would he think that? There’s never a guarantee that packs are safe,” Mikey said to him.

“We know, and we’ve said that to him,” Angelo said.

“Our Alpha hasn’t been the same that day. In all honesty, he hasn’t been himself since our Luna left us two years ago,” Owen replied. “We know that pack members have been talking about the incident that happened last night in the hospital.” We all looked at him. “Sirena, the head nurse, she’s my wife and she saw the whole thing.” We all nodded our heads.

“We keep hearing things about the Luna having left. What exactly happened?” Sam asked.

“Well …” Angelo and Owen spent the next thirty minutes explaining everything that happened between Wyatt and Rylee. We were all floored. I couldn’t believe Wyatt had gone through something so traumatic, and he never once said anything. Sure I hated him for the s**t he pulled all those years ago, but this was something he could have asked for help with. I couldn’t even imagine the amount of pain Wyatt suffered being rejected by his mate while having no memory of her. Only to get his memories back while also recollecting everything he had done.

Had that been me, I probably would have killed myself for ever hurting Allie that way. Dark magic involved or not. That’s hard for any wolf to go through, especially an Alpha. I finally understood why he was so dead set on protecting Rylee and forcing her to suppress her powers. He doesn’t want to lose her again.

“Holy f**k,” Brandon said.

“Sacre bleu,” Andre gasped.

“Damn,” Mikey retorted. Sam and everyone just scoffed at how absurd all of this sounded. Now I really needed to talk to Wyatt. I knew exactly what his problem was.

“Please, Alpha Shaw, we don’t want you to think that we don’t respect Wyatt. We do. We just want him back to his old self. The Wyatt Valencia who ruled our pack with valiance, pride, and honor. He needs to heal, and so does our pack. We just need him to realize it,” Angelo said with his head bowed.

“I understand, and I think I can help,” I replied. They both sighed in relief and turned their heels to leave us.

“I cannot believe that someone would do such a thing. That is horrendous and despicable!” Andre exclaimed.

“And I thought what Jessica did was bad,” Brandon said.

“It’s not surprising something like that happened,” Ethan said.

“Dad? You heard all that?” Mikey asked him.

“I heard it for the most part. Unfortunately, it’s not uncommon for a scorn she-wolf to turn to dark magic for help in getting what she wants. I just never heard of it actually succeeding,” he said rubbing his chin. “Anyways, I just came out here to let you all know that breakfast is ready, and Allison and Sin had their checkups with the pack doctor here. Your pups are fine, and Allison seems to have calmed down a lot.”

“Thanks, Uncle Ethan,” I replied. I dismissed everyone to get cleaned up so we could all eat. Before I went inside, I called Wyatt to check in on him.

“Hello?”

“Wyatt, did you make it to Golden Moon?”

“Yeah, I got here like four hours ago.”

“What? You left at like eleven last night.”

“Yeah, I uh … I had to pull over for a bit.”

“What for?”

“I needed to think.”

“Are you okay? You sound off.” He didn’t answer. I looked at the phone and the line was still open, and I could hear him breathing. “Wyatt?”

“What makes you so special, Dorian?”

“What?”

“You and your wife. Why are you two so f*****g special?”

“Where the hell is this coming from?”

“Last night, I received a visit from an unlikely individual. Someone I never knew would ever show herself to anyone.”

“Oh … The moon goddess showed herself to you.”

“Don’t you mean Selene? I mean, your pack has a relationship with her. What makes you and your f*****g pack so f*****g special that the moon goddess herself would protect you!?”

“Wyatt, I don’t know why Selene chose our pack to protect. She’s the mother of all werewolves. What she does with her powers is her choice. Who are we to question that?”

“Well, I did. I questioned her. I questioned her about a lot of things.”

“And did she give you answers?”

“In her own way, yes.”

“Then leave it at that.”

“What?”

“I said leave it. Whatever your conversation was with the moon goddess, it stays between you and the moon goddess. I don’t want to know, and you’re not going to tell me. But we are going to talk about something else when we see each other, and you’re not going to avoid it either.”

“What are you talking about, Dorian?”

“You’ll see. I need you to tell Alpha Griffin that we are going there, today. And you, Rylee, Allie, and I are going to talk.”

“Talk about wh—” I hung up the phone before he could finish his question. I rubbed my face and grunted in frustration.

“Dorian?” I looked up and saw Allie with a hand towel. “Is everything okay?”

“I think I know what’s wrong with Wyatt, and I’m going to need your help.” She nodded her head and walked over to me. I bent down and picked her up in a hug. I was careful not to squeeze her too tight. Her baby bump was becoming bigger. “I’m sorry, Allie. I was wrong, about everything. I never should have let my personal issues with Wyatt cloud my judgment. I never should have belittled him the way that I did.”

“I’m not the one you should be apologizing to,” she replied and kissed my neck.

“I know. I’ll apologize to Wyatt, but when I see him face to face.”

“I guess I’ll have to apologize too. I never should have lost my temper that way. We were both in the wrong.” I nodded my head and gave her a chaste k**s. Allie led me back inside after I put her down, and I went to go shower before going back down to breakfast.

After eating, we all packed up our things, and Kendrick and Melody were coming with us to Golden Moon. Along with a few of their guards that we met at training this morning. As we were packing our things into the very many SUVs, Allie paused and glanced around.

“What is it, baby?” I asked her.

“We’re being watched,” she answered. I looked around as well but couldn’t sense anything. But I knew better than to question Allie. She looked back towards the cottage across the lake and glared.

“Beta Kendrick?”

“Yes, Luna?”

“That girl Sierra, what do you know about her?”

“A lot.”

“Why is she an outcast? What did she do?” Allie asked. Where was Allie going with this?

“What didn’t she do?” Melody said coming up to us. “She assaulted Rylee when she first got here. Then she helped kidnap Keaton’s mate, Irene so that Keaton’s ex-lover could kill her. And she’s a straight-up bitch.”

“And she wasn’t banished for any of that!?” I asked.

“She’s a whistleblower, in a sense, Alpha Shaw. Wyatt felt that being outcasted was showing her leniency for turning against her friends,” Kendrick responded. “Why do you ask?”

“If you can find a reason to banish her, banish her. And do it soon,” Allie said with all seriousness.

“Luna?”

“She’s scorned, and she’s angry. She’s going to betray your pack. If she hasn’t already.”

“Allie?” I looked at her.

“She’s watching us. Has been since last night in the hospital.”

“She’s not allowed to roam the pack grounds,” Melody said.

“Well, she is, and she’s been eavesdropping on us. All of us. She’s not to be trusted. Find a way to get rid of her and do it soon.” Allie walked away without another word. I followed after her, and we both got into the car with Amber and Ronnie.

“What’s wrong, little sis?” Amber asked her.

“Allie, there’s something you’re not saying,” I said to her and turned her to face me.

“That girl, Sierra. Her soul is dark,” Allie said with tears in her eyes.

“Baby?”

“She’s also Sly’s mate.”