Chapter 8: Ivan's Story

Ivan Volkov’s POV

Valentine’s Day, 2014

“Quit whining and get in there,” my older brother and Alpha said as we approached the large Pack House. The 2014 National Alpha Summit was being hosted by the Gray’s Peak Pack, a prosperous pack west of Denver. The place was packed, over two hundred Alphas in attendance, most with their Lunas. I had taken notes and networked during the daytime meetings, but now was the thing I dreaded most.

The meat market.

A cocktail party where unmated men and women of breeding were shoved together in the hopes of finding their mates. I didn’t like what they represented, and I already knew I wasn’t going to find her there. “I’d rather take a run after being cooped up all day,” I said.

“It’s the rules. All unmated Betas and Alphas and their children of age are required to attend, and no one can leave for at least an hour unless their mate is with them,” Leo said. “Catherine and I are meeting with some friends from the Iron Range. Don’t wait up for us.”

“Don’t wait up for me, I’ll be back when the moon sets and my run is done.” Leaving them behind, I joined the line of men heading for the east entrance to the ballroom. At precisely seven PM, the doors opened and a line of men started to file in. I was about halfway back in the line, and this wasn’t my first time at one of these. It was a more organized than others, a long reception line of ladies in dresses wound back and forth inside the room. Each male would greet a female, lift her hand to his nose and sniff. If there was no match, he would smile and move on. When a match was found, the hosts and their security members would quickly remove them from the room before they started screwing on the floor.

The show must go on, after all.

This was my third one of these, eighteen being the minimum age. I had found my mate in the second; when I scented her, my eyes got wide and I froze. She smelled my neck, shaking her head in disappointment. “No Alpha mantle,” she said to me.

“Second son of the Welch Pack Alphas in Minnesota.”

“Not interested second child of the Provo Pack,” she replied. “I have better offers than you already. I reject you,” she looked down at my nametag, “Ivan Volkov.”

“I reject you as well, Tonya Skyles, you heartless bitch,” I said back. I continued with the meetup as if nothing had happened.

Tonya’s mating to an Alpha in Idaho was announced that night with dozens of other pairings, as I sat at the bar and drank myself into oblivion.

Tonight would end up the same way. I started the motions of introducing myself to the ladies. I did have a plan; make it through the line, hang out at the bar with the other disillusioned, and find a willing female to share a night of meaningless but athletic sex. I was looking for those who were just as tired of this charade as I was, and I had invited a half-dozen ladies to join me at the bar by the time I exited the line. Making my way to the bar, I bought two bottles of tequila and asked for seven glasses. Pouring all seven, I downed the first and refilled it before my first lady arrived. “Ivan, did you save one for me,” the blonde she-wolf said.

“If you’d like to join me on a trip to oblivion, I’m your man,” I said. “Here you go, Lynn.”

“To another year of freedom,” she said as she raised her glass.

“Freedom.” We tossed the shots back, and I poured more as other ladies arrived. Brenda, Lori, Dawn, Charlotte, and Gina stopped by to say hello and have a shot. Over the next twenty minutes, all but Lynn and Brenda moved on to other males. The bar was crowded and loud; I grabbed what remained in the second bottle and stood up. “I need to get out of here. I don’t want to hear another word about mates and how wonderful they are tonight,” I said. Lynn wanted to stay, but Brenda asked me to walk her to her room.

I was a little confused, as Brenda wasn’t giving off signals she was interested. Still, I offered her my arm and escorted her out of the room. “Why are you so jaded about the whole mate thing, Ivan,” she asked as we got outside.

“I found mine last year; she was upset I didn’t have what you have, an Alpha mantle. She rejected me before she knew anything else about me. Hell, she had to read my nametag so she could finish her rejection,” I said with a sneer. “I don’t know or care what Luna thought she was doing. Half of human marriages end in divorce; I don’t think Luna is any better at the game. For every disgustingly in love and devoted pair, there’s probably another who don’t belong together.”

“And yet our culture and traditions insist on it,” she said. “You’re lucky; you get a choice in the matter. My father is not allowing me the same.”

“He cannot force you to mate someone, that is against our laws!”

“True. He cannot force me to mate a particular male, but the pressure to take a mate is a different thing.” We reached her room; she opened it and invited me in. The portable housing was cozy, to say the least. The room contained a full-sized bed, a dresser, television, and a tiny bathroom with a shower. She sat on the bed, patting the space next to her. I pulled an emptry drawer out of the dresser, setting it on edge as a table, and set the bottle and the shot glasses on top of it before sitting down. “Can I speak frankly, Ivan? Can you hold what I tell you in strict confidence?”

“I would be disappointed if you did not, Brenda.” I poured us each a shot.

“My father is not well,” she said. “My mother passed away last year, and he won’t be far behind. I am the heir to the Pack, and I need a mate to run it properly.”

“There are plenty of males here who would love to take you on just for the Alpha position, not just because you are a desirable young woman,” I said. “If the word gets out, they will be hounding you.” Of course, she hadn’t found her mate tonight. “Are you disappointed you didn’t find your mate here?” I raised my drink to my lips.

“I knew I would not,” she said. “I’m gay.”

That was enough to cause me to choke on my tequila. “What?”

“I’m a lesbian. I have no mate because I have no interest in men, I never have.”

“I bet that went over well with Daddy.” Werewolves, especially Alpha males, were tradition-bound and patriarchal. Homosexuality might be tolerated in the lower ranks, but there were no openly gay Alphas of either sex. A male might never take a mate and hide his true affections, but a female Alpha could not. I could see the truth in her face. “He doesn’t know.”

“No one does,” she said. “My lovers have been few, human, and distant. I know what will happen if the Alpha position transfers to me while I’m unmated, or if I was to come out. My Pack and I will be looked at as weak, a tempting target for anyone who fancied a challenge. I wouldn’t last a year before it was taken from me.” She tossed a shot back and poured another. “What I’m looking for is a partner, not a mate.”

I could see where the conversation was going. “You think I could be that partner?”

“You do not believe in or expect a mating to result in anything mystical like true love. You are smart, strong and ready to lead a Pack by my side. A partnership would get you out of your brother’s shadow, and my Pack would gain a strong defender. I would not prevent you from seeking your pleasure in others, just as you would not prevent me from my own liasons. Both of us would use discretion, of course. We must maintain appearances.”

“Of course,” I said. It wasn’t that mated pairs couldn’t cheat, they just couldn’t do it without the other feeling it. It didn’t cause pain, but there was no mistaking when your mate was having sex with another. “You can’t fake the mating claim, Brenda. I would have to bite you and mate you, and you would have to bite me back.”

“You wouldn’t be my first man; in my youth, I slept with a man before accepting my true orientation. I would be expected to bear an heir, so sex between us will be required to achieve that. In the Pack’s eyes, we need to be a stable and loving Alpha pair. You should not expect it to occur more often than required, though. I’m sure you can find your release elsewhere.”

I leaned back against the headboard, considering what she was offering. The chance to become an Alpha did not come along often. My only other path to the job would be if my brother and his mate passed without an heir, the Alpha mantle dying with him. Having the Alpha Mantle was important; with it, your wolf was stronger and your command over a Pack was more complete. If I mated with Brenda, the mantle she received from her father at birth would be shared with me. My son or daughter would carry it after I was gone. “So to summarize; we agree to begin a courtship leading to us mating and leading your Pack together, presenting the image of a loving Alpha pair. Both of us may seek our sexual satisfaction, discreetly and freely, preferably far from our home.”

“It’s not the mating either of us thought we would get as pups, but both of us would benefit, as would our Pack,” Brenda said. “I don’t need a commitment to our deal tonight, but I would like to set the groundwork if you are agreeable.”

“What kind of groundwork?”

“We clearly aren’t fated mates, but we do need to show interest in each other among the others. You stay here tonight, sleeping in my bed so our scents mingle. We eat our meals together, we take walks while holding hands, and are seen kissing. I introduce you to my father, and you introduce me to your brother and his mate.”

“And after this summit?”

“We date for a few months, each of us traveling to the other’s Pack. Along the way, if we both agree to proceed, we set a date for the mating ceremony.”

“And then we join together,” I said.

“Exactly.” She poured us each another shot. “That is tomorrow. For tonight, I want to get gloriously drunk and forget about the shit-storm that my life has become. I’d like you to join me.”

I raised my glass in a toast to her. “It would be my honor, Alpha-Heir Brenda Petersen.” We clicked our glasses together and drank.

The hangover promised to be epic.