The Alpha's Cub

1. Prologue

Author's Note- I've wanted to write a story like this for quite some time so I do hope you like it. Don'tcallmeleelee did the banner for this story (see cover image).

Thunder rumbled outside a small house along with its friend lightning brightening up the darkened sky. The howling wind thrashed through the trees causing the long limbs to sway from side to side. Heavy rain pelted against the roof as if the sky wept. A man sat in a white, rickety rocking chair in a nursery. He was dressed in a white formal shirt with the tie crinkled from being loosened in haste. His black dress pants already mussed from the day's events. In his arms a baby swathed in a rich red blanket sleeping her steady breathing heard in the shadowy room accompanied by the raging storm outside.

Jacob rocked back and forth in the chair to help keep his little niece asleep. It hadn't taken long for the baby to drift off, but he continued to rock. It also soothed Jake with its repetitive movements after everything that happened.

They buried his sister today. Rachel was gone.

He could still remember with perfect clarity when it was his turn to sprinkle dirt on Rachel. He had to say goodbye to her for the last time that afternoon. Jacob would never again be able to tell her he loved her and how happy it made him when she finally come home to La Push. They hadn't had a close relationship. She had been older than him and both his twin sisters had left him and his father as soon as they were able to. It created a chasm between them that continued to grow the more time passed.

Jacob breathed out a shaky breath as another tear rolled down his face and he didn't bother to wipe it away. He thought he cried all the tears his body could produce, but he was wrong. It wasn't just the grief of losing his sister that affected him. It was also the connection to the one pack member that was so adversely pained by Rachel's death.

Paul Lahote, her husband and the father of the baby girl in his arms.

It had been a nightmare ever since Rachel passed away bare moments after delivering her. Jacob remembered having to wrestle Paul out of the room while his daughter wailed at the top of her lungs. He had barely gotten Paul into the forest before his brother-in-law phased. He would never forget the day she died or the mournful howls filling the early morning as the pack grieved for their lost sister. Paul tore into the forest, destroying everything in his path. He was inconsolable, and every wolf felt his anguish as it spread from his mind into theirs.

He was the alpha and, moreover, he was Jacob's brother in every way that mattered, so he blocked his own sorrow away to run with Paul. They ran to Canada and left Sam, his beta, in charge of La Push. He couldn't be there for Billy and that hurt him, too. Jacob, faced with a difficult decision, of choosing between comforting his Father or Paul. He chose his brother knowing he needed him more.

He eventually was able to get his pack mate to turn around and head back home. Jacob felt Paul shut down within his own mind on the way back. Paul stopped at a wooded area just outside First Beach and remained there for two days, unable to phase back. Paul retreated into the darkness of his mind where the pack could no longer reach him. Jacob made sure there was always a wolf with Paul. For a long time time, Jared rested against him, his wolf rubbing against Paul's flank from time to time, as if begging him to come back. Jared and Sam were the closest to Paul as the three of them had bonded over being first to phase.

Jacob had to step up and help his Dad plan out the funeral arrangements. He didn't have to worry right away about the baby as she wasn't cleared to be taken home at the time. The imprints and Leah made sure one of them was always there to be with her. He lost a lot of sleep trying to hold his family and pack together. There still were dark circles under his eyes from exhaustion.

Jacob's brother-in-law couldn't bear to see his daughter. He left with just a note saying he couldn't do it and he was sorry. There were alcohol bottles littering the floor where he tried to drown his sorrows. He couldn't find it in himself to alpha command Paul to stay. He needed to take this time and, though he'd like to think he would be back in a few weeks or maybe a couple months, something told him it was wishful thinking. Paul Lahote was not coming back for his own daughter, his last connection to Rachel.

The issue of who would be granted custody came up after his disappearance. Rebecca came home for the funeral determined to take their niece home with her to Hawaii, but Jacob put down his foot. His human side thought it was a good idea since she already had a family of her own, but the alpha had already declared her his cub. He couldn't bear to part from her. She had been adopted by his wolf and that was final. He could still remember the fight with his sister and now they weren't talking.

Jacob sighed, rising with care from the rocking chair. He looked around the old guest room. The pack worked wonders while he took care of other matters. There was a reddish brown crib with wolves carved into the bars, and there was even a matching changing table. Flowers were painted on the dresser with painstaking care. The walls were a bright cheery yellow with a forest covering the wall directly in front of him. It had all the wolves in their varying colors leaping over each other or playing hide and seek in the trees. Brady created this work of art. His pack wanted to give this baby the best start despite the circumstances of her birth. She was already very loved by everyone.

He walked out into the hallway still cradling his niece and into his room. There was a white bassinet off to the side of his bed. Jacob was told she needed to sleep in the same room as him so he could get up with her for her nightly feedings. This was the first night he would have her on his own. If he hadn't been so tired he might have been more nervous to be her sole caretaker, but as it was he couldn't muster the energy for it.

He put her down to sleep in the bassinet while humming a lullaby his mother used to sing to him when it looked like she might wake. Jacob watched the steady rise and fall of her chest with the sound of her heartbeat filling the room as the song came to a close. He breathed in deeply letting her milky scent wash over him to reassure his wolf that his cub was fine.

Rachel didn't get the chance to name her, because she thought that once she saw her she would know what to call her. It had driven Paul nuts when she had said that. So Jacob didn't have a name for her that Rachel had picked so he had chosen Elizabeth since it was Rachel's middle name as to honor her Mother. He had decided on Johanna because it was his Mom's middle name. Two strong independent women. He hoped he could raise Elizabeth to be as strong as them.

Elizabeth Johanna Black would always be loved and protected.

Jacob would make sure of it.

Author's Note- I'm new to posting my writing so any reviews would be welcomed.