Disclaimer: Twilight belongs to Stephenie Meyer, not me.
Author/Note 1: This story is the sequel to Our Dawn 5. For the ones who don't know anything about Our Dawn Series, you can always read Our Dawn 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, and Our Dawn Series Specials but if you don't want to bother I have a resume on my profile page. As it would be expected this is a next generation story and as such, it's focused on Jake and Leah's children.
A/Note 2: A huge thank you to everyone who reviewed Our Dawn Series so far.
A/Note 3: I'm not a native English speaker so I'm sorry for my grammar and spelling. Thank you for reading.
Alpha
Book III – The Challenger
William Black
54. Real Intentions
"Who is she? And how does she know who I am?"
And why the hell did she call me 'challenger'? I left that final question unsaid though.
"Her name is Dana Hansen. She's from the Makah Reservation." Dad replied. "Sam, can you go replace Leah for a few minutes, please? I want her to hear what Dana has to tell us."
"Sure." Sam agreed. "Please go home with your mother. I promise I'll talk to you in the morning." Sam added facing his daughter.
I saw Ella's eyes briefly fall upon Jay and then she finally nodded, leaving with Emily.
"Quil… can you make sure Jay gets home safe and sound?" Dad asked Quil.
"Sure Jake."
"Tell him what he needs to know in order to keep his head and his… nether parts."
"I will." Quil grinned and pulled Jay with him and out of the door. I guess Jay was about to find out he had imprinted on Sam's daughter. That meant that Ella and Jay's imprint was not a secret anymore. Sam had tried to prevent Ella and Jay from seeing each other but he had failed, just like I had predicted. Those were actually good news for me since soon Sarah would know everything and it wouldn't be through me. I was off the hook.
The only people in the room now were my dad, the girl named Dana, and me. I felt the air getting tense so, before mom arrived I went to the kitchen to prepare something to eat since my last meal had been hours ago and I had only eaten three cinnamon cookies and a chocolate bar. All of the food that Eva had left in the small cottage where Rhea had stayed as a hostage consisted of cookies, chocolate bars, some fruit, cucumbers, and carrots. It seemed that vampires had the tendency of forgetting human food habits after a couple of centuries or so.
"Is everything okay with Rhea?" Dad asked joining me in the kitchen for a cup of coffee.
"I guess." I shrugged. I had no idea how she was feeling right now but at least she hadn't completely freaked out. That had to be a good sign.
"Did you ask her about her… pregnancy?"
"Yes."
"And?"
"She doesn't know for sure. But if she was ever pregnant, she had a miscarriage after a month or so. She didn't go to the doctors so it's hard to tell." I explained. "One of these days I'll convince her to go see Carlisle. Maybe he can tell us something more."
"So I'm not a granddad." Dad teased.
"No, not yet." I joked. "But if you're in such a hurry, I can…"
"Don't finish that sentence, your mother's coming and I don't think she'd enjoy hearing you say that."
"I'm only joking."
"I know… but she doesn't." He winked at me.
"In that case, I'm just going to warn you that I want at least five." I joked again. "I just hope you and mom can cope with that."
"I think you won't be able to cope with one much less five. You better rethink your decision, son." Dad laughed and went to the porch to wait for mom.
She was a bit nervous when she arrived and saw Dana sitting down in the living room. I wondered what kind of news a young teenage girl could bring from the Makah Reservation that could put my mother so anxious.
I stood quietly by the living room's door while my parents surrounded Dana.
"Odessa sent you?" Mom asked her after taking the girl's hands in hers.
"No." She answered.
"Then why did you ask Ella to bring you here in the middle of the night?" Dad questioned.
"I need protection." She replied calmly. Both my parents exchanged a look.
"Odessa asked us to protect you but your reservation and your people are safe. There are no threats in the area. The Cullens are here for now but they are not like the other Cold Ones. You're in no danger, Dana." Mom explained.
"I need protection…" She repeated. "From her. From Odessa." The young girl said. "She's been lying to you. She's been lying to everyone from the start."
Mom released Dana's hands and backed away a few steps. Dad just looked confused.
"I'm going to go for the obvious question here." I came forward. "Who the hell is Odessa?"
Mom and dad looked at me for a couple of seconds and then they focused on Dana again.
"My great-grandmother was an important member of the Makah tribe since she was very young. She was a healer but her life was always connected with the death realm. She shared her mother's womb with a twin sister who died at birth. Her mother committed suicide when she was four years old. Her father, a Navajo man, never recognized her as his daughter. Her first boyfriend, Ian Wells was killed by a Cold One when he was sixteen and no one believed her when she said that a monster with red eyes had killed him. She spent a couple of years trying to prove the existence of vampires until she eventually learned about the Quileute legends. Using ancient magic forces she managed to…" Dana closed her white eyes forcefully as if she was in pain but a minute later she opened them again. "She wants to speak to you but I can't let that happen because she'll convince you that she only means well and that I'm making a storm out of nothing."
"I still don't know who the hell this woman is." I interrupted. "It's obvious she's some sort of a spiritual leader but what does she have to do with us?"
"You only exist because of her," Dana stated.
"I exist because my parents had sex, not because of an old woman…" I snorted.
"She bound your parents' Earth spirits so they could create the most powerful warriors ever," Dana said matter-of-factly. "Odessa is responsible for many things you never dreamed of."
"Like what?" Mom demanded.
"Like the return of the Cold Ones to Forks and Emily Young's visit to La Push when you were worried about your boyfriend's weird behavior. She needed a pack to be forged and after you became a wolf, she needed to remove Sam Uley from your life, so she made Emily come here."
"Are you saying Odessa made Sam imprint on Emily?" Mom asked.
"No. The warrior spirits made Sam imprint on Emily. Odessa only showed them a suitable candidate."
"Because I was not a suitable candidate for Sam?"
"No, because Sam was not a suitable candidate for you." The girl explained. "You see when Sarah Wilde went to Odessa seeking protection for her twin girls, she went there with your mother and Odessa felt a huge power in the child Sue was expecting. So she bound the baby's Earth spirit to the most powerful wolf warrior to come. It was your spirit, Leah that chose Jacob as your mate, not Odessa or ancient magic."
"Look… Can you just cut the crap and tell us why you're here and why Odessa is so damn important because I'm at a lost right now." I referred.
"Years ago Odessa knew of a prophecy made by Neeve Clearview and Martha Young, Ephraim Black's wife."
"My great-grandmother," Dad informed. "People said she dreamed of the future."
Great. Another Alice. I thought not so impressed.
"She saw a cataclysm. A tragedy of huge proportions that will cause our tribes' destruction." Dana told us.
"In that case, there's nothing to worry about," I said. "The successive government laws are doing exactly what she predicted. The native-American population decreases each year. We live in fucking Reservations like caged animals."
"She saw a huge war. And humans were not the only ones involved." Dana explained.
"And our hope relies on a pair of twin brothers." My dad finished. "Odessa assured me that you and Harry were the ones. However, she also said that you and your brother would fight a deadly bout to win my position as alpha. One of you would die so that's why I decided to split the pack and make sure both of you could be alphas of different packs."
"Do you really think I would kill my own brother just to win your place?" I asked. I couldn't hide the huge sense of anger that those words had provoked in me. I was impulsive sometimes but I would never attack my twin brother just to have the alpha position. And it hurt to know that my parents thought otherwise. "And I know that Harry would never do that either!"
"I don't think that you would do that to your brother… or him to you," Dad said. "At least not willingly, but when we're controlled by our wolf spirit things change… I almost killed Sam once because of your mother. I didn't want to hurt him that bad but the wolf inside of me wanted to get rid of him so badly that I just lost control."
I understood his point of view but I still knew I would never hurt my brother.
"You're the challenger, William. It's in your blood to challenge whoever you want to, even your own brother. But Odessa lied about that. There is no evidence that such bout will ever occur or that one of you will actually die by the hands of the other."
I still wondered why she kept calling me 'challenger' but I decided not to question her right now.
"Are you sure about that?" Mom asked expectantly. "How do you know Odessa was lying?"
"She controls my body sometimes and when that happens I have access to her thoughts and memories. I was not supposed to fight when she controls me but yesterday I did and I found out what she really wants."
"And what's that?" Dad asked.
"She wants our tribe to have our own pack. Our own protectors. She feels that it's unfair that only Quileutes have the ability to be protectors. You're the only tribe that carries the wolf gene. Ian Wells died because the Makah people doesn't have a pack of protecting warriors like you. That's what she wants."
"We're not the only pack." Mom said. "There's another one in Canada."
"They are descendants of a Quileute. They will bow down to the great alpha when the time comes."
"I don't want them to bow down to me."
"I wasn't talking about you, Jacob. You are the current leader of the pack and probably the best alpha that La Push has ever met but you're not the great alpha warrior that will merge the packs together."
"Okay…" Dad raised his eyebrows. "So… what exactly does Odessa want to do in order to have a pack in the Makah Reservation?"
"She needs to create one. In the beginning, she wanted your first born child but then Leah got pregnant with twins. So she lied to you about the boys having to duel with each other so you would have another child."
"She's after Isaac?" I questioned.
"She was but not anymore. The third child is said to be the strongest of your lineage, and he probably is, but from the moment your daughter was born, Odessa knew she was the key."
"The key for what?" Mom and dad asked at the same time.
"The key to everything. Sarah is the only one who can start my tribe's own pack. Odessa wants her to be the mother of our first generation of protectors." She said. "Sarah's children will carry the wolf gene. She just needs to be sure the father of her children is a Makah."
"That's why she wanted our boys separated." My mother acknowledged. "She needs Sarah to phase as soon as possible, right?"
"Yes. Getting rid of the potential alphas was her goal. If all of your heirs are away leading other packs, another will have to take their place and Sarah's the next in the line." Dana replied. "My great-grandmother's intentions are good but I can't let her mess with another life after ruining so many others."
"There's no big deal." I pointed out. "I'm still here. I'm still a candidate for the alpha position and so is Harry when he returns."
"Harry won't return so soon and you're already an alpha. Didn't you notice?" Dana asked me.
"I'm not an alpha." I opposed. I would've noticed. I wasn't that clueless.
"You have your alpha female now. You are a pack."
Was she for real?
"You'll have a bigger pack in the future." She added.
"Another Alice wannabe?" I questioned my parents rolling my eyes. "It looks like these days everywhere I turn to there's someone claiming to know the fucking future."
"Language, Will." Mom warned.
"Why are you buying all of this shit?"
"I just…" Mom couldn't finish her sentence because, in that moment, Dana fell right on the floor. One minute she was quietly sitting down on the chair, the other she was on the floor making strange noises. When she finally rose, her eyes weren't white anymore.
"Holy fuck!" I cursed and this time mom didn't scold me. "What happened to her eyes?"
"You believed my great-granddaughter, didn't you?" Dana spoke with a different voice. She didn't sit on the chair, walking over to the window instead.
"Are you saying she lied?" Mom asked.
"No. I'm not saying she lied but she's just a child. A naïve, young child. She doesn't understand what's going to happen."
"Did you lie to me about the twins?"
"It wasn't a lie, Jacob Black. Not completely anyway…"
"You said one would kill the other for the alpha position!" Dad raised his voice, clearly upset.
"I did what I had to do to ensure you two had more children. I needed you to have a girl."
"So you did lie. The question is why?"
"To protect my people! That's why!" Dana exclaimed. "You almost ruined everything!"
"Excuse me?" Mom crossed her arms defensively. "Ruined what exactly?"
"It's exhausting to plan the future, you know? When I met Sarah and Sue many years ago, I knew their children would be special. I already knew about the legends and the wolf gene. I figured it was time to have a pack again in La Push."
"The pack was formed because there were vampires around, not because of you!" My dad opposed.
"The pack was formed because I brought the vampires here, you moron." Dana countered.
"So Dana wasn't making it up?" Mom questioned.
"No, she wasn't. Your bloodsucking friends were going to buy a property in Montana that year but I spoke to the ancient spirits and the property they wanted to buy was removed from the market and they had to change their plans and came to Forks instead. Then Samuel Uley phased and I knew it was only a matter of time until you phased too, Leah. By then your Earth spirit was already tied up to Jacob's but both of you were too stupid to see that. Jacob was pursuing a pale and annoying girl and you were stuck on the Uley boy, so I took… measures."
"So you made Emily come to visit me so Sam could meet her?"
"Yes. And then I told the vampire who wanted revenge where to go… so she could get rid of the pale girl for me."
"You sent Irina after us?" Dad was astonished. "Seth and I almost died! And Bella… she…"
"She became a Cold One like her lover and now she will live forever. She got what she wanted. As for you and Seth Clearwater, you both lived so… no harm was done."
"You're crazy!" Both my parents said.
"I was desperate! You were growing apart!" Dana yelled. "You," She pointed to my mother. "You were suicidal and didn't trust anyone. And he was obsessed with that pale and clumsy girl. I had worked so hard to tie your Earth spirits together. I wasn't going to let all of that effort be wasted."
"What does that supposed to mean?"
"It means you two were meant to create a new generation of protectors."
"So you used old magic to make us what? Sleep together?" My mother yelled back. "Because for your information, I slept with Jacob because I fell in love with him!"
"Fine! I'm glad you were in love with each other, I seriously am but my plans couldn't depend on love. All I needed was for you to have children. Have you ever asked yourself how you were able to conceive when you were sterile?"
"It's called the mating season."
"You didn't conceive during the mating season, Leah. You know that."
Mom and dad exchanged another look. I had no idea if they were confused, disturbed or just angry.
"So let's say that you did all of that and succeeded. You made the Cullens come here, you got us together after getting rid of Sam and Bella. Leah and I had five children… Including a girl. Why did you keep the lies?"
"You really want our daughter to marry a Makah boy and have his children?" Mom asked.
"Yes. I want Sarah to come to the Makah Reservation and marry one of our young boys." Dana admitted.
"She's not going anywhere." My father said. He was quite serious. "She's my daughter! No one will take her away from me."
Dana laughed slightly.
"With the protector gone and both the challenger and the third leading their own packs, Sarah will phase soon and then you'll beg for my help."
"We won't beg for anything," Dad said stubbornly.
"With us, Sarah will be perfectly safe," Mom added.
"No, she won't," Dana said. "She'll never be safe because your daughter is the only alpha female in history. She's special."
"I'm an alpha female. Gwen was an alpha female. Apparently, even Rhea White is an alpha female… and there were more in the past, or so you told me."
"All of you are or were alpha females by association. You're an alpha female because your mate is the alpha male. Actually, Gwendolyn was never an alpha female because she didn't mate with Lance Dunne. Sarah's an alpha female by birthright and that changes everything."
"Why?" I decided to ask. "Why is my sister so special?"
"She's special because whoever mates with her will become alpha." Dana grinned. "And who doesn't want to be alpha? All the non-imprinted males will want to mate with her. They won't be able to resist and they will use force if needed. Are you getting the picture?"
"No one is touching my sister!"
"They will. The good news is that I can protect her with magic… but you know what I'll ask in return." Dana stated. "Think about it. One more pack in the area means more protection. Sarah would be safe and you would actually have the chance to win the upcoming wars. Make the right decision. Otherwise, your fate will be… nothing but tragic."
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Karisan