A Visit To Stonehill Pack

"There have been attacks," Helena's Uncle said with a slight flinch.

"Attcks?" Helena asked as she gave him a concerned look. "Rouges or other packs?"

Jeremiah pursed his lips and sighed. "Both." He confessed to his niece.

"And you haven't informed Dad?" her eyebrows raised at the realization that her Uncle had been keeping secrets from her stepfather.

When Jonathan called earlier that morning, Helena had been on her way to training. Her stepfather had stopped her and told her that she was needed at Stonehill.

She'd left as soon as she could, well, as soon as she got Rebecca to calm down. The poor girl thought she was leaving for good again.

Helena promised her sister that she would be back by tomorrow. At first, Rebecca still wouldn't let her leave and begged to be brought along.

She was honestly surprised that Rebecca hadn't woken Romeo up. Rae, whose room was a door down from hers, was at training, and Romeo was probably too exhausted from the night before.

"Uncle?" Helena asked again when she realized her Uncle didn't answer her question.

"Raul and Alyssa are aware," he promised her.

"And Romeo?" she asked.

"I'm not too sure," Jeremiah shrugged. "I'm assuming his father will tell him after the Rite. This is too much to burden him with at the moment."

"What do you mean, Uncle?" she tilted her head to the side. "Blackmoon is our closest ally."

"And Romeo is distracted," Jeremiah argued. "Plus, we haven't had any issues fending the attackers off. There have just been more attacks along our other borders."

Helena nodded as they went through the main street of the Stonehill Pack's territory.

"I think they are testing us," Jeremiah eventually confessed. "Blackmoon has just become the most powerful pack in the world and if they think that you and Romeo—"

"My position as your heir is only temporary, Uncle," Helena said, cutting him off midsentence.

She knew where he was going with this, it was something that was unlikely to happen.

"I know, but—"

"Plus, we don't even know if I'm Romeo's mate. We've never been in the same place during the Blood Moon," she reminded him.

"But this year you will be," Jeremiah pointed out.

"I don't think so," Helena admitted.

"You're leaving again?" Jeremiah asked as they were greeted by several pack members.

"You know why, Uncle," Helena said with an exasperated sigh. Out of all the people, she'd think her Uncle would understand.

He'd had a mate, and she'd left him, and when she bonded with another wolf, it had been so painful that the Moon Goddess took pity on Jeremiah and gave him a second chance mate.

Of all the people in her life, he was the one who knew she avoided spending time with others during the Blood Moon.

"He would care for you," Jeremiah told her as they stopped by the pack hospital. "He'd love you."

"And if we wake up on the Blood Moon and we aren't mates?" Helena questioned.

Jeremiah reached out and held her hand. "You just have to trust that the Moon Goddess will match you with the one meant for you."

Helena wanted to argue, but she knew it would be pointless.

Sometimes, she wanted Romeo to be her mate, to have the same happily ever after most wolves had, but then she remembered those that didn't.

Her Uncle, whose mate rejected him because he wasn't the typical Alpha.

Her mother and stepfather who'd lost their mates to war and battles.

"Let's visit the wounded, shall we?" Jeremiah said as he gestured for Helena to follow.

They were greeted by smiles and bows by the sick and wounded and their families.

"Luckily, no one was in critical condition from the attack," her Uncle's head warrior said as they sat in one of the wards for the injured warriors.

"Just a few scrapes, Alphas," one of the men that had to be kept in the hospital said with a wink as he pointed at his now healed abdomen. "Was careless, and one of them got me."

Helena gave him a concerned look.

It would be best if no one was injured, but she kept that thought to herself.

"Were they packed wolves or rouge wolves this time?" Helena asked the head warrior.

"Rogues by the smell of them," the man answered. "Normally, we try to give them a place, to see if they were banished unjustly from their pack, but this group just attacked."

"They were starved and half-mad like they'd been rogue for a while," another warrior sighed.

"Why—" Helena was about to ask a question when someone entered the room, seemingly out of breath.

"Alphas—" the man said as he leaned against the wall. "I came as fast as I could. There's a visiting Alpha, and he demands to see both of you."

"Thank you for entertaining us," Helena said as she got up.

"Thank you for visiting us, Alpha Helena," one of the warriors said as he bowed his head. "Seeing you and speaking with you reminds us of how promising this pack's future is. We hope you find your mate during the Blood Moon."

Helena simply gave the warrior a smile before following her Uncle as he left the room.