SAVAGE DESIRE BOOK 2!  For a better understanding of this story, Savage Desire must be read first, please. 

Philip Harrington vs. Troy 'Travis' Stanton

Pix: The sexy hunk, Alpha Philip acted by the yummilicious Tyler Hoechlin

Dedicated to SuperSonicPaGer, for designing this sizzling hawt cover (and all my other covers). He's the best! Thanks, darling.

Merry Christmas y'all!

Enjoy!

***

Weeks Earlier...

In the midst of a fierce battle, two pairs of eyes...one so grey and the other so blue, meet and hold. For one, it is clear...the blue-eyed kid is his mate. But he's so young, he can't help but think even as everything within him...most especially, his practically salivating wolf urges him to go to his mate and claim him as his, right there in the midst of the battle raging around them. He fights the urge and holds back because he knows that it isn't the right time. Lives were at stake. Being there for his pack was his ultimate priority. He decides to concentrate on the battle at hand, and hope that he finds his mate after all was calm...

Blue eyes, on the other hand, isn't that knowledgeable. He doesn't understand why the heated gaze from the handsome grey-eyed man was causing his heart to flutter within his chest, and his body to shiver so deliciously. The man was the enemy. After all, he was the one giving orders to his murderous, bloodthirsty wolves, to massacre his family. So why did he feel a sudden urge to go to him of all people? Too bad he couldn't stay around to find out. To save his own life, he has to flee from the man and the chaos that surrounded them.

***

Present Day...

"Oh shit..." The dark-haired boy of about twenty looked pale with fear as he turned to the gorgeous blonde male standing behind him. "Troy, do something." He squealed as his eyes moved almost frantically to the entrance of the bank. "The police will be here soon."

"Patience, Paul." Troy muttered as he opened beautiful blue eyes and fists which had in them some dried leaves. "Patience." He whispered, his eyes fixed on the street in front of the bank.

"But the sirens are getting closer...oh fuck, here they come." Paul gasped as about four police cars appeared on the street. "Troy, it's too late." His fear-filled eyes moved back to Troy who was calmly blowing the dried leaves out of his palm. "They will be caught. Then they will blame us for..." Paul trailed off when the sounds of sirens suddenly stopped. He turned to look at where the police cars had been mere moments earlier and saw nothing. "Oh, my god you did it." Paul breathed with relief as he wiped his sweaty forehead with the sleeve of his shirt. "That was close." He panted as he watched Troy get to his feet. "Those guys would have killed us."

"What is taking them so long?" Troy grumbled as he stared at the entrance of the bank.

"Come on, come on, come on..." Paul chanted beside him. "Yes!" He fist pumped when four masked men rushed out of the bank with sacks of cash and jumped into the waiting BMW which immediately took off. "Wow! Did you see that?"

"No wonder they took so long." Troy scowled. "Come on, Paul." The two young men started for the bus stop. "They said they were only going to take something small. Did you see all those sacks?" He was clearly miffed. "That wasn't necessary."

"We will just take our share and go our way." Paul said as they got onto a bus that would take them to the hideout of the leader of the gang. "Those guys are dangerous. Please don't challenge them to their face when we get there. They can hurt you."

"Well, I can hurt them too if I put my mind to it." Troy muttered.

"But you won't." Paul said firmly. "You said yourself that doing dark spells is bad for the soul. I'd rather that soul of yours remain pure." He said softly. "Maybe you could turn them into babies or something?" He grinned.

"I don't think I can pull something like that off." Troy chuckled. "Turning bad men into babies was not one of the spells I was taught."

"Well, too bad." Paul sighed. "I don't think they will ever let you go though. They need your skills."

"We'll see about that." Troy muttered as he turned to stare out of the window with a dejected expression on his face.

Troy couldn't believe he'd been reduced to helping criminals, steal. He blamed those wicked, rabid wolves who had destroyed his home weeks earlier. It had been almost a month since those animals had killed all the people in his home and caused him to flee for his life. But for the timely intervention of their handsome but equally wicked leader, those wolves would have killed him too. Troy still saw those beautiful grey eyes in his sleep every day. Strangely, even in sleep, those eyes brought him some peace. But in as much as he liked seeing the face of the man who had saved his life in his dreams, he couldn't help but hate him and his wolves for what they'd done to his clan. If he ever came face to face with that soulless monster again, he was going to burn him alive if it was the last thing he did, Troy vowed silently. He still couldn't believe that everyone he knew was gone. He was pretty sure that some had escaped just as he had been able to. But so far, he didn't know of any other survivors besides himself. He needed them...any member of his clan, Troy thought worriedly.

It was almost that time of the month. He needed a warlock to cast a spell to stop his monthly ailment. He could already feel the beginnings of the restlessness within and it scared him. At a particular time in every month, he felt restless and had some really terrible bodily pains. Mary, a very powerful warlock and wife of the Jackal, who had been his guardian, had always healed him by casting a spell. Troy feared that in the absence of the healing spell, the ailment was going to get very bad. And that was one of the reasons he'd thought he needed that money from the bank robbery that he and his friend Paul had just helped pull off. In the absence of a spell, he could use some of the money to see a real doctor.

Troy had never stepped foot outside the fortress that he'd called home since he could remember before it was destroyed. He'd been, therefore, so confused and overwhelmed when he found himself in the boisterous outside world. He'd gone without food for the first two days, then he began to beg for food on the streets. After being advised by an elderly homeless man to find a job since he was young and energetic enough to earn himself some money, Troy had started doing odd jobs for money. It had been during one of such jobs that he'd befriended Paul, a lively friendly cute twenty-five-year-old who looked younger than his age. The two boys had bonded with each other and become fast friends. Troy loved two things about Paul. One was the fact that Paul saw every misfortune as a blessing in disguise...which actually gave Troy some hope. Secondly, he loved how Paul could make him laugh even when he was worried.

Troy, who had no idea he was supposed to keep his magic-filled life a secret, had told Paul all about his background. Paul had initially thought that Troy was narrating a movie he'd watched or a book he'd read. He'd laughed and applauded Troy's brilliant narrative. When Troy insisted that he was serious, Paul had demanded to see a demonstration. Troy had obliged. Paul's eyes had almost popped out of their sockets in shock when Troy conjured a cat out of thin air after reciting some words for about three minutes. Troy couldn't help the smile that appeared on his face as he recalled the gobsmacked look on his friend's face on that day, weeks earlier...

"Oh, fuck this is...how did you...whose cat is that?" Paul looked shocked, excited and completely freaked out.

"It's a stray." Troy laughed as he reached out to touch the cat. "It's our cat now." He said as he gently stroked the purring cat.

"Dude, we can barely feed ourselves." Paul laughed breathlessly. "You expect us to feed a cat? Whilst living in an abandoned structure? Come on!" He crouched beside Troy and began to pet the cat too. "It's beautiful." He whispered. "What should we call it?"

"Thought you said we couldn't keep it." Troy laughed softly. "How about...Jer?"

"Why that name?" Paul asked curiously, looking at Troy.

"I don't know." Troy shrugged. "That name has always been in my head. I like it."

"Maybe you were called Jer in your previous life as a...vampire." Paul laughed, making Troy laugh too.

Knowing what Troy was capable of had made Paul place him on a certain pedestal. Although at twenty-one Troy was four years younger than Paul, Troy acted as though he was older by always looking out for Paul. It wasn't easy getting by but the two young men were okay because they had each other. All was well until Paul was accosted by a gang of five as he was going to get them some food, one fine afternoon. After waiting for nearly two hours with no sign of Paul, Troy had gone looking for him only to find him in the clutches of a muscled black man. Four other men stood around, looking at Paul with anger and resentment. When Troy demanded to know what was going on, the leader, a man of about thirty with about ten piercings on each ear, sneeringly told Troy that Paul owed them...

"Please let him go." Troy said urgently. "You're hurting his arm."

"His arm." The leader's eyebrow shot up in bemusement. Then he turned to look at his men. "He wants us to let him go because..." he paused for effect, "...we're hurting his arm." The others erupted into laughter.

"Please..." Troy wished he could free his friend from the clutches of the muscled man. Too bad he was just an ordinary slender young boy with no muscles.

"And who are you?" The leader sneered. "The boyfriend?"

"I'm his friend." Troy responded, not missing the shamed look in Paul's eyes.

"Yeah right." The leader chuckled. "If that's what you want to call it. Tell you what..." He leaned against a red BMW. "If you can cough up the three grand that your 'friend'..." he gave the word air quotes, confusing Troy even more, "...owes me, you can have him." He gave a devilish grin.

"Paul, is it true?" Troy looked at his angry but terrified friend. "Do you owe..."

"I owe them noth...ow." Paul's words turned into a gasp of pain when the big man holding him delivered a quick jab to his stomach.

"Hey..." Troy started forward but one of the guys blocked him.

"A month ago, your stupid friend here agreed to make a delivery for us for a fee." The leader said with a dark scowl. "We gave him half of the fee with specific instructions to follow. Deliver the package, take our money from them, and then bring it to us for the rest of your fee. Simple." He gave a humourless chuckle. "What did the moron do? He made the delivery alright but ran out of the place before they could give him my three grand."

"Why don't you go to them for your money?" Paul rasped stonily.

"Because that's not how it works." The leader snapped. "If the person we send doesn't take the money...as you refused to, we can't make demands. There are rules, you little shit."

"Well, I didn't know it was drugs." Paul snapped as he struggled to get away from the man who was holding him. "If I'd known, I wouldn't have agreed to deliver it for you."

"What the fuck did you think it was?" One of the members of the gang asked with a look of disbelief.

"My problem is that you caused me three grand." The leader growled. "And you have to pay."

"How?" Troy asked quietly.

"I don't care how." The leader spread his arms and gave Troy a blank look. "I just want my three grand back. Maybe we can pimp out your friend to the highest bidders. His faggy ass can fetch me a lot of money." The leader said with a thoughtful look. "Know what?" He turned to face Troy with an excited glint in his eyes. "You could actually help. I mean two twinks can pay up faster than just one, right? In fact, that sweet face of yours will fetch me more than..."

"Where did you make the delivery, Paul?" Troy asked his friend, cutting off the gang leader.

"Whatever you're thinking of doing, don't." Paul scowled. "They are very bad people. You can't..."

"And what exactly are you planning on doing, boy?" The leader asked with a laugh as he looked Troy up and down. The other four men burst into laughter.

"I'm going to take your money back." Troy shrugged, not missing the incredulous looks on the faces of the men. "Just tell me, Paul."

Before Paul could speak, the leader rattled off the address of the house to which Paul had delivered the drugs, which was on the very next street. "You can't miss it." He added with an amused grin. "They have heaps of cash in the back room. Just grab my money and bring it to me." He said with mock seriousness.

"Troy, don't." Paul's warning earned him a slap from his chuckling captor.

"Hey, don't hit him." Troy growled. "Give me thirty minutes." He told the leader quietly. "I'll be back with your money." With that, he broke into a run.

"Damn." The leader breathed with incredulous amusement as he watched Troy go. "Your boyfriend is one of those nut cases huh?" He laughed uproariously. "You must be giving him that arse real good."

"He's not gay." Paul growled.

"Really? Then he must be really enjoying your handjobs and blowjobs." The leader chuckled. "I mean I'm straight but I enjoy nutting down a twink's throat once in a while. It's a known fact that you faggots give the best head. Anyway, you know you're not going to see him alive again, right?" He asked Paul who looked like he wanted to murder someone. "What a waste." He breathed. "I guess I just have to make do with one twink. You're not as gorgeous as your friend but you're damn cute so..." He looked in the direction that Troy had disappeared and shook his head with an amused chuckle. "Give me thirty minutes." He comically repeated what Troy had said before running off, making his men laugh. "Idiot."

Troy was back in twenty minutes. And he had exactly three thousand dollars in his hand. "Here's your money. Now let my friend go."

The leader, his men and even Paul looked extremely stunned as they stared at the money that Troy had in his hand. The leader took the money and slowly counted it. Then he just stared at Troy in utter shock.

"Who gave you the money?" The leader asked, his voice low with astonishment.

"I took it." Troy shrugged. "You said they wouldn't give it to me so I didn't bother asking. I went to the back room as you told me. Fortunately, they were counting money so I took the three thousand and left."

"Wait, wait, wait..." The man holding Paul let him go as he gapped at Troy. "You did what?"

"I took the money and left." Troy repeated.

"How?" The leader croaked.

"I cast a spell on them." Troy revealed, innocently. "They couldn't see me. You have your money. Don't bother Paul again. Come on, Paul." The two friends started to walk away from the still dumbfounded gang.

"I'm sorry you had to find out this way." Paul said quietly.

"I don't blame you." Troy sighed. "Those men looked so scary. And the heaps of drugs I saw... I would have ran too."

"Not that." Paul wouldn't meet Troy's eye. "About the fact that I'm...gay."

"You are?"

"Yes. Couldn't you tell from their comments?" Paul murmured.

"Oh, right." Troy chuckled. "I don't care that you're gay, Paul."

"But the other time, you told me about how your family hated homo..."

"You're my friend, Paul." Troy said firmly. "And that's all that matters. I don't care about..."

"Hey hold up..." The two friends stopped when they heard the leader of the gang calling out from behind them. They waited until he caught up with them. "You...you cast a spell...as in used magic to steal from the Stones?" He looked both shocked and impressed.

"That's what I said." Troy nodded.

"Wow! And you saw them counting money and took only three grand?" The leader was beside himself with shocked excitement.

"That's what Paul caused you to lose, right?" Troy asked.

"Yes...no. Actually, we lost more than just the money." The leader said, licking his lips as if he'd seen something juicy.

Troy turned to face the greedy looking leader. "I hope you're not talking about interest because..."

"No, no." The leader shook his head. "We lost one of our friends. When we tried to reason with the Stones to give us the three grand, they killed one of us." He explained. "So Paul caused us the life of one of our friends."

"Is that true?" Troy asked Paul.

"I don't know." Paul shrugged with a dark scowl. "I know they were six but I don't know about one of them getting killed."

"That's because you ran so you have no idea what went down, you chicken shit." The leader snapped. "I have to give Shatta's baby mama money for his baby's upkeep all the time because Shatta is no more."

"Those men killed him just because you went to ask for what was rightfully yours?" Troy looked shocked.

"Can you imagine?" The leader gushed. "They are very wicked people. Hey, my name is Blaze by the way." He reached out and gave Troy a quick handshake.

"Troy, I think we should just leave." Paul mumbled.

"Hey, you did this." Blaze growled at Paul. "Let your magician here make something right."

"And how do you expect me to make things right?" Troy folded his arms across his chest. "Raise your friend from the dead?"

"Oh no." Blaze gave a sheepish laugh. "We wouldn't want to start no zombie apocalypse. It will be nice to...have some money...for Shatta's kid."

"And where am I supposed to find that money?" Troy frowned.

"Oh, I don't know... Anywhere we can get some cash...some shops, a bank maybe..." Blaze said with an expectant look. "The kid needs it." He made a sad face.

"Troy, let's go." Paul muttered beside his friend. He knew that his friend was a bit naïve when it came to the real world. And he could tell that Troy was buying the bullshit that Blaze was spewing.

"How about I go for more money from those murderers for the baby?" Troy asked quietly. "After all they killed its father."

"Troy..." Paul growled under his breath.

"That would be great." Blaze gushed, excited.

"Troy, you really don't have to do this." Paul said angrily. "You don't own these people any..."

"I'll just go in, grab a few more, and be out of there." Troy told Paul gently. "They killed the man after all. That wasn't right. Now the poor baby has to suffer."

"Yes." Blaze groaned with a hand on his chest. "That poor, poor child."

"I'll be right back." Troy promised his friend and took off for the second time, towards the house from which he'd already taken three thousand dollars.

Just as Troy got to the residence of the Stones, he saw a van he'd seen earlier in their driveway, moving away from the house. Inside the van were the six men he'd seen counting money inside the house on his first visit. Since the door to the house was locked, he didn't have any choice but to go back to Blaze, emptyhanded. The gang leader couldn't hide his disappointment and anger. He came up with an alternative solution quickly enough.

"How about you help us pull a bank job then?" Blaze asked.

"As in rob a bank?" Troy stared at Blaze.

"He will do no such thing." Paul spat with a look of disgust.

"Shut up, you moron." Blaze snapped at Paul before turning his eyes back to Troy. "Just once. All you have to do is...repeat whatever you did at the Stones'. We get in, grab some cash, get out, give you your cut and then we go our separate ways. What do you say?"

"I took that three thousand from those people because Paul not taking the cash from them didn't mean they should not have paid you." Troy said quietly. "Robbing a bank is different."

"We're not going to take much." Blaze implored. "Just a little to get by. We will give some to Shatta's baby mama and you. Surely you need money." He cajoled. "The bankers steal the cash all the time anyway. We need the money more than they do. Come on..."

And that was how the plan to rob the bank had been hatched. At Paul's insistence, Troy told Blaze and his men that he and Paul couldn't be inside the bank with them. He, however, assured the gang leader that they would stay outside and stop the police from catching them if they should show up. They just had to be fast and take just a little bit of cash. Well, from the look of the sacks that those men had gotten away with, it looked like Blaze and his pals had taken a whole lot more than just a little. No wonder they'd been in there for so long, Troy sighed. He and Paul would simply take some of the money for their trouble and go their way, Troy thought as the bus got to their stop.

"Remember, we'll just take whatever Blaze and his men give us, and leave." Paul said as they made their way to the gang's hideout. "No argument. This is survival."

"Survival." Troy repeated under his breath.

***

"Deloris, we are ready." Philip Harrington, the Alpha of Stanwood Pack growled low in his throat as he stared at the warlock in their midst. "It's ten a.m."

"So...the four of us?" Deloris asked, glancing from the determined-looking woman standing before her, to her scowling son.

"Mum, I really think you should stay home and..." Jeremy Stanton, the Alpha of all Alphas, started to say but got cut off by his unrelenting mother.

"Not on your life, Jeremy." Gloria Stanton said heatedly. "I've told you not to waste your breath. That's my son we're talking about. I need to be there."

"Four of us, Deloris." Philip breathed as he rubbed the back of his neck in obvious agitation. He could feel his wolf going crazy inside of him. He was having a difficult time stopping himself from shifting.

"Calm down, Lip." Jeremy, his boss and best friend murmured beside him. "We need you calm otherwise this will not end well."

"Should I give you something to..." Deloris looked at her alpha with worried eyes.

"I'm fine." Philip breathed. "Can we just..."

"Let's go bring your mate home, Alpha." Deloris grinned as she gestured for them to hold hands.

"Paige?" Jeremy called out to Philip's big sister and his friend as he stepped between his mother and Deloris and linked hands with them. "Keep an eye on Ryan."

"Will do." Paige gave a thumbs-up sign. "Hey, Lip?" She called out but her tensed up brother didn't even spare her a glance.

The Alpha's entire being was focused on meeting his mate. The feeling inside was like nothing he'd ever experienced. Until he saw Travis Stanton safe, nothing mattered in his world. Somehow it felt surreal that his mate was none other than Jeremy's presumed-dead kid brother, Travis. Hell, it was even strange that they'd been able to figure out who the kid was in the first place. As he watched Deloris begin her chant, Philip allowed his mind to wander...recalling all that had taken place the day before...how he'd found out who his mate was...and how shocked he'd been...

**

Philip had been surprised when Jeremy Stanton, the former Alpha of their pack, had returned from his planned two-week getaway with his mate, earlier than expected, the day before. When the grim-faced Alpha of Alphas had summoned him, Stan his head beta, Joel his father, Paige his sister, Gloria - Jeremy's mother, the High Priestess, and Deloris - the resident warlock, to an urgent meeting, Philip knew that something serious was up. Without beating about the bush, Jeremy had informed them that his brother, who they'd all thought had been killed by hunters sixteen years earlier, was not only alive but was also Philip's mate. A collective gasp of shock and joy had gone up from the people gathered in the conference room at the shocking news...

"All these years, he was being held at the fortress by Reynard Wyatt." Jeremy growled through clenched teeth as his eyes went to his mother who was whimpering pitifully. "I'm so sorry, mum." He groaned when Gloria Stanton began to cry.

Philip saw the sheer anger on his friend's face and felt an answering anger in his own chest. Jeremy had never met the evil warlock personally since he'd been away serving time in purgatory when the pack went into battle with the Wyatt clan and defeated them. But Jeremy had once told him that if there was one person he wished he had the power to resurrect and kill all over again...slowly and excruciatingly, it was Reynard Wyatt. He'd jokingly added that he would have done the killing somewhere his mate, Ryan, wouldn't be able to witness. Philip had laughed at the irony of it all. To think the man Jeremy hated with a passion was actually his mate's father... Talk about complicated twists, Philip couldn't help but think. But the rage he saw on his friend's face as he addressed them, made him certain that Jeremy would have loved to do exactly as he'd told him when he came back from his incarceration and learnt about Reynard Wyatt.

Philip watched as his father, Joel, went to take a sobbing Gloria, into his arms. By a twist of fate, his father and Gloria had become lovers some months earlier. Although his father had been the best friend of Sylvester Stanton, Gloria's husband and father of her children, Jeremy and Travis, it was not strange at all that they had become lovers. After all, for the past sixteen years that Gloria's husband had been dead...killed by Reynard Wyatt and not by hunters as they'd originally thought, Joel had stepped in and taken care of Gloria. Not that she needed to be taken care of though. After all, not only was she the baddest warrior the Stanwood Pack had ever had, she also had the most powerful werewolf ever, Jeremy, as a son. But his father just loved taking care of Gloria. Philip, whose mother had passed on when he and his sister, Paige were kids, had no problem with the relationship between his father and Gloria because Gloria had always been a mother to them anyway. Everyone loved Mama G, as they all affectionately called Gloria. Philip turned his attention back to Jeremy and smiled when he heard his friend next words;

"If there was any way I could resurrect that asshole and kill him again...painfully and slowly, I would." The thought of his brother in the grips of the most wicked warlock that ever lived was clearly killing Jeremy. "Sorry baby." He muttered to his mate.

But Ryan gave a nonchalant shrug as he stood up. "I wish you could, honey." He said, leaning down to place a kiss on Jeremy's lips. Then he went to take the seat beside Gloria and then began to soothingly run his fingers through her long hair.

Philip knew that Ryan wasn't just comforting Gloria with his touch. The half werewolf, half warlock mate of the Alpha of all Alphas was probably transferring a calming energy to the sobbing woman. Jeremy's mate was one of the most powerful beings in the entire world. In fact, to Philip, Ryan was even more powerful than Jeremy because he had the power to calm down the murderous Ojah spirit within Jeremy that made Jeremy so powerful. Everyone watched as Gloria visibly calmed down. It was a bittersweet moment because in as much as everyone at the table was thrilled to know that Travis was alive, they couldn't help but be sad that he'd been taken and held by their enemy for virtually all his life without the knowledge of his family.

"We all know that but for Philip's timely intervention, his mate would have been killed by our warriors during the battle with the Wyatt Clan." Jeremy continued to speak, reminding everyone of how Philip's very first command as alpha had been to stop their warriors from ripping a fire-throwing Travis to shreds during the epic battle with the Wyatt clan. "What we didn't know was that, that boy was my brother, Travis. We had almost killed Philip's mate and my brother." He shook his head sadly. "We must all be grateful to Luna for her mercies." Jeremy said solemnly. He then went on to explain how his mate, Ryan, had been able to figure out who Travis was after seeing Travis' picture on the Island during their visit.

"But how?" Gloria asked shakily. "He was only five years old in those pictures on the Island. And you only saw him in the battle for what...a minute?" She stared at Ryan with confused eyes.

"I'll explain everything." Jeremy chuckled.

"Before you do that..." Philip rasped as he stood up. "It should be easier to find him now, right?"

Everyone watched as Philip pulled off his t-shirt, unabashedly exposing his ripped muscles and sexy abs to the people gathered. His wolf wanted out. It wanted to go to his mate. The coolness of the air-conditioned room couldn't stop Philip's profuse sweating. Everyone in the room understood what he was going through.

"Calm down, Lip." Jeremy murmured. "Deloris, can you..."

"Piece of cake." The warlock grinned as she leaned in to rub Gloria on the back. "I'll need your blood, Alpha Jeremy." She addressed the Alpha of Alphas. "And yours too, Gloria. Ryan, why don't you go get some sleep?" Deloris asked with a frown. "You look sleepy. Amazing but sleepy."

"Well, there's a reason for that." Jeremy said with a cocky grin, looking at the faces around the table. "Mum, you might want to brace yourself for this one..." He watched as Gloria pulled out of Joel's embrace and locked curious eyes on his. "Ryan is pregnant."

The collective gasp that went up said it all. Everyone in the room, except a grinning Deloris, looked shocked.

"Impossible!" The High Priestess exclaimed, her eyes wide in shock.

"How?" Paige screeched.

"Err... you mean lesbians don't know how babies are..."

"Shut up, Stan." Paige snapped as she turned shocked eyes on Ryan, who considered her his best friend. "What the fuck!" She stared at Ryan.

Philip heard Gloria crying softly and turned to find her with her arms tightly around Ryan. He wasn't surprised at all that one of the strongest...if not the strongest warriors that the Stanwood Pack had ever had, was crying. He could imagine how Gloria felt that very moment. Not only had she found out that her son, who had been presumed dead for sixteen years, was alive, but her son-in-law was pregnant...PREGNANT! Philip started to chuckle but the sound turned into a groan when he felt his eyes shifting.

"Congratulations, Jer." Philip slapped his friend on his back. "I'm damn happy for you. But right now, I need to go for a run." Even his voice didn't sound human. "But before I go, there's something I need all of you to do for me." Philip addressed the people gathered. "Let's keep the fact that I've found my mate, between us." He said grimly. "The last thing I want is to bring Travis into the middle of a war or an ambush by my exes." He glanced from one face to the other, the warning in his eyes clear.

"Of course we won't tell, boss." Stan responded quickly with an amused smirk. "But I must admit I can't wait to see your numerous women togeth..."

"Shut up, Stanislav." Jeremy muttered as he tried to stifle his own grin.

Since Philip was an alpha, his lovers and former lovers were bound to attack his mate as soon as they got any hint that he'd found his mate. That happened whenever an alpha found his mate. Werewolves he'd ever been with would have an uncontrollable urge to show exactly why they would be more suitable as the alpha's partner than his mate. Since an alpha needed a strong mate to help him rule, his lovers instinctively tried to prove that they were stronger than the mate and must be taken instead, by attacking the mate and defeating them. It was a wolf thing. Only individuals with extreme self-control could curb that urge.

"Those bitches of yours had better not touch my son." Gloria Stanton's voice was low but lethal. "If they so much as attempt, they won't live to tell their story."

"That's what I'm talking about." Paige gave a fist pump as Stan gave a piercing whistle.

"I suggest the mating ceremony between you two take place immediately after you bring Travis home." The High Priestess said. "That should take care of all those silly attacks."

"That's a great idea." Philip nodded.

"Oooh somebody wants some..." Stan drawled, earning himself a finger from Philip.

"Deloris, is Cami going to be a problem?" Philip asked quietly. He and Deloris' daughter, Camille, had hooked up once under very...uncontrollable circumstances, thanks to Jeremy and Ryan. The last thing Philip wanted was to have problems with the warlock's daughter.

"You have nothing to worry about, Alpha." Deloris chuckled. "Apart from the fact that she had to learn her lesson the hard way, what happened between the two of you was a mistake."

"Good. Now, about finding Travis..."

"I'm on it, Alpha." The warlock got to her feet. "We leave tomorrow...at ten a.m."

"Good. See you later." With that, Philip made a beeline for the balcony even as he stripped out of his jeans. Then the alpha of Stanwood Pack jumped from the eleventh floor, where the meeting was being held. By the time he got to the ground below, he was not human but a huge grey wolf.

**

Now, it was time to go and bring his mate from wherever he was. And like every other person who knew what they were about to do, Philip couldn't contain the overwhelming emotions inside. It almost felt as if they were restoring something very important. Not only was Travis his mate, he was also like an heir to a 'throne' because like Jeremy, his father used to be the alpha of Stanwood Pack. Although Philip was still getting used to the fact that his mate was a male, he had no intention of making a fuss over it. He remembered what had happened to Jeremy when he had objected to Luna's choice of a mate for him. His friend had ended up in purgatory to serve time as punishment. Philip sure as hell didn't want any such problem. Who wanted to end up in purgatory?

Philip, Deloris, Jeremy, and Gloria disappeared from the pack house to a shout of 'happy hunting' from Paige. The Alpha of Stanwood Pack smiled despite himself.

It was time to find and bring home their long lost pack member, brother, son and Alpha's mate.

***

End of chapter one. Hope you guys are ready for Troy's awakening. Please don't forget to vote, comment, critique and follow (if you don't want to miss all the smutty stuff).

Cheers!