Nolan and Alex parted ways to head home and ready themselves for the Lunar Ridge arrival.

"Say hi to Pete for me" , Alex called after her friend. Nolan waved over his head, continuing his walk to the bungalow he shared with his mate. Nolan had no idea his mate would be a man but from the second they met, there was absolutely no doubt that the two belonged to each other. Alex had to excuse him from his duties for almost a month when they first met as they couldn't be without the other for longer than an hour. Pete took leave from his job as one of the farmers of the vast pack lands and they hadn't been seen outdoors for the entire period. Once things settled, they went back to work but Nolan was a changed man, barely able to keep a smile from his dark, handsome face for more than a few minutes at a time. It had been 2 years since their first encounter and he was still head over heels for the man. It was so sweet. Alex had long given up on finding her mate. Her travels had brought her to almost every pack across America, Europe, parts of Africa and the UK and yet, she still hadn't met them. She longed for the security and the feeling of home that people described in their mates, not to mention the supposedly extraordinary sex but it may not be for her. Not everyone found their mate and she would have to move on at some point.

Alex opened the front door of her spacious two storey house. She had designed it with the pack architect and loved every room of it. It was full of light with floor to ceiling windows in the kitchen and adjoining living room facing out into the forest. Her bedroom similarly had a great view of Black Mountain and the surrounding landscape. Alex loved the outdoors. She was an eager but unsuccessful gardener in her spare time and even loved spending time with Nolan's mate Pete as he went about his duties on the farm. She could often be found 'pottering' around her garden, weeding or planting or just sitting and admiring it all. Her father often joined her, particularly on days when he was suffering badly from the heartache of losing his mate, speaking very little but enjoying each other's company nonetheless. He was much more accomplished at the work than his daughter and anything that was alive and thriving in her garden, was the result of her father's work, not hers.

The pair would share a few cold beers on her patio after their work together and then, once the heavy sadness had passed again, Hank would head on his way, embracing his daughter tightly before taking his leave.

Alex headed in for a quick shower in her spacious ensuite and dressed herself again in a fresh set of black tshirt, combat trousers and boots. Her curves were still clearly defined in the uniform - she felt there was no reason she couldn't look hot and kick ass at the same time. She tied up her wet, curling hair in a tight ponytail and made herself a quick toasted ham and brie sandwich in the kitchen. The plan for Lunar Ridge was to start their training as soon as they parked at the pack house. Nolan would meet them on arrival and they would be sent on a tracking mission to find her, the target, in the woods. Alex would be able to assess their strategy and strength by observing them quietly around the grounds before her attack. It would be a great starting point for assessing where their potential shortcomings were.

As she drank from her glass of water between bites of her sandwich, she reflected on some of the information Nolan had fed her over the years about Lunar Ridge. For one reason or another, Alex had never personally travelled to their pack to provide training. It had always been Nolan with a small team who had been sent. She was surprised to learn that no females were allowed to train as warriors. It was a very old fashioned sounding pack. Alpha Aidan Jackson had taken over from his father some years ago but seemed to have continued his archaic practices. She felt lucky to have grown up in a pack as progressive as her fathers. Ronan, too, was an equal opportunities type Alpha. Your gender didn't matter as long as you could pull your weight and do the job. Her own mother had been a teacher at the pack high school but had trained as hard in her warrior training as anyone else in the pack. The day she had died, she had been fighting off 3 rogues who had somehow made their way to the school, allowing the other teachers to evacuate the children. She slayed the 3 rogues but the injuries she had sustained had been too great for her to recover from. To this day, we knew but could never prove that Dax Stevens had sent the 3 rogues in. They had obviously been watching the pack for a good period of time and knew the patrol changeover times as they had found the perfect time to slip in undetected. My father, both ballistic with rage and utterly heartbroken, had made it his mission to destroy Dax and his network. Our pack, along with Moon Ridge and a third pack, East River, had brought a battle to Dax's door. It was difficult though to destroy him completely since so much of his work was in the human world or in the underground criminal network. There were wins over the intervening years though where we knew we had hit him hard. This was the man who sold women and children from his own pack to rogues. He took mates away from their partners and separated children from their parents if the parents raised concerns or tried to escape. He was heavily involved in running drugs from the south to the north of the country, offering services to cartels and gangs or anyone who would pay highly enough for his services. Those who remained in his pack were either loyal to Dax, as he made them rich, or terrified to leave as it would mean the murder of them or their children.

Alex had kept her father's mission going after he stepped down as Alpha, by setting up a specialised unit to track Dax's network, hoping eventually to burn it to the ground. Nolan headed the operation and gave Alex regular updates. She had become too obsessed with the work for a time after taking over as Gamma, and this was certainly the best way forward for everyone.

Alex stood up now from her kitchen counter, adding her crockery to the dishwasher before grabbing her keys and phone and heading into the forest.

'Tick tock Lunar Ridge, I'm coming for you', she grinned to herself.