The Alpha's Mother-In-Law's Forbidden Love (The Cresta Chronicles)

Ravyn POV

Geese flapped around the sprawling farmland of the Goose Creek Orchard Commune on the Evenhide-Crimsontail Border. Ravyn could not believe she had missed this little gem in the last three years of living in Evenhide.

Especially since one of those geese had the body of a wolf. A gray and white wolf flew low, wings pumping.

Ravyn thought to Jude, "Did you see that?"

His jaw dropped, and he blew one of the drifting goose feathers away from his face. "A goose-wolf hybrid? I do not even want to think about how that came about."

She shrugged. "Nature has all kinds of odd variations."

Naomi, beside them, thought, "This is true. There are so many combinations of creatures we never knew about."

"This is true, but a wolf with wings? What is going on at this farm?"

Dane thought with dry humor, "Clearly more than a border dispute. And where is everyone?"

He communed directly with the wolf-goose through the mind-link. "Who are you?"

"Ah ... Graywing," the wolf responded. "But everyone just calls me 'Goose.' Alpha Dane, thank the Moon Goddess you've come. My fellow farmers are about to take matters into their own paws!"

His urgency and distress rippled through the mind-link, and he wasn't finished.

"Because I'm different, they won't listen to me," he babbled. "I can't help how I was born. No one knows why or how this happened." He flapped his wings hard and came in for a landing.

All eyes were on him as he touched down on the soft earth of one of the fields, where scattered stalks of wheat lay after the harvest. The aptly named wolf-goose, Graywing, padded over to them on the hardening earth. Winter was coming.

Dane lifted his regal head. "Graywing ..."

"Yes, Alpha?" Graywing responded eagerly, almost salivating while talking to his Alpha. 

"What do you mean, 'take matters into their own paws'?" Dane asked. 

Jude, Ravyn, and Lilia joined them. Ravyn said, "Do you mean against the Silverpaws? We are sorry. We didn't know our territory had somehow expanded. How did this happen?"

Graywing seemed eager to cooperate. "The farmers of Silverado Creek told us that part of our land had always been theirs, and because no one was listening to them, they decided to take it back."

Having married into the Evenhide Pack, Jude could communicate with them, and he sent through the mind-link, "Silverado Creek should not have done that. The border has been fixed for centuries. If they want more land, there's plenty of it along this stretch of the border. They didn't have to annex your land. I am deeply sorry."

Graywing blinked, his yellow wolf eyes innocent. "You didn't do this, Alpha Jude. The entire pack knows how brave you've been after your loss. You've made good decisions and never used your grief as an excuse."

Humble Jude woofed, lowering his nose. "That's generous of you to say, but ultimately, as the Alpha, I am responsible for everything that takes place within the pack's territory. We should have noticed this land grab. We'll go over and talk to--"

"YOU THERE!"

Several Silverpaws approached, and Ravyn got the lay of the land before she reprimanded them. She wanted to know the facts, after all.

To the west lay Goose Creek Orchard. Rows of trees laden with fruit, as well as vegetable gardens, sat between the field and several long L-shaped buildings that formed the main commune. To the east lay more fields, as well as fruit trees. Ravyn couldn't see the ranch house and related buildings of Silverado Creek, but these healthy, robust wolves approaching them now probably came from the ranch house.

The leader, a pewter-colored wolf bulging with muscles, snapped and snarled. "You! Goose-brain! You and these Evenhide intruders will--"

The leader's voice trailed off as Jude approached, his head up and his demeanor commanding. Ravyn fell into step beside him. Bram walked on Jude's other side.

"Alpha!" The leader's voice trembled. "We weren't informed--"

"Obviously not," Jude replied in a dry tone. "You've taken land that isn't yours. Even though we may walk paw in paw with Evenhide, you can't just seize land. Traditionally, the boundary between Evenhide and Silverpaw has always been right there, by the remnants of that ancient stone wall." He pointed to a crumbling, weatherbeaten gray stone wall that divided one field from another. "The land beyond that belongs to Evenhide."

The leader snarled, "With all due respect--"

Ravyn howled. Loudly.

Every Silverpaw shifter flinched, their ears flat.

* * * * *

Jude POV

"Your Alpha has laid down the law," Ravyn growled. "You will give this land back to Goose Creek or face the consequences." She nodded at Dane. "Alpha Dane, apart from Alpha Jiro, is our strongest ally. Is a bit of farmland really worth burning down the alliance?"

The leader huffed. "Luna Emer didn't--"

Bram lunged for him. "My mother would have said the same thing, and probably louder."

"Beta." Jude's voice was stern. "Step back."

He admired his son for defending his mother, and for putting this hothead in his place. But he couldn't let a powder keg explode.

Dragging his feet, Bram did, glowering at the leader. "Show some respect, Spyro," he said. 

The leader, Spiro, bowed his head, smelling less than pleased. "Yes, BETA."

Jude raised his head. "Now, I suggest you all vacate this piece of land and be content with what you have. If you want more land, we can assist you with clearing the grass on ether side. There's no reason to play tug-of-war for just a bit of ground."

One of Spyro's farmers muttered, "I told everyone."

Spyro's hackles rose, but he said nothing. He might be in a wide-open empty field, but he looked cornered. 

Dane and the others shifted, and so did Spyro and his followers, just to make sure they could all communicate. Graywing shifted, his wolf form stretching out, fur replaced with light brown skin, and goose wings still sprouting from his body.

Spyro, who had a shaved head and a rock-solid body, said, "Alpha, we thought that there was no oversight."

Dane growled, low. "You mean you thought your Alpha was weak. Disrespectful!"

Bram snarled, "You could have started a pack war over THIS." He scraped the ground with his paws. "No matter how good your yields have been, it's not worth the bloodshed."

"Yes, yes," Graywing cried out.

Spyro stalked toward him, on the march toward a potential victim. No, not potential. From the feral look in Spiro's red eyes, Graywing was his preferred target.

Lilia, Thessi, Daxius, and Anneliese raced to one side of the fields. "We can clear away the grass here, about the same size as a standard field," Anneliese proclaimed. "A simple fire spell will burn away the grass. Scorched earth technique."

Garnet, Cyran, and Naomi shifted and raced over to join them. The magic-users lined up.

Hades said approvingly in Jude's mind, "An excellent idea. I always wondered why we fight over land when there's so much of it to go around."

"We're territorial," Jude thought back. "We get attached to our own pieces of land. We love to claim something that's ours and ours alone."

He re-focused on Spyro. "Unless you want the council involved and the Shifter Parliament--"

Jiro folded his arms. "Oh, they will love wasting precious time in parliament sessions over something that has an easy solution."

For a rockhead, Spyro definitely crumbled. "I'm not afraid of some stuffy politicians."

Jude poked him in the chest with one long claw. "Then be afraid of me, and my Luna, and our allies. Give up the land you've stolen."

Spyro's fellow farmer who had spoken up earlier, an overpowered female, spoke up. "Fine by us. I always thought this was a bad business, anyway. Wish I'd challenged him. In fact, I may just do that if he doesn't see sense and back down."

The smoke from the burning grass billowed in the air, sheets of pale gray. Jude's nose twitched at the smell of the earth emerging from the flames. "So, Spyro, what is it to be? Will you concede?"

Spyro bowed his head. "Of course, Alpha."

He turned around, presumably to address his followers, while the Evenhide and Silverpaw enforcers surrounded Spyro to make sure he didn't start trouble.

Hades whispered, low and urgent in Jude's mind. "He's faking. He's going to try and kill you."

Graywing yelled, "You can't trust him!" Wings beating furiously, he flew straight at Spyro, who shifted and lunged at him, jaws snapping perilously close to Graywing's very human throat. The Evenhide, Silverpaw, and Crimsontail enforcers were after him like a shot, but Spyro, fueled by bitterness and avarice, proved too fast for them.

Jude channeled the power from Hades and yelled out, "CRYSTAL FREEZE!"

Ravyn echoed his words, turning both Spyro and Graywing into crystal statues.

In the stunned silence, Jude addressed Spyro's farmers. "Anyone else want to make trouble?"