**This version has Signy's POV at the end**

In the Beginning: Part Two

Jakkon

"A song, we need a song!"

Others began to call out too, shoving and jostling shy wolves who burned red at the thought of singing before the pack.

"We need a poem over one of your bawdy songs," Sol called out, followed by ringing laughter.

Jakkon paid it no mind, focussing on the pulled meat stew filling his belly, and cleaning up his wounds, ignoring those who gave him a wide berth as they passed by. . .until a male shouted a single name.

"Signy!"

Jakkon lifted his gaze to the male wolf Who'd dared to say her name. Hagbard was only a couple years older than himself but he had fought his way to sit close to the high ranked many moons back. And now he was beaming at the female Jakkon had made sure to place himself in the view of. And Signy gave Hagbard a small lift of lips in return that caused sickening jealousy to turn in Jakkon's stomach.

"You should sing for us," Hagbard plied, lowering his head respectfully. "Your words are poetry to music. It would be an honour to listen to your newest song."

No one was blind to what was. Everyone who watched knew well Hagbard was attempting to court the only female Sol kept close to his side since his mate had passed. Fortunately, Signy declined with a polite smile and a shake of her head. Jakkon relaxed, only to stiffen once more when her father encouraged her to stand. Sigar thought Hagbard a match worthy of his female.

The rest of the pack wanted to hear what she had to say to melody too, they always did, everyone loved to listen to her. Her songs were always captivating; stories of old heroes, telling of hunts from the past few summers, gifts for new pups born and new mates bound, and sometimes lessons of life that left everyone in contemplative silence.

"Please," Hagbard insisted, holding out a hand to her.

Glinting orbs of emerald met Jakkon's for a moment, as if waiting for something, but when Jakkon could make no move nor voice the tangled emotions in his chest, they cut sharply away.

He'd vowed he would make what she saw of their future come true the last time they'd spoken, but bravado had faded since then, replaced by bitterness at the truth she'd spoken; that if she mated him as he was now, she would be lowering herself.

How could she truly think that?

Why could he not get passed the fact it was true and take the step he needed to?

All that passed between them in the few seconds their eyes held each others.

Jakkon stared in stiff horror as Signy gave into the pack's cajoling and accepted Hagbard's hand to help her to her feet, although her fingers slipped free of his grip the moment she was by the fire where all might see her.

However, even that brief moment of touch was telling. Signy was giving him a reminder, her warning - she would not wait forever.

Hagbard walked back to his place with a grin, smugly peacocking by rolling his shoulders back to display himself. Jakkon wished to see the marks of his fangs and claws on Hagbard's skin.

Conflicted and broken of body from the fight with his Alpha that left bruises and cuts a plenty, the first warm note that left Signy's lips was an immediate balm to every ache.

Tight skin urging him to shift to fur and tear at his rival softened.

As sweet as the songbirds, as haunting as the howling of wolves, Signy's melody washed over him and burrowed into his soul until it was all he could do but to stop his eyes from fluttering shut and his head from falling back. He would die with her voice in his ear, whether she was his or not. He would die to have her ever sly smile and flash of hunger directed at him alone, and not the other males watching her performance. She moved with graceful purpose as she sang of a warrior fighting to make it back to his female and the pup she carried. Golden hair appeared silver in the moonlight, flowing loose down her back as she lifted her hands above her head so her fingers cast dancing shadows across the faces of her captive audience.

Too many males inched closer. Too many cast a look around to see who their challengers would be. And too few gave Jakkon more than a fleeting glance.

Gritting his teeth, he made himself sit straighter as he tied a bandage around the open wound on his bicep. The healer's acrid chemicals soaked into the fabric burned as it made contact, so much his eyes watered, but he didn't let out a single sound, because Sol was listening. He might have been sitting with his back to him, pretending to watch Signy, but his Alpha's head was cocked slightly to the right, and the only wolf too stubborn to sit away from the fire was him.

His Alpha had not been fooled by his loss as the others had been. It had taken much to take the hit, to lie still when the teeth at his throat demanded submission even while Jakkon had seen the tremor in his Alpha's legs.

It wouldn't have taken much more to win.

But even then he wasn't sure he would have managed to drag himself from the ring if he had. Signy saw cowardice, he saw. . .he saw the truth of it.

"Freezing to death will give them too much satisfaction, Jakkon." Basjan slumped next to him in the grass, chucking a blanket onto his lap.

Jakkon's nose wrinkled as the stench of sweat and sex filled his nostrils, emanating from his friend's skin. Even the blanket he offered was covered in his mate's scent. "You left the warmth of Ola's den to scold me?"

"Not scold, check up on. Signy told Ola about your losing to Sol this afternoon. Then Ola told me, because she is your friend and she is worried, but she thinks you will react far better to my telling you than hers."

A short breathed laugh left him. That was a lie. Whatever was about to be said, Jakkon would have far less issue punching his life long friend in the face than he would so much as raise his voice towards Ola.

"If you are here to call me a coward as well, I can assure you, Signy did a fine job already."

Brown eyes trailed over the map of mangled flesh before settling on Jakkon's bruised face. "You need to come on the hunt this year, Jakkon. There are a few weeks yet to start making challenges and claims, enough time for Sol to ask you to lead one of the groups. With Toran injured, there are many unranked wolves clammering to take her place at Sol's right-"

"He will not ask me to run at his flank no matter what I achieve in a few weeks," Jakkon interrupted, only for his friend to burst out laughing.

Clapping him on the shoulder, Basjan puffed out his chest and smirked. "Of course not. But he might ask me. Which means my place with the trackers will be wide open for the taking."

The scouts, Jakkon mused grimly. That would be a laugh for everyone. One with bared teeth and no humour. It was attempting to scout for the time that caused calamity in the first place. Signy would tell him it was a sign, the weavers of fate offering him a thread of chance at redemption, of liberty from past actions that kept him anchored down.

"You hunt well on your own all the time. You track better than I do, we both know that. Things will never change for the better if you don't try, but they will change." Resting back on his elbows, Basjan was silent a moment as he listened Signy's last lyric fade into the crackling of the fire.

He didn't have to say a word. Jakkon understood plain enough. Things would only change for the worse of her didn't make a move.

An undercurrent of panic flooded his veins at the very thought. Panic and an instinctual need to remove every obstacle in his path. The life he would have if he kept his head down flashed before him and left him with a sickening feeling in his gut. Would he be able to keep bowing to orders when the wolf in him licked his lips, hungry to see if he could snatch power. He could take most of the males his age in his stride. He knew that without doubt, and not out of ego. It was plain fact. Maybe not this year, maybe not even in the next couple, but soon their would be a new Alpha. And by god's Signy was right when she saw the part of him that craved to try. . .

Basjan peered at his friend, assessing what had made Jakkon suddenly vibrate with a power that rivalled his own, a growl rumbling from his lip. When he realised, he sat back and prepared to watch the showdown that would inevitably unfold with a chuckle.

Hagbard returned at Signy's side as if that was where he belonged.

Jakkon stood too, marching towards the orange glow of the fire highlighting the moment Signy dared turn to greet another male with her slow curling smile. The way oak green eyes met his when Hagbard reached out to touch her was all the permission he needed to give into the possessive rage roiling inside.
Hagbard barely had time to bare his teeth before Jakkon ploughed his fist into the other male's gut. He fell to his knees immediately.

Jakkon gave Signy a harsh look. "I will fight my way up to you. You will court no other male until I do."

She was the only wolf not shocked.

She smiled.

Signy

She could pretend to be shocked like everyone else, just as she could pretend she hadn't very much enjoyed watching Jakkon bring down his biggest competitor. Hagbard crawled off with an arm curled around his belly, coughing and spluttering into the grass. The crackle of the fire, the chatter of pups oblivious to what had taken place, and the ragged breathing of the male who'd taken his first step, stopped the night from falling quiet.

"You will challenge for Alpha?" she prompted, needing to make sure there were no grey areas between them.

No hesitation for once, Jakkon took another step towards her, declaring for all the pack to hear, "If that is what it takes."

"It is, but now I will require more." Smug, she tilted her chin, basking in Jakkon's growled in frustration. "If you win," she continued. "If you take position as Alpha, I will challenge you."

Sol's laughter made the confounded look on Jakkon's face all the more delightful to Signy. She watched midnight blues search her face, and smiled wider when one of his eyes took on a haze of green, a small glimpse of a future that would come to pass if the male she loved could place his paws on the right trail. The male growled again, roaring right in her face in a way that only exhilarated her further. Then he swivelled to take the form of his giant dark wolf and took off into the trees.

He would calm down once he'd rid his frustration on the foliage. For now, she'd managed to steer him in the right direction.

"Signy."

Her father's voice turned her head. Eyes glinting a startling gold, she could sense his fury from here. Even her mother hid displeasure with a strained smile as she reached out a hand to usher Signy back to her spot.

Hagbard staggering back to his feet was given but a passing glance. She cast her gaze around the pack, smiled again when most averted their gaze, and returned to take a seat between her parents.

Another took her place to amuse the pack, not that Signy paid much mind. She had to focus too much on not flinching as her mother cupped her face and gave her a reproachful look. Her eyes were a soulful brown where Signy's were green. Her nose proud and straight where Signy's turned up slightly. Each of these differences Signy had collected over the years, and every year they became harder and harder to ignore.

"You will cause a brawl if you do not choose soon, my female."

"I told you, mama. Who I mate is up to Jakkon."

"Who you mate is up to no one but yourself," her mother reprimanded on a biting growl. "What has that male got over you?"

Signy wanted to retort that if she didn't settle on a mate soon, it would actually be her father's decision, but there was no point in starting arguments. She had made her decision. Everything rested on the male she had chosen and today he had made his first move.

How could she explain her certainty to her mother when every time she mentioned her visions, Toran grew panicked. Even her father grew uneasy, more so when each vision she had soon came to pass. As a pup, they had called her intuitive when she managed to guess right, for the fifth time in a row, the sex of pups to be born. Or if she saw the outcome of a bad hunt and managed to dissuade wolves from going until the vision passed, only to find out hunters had been roaming and she had probably saved her packmates' skins.

It was more than intuition however. It was a gift, or a curse, and one neither of her parents understood. They too were secretly frightened of her. So how could she tell them what she saw of Jakkon? That when she looked at him with her sight, she saw a mighty wolf who would rival any Alpha to have led the pack before him. She saw their pups who would surpass even them in strength and leadership.

The hair on her neck stood on end.

Pulling away from the female who had raised her, Signy peered around her father's silent and tense form to find it was her Alpha's eyes on her that made her skin prickle. Sol tipped his head questioningly, and Signy returned the gesture by baring her teeth and straightening her head.

He was right to be wary of her.

"You are lucky he is not making a show of your challenge. If you were any other wolf, you would be cowering in the dirt before him." Her father lifted a hand and pinched her ear before she could swat him away. "We will have words, my female. Strong words. Your infatuation with Jakkon must end. You are not a pup any longer, and if you wish to be Alpha Female one day, you will need more than a pup at your side."

"Jakkon is no pup," she replied evenly, calmly meeting his gaze.

Sol cleared his throat, turning where he sat on her father's other side. "Jakkon is no pup, but he holds no value-"

"No value?" Signy snapped, regaining the attention of some of the pack. A sharp look froze her in place, the way her Alpha lifted himself reminding her of her tenuous position.

"He holds no value in himself, is what I meant, and it is not your job to fill him up with worth. An Alpha must be steadfast and sure. In the ring earlier, I saw hesitant and doubtful."

"Every wolf has doubts, my Alpha."

"Do you have doubts, Signy?"

She didn't mean to, but she glanced either side of her, at the mated pair whom she idolised and learned from, who had raised her to be who she was, and she felt that ache. One that had been with her so long it had hollowed out a place in her chest. She had lived her every day amongst these wolves and always felt out of place, a step out of time with the rest, with no explanation.

When she was with Jakkon, that ache was overwhelmed by how right he made her feel, as if he anchored her down onto packland and assured her she was right where she was supposed to be. . .

She gave her Alpha a charming smile, and answered, "Every wolf has doubts."