“1 week.”
His eyes nearly bulge out of their sockets like a cartoon character. “How the fuck are we supposed to graduate in 1 week? I mean, man. You've already been here for 6 months, you can do that, I'm sure you can, but I literally just got here. I am up for whatever you need me Alpha, but I'm not sure I could help you here.”
“There's a quick and easy-ish way of graduating sooner that usual.” I say with a smirk, reeling Brian in, because I know he likes a challenge.
“Why do I feel like what you're about to tell me is neither quick nor easy?” His face is both intrigued and concerned.
“Well, quick it is, I promise. We might struggle with the 'easy' part, but we'll figure it out. We're motivated enough, at least I am.”
“What's with this rush Alpha? Do you know who she might be?” As he asks the question I see the gears turning inside his mind and his eyes widen, followed by a smile. “You found her, didn't you?” I don't verbalise my reply, but I do break into a smile, like a love sick puppy, and I'm sure my cheeks are blushing a nice shade of pink. I'm totally owning it though.
“Say no more Alpha, I'm with you.” My trusted Beta is with me and I feel like there's a big chance now that we actually get to the bottom of this mess, although, I'm not sure I'll like what I might find.
During this week at the Academy we need to make good use of their extensive library both physical and virtual. We need to find out everything that we can about the Midnight pack in Scotland, and their last Alpha, Derrick Stone. I still haven't told Brian about the way I've found that can help us graduate sooner than the rest, but I'm hoping he won't freak out when the time comes to take action. Brian is a little... well let's just say he doesn't like it when the odds are so clearly not in his favour, but then again, who would?
I also kept from him the identity of my mate and details of how we found each other, and he never asked either. It was enough for him to know his Luna is out there and she needs our help.
I have confidence that we might be able to pull this off, but I will need my wolf and it doesn't look like he's too keen of coming back. I have to do some research about that, I make a mental note to myself. Can wolf spirits actually abandon their human hosts? It sounds silly, but the fool disappeared completely after that threat that he made of leaving me for another human, and I'm worried he might really have done it. Then I'll be utterly screwed. I shake the negative thought away and replace it with sweet memories of my mate, my sweet strawberry. Goddess, I so hope she's innocent, I truly hope my findings will not point to her being the evil manipulative villain that my family portrayed her to be.
Suddenly, a brilliant yet dreadful idea pops into my mind. I groan when I realise it's the best shot I got right now. I may not like it, it will surely backfire hard, but it's the best I got, so I'll just suck it up and do it. Surely it can't go that wrong, can it?
Scanning my surrounding I zero in my target and take a deep breath. I start to jog towards the group of girls seated at a large picnic table in the garden. Classes are over for today, so this is my shot to start research without getting interrupted.
“Hey guys, lovely day out, isn't it?” I plaster my most charming smile on my face and greet the group. “Victoria, do you think we could talk for a second?” I look again at the other girls and quickly add: “Alone.”
22 - Strong
Jason
Alright, so hear me out before you start judging me. Victoria's pack is located in Scotland, and right now she's the only link I have to that place. Chances are she at least heard of the Midnight pack, right? I figured it's a good place to start my research.
I watch carefully as Victoria's lips curl into a seductive smile. “Sure, baby.” She grabs her bag and gets up from the table. After bidding the other girls goodbye, she links her arm with mine.
I stiffen at the close contact, but try my best not to show Victoria the discomfort I feel. I'm already on thin ice with her and I need her help.
We walk slowly to a secluded area of the garden, just making small talk on the way there. I spot a small bench and ask Victoria to have a seat. Before she gets any wrong ideas, I jump straight into it.
“Victoria, have you ever heard about Midnight pack?” Her face remains the same, not betraying any emotion, but her eyes are telling me what I need to know. Her pupils dilate and flicker slightly before they're covered by her eyelids. Without opening her eyes, Victoria nods.
“Do you know what happened to their last Alpha family?” I push hoping she will tell me everything that she knows.
“Some of their members joined our pack after they were left without an Alpha. That's how our pack suddenly grew so big, you know? Never mention this in front of my father, he would never admit it. The whole thing was tragic, but nobody actually understood what happened there and why their Alphas were killed. It become some sort of a legend, a scary story that young pups tell whilst around a bond fire.” I cringe knowing my father is single handily responsible for that.
“One day it was just like they were gone. I overheard my dad once talking to his Beta, and they were saying that the Stone family had been framed. Accused of killing another Alpha family or something like that.” I pretend to be surprised at what Victoria is telling me, even though it's nothing new for me.
“Did you know they had a small pup? I believe it was a baby girl, no older than 3 or 4, so she would have been our age now, probably studying right here with us, at the same time. They never did find her body.” She said that last part in a creepy whisper voice and I shudder. My Samantha...
Samantha
A new day, a somewhat new me. I've learned from Rianna's constant moans around the pack, that Jason has left our pack grounds. He headed back to the United States, to the Academy, and took Brian with him. Well good riddance!
I'm determined not to let this new development take me down. So what if my mate rejected me? I'm still alive bitches, and if I've proven anything lately, is that I'm not that easy to kill.
“Hell yeah!” Ming agrees with me and infuses some more of her power into my fragile body.
I can totally do this. I feel it in my being, this new found strength that grew from my pain.
OK, so to give you a bit of context regarding this weird pep talk that I'm giving myself. I've decided that today I'll seek an audience with Alpha Jaxon to request that I formally leave the Crescent Moon pack. This is step 1 into my new life plan. Step 2 will be mustering up the courage to ask Luke to join his pack, but I'll just deal with step 1 for now. Baby steps, you know?
Last time I was at the pack house and wanted to speak with the Alpha I was turned away and made to wait for hours. If not for Marie, the guards would have refused to even let the Alpha know I wanted to speak to him.
And let's not forget I ended up being locked up in the dungeons for two weeks, but who's keeping tabs, am I right?
“Me. I am keeping tabs.” Ming replies to the question I obviously meant as rhetorical. Her voice is stronger somehow today, and scarier. She's always had a temper, but it's the first time she's giving me chills with just the sound of her voice echoing in my head.
Is it possible to be afraid of your own wolf? To be afraid of... yourself? I push that thought away before Ming catches it. I'm feeling guilty for thinking like that. I should treat my wolf to a run in the woods later. Right now I have things to do, places to be, a pack to cut ties with.
I used to follow my dad, well my adoptive dad, when he would go to meet the Alpha in his office at the pack house, so I know of a way to get to Alpha Jaxon, without facing too many guards, and without asking for Marie's help, which would get her in trouble.
All the high ranking pack members, that did not reside in the pack house, had secret underground tunnels underneath their own homes built. And where do those tunnels lead to, you may ask? That's right, they go straight beneath the pack house.
Both my mom and dad were Commanders in Crescent Moon's army, therefore our house had one of those convenient tu
nnels, and I know just how to navigate through it. I just have to break into my old house first.
I've done it, I can't believe I managed to pull this off. I give myself a mental high five.
I snuck into my childhood home and went through the tunnel. It was fairly easy to do, actually. Scary to think about it, just how vulnerable our pack really is. I made sure to cover myself in vanilla scented perfume and walked right in. Vanilla is the most generic smell a wolf can have, a smell that literally screams 'blah'. It's usually how low ranking wolves smell, with their own personal notes, of course, so I figured it won't hurt in covering my tracks. That, or I may have watched too many spy movies.
I already knew that my mom won't be home, there is a late lunch today that Luna is hosting for the high ranking females of the pack, but I had to take my chances with dad. It turned out to work great for me, because none of them were home. Hell, even the front door was unlocked (because who would dare to waltz in the home of the Commanders) and voila. The door thing has to be my dad, he must have left the house after mom did and just forgot to lock it. Not the first time it happened, but it is the first time I'm glad for it.
I'm in the freaking tunnels and just a few steps away from the hatch that will gain me access to the pack house. It suddenly occurs to me that I haven't properly thought this through. The hatch opens in the den, and from the den I will have to climb the stairs and reach the main common area. If I'm lucky enough for the den to be empty of the young wolves who usually spend their time in there gaming, there is no such miracle to have the common area clear.
I curse under my breath and start weighing in my options. Going back and risk getting caught in the house I came from, or pushing the hatch open and taking my chances of being seen in the pack house. I chose the latter, because the commotion of me being found sneaking in, would surely lead to someone alerting Alpha Jaxon, and he was the man I came here to see anyway.
I take a few steps towards the hatch and hear some muffled voices coming from the den. I strain my ears to hear better but I can only make out parts of the conversation. What draws my attention is that the conversation is about me. I manage to hear the annoying voice that I recognised as belonging to Mr Biggins, but what he says doesn't quite register with me. Did he just say that I tested.. Alpha?
Convinced I had misheard my headmaster, I shifted my body closer to the hatch so that maybe I can hear better. Ii did not help, not at all, but I clearly heard an annoyed Biggins say it again.
“I certainly did not expect your Samantha to test Alpha, did you?”
“I did, actually.” It was my dad's voice.
“Then I guess you know it had to be done. We can't have just anyone get ranked Alpha, now can we?
“We certainly can not, Biggins, we can not.”
What the hell was all that about? Me , an Alpha? This makes less sense than getting ranked Omega. If I tested Alpha, it means my parents were Alphas. Who am I?
In the end I went with option number 2 and went back to my childhood home. I got the heck out of those tunnels and away from pack grounds. I still need time to digest this new found piece of information, but 8 can't help this sense of pride invading all my senses. Me, an Alpha. Well, how do you like me now, Jason? As soon as I said that (and yes, I did say it out loud, because I need an outlet, I am allowed to be angry and hurt after getting rejected by my mate) I understood why the pain, the physical one, never came. It registered in my brain that Jason rejected an Omega, while I am an Alpha. It make sense how I still feel our bond, and as happy as Ming is about that, I am even more upset about the rejection now. I don't want to go through that again. I wonder how long it will take for him to figure out that our bond didn't break?
Seeing the sunset taking over, the moon chasing the sun away, I determine it's best to take advantage of the free time I had left, now that my mission to speak to Alpha Jaxon has failed, and gave my wolf full control, so she can enjoy a well deserved and, not to mention, much needed run.
23 - Fight
Jason
My talk with Victoria didn't help enlighten me much, but I did find the whole conspiracy theory that she laid out, quite interesting. There might be a bit of truth in there, so I plan on digging deeper to see if Sam's parents were indeed framed, and if not, what was their relationship with Marie's parents and why would they have wanted them dead. There has to be something to ties everyone together.
“Going against the headmaster and his Beta.. are you fucking nuts?” Brian whisper shouts. We're in my room strategizing, or trying our best. “You do realise these guys have been the king's guards for over 20 years, right?”
“Of course, I know that. That's why if we win against them, we get to graduate just like that.”
Alpha Bolder and Beta Tison have been royal guards for a long time. As reward for their service and for keeping the royal family safe, the former King of wolves gifted them with their own pack. They became Alpha and Beta of this wolf community, the biggest in Northern America, might I add.
The Academy we're attending is located on their pack's grounds, and it's considered the Alpha's pride and joy, since he never had children and his mate died when they were very young.
Alpha Bolder is more of an honorary headmaster, he's not usually here with the students. I imagine running one of the biggest packs in the world keeps you busy, but I remember on orientation day, someone joked around with the 'easy graduation' clause that Alpha Bolder instated about a decade ago.
After digging in all the documents I could lay my hands on in the Academy's library, I found a copy of the addition he made to the graduation requirements.
The 'early graduation for much too capable wolves' it's called. I chuckled when I saw the name. Clearly no one has ever taken them up on that.
Reading through the document I find that it's a series of one to one combat sessions between the graduating Alpha and Bolder, and another between the Graduating Beta and his Beta. This would have to be first round in human form and then in wolf form.
Each round has a winner who gets a point in favour of his team. Either graduates of Academy. The last round, a tiebreaker if one is needed, is between Both Alphas helped by their Betas and shifting is permitted as needed or seen fit. The most important rule that everyone involved must follow is - no death blows, which works great for me. I really would like to keep both Brian and myself alive, no matter how suicidal this whole plan seems to be.
“Both of them are going to be here tomorrow, you know?” I inform Brian.
“Alpha Peter is graduating, and instead of running a pack he's going to join the Royal Guards. They will come to see him graduate and wish him luck. That's our chance. We challenge them and fight.” I lay out my not so perfect plan to a very unimpressed Brian.
“Yeah, we challenge them and pray they don't kill us, Alpha. This is not a good idea.”
It was not. I knew that already, but I fucked up so bad with Samantha that I needed to turn this world upside down to find out if my instinct about her is right or if everyone else is, and I need to reject her once more. A proper rejection this time. Either way, she hates my guts and I love her to pieces. I freeze, earning me a confused look from Brian. I just acknowledged to myself that I love her.
“Fuck it, you know I would die for you man. I'm so in. Let's fuck up an old Alpha and his Beta, shall we? Then you get to tell Luna that you're naming your first born after me.” I roar out in laughter at Brian's decision and how serious his face is.
There's commotion everywhere around us, and afternoon classes have been suspended for the day, because of the important guests visiting.
Brian and I have been fidgety all morning and now's the time. If we survive this, I'll treat him to a new car, the one he absolutely wants almost as bad as he wants to find his mate. I nod at him and he nods back. I raise from my seat and say the words needed to set the plan in motion.
Alpha Bolder has given a short speech earlier, and now Beta Tison is encouraging more of the students to j
oin the royal guards, at least for a couple of months, as to gain even more training before taking over their respective packs. I wasn't really paying attention, to be honest.
I noticed everyone staring at me and Beta Tison stopped speaking. I frown when it occurs to me that they all are staring because I'm the only student standing up.
I clear my throat and let my Alpha voice boom in the large hall.
“I, Jason Wright, future Alpha of the Crescent Moon pack, along with my Beta, Brian Richards, challenge you, Alpha Julian Bolder and Beta Corey Tison for a match where the stakes would be our early graduation.” I said everything in a loud and clear voice. Brian is also standing now. I know he's scared shitless, but one could never tell by looking at his stoic face.
“And what's in it for us?” Alpha Bolder asks, a smile playing on his lips. I can tell he's excited for this, not that he made any effort to hide it. The problem is I didn't know what I could offer them in return, Brian and I never talked about that, but in the clause it said that the ones that make the challenge need to offer something, in case the other team is the winner.
“The two of us will join the Royal guards until the King will choose to dismiss us.” Brian speaks with the confidence of a man who already has victory assured. He's managed to give our opponents something they consider worth fighting for. Both of them smile pleased, and in unison say that they accept our challenge. We are set to start the first match at sunset tonight. Our opponents look delighted for the challenge, as if they are going to have the most fun they've had in years. That's probably true.
I was expecting our challenge to attract attention and a lot of people and for them to come and watch, but neither myself or Brian ever thought that all the students and teachers at the Academy, along with a large number of pack members, will show up for this. If I wasn't nervous before, I sure am now that I've seen the crowd.
First up are Beta Tison and Brian, for the round of fighting in human form. They take their places, both in the fighting stances. The older Beta seems relaxed and I can tell he's seriously underestimating Brian. But give him the right motivation, and Brian turns into a blood thirsty beast. The fight starts with the crowd is being eerily quiet. Brian is focused and easily dodges all the blows Tison sends his way. I'm starting to have a good feeling about this.
Fight For The Highest Wolf Rank Page 11