The fighters were randomly selected, and at any given point there had to be 4 contenders in the ring, fighting. One one was knocked out, or submitted, another one would join. Sure, the newcomer would have an advantage, but in real life fights are never fair, we know it all too well from experience.
The first four start just randomly fighting each other and the first wolf, a female is knocked out within seconds. She is replaced by another fighter and I start to notice that everyone is fighting for themselves, in the ring you can see 2 fights. After the second one is leaving the fight, my dad yells for the next fighter to join.
“Xander Black!” I feel a chill run through my spine as I learned my mate's name. My stupid body betrays me once more, and I awkwardly cough and adjust myself. My eyes go wide when I noticed that the rogue caught on to my earlier action, and he playfully winks at me. He fucking winked at me and then went into the ring.
He nods at one of the other guys in the ring, and in a flash the other two are down. OK, it might not have been a flash, but because my stupid brain refuses to function properly, I missed most of what happened, but I don't fail to miss the smile on the current Alpha's face.
It soon becomes clear that Xander, Roman, the guy who has been fighting from the start of the round and another female, Lana, are teaming up. The rules were clear, fight until the last one standing, but as them 3 were the last one, they relaxed their bodies and stopped fighting. I have a feeling this earned the more brownie points in Bolder's eyes than anything else could have.
“Congratulations to our 3 finalists. I would say winners, but it seems as if you do not wish to fight each other. Before you think otherwise, know that both myself and my higher rank pack members are impressed, you 3 have passed the real test, and I am grateful to have such contenders for the Alpha position.” I swear Bolder is like a kid who got the latest action figure for Christmas. This is going just like he dreamed, I can tell, and everyone is happy for the old Alpha. Shit, never call him the 'old Alpha' ever again, not even in my thoughts, because he will literally bite my head off.
“Alpha, permission to address everyone, if I may?” The woman, Lana, speaks.
“Of course, go ahead.” We are all intrigued, to say the least. Personally I think she's going to forfeit, but you never know. As Xander, she's also a rogue. The other guy is a pack wolf, though from what I heard, he's not too keen on going back to his pack, they are known to be savage brutes.
“Roman and I have submitted to Alpha Xander. We recognise the strength of a pack, and our wolves see him as our Alpha.” Damn, now that's a bomb to drop.
“Alpha Xander saved me from getting raped on my way here, just outside your pack borders. A group of rogues that heard about the trials and were upset for not being allowed to enter the competition had me surrounded and wanted to force themselves on me. I will forever be in debt to him, because we might also be rogues, but we still have our humanity. We haven't become rogues by choice, we were born like this and just want a pack to belong to.” As the woman starts sobbing, not resembling the strong Alpha she showed us she can be only a minute ago, the other guy starts speaking.
“Alpha Bolder, I might be strong, and powerful, but all I really want is peace and quiet, maybe even to find my mate and live a decent life. I have no desire to go back to my pack in Europe, they don't share the same values as me, but Alpha Xander does. And like Lana said, our wolves see him as our Alpha, and I don't mind having a lower rank if you will accept me into your pack. I would really like to join your warriors.”
We are all standing here dumbfounded, because none of us had expected this to happen.
“I mean, we had 2 more rounds, and worked hard to organise everything...” My dad says deflated, but my mom shoots him a glare that is just as effective as a slap on the back of his head, so he clears his throat and looks at Bolder. “Alpha..?”
“As disappointed as I might be that this is cut short, I don't see any issues with your little... arrangement. Young Alpha Xander you have shown great potential ever since you stepped foot in our pack's territory, and if we were to place any bets, and I am not saying we ever did that, you were the favourite.” We all chuckle and even the rogue smiles proudly and a big smugly.
“We'll get started on the ceremony then, no point in waiting.” Carla beams at Bolder and he eagerly nods. I think those two will enjoy training the new Alpha just as much as they will enjoy finally having alone time.
As everyone leaves to start preparing for the ceremony, I find it hard to leave the spot I was standing in. A little heads us that he will be the Alpha, would have been nice, but no, I had zero visions about this. How convenient. The musky smells that I know belongs to Xander invades my nostrils. It's so intoxicating, I feel like it will both kill me and give me life.
“You seem disappointed that I won.” I blink, realising that he's standing right in front of me.
“I was just trying to figure out who I'll be helping to run the pack.” He cocks a brow at me.
“I'm Tyler, your future Beta, and your mate.”
“I'm a rogue, I don't have a.... “ He spat and I started talking at the same time as him, clearly making him get annoyed with me.
“... you don't have a mate, yeah, yeah, I know.” I then burst out laughing despite it clearly not being the time for that.
“And there you have it, my vision becomes reality!” I whisper mostly to myself, though I know he heard me loud and clear. “Great, now that we've had that we can move on.” I try to plaster a cheerful smile on my face and ignore the pain of having my heart broken by the one that will be my Alpha soon. And it sinks in that I will be his Beta. Talk about excruciating.
“What the hell are you talking about, Beta? What vision?” He asks, his eyes narrowing in suspicion, but I see right through that. He's as curious as a cat and tries to mask it. I just roll my eyes in response and sigh hard before thinking what I should say, in as little words as possible, so he gets the full story and doesn't need too much explanation.
“I saw this coming about 2 years ago.” Bad start because he is genuinely looking confused right now. Although it's a cute look of his otherwise hard face, I need to be on point so I don't have to tell this more than once.
“Let me try again. I have a unique gift, if you wish to call it that, I randomly have visions of stuff that will happen in the future. It can be two seconds from now, or much much later in the future, hence me knowing that you will say those exact words.” I see him smirking, and for some reason, I can't help but think that if he wasn't my mate, I would be really into hooking up with him, and by the way he eyed me when he thought I wasn't looking, he would have liked that too. Unfortunately that would surely kill me, if the rejection doesn't do it first. Which brings me to the point I was trying to get to earlier.
“Even though you don't feel the bond on your end, you still have to reject me, so we can both, you know, move on to our own things.” I awkwardly say, but I know he gets the idea.
“And what if I don't want to reject you?” His smirk makes another appearance on his handsome face.
“I don't think that will earn you any gold stars with the pack. I am the Beta, after all, and I can veto you in a second.” I grin cheekily, loving to see how I got him all riled up. He lets a growl escape his chest, but his eyes seem more amused than scared by my threat. “But don't worry, we can take care of that after your Alpha ceremony.
“After I am Alpha you can't do anything to kick me out, so you trust me to reject you after I come to power?”
“Unique gift. Visions of the future. Ring any bells?” I roll my eyes looking bored, when in fact I'm lying through my teeth and praying hard he doesn't catch on. Shit, I haven't thought about that, but I can't go back now. He seems convinced that I actually saw the future, so I think I'm good.
All through the ceremony I had a swarm of mixed feelings and emotions running through my body, almost to the point of making me sick. I feel pride in seeing that my mate gets to be the next Al
pha, I can already tell everyone likes him and feels safe with him. I know he will lead this just as good as Alpha Bolder has, if not better, but I'm not sure I can stomach being his Beta. I saw Samantha how she was after the rejections, yes both of them, and I don't think being near Xander and he rejects me, would do me any favours. I jumped slightly when Bolder passed on his Alpha power to Xander and I felt the change through our pack link. It's both exhilarating and a bit sad, but Xander is a pack wolf now, and he is our Alpha. I straighten my back, knowing that soon would be my turn to take over as Beta from my father.
“MINE!” Xander growls all of a sudden, and the crowd goes dead silent. In a blink of an eye he's standing right in front of me, eyeing me up and down, with... love? Well shit, he's no longer a rogue, is he?
“The fucking Moon Goddess and her technicalities!” I try to say out loud but my mouth is busy being ferociously devoured by the new Alpha of the Tristate pack.
I told you I'll be Luna soon, didn't I?
65 - Epilogue
Samantha
“Hurry up already, guys. We'll be late and we all know better than to be late!” Jennifer shouts at the guys who are getting ready in the adjacent room of the hotel suite we are currently in.
“You know what? The prick deserves it!” Jason shouts through the cracked door.
“Hey, don't talk about my former Alpha like that, uhm... Alpha.” Ryan challenges Jason but ends up confusing himself in the end. Jen just rolls her eyes and I stifle a giggle.
Since little Aron is a little over one and has started walking, his dad and Jason decided that the 3 of them will get ready together, like men. The Alpha and Beta soon learned that getting a toddler into a tiny tux is not as fun, or as easy, as it sounds.
“Mama!” The voice of the tiny runaway makes Jen turn around with a smirk and pick up the little giggling and half dressed baby. It's funny how she just knew this would eventually happen.
“I'm sorry baby. You think you can get the jacket on him? Oh, and the bow tie?” Ryan pleads with Jennifer as him and Jason finally admit defeat. The little Beta kicked their asses like nobody could ever do.
While Jen finished dressing Aron, I look at them and a pang of sadness tugs at my heart. I am yet again jealous of my friend, in the best way possible. Jason hugs me from behind and whispers in my ear the same reassuring words he has been saying for a few months. “We'll have our own eventually, don't worry.”
It's only been about six months since we started trying for a baby, but I swear I just have a bad feeling about all this. It might be all in my head, and that might actually prevent me from getting pregnant, but I am so afraid that I will never experience motherhood, never be able to give Jason an heir, and the more I want it, the more I feel that dream slip away.
We hear a knock on the door and Ryan opens it revealing two of the most handsome men alive. Yes, even Jason admitted it to me one time, Tyler and Xander are too handsome for their own good. And the worst part is that they know it and use it every day.
“You guys ready? We should really get going. We can't be leaving the King waiting, now can we?” Tyler jokingly says as he's trying to teach little Aron to high five.
“Ready, let's go.” I chime in and we all walk out together, heading for the cars that were lined up waiting for us.
The car ride is silent, and even though I only have Jason, Tyler and Xander in the car with me, I know that both them as well as the Beta family that's currently in the other car, are thinking the same. How much we all have changed and how our lives took a turn.
The girl that used to have bleached hair dyed pink, who's life was turned upside down and got abused and bullied and thrown in the street, now seems only a distant memory, like something I once read in a book and stuck with me. It doesn't seem possible that I was that girl that got tortured endlessly in the dungeons of the pack that I am now running.
Jason and I have taken over Blood Moon pack also. Our territory has increased and so the number of our pack members. We offered everyone in Blood Moon the same deal as we gave Crescent Moon members when Jason announced me as his mate and Luna, but none of them wanted to leave the pack. They were all proud of their Alpha who was going to be the next King of werewolves, and trusted him when Luke told them he wants me and Jason to take over.
I had known this for a long time, but indeed, everyone in Blood Moon was really open to new things. They were not as stuck on old traditions and ideas like the wolves in Crescent Moon. To be honest, we're still trying to convince those from Crescent Moon to take the example given by those who came from Blood Moon, and I'm hoping that we'll get there soon. All in all, it hasn't been that bad or hard to merge the two pack. Nothing is hard when all the parts and willing to work together.
The Beta Couple, Ryan and Jen have been helping us a lot, and I pleased to say that Brian is happily living in the human world with his girlfriend. They have moved in together, but still taking it slow. He is technically a lone wolf now, but still keeps in touch with our pack, though Jason likes to say he's a 'domesticated wolf' now. It's not far from the truth. That human girlfriend of his sure keeps him on a tight leash and he's loving every minute of it.
Oh, and with the merger of the two packs, we are now the second largest pack in the world, which is both a lot of work, but also amazing. The Tristate pack has grown into the largest and most powerful pack there is, all thanks to Xander and Tyler. Well, they made it the most powerful, but Carla and Bolder made is the largest. They keep taking in all the strays they can get, much to Xander's annoyance. Tristate pack, and the Academy on it's grounds, have became a safe heaven for the the runaway wolves, lone wolves and rogues that want to be a part of a community. Without a pack to run, a not so retired Bolder and Carla are now focusing all their time on the Academy, which now serves a dual purpose. It's still an Alpha Academy that trains future Alphas and Betas, the same way Jason and I went through it, but it's also a place where 'those strays that Carla collects', Xander's words, not mine, can get an education.
I'm pulled out of my thoughts when Jason whispers in my ear softly. “We're here, love.”
It's my first time being at the palace where there Royal family resides. To say it's magnificent would be an understatement. It's a freaking castle! How cool is that? Luke and Alessa get to live in castle. And then it hits me and I grin like a kid who has an older brother that would kick his bullies' asses.
“We're actually friends with the King!” I squeal and Jason laughs at my silliness.
“I know, that's pretty cool, but he's not king just yet.”
He's right, there are about 10 minutes until the ceremony starts and I am super excited to see Luke and Alessa get crowned as King and Queen of werewolves. As we walk into the throne room, I notice my uncle talking to Alessa's dad, the... current King, I suppose. He has the same excited smile and twinkle in his eyes as my uncle had when he passed down the Alpha title to Xander. It's like knowing you took the best decision, that everything will be handled and everyone will be safe in the hands of the new leader, and now you are free to enjoy your early retirement.
As I gaze in their direction and smile affectionately, I can't stop thinking that I want Jason to be just like them two when he passes down his Alpha title. I gasp when someone grabs my arm a bit too roughly, and a short flash invades my mind, leaving even Ming speechless.
“Your new Alpha Jacob Wright” A young man that looks like the spitting image of... me, walks up towards a very handsome silver fox that I recognise as Jason.
It only lasted the briefest of seconds, but I knew what it was, what it meant. Looking at Jason, he is glaring daggers at Tyler for grabbing my arm like that and startling me, but once he notices my smile he relaxes. I turn my head to look at Tyler and he grins at me like a kid who knows he's been naughty.
“What, how?” I try to ask, but not sure how I should phrase it.
“You looked like you needed it. And as for the 'how', it's a perk of finding my mate, I guess.” he shrugs and w
e all fall quiet as the ceremony starts and Luke walks on the stage, proudly holding Alessa's hand.
Fight For The Highest Wolf Rank Page 32