In The Beginning, Chapter 25
“By beating all the others.” I replied with a shrug.
“You beat every other wolf in Applewood?” She asked, her tone dripping in disbelief.
“Well, no. Some of the newly graduated would get hurt fighting me, but I did fight everyone on my level when I finished training, which put me in 4th place, behind my father, uncle, and the delta. Then when I decided to take over the pack, I had to fight the Delta, then Owen, and finally my dad, when I beat him, I became Alpha, unofficially. We held the ceremony the next day, officially taking my place as Alpha of the pack.” I explained, she was quiet for a little while, before she asked me another question.
“Did your father really fight you, or was it more a ceremonial thing?”
“It was a real fight, but... I pulled my punches a little, and I wasn’t as vicious as I could’ve been.” I admitted, a little worried she was going to freak out.
“Are there rules at least?” She squeaked, obviously upset.
“Yes, of course. These things are mostly ceremonial. Yeah, the younger kids take it a little too seriously, and enjoy rubbing it in their friends’ noses when they rank higher, but it’s also good for moral. It’s like class rankings, only if you beat everyone in your class, you can challenge any wolf who has passed training for their rank, mostly, the wolf who won the year before so we can see who’s stronger, or one of the trainers, etc. On very rare occasions a new warrior will challenge the Delta, or even the beta, but they rarely win.”
“So, how does the rankings work? What’s the point of them? Other than bragging rights or taking someone’s rank? What does the winner get if they don’t challenge anyone?” I couldn’t help but chuckle at her inquisitive nature bombarding me with questions.
“The wolf that wins gets his pick of assignments, and the top ten are invited to join Zeta training. Others with different gifts are also sometimes asked, but the top ten is usually the cream of the crop. The lowest ten, never make it to the rank of Eta, or warrior, and are moved out of the barracks for the new Iotas coming in, to train.” I didn’t like how quiet she was, but I wanted to give her time too, she had been dealt a lot of information in the last 24 hours.
“How old are the boys that do this?” she asked, turning to look at me.
“They’re men, the youngest wolf to compete is 22, we may have had a twenty-one-year-old at some point, most are older. If you get accepted to a college, and you want to finish your education, you can defer your training until after you graduate college, but it means coming up with a bunch of snot nosed 18-year-olds.” I chuckled.
“How old were you? The first time I mean...” She meekly asked, like she was worried about my answer.
“24. Ben and I started training with Dad at 14, deferred our official training until after college. With our previous training I managed to get through the 4-year course in 2.” I bragged a little, sue me.
“What about Ben?” She asked innocently, but more animalistic instincts didn’t like it.
“He did it in 3.” I replied, trying to keep the ice out of my voice, she was just asking because I mentioned him, I knew that intellectually, but emotionally, I can be a little irrational when it comes to her.
“Do you hold the record for fastest graduate or something?” She teased, turning in the bath, and crawling up my front, so she was sat in my lap, no doubt she felt my jealousy.
“That would be telling, no fun in that.” I repaid her taunts in kind, as her hands ran over my torso.
“What’s the Alliance?” Her sudden subject change threw me for a moment.
“Do you really want to hear about this tonight? You’ve had a lot of information thrown at you lately, I don’t want to overwhelm you.” I openly showed her my concern, not just for her mental health, but also her physical one. We were both still jet lagged, and it was getting late.
“Please? It’ll help calm my anxiety and give me something else to think about.” She was giving me her sweet and innocent face, but her hips were already moving along the length of my ever, fucking hard cock. I felt like a teenager around her, not that I’m complaining, not really.
“You’re not playing fair kitten.” I warned. “How am I supposed to concentrate on anything when you're doing that!” I groaned into her neck.
“Tell me and I’ll be good.” She whispered seductively in my ear. “Tell me!” She demanded, but in a cute teasing way.
“It’s a group of creatures, that was given the authority to discipline rogue wolves, or packs, or Alphas. Basically, anyone who is causing trouble to the supernatural community.” I explained with a sigh of frustration.
“Why would there be a need for something like that?” She asked, all teasing and humour gone, well she was going to find out eventually, I thought to myself.
“After the last Lycan King died, his sons all vied for his throne. Typically, the eldest son takes command, but there was some debate about who was technically first born. His eldest chronologically, was from a tryst with a female that was not his mate. His second and third sons, believed they had a better claim as their parents were mates, but, when his first mate died, before he could be claimed by the madness, he met his second chance mate, and had children with her too. And they believed their mother to be the King’s true mate, and they all began squabbling over who would be King. This is where it gets complicated; so, the elders gathered and decided the brothers would fight, and the strongest wolf would become King. The night before the fights were due to take place, all of the sons from the King’s second chance mate, were killed. The elders called a halt to the proceedings until the deaths could be investigated. The eldest of all the brothers, used that time wisely, building up support for himself, while slandering the others. There was talk, and many theories, everyone placed the blame with another, and the investigation kept going without answers. Eventually, the elders reached out to other beings to help, one of whom, was a powerful nymph. Now, the histories aren’t exactly accurate with what happened next, and how the nymph came to know what she did, but eventually, she concluded that the eldest son had killed his brothers, in the hopes of pinning it on his other brothers and making himself the best option. When the eldest son heard her accusation, he flew into a rage, and killed his brothers, then the elders, then the nymph. He left the bodies in the Palace for the guards he hadn’t talked into joining him. I wish that was the end of the story, but, the eldest son, in retribution for what the nymph accused him of, he and the band of rogues that left with him started hunting and killing nymphs. At the time, a lot of the nymphs from the first few generations were still alive, and tied to the plants they were born from, or so the legend goes, but I guess your aunt kinda confirmed it. Anyway, he burned the fields, the forests, he killed thousands before he was stopped. His children fled, and we have no idea where. The King’s daughters, the only children of his still alive, and his fallen sons’ mates, wrote the treaty, and we never had another King. The Alliance is made of the ancestors, or nominated representative of the other races, they all do it differently.” She just froze, staring at me, I could feel her pain, and something else that felt strange.
“That’s so sad, those poor women.” She whimpered, her lip trembling slightly.
“Oh, kitten, yes, it’s sad, but this was... goddess, well over a thousand years ago I would imagine. The histories aren’t great with precise dates and accuracy.” I explained as I wiped away a tear on her cheek...
“Still, I can’t imagine how difficult it must have been, especially back then, without a mate for support. How did they survive?” She asked, her face still full of sorrow.
“Well one of them survived, I’m their distant relative.” I smiled, as I pulled her closer to me, her head resting on my shoulder. “You ready to get out?”
“A couple more minutes?” She asked, how could I refuse?
“Anything you want baby.” I whispered into her hair as she tightened her hold around my neck, and I felt like an idiot for not realising. Charlie had that vision of me dying in a possible future, and it had been plaguing her anxieties ever since. It probably set off her abandonment issues, or whatever from her father being missing for her entire life. It was probably the thing holding her back all that time, I felt like a shitty mate for not putting it together sooner. “You know, the pack probably took care of them, if the Alpha dies and his heir is not of age, the Luna rules with the aid of the elders, until the pup is of age. I have no idea how they worked it all out, but they did, because I’m here, I’m proof at least one family prospered, and there are others that have family histories tying them to one of the sons.” I tried to console her.
“But they were alone, without their mates, and the children all grew up without fathers.” She whispered softly. I pulled her face to mine, so I could look in her eyes.
“I would fight the moon goddess herself to return to you, I swear, I’m not going anywhere without a war. Like you wouldn’t find a way to drag your grandparents here to bring me back?” She cocked her eyebrow at that, the corners of her lips turning up despite herself.
“If Theia couldn’t do it, what makes you think I could?” She asked hastily, and I couldn’t contain my laughter.
“Because you would raze the earth to ashes just to get their attention.” I teased, through my chuckles at the faces she was pulling.
“What if it was me?” She asked suddenly, and all the humour drained out of me.
“Don’t even joke about that.” I warned her, a little more growl to my voice than I intended.
“You just did.” She replied.
“I would be right behind you.” I replied honestly, her lips captivating me once again “Whether to fight our way back or spend eternity together, there is no me without you baby.”
*Hi everyone, I apologise to those who read the chapter I uploaded, instead of this one, no excuse, I have no idea what happened. I hope you continue to read, vote and comment. Voting is still open on the Facebook page!
Thank you and much love
Constance xoxo*
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