In The Beginning, Chapter 52

Daniel POV

When I got to the pack grounds, the trainers had already taken the members of Harvest Moon through a warmup, and they had broken them up into teams based off of their sparring abilities. The group that needed the most work were sent to train with the Iotas, the rest would be slotted in where they could, but for today, they would be mostly showing us what they knew. We broke the remaining 47 men into four groups, each man fighting until he tapped out, the winner remaining to fight the next man. I moved among the trainers, pointing out wolves that could be moved up a group, but more often than not, we were moving them down. None of these wolves were ready for Zeta training, but several had promise. I conferred with the Zetas, Alex, my Delta had been running nightly patrols, so I was filling in for him, as his second Bailey, was with Charlie. A temporary measure at best, since it looked like Bailey would be challenging Alex for his position at soon. I looked around the warriors, Charlie wanted Kyle for her Luna guard, that left five positions to fill, and she was going to get the best. An idea formed in my mind, I whistled loudly to get everyone’s attention, and opened the link to all warriors of the pack.
“I would like to announce, at this year’s Spring Equinox, not only will some of our newest pack members be competing for their ranks, but all of you, who have completed your training, will be eligible to fight for a place in the Luna’s Guard! A normally cushy, yet prestigious role, for those of you yet to meet my mate, you should be aware, she is not your average Luna. Therefore, only the best will be chosen to guard her!” I felt the excitement of my warriors through the link, and a few of the trainers were grinning. “Train hard, fight well, and make your pack proud!” I encouraged, parroting the words my father had used when he welcomed the new Iotas to training, including the year I started. The wolves born to Applewood, cheered, pumping their fists into the air, while the new additions looked at them oddly. I watched the strongest of the new wolves' fight, they reminded me of roman gladiators, brutal, and strong, but no discipline, no finesse, and no ability to work as a team. I saw one of them, he was watching from the side-lines, but his eyes caught everything. I made my way to him slowly, disappearing into the crowd, onto to materialise next to him.
“Alpha.” He nodded; he was only a couple of seconds slower at spotting me than my Zeta scouts.
“What was your role in Harvest Moon?” I asked him, as his eyes darted to the men sparring, he had caught the weakness in the left leg of the domineering fighter. Again, not long after the trainers and I had.
“I was still an Iota, would’ve fought for my rank this Spring.” He said with a nod, his eyes hesitant to leave the sparring men.
“Consider waiting until the fall, and you may have what it takes to make Zeta training, compete this Spring, and you will get a decent placement among the Etas, but you won’t be asked to train for Zeta placement.” I informed him, he looked thoughtful for a moment.
“Thank you, Alpha, I will think on it.” He replied, I nodded to his bared neck and moved to the next group. I had just finished getting the information I wanted from the trainer of the group, when the wind shifted. The sky seemed to flash purple, like a bolt of lightning beyond the horizon had lit up the sky, and I smelled something that didn’t belong. Sensing my unease, the Zetas stopped the fighting, I turned towards the smell, and heard footsteps, approaching fast. They stopped, and the scent disappeared, I glanced around at my men, as my senses were telling me something was coming. The Zetas began shouting orders, preparing for an attack, when a dozen pure blood vampires teleported into the middle of the training grounds. I grabbed the closest one to me, punching him in the head, and tossing him into the chalk ring the men had just been sparring in. The Zeta of the group took charge, leading the men in the attack. Another vampire charged at me, as the men started shifting, I avoided the vamp’s attack and caught him in the stomach, sending him backwards into another group that were already taking down two vamps.
“Stay in your groups, work together!” I yelled as another vampire swung his sharpened nails at my face, narrowly missing my skin. I caught the arm as it swung and slammed my fist into its elbow dislocating it and fracturing the bones, I tossed it aside as another tried to leap onto my back, its teeth gnashing close to my neck, I caught its throat and began squeezing as hard as I could, my other arm keeping its nails from connecting with my body. A wolf took out the snarling creature, my claws ripping through its throat as its body was thrown sideways by the wolf’s tackle. “Close that gap, draw them into the centre! Don’t let them control the attack, use each other’s strengths!” I bellowed, as too many mistakes were being made due to our lack of communication. I tried again to move out of the circle my wolves were creating to keep the vampires contained, only for a vamp to attack me, which was annoying, I wanted to see what the new wolves could do. “They can teleport, keep your eyes on one target at a time, if it disappears, check your rear first!” I screamed as another wolf nearly got himself bitten, one of the trainers got to the vamp first, but it was close. Another vamp lunged for me, abandoning its fight to run straight at me. I waited until it was almost close enough to grab me, and punched it in the face, its jaw making a sickening and satisfying crunch as its both dislocated and shattered. “Stay together, use your pack!” I cried as I saw more than one wolf threatening to be cut off from his group without assistance. I grabbed a 44lb weight and launched it at a vampire going after one of the new wolves, it sent him flying sideways, and the wolf got back into formation. Two vamps made their way towards me, a glance from one told me a third was sneaking up on me. I got ready to crouch, the one behind me had been blinding flinging himself at the others, no reason to think he wouldn’t do the same now, to get my neck. My muscles tensed as I waited for his move, I was sure it was seconds away, then I was gone, there was no other way to put it, silence, darkness, only for a second, then I was elsewhere, and sound and sight were returned to me. “Charlie?” I must be disoriented, maybe I got hit? Then it hit me, she was in a white dress. “Charlie!” I grabbed her and dragged her behind a shed before one of them saw her, just in time as I blocked her with my body, the creatures the vamps made were crawling over the walls, like an invasion of spiders. “FUCK!” I linked all warriors to get to the grounds, as I tried to keep Charlie hidden behind me. “DECAPITATE THEM!” I screamed as I saw warriors wasting time scratching and biting hoping to drain the creatures. “TAKE, THEIR HEADS!!!” I bellowed, putting my Alpha aura behind it, and using my claws to rip the head from the nearest one as a demonstration. I grabbed Charlie and forced her across the grounds to my office, I was hoping to get her inside, but one of the creatures was on the roof, so I shoved her down between the storage sheds. “Where is Bailey? KYLE? ANYONE?” I was panicking, she couldn’t be in the middle of this, I hated how rough I had been, but I was approaching full on freak out and I couldn’t do that and lead.
“We were attacked, at the store, I teleported after the vampire said they were going to take you. They’re still in the city.” She said so quietly I nearly missed it over the din surrounding us, she was pale. I saw the blood and dirt splattered all over her dress and vowed to make them all pay. She couldn’t even buy a fucking dress without ending up covered in blood, and in that moment, I swore to whatever gods out there, if any of that blood was hers, I would drain the bastard that dared touch her.
“Are you hurt?” I didn’t know if I wanted to know the answer, if no that was good but if yes, Ben may have to order the men to stop me, and I would kill some of them. She didn’t get a chance to answer, so we will never know, because that’s when she bitch slapped a bitten across two training areas. My wolf was so proud, until she stumbled, I could see the Etas leap over the southern wall, they didn’t stop as they crushed the creature Charlie had thrown. They peeled off into smaller groups and took down the creatures easily, a few of the vamps too, the others started vanishing, like rats they fled, they knew they were outnumbered. Charlie gripped my arm, and I had to hold her up as she started trembling. “It’s okay, we are all okay, no one was bitten.” I soothed her as the energy she had used up caught up with her. She began crying, the adrenaline and the shock too much for her. I lifted her gently, this was not how I imagined carrying her in a white fucking dress, I thought bitterly as I carried her into the small office I share with the trainers. I was barely here anymore, it used to be that the Alpha was the final word on patrols, work rotas, everything. But we saw an opportunity a few years ago and lobbied for Robert to be police commissioner, now nearly everything runs through his office. Appletree is the exception, but that goes through the head of security, Alex, very little red tape for me to deal with.
“Alph- where did... I mean, no serious injuries, a few scratches, couple of broken bones, nothing that will hinder training.” Alex reported, looking at Charlie with concern but thinking better of questioning me on my mate. Although I was pleasantly surprised by how quickly they’d cleaned up, which is the only reason Alex would be giving me a run down.
“Make sure those that need to go to the hospital are ready for transport.” I nodded, he shot one more concerned look at Charlie and left. I sat her in the only chair in the room, she glanced out the window, and began sobbing softly. “Charlie?” I called her, concerned, I wasn’t even sure she could hear me as she stared blankly between the bars. I turned her chin to me. “You need to release your power baby.” I told her as gently as I could, she was getting paler by the minute, and she looked exhausted. I brushed away a piece of hair stuck to her cheek with a smear of blood.
“I have her Alpha.” Theia said from behind me, I was too pissed off at her to look at her, the last thing Charlie needed was me getting cursed or something after I told her what I really thought about Charlie fighting in some war she’s got fuck all to do with. So, I focused on Charlie, and keeping her safe. I tried to hand Charlie off to her aunt, when she lost it, scratching and screaming, punching, kicking, and as weak as she looked, as someone who took a fist to the jaw, I do not want to experience that at full strength. “Charlie. CHARLIE" Theia screamed, while I massaged my aching jaw, I swear any harder and she would’ve done serious damage, I’m just glad she didn’t knock me out, an Alpha that can be laid out by his Luna? Can you imagine the shit I would get? “I am sorry I was late, I was alerted, but by the time I got to the location in the city, you were gone. You are in shock, and have used a great amount of power, you must release it and rest before you hurt yourself.” Theia told her, and I saw the pain in her eyes at Charlie’s physical and mental state.
“Go home with Theia, I will be there as soon as I have checked on the injured.” I reassured her, stroking her face as she stared at me, wide eyed and terrified.
“NO! NO, NO. NO, I have to stay with you! NO!” She started screaming, grabbing onto me, frantically trying to stay close. It broke my heart, but I nodded to Theia to tell her to go, and they shimmered away. I wearily left the office to check on the men. Then I was going home to my mate.