3. The Unwilling Alpha

GRAYSON

The training grounds-a huge plot of land, only a five-minute walk from the pack house-were full of werewolves.

Most were already in wolf form. Some were fighting off in the distance, but many were in a large group, listening to Casimir speak.

I wasn't surprised. Casimir was Zagan's second-born, a vampire prince.

I remember sitting with my father when I was young, listening to him tell me about the Mortars and the special abilities they obtained.

They were an exceedingly gifted family and had been this way for centuries.

Depending on when they were born in relation to their siblings, each child that was conceived had a unique role.

As expected, the firstborn was the heir to the throne. They were born with natural leadership skills.

The firstborn Mortar became king or queen when they came of age. Azazel had been the firstborn of his family, destined to be king.

The second child born into the Mortar family was a warrior, strong and agile. They would take over as the head of the royal army when they came of age, leading them into battle whenever necessary.

Casimir was the warrior of his family. This is why I wasn't surprised to see that he had taken it upon himself to lead my pack in training. It was a natural role for him.

The third-born was the smartest, born with an incredible mind and problem-solving skills.

Third-born Mortars were some of the most intelligent people in the world and were known for always having their noses stuck in a book.

And then, finally, the fourth child born into the Mortar family was the clan healer.

They were born with magical properties in their blood that could heal any injury when it was consumed.

They were also kind and compassionate-easy to talk to. Minnie was the fourth born of Zagan. She had saved my life with her blood.

Azazel had the throne before Zagan. Together, he and his wife, Queen Cordelia, were to produce the next four Mortars meant to continue the family legacy.

The heir, the warrior, the scholar, and the healer. However, this plan quickly changed when Cordelia died during childbirth, along with their firstborn and heir to the throne.

Azazel was overtaken by grief after Cordelia died. Many believe that it was due to this grief that fate decided to pass the throne down to Zagan, his family's second-born, and warrior.

Zagan was never meant to be king. It wasn't in his nature. Yet, he was a fair and just ruler, leading his people with a gentle yet firm hand.

As I continued to study the scene in front of me, I noticed that Minnie was also in the group of werewolves receiving instructions from Casimir.

She didn't seem to be listening, though, too busy studying the large wolves around her with obvious fascination.

As if she could sense my eyes on her, her head turned to look at Zagan and me. She smiled brightly.

In a flash, she had basically flown across the large field and was standing next to her father. He smiled down at her when she wrapped an arm around him in greeting.

"Aren't they incredible?" she said in amazement to her father as she looked around.

Zagan nodded in agreement, assessing the hundreds of werewolves before us.

Minnie's gaze snapped to mine. "I've never actually seen a werewolf in real life, only read about them in books.

"But you guys are way cooler in person! And so strong! I couldn't believe it when I got to see one of you guys shift. Fascinating!"

I nodded once in response. I wasn't in the mood to humor the overly excited vampire princess.

We continued walking until we were in view of the entire training grounds and all of my pack members. My body tensed as I watched them. Unexpected anger and resentment surged through me.

"What color is your wolf?" Minnie asked me, continuing with her chattering.

"Black," I grunted.

An awkward silence overtook us, and for a moment, I thought Minnie might be done talking. But then I heard her whisper to her father, "He's not a very happy fellow, is he? Are we sure we want him to be king?"

A growl loud enough to shake the earth left me. Everyone's heads turned to us in shock, and the werewolves dropped to their knees and bared their necks as a sign of respect and submission.

I only saw Minnie's horror-stricken face for a second before Zagan stepped in front of her protectively. Smart.

I wasn't usually this on edge, but with everything that had happened over the last twenty-four hours, my wolf and I felt ready to bite someone's head off. Minnie was one more smart comment away from being that person.

"Minnie, why don't we go help the wolves train?" Zagan requested.

I didn't hear her response. However, a second later, I saw a blur of movement fly from behind Zagan, and Minnie's small form appeared on the other side of the field.

Zagan nodded at me once before following her.

I looked back at all of my pack members watching me with wide eyes, waiting to see what I would do next.

I knew they were expecting me to say something, maybe give an inspiring speech to prepare them for battle. But that was the last thing I wanted to do.

I was afraid that if I opened my mouth, I wouldn't be able to stop myself from shifting out of blind fury. So, instead of talking, I stiffly motioned for them to continue with their training.

I didn't even notice when Kyle started to approach me, too consumed with anger.

"Hey, Alpha," he said warily when he was within hearing distance, taking small steps toward me.

"How ya doing?" He obviously sensed my touchy mood.

I grunted in response.

Kyle nodded slowly and stood next to me. He knew not to push me.

We watched in silence as Casimir continued to direct the wolves. He began splitting them up into pairs, telling them to go attempt to fight in the ways that he had just shown them.

Kyle sneered as he looked at Casimir in disdain. "This is so not fair. The dude's taking my job."

Kyle was usually the one to lead the pack warriors, having been the head of our army for years now. He was good at it and would continue to be the head of my armies after this war.

I knew that Kyle understood that. He wasn't actually worried that Casimir would be taking over his position. He was just trying to lift my spirits.

Only, he didn't understand that I wasn't in the mood for his jokes.

"He knows more about vampires than you do, Kyle. Let it go," I snapped.

Kyle's brows rose in surprise. "Ouch," he said.

I didn't respond. Guilt touched me for a moment but was quickly replaced with anger once again.

After a few more minutes of silence, during which I continued to glare at my pack members, Kyle spoke again. "Okay, seriously, what's got your panties in a twist?"

He just didn't know when to let go, did he? I growled and turned to him, baring my teeth threateningly. "I mean it, Kyle. Drop it."

He raised his hands in surrender and took a step back, which was a smart thing to do. But the extent of his intelligence ended when he continued to push me, opening his mouth again to speak.

"Look, you might kill me for saying this, but I don't care. I don't know what's going on with you, and that's fine.

"You're going through it. I get it. But whatever this is"-he gestured up and down to my heaving form-"needs to stop.

"It isn't the time for it. Your pack members are scared. They're being thrown into a war without any warning. They need their alpha, not this sulking, scary, red-eyed, giant thing you've got going on."

I sighed. "You're right," I said in defeat. I was letting my emotions get the best of me.

"Really?" Kyle asked in shock. His disbelief didn't last long. A large smile overtook his face. He looked very pleased with himself. "I mean... Of course, I am. I'm always right."

I rolled my eyes. I turned my gaze back to the several pairs of wolves, assessing them and their skills.

Two wolves, in particular, were being especially violent with each other, snapping their teeth and trying to push the other one to the ground.

The larger of the two wolves, Micah, was one of my best pack warriors. I'd never seen anyone fight like him.

"You're scowling again," Kyle said. I looked at him, only noticing then that he had been studying me. "You look like you're about to kill someone."

I was scowling? I hadn't even noticed.

"You want to tell me what's going on or why you were looking at Micah like he just killed your puppy?" Kyle asked.

I sighed. I didn't want to talk about it, but Kyle wasn't really giving me a choice.

"Azazel," I said after a moment. "He ordered all of the pack members to shun Belle."

"What?" Kyle asked. "He didn't order me to shun her."

"Because you already knew her. Azazel knew you would try to fight it. Mortars can only control actions, not emotions." I crossed my arms over my chest, trying to contain my anger so I wouldn't shift.

It wasn't getting harder with each passing moment that we spent talking about this.

"Pack members refused to talk to her and snapped at her whenever she tried to reach out.

"She was terrified of them. I felt it. She wouldn't even leave that godforsaken room where she was freezing and alone because she was too scared to see anyone. She wouldn't even leave to get food. She was starving herself."

Kyle inhaled quickly. "Shit," he muttered. "Fuck, that's why I didn't see her."

"She was hiding," I agreed.

Kyle ran a hand down his face. "Why didn't she come to me? Shit, why didn't she ask for help? Didn't she know I would have done anything to help her?"

"Azazel threatened her. He told her not to talk to you or Elijah after you had tried to help her find food. Remember that? The day you brought her into my office?"

Kyle nodded.

"He hit her right after and told her to stay away from you and Elijah. She was absolutely terrified. She didn't know what to do."

I could feel her emotions now, even though she was so far away. She was in pain, scared, and devastated. She was also determined to keep me out of her mind, so I couldn't figure out where she was.

Usually, I could sense her overall presence and use it to pinpoint her general location. Now, though, she was completely closed off to me.

She had built up walls in her consciousness, and no matter how hard I tried to break them down, she didn't give in.

Kyle looked pale. "So that's why you're glaring at your pack members? Because they mistreated the luna?"

"Yeah," I grunted. "I guess so."

Kyle didn't say anything for quite some time as he processed what I had just told him.

After a few minutes of silence, he finally said, "You can't blame your pack members for what happened to the luna. They didn't know what they were doing. Just like how you had no control over what you were doing."

I looked at Kyle. The idiot somehow always managed to be the voice of reason.

Kyle gazed at the horizon, squinting at the sun. "If you're going to be angry with someone for hurting your mate, be angry with Azazel.

"He's the one who's responsible-and he's on his way here right now. And you get to decide how he dies."

4. Unexpected Reinforcements

GRAYSON

I stood stoically at the edge of the training grounds as I watched my pack members train.

After my conversation with Kyle, I needed time to process things, so he left me alone and went to train with the others.

Something small suddenly wrapped itself around my leg. My first instinct was to kick the thing off me, but then I looked down. It was Zoe.

Zoe was only five years old, and one of my pack's more rambunctious young wolves.

I wasn't surprised to see that she had somehow managed to sneak away from the pack house where all of the younger pups were supposed to be. Zoe was always finding ways to get into trouble.

She didn't say anything as she hugged onto my leg like some sort of monkey. She simply watched the werewolves in front of us with wide eyes filled with interest.

I always liked Zoe, and she seemed to like me. She was one of the reasons that I wanted to have kids.

We formed a bond a while back as soon as she could talk and ended up spending a lot of time together.

She would often sneak into my office and ask me what I was doing, constantly interested in pack affairs.

I had a sneaking suspicion that she would become a higher-ranking member of a pack someday, maybe even an alpha.

She showed all the signs of being a great leader-except for her disobedience and inability to follow orders.

I sighed. "Zoe, what are you doing here? You're supposed to be at the pack house," I said, bending down to pick her up.

Zoe pried her gaze away from the warriors. Her brown eyes widened when she saw me. "Your eyes are red," she told me matter-of-factly. Her voice dropped into a whisper. "You look like a demon."

I couldn't help but crack a smile. I didn't even realize that my vampire was at the surface of my consciousness, making my eyes red. It was probably due to all of the anger that I was feeling.

I was surprised that, rather than being frightened, Zoe seemed interested in my red eyes. "That's because I have a vampire inside of me now, just like how you have a wolf. I have both species."

Zoe nodded. "Yeah, I know," she said, shrugging nonchalantly as if it were the most normal thing in the world. "My mom told me.

"She says you are really strong because you have a vampire and that it's good to have you as an alpha. That's also why you turned into a giant!" She spread her arms out wide, trying to express how large I'd gotten.

I chuckled. "Yeah, I have gotten pretty big, huh?"

Zoe gripped my shoulders, inspecting them. "Yeah, you're basically the biggest person I know."

I laughed, but before I had a chance to respond to her statement, Zoe placed her palms on either side of my face. "Your beard is scratchy," she said. "Like my dad's."

I nodded, amused by how quickly her thoughts jumped around. "Well-"

"Hey, your mate is pretty. I saw her," she interrupted.

I immediately tensed at the mention of Belle. Zoe must have seen her sometime before she left. My wolf whimpered in my chest. "Thank you," I replied. "I think so too."

Zoe frowned, wiping her messy brown hair out of her eyes. "She was sad. That's why your wolf is sad and why you look so angry."

It was hard to believe, but this five-year-old was calling me out on my shit right now, but here we were. "I guess you're right."

"I know. But it'll be okay because we don't have to be mean to her anymore!" she said excitedly, smiling at me widely. "So now you can be happy, right?"

I nodded. "Right." Once I had Belle back in my arms and explained everything to her, I would be very, very happy again.

Content with my answer, Zoe looked back out at the people training. "What are they doing?"

I followed her gaze, watching the several groups of wolves fighting each other.

"They're training. There's a war coming."

"Yeah, my mom told me. But you're gonna tell them to go away, right? You can do that, right? Because your eyes turn red and stuff?"

I paused, thinking about it. Was she right? Could I use my new powers to stop the war and defeat Azazel?

"If only it were that simple," a voice behind us said. I turned to face Zagan.

"There's a special kind of stone that someone can put into their ear that blocks out any kind of command that comes from a Mortar. It works like an earplug.

"I have no doubt that Azazel has made sure that all of his warriors have them."

Zoe gasped. She cupped her hands around her mouth and then put them to my ear.

"Did you know that's a real-life vampire, Alpha Grayson? You can tell from his teeth."

"I think it's time you return to the pack house, Zoe. Where you're supposed to be," I told her. Even though I knew that Zagan wouldn't do anything to hurt Zoe, I still didn't want her around him.

I set her down on the ground. "Brent!" I called out to one of the pack members nearby. He was in front of me in an instant.

"Will you take Zoe back to the pack house? And make sure someone is looking after her, so she doesn't sneak away again."

Zoe complained and fought with me for a while but eventually went with Brent in defeat.

Zagan looked amused when I turned back to him. "I would have never expected the great Alpha Grayson to have a soft spot for kids."

"Is there a reason you came over here, King Zagan?" I asked, changing the subject.

"Is there something you wanted to tell me?"

"Yes, actually. I thought it might be a good idea to warn you before I brought an army of vampires onto your territory."

My wolf and vampire came to the surface. "What?" I snapped.

Zagan jerked his chin toward the horizon. "See for yourself."

I snapped my gaze to where he was looking, sucking in a sharp breath as I saw hundreds of vampires, all dressed in battle attire, approaching us.

I felt a burst of wind next to me. Kyle.

"Uh... Say, Alpha, are you seeing the scary group of vampires approaching us? Or is that just me?" he asked. "They're definitely not the army of newborns we're preparing for."

They had to be the royal army. "Care to explain?" I asked Zagan.

Zagan smiled. "You didn't think I was going to leave you and your pack on your own, did you? It's my brother we're about to fight. Therefore, it's my battle just as much as it is yours.

"And I have a perfectly good army just waiting to be used." In a flash, Zagan was on the other side of the field, meeting the leader of the army and who I could only assume to be his firstborn son.

Kyle laughed. "Well, shit. This is gonna be interesting."

***

Another hour of training passed by in a blur.

Casimir continued to lead my pack members, running them through different drills and scenarios to ensure they would be prepared for any sort of trick that a newborn vampire could pull on them.

Only, now, in addition, we had real vampires fighting with us. Zagan's army was well-trained and lethal.

After the initial shock of seeing thousands of vampires just waltzing onto my territory, it became clear just how useful these vampires would be during the battle. I was grateful to have them here.

I watched from afar during most of the training, assessing the different skills of all my warriors.

Under normal circumstances, my pack army consisted of the largest, strongest pack members, both male and female.

However, due to the severity of the upcoming war, almost every single able-bodied wolf over the age of eighteen had volunteered to be here and was working their ass off for the sake of the pack.

People came and went for breaks or to get food, but for the most part, we had spent the entire day training. I had never been more proud of my pack in my entire life.

I eventually joined them in training, wanting to test out my own fighting skills, especially now that I had a new vampire species inside me. I was surprised by how easily the movements came back to me.

I hadn't exactly had a lot of time to train over the last few months. Even though I had already been an exceptional fighter before, I found myself moving faster than ever.

It felt as though I was moving in slow motion, although I knew I was really moving so quickly that I was basically a blur in the wind. Each one of my actions was graceful and well thought out.

I had always enjoyed training and testing my skills. Even now, I put all of the anger and aggression I had been feeling over the last few months into the training exercises.

It helped that, although I tried to stop it, my mind was filled with thoughts of Belle.

I expected the constant images of her that were running through my head to be distracting, but they weren't; they did the opposite. They helped me.

Seeing her beautiful face in my mind fueled my anger toward Azazel and made me fight harder.

None of my pack members stood a chance against me, even when I was fighting over ten of them at a time. Neither did the vampires.

The new strength that I held, thanks to the vampire within me, was unbelievable. I was basically unstoppable.

"All right, Alpha," Kyle said to me right after I had simultaneously taken down three of the best warriors in our army. He approached me with a look of determination in his eyes. "Let's do this."

I raised a brow, feeling an amused smile take over my face. "You want to fight me?"

Kyle shrugged and then turned his head to crack his neck, getting into a proper fighting stance. "Yeah. I can see how big your head is getting. I think you need to be taken down a few notches."

I laughed. "And you think you'll be the person to do that?"

"I am the only other hybrid here, aren't I?" Kyle replied.

I nodded. "Fair enough." I got into my fighting stance. "Let me know if you need to tap out, Beta."

Kyle laughed, rolling his shoulders back. "Fat chance."

"Alpha!" someone's frantic voice called out from behind us, interrupting Kyle's and my battle right before we started. One of my pack members was sprinting toward us, eyes wide in panic.

I was off in a second, meeting him halfway across the field.

"The Clan of Azazel," he panted. "I saw them. Just over the horizon. They'll be here soon."

The group around us turned silent, all looking at me to see what to do next.

I nodded once. "Then it's time. You all know what to do."

Everyone around us fled in a nervous flutter, all preparing for battle.