Chapter 25

Building a Safer Place

Jason.

After a week of staying with the Tysee pack and helping Hayden train his upcoming fighters, Hayden finally summoned me to inform me that he was going to allow me another dozen skilled fighters on the condition that I signed a pact with him.

"Good morning, Jason!" He thundered; he sounded so energetic, like someone who had been blessed by the Goddess with a homely feast of an aggressive brown bear.

"I am honored to have a talented wolf like you train my men." He continued.

It's really nothing." I brushed it off; it was not his gratitude I needed but his help, which he had refused me.

"I have something to discuss with you," he began, casting a look of dismissal at the guards who stood at every corner of the room, and they filed out, leaving Hayden and I alone.

"Please, I'm all ears."

I said and sat on the chair behind me; it was made out of a snow leopard's skin. The chambers of Alpha were known for being designed with the results of their valor.

"Ehem, I've decided to be kind enough to lend you another dozen skilled fighters in contribution to your cause, But nothing goes for free anymore." Hayden averred.

"What is it that you want? I'm willing." I drew my chair closer, and a smile spread across Hayden's lips.

"I just got information that your pack is in a war with the Fawnhide pack and that you've deployed all your skilled fighters to the south; that's the reason you need my help so badly, is it not?"

"You are right." I was anxious to know where this was headed.

"What I want from you is not that difficult. I only want half the percentage of loot you get from the Fawnhide pack when you have them obliterated."

To be honest, I was not too surprised by his request; Hayden was known to have made pacts like this with other higher packs. This was how he and his pack had climbed their way to being one of the richest packs that existed. It was a pathetic means, but it was still a means.

"Alright Hayden. I like it that you're so sure of our victory." "I agree to your terms."

"Beautiful. Be ready to set off tomorrow." He said that, as if on cue, his bodyguards emerged again from the shadows, announcing my dismissal.

Clarissa.

I honestly don't know what I would have done if Jericho had not come to my rescue and Grandma Carter had died. I don't know how I would have faced Jason, her grandson, ever again in my life. I still trembled a bit from the shock. After a while, an ambulance arrived and took her away on a stretcher. They said her blood pressure had risen so dangerously that she had a heart attack. They also said it was a miracle that Grandma Carter had survived so long without medical attention.

She was going to be admitted to the hospital for a while, and Elijah had told me that I was to come in twice daily to help the nurses take care of her. This might sound bad, but I felt relieved. I had days without insults before me, and I also got to spend quality time with my friend and daughter.

Also, there had been something troubling me. It seemed that we were not the only werewolves who had been separated from their pack by circumstances while roaming the city in search of refuge. I had sighted a few wolves who pretended to be humans as I carried out my daily errands. There was a lot of fear that we needed to do away with. We had to come together so we could have each other's backs and protect each other, be it from humans, vampires, or whatever threatened our existence in the city.

I just needed to pray for Grandma Carson's quick recovery so that when Jason came home, he would listen a bit to my ideas and offer his help.

Clyde.

Even in my resting chambers, I sensed danger. The last full moon ritual came with a dreadful prophecy:

"This is the age of doom and dilapidation."

I have not been at rest since I consulted with Athena, the pack seer, but she just looked into her glowing crystal ball and said to me,

"It is a fearful thing, but the goddess has nothing to say to the pack." And with that, Athena fell into another trance. Her trances lasted for days, and she was not to be disturbed until they were over.

I feared that Jason was coming again for me, and this time, if this was true, he must have had a few tricks up his sleeve. Maybe it was high time that I visited my friend, Gray.

Gray.

Bitterness spread across my heart like a pandemic as I lay in the dungeon day and night without daylight and very little food, and to think that I had only asked for what was rightfully mine

It all began when he was blinded by his love for Clarissa Emberdale, the lower-life for whom he had made his delta and finally his Beta, and wanted to become the Luna of the pack. He had overlooked me, my abilities, and our long-lasting friendship for too long, and I was having none of that.

Before I got thrown into the dungeon, I had begun to gather followers for myself. Letters had been passed through the right channels to get to me, and plans for my escape were being made hastily. If Clyde did not come to his senses before the next full moon, not only was I going to break out, I was also going to carry out a coup and become the Alpha of the pack. My patience had turned out to not be a virtue but a vice that hacked at my insides as Clyde made one wrong choice after the other.

However, it seemed the goddess still had a soft spot for her chosen alpha; it was a dark night, and the moon was shrouded by dark clouds. I could not tell what days had passed and what days remained. This was what dungeons did to you; they made you lose all sense of time.

As I sat thinking of my next lines of action, the dark shadow of my friend Clyde approached me, and the look on his face said it all—tthere was trouble.