Chapter 27

Alexandra:

“Ugh, Teddy, how much longer do I have to do this?” I ask, completely annoyed that I’m still bedridden and hooked up to an IV. Teddy just sighs. I’m sure he’s annoyed that I keep asking him the same question.

“I already told you. When you show me that you can shift, I’ll let you go back to training. Until then, you’re stuck, okay?”

I know he’s looking out for me, and it makes perfect sense. I don’t have the necessary nutrients to shift into my wolf form. I honestly haven’t tried because I know I can’t do it right now. “Okay, hear me out. I won’t go back to training, but let me be there to see how it’s going for Mason. It’s been two days.”

Teddy just shakes his head at me. There is a slight knock on the door, and Teddy throws his hands up in frustration. “This has got to be the most hardheaded pack on the planet. No!” he yells at the person on the other side of the door.

“I just want to—”

Teddy cuts Blaine off before he can finish his sentence. “I’m here to help Alexandra, not to see you. There will be a time and place for that.” There is silence on the other end before I hear his footsteps retreating.

“Harsh, Teddy,” I say, feeling a little bad for Blaine.

“It's the truth. Alpha said I was to take care of you and that there isn’t a rush to come back if I want to stay a few extra days. He needs to understand that what we do has to come first. I would never ask him to put aside his Beta duties to hang out with me.”

Teddy seems to have grown out of his shyness, and it’s easy to see that Blaine had a lot to do with it. He's been helping him grow into his own. However, he’s obviously been around Cassie too long because he's developing a sassiness that he didn’t have before. I laugh at the thought, and he looks at me confused. “What?”

“I was just thinking about how much I like the effect Blaine seems to be having on you.” He looks down, as red as a tomato. So that shyness is still there.

“Don’t make me nervous or I’m likely to become clumsy.” We both smile, but mine slowly falls as I realize I’m still stuck in this room.

“Can I go outside for just one minute?” The face Teddy makes lets me know he’s done with me.

“Mason is fine. He’s training while he waits for you to get better and come back.” Hearing he is still training puts me at ease. I was worried he wouldn’t do anything with Avery alone after what we put him through.

I decide to leave it alone and ask about how things are going back at the Night Stalker pack. “How is it back home?”

“Cassie and Gregor's gifts are annoying. It doesn’t help that hers are getting better and stronger with each passing day. Gregor was supposed to leave, but he’s decided to stay and help Cassie develop her gift further. He did move about 45 minutes away though. He doesn’t like staying with a pack for too long.” Teddy pauses to check inside his bag, probably looking for the supplements I must still be on. “V’s nightmares are completely gone. He actually gets sleep now. Cassie has implemented a lot of changes that work well for us overall and make Brent and V less busy. Which means they've been training the warriors much more than before. The only thing we have a problem with his Aiden.”

I nod. Of course he would be the only problem. Cassie told me about how he isn’t getting much from Damien at the moment. They are waiting to see if he just hasn't been informed yet or if he's been completely abandoned.

Suddenly a mindlink comes through: “All warriors to the Eastern border! We are under attack!”

I quickly sit up, but Teddy runs around and pushes me back down. This proves that I'm still recovering because I can’t do anything in retaliation. “Teddy, we’re under attack!”

“Even more reason for you to stay here. You can’t even push me away. What are you going to do in a fight?” Teddy is right, but it doesn’t make me feel any better. I can’t believe that I’m useless at a time like this.

*****

Mason:

Blaine quickly takes off towards the eastern border. I look around for the warriors V sent here while Alexandra recovers. As I leave the house, I see them looking around cautiously amid all the commotion that has erupted. “Hey!” I yell at them.

The one that Alexandra calls Smiley jogs lightly over towards me. “There's an attack at our eastern border. I need you to watch Alexandra while we assess what is happening.” He loses his smile and nods his head.

“Do you want one of the lowers to go with you?”

I don’t know what he means by "lowers," but I would prefer that they all stay with Alexandra. He notices my hesitation. “He’s ranked the lowest in our group. You can take him, and the rest of us will hang back with Alexandra. This way, we will have a way to communicate what’s going on.” That makes a lot of sense and allows the stronger wolves to stay with Alexandra. I nod, and he mindlinks the wolf who follows me.

I shift as soon as I can to make up the time I lost by staying behind for a moment. The wolf shifts with me, and we both take off as fast as we can. Even though he's ranked the lowest, he keeps stride with me like it's no problem. I’m constantly reminded they are on a different level than us.

We make it to where the breach is, and I instantly stop. There's a group of 20 wolves lined up across from where our warriors and Blaine are. We would be out-manned even if Alexandra was 100%. Right in front is Austin, wearing the biggest grin.

“Ah, Mason, you've finally arrived! Come! I think it’s time we put an end to this challenge today!” It’s exactly like I thought. He isn’t going to wait until the day of the challenge. It seems he was waiting for Alexandra to go into heat as well.

I change back into my human form so that I can talk to him. “So, you're scared of my mate?” I ask him, genuinely intrigued.

“Why would you think that?” he shoots back at me.

“Well, it seems like you set this whole thing up. You snuck onto my land to see if the rumors about my mate were true. Then you waited until she was recovering from her heat to attack. She scares you that much?” The stupid smirk he's wearing quickly drops.

“This has nothing to do with her. You'll be off your game, worried about that mate of yours.” So, he must not know that V’s men are here to help. I feel better knowing that now. I also feel better that he felt the need to pick a time of weakness to attack. It means he's worried about beating me when I’m in my right mind.

“Alpha, what do you want to do?” Paul asks me through the mindlink.

“Yeah, Mason, just let us know,” Blaine tacks on. I just put on a smile as I turn back to face all of them.

“We knew this was coming. Because they didn’t wait for the date, we can expect that they won’t accept a losing result and might try to attack. Stay out of the fight and protect our land. Understood?” I make sure to talk over mindlink because I don’t want them to know that we already expected them to play dirty. They have the numbers, but with Alexandra and Avery’s help, we have the skills.

“Understood!” they all say in unison.

I quickly turn back around to face Austin. I was unsure before, but everything I went through was for this moment, and I've never felt more ready. Austin’s smirk returns. “Looks like you think you have a chance. I can’t wait to bring you back to reality.”

He starts to walk forward, and I walk up to meet him. We stand face to face, and I notice that I have to angle my head slightly downward to meet his gaze. I don’t remember him being this small. He seems to notice too. “So, you grew a little after maturing, huh? It won’t make a difference.”

“I guess we'll see.”

*****

Nick:

“Why are we hiding over here?” I ask Avery, not understanding why we aren’t helping.

“Didn't you hear him? He planned this for when Alexandra would be recovering from her heat. Honestly, without Dr. Billing’s medication and supplements, Mason would still be recovering as well. They have something up their sleeves, and I intend to find out what it is.”

Of course I heard them, but that sounds like their entire plan to me: Attack when Mason is in a weakened state and make him worry about Alexandra because she can’t defend herself. It’s when he's physically and mentally at his weakest. “Should I tell Cassie?”

“No, don’t tell your sister. They don’t know we're here, and they don’t know that Smiley and the others are with Alexandra. Smiley will let me know if anything happens there, and we will watch here.”

“But they're outnumbered,” I counter.

“It’s about quality, not quantity. I thought you would have learned this by now.” I hate when he talks to me like I’m a child. I do know that, but we don’t know how good they are.

I wish I could be as cool and collected as Avery is. Hell, even Mason seems to have adopted this mindset. He isn’t worried at all and is even smirking. “Should I go and help defend Alexandra then?”

“No. The wolves with her are far superior to your skills. You should wait here with me so we can see what they intend to do.” I roll my eyes as I throw my head back.

“What if nothing happens?”

Avery looks at me with a death glare, and I quickly shut up. “You obviously need more life experience and training if you want to be an alpha. He's checking for weaknesses and information. He's attacking outside of the challenge time. He has no honor. He’s a brat who wants to be Alpha and will do anything to achieve that goal.” When he puts it that way, it kind of makes sense.

“He’s thinking like you. Mason will be weak physically, emotionally, and mentally. This should be an easy win. However, both of you have been weak physically, emotionally, and mentally this whole time. Alexandra and I made sure of it. These past few weeks are the most well-rested that Mason has been. Austin will have a tough fight on his hands, even if he isn’t aware of it.” Maybe Mason noticed it before me.

Avery and Alexandra pushed us to our limits in every way possible, to extremes that no other wolf or fight ever could. This should make a normal fight a piece of cake. Although I have zero plans to ever do anything like that again, I’m thankful.

“We have to closely monitor what they do when he loses.” I look at Avery, a little surprised.

“How do you know he’s going to lose?”

“Because Mason finally stepped up to become the Alpha we all knew he could be. Even if Austin cheats, he isn’t going to beat Mason. Mason doesn’t want to be Alpha for the title. He has much more riding on this challenge, and it’s going to fuel him forward no matter what.”

I don’t have words to say back to Avery. I just look out and see them walking to meet each other in the middle. It’s then that I feel something, a weird intuition that something is off. “You see what I mean now?”

“Yeah,” I say shortly before looking back at Mason. “You better kick his ass, Mason.”