Chapter 28

Mason:

“Oh, how I’ve waited for this day.”

I could care less what Austin is saying at this point. He wants a fight, and a fight is what he'll get. I already instructed all my men to stay out of the fight, even if it looks like I will lose.

I want my win to be legit, even if Austin plans on playing dirty. I stand across from him, trying to clear my mind, but there is one thing I can’t get off of it. “Alexandra,” I say softly through the mindlink.

“Mason, what’s going on? They're saying we're under attack,” she quickly rambles, and it puts my heart at ease.

“Austin is here for the challenge, and we're going to fight. I just needed to check in on you so that I wouldn’t be worried.”

“I’m fine. Smiley and the guys are here.” She pauses for a while. I’m sure she's upset that she can’t be here. “Kick his ass.”

I smile to myself as I answer, “I will.” I cut the mindlink and see Austin looking at me. “Done talking to the mate? Ready to get down to it?”

The truth is I was ready that night I saw him at the Blue Silver pack.

Right before we begin fighting, I catch a scent and quickly turn around. “Caleb, no! Go back now!” I quickly shout at him. The look on his face shows he has a lot to say but is going to listen.

“Alpha, let him stay. Focus on Austin,” Paul quickly adds on Caleb’s behalf. I can’t believe I’m hearing this. He's fifteen and a lot smaller than any wolf here, including Austin’s wolves. Normally, I would argue, but I need to save my energy.

“Fine, just stay out of the way. Same goes for everyone else.” Caleb nods, and I turn back to Austin.

“I hope you’re ready, because I’m not waiting anymore.” With those words, he quickly shifts into his wolf. I realize that I need to quickly follow or I'll have to fight him in human form. I've just finished shifting when Austin takes his first snap at my face.

I know he did it to taunt me—you always attack the neck if given the chance. I growl at him, and we begin to circle each other, both searching for weakness in the other. I don’t see an obvious weakness and start to strategize when to test him. That’s when I see him lunge towards me.

I quickly dodge out of the way and realize his weakness: He’s impatient and quick to attack. I’m sure he doesn’t think his attacks through either. Well, there's only one way to find out.

I begin to circle him again, waiting for him to grow impatient and attack.

It doesn’t take long. As expected, he quickly charges again. I move to the side and snip at his right heel, grazing him slightly. He blows air forcefully out of his nose and glares at me. I was right. He doesn’t think ahead.

*****

Alexandria:

All this time helping him train and get ready for this moment, and I’m stuck here with an IV in my arm.

“Teddy, I know I can’t shift, but I’m not completely weak. Please, can I at least get out of bed?” He looks unsure but nods his head in the end.

“I’m not trying to escape, if that’s what you're worried about.” The silence tells me he is.

“Are we under attack?” Or maybe not. I guess it's really Blaine he's worried about.

“No, Austin came early for the challenge,” I say flatly. I don't have much enthusiasm left after being stuck here.

“So, he waited until you were weak?”

“Probably,” I say back quickly. “But don’t worry, our psycho warriors are here to help.” He smirks as he blows out a little air from his nose with a chuckle. “Like Blaine would accept their help.”

So he is worried about Blaine. I don’t get to ask him more, though, because there's a knock on the door. “Come in,” I say quickly. A female I haven’t seen before comes in.

“Oh, hi Luna. You don’t know me, but—” I cut her off.

“It doesn’t matter. What do you need?”

“Caleb is missing. He isn’t here.” I quickly stand to my feet, and Teddy gives me the stink eye. I pause and think about who I can ask to look for Caleb since most of them will be with Mason. As I try to think of a non-warrior to help, it hits me.

“Paul,” I say through the mindlink.

“Yes, Luna?” he answers quickly. Hopefully, that means that the fight hasn’t started yet. I don’t want to distract him.

“Caleb is missing,” I say, and he quickly cuts in.

“He’s here. He wanted to be with the rest of the males that are old enough.”

I sigh out of pure relief. “Okay, thank you.”

“He’s with the warriors,” I say, and the girl seems a little worried.

“But he’s so small.” It's always bothered me that all they seem to see when they look at Caleb is a small wolf.

“He may be small, but he’s still a male who's gone through puberty. He’s supposed to be there, and he’s with his pack. Believe that they will look out for him if anything happens.” She nods, not having anything more to say.

I nod back and go to sit back down on the bed as she turns to leave the room. She reaches out for the handle but then quickly spins back around to face me and Teddy. “One last thing, Luna.”

“Anything.” I know how hard it can be when you’re worried, and I'm willing to do anything to help.

“Sorry,” is all she says. I look at her and smile.

“You don’t have to be sorry for worrying about your friend.”

“Oh, he isn’t my friend.” Teddy and I look at each other, confused. Before I can ask her what she means, she pulls out a needle and jumps towards me.

She easily overpowers me and leans over me, holding the needle towards my neck. Thankfully, Teddy jumps on her, trying to wrestle the needle from her hand. He starts to lose the struggle and yells out, “Code 2! Code 2!”

Almost immediately, Smiley kicks the door down and has the girl up against the wall by her throat, her feet dangling in the air. “Let me go!”

“Teddy, Alexandra, are you okay?” Teddy nods. I’m sure he's still shaken up after what just happened.

“We're fine. What were you thinking?” I ask her, confused.

“What’s my name, Luna?” is all she asks me. She gives me a smile, and Smiley tightens his grip on her neck.

“Are you with Austin?” I ask, but she can’t answer; Smiley is still squeezing too tight.

I look at him, and he sighs before letting go of her neck. He continues to pin her against the wall by her shoulders instead. She coughs a few times and looks at me with rage in her eyes.

“Yeah, and I’m not the only one. These brutes weren’t supposed to be here, but it won’t make a difference.” She smiles up at Smiley before spitting in his face.

He doesn’t give anyone time to react before punching her, knocking her out. He holds her dangling body by one arm out to one of the lower warriors. “Tie her up.”

“Did you have to punch her?” Teddy asks.

“No, I’m sure we could have knocked her out some other way.” She tried to stab me in the neck with God knows what, so I don’t feel any sympathy for her.

“I’m letting Avery know. It’s exactly like he suspected. You guys come with us,” Smiley says as he walks toward the door.

“We can’t. Alexandra is still on supplements.”

“You can take the bag with us.” I look to Teddy, pleading. If Smiley is this serious, it means that there is real danger. “We also need you to try to find out what's in that needle.” Teddy just nods as one of the lower warriors brings him the needle.

He sighs and takes my supplement bag off its hook, handing it to the same warrior. “Keep it above her head.” The warrior nods, and we all leave the room.

*****

Mason:

Austin has limped on his right hind leg since I grazed it. He seems to be acting less erratic because of it as well. He isn’t circling me anymore. Instead, he's pacing left and right, probably trying to use his leg as little as possible.

Waiting for him to attack seems redundant, so I decide to attack first this time. While still pacing, I stop instantly and lunge for him. He doesn’t dodge. He doesn’t even attack. Instead, he takes me on. I crash into his chest, and we both go tumbling backwards.

I use this opportunity to try to grab his neck, but he quickly pushes me back with his hind legs so I can only bite his shoulder. I bite down hard so that his kick does not fully push me away from him. Finally, our momentum slows, and we come to a stop.

I get into position on top of him, and he just lays there like he is going to accept defeat. This causes me to instantly pull back. There is no way he would give in this easily. As soon as this thought enters my head, I feel a prick in my neck. I howl out and shake my head to get it off me.

When I finally succeed, I see that it is a dart. Austin takes this moment to kick me off of him, and I fly a good distance from him before crashing down to the ground hard. I realize that my body is abnormally heavy and my breathing has become shallow and erratic.

Austin walks back over to me before changing back into his human form. “Ah, Mason. You should have seen that coming, don’t you think?” He smirks his smirk as he walks closer to me. “Honestly, I thought the dart would drop you on impact, so the fact you’re still alive says something.” He laughs to himself as I struggle to feel any muscle in my body.

“Thankfully, you told your wolves to stand down. Since they didn’t see that dart hit you, I’m sure they're confused as to why you're just laying down.” I can’t say anything back at all. I can’t move. I can barely breathe. What was in that dart?

“Now I’m going to slit your throat right here in my human form and show them all that I’m the only one fit to lead this pack.” He pulls out a blade and grabs the top of my head, pulling up as hard as he can. “Goodbye, Mason.”

When the blade presses up against my neck, I can see the look on all my warriors' faces. I close my eyes on instinct, take in a deep breath, and freeze as realization hits me. I don’t have all my functions back, but I can move. Without another thought, I throw my head back as hard as I can, knocking Austin back.

He groans but looks at me bewildered. “How can you move right now?”

I can’t even answer him because I don’t know. I struggle against my own body, trying to get it to stand up. Austin growls as he picks the knife back up and starts to walk back towards me.

Putting all my focus into moving, I lunge at Austin, biting his right hand, the one holding the knife. He yelps in pain and punches me in the snout to try to get me to let go. The problem is I can’t let go. Control of my body comes and goes, and right now, it’s gone. I can feel all the pain associated with each punch.

Austin drops the knife from his right hand and grabs it with his left, stabbing me in my right shoulder. I finally can let go. The immense pain from the stab allows me a little more control of my body.

While I recover from the pain, Austin shifts back into his wolf form. He jumps towards me, and I quickly grab his front paw while he’s in the air, snapping down until I hear his bones crunch. He yelps and falls to the ground.

I start to lose focus. My erratic breathing is making it hard to fully catch my breath. I change into my human form to see if having a smaller body will help my breathing. Thankfully, it does, and I take a few deep breaths.

While I’m in my human form, Austin makes one last lunge at me. I move out of the way before grabbing him around the waist and giving him a suplex. Then, I walk up to him and wrap my arm around his neck, putting him in a chokehold.

“Yield,” I demand.

He doesn’t answer, just glares up at me. “You will yield, or I will snap your neck,” I tell him as menacingly as I can manage. Austin changes back into a human, and I quickly tighten my grip around his smaller neck.

“Save your threats. You don’t have it in you.” I chuckle lowly to myself. “What?”

“It wasn’t a threat,” I answer as I start to squeeze tighter. But before I can finish, I’m hit from the side. Hard. I hear growls, and soon, I'm surrounded by my warriors, all in their wolf forms. I look up to see a very skinny but muscular wolf with another wolf standing next to him.

He seems to have brought an entire army with him. At least 150 more wolves stand farther behind. He doesn’t pay us any attention as he walks over to Austin. “You said it would be a sure thing. That with my help, you would take the pack and fight for me. That was the deal, was it not?”

“Aiden, the fight wasn’t over. Just give me a chance to—”

Aiden cuts him off. “To get your neck snapped? Your fight was futile, but I can still use you. We'll take the pack by force.”