-Jaden-
I watched Oliver closely while he ate his cupcake. I'd been keeping a very close eye on him ever since he got that fucking Echo, and I wasn't always sure I liked what I saw. Mostly he was being the sweet himself, but sometimes I could see the hint of the Echo lurking in his eyes.
I so wanted to get rid of that thing once and for all, but I kept that to myself. Oliver knew how I felt – he could literally feel it. I was scared it would consume him, and I'd lose him already, right after we became mates. But Oliver had strength in him. There was a lot of it, too. If there was a person on this planet who was able to keep it under control, it was him.
I peered at Tilly – another person I'd been keeping a close eye on. She was still poking her cupcake. She wasn't even halfway through it. A very, very bad sign.
Benicio, huh...?
I smothered a sigh and turned to look out the window. I wasn't going to bother Tilly about Ben as long as she wasn't ready to talk about it. I could only hope she would eventually want to talk about it. She was in the exact same situation I was with Oliver, but she clearly wasn't going to follow her own advice.
And then there was Arch and Jack... I trusted Oliver when he said Arch had a good feeling about whatever was going on between them, but I also hoped Arch understood he was literally handling someone's life right now.
One of my neighbors passed by the window with his kids, and I wanted to groan.
I was now their Alpha. Not the Alpha, but an Alpha, nonetheless. And we had a war to win. And it was my job to keep everyone safe. The old me would've freaked out already, but I felt surprisingly calm. Oliver's calmness kept me that way, but my true spirit also had something to do with it.
I felt... I felt strong. Stronger than I ever could've imagined. Like I couldn't be stopped. And it had nothing to do with my physique.
I'd heard the tale of how my parents met when Dad was still a human. Mom used to have a guy she spent some time with, but he refused to take no for an answer when Mom tried to break it off with him. Dad had stepped in, a mere human against an angry werewolf twice the size of him. Dad's Alpha spirit had already woken up, so all it took was one look and the werewolf had backed off.
Dad once told me he'd felt calm and confident at that moment, that he couldn't feel fear or worry over what happened to himself. He'd known the guy could beat him up, even kill him, but backing off had never even crossed his mind.
Now I understood a little what he'd meant by that.
Wherever I walked, I could instinctively feel those who were weaker than me, the people who needed me to protect them. Here in our territory, at school, in the town... I could tell. I also knew who'd be a tough opponent. And then there were those who were still able to make me bow my head. Like Dad and basically any other Alpha who had older spirits than me. That included a lot of Betas, too. I just knew when I looked at people.
Tilly and Arch were weaker than me, but only a little. And then there was Oliver. Part of him was weak and I could feel his need for me to protect him. But there was another part, too. The stronger part, and it wasn't the Echo. It was that same part of him that once told Nick, his bully, to leave him alone. The part that basically told Selene to fuck off when she asked us to take the portal and run.
That part that wanted to do everything he could to protect this world. That was why I wasn't horridly worried over him having Hades' Echo. I was worried, but... He was strong.
"Finally," Tilly suddenly sighed, looking at the door.
Arch was just about to step in when I turned to see what she saw.
"Should we get going?" he asked without bothering to leave the doorway.
"You don't want a cupcake?" I asked.
"Nah."
"Okay then," I said slowly and stood up.
I really wanted to ask about the cookies and Jack, but Oliver was right: Arch was feeling optimistic, so maybe things were finally getting better with the two of them.
After we stepped out, we continued showing Oliver the shopping street. Seeing him so excited and interested made me happy, and I quickly forgot that we had plans for the day.
So when Ezra came to find us, I was almost surprised to see him. My father's Beta joined us after we had left the shopping street and were just wandering around the town.
"Hey guys!" he waved at us with a smile. "I'm sorry it took so long."
"It's fine – we were showing Oliver around the territory," I told him.
"I hope you like our little town," Ezra said, smiling at Oliver.
"I really do," Oliver replied.
"Great! Do you still want to take a look around or should we start heading to the lake?" Ezra asked.
"Let's do this," Tilly said, finally looking excited.
Tilly did most of the talking while we followed Ezra through the forest, and by the time we reached the lake, she seemed to be acting completely normal again. She had always loved learning new fighting styles and techniques, and was massively interested in weapons.
Whatever the gods had in store for her, they clearly knew her well. I was curious to see why they had suggested archery in particular. It sounded a lot like they knew of a weapon that we could use.
We were soon joined by a few guards who were carrying several bags that belonged to Aurora's hunters.
"Here are the bows," the other one said as they placed the bags carefully on the ground. "There's no hurry to return them."
"Thank you," Ezra said, crouching next to one of the bags to open it while the guards left.
We'd been taught to use bows and a lot of different weapons, but for us werewolves physical combat was more important, so none of us were particularly good at shooting.
I turned to look at Oliver. He was watching Ezra take the bow out of the bag with big eyes. There was no way he had ever held a weapon in his entire life. I wanted to hug him. He was being so cute just by standing there in awe.
Suddenly he turned to look at me and smiled with one raised eyebrow. He knew what I'd been just thinking. For some reason, I loved that fact. I loved the fact that we could have whole conversations without saying a word.
"Okay – here's one for you," Ezra said, interrupting my thoughts.
He was giving the bow to Oliver, who took it with a careful look on his face. Then Ezra gave the next one to Tilly, who took it with sparkling eyes and an excited smile – the rest of us weren't even half as happy to hold a weapon as she was.
We could only hope Ben had a big set of balls...
Oliver snorted loudly in amusement, and everyone turned to look at him.
"Sorry," he snickered, elbowing me in my side.
Thankfully, they decided to ignore Ollie and me, and Ezra turned his gaze over the lake. "We'll set up the targets on those trees on the other side. I think they should be here somewhere... Ah! Here!"
He pulled a stack of small target sheets the size of my palm from one of the pockets and turned to show them to us. We all nodded in approval, except for Ollie, who stared at Ezra with his finger raised and mouth open.
"Something wrong?" Ezra asked with a frown.
"I'm human," Ollie said. "I can't even see those trees!"
"Oh, right," Ezra chuckled. "I do have bigger targets here somewhere..."
After a few more moments, he found a big placard from another pocket. "Here we go! We can haul a log in the middle of the lake so we can move it around until it's perfect for you."
"How are you able to see these...?" Oliver muttered, taking a closer look at the small papers we'd be using.
"We're werewolves," I reminded him. "Super senses."
"Sometimes I'm really jealous because of that," Ollie chuckled.
It took us a while to get everything set up. We made sure the hills behind the trees we were using as our targets would catch the arrows we'd miss in case we had people patrolling behind the lake, and then went to build a target for Oliver in the middle of the ice.
By the time we were finally ready to start, Tilly was bouncing up and down in enthusiasm.
"Let her go first," I chuckled when Ezra asked about it.
"You remember how to shoot?" Ezra asked her, and she nodded, grabbing an arrow from her quiver.
We watched her take aim and listened when Ezra told her to bring her chin up a little bit and relax her shoulders.
"Aim – breathe – release," Ezra spoke, Tilly following his advice, sending the arrow whistling through the air. We immediately heard it sink deep into a tree, but not into one that had a target on it.
"Not bad," Ezra praised her. "Give it a few tries to get used to aiming."
While Tilly was shooting the forest full of arrows, Ezra helped me and Arch with our bows, making sure we were doing it correctly before giving his full attention to Oliver, who was still amazed we could even see where the targets were.
I listened with half an ear while Ezra went through the basics with Ollie: how to stand, how to keep his back straight and shoulders and knees relaxed and all that. Once Ezra was happy with his posture, he started explaining how to hold the bow, how to pull back the string, where to anchor his hand... There was a lot to learn, but Ollie was fast to take in his advice.
"God, this is heavy," Oliver chuckled when he tried to pull back the string for the first time.
"I'm sorry – that's the closest to human bows I could find," Ezra said with an apologetic smile. "Human stuff tends to snap in our hands, so we make our own."
"It doesn't help that I'm the size of a kindergartner," Oliver joked, focusing on correcting his posture.
Ezra helped him with that, and a short moment later, Ollie was ready to fire his first arrow. The rest of us stopped what we were doing to watch him.
He was focusing so hard... I was so proud of him. He was doing a really good job too, keeping his body relaxed even though I could tell he was nervous even without the bond.
"Breathe and release," Ezra said.
Oliver aimed and released the string. And missed, but only for an inch or two!
"That was very good," we all hurried to tell him.
"Thanks," he chuckled. "It's so hard to keep everything in mind at once..."
"Don't worry about it – with practice all the positions and tricks and tips will come naturally," Tilly told him. "The beginning is always the hardest."
"True," Ollie said, eyeing at my bow. "I'm curious to see how much different yours is compared to mine."
I smirked at him, giving him my bow. "Try."
"I'm so making a fool out of myself," he laughed lightly, taking a firm grip of the bow and tried to pull the string. "I can't move this at all!"
We chuckled at his cheerful but disbelieving expression as he continued trying to pull the string in vain.
"Thankfully, you have a strong man to fight in your stead," I winked at him after he gave up.
"True," Arch said, turning to look at me. "And you're not so useless either."
They all laughed cheerfully when I grabbed my bow and started chasing him with it, trying to use it to beat his ass. And to be honest, I needed that moment. Just us goofing around like we always did.
With no worries in the world.
-Cameron-
I traveled quickly to my destination, making sure I wasn't being followed or noticed. When I reached the place I was supposed to meet my new master, I stopped and looked around. A few dozen lesser shadows surrounded me, all focusing on the barrier in front of us.
The wards. The entire city was filled with them. If I looked close enough, I could see a hint of the closest light blue barrier. Domes inside of domes inside of domes... These Spirit Walkers were not taking any risks.
'Go,' I ordered, and the lesser shadows launched their attack against the ward, failing miserably.
I let out an annoyed sigh. The barrier merely trembled at their combined effort, and this was one of the hundreds I could sense. Thousands could perhaps get past the wards, but by the time we'd reach anywhere near our enemy, we'd be spotted and killed.
Well, these miserable excuses would.
I waved them out of my way and moved closer to the barrier. I reached out with my hand, carefully pressing my fingers against it. The barrier was hot under my touch. I could sense its hate towards me and my kind rippling beneath the surface. Almost as if it were a living being... The magic these totems used was designed to focus only on us.
"Cameron."
I turned to look at my master, who stopped next to me, looking delighted to see me. I nodded at him before turning my attention back to the barrier.
'What exactly do you want me to do?' I asked. 'Kill the boy?'
"Oh, no," he chuckled. "Where's the fun in that? No, I want to see him grow. I want to watch him fall into the darkness. I want to take him from Gaea and turn him against them and see him devour this world."
I could feel his hatred towards the entire existence oozing through his words. I had to admit, I liked his style – I was born out of hatred, after all.
'Then what it is you want?' I asked, feeling generously patient.
"I need a spy inside. I want to know what they know, and who they are allies with."
'Sounds boring.'
"Perhaps, but I like to keep an eye on what they're doing. With my little gift, they can't sense you so you'll have all the time in the world to dig up all their secrets."
I nodded, very much enjoying this new power I had.
"And there is another thing I want you to get for me once you're done spying around... Hades' puppy has new toys. Raoul failed to get the Vision, but for now, I'll gladly settle with the Howl," Master spoke with a smile. "But these wards..."
I scoffed, swiftly jabbing my finger through the barrier without a problem. 'Their little tricks won't work on me.'
Master chuckled, seemingly in high spirit as I pulled my finger out, leaving a small hole behind.
"I knew I could count on you," he said.
I watched the hole in the barrier for a moment. Weak. Unbelievably weak... Not even an alarm...
'What about the guardian?' I asked, my anger almost leaking over at the thought of that rotten bastard.
"Cedric? I suppose you can do whatever you want with him. That is the deal," Master spoke. "But try not to cause too much trouble. The gods are watching. So is Arlona."
'Peacekeepers? They're no match for me,' I muttered.
"Careful now – ask Raoul how things turned out for him the last time he fought them," Master spoke in amusement.
'Now you are insulting me. I am not a vampire,' I said, finally getting fed up with him, so I got off the ground and started making my way through the hole in the barrier. 'I'll get your toy before they even see me coming.'
"Good luck – you may need it," Master spoke in his annoyingly calm manner, and vanished.