(Him)
"Hey son, I heard Anton is here?" Dad asks entering our private living room.
"Hey Dad, yes. He's arrived yesterday."
"Great! I can't wait to meet him!" He says enthusiastically.
"Why? Do you know him?"
"Not yet but I heard a lot about him. I'm just curious."
"Well, I don't know where is he now. I didn't see him since he left with Anna-Lynn."
"How was she with him? Still angry? " He asks me.
"What? No. I don't think so. I don't know? Why she should be angry with him?" I reply.
"Because last time they spoke to the phone, well he was speaking while she was yelling."
"I would say she was surprised and pleased to see him." Says Aiden in my back.
"Pleased?" I ask.
"Oh come on! Didn't you see it? The way they're looked at each other. Anton is Anna-Lynn's lover!"
"Really? You're joking, right?"
"Where were you when he declared his undying love for her?" Aiden asks.
"He did not!"
"Goddess you're so blind!" Aiden Adds and they both laugh.
"For the record, I was too worried about an unannounced Alpha asking to come in my land to check Anna-Lynn's behavior." I defend myself.
"Still, Anton even did a sexual joke."
"What?! No!" I say.
"And she told you she was his. What more do you need?"
"She was lying! He's not her mate." I deny it all.
"Damn I wish I was there!" My dad says shaking his head.
"Where were you? I didn't see you since you went back. And I wanted to talk about the attack. Collin told me he lost consciousnesses rapidly with the wolfbane's gas. He was not able to tell us a lot." I ask happy to change the subject.
"The gas infested me too but not as much as Collin and Gamma Alec. I was shot but Anna-Lynn saved me. Alpha Chris and Alpha Darius came to save us and destroyed the rogues camp. The camp was nearby Alpha David's land, by the way."
"I know there is more. What are you hiding?" I ask him as annoyed.
"I can't tell you because it's not my place to tell you." He replies.
"What about your shoulder? Mom said she felt pain there. You were shot there no?"
"Yes but there is a Healer in the Blood moon pack. So I'm as good ad new."
"Wow." Aiden comments.
"What's about Anna-Lynn. How did she save you?"
"She shielded my body with her."
"She was shot too?" Aiden says worriedly.
"Yes, she was." He confirms
"And why is she still alive then?" I ask.
"The shot wasn't fatal... And she was healed by the healer too."
He made a pause as if he was looking for an explanation. I know he is lying and I would like to know why. This is so annoying!
"Fine!" I say no satisfied at all.
"Great. I should go now." He replies.
"You didn't answer my first question."
"Which was?"
"Where are you been since yesterday?"
"You really want to answer that?" Aiden asks me.
"This is why I asked." I reply annoyed.
"Well, I was making up with your mother."
"Dad!"
"You asked!" He says laughing.
"You're really slow today!" Aiden teases me.
"Out!" I say pointing the doors.
"He is hiding something." I tell Aiden once my father can't hear us.
"As Collin, I know. I would like to know why."
"Me too. What is it that they have to lie to us. That's worried me." I sigh.
"I know. Me too."
"Hey, I'm going to train you to want to come? It will change your mind." He adds after a few minutes of silence.
"Sure, it's a good idea."
When we arrive at the training ground we see Gamma Alec and Anton sparing. Anton... I don't know how he is doing that. Be an Alpha wolf without the pack or the title. Anna-Lynn is here too. She is the match referee.
"May I help you, Alpha Liam?" He asks me.
"Why? No."
"You are fixing me since you entered the room. You can ask me what you want to know."
"Sorry. I just can't imagine myself without my pack. It has to be difficult to lose it."
"I didn't lose my pack. It's was my choice to step down. There is something more important than that for me. Moreover, as an Alpha you have to step down when you can't be 100% involved. My priority is just somewhere else." He explains. He looks at her when he says the last sentence.
"Are you not afraid you will regret it later?"
"No, I will not."
"And if ever he would really regret it, Emmett would give him back his Alpha's position." Gamma Alec adds.
"Anna-Lynn what is your plan about Alpha Markus? Do you really will fight him?" Aiden asks her after he finished his warm-up.
"Of course I will. We both know Liam is not in shape."
"You know you can't use your weapons this time." He says.
Anton scoffs: "She doesn't need her weapons to kill him."
"Let's fight like that you will see what I am capable of." Anna-Lynn proposes.
In less than five minutes, Aiden was down. I don't know how she did. How it's even possible? I mean she is smaller than him and doesn't have a wolf and she won without breaking a sweat. I don't understand... It's impossible! She is fast yes but Aiden is well trained. I need to find how Alpha Constantinos is training his wolves because it looks efficient.
"He went to easy with your sweet cheeks. Let show them what a real fight is." Anton tells her smirking.
"Bring it on honey!" She replies with an evil smile.
"Okay, no broken bones this time please?" Gamma Alec says.
"No promise!" She says with a predatory look.
"Be careful brother, she has a lot of reasons to be upset with you." Gamma Alec teases.
"Thank you captain obvious!" Anton says with sarcasm.
Their fight was violent. He didn't hold his strength at all with her. They kept fighting for 20 minutes before she succeeded to put him down and claimed on him.
"Still upset my heart." Anton tells Anna-Lynn.
"You abandoned me and I needed you to face all of this. You ignored me for a month Anton! A month!"
"And I thought we had our makeup sex yesterday." He tries to joke.
"No that was a quickie because I missed you too much but you're still in the dog house."
"I'm sorry Lilly. I know I was a total jerk but it was not you that I didn't trust you. It's him that I didn't trust." He says pointing me. "You are my world, my universe even. Every time you look at me you're taking my breath away. Not be with you is physically painful. You are the most perfect being I have ever seen. How can he not fall for you?"
"I have at least two good reasons."
"Which are?"
"First he is in love with someone else and already has his own family. Secondly, I'm perfect for you not for him." She says before kissing him passionately.
"I would rather see you keep fighting until one of you broke a bone than see you having sex." Gamma Alec says dramatically.
"We were just kissing moreover I showed you do so much more Gamma." Anna-Lynn teases him.
"Well, you should have knocked before entry."
"In my own kitchen?" She says like he was stupid.
"Well you should have known what we were doing with your high smelling and your advance earring." he retorts.
"Or maybe she didn't appreciate you used her kitchen table and decided to interrupt you." Anton says.
"Anton I'm presumed. I'm Alpha Franck, it's nice to finally meet you. I heard a lot about you!" My father says entering the room.
"Nice to meet you too Alpha Franck." Anton says shaking his hand.
"Alpha, there is someone in the border who is here to meet you. She told us, she came in peace but she is from the Tenebris pack." Ethan one of my warriors mind-links me.
They're all looking at me as they know someone mind-linked me. Sometimes I would prefer for the mind-link to be more discrete. They are all waiting for me to explain then what's going on.
"There is a woman in the border that wants to speak with me. She is from the Tenebris pack" I finish to explain.
"What's her name?" Gamma Alec asks me.
"Dahlia Tao." I tell him after I asked Ethan.
Anna-Lynn and he are exchanging a look as I'm connecting the dots.
"She is the one who had contacted your agency to save Nora, didn't she?" I ask even if it's rhetorical.
They both nod. And Gamma Alec says:
"She is the Gamma female."
"Can you escort her to my office?" I ask Ethan thought the mind-link
"Of course Alpha!"
"Thank you."
"Ethan is accompanying her in my office. You want to come?"
Dad, Anna-Lynn, Anton and Aiden nod.
"You are not coming!" I say to Anton.
"He goes where I'm going. And I'm still in charge so you have no choice. Alec, you're coming too?" Anna-Lynn says letting no place to fight her decision.
"I can't, I have plans with my future brother in law." Says Gamma Alec.
"Who?" Anton asks.
"We think Collin is Ainhoa's mate." Anna-Lynn says.
"How is it possible? Piper was his mate." I ask.
"No she was not, twins wolves have two mates. They don't share but they can feel the mate pull with their twin's mate." Anna-Lynn explains.
"I will explain to you later." Dad tells me.
That's good news, I'm relieved to know he has his own mate and his own happiness waiting from him.
"How can you be so sure?" Anton asks.
"Melinda casts a spell to know where we should start to look and it's home. And she is coming from the same region as Alix and Ainhoa." Gamma Alec replies.
"We will see if he will run away like you did little brother." Anton teases him.
"I had a good reason to! You would have done the same!" Gamma Alec shrugs.
"Whatever floats your boat. I didn't run when my mate turned." Anton shrugs.
"Fuck you!" He says to his brother before turning toward us: "See you later, Alphas, Beta." He says leaving in the opposite direction of my office.
~~~~~~
"Thank you for receiving me here Alpha Liam. It's nice to meet the man that makes Luna Nora happy and safe." Dahlia says bowing her head.
"It's my vow to her and I would die trying to keep her safe." I tell her.
" Nora is part of our family, we will do anything for her. I'm Alpha Franck."
"I'm Beta Aiden."
"I'm Anna-Lynn and this is my mate, Anton."
"The infamous Anna-Lynn. You are driving Alpha Markus crazy... But I thought Alpha Liam was your mate?" Dahlia says surprise.
"He was but not anymore." Anna-Lynn just replies.
"Why are you here?" I ask her. Maybe I'm rude but I need to know.
"I wish I could have come earlier but with Luna Nora here, Alpha Markus would have known right away."
"So he was really spying all the time." I say disgusted.
"You know about his abilities. In the beginning, he was really upset she ran away from him. He did everything to be sure she was always feeling scared and no comfortable around you. He has never accepted the fact she chose you as her mate but was too scared to challenge you."
"You seem to know a lot about him." Aiden says.
She sighs: " He is my half brother, unfortunately. We have the same father but not the same mother. His mother was a vampire."
"What's changed? Why is he challenging me now?" I ask her.
"You're not the target. Luna Nora is. He needs her dead."
"Why not just kill her in the case?" Dad asks.
"To avoid a war with your pack, to prove to the others is the most stronger." She replies.
"Who are the others?" Anton asks.
"He met a lot of Alphas to create powerful alliances. When they came to eat in our packhouse he mixed his blood in the wine, like that he can easily convince them to do what he wants." She says.
"Why?" Dad asks.
"Do you know the Alpha King prophecy?" She asks us.
"Of course, When the future will become dark, we, supernatural beings will have to join forces in the fight to have a chance to survive. Powerful beings will be born ready to fight. A strong wolf will be born and the king he will become, ruling them all with the purest Luna as his queen. The most unique and powerful creature to rule by his side." Dad says.
"That's time is coming. The pair of mates mixed increased that last 15 years. The real prophecy said the most unique and powerful creature to rule by its side. My father thought the key to the prophecy was the pure Luna. He was so obsessed with this idea that he seduced a Vampire to have a hybrid son. He denied my mother his own mate until my brother was born and he killed his mother. My brother was raised to become a king. My father taught him that females are here to serve men and he needed to be hard enough to be able to rule over the purest Luna. I think my father was disgusted by the fact a woman could be stronger than a man and he raised Alpha Markus like that."
"I didn't know it was your father who had spread that idea. No one took it seriously it seemed so stupid." Dad says before to whisper for himself: "at this time."
Aiden is listening curiously to everything, Anna-Lynn is impassive as for Anton I can see his jaw clenching.
"Like you, I didn't believe in it... But few years ago we started to hear rumors about a woman who is helping pack, creatures, everyone who faces injustice. She fought for the Vampire prince Léopold and his werewolf's beloved. She stopped wars, created peace where there never was before and she wins all her fights. Her aura can make any Alpha kneels, they say. If she can't convince you with her words, her swords will."
Unbelievable! This has to be a sick joke.
"Alpha Markus is persuaded she is the purest Luna and wants to mate with her." Aiden concludes for her.
I don't know how he doesn't feel Anton's rage. Anna-Lynn has her hand on his leg trying to calm him down.
"Exactly, and to claim her he needs to kill Luna Nora. This is why she needs to stay hidden. While the fight will take place, there will be a wizard that his for the mission to kill her. You need to keep her safe." Dahlia tells us pleading us to believe her.
"She is safe and she will stay safe." Anna-Lynn says.
"Are you really going to take Alpha Liam place in the Challenge?" She asks her directly.
"I am."
She nods and tells me"You know even if you're not the real target, his wizard is working on a spell to froze everybody and kill all the pack easily. He wants to prove to everybody he is the most powerful Alpha, the one deserving the purest Luna."
"And what a better way to show that than to destroy the most powerful pack." Dad says.
"Exactly and he will have his revenge. You should evacuate most people of your pack."
"Markus will not win Dahlia. And even if he won other Alphas will be here so he can't slaughter a pack using a spell." Anna-Lynn says.
"How can you be so sure? Nothing will stop her m and his warriors." She says scared.
"Why are they following him in his madness?" I ask.
"Because he makes his warriors, his Beta and his Gamma drink is blood every week to keep them in control."
"And not you, his sister?"
"Yes me too, but my heat is about to start so I have a time of... freedom right now. Please don't be too hard with my pack. They have nothing to do with Alpha Markus. And once he will die, we will all be released from his influence."
"Thank you for coming. Do you want to stay?" I ask.
"No, I have to go back before he punishes my mate to not have enough control over me. Thank you, Alpha." She says bowing down.
"Ethan will accompany you until the border. Thank you for taking the risk to come here." I reply.
"Well, how ironic is it, don't you think?" I say directly to Anna-Lynn when she closed the door.
"What's going on?" Aiden asks.
Dad doesn't say anything he already knows somehow.
"Markus wants my mate as his new mate as I'm married to his. If I knew I would have done the exchange a long time ago it would have saved us from troubles." I say joking dryly.
"She is not yours! You stupid mutt. And she is not an object that you can dispose of as you wish!" Anton says slapping my desk.
"Anton calm down." Anna-Lynn tells him taking his hands. "Your eyes!" She adds surprised.
"You are mine to claim and to love. Who he thinks he is to says he has a claim on you. I want to rip his heart off! And this mutt too if he keeps saying stupid things like that."
"I'm yours. Only yours! Go run and let your wolf out. I will join you in a few minutes." She says pecking his lips.
He sighs and nods before leaving without saying anything else. It's rude but he is really furious. He really loves her. I shake my head.
"Why do you think it's my sister they are talking about. She is not that person Dahlia was speaking about." Aiden asks me.
"Are you blind? Look how Anton reacted. Heck, even my father knows. How? I don't know but he knows. Anna-Lynn, you didn't deny it either. And last time you told me if you can't persuade with your words, your weapons will."
"How is it even possible, you're so human?" Aiden asks her directly.
"I just kicked your ass. Do you want me to do it again?" She asks him.
"So you are the one she was talking about?"
"Yes, I am. Now if you will excuse me. I have to check on my mate." She says before leaving.
"Do you think she is the purest Luna?" I ask my father.
"I don't think, I know she is." He confirms.
"But what about her aura?" Aiden asks.
"It's easy to learn how to hide it." I say.
"Still we would have felt it when she was younger."
I shrug my shoulders.
"So... I'm the Alpha King."
"You were supposed to be but Dahlia's father, Alpha Luke, was right. The prophecy isn't about you. It's about her. The Alpha King will be the one who rules by her side. So even if you were fated to become a King, by rejected her you lost the title. If an Alpha King would have to raise now it will be Anton."
"This is why the Moon Goddess is calling her back to her side. We didn't value the gift she gave us so she is punishing us by taking her back." Aiden says.
"I think you're right." Dad says.
"What is she?" I ask him.
"I can't tell you."
"But you know."
"I can't tell you." He repeats.
"Leave! I don't want to speak to you if you keep secrets from me."
"It's not my secret to tell." He sighs before leaving.
"How do you feel?" Aiden asks me.
"It's a lot to take. Do you know what she can be." I reply.
"No idea! Not even a hint. She is not a werewolf but she is strong and fast. She can't be a hybrid as our parents are werewolves... This is driving me crazy!" He groans.
"Damn, you were supposed to be the Alpha king!" He says after a few minutes of silence.
"I know! I'm in a prophecy, man."
"Do you regret rejected her now?"
"No. Be the Alpha King would have been great but I would not have been happy with her. In less than a month she is already driving me crazy. She is lucky I don't have my wolf now before I would have few force shifts since she is here."
Damn right, I would! My wolf says. His voice is fainted but finally!
I missed you so much! It's good to have you back. I say smiling.
"Why are you smiling?" Aiden asks.
"My wolf, I can hear him again!"
"Finally. This is good news! My wolf missed running with yours. We are happy to know we will be running together soon." He replies.
"I can't wait!" I say excitedly.
We have to wait I'm too weak, we can't shift yet. He tells me
I know and right now I just happy to hear from you. I was so afraid I lost you.
No, we are a team. I will not give up on you.
I feel love and pride in him. Damn, he is the best part of me! If I was alone I would have cried of happiness.
"I let you catch up with your wolf." Aiden says getting up.
"Thanks. See you later."