Birthright

Chapter 3 - Morning Sunshine - Jackson PoV

I woke to a soft purple haze bleeding across the sky. In this realm, the heavens always wore shades of violet and orange when a storm was brewing, beautiful, but foreboding. Pulling on a pair of grey joggers and a white tee that clung to my shoulders and arms, I caught my reflection in the mirror. The years of training had sculpted me into a warrior, though sometimes I wondered if it had also built walls I couldn’t see.

Today was training day with the warriors and the Elders. From the forty souls Aunt Theo had saved that night, our pack had grown to sixty-two over the last seventeen years. We’d built a new life here: homes, families, purpose. Everyone looked up to Aunt Theo and the few remaining Elders, but they all knew the Alpha title would pass to me once I came of age.

That’s why I’d been trained my whole life to lead, to protect, to be ready. But even after all these years, the weight of that destiny still pressed heavy on my shoulders. Some days, I wondered if I truly understood what it meant to carry an entire pack’s future in my hands.

Everyone who survived that night carried the blood of the old races Lycans, werewolves, and three Fae healers. Everyone except Aunt Theo who was a witch and me a hybrid.

Sometimes I wondered if that’s why I always felt different, like there was a distance between me and the others that no amount of training could close. They were bound by the same pulse, the same moonlight that guided their kind. I was.. something else. A hybrid of worlds that were never meant to mix in their eyes, due to the downfall of Talvarna.

Aunt Theo said that made me powerful. The Elders said it made me dangerous.

Either way, it made me different.

The elders taught me to master the beast within, to wield the strength that marked my lineage. Yet no training could silence the call of my otherside waiting to be released, a whisper that grew louder with every passing moon, until I become of age.

As I walked through our little town, I greeted everyone I passed with a nod or a wave. The streets were alive with the scent of morning dew and freshly baked goods from the communal kitchens. Children darted around on their way to the school in the town centre, their laughter echoing through the air, while a few early risers trained in the open fields just ahead of me.

“Morning, sunshine, doesn’t look like you got that beauty sleep” Lex called from the training field. He was always up before anyone, a walking machine of muscle, the only real competition I had, even if I beat him every time. He had blonde wavy hair that reached just below his ears, bright icy blue eyes that held the single females in a trance. He’s a joker, optimistic, happy go lucky kinda guy. When I become Alpha, he’d be my beta. He was only five months older than me; eighteen next month.

“At least I look better than you, dickface,” I shot back.

He flung both hands to his chest, offended for dramatic effect. “Oh, Majesty, that one hurt. My face is a masterpiece of perfection.”

We both burst out laughing.

“Come on dude, today’s the day I’m gonna beat your ass,” he boasted, stalking toward me across the grass. “Now I’m close to eighteen I can feel the change.”

“Eighteen at your full potential or not, you’ll never beat me,” I said, stretching out my muscles. The sun, more purple than gold here, caught the edge of his grin. Lex always talked a big game, but he trained the same way I did which was hard, relentless, the kind of practice that builds bone, muscle and stubbornness.

Lex’s mother, Casey, had been in the vault that night too, clutching him in one arm and his two-year-old sister, Layla, in the other. His father had been my father’s Delta, his most trusted warrior. Our families had been bound long before we were born.

Casey helped Aunt Theo raise me when I was just a baby. To me, she was more than the pack’s Delta female, she was a mother figure, steady and fierce, always reminding me of where I came from, talking to me about my own mother, one of her best friends. And Lex..Lex was my brother in every way that mattered.

After several hours of grueling physical training, pushing our bodies to the limit and battering the crap out of each other, it was finally time for breakfast. We trudged, sore and sweaty, to the communal dining hall, where the warm scent of fresh bread and grilled sausages greeted us. The room buzzed with chatter, laughter, and the occasional groan from someone nursing bruised ribs or a sore shoulder from this mornings training.