Mated to Vengeance

CHAPTER THREE: Moving on

“See, I told you that you guys will be fine.” The wind seemed to carry the voice of his mate. He smiled and removed the weed sprouting on her grave.

“You were right, they are all growing up wonderfully. Bernard will probably find a mate in the upcoming mating ball. He’s now a young man and I’m sure he will make a wonderful alpha one day. Ian on the other hand seems content hanging out with books instead of people, he says he wants to become the pack physician one day.” He sat down beside her grave and started at the sky.

“You would be surprised by how much Brienne looks like you,” he continued. She will soon be ten years old but her brain works like an adult’s and a child’s at the same time. She will most likely get curious about what the world outside here looks like. I hope I can protect and prepare her for when I’m no longer here.”

A soft breeze caressed his skin, and he almost felt her presence.

Sweat dripped down the side of Brienne’s face as she blinked and adjusted the wooden sword in her hand, she met Uncle Will’s eyes as they circled each other looking for weaknesses. Uncle Will is her father’s beta, best friend and right hand man, Brienne had known him her whole life and he had become like another member of the family. He lived in the pack house with his mate, Juliette and their son, Beck who was Bernard’s bestfriend, he would become his beta when he becomes the alpha. Alpha Monroe had told his friend he wanted to train his daughter to fight and uncle Will had volunteered to train her himself, he started training her to fight two years ago, she has gotten pretty good at one on one fighting without weapons but she’s finding it difficult to master fighting with a sword.

Brienne charged forward, her sword raised and Will parried each of her strikes with ease, a hint of smile on his face.

“You are getting faster, Munchkin, but you footwork still needs work.” He said dodging a particular enthusiastic swing. “And until when will you keep holding the sword like it is burning your hands, if I was an enemy, I would have killed you a long time ago.” He said laughing.

Brienne huffed, her ponytail bouncing behind her. “No enemy will be able to hurt a hair on my head if you let me use an actual sword, not this…stick.” She lunged forward again, this time her sword clashed with Will’s.

As she stumbled backwards, Will chuckled and said, “Your arms aren’t strong enough to carry an actual sword and we won’t want you to mistakenly cut off my head now, will we? I kind of like it where it is.” Brienne grinned “Don’t worry, for the sake of aunt Juliette, I won’t cut much.”

Will laughed and poked her exposed side with the tip of his sword, “Oh my goddess I’m so scared, spare my life, your royal highness.” He cried sarcastically.

The sparring match continued with Brienne showing flashes of skill but eventually being disarmed by Will as always. As they finished up, Will ruffled her hair saying, “You are getting there, kiddo, just remember, a true warrior must balance strength and finesse.”

Brienne rolled her eyes playfully as she got back on her feet, “Yeah, yeah uncle Will, you’ve told me a thousand times already. Maybe one day dad will let me go with Bernard on patrol so I can see some real action.”

She turned around when she heard the sound of her father laughing,

“I don’t think the pack fighters would want a nine year-old to accompany them on patrol and I have never seen any nine year-old wanting to go anywhere with fighters.” Alpha Monroe said as he approached them.

“But I’m not going to be nine anymore in the next full moon,” she whined.

Alpha Monroe always found it difficult to say no to his daughter, “Let’s wait till then now, shall we?” he said eventually. “Now you might want to go and take a shower before you start smelling like my feet,”

“Dad,” she groaned before running off to put away their swords.

“Are you actually going to let her go on patrol when she becomes ten?” Will asked.

“It’s too dangerous but I’ll deal with that when the time comes.” Monroe said quietly because he didn’t put it past his daughter to be listening in on their conversation.

Will laughed out loudly, “The big bad alpha scared to say no to a little girl.”

“Ohh please,” Monroe said. “I didn’t see you confidently saying no when Juliette said she wants another child,”

“Ohh no, don’t remind me. Am I not too old to have another child now?” he groaned.

It was Monroe’s time to laugh, “You should try telling that to your mate not me.” He said as they walked to his office.

Beta Will closed the door to the alpha’s office and took a seat in front of the huge table.

“A messenger came from the capital.” He started, “It was to remind us that it is our turn to host the annual mating ball.”

Alpha Monroe nodded, “How soon is it?”

“In two months, we have enough time to prepare,”

“We are going to need to strengthen our defenses, people from all over the kingdom are going to be crossing our borders.” He appeared deep in thought, “Do you think the Alpha king is going to come.”

“Maybe but it’s definitely a long here from the capital.” Will said. “I will inform Juliette, she will be excited to get started with the preparation.”

“Thank you, I will tell Brienne she can assist her, hopefully it will get her mind off going on patrol for a while.”

Will laughed, “Goodluck with that, by the way, why are you hellbent on her learning how to fight so young anyway.”

“She is going to have to learn how to fight eventually, why not start now, we don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow.”

“You’re serious.” Will looked at him funny, “That’s it?”

“Of course. What did you think?”

“I mean, I thought you made some kind of promise to the luna to train her or something, but I guess there’s no harm done. She is fun to train and she catches on fast.”

“Of course she does, she’s my daughter after all.”

“Oh please, even a girl could woop your ass when you were her age.”