The Warrior King's Mate

Chapter 12

I lay in bed that night, stomach full of fish and chips, no cake, though. I’d only eaten the fish because Nancy had made it especially at my request and I didn’t want to make her angry with me. All I wanted to do was lie in bed all afternoon, but Malcolm wouldn’t let me. Instead, the moment we got home from the café, he insisted on a walk around the packhouse gardens, never questioning my enthusiasm for the walk. As he chatted easily, pointing out statues and telling me about their history, mentioning how Luna Margot had designed the garden, pointing out what rooms in the packhouse overlooked which parts of the garden, Malcolm had no idea that he was making a better reconnaissance partner than Anna ever did. With Anna it was mostly a game, a way of keeping me hopeful, but with Malcolm, it was like handing me a route and a plan.

I had decided on my plan while watching the omegas put the new clothes in to the wardrobe. That wardrobe was nearly ten times the size of the crawl space. The room was much too big, I had thought. It had been filled with too much stuff. The food was much too much. The attention. The appointments. The constant presence of my cousin and grandmother, the aunt who looked like my mother. It was beyond overwhelming – it was suffocation. Before, at Silver Shore, life had been a nightmare – but the fairy tale dream at River Moon was scarier than anything I had faced before. I knew, somehow, that when it went wrong, when they finally wanted rid of me, it would hurt me a lot more now that I knew what life should have been. I just didn’t feel safe, like they wanted me to. I felt like a rabbit, hoping the wolves wouldn’t notice her presence.

I couldn’t go home. It wasn’t an option. By now, Alpha John’s rage against Silver Shore would have caused the hatred the pack felt for me to multiply exponentially. I couldn’t go out into the forest again, knowing the rogues were in there, biding their time. But the tour of the garden had given me a route, a way out of the packhouse without being detected, from the front door right into the throngs of wolves leaving on coaches every day. The fact that no one but Amy knew what I looked like outside of the packhouse was in my favour. No one could tell Malcolm what coach I’d got on if they didn’t know what I looked like. All I had to do was finally find a path to the training grounds from the Dome, and before anyone knew I was missing, I’d be gone.

The training grounds were a constant rotation of picking up and dropping off of warriors from various packs. All of them were vetted and trained by River Moon’s best warriors before being sent on their way to King Fallon. Malcolm told me all about it over dinner. The warriors were assessed, given their travel code and signed in and out on a computer in the lead warrior’s study. There, his secretary took the code assigned to each warrior and presented them with their ticket and coach information. I just had to slip in line at the office and repeat the code of a warrior still in assessment. A code I couldn’t learn if I didn’t do a little of my own reconnaissance first.

See, despite what I’d been told my whole life, I wasn’t actually stupid. I did really well in school, even graduating first in my class, not that it was acknowledged. I had always worked hard and tried to make my mother proud, even though it was silly to think she would even acknowledge my grades. I memorised the route through the garden that led to the Dome, unseen by any of the alpha family offices, the kitchens or the packhouse dining room. The only minor risk was the Luna’s tearoom but, as my grandmother had told me when she brought me here, the tearoom was reserved for guests of the Luna. Knowing there were no guests here today, it was a risk worth taking.

I looked at the small clock on the bedside table. Midnight. Just like at Silver Shore, River Moon’s omegas change shifts at midnight and midday, meaning they would all be in the kitchen to receive a handover from the previous shift, and no one would spot me sneaking out of the packhouse. I slipped myself out of bed, already dressed in leggings and a warm jumper. My new sneakers were tucked under the bed and silently I slipped them on, bounded weightlessly to the bedroom door and squeezed my tiny frame through the gap. Knowing I couldn’t take the elevator due to its loud “bing!”, I approached the top of the stairs and braced myself. Walking around was still quite tiring, and rather a lot of balance was required to walk down stairs, never mind four floors of highly polished marble ones.

By the time I’d reached the bottom stair, I was sweating pretty badly. I knew the second I hit the cool night air I’d be freezing, but I couldn’t even consider going back up the stairs for a jacket. Double checking there was no one in the foyer, I made my way to the grand stone stairs leading down from the packhouse’s open front doors. Remembering the guards at the stained glass side doors that led directly to the Dome, I turned left immediately and waited in the shadow of a large acer to make sure they hadn’t heard me leave the packhouse. After five minutes, there was no sound of approaching feet so I skimmed my way along the row of shrubs that led under the kitchen window.

As hoped, the handover was finished and the kitchen lights were now out, as were those in the halls and dining room. Stepping over the shrubs, I crept through the cobbled garden paths between the taller hedges, my feet quiet as I retraced my way through the ornamental garden and towards the orchard. Now, the glass walls of the Dome were in clear view through the fruit trees. Careful not to trip on fallen apples, I gently ran towards the brightly lit Dome, where large groups of wolves my age were moving in an out of restaurants and bars, or walking towards or from what I hoped were the training grounds.

Once inside, I followed a group of guys all dressed in sports gear. They laughed and joked easily with each other and I felt a pang of jealousy so strong that I growled at them in my head. Idiots, they’ve no idea what they’re walking into, going to war. I bet they’ve never even felt one of their bones break, never had to carry heavy trays of food with broken wrists, never had to run with fractured ribs, never had to stay awake all night, terrified someone would find them in the dark.

With a jolt, I realised I’d closed the gap between myself and the group, my fists clenched and the tingle of that horrible electricity crackling below the surface of my skin. No, not here, not right now, goddess, please!

“Hey what the - ” The tall one of the group noticed my sudden presence and whipped round suddenly, looking at me up and down suspiciously. The rest of the group stopped and stared too, confusion written on all of their faces.

“Sorry, you need past bro?” The tall one spoke and, tight lipped, I nodded. I had to get past them before I either descended into rage or panic. I needed a code.

Walking quickly, I heard them laugh raucously, probably at my expense, as I followed the brightly lit walkway all the way to a large opening.

Outside, rows of lights on strings led through the darkness to what looked like a large sports stadium. It had incredibly bright lights in each of the four corners shining down on to a track field, with hurdles, huge climbing walls, punch bags and a circular area in the middle, large enough to fit the packhouse inside, where groups of two were sparring in wolf form as a tall, ice blonde man walked in between them, barking out instructions and assessing their movements with his bright blue eyes. The power radiating off of this man reached me as I stood on the fringe of the running track and I assumed this must be River Moon’s lead warrior. Suddenly, this all seemed like a very silly idea.

“Nova?!” A loud shriek from behind me made me gasp and jump loudly. No, no, no, I’ve been caught already!?

“It is you! Oooh, bad girl, coming to see the eye candy at the training grounds, too, huh?” Amy snuck her arm around my shoulders and steered me towards the rows of raised benches that surrounded the track. Still wearing her sunglasses atop her head, even in the dark, Amy looked just as bright-eyed and bushy-tailed as she had at the cafe that morning. “Come and meet some of the girls!”

I didn’t want to meet the girls, I had to get back to the packhouse right now, before Amy told Malcolm where I was. We didn’t make it far, however, before a deep, sonorous voice called over to us.

“Ames, what the f**k are you doing?” Joe, Amy’s mate, came storming over to us, his dark eyes fixed on me. Where Amy was small and bubbly, Joe was tall, black-skinned, and perpetually irritated looking. He was handsome, for sure, but the way he looked at me reminded me too much of Logan and it set the electricity in my veins buzzing like angry bees. He didn’t seem to be pleased to see me, either.

“Babe, it’s okay it’s Nov-” Amy said, soothingly, but removing her arm from my shoulders all the same.

“I know who it is, it’s that f*****g i***t who nearly cost us our place at Selinis Castle cause she can't read a map! Who do you think you are?!” He rounded on me, jabbing a large finger painfully in to my bony shoulder. “Huh? You got my girl in trouble with the f*****g Alpha, you little b***h,” he spat at me, his loud voice drawing quite the crowd. This was frighteningly familiar. I’d been in this circle before, just with different wolves. They were going to hurt me.

“I’m f*****g talking to you, b***h!” Joe shoved me this time.

Panicked, Amy scrambled between us, placing her small hands on Joe’s huge biceps, pleading with him to stop.

“Joe, no you can’t, she’s – she’s Alpha’s niece here you can’t, she isn’t well babes, come on, it was all a misunderstanding, we’re good!”

“We are not good! You were questioned like a f*****g rogue, Amy, she nearly cost me what I’ve worked my whole damn life for!” Joe yelled at his mate.

I felt my face flush from white to red to purple as more and more eyes turned our direction. As the sparring in the centre stopped, there were no more distractions in the training grounds. Without the noise of snapping wolves to drown us out, Joe’s angry voice echoed menacingly around the stadium. The man with the blue eyes was walking towards us. The buzzing in my body became overwhelming, pins and needles everywhere, making breathing painful.

I felt like I was going to pass out.

“If you’re really alpha blood, then lets go, b***h – you and me!” Joe pushed past Amy, came close enough to me for me to count his eyelashes as he looked down at me, his teeth bared, his eyes dark.

“What’s going on here, exactly? Why is the lead warrior from White Fang interrupting my training assessment?” The man with the icy eyes asked, looking down at me as I stood, rooted to the spot, all thoughts of stealing a travel code miles away from my mind.

Maybe I was stupid after all, to come here, among the most brutally strong ranked warriors in the eastern Kingdom, in the hopes of stealing from them.

“She’s alpha blood, she dishonoured me, this is an official challenge!” Joe yelled, not only to me, but to the small audience now watching. They collectively gasped, whispering amongst themselves, all of their eyes on me.

“Joe, NO!” Amy yelled but, taking one of his large, shovel-sized hands, he swung his arm backwards and slapped her hard, right across the face. Her love-heart shaped glasses fell and smashed on the tarmac as she stumbled back, clutching her face.

My vision tunnelled out.

I became deafened by a high-pitched ringing in my ears.

The buzzing became lightning in my blood.

He hit her. He hit his mate.

The anger I felt was like nothing I’d ever felt before – even the night I smashed the wall of the basement of Silver Shore’s packhouse. I wanted to break him, I wanted to rip his jaw off.

My voice, steady and clear for the first time in my own memory as I stepped over Amy’s broken sunglasses and looked Joe in the face as I sweetly announced “I accept your challenge.”

This, I knew, truly was stupid. He was an alpha’s son. Amy told me this. He’d trained his entire life to be a lead warrior. He was more than triple my weight, and of course, he had a wolf. I didn’t. There was no way I’d survive this, but I didn’t care anymore. He hurt my friend.

“What is your name, girl?” The icy-eyed man asked me in a drawl.

“Nova,” Amy gushed beside me, “Nova, please don’t do this, it was my fault. I was pushing at him please, he’ll actually kill you babes, just don’t, let me – let me call Malcolm and - ”

“No.” I said, moving towards Joe as he raised his fists in a defensive stance.

Now, I might have done well in school, but I had never, ever stepped foot in a training ring before, and never had I ever considered entering into a fight with a grown man, but here I was. If he killed me, fine, it solved my problem in a way. Couldn’t go home, couldn’t stay here.

Something inside me was changing, though. Instinctively, my feet moved deftly over one another as I circled the brutish man in front of me. I thought of Logan, thought of Hailey, and Simon. I thought of my mother. I thought of the stupid bloody care plan. I thought of Malcolm, going off to war, and all the while, I replayed the way Joe had slapped Amy, his mate, his reason for existing, without so much as flinching. I might not be a real werewolf, but neither was he. He was a dog. He needed to be put down.

Without warning, Joe ran at me, throwing a powerful punch right at my face. However, as if by some sort of magic, the electricity in my body suddenly charged straight on to one side, pulling me with it. I dodged the punch. The same thing happened as he kicked out at my leg – the strange energy pulled me swiftly backwards and his kick missed me by a clear inch. Snarling, he ran at me again, furiously hitting out with his fists. I dodged almost all of his hits with unnerving speed, my body pulled around like a marionette by an unseen force. One punch, however, made contract with my ribs and burned more painfully than anything I’d ever experienced. I was winded, but the smug look on Joe’s face doubled the mind-numbing electricity inside me.

Without thinking, without planning, my fists curled tightly of their own accord and threw themselves one after the other at his face.

The whites of his eyes widened in shock as my blows caught him in the stomach and ribs. Next, my foot swung round, catching the back of his legs. Somehow, each blow I landed crackled satisfyingly along my skin, the energy discharging with each hit.

Understanding this, I let loose every feeling of fear and pain I had in me, using Joe’s body to disperse the lightning in me until my arms felt heavy, my breathing laboured, my brain numb.

I think I blacked out, to be honest.

Before I was aware of having stopped hitting him, I felt a weird warmth spread through my entire body. The current of electricity was gone, replaced with a strange softness, like a body fast asleep.

Then – suddenly – it was as if the sound was turned on in the world and a loud roar filled my ears. My eyes snapped open. A huge crowd of werewolves surrounded me, cheering and whooping as Joe was half dragged, half carried away by a group of his friends, Amy fretting and sobbing by his side. I felt my legs buckle, and the man with the icy blue eyes caught me, my vision blurry and my ribs hot.

"WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?!" A loud bellow came from behind the crowd, who all at once fell to their knees, baring their necks. The most powerful alpha aura I had ever felt washed over the whole of the stadium, and I felt myself react to it. I didn't bow, or bare my neck, however, as Malcolm walked through the crowd towards me. I felt my back straighten, felt my shoulders roll back so that I was no longer hunched over, clutching my side. His eyes were almost black as his wolf, Blade, took over my cousin's body. His eyes roamed incredulously over the kneeling crowd, my bloodied knuckles and my arm still holding on to my side where Joe's punch had landed.

"MARCUS" Blade roared, and the icy blue eyes of Marcus snapped up at the young Alpha. He stood, his arms behind his back and his neck exposed in recognition of the next alpha of River Moon. "Explain what my cousin is doing in your warrior-only training grounds covered in blood?!"

He was furious.

"She was challenged, Alpha. She fought and won in combat against Joe Ackee, Lead Warrior of White Fang."