Chapter 4

 

“I do not like my peace to be disturbed or for messengers to walk freely through my borders.”

Her father’s voice spoke loud and true as the table around them was silent. It had not been long since her father had taken his seat and she took up her place behind him. Her arms held behind her back, covered by her cloak, made her stance threatening to all.

Her father’s eyes glowed a bright amber as he spoke. His frustration evident in his voice. No Alpha liked their lines crossed. Her father had taken solace in the peace the forest brought to his mind. They had been so worked up on destruction and grief that the pack had almost turned into a ticking time bomb. They had nearly torn each other apart.

“I’m sorry to have disturbed you, Jonah. But you cannot live in isolation any longer,” Alpha Michael spoke, irritation deep in his tone.

 

The scar on his lip quirked up in a twisted manner as he spoke, her beast shivering in pleasure at it. She could still feel the feeling of his ripping flesh on her claws, his blood running down her palm. He was disgraced to even say her father’s name.

“I should have known it was you’re scent on those insolent wolves. How dare you summon us!” She growled at him, her head turning as her eyes flashed.

“We are at war; we need all the power we can get!” He shot back; canines bared at her as he stood from his seat.

Her temper flared at his words. Clawed hands gripped the top of her father’s seat as she took a deep breath through sharpened teeth. Her red eyes showing her anger towards the man in front of her. The simple flash of emotion enough to put her on the edge of her control.

“Did we not give you enough in the last war we fought for you?” She asked angrily through sharp teeth.

“Were the lives given not enough for you, Michael?”

She spat his name at him, pain running through her every being as she restrained the need to jump over the table and end his life. How dare he summon them to war. They’d given everything in the last.

 

Her dominance threatened to suffocate the entire table. Sweat dripped from Michael’s brow as he struggled to keep his head up in her presence. She was a force to be reckoned with.

“I will not risk my father’s life to fight your wars. We are not you’re soldiers,” She spat.

Her father’s hands reach up to cover her own, a comforting gesture, as her chest heaved with the emotions she was feeling. He knew her pain. He was suffocated by it every day.

She wasn’t lying when she said her beast was ruled by her emotions, she was out of control. A train too close to running off the tracks. A tip of the scale and she would fall into oblivion.

“It is no longer just our war. It’s a war to end everything as we know it.” Norman spoke up, hurt filling his voice.

She turned to look at him, his face broken with emotion. He had suffered a huge loss, still fresh, her beast could easily tell. His shoulders had slumped, and he wrung his hands repeatedly, unusual actions of an Alpha. They were always sure of themselves. Bags hung under his eyes that she did not notice before and the beginnings of a dark scruff was dusted across his cheeks. The right side of his neck was badly bruised, the skin a mixture of black and blue. Her beast whined inside her mind in pain.

The death of a life-mate always took its toll physically first.

“Helen, was a warning to us all. The Vampires have declared the continent as their own, we either join them as slaves or die.” Michael spoke softly.

The mental toll was what eventually killed them.

The sympathy in his eyes confirmed her suspicious. A life-mate had been killed, that alone was worthy of a cause for war, but a complete uprising was unexpected. The vampires had grown bold in the years of peace between the species.

She looked around the table at each of the Alpha’s. Grief stuck to some like glue, the stench in the air almost choke-able, while others looked restless. They shifted continuously in their seats.

The Alpha’s had been shaken, that alone showed the threat to be true. The powerhouse of her people was weakened. The table held no powerful dominance apart from herself and her father. Michael knew that they would lose without them.

Her father sensed the direction that her thoughts were taking her, letting her beast’s instincts lead her as she read the table of men before her. He squeezed her hand before letting his own rest upon the table top.

“They can sense unrest within the packs,” Her father spoke slowly, his brow raising in concern.

He spoke to her, not the table, as he said this. His voice held questions that he had yet to voice and his concern was evident. It seemed that they had not been summoned as advisers but as war machines. It was as she had suspected. They were hungry for the power that would turn the tide of their war.

“We are as united and as powerful as ever,” Michael claimed, posturing slightly towards her father.

She sensed his intentions by his very first movement, he wished to challenge. The true contender had finally shown himself. She stiffened her stance, throwing her cloak behind her as she snarled at him. She would rip out his throat before he even had the chance.

They locked gazes and the battle of wills began. It was more of a battle to see how quickly it would take him to look away from her eyes. Her beast was at the forefront of her person. Her true eyes on show for all to see.

“Why are we here, if not to fight your war for you?” Her father asked, ignoring their silent stand-off as whispers broke out between the Alpha’s.

Michael stood from his chair, breaking their eye contact as he did so. Her beast grumbled in satisfaction as she watched him through cautious eyes. She was focused on every movement; he was now the ultimate threat to her father.

Her father sat back in his chair, waiting for the words to be spoken. Michaels intention clear in his eyes as he spared a look around the table before meeting her fathers relaxed gaze. She held her breath as he opened his mouth to speak, her beast waiting to strike.

“I demand the right of challenge.”

His voice shook slightly as he spoke, he wasn’t as confident as he wanted everyone to believe. Her claws scrapped against the stone of the seat as her hands slowly began to curl into fists, the stone crumpling away in her hands.

Her father’s human side was calm but the beast within raged at the challenge, his dominance unleashed to suffocate those below him. Her father was a kind man, displays of violence were uncommon for him. Her father was the most even tempered of them all. But nothing calmed the beast once challenged.

Havoc broke out between the Alpha’s as protests were raised against his demand. Once a challenge was issued it could not be revoked, death was the only answer.

Her father’s death would not come today.

“I accept,” Her father stating, standing to his full height.

She shifted her weight from foot to foot as her beast salivated at the thought of fresh blood. The blood of a contender was always sweet to her tongue. And sated the beast for a while.

The table fell silent at her father’s words, they knew the gravity of what was to come. With them at war with another species they did not need to fight within their own. A loss of an Alpha now would be a huge cost to the war ahead. Especially one of her father’s position.

Her limbs felt coiled at the ready as blood pumped through her veins in anticipation. Her thirst for blood like fire within her veins. Her gums ached as her canines pushed to descend.

All stood from the table and moved themselves out from the stone circle, into the open space that surrounded it. They stood to one side, leaving ample room for both parties to release their inner beasts.

She stood beside her father as he faced Michael on the open ground. They both reached up and released their cloaks from their shoulders, letting them float to the ground below them as they exposed themselves to the elements.

Her exposed mid-riff clenched as the cool breeze drifted across it, her scars stark white against the glowing sun above them. She was battle-hardened as was her father. The animal skins that covered her chest and lower region did little against the cool air, some of the Alpha’s pulled their coats closer to their necks as she revelled in the feeling of the world around her.

Blood and destruction, just what the beast wanted. She would be fed today.

“We live by the old ways,” Her father began.

Silence greeted him as he spoke. He had their complete respect, absolute loyalty.

“Our challenges are undertaken differently from yours.”

Michael began to nervously shift on his feet as her father spoke. As the one being challenged her father had the right to set the rules. Skin side and fur side made no difference to them. It was what was coming next that would shake his world completely.

“We hold the right to a champion. One who will defend my title to the end of their days and would die to honour it,” His voice was strong, no waver in his tone.

Murmurs broke out between the other Alpha’s at his words. The old ways were lost on them, they had lost touch with the old religion over time. Instead being sucked into a new world order. Since her father had never been challenged by any of the Alpha’s present, they knew nothing of what was to come.

“You will not fight me today, Michael. My daughter will have the honour of doing that.”

She smiled at him through sharp teeth and shinning eyes as her stance turned aggressive. She reviled in the anticipation of what was to come. Her beast called for his blood to once again grace her claws.