Chapter 2: The Challenge, Ellie and Bronx's POV

           “Ellie, you ready to go to training?” Bradley yelled from the hallway at me.  Shaking myself from my own thoughts, I replied “Ready whenever you are, Beta B! Let me just go grab my bag. Meet you outside?”

            Without waiting for a reply, I ran back to the room while powering up my new phone. I grabbed my bag quickly, checking to make sure I didn’t have my shirt on backwards from this morning’s sleepy wake up (yes, I was known for that). I went to the messages on my phone and sent a quick text to Cailee.

Me: Yo chickadee…guess who got her phone back?!

Bestie: YAS girl, YAS!

Bestie: Have you been going through withdrawals?

Me: You can say that again!

Me: Got to run to training but maybe catch up with you later?

Bestie: Sounds good! Just shoot me a text when you’re done!

Me: Oh crap, it will have to be after Alpha Mason talks to me. I don’t know what he wants. Any ideas? (Cailee seemed to know EVERYTHING that happens in the pack and gave me the ‘tea’ often).

Bestie: Ummm…no clue. Weird.

Me: You can say that again, ttys!

            With that done, I opened the group text with the Locke triplets to see if I had a response from any of them.  Seeing my last message there with no reply in response, my heart hurt. Three years…three years I have not spoken to them and it hurt even worse now. I sent them texts from time to time telling them I was thinking of them and wished them good luck with making it through to become a Guardian Knight. I had hoped they might find a way to contact me but maybe I was not important enough.  I know I shouldn’t get mad about it because they were not supposed to contact anyone but it still hurt.  Call it insecurity issues but I was used to having people leave me. First my parents, now the Locke triplets. I did not want to think about losing them too.

            Me: Hiya, boys…just wanted you all to know I miss you and am proud of you!

            Just as I finished hitting send, I met Bradley by the front door and we were on our way to training. I always enjoyed the short walk to the training fields. It’s the calm before the storm of me getting my butt kicked by our Beta and the time where I envisioned, if my father was still alive, we’d have similar bonding talks.

            “You doing okay, Ellie?” Bradley asked quietly as we walk side by side.

            “I’m alright, why do you ask?” I responded looking up into his face questioning.

            “I don’t know, you just seem quieter these days. Bella and I are worried about you,” he replied. “Normally we can’t get a word in edge wise as you entertain yourself with your own corny jokes and comments,” he laughed.

            “Honestly, I have been feeling a little bit down lately. I thought I would stop missing the triplets but I haven’t. I guess I’ve also been feeling more on edge lately…probably has to do with my upcoming shift. I remember the hell the guys put you all through the weeks leading up to their first shift. I’m sorry, I will try to be more aware of how I am affecting everyone,” I relented while trying to maintain my tough girl attitude. I watched Bradley as a tiny smirk appeared on his face. What exactly was so funny about what I said? Calm down Ellie…get your rage hormones under control. Bradley loves us like his own. Taking a deep breath, I continued to ask the question that was bugging me the most, “Do you know why Alpha Mason wants to see me?”

            Bradley’s face turned solemn again, all traces of humor gone, “I don’t know but don’t worry, I will be right there with you. Let’s get to training. Need you to be ready.” Ready for what? I’m lost in my thoughts on the weirdness this morning has been and in no time we found ourselves at the training field.

Normally, it was just me and the Beta at training but today it seemed like we would have a bit of an audience. As I looked through the small crowd that was gathered, a shiver of fear ran down my back as I saw Alpha Mason standing there with his friends. His friends were not the nicest of people to me. Never have been and don’t anticipate that changing any time soon. There was always something they made fun of me for; whether it was my unique silver hair they swore I dyed to keep that way versus being natural or the fact that I was adopted and therefore must come from weak parents since they died from a rogue attack.

            Before, I used to have the triplets there to protect me from the stares and whispers but I had shouldered that burden on my own since they were gone. I stopped to drop my bag and started to move to the middle of the training field, stretching my body out as I walked, to take my position across from Bradley. Before we could start, out of the corner of my eye I saw Alpha Mason and his cronies walking our way.

            “Beta Bradley, how about you change things up today and allow Ellie to spar against someone else?” Alpha Mason called out.

            Sighing to himself just loud enough for me to hear, Bradley looked at the Alpha and said in a loud, authoritative, yet slightly bored, voice, “I’m sorry, Alpha Mason, but no one but me spars with Ellie. She doesn’t have her wolf yet and I don’t trust just anyone to be able to control themselves from shifting when she starts to kick their ass.”

            Snorting back a chuckle, I wiped the grin off of my face once I saw the glare Bradley sent my way. I willed myself to become emotionless, just the way he had always told me to do before a fight. I could almost hear his voice in my head teaching me emotions were both good and bad. “Good to make your opponent feel them so they make a mistake, bad for you to feel them in case you get distracted and killed,” he would say over and over again like a broken record. Emotions in a fight could kill, I knew that for a fact, not a stranger to the warring ways of the shifter world. This was lesson number one for me.

            “I’m sorry Beta Bradley, I think you misunderstood me. That was not a request. I am telling you as YOUR ALPHA, that you WILL let Ellie spar with someone else today!” Alpha Mason shouted much to the enjoyment of his followers. I took a glance behind him, seeing looks of joy and respect on their faces as their Alpha tried to exert his position over the great Beta. As I turned my eyes to him, they were no longer on Bradley but now on me and once again, the red flags and sirens started to alert; my body starting to hum in preparation for danger.

            “Boy, you may be an Alpha, but you are NOT MY ALPHA and certainly not the current Alpha of this pack!” Bradley grumbled back with a slight growl, his powerful aura starting to seep out on the edges while still seeming somewhat bored with the whole situation.

            “Oh, come now, Beta, let her spar with someone else,” came Alpha Max’s voice from across the field.

            Looking at Bradley, I stood frozen at the appearance of his father, laughing internally at the younger Alpha who couldn’t fight his own battles. I continued to try to look like none of this affected me, however, deep down I wondered if this was really going to happen. Who would my opponent be? How would they even determine that, given they could never get a read off of what rank my parents or I were? I shifted my focus back to Bradley, willing him to read my mind, but instead, he sighed and walked over to me almost assessing my abilities silently.

            “Are you ready for this, Ellie?” he inquired with raised brows.

            “Yes Beta B. I am,” I responded confidently.

            “I know so, girl, now make me proud” he said quietly after another long look to take in my stance and frame of mind. As he turned back to both Alphas, he stated, “Okay, Alpha Mason, I will allow Ellie to spar with someone else. Who did you have in mind?’

            “Me,” responded Alpha Mason with a mischievous glint in his eyes. What the hell just happened?!

Meanwhile at the Knights League…Unknown POV

            “Come here, my children,” Pearl said to the Locke triplets. “The time is almost here. She will need you to be strong for her. She understands so little but it was needed in order to protect her. I have tried to communicate with her through her dreams but she seems resistant, almost unbelieving.”

            “Grandma Pearl, what did you expect?” commented Bronx. “Her entire life has been one huge mystery to her and she thinks she’s alone on this earth with no blood relatives at all. She doesn’t know just how special she is or what she is truly capable of,” his anger at the last three years came out uncharacteristically for the controlled Guardian Knight.

            “And it hasn’t helped that people have been unkind to her with no protection with us gone…we felt the ‘calling,’ we know she was in danger just a few days ago!” chimed in Baylor.

            “We should have never been made to leave her for this long! She may not have believed us on our 21st birthday but I know our bond would have pulled us together fast enough to make her believe,” Benji growled.

            “GUARDIAN KNIGHTS! You know the rules! The fate of our kind rests on her. All of this had to be done in precise steps. We could never have expected for her to be your mate. I know this has been tough on you without your mate but you have one another. She is alone. And from that lonely existence, she has flourished to grow into a strong, independent woman who will be ready to do what must be done,” Pearl yelled.  She knew it hadn’t been easy on her granddaughter, keeping track of her well-being through the Lockes’ parents but it was necessary. It is what the Moon Goddess herself directed. Pearl was still a little peeved at the Moon Goddess for not letting her in on the secret regarding the Locke triplets being Ellie’s mates but that too shall come to light soon enough and frankly would end up being a good thing.

            “Now that we are nearing the end of your training, you will be granted back your communication privileges,” Pearl said. “Do not make me regret this and DO NOT tell her about being mates. You must wait until her 21st birthday when she gets her wolf and finally shifts. This will be unlike any shift you have ever seen. She will not know you are her mates until she is in wolf form. Be patient. Do not despair. You are ready to protect her. You must still accomplish the remainder of your training and chose your protection team. Not all members will be found here and not all will be found by you but by Ellie herself. Trust in her as I have directed her to trust in you. She must have complete and unwavering faith in not only others but you as her mates and most importantly herself.”

            “Will you be coming back with us, Grams?” Benji asked. While Pearl was Ellie’s actual grandma on her mother’s side, the Locke triplets have taken to seeing her as theirs also because of their mate status with her granddaughter. Both Bronx and Baylor froze in anticipation as they agreed with this question seeing as it would be nice for Ellie to know she still has family alive.

            “Not yet, Bay,” Pearl sighed, “You can let her know about me but please don’t tell her who I am to her yet. There are still things I need to do to put things into place. Her circle of protection will not just be the three of you. To face what she will be facing, she will need the support of the supernatural all over the world. I can gather them quickly and send them your way. All of this must be done in secrecy. If that fails, we all fail and your mate will die trying to do this by herself. I will not let my granddaughter die. You will NOT let your mate die. May the Moon Goddess bless us all on this final journey to completing the circle that will eradicate the great evil brewing right before us,” Pearl dismissed the triplets.

            As they walked out, Pearl took in a deep breath, holding it for a second and letting it out, along with her prayers to the Moon Goddess to give Ellie, the triplets and everyone else the strength to do what they must do.

Meanwhile at the Red Moon Pack…Ellie POV

          “Me,” said Alpha Mason with a mischievous glint in his eyes.

           More than ever, I wished I had my wolf so I could communicate my “what the fuck” moment with Beta Bradley regarding Alpha Mason’s nuclear bomb he just dropped. Did I hear that correctly? The Alpha wanted to challenge me to spar?! Why would he want to challenge me? Maybe so he can kill me out in the open…

           Even my brain agreed with the fear I felt in my heart and soul at this moment. Bradley’s eyes gave nothing away, merely stared straight at me with the same stone-faced look. While he wore a look of surprise, Alpha Max didn’t seem willing to help me either, actually had the audacity to look a little amused by the whole situation.

           “C’mon Beta, you have been training her for years. You are our best warrior. Do you not have faith in your little protégé?” Alpha Mason taunted.

            With a nod my direction, I knew this was Bradley’s way of telling me it was my decision. Was I well trained? Yes. Did I want to die? No and that was a very real possibility against an Alpha. I was in a no-win situation. If I lost, the beating would be hell and if I won, the Alpha would be embarrassed and that never went over well. Despite my feelings of apprehension, something told me I needed to do this. Especially if I didn’t want another event like at the waterfall to occur again. At least I would have others around so it couldn’t go too far, I told myself hoping to calm down my nerves.

            Straightening my spine, I stood tall as I moved my eyes from Bradley’s to those of Alpha Mason and with my trademark smirk on my face, I said, “Challenge accepted, Alpha.”

Meanwhile Back at the Knights League…Bronx POV

            “Mom! It’s Bronx! I’ve got the guys on speaker! Goddess, we are so excited we finally got to call you!”

            “Bronx! Is that really you?! Your voice sounds so deep! I didn’t recognize it at first! Oh my boy, how are you doing? How are Benji and Bay?” We laughed as we heard our mother’s sweet melodic voice come over the speaker. It felt like forever since we had heard it but soon this part of our journey would be done. In no time, we would be back at the Red Moon pack with our family and most importantly with our mate.

           I missed Ellie’s sweet strawberries and cream scent. It had long dissipated from each piece of clothing my brothers and I stole from her when we had to leave her, keeping our newly gained beasts’ anger at bay at the thought of having to leave her with having her scent with us. Mom had been sending us new batches from time to time but after Ellie commented about her favorite clothes missing mysteriously, Mom had told us she couldn’t keep doing it. Leaving her was the hardest thing we have ever done in our life. The day we turned 21, we all woke up and immediately scented her in her room, our wolves screaming, “Mate! Mate! Mate!”

           Shaking off our shock, discovering Ellie was our mate almost made everything make sense. It was always weird that, despite being raised with us, it was hard for us to truly accept her as our sister. Yeah, sure we felt protective of her and loved her but there were also very “unbrotherly” thoughts going through our minds which made all of us feel very uncomfortable. I guess the Moon Goddess had another plan in mind to keep her safe until she could be with her mates by placing her with our family. As always with the Moon Goddess, a curve ball we weren’t expecting.

            Never in our wildest dreams could we have imagined that our sweet little Ellie was going to be the key to our survival against the great evil that was seeping into the earth, tainting it, bringing us closer to the end of days. The longer we stayed at the Knights League, learning about what was unfolding, the more we all started to fill with dread about what she would face and whether or not we would be strong enough to stand next to her, to protect her with everything we had. As time went on, that was the one thing that drove us to work harder, train harder and finally we could see the light at the end of the tunnel of getting to see her again.

            “Can we speak to Ellie?” my brothers and I all said at once, excited about hearing her voice. We had seen all of her texts through the years and it warmed our heart she had missed us like we had missed her but we didn’t want to just respond in text. We needed to hear her voice to know that she was well and to be able to tell her we would be coming home. Anything else seemed too impersonal for our mate.

            “Boys, I’m sorry to tell you this but she’s not here right now,” mom said slowly, almost knowing what would be met with that response.

            “WHERE IS SHE?!” Blaze, Benji’s wolf, growled taking over at the excitement and subsequent letdown of hearing his mate’s voice.

            “BLAZE, calm yourself, brother…give back control to Benji,” I ordered.  While all of us were technically the same age, I had become someone my brothers looked at to help control their wolves who were frankly starting to become slightly unhinged being away from their mate for three years.

            “Sorry mom, he’s just a bit excited,” Benji apologized with remorse in his voice. Not that I could blame Blaze. Frankly, only the promise of being with our mate has kept our wolves from going completely feral. I heard my wolf, Bullet, growl in agreement in my head with that thought, along with Baylor’s wolf, Banshee coming through the mindlink, confirmed all of us were in agreement. We couldn’t get home soon enough. We knew we wouldn’t be able to touch her the way we wanted to until she realized we were her mates, but we needed to see her safe. We needed to see her beautiful smile, her blue eyes full of laughter and love, to smell her lovely scent and hear her voice that could mesmerize us all.  Yeah, we were a bunch of love sick wolves but we had waited our entire life for our mate. She was the most precious thing in the world to us.

            “She’s out training with your father, let me mindlink him…” she trailed off. While we all circled around the phone, each of my brothers looked at me, their eyes flashing back and forth from their wolf and human counterpart, anxiously awaiting Mom’s return to us on the phone. Just then, I started to feel a buzz at the base of my neck, a clear sign of impending danger, when I heard my mom gasp in horror.

            “Mom, what’s wrong? Are you okay? Is Ellie okay?” I shouted out to her through the phone wishing I had the power of teleportation. The silence was deafening waiting for her to compose herself, all of us on edge.

            “The Alpha has challenged Ellie to spar with him…” my mom worriedly relayed “…and she has accepted!”

            “WHAT?!” all three of us roared, fighting back the urge to shift right then and there. “Why would Alpha Max challenge Ellie?! Why would dad allow it?” I hurriedly asked through the phone.

            “Not that Alpha, Bronx…Alpha Mason,” my mom’s voice came through the other end holding anguish and worry within her words, causing a chill to run down my spine.

            At that moment, Pearl walked into the room looking every bit the descendant of the Moon Goddess herself and directed, “Change of plans, Guardians, you go home NOW, parts of the prophecy have sped up and she will need you near her more now than ever.” With a nod her direction, we all kicked into gear grabbing our things in a rush to pack. We hadn’t selected other members of her protection team yet but for now, all that mattered was that we made it home as soon as possible.

            “Mom, tell Dad it will take us about a day,” I rushed out, throwing my bag Benji’s way to shove clothes into. “Tell him to protect Ellie. She is in more danger now than ever…and Mom? Tell Dad if anything happens to her, prepare for Red Moon to have two dead Alphas,” I growled coldly, disconnecting the line.

            Taking a second more, I rushed to our group text, typing furiously to her, “Take care of yourself, baby girl. We will be home soon.” As I looked up into the eyes of Benji and Baylor, I know I needed to stay calm for them but we all felt it. The “calling” of the Guardian Knights never failed to let us know when the one we are destined to protect is in danger. “It’s different this time, Bronx, it’s stronger,” Baylor whispered, his voice filled with regret and anguish.

            “I know but we must trust that Dad taught Ellie how to protect herself, we’ll be home soon, boys,” I replied as I walked out of the door with them in tow. Please Moon Goddess, watch over her for us.