DRAKE'S POVI take Alicia to my house. She has suffered serious injuries and it seems that she has been a victim of an assault. Someone beat her then left her for the dead. Her face is swollen and she is bleeding all over. There is a huge bruise on her chest, someone hit her with a sharp object. The rain hasn't helped much, her clothes are dripping of dirty water.I take her to the room she previously occupied and call our pack doctor to look at her. I also order my Beta, Jim to go back and comb the scene in a bid to establish who is responsible for the assault. I need also to find out the motive of the attack since she hasn't been robbed, there's money in her pockets and jewellery on her neck. If the motive had been theft, then her expensive jewelry wouldn't be with her. Maybe they were after her phone because she doesn't have it.Then something else, I'm now certain than ever before that she is my mate. My wolf is restless and he growls angrily inside my head, feeling the pain for h
DRAKE'S POV It's becoming clear each passing day that war is going to happen, it's inevitable, not a matter of if, but when.Rogues have positioned themselves, ready to attack the packs around us and since we have peace treaties with the packs, if someone attacks them we join in the war on their side. In line with this I have authorized our trainers to recruit more fighters and warriors. We have been here before, I have fought rogues before.When I became Alpha, a group of rogues led by their leader Brice tried to attack us. They were taking advantage of my being new in leadership to topple me and take over the leadership of this pack. I fought him in a very fierce battle that saw so many of his warriors dead. I drove him back to the woods, weak and humiliated.I had heard about him before, his pack and mode of operation but it was only theory, I hadn't seen him in real life.My father had told me about the exploits of Brice. According to him, Brice was once a Beta of some pack a dis
ANDREW'S POVMy family was the happiest in our pack for years until the sudden disappearance of my sister Alicia. The last time anyone saw her was during the inauguration party of Alpha Eric, the current leader of the pack. We had all attended the party and she was part of the group who had been assigned to serve drinks, then at one point someone noticed that she was missing and reported to our father.On looking further, father established that someone had seen her by the poolside talking to the Alpha but when Eric was asked about it he denied ever holding any conversation with anyone. This was proving to be complicated and sad. My father didn't give up the search, indeed, he escalated it, looking for her everywhere within the borders of our pack. He even looked for her at the morgue but to no avail.After about a month of a fruitless search he started to go slow, but then he came across some interesting information. He had gone to file an official report about a lost person, presume
ALICIAMelissa is the first one to get in, followed closely behind by a few of my classmates. I am still in my sleeping position when they all troop in.“Alicia dear!” Melissa exclaims, her hand covering her mouth in disbelief. I honestly think that letting her see me like this was not a good idea. Melissa is the emotional type who cry over very minor issues, but I can't question the Alpha because I am certain that he is the one who let them in. I try to smile.“I am fine Melissa. The doctor says that I am out of danger.” I say just to make her feel better. There's some pain in my back that wasn't there when I regained my consequences. I can't get myself out of the bed, but I can't let her find out.“How did you find out that I was here?” I ask as I pass my eyes around the room to see who she has come with. It's funny how I don't know most of the names of my classmates, but all the faces here are familiar. I try to smile at them but from their reactions I can see that they aren't buyi
ALICIA.I am completely healed now. All the pain has disappeared and I am now as fit as a fiddle. Also, I feel more energized than ever before and something else, I feel so much attracted to Alpha Drake. I think my wolf is on her way back. This must be her doing. Drake has insisted that I am not going to leave and as such my room has been remodified to the way it was before. All the hospital equipments have been removed and it's just a normal room.I miss school. I have really missed a lot but the doctor said that I must rest for two weeks. Even though I am now fine, I have to obey his instructions. School can wait.I have started meeting other Pack members, especially those who come to the Pack House on a daily basis. As usual, I'm introduced as the Alpha's guest but that doesn't bother me as much. Drake has already told me that he is going to introduce me formally. Anything else before then has been left to the imagination of the pack members, except the very few who know the truth.
THIRD PERSON'S POVAlpha Eric sits on his swivel chair and looks outside. There is rain, heavy rain. He adjusts the volume of his music system and the sound drowns the noise from the rain. He doesn't love rain and he wishes it goes away soon. He takes a glass from a sideboard and pours in some strong drink which he takes in one swig. As it goes down his throat he closes his eyes to savour it's taste. Then he takes out an expensive cigar from his equally expensive humidor, clips the tip with a pair of scissors and lights it. He lets the smoke into his lungs and holds his breath.When he exhales the blue smoke, he places his legs on the table and sits back. It's only then that he presses a button on the table and a bell rings at the reception. He is now ready to receive his visitors. They have been waiting for about two hours, not because he was busy, but because he wants them to know that he is not easily available.Bernice and Tiffany walk in slowly as the blue smoke from the cigar dr
ALICIAToday I am feeling great. I am as fit as a fiddle, getting stronger and stronger. I can't believe that I was feeling so sick and in so much pain just a few days ago. Whatever magic Drake applied on me did a lot of good and I am forever grateful.I now have an office in the pack house complete with an assistant. Her name is Joyce and she is always at my beck and call. Right now she is writing for me the speech that I am going to deliver at the party tonight, an acceptance speech. All I need is to do is to memorize it so that I won't appear to be reading from a piece of paper. I know that speaking in public is not for everyone but I will give it a try.Drake is out for some Alpha duties, something to do with border security. He walked out abruptly after receiving a call from his border guards. Before leaving the two of us were in the office and he was giving me some tips on public speaking.“The people will all keep quiet and fix their eyes on you. Just don't panic. Be yourself.
ALICIA“Well, well, well. Look what we have here.” The familiar voice booms behind me as his scent wafts along. I can distinguish Eric's voice from far and the fact that he is already here in my private space brings butterflies to my stomach.In our conversation with Drake in the morning we discussed Eric, and it was obvious that Drake didn't want to see him at the party. Now that he is already here, not in the hall but in my changing room, the situation is complicated. Something told me that Drake suspects Eric of something, I wonder what will happen if he ever finds out that I was his mate and he rejected me. What if he finds him here?I wish I told him the truth.“Alicia, what's wrong? Are you pretending that you don't know me?” Eric asks as he gets closer.“Get away from me Eric. This is a restricted area and no one is supposed to come here without the express permission of Alpha Drake.” I shout at him as I retreat into the changing room. My aide Joyce hears me shouting and comes
ALICIA I run through the open grasslands, aiming at the direction Andrew told us and as the sun rises I have covered more than three kilometers. I have gone through knee high grass which still has it's morning dew and my wet clothes are now soggy with water. The oversized boots make noise every step I make and I decide to do something about it. I can't get far in such conditions. There is no noise from behind and I can tell that my pursuers have called off the chase. I can now relax.I find a river and take out all of my clothes and wash them, then hung them to dry in the sun. I remain with only my undergarments and I plunge into the cold river water to take a bath.The water does wonders, cooling down all my body and mind. I had been haunted by the act of leaving behind Melissa in rogue territory but now the guilt melts away and in its place it's replaced by an assurance in my mind that nothing bad can happen to her with her mate near her. Some things happen for a reason, I muse. Fo
ALICIA We run and run, in the moonlight past the gates into the deep woods. I am leading while Melissa follows closely behind. She keeps on complaining that the boots she is wearing are so big for her but so are mine. Even after fastening them my feet keep on playing inside but I take comfort in the fact that even though they are torn, they are better than running on bare feet.“You better keep up with me Melissa, they will surely come after us, especially when they find out what we have done.” I tell Melissa who has stopped running and she now pants heavily.“My chest burns Alicia. Let's rest for a while.” She manages to say through heavy breathing.Just then the alarms go off, blaring noisily over the woods and echoing in the nearby rocks. They have found out about us and I just hope that Andrew isn't in trouble. I wonder what would have happened had he not come in time to our rescue. The guard he killed was about to inflict serious damage on us.Earlier at the cell we had plotted
ANDREW'S POV This is definitely going to be the longest night of all. I am in a deep hole already and I don't know what to do to stop me from getting deeper and deeper.The problems started when I walked away from a subdued Alpha Drake. Everyone expected me to strike him dead. Alpha Eric came to know about it and came to our camp at night. I only knew of his presence when I heard the generator outside go off and as a result we were plunged into darkness. I presumed it was the enemy's work because the generator wasn't faulty and it had enough fuel.With that conclusion, I jumped out of my sleeping bag and armed myself with a machete that never leaves my bedside. I had slept with my clothes on.I listened carefully, trying to gather any noise and found it odd that no one in the whole camp seemed bothered. They were all silent. Very unprofessional of the whole lot, but that is expected from amateurs.Satisfied that there was nobody outside, I stealthily walked out and dashed into the tr
ALICIA I focus my attention on my brother. He is struggling with himself, with his wolf. I know right away what is troubling him, Melissa is his mate but he can not bring himself to say the word, hence he stands there saying nothing. I smile, seeing him fighting the battle inside him, a losing battle. Melissa, his prisoner, and his mate. I know that his wolf will eventually win because that's what happens.Melissa too is scared. She is shocked at first to hear Andrew call me by name, evidence that he knows me, then coupled with the initial fear of being a prisoner in an unknown land. But I can see her struggling with what is going on inside her head, she has finally found her mate though in the most unexpected circumstances. She has been looking for a mate for a while now, and sometimes she would confide in me that she would like him to be a strong and muscular man who is caring and loving. Well, I didn't know that she was describing my own brother. He has all the qualities she wante
ALICIA.“You need to be very alert every time. You are going to the real battlefield, not some rehearsal or some training ground, you are going to kill or be killed my daughters. I pray that everything goes well and I will be happy to see you back alive. Of course I don't want you to go but since you are insisting, I have no choice but to bid you goodbye." The emotional words of Benjamin echo in my ears as Melissa and I delve into the jungle. We have been walking for hours and I'm beginning to get tired. The sun is so hot but we have no choice, except to trudge on.Benjamin had offered to drive us using Drake' car but we declined, choosing instead to walk the long distance to the forest where the war is being fought. We would have easily shifted and ran, and eventually got there fast, but we are carrying heavy bags with our clothes and other supplies like food, bathing soap and lotions. Benjamin jokingly told us that we look like hikers.We also declined an offer from Beta Jim to giv
ALICIA The long awaited day is here, the day when the selection of the next batch of warriors to go to the battleground is going to take place. Whether I am selected or not I have to go because I feel that Drake needs me by his side. I miss him so much such that I can't function normally. Just yesterday I dreamt that he was in danger and I didn't sleep again after that. Actually I think everything is not right and if anything were to happen to him then I would be devastated. I will go to him, if he dies we die together.All along I have been thinking of him as invincible, a killing machine who will go from victory to victory, but my dream opened my eyes to the possibility that he could easily land into danger, he was indeed flesh and blood like any other man.We are gathered in the pack's training grounds, waiting for the recruiters to come and every passing moment I'm getting uneasy, there's this feeling that is pestering me and I pray that it goes away soon. There is no training to
ANDREW'S POV War has started, full scale war. Alpha Eric send me to train the rogues, but the situation changed and now I am in the deep woods fighting with them, at their side. The Rogues, in their haste, started a war they hadn't planned properly. They didn't have the numbers nor the weapons. They weren't even sufficiently trained to handle simple weapons like spears and swords. I wonder what they were rushing for because I don't yet see anything that couldn't wait until every plan was executed. I tried to tell them to delay the attack at least to give us time for preparation but their leader Brice is one who doesn't take advice from anyone. Also, they had grossly underestimated the power of the opponent. Though the opponent didn't have many fighters and warriors, they had a very powerful ally, Alpha Drake. Drake has a very big army of meticulously trained fighters and they are now participating in the war. No one had foreseen this. Our troops are outnumbered by a ratio of one
ALICIA.It's after he has left that I realize how much I love Drake. His absence makes me miss him so much and that makes me hate the war. Why has it happened just when we are warming up to each other? Why so sudden? I feel a lot of emptiness when he is not here and the house is never the same. His father and step mother have gone back to their home, leaving me with only the servants in this vast house. The pack is also no longer the same without him too. There's a void that needs to be filled. I need my Drake back because I am going crazy without him. The nights in particular get so long and I think about every other minute. I have the feeling that he misses me as much too.To keep myself busy I have gone back to school but only for a few days because after Drake left the war situation escalated and all the elite trainees were summoned to join the war. The school is deserted because of this. It seems that the war is not as simple and rosy as someone had described to me earlier.Also
“I must go. Many of the trainees must leave with me too. The battle has already started.” Drake tells me. He is already up and in the sitting room. He has bathed, dressed up and shaved his beard. I can only admire his energy. It has been a very eventful night and I had a very hard time waking up. I felt like sleeping on and on to recover the sleep I missed. But here is Drake looking ever energetic. Maybe with time I will have the same energy.“It is still too early though, maybe you should go back and have some more sleep. You look very sleepy.” He says. I wonder whether he has read my mind. Not difficult though because since some time last night, we can mind link with him easily. This remarkable fit came with the marking. “No.” I say as I fall into his outstretched arms. “I must see you off. I must also pack some clothes and other essentials for your trip. I must stay awake now that I am up. There's a lot of work for me in my office and I know that delegations will start coming in a