4

Big bad alphas

Golden Summit

Cyrus

My eyes peered open at the light flooding my room. My dad stands at the end of my bed, staring down at me.

"Get up; we have to go over the vows today." With that, he exits my room, no doubt to wake my next brother.

I clamber out of bed and head straight to the bathroom to wash the sleep from my face. I brush my teeth after and style my ash blonde hair in the traditional messy swoop style so it hangs to the right side of my face. I go and throw on some dark jeans and a blue hoodie with sneakers.

*knock knock*

My door flies open and in walks a grumpy Cyrus. His being the oldest suited him. He has such a bad attitude all the time, and he’s strict. He’s wearing nice, deep blue dress pants with a brown belt and brown shoes. A white button-up that he no doubt will end up rolling the sleeves up on. His hair is neat compared to its usual unstyled look that he wears around the house.

"You're seriously wearing that?" He looks at me up and down with a frown on his face. His tone is cold, just like it always is. I haven’t seen him smile since we were young, I swear. To be fair, he does have the most stress out of all of us with becoming alpha because he is the oldest, so he gets stuck with the most responsibility.

"I thought it was okay to dress casually in your own home. Or is that not allowed anymore?" I lift an eyebrow at him, and he rolls his eyes at me.

"Let’s just go before Dad comes back." He says he is defeated, wiping his face.

We exit the room and head straight for our dad's office. He is sitting at his desk with Sam and Kendrick already waiting for us.

"It took you long enough," Sam says without looking up from his phone.

Even Sam dressed nicer with a blue button-up and black jeans, but he still wears his signature black boots. His hair still looks as if he just rolled out of bed, though. If he had long hair on the sides and back of his head, there would definitely be marks from him sleeping on it, but luckily it’s buzzed on the side and long on top with messy loose curls. Kendrick is wearing dress pants and a sweater, and his long, loose, curly hair is pulled back into a small bun rather than being left to hang freely. My eyes land on my dad in a suit, like always. He eyes my outfit, then sighs, motioning for us to sit.

"Today we will have an elder come to go through what the ceremony will consist of." Sam yawns and continues scrolling through his phone.

My dad smacks the table, and Sam slowly looks up with his eyebrows raised, looking straight at our dad, whose patience is running very thin. Sam rolls his eyes and puts his phone away, sitting up and crossing his arms neatly, putting on the golden child act.

Yes, father, dearest?" I stifle laughter along with Kendrick. Cyrus sighs and rubs his face frustratedly.

"This will take the entire day; lunch will be brought up to you, and you will respectfully eat with him. When you are done today, you will go to sleep. Tomorrow you must be up and at the stage where the ceremony finishes before sunrise. The ceremony will be complete by the time the sun has completely risen and night has fallen, as it has always been for tradition." Our father gets up and immediately leaves the room, leaving us in silence. What a great start to a long, miserable day!

---

Cyrus

After the meeting, we all left quietly to go to our rooms and sleep. I was the last one out the door.

"Cyrus." The elder asks

I turn to him and enter the room once more.

"Your brothers are each strong in their way. You seem to excel in just about everything. You will make a great alpha. Just remember, there is more than meets the eye. You live a very blind life; once you step up tomorrow, several things will come to light." With that, he walks past me, leaving me with so many unanswered questions that will remain like that.

---

*BANG*

I jump awake to one loud thud on my door and hear three more. Each time it gets quieter, I move farther away, banging on my brother's doors. It’s time for the ceremony.

I quickly jump out of bed and head straight to the shower. I rinse quickly, then get out immediately, brushing my teeth and styling my hair. I throw on the tux hanging in my closet, then head out the door straight to Duron’s room. As soon as I come up to the door, he steps out dressed in the same tux. His hair is styled the same as always, to the right, but he always leaves it slightly messy. We walk to the next door, and Kendrick walks out with ashy blonde curls loosely hanging down to his mid-neck. He rubs his neck nervously and looks down at the tux he is wearing. I don’t bother stopping and keep walking to Samson’s door. He walks out wearing a white dress shirt with the sleeves rolled and no bow tie or jacket. His hair is his traditional messy on top.

"What did you do to your tux?"

"I didn’t like it." He says this while shrugging his shoulders.

"Never mind, we don’t have time," I say this while running my hand through my hair. I have medium-length hair, but mine isn’t as curly as Kendrick’s or Samson’s.

We walk out of our house and head straight for the open field where alpha and Luna ceremonies have been performed for centuries. The entire pack stands around a stone circle that lies there. The sea of members parted and closed around us. The entire area is completely silent. My father and the elder stand on the stage waiting for us. We make it up to the stage and stand facing our dad and the elder.

"On this day, we recognize the rise of the Alpha Quads and the stepping down of Alpha Augustus Idris. A day that everyone will remember as it is written in history. Cyrus, Duron, Kendrick, and Samson, you have all been groomed from a young age by your father to one day take his place. Today is the day you will feel the transfer of power, making all of you equal alpha power. No one of you will be stronger than the other, which together will make you unstoppable. Do you accept your new title of alpha?"

"We do." All four of us say it in unison, sounding like one.

"So you swear to rule justly and always be fair when carrying out punishment."

"We do."

"Please hold out your right hand." He grabs the dagger that has been used to slice every alpha and luna that has ever run this pack.

We all raise our right hands, staring directly at him. He walks up to me, looking right into my eyes.

Remember, Cyrus, there is more than meets the eye." With that, he grabs the underside of my hand and slices.

I look down and see blood begin to pool. For some reason, it also sliced my brother's hands when he did mine. We all walk up to the ceremonial cup and raise our hands over it. At the same time, we all look at each other and squeeze our blood dripping down as one. Immediately I feel power rush into me; my body feels like it’s on fire. I look at my hand, and the cut has already healed faster than I have ever healed before.

"I introduce to you Alpha Cyrus, Alpha Duron, Alpha Kendrick, And Alpha Samson." The pack members immediately erupt into cheers as we turn to the crowd.

I look over my shoulder to see that my father has a genuine smile on his face even after giving up his power. He’s truly happy for us; he wanted this. I immediately look at the ten-pack warriors that we train closely with and nod. They already knew of our earlier arrangement as the crowd broke off toward the area where the afterparty was held. We head straight to Culloden Woods, not stopping for anything. Once we get to the edge, we stop and look at each other. The ten warriors lined up behind us I look back one last time and lock eyes with the elder; he nods his head once, almost telling me to go.

"Let’s go."