I stood stoically at the edge of the training grounds as I watched my pack members train.
After my conversation with Kyle, I needed time to process things, so he left me alone and went to train with the others.
Something small suddenly wrapped itself around my leg. My first instinct was to kick the thing off me, but then I looked down. It was Zoe.
Zoe was only five years old, and one of my pack’s more rambunctious young wolves.
I wasn’t surprised to see that she had somehow managed to sneak away from the pack house where all of the younger pups were supposed to be. Zoe was always finding ways to get into trouble.
She didn’t say anything as she hugged onto my leg like some sort of monkey. She simply watched the werewolves in front of us with wide eyes filled with interest.
I always liked Zoe, and she seemed to like me. She was one of the reasons that I wanted to have kids.
We formed a bond a while back as soon as she could talk and ended up spending a lot of time together.
She would often sneak into my office and ask me what I was doing, constantly interested in pack affairs.
I had a sneaking suspicion that she would become a higher-ranking member of a pack someday, maybe even an alpha.
She showed all the signs of being a great leader—except for her disobedience and inability to follow orders.
I sighed. “Zoe, what are you doing here? You’re supposed to be at the pack house,” I said, bending down to pick her up.
Zoe pried her gaze away from the warriors. Her brown eyes widened when she saw me. “Your eyes are red,” she told me matter-of-factly. Her voice dropped into a whisper. “You look like a demon.”
I couldn’t help but crack a smile. I didn’t even realize that my vampire was at the surface of my consciousness, making my eyes red. It was probably due to all of the anger that I was feeling.
I was surprised that, rather than being frightened, Zoe seemed interested in my red eyes. “That’s because I have a vampire inside of me now, just like how you have a wolf. I have both species.”
Zoe nodded. “Yeah, I know,” she said, shrugging nonchalantly as if it were the most normal thing in the world. “My mom told me.
“She says you are really strong because you have a vampire and that it’s good to have you as an alpha. That’s also why you turned into a giant!” She spread her arms out wide, trying to express how large I’d gotten.
I chuckled. “Yeah, I have gotten pretty big, huh?”
Zoe gripped my shoulders, inspecting them. “Yeah, you’re basically the biggest person I know.”
I laughed, but before I had a chance to respond to her statement, Zoe placed her palms on either side of my face. “Your beard is scratchy,” she said. “Like my dad’s.”
I nodded, amused by how quickly her thoughts jumped around. “Well—”
“Hey, your mate is pretty. I saw her,” she interrupted.
I immediately tensed at the mention of Belle. Zoe must have seen her sometime before she left. My wolf whimpered in my chest. “Thank you,” I replied. “I think so too.”
Zoe frowned, wiping her messy brown hair out of her eyes. “She was sad. That’s why your wolf is sad and why you look so angry.”
It was hard to believe, but this five-year-old was calling me out on my shit right now, but here we were. “I guess you’re right.”
“I know. But it’ll be okay because we don’t have to be mean to her anymore!” she said excitedly, smiling at me widely. “So now you can be happy, right?”
I nodded. “Right.” Once I had Belle back in my arms and explained everything to her, I would be very, very happy again.
Content with my answer, Zoe looked back out at the people training. “What are they doing?”
I followed her gaze, watching the several groups of wolves fighting each other. “They’re training. There’s a war coming.”
“Yeah, my mom told me. But you’re gonna tell them to go away, right? You can do that, right? Because your eyes turn red and stuff?”
I paused, thinking about it. Was she right? Could I use my new powers to stop the war and defeat Azazel?
“If only it were that simple,” a voice behind us said. I turned to face Zagan.
“There’s a special kind of stone that someone can put into their ear that blocks out any kind of command that comes from a Mortar. It works like an earplug.
“I have no doubt that Azazel has made sure that all of his warriors have them.”
Zoe gasped. She cupped her hands around her mouth and then put them to my ear. “Did you know that’s a real-life vampire, Alpha Grayson? You can tell from his teeth.”
“I think it’s time you return to the pack house, Zoe. Where you’re supposed to be,” I told her. Even though I knew that Zagan wouldn’t do anything to hurt Zoe, I still didn’t want her around him.
I set her down on the ground. “Brent!” I called out to one of the pack members nearby. He was in front of me in an instant.
“Will you take Zoe back to the pack house? And make sure someone is looking after her, so she doesn’t sneak away again.”
Zoe complained and fought with me for a while but eventually went with Brent in defeat.
Zagan looked amused when I turned back to him. “I would have never expected the great Alpha Grayson to have a soft spot for kids.”
“Is there a reason you came over here, King Zagan?” I asked, changing the subject. “Is there something you wanted to tell me?”
“Yes, actually. I thought it might be a good idea to warn you before I brought an army of vampires onto your territory.”
My wolf and vampire came to the surface. “What?” I snapped.
Zagan jerked his chin toward the horizon. “See for yourself.”
I snapped my gaze to where he was looking, sucking in a sharp breath as I saw hundreds of vampires, all dressed in battle attire, approaching us.
I felt a burst of wind next to me. Kyle.
“Uh… Say, Alpha, are you seeing the scary group of vampires approaching us? Or is that just me?” he asked. “They’re definitely not the army of newborns we’re preparing for.”
They had to be the royal army. “Care to explain?” I asked Zagan.
Zagan smiled. “You didn’t think I was going to leave you and your pack on your own, did you? It’s my brother we’re about to fight. Therefore, it’s my battle just as much as it is yours.
“And I have a perfectly good army just waiting to be used.” In a flash, Zagan was on the other side of the field, meeting the leader of the army and who I could only assume to be his firstborn son.
Kyle laughed. “Well, shit. This is gonna be interesting.”
