#8 The Archer and her Wolf

Xaiver

This woman was too much, far too much, and I was a weaker man than I cared to admit when I was around her. Goddess if I didn’t nearly lose everything when I saw her standing there, half naked, in the bedroom. It took every scrap of self-control and respect that I had to stop when I did. She needed that from me and I would give it to her for as long as she required it.

A cold shower was extremely necessary after our exchange. I got dressed quickly in a pair of jeans and a nice shirt before joining Lion and Thea downstairs. I wasn’t sure what those two were up to, but it didn’t look good. They completely ignored me when I questioned them and I decided to leave it be. A Gamma and Luna’s relationship was sacred and who was I to interfere?

Thea handed me a cup of tea and we made our way back to the packhouse. Most of the others had already arrived and were seated at the table once again. We joined them, sitting side by side somewhere in the middle. I took Thea’s hand under the table and squeezed it, giving her a smile when she looked at me. She shook her head at me but returned the grin.

“I heard a rumor that the great red Archer finally met her match. I guess it’s true then.” Alpha Briggs smirked at us from across the table.

“Oh like Matilda hasn’t conquered you.” Thea mocked him and Briggs’ smile turned down to a frown. His Beta and brother, Bourne, started laughing at his expense.

“Our mates make us stronger, not weaker. I’m happy for you, Thea.” Alpha Simon said, holding Luna Monroe’s hand tightly on top of the table.

“You’re just saying that because your mate got you your own pack.” Simon’s sister, Sage, stuck her tongue out playfully.

Monroe was the daughter of the Alpha of the Grey Moon, Silver Moon’s neighboring pack. When Simon and her mated at an event hosted at Grey Moon, he was named the Alpha’s heir and inherited the pack. Which was lal well in good considering his older sister was granted Silver Moon by request of the Royal family. An initiative to start encouraging Female Alphas.

“I am not!” Simon argued defensively.

“Thea is still learning how to be accepting, but we’re working on it.” I said, winking at Thea who sighed loudly at me. The entire table laughed at our interaction.

“That sounds like Thea.” Female Alpha Blossom giggles from the far end of the table, “Never one to play well with others.” Her Beta, Luca, gave her the side eye,

“And you are?” He said,

“Ha!” Blossom’s brothers Briggs and Bourne couldn’t contain their laughter.

“I get it. I was apprehensive about my mate as well. I was afraid he would try to take control from me,” Female Alpha Lexi began, “He turned out to be an omega from a small little pack, Gabriel’s his name. He could have cared less about being dominant or ruling. He just wanted me.” Her brother and co-Alpha, Levi smiled at her,

“Quite right, indeed. I would have murdered him otherwise.” Levi said,

“Levi on the other hand, bowed down to his Tina like she was the blood Queen.” Lexi added at the expense of her brother and his face turned sour.

“Everyone come now, leave her be.” Alpha Sal chuckled as he entered the room, “Let’s enjoy a feast, shall we?” He added cheerfully, raising his arms up just as the staff filled the room.

The next day began the trials and exercises that Alpha Sal had planned. They began early, at 5:00 am, with warm ups for the tributes. I began to understand why Thea was always awake so early.

First up were the matches. It was set up like a bracket, elimination style. Tributes were paired up and, whoever won the fight, moved on to spar with the other winners. In the end, Grim was the champion. The match was about stamina and strategy as much as it was about brute force and fighting skills. Next was the same thing, but in wolf form. Zeke surprised us all by being the best wolf.

Then, the tributes each had to devise a strategy for a different scenario. We judged whether their strategy was effective or not. Queenie, Zeke, and Jane proved to be the best strategists. Other exercises included tracking something through the woods, protecting innocents against a threat, devising a plan against rogues, and dealing out punishments for fake prisoners.

In the end, the panel of judges had a brief meeting on the grounds and narrowed it down to three: Queenie, Zeke, and Grim. Before the tributes breaked for dinner and the judges convened to determine the next day’s events, everyone was scattered on the training grounds, cooling down and relaxing for a few moments.

“Hey, little red!” Alpha Kade called out across the grounds for my mate. We were standing off to the side, warming up beside the large outdoor fireplace.

“What?” She snapped back, irritated only slightly by her nickname.

“Come on. It’s the judges’ turn.” He winked, waving her over.

“Oh, this can’t be good.” Thea grumbled before jogging over towards him. I followed after, as was my job.

All of the judges were huddled in the sparring arena, stretching and chatting.

“What are you fools doing?” Thea laughed.

“How about we show these pups how it’s done?” Simon said, bumping his shoulder against Thea’s. I resisted the urge to growl at him, instead I stood taller at my mate’s side.

“You’re asking for trouble, Simon.” Thea smirked, shrugging out of her black leather jacket.

“Thea?” I tugged at her arm.

“It’s just some fun,” She grinned before sighing and ducking her head to whisper, “Just relax.” She kissed me quickly on the cheek.

“I’ll be right here.” I said as she joined the group.

Behind me were the rest of the judges’ sidekicks. Lunas, Betas, and Gammas, that’s who I ranked with next to my Archer, Alpha-blood mate. And guess what? I was totally okay with that.

Okay, so I was working on being totally okay with that.

I crossed my arms over my chest and leaned against one of the supports for the arena, grinning proudly at my mate as she stretched with the others. The tributes had gathered around quickly, chatting eagerly to themselves as the pride of the Warrior Pack prepared on the arena’s mat.

“Better not make a fool of yourself, Briggs. There’s a crowd watching.” Thea mocked Briggs as he squared up to Sage for the first match. He glared at her while Sage laughed.

Briggs and Sage fought skillfully, more skillfully than any duel I had seen in a while. In the end, Briggs was declared the winner, earning a round of cheers from Bourne. Lexi and Kade were up next. It was easy to see the Hayes bloodline coming through in Kade, the notorious skills of his father, Alpha August, coming out with each punch. But, in the end, Lexi’s use of her fae magic, the element of fire, proved too much for Kade.

Blossom and Simon’s fight was quick enough. Blossom was a valiant fighter, obviously trained up alongside her brothers, Briggs and Bornue, but Simon’s lineage was unstoppable. Under the instruction of his father, Alpha Noah Landry, Simon was damn near a soldier.

“Leave me with the water fae, why don’t you?” Thea sighed as she entered the ring with Levi.

“How do you think I feel?” Kade complained loudly as he tended to his burns. Lexi giggled like she hadn’t just set him fire twenty minutes ago.

“Baby.” Thea threw his way and Kade rolled his eyes at her.

“Come on, then.” Thea’s face changed as she egged Levi on.

I braced myself, gripping the edge of the arena as if to hold myself back. I had to prove to not only myself, but to Thea, that I could sit back and let her handle things for herself. I knew she was capable, more than capable, my faith in her was unwavering. But, my instincts, Cain’s instincts, were nearly just as strong and far less patient.

Thea crouched, her eyes glazing over as she zeroed in on Levi, whose eyes had turned an unsettling shade of blue; no doubt his fae magic coming through. It was like I could see every nerve, every muscle, every fiber of Thea’s body shuttering and shaking with energy. All of her was on fire, focused on nothing other than her combat partner.

Levi moved first, lunging towards her. Thea didn’t so much as flinch, she was unbothered by his advances; she simply stepped to the side. Levi stumbled forward, nearly losing his footing. With that, Thea whipped around and grabbed his arm, tossing him easily over her shoulder. Levi bounced off the mat but was quick to recover, jumping up and swinging towards Thea again. This time, he came at her with magic.

Water whipped out of nowhere and slapped Thea across the face. She stumbled and shook her head, quickly clearing her vision. Still blinded by the water, she was guided by instinct as she avoided Levi’s next assault. He moved to kick her, instead, Thea grabbed his foot out of the air and shoved him away.

For a few moments, they played with each other like that. Each avoiding the other’s attack skillfully. The conclusion of the combat was approaching as Thea and Levi both looked frustrated with the other. Levi reached out towards her with a blast of water. Thea sliced her hand through it like it was something she had practice before. She ran out of the bubble so fast that Levi didn’t see her coming.

Thea jumped on Levi’s shoulders and twisted her body around his, collapsing them both to the ground. She held his head between her legs in a sort of headlock until his face turned purple and he tapped out. Thea laughed and let him go, rolling across the mat and jumping up. She offered Levi a hand up and he took it.

“I swear, I regret all those training sessions where I taught you how to fight my power.” Levi grumbled.

“Leave it to you to turn my victory into one of your own.” Thea scoffed and Levi grinned.

“That’s my brother.” Lexi laughed.

The tributes were all cheering, something they did at the end of each match, but this one seemed to excite them even more.

“Is it true she doesn’t even have a wolf?” One of the tributes mumbled.

“It can’t be.” Another replied.

“Oh, but it is.” Alpha Sal’s voice ruled over them all, “Now come on, get out of here you lot and get cleaned up for the final interviews!” He ordered and everyone scurried off.

Thea jumped down from the arena and ran up to me.

“I’m proud of you.” She said, kissing me swiftly on the mouth.

“Of me?” I chuckled.

“For not intervening.” She clarified.

“You didn’t need me. You were fire out there.”

“Technically, I was fire.” Lexi called out as she and Levi walked past us. Levi shoved her to the side, shaking his head.

“I can’t believe you handled fae magic so well.” I said,

“Lexi and Levi came around all the time to train us up on how to handle fae magic.” Thea shrugged.

“You lot can’t be left unsupervised, can you?” Alpha Sal laughed whole heartily at the judges as we all made our way back to the packhouse.

Just before we entered the dining hall, a splitting pain shot through my head, like a thousand voices calling out.

“Xaiver?” Thea looked at me panicked as I stumbled to a stop, clutching my head. I held up my hand, asking her to wait a minute just as one voice stood out from the others.

“Alpha! We’re under attack. It’s rogues, so many rogues!” Frankie yelled.

“You know what to do, Frankie.” I said, trying to fill my Beta with confidence.

“You need to come home now. Alpha, they’ve taken Logan.” Those words, those three silly little words, knocked me to my knees.

“Xaiver!” Thea cried out as I dropped to the floor. She fell with me, her arms wrapped around me as she demanded answers.

“What?” All I was able to produce was a whisper.

“I don’t know. I swear I saw her, I swear it was her.” Frankie was frantically rambling.

“Who? Frankie, who?” I demanded.

“Summer. It was Summer who was with the rogues, Summer took Logan.” Frankie’s voice was clear then.

“No.” I breathed and Cain howled in my head.

“Come home, you need to come home. Now!” Frankie yelled.

“On my way.”

“Xaiver, what is going on?” Thea was crying, like actually crying, as she clung to me. I was so startled by her that I froze for a minute.

“The pack is under attack. Rogues, Frankie says. Logan’s been taken.” I grabbed Thea’s arms and pulled us both up.

“Logan?” Her voice was as desperate as mine must’ve been.

“Frankie swears it was Summer.”

“Summer? Logan’s mother?” She gasped.

“She was with the rogues. We have to go, Thea. Now.” I said, already dragging her from the packhouse.

“Alpha Xaiver!” Sal yelled and I looked back but never stopped running, “I’ll send aid.” He said and I only nodded.

“Xaiver, stop, wait.” Thea was wrestling with my grip on her arm as we stumbled down the packhouse’s stairs.

“We have to go, Thea.”

“I know! Xaiver!” She shouted in my face and I finally stopped.

“What?” I didn’t mean to be harsh, but that’s how it came out.

“You’re a bonehead. Would you just listen to me?” She said, grabbing my hand and yanking her necklace from under her shirt. She held the red pendant in between her fingers and smirked at me before pressing it.

“What?” My voice was lost as our atoms were scattered through a portal.