The Alpha 3 -- Chapter 4 (Patreon)

Twenty minutes later, Nikita and I were rolling past the array of towering, pillared mansions that dominated Mulaney Street. It wasn’t a very warm night, but the spring air felt fresh and full of promise as it blew in through the car windows. The quiet, staccato metronome of rotating sprinklers rang out from each neatly manicured lawn we passed. A hint of muffled bass thudded through the walls of a few houses, but besides that, there were few reminders that this was a neighborhood in a college town and not some weird, distant offshoot of Beverly Hills.

I saw Nikita’s nose wrinkle a little, and I leaned toward the window to inhale and see if there was a troubling scent in the air. All I smelled was wet grass and the familiar scent of my werecat betas that was becoming apparent as we neared the McMansion.

“What is it?” I asked. “Do you smell something?”

“Hmm?” The omega looked over at me once she pulled into the one car-free spot in the huge driveway. “Oh, no. It’s just… ugly.”

She gestured around at the vast neighborhood that surrounded us, and when I glanced around at the absurdly overdone mansions and their fussy lawn decorations, I couldn’t help but wrinkle my nose, too.

“Super ugly,” I agreed as I opened the car door, stepped out, and stretched.

All of a sudden, a huge ruckus broke out in my head, and I almost toppled over mid-stretch.

Alpha! one of the werecats greeted me, and soon there was a whole chorus of Alpha! in my mind.

“Damn,” I muttered as I gave my head a quick shake. “Forgot to ask Aunt Eva if there’s a way to deal with this. After fighting together against Gray, my head is ready to explode every time I’m near these guys. They are supposed to be cats but they act like golden retrievers.”

My omega cast me a sympathetic look. Then she inhaled like she was preparing herself to yell.

But she didn’t say anything aloud.

Pipe the hell down for a second! Her thought rang out like a mental bellow, and absolute silence fell in my mind.

“Nice,” I said with a relieved grin. “Thanks. Definitely gonna bring that up to Eva next time we see her.”

“Good idea,” Nikita agreed as we fell in step toward the fancy front door of the McMansion.

The door opened slightly when we were about ten steps away from it, and a tentative head poked out. Then the door swung open all the way, and the head proved to belong to Kristina.

“Hi, Alpha,” the werecat beta said, and her pale green eyes were a mixture of friendly and wary as they flickered to Nikita. “Niki.”

My mate just nodded stiffly but politely at the green-eyed beta until I nudged her slightly.

“Hi, Kristina,” Nikita said only a little grudgingly.

Kristina gave us a nervous half-smile and held the door open for us. Inside, the other six werecats were all standing silently at attention.

“Hey guys,” I greeted them with a little wave.

No one spoke for a good ten seconds, so I continued.

“You know you guys can talk, right?” I said a bit awkwardly. “It was just… sort of overwhelming to suddenly have everyone so loud in my head all at once again, you know?”

A relieved look washed over all the werecats’ faces, and they all gave a general murmur of agreement.

“So… What’s going on, Alpha?” Zane spoke up.

“Well, firstly I wanted to see how you guys are settling back in after yesterday.” I glanced around and saw that everyone seemed to be healing as expected, considering how things had sped up slightly for my pack.

“We’re good,” Serena answered for the werecats, and they all bobbed their heads in agreement. “We rested up a little, and we’re all feeling great.”

“That’s good to hear.” I nodded. “The other reason I’m here is because I’m sort of stepping things up in the Aiden situation, and I need you guys to be involved in that.”

“We’re yours to command, Alpha,” Eliza piped up, and her pale eyes shone with something like excitement.

When I looked around, her expression was mirrored on the other werecats’ faces, and they all stood up a little straighter, if that was possible. Even Kristina was nodding her head, and her black curls bounced up and down.

“Okay,” I exhaled, and I gave the werecats a quick rundown of the plans I’d set in motion with the werecoyotes.

They all clustered closer to me as they listened with interest to the commands I’d given the werecoyotes.

“… So that’s my overall plan for Monroe,” I finished. “Over here, it will be a bit different. For one, I’m going to be moving into my aunt’s house with Nikita and my new omega.”

“Alone?” Zane asked as his forehead creased into a frown.

The other werecats started to talk all at once, and it was hard to pick out individual voices from their babble. Several of them even had a whole other list of objections echoing in their minds, and the cacophony made me wince a little bit as I tried to sort through all the complaints.

One that clearly rang out was Kristina’s as she raised an objection.

“You should have some of us guarding you at all times, Alpha,” the werecat insisted. “Especially since this Aiden situation is stepping up, like you were just saying.”

This wouldn’t have been surprising to hear from another one of the werecats, but from Kristina, it was truly surprising. It was well-known that she wasn’t exactly my greatest fan, but apparently she was finally coming around to my role as the Alpha.

Regardless, the werecats around her were all nodding in agreement, and I had to hold up my hands for silence before I spoke again.

“Relax, guys,” I chuckled. “I actually want all of you to move in with me. We’ll be coordinating our activities in Everleigh using Eva’s house as our base, but you’ll also be doing your part in guarding the house itself, including my new werecoyote omega, Arielle, who will be staying with us.”

There was a moment of slightly stunned silence from the werecats, but no open growls of dismay like the werecoyotes had given at the mention of the word “werecats.” Instead, another chorus of agreeable, if slightly lukewarm, murmurs ran through them once they seemed to digest this information.

“Erm… Alpha?” Serena asked as she fiddled nervously with a lock of her golden hair. “We’re more than happy to move in with you, but would it maybe be better to have some people here, too? To keep this as a base?”

“I see what you mean,” I said. “And I’ve thought of that, too. But I think that benefit is outweighed by the fact that Aiden will probably be moving into action at any moment now as well, and I think it’s likely that he would come for this place first, so it wouldn’t be good to be split up. It gives us too high of a chance of being outnumbered and picked off. Plus, I don’t really want to engage with Aiden quite yet, you know? I own this mansion, and him showing up when it’s empty won’t change that.”

The werecats all looked thoughtful as dozens of words streamed through their minds, and I paused for a moment to figure out how to convey what was behind my reasoning more clearly to the werecats, so we would all be on the same level of understanding.

“It’s pretty undeniable that Aiden will be out for revenge,” I continued. “And with that in mind, I think it would make sense for him to come down hard on anywhere related to his brother first. So, trying to oust us from his brother’s old lair could be assumed to be a likely first move. Do you guys agree?”

I thought my hunch was a sound one, but the werecats had known Aiden before, whereas I’d never actually met the guy, so any bit of input from them would be a welcome addition to my thought process.

Annika’s big, dark green eyes were thoughtful as she held up a hand, and I nodded for her to speak her mind.

“Aiden and Max were self-centered jerks,” she began. “But at the same time, I think their parents hammered the whole ‘family first’ thing into their heads pretty well. Although, I think it ended up being more like ‘me first, then family’ for those two. But you killing Max will definitely upset Aiden’s ego, anyways. He probably sees it as an insult, both to him and his ‘family name,’ or whatever. So I think your logic makes total sense, Alpha.”

“Glad to hear it.” I nodded as I filed this additional information away in my brain and then resumed my planning. “So, once you move in, I want there to be three of you present at my aunt’s house at all times. Well, she doesn’t live there now, so maybe we can call it ‘Headquarters’ or something, so it doesn’t get confusing.”

“Headquarters,” Thomas muttered with an excited gleam in his eye that was visible even through his thick-lensed, blocky glasses. “Cool.”

“That’s boring,” Kristina scoffed. “Can we call it something more creative?”

“What did you have in mind?” I asked with a slight chuckle. “It needs to be easy to remember.”

“Damn.” Kristina’s face fell.

“What about ‘the Oasis?’” Annika suggested. “It has a good meaning, but it’s also easy to remember, since the house is blue.”

“Good point.” I nodded again.

“Sounds like a cheap bar for middle-aged people,” Kristina muttered, and Nikita couldn’t help snorting in agreement.

“Well, we’ll work on it,” I sighed. “We should name Gray’s old house, too, while we’re at it. That way we can refer to it quickly in passing. And also… feel cool.”

The werecats laughed and immediately started throwing out suggestions with surprising enthusiasm. I realized that they were starting to really warm up to the idea of being asked for their thoughts on something instead of just being ordered around with no explanation, like they had been by Max.

“How about ‘the Manse?’” Zane called out.

“Nah.” Christopher immediately shook his head. “Too obvious. And boring. Let’s call it… ‘The Infernal Estate.’”

This expressive title was the last thing I would’ve expected from him, and it made me laugh aloud.

“That’s good,” I allowed, “but… kinda long.”

“Yeah.” Christopher blew a dark strand of hair out of his face. “You gotta admit, ‘infernal’ is a good word for anything relating to that Gray guy, though.”

“Agreed,” Nikita snickered.

A few other werecats called out suggestions, but none of them really had a good ring to them. The betas seemed to be having fun with it, though, and they were growing increasingly bold with their names, so I let them go on for a bit.

At the words “Bastard’s Bastion,” I decided to call a halt.

“Alright, alright,” I laughed. “Umm… let’s circle back to this later. For now, if I say ‘Monroe,’ I mean Eva’s cabin out there. If I say ‘Everleigh,’ I mean the blue house. If someone comes up with something better, we’ll consider renaming.”

“You mean like ‘Lardbrain Lair?’” Kristina suggested.

“No,” I snorted. “Good one, though.”

“‘Salvation Sanctum?’” Thomas hastily tossed out.

“I’ll make a note of it.” I grinned. “Now, back to business. We’re all going to move for now, and like I said, I want us to coordinate so there are three of you home at all times on high alert. Then we’ll alternate so there are scouts and patrols in groups of two, but you’ll be sticking within the bounds of Everleigh. And no going alone. I know I don’t have to tell you guys how much it sucks to be caught off-guard by one of your kind.”

The werecats all tittered, and heads bobbed in agreement, so I went on.

“And I want you to move in tomorrow, okay?” I asked, and I was met with more nods.

“What should we do with this place?” Zane asked. “Just lock it up?”

“Hmm,” I mumbled as I pondered this. “Yeah, but… maybe leave a few lights on. Aiden will probably figure out we’ve vacated the place eventually, but why not throw him off while we still can?”

“Good plan,” Nikita agreed.

“I also want all of us to spar together,” I continued.

“All of us?” Kristina asked as she arched an eyebrow.

“Yup.” I nodded. “I’m including the werecoyotes in that statement.”

This was met with dead silence from all the werecats, so I went on in hopes that this wouldn’t be too difficult.

“I think we all could learn a lot from each other’s fighting styles,” I explained. “And since Aiden is a werecat, I think the werecoyotes could benefit from learning about how you guys fight differen--”

“You mean give those dogs the exact key to how to take us down?” Kristina hissed. “I don’t think so.”

“Yeah?” I stared her down. “Well I do think so. We’re on the same side now, Kristina. They’re not going to use it against you, or they’ll have me to answer to. But if you don’t take part in this, well, then you’ll be the one who has me to answer to. Got it?”

Kristina cast me a furious look, and a split second later, her thoughts slipped into my mind.

Fucking dog, I heard her mutter.

What? I snarled as my eyes flared.

“Oh shit,” the curly-haired beta gasped aloud as she took a step back. “I didn’t mean… I’m sorry…”

“Keep your fucking tongue in check, Kristina,” Nikita growled, and the tone was surprisingly catlike considering her current human form.

Kristina lowered her head and was unusually quiet, but I was fuming at this sudden reversal of her supposed newfound appreciation for me, and I wondered if that had all been a ruse. Then I suddenly realized, as the outraged thoughts of the other werecats flooded my head, that if I hadn’t heard any of these thoughts from her yet so far, then it wasn’t likely that they’d been going on all this time. I could see that Kristina had just felt threatened and slipped into her old, bitchy ways for a moment. Odds were I would’ve literally heard her thoughts on it if she’d been having any before now.

I reminded myself to have Zane keep an eye on her, though. The werecat had proved himself to be honest and helpful so far, and he seemed willing to take the lead on things amongst them when he had to, so I thought he was a good choice.

Consider it done, Alpha, Zane suddenly replied, and I almost groaned as I realized my own thoughts were just as open to the rest of the group.

Then I played it off as I put a hand on Nikita’s arm.

“Don’t worry,” I told her quietly before I turned to give Kristina a hard look. “I’m sure Kristina is very sorry, aren’t you?”

My voice came out as a harsh growl, and Kristina’s pale green eyes widened a little as she quailed.

“Yes,” she murmured shakily. “I’m… I’m so sorry, Alpha.”

“Good,” I muttered. “Then you won’t mind coming with us to spar with the coyotes tomorrow.”

Her eyes widened a little more, and I almost worried they might pop out of her skull, but she just nodded silently.

“We’re done here, then,” I continued before I raised my voice to everyone else in a normal, friendlier tone. “Alright guys. Tomorrow we’re going to move your stuff. Then maybe we’ll make some breakfast or something and some of us will head over to spar with the werecoyotes while the rest of you work on patrols.”

“Sounds good, Alpha,” Zane affirmed, and the other werecats nodded before they all started to disperse for the night.

“Make breakfast?” Nikita giggled at me as she sauntered closer now that we were finished with our planning. “Are you sure Eva left any food in the house?”

“Good point,” I muttered. “I’ll have to do something about that.”

I pressed my fingers against my temples as the mental noise in my head swelled slightly again now that we weren’t all conversing face to face, and Nikita stroked my shoulder sympathetically as she winced a little.

“I’m sure your betas will be happy to help you out,” she consoled me. “And speaking of…”

Nikita nudged me slightly with a shoulder and nodded toward someone hovering behind me, and I realized it was Zane.

“Hey, Alpha,” he said with a small nod. “Will you be staying here tonight?”

“I was thinking about it,” I replied. “I don’t want us to be alone, considering the whole Aiden thing. But… well, maybe if Nikita and I sleep upstairs, and everyone, uh… tries to keep the brain volume at a minimum, just while we’re sleeping.”

“Got it,” Zane assured me. “You won’t have to worry about anything, trust me. And the master bedroom has been kept clean and ready for you, so if you want to go get some rest, I’ll take care of things down here.”

“Thanks.” I nodded at him. “And also, thanks for keeping an eye on Kristina. I think it’s safe to say she’s pretty damn opposed to working with the werecoyotes, and I want to make sure it’s not to the point where she’d go behind our backs or something. After all, it wasn’t too long ago that she was completely devoted to Max. Aiden might be a far cry from Max, but he’s still more similar to his brother than I am, I think. I don’t want Kristina slipping back into her old ways.”

“Of course,” Zane said, and he shook his head as he watched Kristina stalk off. “She seemed like she was steadily getting better with her attitude once you became our alpha, but I think the idea of sharing things with the werecoyotes maybe set her off a little. I’ll keep a close eye on her, make sure she doesn’t backslide or do anything out of bounds.”

I thanked the beta again, and as he turned away, I heard him start calling out instructions to the other werecats. Then I allowed Nikita to take my hand and lead me upstairs.

The mental noise quieted pretty soon, and I was alone with my omega. I switched off the lights so the moonlight through the high-set window was all that illuminated the room. Her blue-green eyes deepened to a color that was almost indigo as the shadows pooled in them, but for once, Nikita and I actually went to sleep without much fooling around. It had been a draining day, and I couldn’t believe that the fight with Gray had been just yesterday. Not only that, but in the time since then, I had fought and killed two of Aiden’s betas and put this whole chain-of-command thing into motion.

Overall, it was a good feeling to be this worn out after handling all my bases, though, and after another night’s sleep, I found that I felt good as new.

As I rolled out of bed, Nikita mumbled sleepily and stretched. We lazed around for about half an hour before I called Aunt Eva, and she answered after a few rings. I heard the unmistakable gurgle of a coffee machine laboring in the background.

“Jesse?”

“Hi, Aunt Eva,” I greeted her. “Is it too early to call?”

“No, no,” she chuckled. “I’m making breakfast and coffee for the betas here.”

Sure enough, I could hear chattering in the background for a few moments, and then the click of a door closing.

“There,” Aunt Eva said. “Now I can hear a little better.”

“Man, I’d kill for some of your breakfast right now,” I sighed.

“Hmm,” she murmured thoughtfully. “Well, didn’t you say you wanted all your betas to spar together? Why don’t you all just head over now? That way you can introduce everyone, and they’ll know each other already when you have to do any coordinating missions. I’m sure you’ll need to at some point in the future.”

“That’s a really good point,” I agreed. “And I was actually thinking of having us spar later today, but I like this better. Save me some bacon!”

I hung up with the musical sound of Aunt Eva’s laughter in my ears and looked down at my sprawled-out omega, who immediately bounced upright.

“Did I hear you say something about Aunt Eva’s breakfast?” she demanded as she started to wrap her hair up in a ponytail.

“Yup.” I grinned. “You wanna head over with the werecats? Eat some bacon, do some sparring?”

“I’m game,” she said, and she bounded to her feet.

It didn’t take long to get the werecats together. We decided to travel by car to save some time, and we managed to squeeze into two cars between the Benz and Zane’s forerunner.

Unsurprisingly, Nikita soon outraced the competition, and we rolled into the driveway of the two-story cabin a good ways ahead of Zane and the rest of the werecats.

Inside, Aunt Eva hugged me like she hadn’t seen me in ages, and I chuckled as I lifted her into a bear hug in the entryway.

Then Arielle came scurrying into view wearing some skimpy shorts, a tank top, and fluffy pink slippers.

“Jesse!” She practically threw herself into my arms as soon as Aunt Eva’s feet touched the ground, and my new omega clung to me as I spun her around. I couldn’t believe I was seeing this side of the shy, timid werecoyote, who cringed away from the touch of most people, and I couldn’t help but adore her.

Nikita looked like she felt a similar way when the umber-eyed werecoyote hugged her next, and I felt like my heart might melt at the sight of them together.

“I heard you’re going to train,” Arielle chattered as she relinquished her grip on Nikita, and she hesitated like there was something she wanted to ask.

“Yep,” I confirmed and raised my eyebrows at her. “Do you… wanna come with us?”

“Definitely.” Arielle nodded vigorously. “It’s been so long since I did some sparring.”

“Well, you’re in.” I grinned. “But I was really hoping for some bacon first.”

From the kitchen next to us, Aunt Eva lobbed a piece of toast at me over the island counter, and I caught it mostly out of surprise and reflex.

“I said bacon,” I objected teasingly.

A slab of bacon came soaring at me next, and I made an attempt to catch it in my mouth before barely snatching it between two fingers like a cigar.

“Aunt Eva, I love you,” I swooned as I took a bite of bacon.

Then a thundering sound rang out through the house, and I saw Benji come into view step by step as he thumped down the stairs.

“Who’s eating my bacon?” he demanded jokingly.

When he saw me, my half-brother ran over, clapped me on the shoulder, and proceeded to try and snatch the bacon out of my hands.

“Nope,” I said briskly as I whisked it out of his reach, danced away, and then popped the final half of it into my mouth all at once.

Aunt Eva was laughing as she lifted some more out of the skillet and laid it out with what looked like an entire breakfast buffet.

“Don’t eat too much,” she warned. “You do need some energy for sparring, but you don’t want to be sluggish.”

“Yes, auntie,” Benji said through a mouthful of bacon as he gave her a salute.

This logic made too much sense to brush aside, so we took it easy on the bacon and eggs for the time being. As we ate, I was reminded suddenly of the question I’d been meaning to ask my aunt.

“Hey, Aunt Eva,” I said as I polished off another piece of bacon. “Since I’ve had this mental connection with the werecats, there are some times when my mind is becoming very… loud.”

“Yes, that would happen,” Aunt Eva said, and she looked slightly amused but sympathetic as she considered this. “But with some effort, you can learn to shield your mind from it.”

“Shield my mind?” I repeated thoughtfully. “What do you mean?”

“Maybe ‘shield’ isn’t the right word…” Aunt Eva put her elbows on the counter and rested her chin in her palms. “You might not realize it, but when you communicate mentally with your pack, it’s happening on sort of a different ‘frequency’ than when you’re thinking normally. As pack members, you naturally share this frequency. But you can learn to shut it out when necessary, or even just sort of dial it down, although changing it by degrees will likely take some more practice.”

“That makes sense,” I mused. “So, there’s like a ‘me’ frequency, and a ‘pack’ frequency?”

“Right,” Aunt Eva said with a nod. “And if you learn to narrow your focus, you should be able to essentially tune out any excess noise, but still allow your pack to reach you. It will require some effort and concentration at first… You’ll have to think about it, quite literally. But once you get the hang of it, it’ll become sort of a mental habit you can slip into.”

“Got it.” I nodded. “That seems like a good thing to practice during sparring today.”

“That’s a perfect opportunity,” my aunt agreed.

“But first things first,” I sighed at the prospect of introducing the werecoyotes and the werecats to each other as I got to my feet.

I was glad we’d eaten, because introducing the two groups probably would’ve sucked on an empty stomach.

Once everyone had gathered together in the big living room, I cleared my throat slightly, and everyone fell silent as they waited for me to speak.

“So…” I began. “I know that different shifter clans don’t exactly have the greatest history together.”

“That’s an understatement,” Kristina muttered harshly, but she quieted when I turned an eye on her.

I held her gaze with narrowed eyes for a few moments as I dared her to say another word, but she held her silence, both verbally and mentally, so I continued.

“But that’s talking recent history,” I said with a little excitement. “In the more distant past, there was a time when all the shifters coexisted peacefully.”

Some people nodded along with me, but others had skeptical expressions. Brenden was amongst them, with a petulant look on his face that reminded me of Kristina’s.

“Yeah, the key word is distant,” the haughty werecoyote snorted. “I don’t see that happening again.”

“Well,” I said with my eyebrows raised. “Did you ever imagine a werewolf becoming your alpha? This is no ordinary pack, Brenden. You should all know that by now.”

I looked around and made sure no one else was going to object before I went on.

“I’m not expecting you guys to be best friends right off the bat,” I said. “But we’re going to be working together, and there’s no changing that. Why not make it a smooth transition?”

Most people were nodding along with me now, and they looked like they were more open to the possibility, although no one was exactly jumping for joy.

I had everyone introduce themselves by name, although some of the werecoyotes had sort of done that already. It felt a little forced, like the icebreaker exercises that every professor at college seemed to feel the need to employ between their students, but I was determined that my cats and coyotes would be well bonded within the week.

They had no other choice, in my opinion.

“Well, that could’ve gone a lot worse,” Benji  echoed my thoughts when I convened in the kitchen with him, Nikita, Arielle, and Aunt Eva after we were finally done.

“Not bad at all.” Aunt Eva nodded in agreement. “Even if things were tense, everyone was civil. That means no one will have an excuse for throwing the first punch if tensions arise.”

“The breakfast definitely helped,” Nikita added as she popped a small chunk of Belgian waffle into her mouth.

“Good,” Aunt Eva said as she dusted off her hands. “Let’s get going.”

“Let’s?” I asked with my eyebrows raised.

“What, you don’t want your old Auntie to go sparring with you?” she teased.

“Not at all.” I raised my hands and grinned. “Lead the way, Captain.”

Under the mid-morning sun, I decided to try shifting on the move, the way I’d seen Nikita do on occasion, but at more of a run.

“Any tips?” I asked my omega after I relayed this to her.

“Don’t overthink it,” she advised. “Kind of how you said you put your shifter energy into your howl. You just… did it.”

“Just do it,” I muttered wryly under my breath. “Maybe we could get a Nike sponsorship for the pack.”

“Gross,” Nikita chuckled.

Everyone was watching me at this point, which felt really awkward, but my conversation with my omega had happened during a lull, and everyone turned out to be listening.

Here goes nothing, I thought with a glance at my mates and my werecats.

I decided to avoid bothering with half-measures, and I broke into a run as I summoned the heat that condensed in my spine. After several steps, I threw all my energy into shifting, the same way I was throwing my weight forward with each step at a run. A natural movement.

My spine stretched, tingled, and burned while I ran. Then, the next time my right foot thudded to the ground, it was a paw.

With a loud rip, my clothes shredded to pieces and burst off of me.

Ah, shit, I snarled, but to my amazement, I didn’t tumble down into a heap on the ground.

Instead, I gave into my instincts and allowed the weight of my own lengthening torso to pull me down onto all fours. By the time my hands reached the earth, they were paws, too.

Hell yeah, I growled as I continued to run and shot straight into the woods as I left the rest to follow after me.

After a few moments, though, I slowed to a steady lope so they could catch up. It wasn’t long before a wordless Aaaaaaaaaaa echoed through my mind, and I had to admire Benji’s energy as the slightly smaller, gray-and-white wolf rocketed past me into the woods.

Soon he was followed by the others, but one shifter in particular captured my full attention the second she came into view.

Arielle was as beautiful a coyote as I could’ve imagined. She had a russet-brown coat with a thick, bottle-brush tail, and she was slightly dainty next to the others as they trotted together, but she appeared to make up for it with speed and agility. The omega werecoyote zoomed past Benji in a matter of seconds, leaped half-past and half-over him with an elated-sounding yip, and then raced on into the woods.

Damn, Benji said admiringly. She’s got some hops.

My answering chuckle came out as a rollicking growl.

Then a pure silver wolf came flying down the path and joined us, and as she slowed to pace by my side, I realized it was Eva.

I couldn’t lie, my aunt looked fucking magnificent, and I couldn’t believe I’d never seen her as a wolf before. She had a proud, noble-looking face, and her silvery coat was sleek and full. She looked like she should be on a National Geographic poster, and she cast me a sidelong glance that proved she damn well knew how bad ass she looked.

I sent my aunt a fanged grin as we trotted onward together, and a deep sense of pride bloomed in my chest as I joined my mis-matched pack.

For this first session, I decided we would practice together in a clearing, where we could get a general idea of each other’s fighting techniques while I kept an eye on everyone.

Something I had come to know about werecats was that they pretty much had one main, overarching tactic before going for the kill: getting their opponent off their feet. And from what I’d seen, it was pretty damn effective.

I’d first started catching on to this strategy when I fought Max, and he had repeatedly done a move that essentially tackled me to the ground.

The werecats all had different ways of going about this, though, and now I hoped to see plenty of them in action. I thought we could all take some lessons from the variety of lethal maneuvers I knew the werecats had in their arsenal, but in hopes of setting an example of good sportsmanship along with this, I decided to include a non-werecat in the first pairing that the whole pack would watch.

Benji and Nikita, I said decisively. I want you two to spar first. Show them different species can fight without killing each other.

I mentally made sure my werecats were in on this, and I gave a short bark to get the werecoyotes’ attention, too. Then I paced back to stand at the side.

The others soon followed my lead, and that left Benji and Nikita facing each other in the center of the clearing. The werecoyotes seemed to pick up on what was going on, and they stood back in a semicircle with their attention on the omega werecat and the gray-and-white wolf. I hoped that seeing some civil inter-species sparring firsthand would set an example for the others, and I trusted both my mate and my best friend not to get out of hand and take things in the opposite direction.

One of the coolest moves I saw in the whole session was performed by Nikita, and I watched with a little awe as the omega mountain lion made a short dash to the side of Benji. Then she leaped upward and sideways to push off a tree trunk with her big golden paws. This gave her a surge of momentum to come down hard on his back, and he yelped briefly as they rolled to the ground in a tangle of playful jaw snaps.

Good, I said to my packmates. We’re focusing on takedowns now, so do it again.

Nikita and Benji led one more time by example to demonstrate this before I paired up the others.

Zane, I said. You’re going to spar with Kiri here.

Then I nudged Kiri toward him to communicate this, since I couldn’t communicate with the werecoyotes by thought yet. I continued pairing people this way, and I tried to pair males against females in hopes that it would help the two species stay more civil, too. I did this as I remembered my hesitation to kill Sabine because she was a woman, even though I was in wolf form and my instincts were in overdrive at the time. I wanted to use every strategy possible to make sure a good relationship developed between the werecoyotes and werecats.

Since the werecoyotes were about double the werecats in numbers, I nudged the rest of them along with Benji and Eva into a sparring session that involved all of us together at once. I wanted to practice fighting multiple opponents, and I soon realized this was a good idea as it turned into a total free-for-all.

I tumbled to the ground with the rest of them as we sparred, and I practiced trying to block the werecats’ errant thoughts out as we tussled. It was difficult, and it earned me a few good thumps from my opponents as I tried to focus on both at the same time, but after a while, I was able to tune it down to a buzz in the back of my mind.

It felt like a good start.

Something I noticed right off the bat about the werecoyotes was that despite their chaotic energy, they actually had a general strategy with their fighting. They tended to take advantage of their smaller size and greater speed by coming in low to nip at the legs of their opponents with their sharp teeth. This helped the werecoyotes get their larger opponents down before they fully engaged in a fight.

I learned this firsthand as the dainty Arielle darted in and snapped at my ankle. She was careful not to actually sink her teeth in, but the unexpected move was enough to put a slight hitch in my stride, and then the omega werecoyote threw herself directly at me.

And she tanked into me with a surprising amount of force.

Once I keeled over, it would’ve been easy to use my momentum and greater weight to roll over and crush her, but instead, I flopped down in an exaggerated motion. The omega now stood with her front paws on my chest with a triumphant expression on her narrow-snouted face, and she gave off a series of little yips that I was sure were laughter.

Then I playfully rasped my rough tongue against her nose, and she yipped again before she bounded back and dropped the front half of her body into a crouch.

Even though we couldn’t communicate the way I could with my werecats, the message was obvious: “Let’s do it again.”

I humored the reddish-brown omega, but the next time we tussled, I used my weight to flip our positions so fast that she let out a disoriented whine as I landed above her with my paws on each side and my face within an inch of hers.

I barked a few times and nudged her with my snout to make sure she was alright, and Arielle bounced back to her feet immediately.

She was surprisingly resilient for her size, and for the fact that she hadn’t done any training in at least a year due to Gray keeping her every move under his control. I felt a thrill of pride and affection as I watched her dart in at Benji and end up with her teeth playfully poised at his throat, and from the wag of her tail, I kind of got the impression she was showing off for me a bit.

It was really cute.

As I was able to tune out the werecats more and more, I started thinking about not only how useful it would be to have the whole pack in on this mental connection, but the fact that it might actually be doable now that I showed signs of being able to control it. Although the occasional elated Take that, bitch! still broke through to my consciousness, things were improving surprisingly fast, and I actually found myself being careful not to cut things off too much yet, since I wanted to catch wind of any conflict between the groups quickly.

Then I wondered if it was possible to accomplish this added connection sooner by even arranging some sort of small-scale fight with the werecoyotes by my side. In battle against Aiden, that connection with my coyotes could turn the tide in our favor, and I made a mental note to come back to the thought.

Another thing that I now knew from experience could make all the difference was my hybrid form. Now that I had maintained it during my fight with Gray, I wanted to strengthen it and keep building on that stamina.

I had warned the werecoyotes that I would likely try this during the fight, but I still thought they might lose their cool if I did it too unexpectedly, so I gave a low warning growl to the ones surrounding me before I paced off slightly to the side again to make it clear that something was about to go down.

I closed my eyes briefly and reached for the blaze of heat that lurked deep inside me, and a slight tremor coursed through me as that heat flared through my whole body like a lightning strike. I suddenly felt like an army of ants was marching across the surface of my body, but their feet were white-hot. I started to shake with the force of it, and when I looked down, my paws were turning into the sharply-clawed hands I had seen before during my hybrid shifts.

The fighting slowed and quieted around me, and I couldn’t tell if it was the others reacting to my change in form, or just my state of furious concentration as I was consumed by the fire that seemed to lick at my skin from the inside. Although I had experienced this several times already, I still expanded further than seemed possible, and my shoulders became sloped and hulking as my legs lengthened and straightened slightly. As I stood fully upright with my fists clenched at my sides, I towered over everyone around me.

Then I gave myself a small, furious shake as I felt like I was solidifying into my hybrid form, and the growl I let out held a note of raw power that I didn’t hear in my full wolf form.

I had meant to practice in hybrid form against the werecoyotes, but I realized now that I wanted to train against just my aunt and Benji at this point. The werecoyotes were smaller and less familiar to me, and I didn’t want to Hulk-out on them in a rage and injure one. I had a healthy respect for their prowess after fighting Gray, but I still felt like I was too likely to cause an unwitting injury if I didn’t practice my restraint some more first.

I called out to bring a temporary halt to the good-natured melee that the fight nearest to me had become. Eva had been demonstrating some sort of take-down to the werecoyotes at full-force, and there was one last soft woof from one of them as she released her hold on them and let them drop to the ground.

“Benji,” I called, and my voice came out as a snarl, although I tried to make it sound friendly. “Eva.”

I gestured to bring them to my side and then waved for the others to go about their training.

Only about half of them did as I asked. The rest seemed too awed to look away, even though I thought some of them might’ve glimpsed my hybrid form after my battle with Gray, just before I’d shifted back into my human body and told them that victory was mine.

But they stared nonetheless, and I noticed that Arielle, who definitely hadn’t seen me like this before, was watching me with undivided attention.

For a brief second, I worried I might frighten the skittish coyote looking like this, but she must have caught the look of unease in my eyes. An unmistakable little smirk quirked on her narrow snout, and her bushy tail twitched with anticipation like she couldn’t wait to see me get started.

So I put my full attention into the two wolves in front of me as I instructed them to take me on at the same time. As I started by just blocking their blows, I saw that each move of mine went jarring through them, even though I was trying to restrain the amount of force I used. They still held their own, though, and as we started to spar in earnest, I was able to send both wolves flying off me in one sweeping motion.

At that point, I decided it was safe to allow the werecoyotes in, so I practiced taking on multiple shifters at once, and I felt a thrill at the power that coursed through me.

Then I commanded a switch between the coyotes and werecats as I kept in mind that it was Aiden whose ass I was hoping to kick.

When I stood again after over half an hour of sparring in my hybrid form and towered over everyone in the clearing, I felt fucking unstoppable, and I couldn’t get enough of the burning power that coursed through every inch of my body. I wasn’t about to get cocky and discount the threat that Aiden and his pack presented, but I was sure that between my hybrid form and my expanded pack, I would be able to kick Aiden Jansen’s ass.

And then take his pack for my own.