Chapter 5 - Kenzie

The wooden bench beneath me made my ass bones ache, and I was ready to go back to the room and avoid all this nonsense about the first trial. I didn't give a fuck if Grayson won, after all, but we were still supposed to be keeping up appearances.

And a mate would want to be here with him.

"Are you okay, Kenzie? You look…stiff. Are you nervous?"

I looked over at Kit, who sat next to me, my brother's mate and a surprising friend. I hadn't expected to get along with her so well, but aside from Senna, Kit was one of my closest friends, which was all sorts of weird, considering the aforementioned mate status she held with my brother.

I didn't love seeing them so happy together, and it had everything to do with being jealous. But I wasn't about to admit that.

"Well, you know. First trial. Grayson could get hurt, right?"

I needed to be careful to keep the interest out of my voice. I wasn't supposed to want Grayson injured. Even if seeing that handsome face of his all scratched up would be an absolute treat.

"Yeah, but I'm sure he'll be fine. If memory serves, Gray is very good at scrapping."

Ah, yes, the other reason that being friends with Kit was so annoying sometimes. I loved her so much, but she also happened to be Grayson's adoptive sister. So complicated was an understatement.

I swallowed hard, just nodding before I went back to staring at the complex scene beneath our seats in this stadium that the Williams had built explicitly for the trials.

The field below us had been filled up with makeshift walls constructed from stacks of crates and logs. The various twists and turns filtered into the woods, where the wolves gathered and couldn't see what the participants were doing. As I sat there staring down, Grayson turned around, and his stare met mine.

Oh, go away. Look somewhere else, you jerk.

But his stare burned into me, and all I could do was hear the mad jumble of my thoughts as they fractured under the weight of Grayson's gaze.

I hate you. I want you to hate me. Why can't you just hate me? Be mean and cold and distant? Why do you still have to look at me like… that ?

Blinking, I was the first to look away, and I didn't care. I cleared my throat and pretended to listen to Kit and Kaiden's conversation. Even though my brain was light-years away and still spiraling.

Grayson was the one to break things off, after all, and he'd never given me a straight answer as to why. He had barely said anything. And then all this Alpha stuff came up, and I was forced to deal with seeing his face every damn day when I'd never been able to grieve and move on from the loss.

Not that that was going to happen. I was Grayson's mate. There was no changing that, and the burn of rejection wasn't going anywhere without my little concoctions.

Interrupting my pointless internal pity party, Aspen spoke to all the wolves in the room who'd gathered for the first trial.

"Hello, wolves of far and near. It is with greatest pride that I welcome you all to the Alpha trials for the Williams Pack. This first test will be a feat of strength and wits, chosen as a way for our two candidates to display their prowess in the field. As you know, numerous challenges await whoever is determined to be Alpha, and it will not only be brawn that saves the Alpha in question."

I looked down at the two male wolves who stood before Aspen. They were both impressive specimens, and for the first time, I actually found myself wondering how Grayson would genuinely do.

He was a strong wolf, sure. He'd proven as much when he'd fought against Terrance's wolves and took down several of them alone. Still, this wasn't Terrance or his scrawny wolves facing Grayson now. This was a man put forth by the hardened Williams Pack as their choice for Alpha.

We all knew the Williams would be a "problem" if left to their own devices. They'd been living under Eli, after all. Even if these wolves hadn't defected and had agreed to become a united front behind whoever won the trials, none of us could shake the feeling that we'd need to keep a close eye on them.

Probably just trying to keep out wolves from other packs, but still.

"Choal, representative of the remaining Williams Pack," Aspen addressed. "And Grayson, representative of the Edwards Pack, defeaters of Eli Williams. You have both come here today to serve the call and attempt to pass through the trial of the Alpha. We will begin with the maze."

My stomach dropped . A maze? What the hell does that have to do with being Alpha?

Aspen gestured toward the first door that stood just to the left of him and the candidates.

"A maze has been set up by the remaining members of the Williams Pack through the woods. Choal has been kept unaware of these grounds upon threat of treason. Inside, participants will find a number of traps and wild beasts. The first one to get to the end of the labyrinth, surviving the threats inside, is the winner."

The entire space was quiet and tense. I could feel the taut pull of my muscles on my bones, the uncomfortable heat surging inside me, making me shift in my seat. Below me, though, the wolves in question just eyed the door, hunkering down and readying themselves to take off.

"Attended," Aspen called out to everyone, "you will be able to track the proceedings on screens in front of you."

With that, the bank of black monitors I'd seen before clicked on. The images they displayed were security footage-style shots of the inside of the maze. They weren't the best angles, and everything was in black and white but it was better than nothing.

Grayson stood next to Choal on a starting line, and I swallowed hard. I didn't want to care how it went. I didn't want to be stuck here thinking about everything that might happen and what I might need to do to patch Grayson up. I was a healer, for heaven's sake, and it would be me everyone turned to if something went wrong.

"Our potential Alphas! Begin!"

Aspen dropped his hand in a quick slash, and Grayson and Choal sprinted forward into the maze. The crowd cheered, but I was frozen in my seat, silent. On the screen, I could see Grayson dodge to the left and take a long tunnel down to a dead- end. He needed to double back but afterward found the correct passage to push deeper into the maze.

I couldn't see any beasts in this section of the maze, at least not on camera. It looked like it had been set up so that the candidates had to get into the woods. That's where they'd face the most significant challenges.

As Grayson ran forward, his foot hit a tile that shifted down, tripping him and forcing him to duck into a roll. As he did, a massive trunk that had been hoisted up on one of the maze's few arches swung forward.

The thick, blunt end nearly smashed into Grayson's ribs, and I flinched back, unable to stop myself. The crowd hissed and then cheered again as he dodged out of the way, and I whipped my attention back to the screens.

I can't watch this. Christ, he's going to be crushed or something.

Searching the screen for Choal, I found the other wolf rushing down an angled corridor in the maze on the opposite side of the space. He'd run in the other direction from Grayson, which was smart. He didn't want to lead his competition to the correct path.

He'd hit his own trouble, however, and Choal was tripping over what I had to guess was a thin line pulled tight across the hall. He pitched forward, ass over the tea kettle, but he popped up, looking hardly worse for wear.

Tripping wasn't fun, obviously, but both the potential Alphas looked like they were handling the few bumps and bruises they'd acquired well enough.

I really wished I could say the same.

Watching Grayson made my guts churn, my skin flushing with anxiety and restless energy. All I wanted was to go back to Kaiden's house and be left alone.

But I couldn't.

As the two wolves barreled through the maze, they each got closer and closer to the section that led out into the forest. I could see it waiting there on a screen near the top of Aspen's setup.

Come on, Grayson. Just get this thing over with so we can get home.

At once, Choal and Grayson's paths converged, and they crashed into each other as they both sprinted for the wooden arch in front of them. They tumbled, but when Grayson got out of the skirmish to run for the forest, Choal reached out and snagged his leg, yanking him down to the ground.

He hit with a solid thump, and the people around me groaned in sympathetic pain. Grayson kicked back at Choal, an expression on his face that was barely readable on the insignificant screens. It sort of looked like an expression of surprise, like Grayson had expected Choal to fight fair, and I rolled my eyes.

"Oh, come on. What did you expect."

Kit leaned over toward me. "Huh?"

"He thought that Choal was going to play nice. Dumb mistake."

She hummed, considering, and then turned back to me. "Why don't they shift?"

I sighed, shaking my head before I just let it hang down.

"Because we're not always as useful in a shift. Wolves are faster, yes, but they don't know what types of traps they're going to face. Being in their human form might be better."

When I looked back over at Kit, she was eyeing the screen. I suddenly remembered this was her brother I was talking about, and my stomach clenched. Everything would be so much easier if I didn't know her and if she didn't know Grayson. But here we were, both nervous about this outcome for unrelated reasons.

"It'll be fine, Kit. Grayson has a way of sidestepping the trouble he's gotten himself into."

She looked over with a nervous smile and then took my hand, her attention going back to the screens.

I didn't want to feel sorry for her. I didn't want to feel worked up and useless because I couldn't help Grayson, which, of course, I didn't want to be doing either.

Wanting to help him is not good, Kenz. Stop it.

But my wolf howled in my head, and that pull in my blood started to pick up. I reached into the pocket of my jeans—black and sleek on my legs—and pulled out one of my contraband pills. It was easy enough to fish it out and put it in my mouth, given how distracted everyone was.

Just as I swallowed, Grayson pulled his leg free and then launched himself toward the forest entrance.

Looks like the competition is on to phase two.