20. Jace

We woke early the next morning, preparing for what was sure to be another busy day. As I munched on a bagel, Dustin texted me that he and his betas were on the way.

"What's that?" Kirsten asked, nodding to my phone.

"Dustin," I said through a mouthful of bread and cream cheese. "He's on the way." I frowned at the next message he sent. "He says to make sure you're at the clearing, too. He has a surprise. I'm not sure what that means."

Kirsten shrugged as she poured a cup of coffee. "I don't have any plans."

Flynn arrived a few minutes later, accompanied by Langston and Waylan. The five of us headed down to the clearing to meet Dustin and Shayna's packmates.

"So, uh, did Harley say anything last night?" Waylan asked, trying and failing to sound off-the-cuff.

"Nope," Kirsten said. "I did hear her ranting about cutting balls off, though."

He paled, and Kirsten giggled. "I'm joking," she said. "Pretty sure she went to bed early. As far as I know, she's still sleeping."

"Oh." He breathed a sigh of relief. "Okay, cool."

We pushed through the last of the forest and stepped into the clearing. Dustin and his men were already there, as were my own people. Most were running around, still in their wolf forms. A line of pickup trucks and cars sat at the farthest edge of the clearing by the small dirt road that led here from town.

"Miss Kirsten!"

A boy came sprinting toward us, arms pumping like crazy as he ran. Morgan.

Kirsten laughed in delight as the boy leapt into her arms, almost bowling her over. "Oh my gosh. Hey, buddy. It's good to see you," she said, setting the boy back down.

Morgan beamed up at her. "I missed you."

Kirsten knelt down closer to his eye level. "I missed you, too. How are things?"

He made an I-guess-it's-fine face. "It's okay. Dustin and Shayna are super nice. Have you guys fixed my brother Alex yet? Is he here?"

Kirsten's smile faded, as did mine. I could still remember the feral wolf I'd killed in our escape from Scottsdale, and I prayed to every god in the universe it hadn't Morgan's older brother. As tragic as it would have been on its own, the heartbreak that would come to this little boy would be a stain on my soul that would never wash off.

"No, sweetie. We haven't. I think Eren still has him, but we're working on saving him," Kirsten said.

Morgan's face didn't crumple, but a mask of depression settled over it. "You guys are going to save him, aren't you?" he asked.

"You bet," Kirsten said, ruffling his hair. "Hey, these guys are gonna be getting all sweaty and gross. How about you come up to the house? Harley and Tinsley are up there. We can bake some cookies?"

Morgan's eyes widened. "Oatmeal raisin?"

"I was thinking about chocolate chip cookies," Kirsten said.

"Oatmeal raisin is my favorite, though."

"What a little psycho," she teased, grinning at him. "All right, then. We'll see what we can do. Come on."

Kirsten took Morgan's hand and led him back to the foot path. She looked over at him, giving the boy a warm smile. Seeing her like that, smiling and happy, holding the child's hand, sent a pang through my chest. I desperately wanted to sink my teeth into her and claim her. To make a baby with her. The desire was so strong, it was almost impossible to contain.

"Who's this?" Dustin said, giving Flynn a once-over.

The look in Dustin's eyes told me he'd noticed the aura coming off Flynn. In fact, all the other shifters in the clearing were giving Flynn discreet looks. None of them had ever felt an alpha as powerful as the other man.

"Flynn Edgerton," Flynn introduced himself, extending a hand to Dustin.

"Hey, there," Dustin said, staring at the massive man in wonder. "Dustin Baldwin. I'm Jace's brother-in-law."

Flynn's eyebrows rose. "Oh, wow. Okay, then. A family affair?"

"Sort of, I guess."

"Flynn's got a ton of military experience," I said. "He'll be running most of the training along with Langston and Waylan." I pulled Dustin over where no one could hear. "He's also Eren's half-brother, by the way."

"Yeah, no shit," Dustin hissed at me, casting a glance over his shoulder at Flynn. "He looks like a body-building, underwear version of Eren. What the fuck, Jace? When did Eren ever have a brother?"

"It's a long story. We found out yesterday and met him last night. He's sworn to help us take Eren down. He's the rightful heir to Scottsdale. If all this works out, Flynn will be the new alpha. That is a much better scenario than me having to take over that pack along with my own."

Dustin shook his head in disbelief. "Can this shit get any weirder? Witches, forced ferals, child slaves, long-lost brothers?"

"I know, I know. We'll get it all figured out. For now, we need to get everyone prepared."

Dustin nodded and walked to Flynn. "Hey, I'm glad you're here."

"Thanks," Flynn said, and glanced at me. "Did Jace tell you?"

Dustin nodded. "I knew your father. He was always a good alpha to his people. Hopefully, you can take that mantle and run with it."

Flynn nodded, though he looked somewhat unhappy. "Sounds like he was great to everyone. Everyone but me and my mother, that is. If this all works out, I hope I can be the alpha he was and then some. I'll make up for some of his past mistakes."

"I don't blame you for that," I said. "All a son can do is try to be better than his father. I have no doubt you'll outdo him in every way."

A pickup truck rumbled up the dirt road, pulling our attention away. Around eight or nine guys sat in the bed of the truck, a host of wolves sprinting to keep up. Ivy was at the wheel. Peter, her enforcer, sat in the passenger seat.

"Looks like the gang's all here," I said. "Noah and Hollis aren't coming. Their packs are much smaller, and they didn't want to send most of their people of fighting age here. This will be a good start, though."

Flynn clapped his hands together. "Let's do this."

I'd assumed from the way he'd dealt with Langston and his background that Flynn would know a bit more about fighting than we did. I'd been way off. The man was an encyclopedia of tactics and strategy. As shifters, we all had an innate and instinctive level of combat from being closely tied to our wolf sides. In the wild, real wolves were constantly fighting, and those knowledge and instincts carried over. Some, especially alphas, took to that skill better than others. What Flynn knew was like a masterclass in war.

After an hour of warming up—he had us all do multiple exercises in both our human and wolf forms—he broke us into groups and tried to get us to work through drills. It did not go well. We weren't used to moving in sync, instead relying on chaos and our strength along with overwhelming numbers to succeed. Our terrible performance embarrassed me.

"Hang on. Stop!" Flynn called out. He pointed at a few wolves. "You, you, and you—you aren't listening, and it's screwing up the entire formation. This isn't a damn free-for-all. If you get too far ahead, then the formation is no longer in the shape of a spear; it becomes a fucking blob. Can you stab someone with a blob of shit?" He glared at one of Ivy's betas, who had shifted back to his human form, waiting for him to respond. When he didn't, Flynn walked forward, raising his voice like a drill sergeant. "I said, can you stab someone with a blob. Of. Shit?"

"No," the man finally said, lowering his head in deference to Flynn's powerful aura.

"Good. Thank you. Let's do it again. Stay in formation."

He seemed to see everything at once, calling out wolves who were lagging, slacking off, or not listening. Even when he formed us into teams to do war games, he could still see who was right and who was wrong in the chaos. His aura was so strong that even if some of the guys were butthurt about being called out, they literally couldn't defy him. It was damn near impossible—even for me and the other alphas. We could resist his aura, but it was difficult.

After our lunch break, he sat us down to talk through what we should be visualizing during a fight. "This," he said, gesturing to the entire group, "is a family. That's how you need to see things. Whenever I went into battle, I had to look at the person beside me and understand that, in the heat of it, when the shit hits the fan and bullets start flying, I might need to lay my life down for him. It was a decision everyone in my unit made. That's what you all need to understand.

"You've spent your lives in little skirmishes and back alley fights. A group of lone wolves encroaching on your territory is not the same. Before, you could use your numbers and the power of your alpha to overcome anything without really knowing what you're doing. This kind of fighting is different. You have to know the man beside you and play off of their strengths and weaknesses, understand what they can and can't do, and pick up the slack. Just because the guy next to you is stronger or better doesn't mean you get jealous—that's a one-way ticket to the grave. Frenetic biting and clawing will do nothing but get you killed out there. Or worse, get the man beside you killed." He glared at us, then shouted a question. "Do you want to live?"

A resounding "yes!" erupted from the crowd, and the ground vibrated beneath us.

"Do you want your families, friends, and packs to live?"

"Yes!" This time, the vibration of the word rattled in my chest. Birds fluttered in the forest, disturbed by the explosion of sound.

Flynn smiled grimly. "Good. Then fucking show me."

His words settled across us like a thick blanket. I cast my eyes across the field to Dustin and Ivy. They saw me and nodded toward Flynn in respect. The guy really knew his shit, and it appeared to be sinking in with the others.

"Let's break into groups," Flynn said. "Twos and fours. I've seen what you can do in wolf form. Now show me what you can do hand-to-hand in human form."

The next hour was spent with Langston and Flynn moving between the groups, instructing, adjusting, and coaching us on technique. It astounded me that the two of them managed it with over a hundred shifters.

"That's enough for today!" Flynn shouted above the commotion of training men and women. "Mingle a bit. Get to know the people who may end up relying on you to survive."

Wiping sweat from their foreheads, the groups from the other packs sat down on the grass, resting and shooting the breeze with people they rarely got to interact with. The mating party happened every year, but most people went to that hoping to find a mate instead of making friends.

Flynn strolled over to me. "I hope I didn't overstep at any point. I guess I slipped back into my military mindset."

"Absolutely not," I said. "That was far more than any of us could have done."

"Good. I don't want to ruffle any feathers."

"Nope. I think Ivy and Dustin were pretty impressed. Seems like everyone's happy."

Flynn nodded, studying the gathered shifters. "They need work," he admitted. "But I'm confident we can get them whipped into shape pretty fast, especially with Langston's help. He knows his shit."

That was true. For a few seconds, I had a little crisis of conscience. What was my role here now? With Flynn's arrival, I no longer had to challenge Eren for control of the pack. Langston and Flynn could train everyone. Did they even need me at this point?

Before I could dive too deep into that, my skin prickled, and Flynn's head whipped around. Kirsten stepped out of the woods to join us. Her magic wasn't cloaked, so several other shifters craned their necks to see where the surge of power had come from. Many had never been in the presence of a witch, and most stared at Kirsten with a mixture of awe and wariness. It wasn't surprising. The power flooding out of her was even stronger than Flynn's alpha aura. She was the strongest person in the vicinity by far. As her magic continued to manifest itself and grow, there was no telling what kind of force she'd eventually be. She'd already gone from gardening and simple potions to shooting bolts of magic from her hands.

That made me feel even more useless. What good was I? A weird sense of impotence settled over me. My whole life, I'd always been the strongest, the best. Now, I'd slid down the pecking order a bit. I'd never thought I was so shallow to feel upset by something like that, but irritation bubbled up out of nowhere. My brows creased, and a dark mood settled over me.

Kirsten waved at me, giving me one of her beautiful smiles. "I came to see if you needed me for anything." She wiggled her fingers, and red sparks burst from her fingertips like she had a handful of sparklers in her hand.

My irritation grew into a roaring flame, and before I could stop myself, I opened my mouth. "If we'd needed you, we would have called for you."

My voice was much louder than I'd intended, almost a shout, and the clearing went dead silent, every head turning to us. Heat rose in my neck, the embarrassment fueling my anger.

A flush rose up Kirsten's neck, and her magic aura pulsed out in a flux that carried over the clearing, making Flynn's aura look like nothing. It was the difference between a summer shower and a massive, thundering tornado. Multiple shifters in the crowd tucked their chins low as if someone had slapped the backs of their heads.

"Do you want to try that one more time?" Kirsten hissed at me, her voice full of ice. "Maybe put a little less shithead in the tone?"

Beside me, Flynn shifted around uncomfortably.

I sucked in a deep breath. I'd fucked up. But I couldn't shake the sensation that I was somehow less important than I'd been a few weeks before.

"All I meant," I said slowly, "is that we're fine. You didn't need to come all the way down here."

Kirsten stared at me for several long moments, her face tight with barely controlled anger. Finally, she gave one short nod. "I guess I'll go back to the house. Since my presence is no longer wanted," she spat, then turned on her heel to leave.

You fucking idiot, I hissed at myself. Stop her. Apologize!

"Kirsten, wait," I called, but she ignored me and stalked back into the forest.

Waylan and Langston hurried over to me. "Bro, what the fuck was that about?" Waylan asked.

He looked disappointed in me. That was like another kick in the balls.

I shook my head. "Nothing. I'll fix it later."

"You sure you want to wait until later?" Langston asked. "Maybe you should go now."

"It's fine," I lied. "Let's get back to training. I need to blow off some steam." I turned to Flynn, who still looked like he'd rather be anywhere else. "You good to keep going?"

"I would love to do that," he said gratefully, and clapped his hands. "All right, everybody. Free time's over. Let's get moving. I think we can go for another hour or so before calling it a day."

I threw myself into Flynn and Langston's instructions with abandon, pushing myself harder than anyone else on the field, even garnering compliments from Flynn during one particular drill. It did little to make me feel better, and I kept noticing the worried glances from my friends. They all knew that my outburst toward Kirsten wasn't like me. They were right.

Flynn's aura and Kirsten's power had stirred something up inside of me. Something I'd never felt before. Jealousy and envy—two emotions an alpha couldn't have. If I let myself slide into that pit of self-loathing, I'd start traveling the same path as Eren. I couldn't let that happen.

I needed to figure out how to snap out of this funk. Fast.