1. Bexley Blackforge

Chapter 1

Bexley Blackforge

I would do anything to ensure the people I loved came out of this situation alive.

The thought reminded me of what was truly important—not the war right outside our door, nor the violent demand for revenge that ravaged through my brain—no, there would be time for that later. Instead, all that mattered in this moment were the individuals I loved, the ones I cared about protecting, many of whom were currently gathered around me. All of our eyes were on the approaching army outside, and the tower-like room we'd sheltered in was covered in broken glass from the blasted-in windows.

I couldn't—I wouldn't—let my emotions override what I needed to figure out. How did we get out of this situation without a complete slaughter?

The army approaching may have been the enemy, but that didn't mean they all deserved death. Especially if they were being forced to fight. It was a concept that cooled my anger as I imagined how each and every one of the individuals approaching had families to return home to. There had to be a way to solve this without absolute carnage.

"Someone leaked the meeting." Annika's accusation rang out sharply. My gaze moved toward the delicately built woman, her short dark hair smoothed away from her elegant features. Her face was twisted into a fierce expression, filled with fiery anger that made her look absolutely lethal. It probably didn't help that she looked like she'd just come from a battlefield, her dress covered in debris from the explosion.

As one of the council leaders for the prey community, Annika had a way of talking that spoke to experience and leadership, despite her being considered ‘less dominant' than many other shifter species.

Or that was what we were taught—I was finding that it was far more complex than that.

"Walker, my beta." Fletcher concluded, his jaw tight with anger as he ran his hand through his dark reddish hair in agitation. "I didn't tell him about the meeting or what we were doing, but he was probably notified when the three of us left campus. If he's working with my father, I'm sure he pieced it together."

"He's a piece of shit, but he's not stupid," Professor Clanguard agreed, as Rachel, who was positioned between the two of them, nodded in agreement. "And even if Walker hadn't put it together, our father would have—especially considering our lack of communication with him."

Linan Clanguard. The mere mention of his existence caused hate to grow even heavier in my heart. The man was central to this senseless violence. The cause of our problems from start to finish, it seemed.

The man who attacked and killed the Flash clan.

The man who kidnapped my parents and held them prisoner for over eight years now.

The absolute monster who'd clearly made it his goal to finish what he'd started long ago.

"We should've taken care of our father before now," Fletcher admitted.

"You were mere children, you can hardly be blamed," Celine Bronzeheart said, her eyes filled with sympathy for the wolf shifters.

"It doesn't matter now," William, the alpha of the bear shifters, said—his harsh tone causing me to stiffen slightly. I may not have been as close to Fletcher and Professor Clanguard as I was to Rachel, but I still didn't like how he was talking to two individuals I considered my friends. "The past is inconsequential. We need to focus on the army of wolf shifters approaching the estate. We don't have many defenses up, and if we let them move in any closer it could be game over. We don't have the numbers to combat them properly right now."

He was right. We needed to figure out a plan—and quick—or else they would be at our door in no time. A problem made even more dire since the majority of the leaders had come to the Silvershade estate for this meeting.

"It's not a problem of numbers," Trek Firespell said. His look of utmost confidence baffled me, considering the situation at hand.

"How is it not a problem of numbers?" I asked, feeling all eyes turn to me at once.

The Bronzehearts, Silvershades, and Firespells were only the ones whose gazes I found a tad comfortable—at least compared to the council leaders of the city communities of the prey, aquatic, avian, feline, and bear shifters. It felt almost suffocating, the amount of power in the room, and I found myself glad that Rachel was part of the crowd and that my mates stood behind me in a wall of security and familiarity.

"Because we could slaughter all of them—easily," he responded bluntly. Breaker let out a low rumble at the way I recoiled at his father's words.

"Trek," Mrs. Firespell warned.

"She should know and understand that they aren't a real threat. All it would take is an electrical storm?—"

"They are if we don't want to kill them," Leopold Bronzeheart interrupted.

"And we don't," I said in a hard tone. "They may not even want to fight. Have we considered that Linan may be forcing them? Have we considered that they have families back in the pack lands?"

The room went silent. I may have sounded naive, but much like the hierarchy of society that was established with shifters—I wasn't going to buy into it. This didn't have to end in bloodshed.

"That is the game of war." Marilyn Silvershade offered me a heartbreaking look. I could see that Mr. Silvershade was in deep thought, but he didn't offer his opinion, making me think he agreed with what she was implying—that it was unavoidable.

"Well I'm not playing. Besides, that tactic may work to our advantage in the moment, but will an outright slaughter help us in the long run? Will losing a massive part of the Trabea population make anything truly better?" Jagger wrapped an arm around me in silent support, Gage intertwining the fingers of my left hand with his. "Besides…I know what Linan really wants, and it's not war."

"And what's that?" Alpha Fangce asked. As a feline shifter, there was something intently predatorial to the way he tilted his head with curiosity, seemingly unruffled by this entire situation. I had no idea where his sister Treya had gone. I'd been surprised he'd brought her to begin with, and I couldn't help but worry she was downstairs in the midst of chaos.

"Me."

The room grew tight with tension, but there was a lack of true surprise. While I didn't think any of them had known Linan's true motives, it didn't seem to surprise them that there were possibly alternative ones. I drew in a deep breath, knowing I needed to explain this as simply and as concisely as I could.

Already I could hear the shouts and the preparations for battle downstairs as security around the estate prepared to defend it. Putting aside the security the other alphas had brought, the dragon clans had what were essentially military units that guarded their properties, so I had a small window of time to explain before the Clanguard pack was at our door.

The vision of their heavy artillery and at least a hundred of them marching under a flag with a wolf sigil painted in black and red flashed before my eyes.

"Explain," Alpha Spencer encouraged. Her mate, Kelvin, stood staring down onto the battlefield, rolling back his shoulders as if preparing to shift—or sprout wings. I could almost feel everyone keying themselves up for battle.

"Okay, so." I nibbled my lip as Gage gave my hand a reassuring squeeze. "I'm going to just dive into this because I don't know where else to start."

"Take your time, everyone is willing to listen," Breaker assured me. I looked up into his mismatched gaze and steadied myself before returning my attention to the rest of the crowd.

"Right." I nodded before starting. "I'm not sure if many of you remember, but when my parents ruled over the Flash clan, they had several prophetesses who advised them on topics ranging from agriculture, upcoming events, even the prediction of storms?—"

"As well as some decisions regarding conflicts," Celine interjected. "They were extremely helpful."

I offered her a thankful smile before continuing. "When I was young, a prophecy was presented to my parents that I only recently remembered. I was even able to confirm it, written down in a text about all the prophecies our clan had been given. It was about a female storm dragon uniting all four storm dragon lines."

I paused, waiting for the backlash but finding only curiosity in most of their gazes. "Specifically, it read: When the time comes that four lines are united by one heir who threatens everything created in the darkness, the territory will be made anew, reborn in the ashes of the cursed pack. "

My gaze moved to the floor in thought as I admitted, "I'm sure that knowing about the prophecy doesn't help any suspicion you have toward us, but I know that it was one of the driving forces that instigated this entire situation with Clanguard. My mom tried to protect the women in his pack, including his wife?—"

"Who he no doubt abuses to this day," Professor Clanguard—Thomas—hissed. "He hasn't allowed either of us to lay eyes on her since I left for the academy." My chest squeezed in pain at the thought of the suffering she was potentially undergoing—at the vision of the bruised woman in my memory that had come to my mom for help.

"When Linan heard the prophecy, he hoped to capture me to ensure that I would instead be mated to his son. To produce a line of storm dragons under his control." My face pinched with disgust, the tension in the room heightening. I wanted to turn to my mates for comfort, but I knew I couldn't—not yet.

"So he attacked and slaughtered his way through the Flash clan to find me. One of my mother's advisors helped me escape, though, and sealed my memories. He wasn't able to find me, but by then it was too late. He had killed nearly everyone. Now Linan is on the same mission as before—to capture me—and he's willing to sacrifice his own pack members and participate in the same amount of bloodshed as before." Grief at the lives lost clogged my throat as I tried to not overanalyze the reactions in the room.

"You poor girl." Alpha Spencer appeared before me, gently touching my shoulder. "This is not your fault, Bexley. Your clan's death, your parents' deaths, were Linan's doing. And only his."

Nodding, I offered her a small gratitude-filled glance as she stepped back. Deciding it was a better time than ever to reveal what I knew would be the hardest element to believe, I continued. "My parents are possibly still alive, held captive by Clanguard. Have been since that night."

Absolute silence.

"Holy shit." Alpha Bowman of the water shifters looked at me with unmasked shock, his brows raised impossibly high. "He was able to capture both of them and keep them locked up for?—"

"Eight years," Celine Bronzeheart confirmed. Her eyes flashed with a dangerous anger as her lips pursed, clearly wanting to say more but choosing to restrain herself.

"How do you know?" Annika demanded.

"Our source is reliable. She'll be here soon—she was my mother's right hand," I explained. I knew Rebecca would be here in no time, but I desperately wished she was here now to support and lend credence to what I was saying.

"If he's taken another leader of the territory hostage, then this involves all of us—that is cause for war." William's voice was hard, his mind clearly made up.

"This attack is only the start; a warning of what's to come," Fletcher explained, his gaze moving out the window. "He hasn't sent all of his forces—not even half of them. My father isn't even out there. He wants you to decimate them so that his other men rise to the challenge to avenge those that die. My father has always been of the mindset that it's okay to sacrifice his own people for long-term gain."

"The storm dragon clans won't stand for this," Mrs. Firespell said sharply, her chin tilted up. "His time as a leader is over. His time ruling the city is over. The city has always been a place ruled by multiple factions, and unless I'm mistaken, that has been slowly changing over the past decade."

"It has, possibly longer than that. There's only so much we can do to fight back when often it's a game of numbers—when they make the smallest advances into our territories day by day. We've watched entire blocks of the city being taken over by the Clanguard pack, seemingly overnight." Alpha Fangce agreed. His eyes filled with heavy emotion, making it clear that the situation within the city was worse than we knew.

"We need to free your parents," Jagger said, his lips brushing the top of my head. "Right now he views their existence as a source of power for himself—a trump card. If we free them, he'll not only be weaker, but it'll show everyone what drastic steps he took to achieve power."

"Without them, Clanguard may hesitate to wage a full-scale war," Annika added. "Although, there are already so many of us…I would have to assume he's considered that and chosen to make this decision nonetheless."

"Unfortunately, his numbers rival even our clans', and it's possible that he may even be counting on us to hesitate, to not fully commit to slaughtering his people," Leopold pointed out. Considering I'd made it clear in that meeting that I wasn't a fan of violence or the shifter hierarchy, it was possible Mr. Bronzeheart was right about that—that Linan was counting on my ideals to stand in the way of Mr. Firespell's solution to ending this.

"My father always expects violence, so he probably isn't counting on that," Fletcher disagreed. "He may consider that it will make you hesitate for a moment, but he's still betting on your reaction to his attack. Without it he has no gasoline to throw on the flames of war growing within the pack."

"If this is a warning and he wants us to kill the army that's attacking, what do we do?" Kelvin asked, not turning from the window he'd been staring out of. The battle had started in earnest, our security defenses starting to clash with a group of wolf shifters who'd shifted and sprinted ahead to the front lines, the rest of the army only a mile or so out. Cries of pain and anger, paired with gunshots, filled the air.

"We let them capture the estate. Our security will take enough of them out so we can safely move our base of operations to one of the other territories," Jagger's dad said. "Linan will view it as a win. Some deaths are unavoidable in this." His gaze moved to mine, but I refused to nod in agreement, so he continued, "But we'll be in a better position to find out where their forces are building and what direction they'll come from. We have more than enough people here to ensure that we'll still have eyes on the property, to know his next move."

"Are you sure about that?" I asked, looking at Mrs. Silvershade. "You love your home." I knew she had put years of work into it, and if they took it over, who knew what would happen to it.

"Homes can be rebuilt, but lives cannot," she said softly as she walked over and gently squeezed my arm, my mates shifting slightly to accommodate. "More importantly, though, we need to get you out of here. This is a targeted effort—which means, Bexley, that you need to disappear until we can figure out how to release your parents."

"I won't hide from this," I warned. I was someone who normally agreed with the general plan, especially the plans of those who had more experience, but I wouldn't hide like last time. I wouldn't let history repeat itself.

"We're in more danger with you here," Annika said bluntly. "Like you said—he wants you."

I couldn't argue that.

"Plus, if you need to release your parents it would make sense if we"—Fletcher motioned toward Thomas and Rachel—"came with you. We have a much better idea of where they could be and how to infiltrate the pack lands."

Mr. Bronzeheart stepped forward. "Then it's decided. The seven of you will leave and focus on releasing Bexley's parents, and everyone else here will move locations. We need more time to plan, and if he knows you aren't here, he'll hesitate to make his next attack—he won't want to make a move until he knows his goal is within range. The current numbers can be handled by making a small example instead of a full battle—but any more and it could require more violence."

I knew it was the right move, though I hated the idea of leaving. Instead, I tried to keep the most important thing in mind: keeping as many people alive as possible. Even if it meant putting aside my need for vengeance and to stop Linan for good.

"Alright," I agreed quietly before looking at my mates. "Let's do this."