Chapter 52

Arik

"So, this is capture the flag then?" I asked as we stood under the bloody beating sun. As if my skin wasn't already bright red and stinging enough, with sweat sliding down my back.

"Worse than that," was all Creed would say in response.

"How can it be worse than capture the flag?" I heard the sharp note in Roan's voice, so I shot him a dark look. "Cadets nearly fucking died when we were forced to play that during our training."

"Enough of that." Silas' tone was abrupt and full of command. "The objective is to find the flag with Jessalyn's scent?"

"Creed will need to take care of that then," Roan said. "Our noses are not good for anything but hanging a pair of spectacles on."

"So that's the strategy that everyone uses?" I asked. "The one with the keenest nose is the one that finds the flags, and the rest of the pack protects him?" Creed nodded sharply. "Then we're not doing that."

"What?"

I hated that look on Silas' face, on Roan's. They used to trust me to make the calls, knowing I'd get them through whatever challenge we faced. Each one of them knew my methods were unorthodox, but hadn't I always ensured we won the day?

"Think about it." I watched our competitors, not my pack, trying to get a read on each one of them. "If that's the tactic everyone else is using, then it won't work for us. For one, each one of those bastards is a wolf shifter, whereas only one of us is. They have us beat when it comes to brute strength."

"So we must use cunning."

I didn't realise how much I'd missed Silas's sharp smile until I saw it again. His face was flushed bright red, sweat dripping from his brow, and while I wanted to say this was the most ridiculous moment we'd endured as a pack, it wasn't.

"How are the flags hidden around the arena?" he asked Creed.

"They're buried, but—"

"I'll look for signs of disturbed earth." Those green eyes scanned the plain far more closely now. "On my own. If the focus is our flag and all the others buried, then they're not likely to pay much attention to a single human on the outskirts of the arena."

"But the wisdom of our ancestors says that we are strongest when together as a pack," Creed said.

I saw then the futility of what I had planned for the princess. It'd been hard enough, forcing the lot of them to fulfil my brother's orders and bring the other victims to the capital. It was only the dire threats each and every one of their families faced if we didn't that made them compliant. But now…? He'd found the other half of his heart, and nothing would stop him until he finally had Jessalyn in his arms.

So I had to ensure that happened.

"We are, brother." They were the ones I gave that title to, not the man who sat on the throne, because in my heart, they were the ones I shared a familial bond with. I'd walk through hell for each one of them, and looking at the hulking bastards on the field, that might just happen today. "Just because we don't fight side by side doesn't mean we're not working together."

"Destroy as many of these fuckers as you can," Silas said with a nod, jogging away from us, his eyes taking in everything as he moved. I saw the nearest pack glance his way, but just as he said, their focus wasn't on a human, but their prize.

I dared to look out over the crowd then, seeing a sea of faces staring down at us. Was Jessalyn sitting there, watching us? I couldn't help but stand straighter, just in case she was. I tried to tell myself I was doing this for my brothers, to assuage the pain in Creed's heart that burned just as fiercely as our skin did right now. That Roan would stop looking like someone kicked his puppy if we won the day, but I was never that selfless. See the objective and move heaven and earth to make it happen, that's what our drill sergeants had always said to us while we were still cadets. It was advice I'd used over and over, and it held true now. So, for just a second, I had to imagine it.

What would it be like to hold Jessalyn in my arms? I hadn't even dared think it the night we met, so the feel of her body against mine had come as a great surprise. It was not as if I hadn't held a lot of women. Wenches, whores, or even fine ladies, I'd dallied with them all, but it was something else holding a princess. Her body seemed to fit mine perfectly, like a key in a lock, and my arms had gone around her on instinct. I'd wanted to protect her in that moment, the urge beating hot and hard and true, until I'd forced the feeling away, knowing that only heartbreak would follow if I indulged it.

But what if it didn't?

What if we could be happy as a pack? Would my brothers stop eyeing me in the same way one does dog shit smeared on your shoes? Would the easy banter of before be restored? Would their eyes light up first, then their faces, because of the little princess? She felt like the fire around which we warmed our hands.

Something I really didn't need right now.

My heart was pounding, adrenaline pumping in my veins, because we were facing another impossible battle. The reason why wolf shifters were so valued was due to their sheer brute strength. One of them could flatten me and Roan both, which was a problem.

"How the fuck are we going to survive this?" Roan said, his mind already racing down the same track. "We can't take on pack after pack of wolf shifters and hope to survive."

"Not if we play by their rules."

I loved this fucking feeling, when my mind became sharp as a knife edge. Everything extraneous fell away, leaving only this. Shadowy forms raced across the ground in my mind, showing me where each pack was likely to go and what they'd do to achieve their goal, because it was now do or die time. Everyone wanted the same thing, but we… We needed to want it more. Go harder, work smarter, be faster…

"Speed…"

Roan's eyes locked with mine, and he nodded, a reckless smile spreading across his face.

"Remember when they pit us against that bloody pack of wolf shifters in basic training?" he said, but I was already nodding.

"The Yael pack," Creed growled.

"Meanest bastards to ever grace the earth." Roan said that with a note of pride in his voice. "And we took them down." He nodded. "We took them down. They had height, weight, age, and experience on us, but we still managed to survive that bout."

"And we will again. Creed, you take the full-frontal assaults."

"Gladly."

His arms went out by his side, claws forming at the ends of his hands. Fur prickled across his skin as wolf and man fused to become more than the sum of their parts.

"Roan, you know what it takes to get through this," I said.

"They're strong, but we're faster, more agile. Out dance the pricks and then use all those hulking muscles of theirs against them to bring them down."

The Kheanian army used wolf shifters like other countries used cavalry. A brute force that smashed into an enemy line en masse, it punched a hole that the human infantry could then use to try and overcome the enemy. But just like a massive charger, they were good at full-frontal assaults, but not great at pivoting and shifting in response to an unpredictable threat.

"That's it, brother."

I moved in close, the lot of us sharing a little moment of peace, one I'm not sure we'd felt since we met the princess.

One we wouldn't be able to hold onto until we had her in our arms.

For a moment, I just focused on my breathing, hearing my heart beat, my breath coming in and out, theirs quickly matching the pace of mine. As I looked out over the field, catching Silas now halfway around the perimeter, I was sure his breathing was doing the same. Slowing down, finding our centre, and then when we were ready…

Wren detailed all the rules of the melee, but I didn't hear a single one. My ears were trained only to hear this.

"The first to take possession of their mate's flag wins an opportunity to spend the evening with their heart's desire," the elder said, and the crowd responded like a hound with the scent of prey in its nose. They wanted blood, they wanted passion, they wanted to see the path of true love run smoothly.

And so did I.

That was the thing I never dared to admit to anyone, that the means to carry me forward was a belief that would be denied. My brother had brutalised me since birth, and while he was capricious and cruel, he did so for a reason. To beat me down, to make sure I knew my place.

Lest I try to rise above it again.

I didn't know if I would've wanted to if he treated me kindly, but his cruelty ensured this. He'd shoved me into the army, hoping I'd die like a dog on the battlefield, but I refused to submit to my fate. I would choose my own way every time, and when I bonded with my pack, I knew I'd always take them with me. Towards survival at first, but then as we gained greater mastery, we wanted more.

And right now, it was the princess.

"She'll never share a word with us willingly," I growled, every muscle tensing as the energy in the arena rose. "I steered us down the wrong path, forced her to harden her heart just like I did mine, but no more. If we win this, we don't win her, but we win…"

"A chance." Creed nodded then, eyes shining, the wolf and the man staring at me. "It's not what the wolf wants, but it's all we're likely to get."

"Then let's snatch this victory from the jaws of those big bastards." Roan's teeth flashed in the bright sun. "We've managed it before. We can do it again."

"And go!" Wren cried, right before we unleashed hell.