Mathias (#1 The Chronicles of the Demon Wolf)
Chapter 1

Mathias does his early morning workout in the gym in his barracks. He’s the Commander of the 1st Battalion. At the age of twenty-two, he replaced Commander Jahan Peterson who retired shortly before that. It has been three years since Mathias took over. He has one more year to go before he could assume the Alpha’s position in the Southern Werewolves Pack to replace his father Cohen. For that, Mathias works hard as he doesn’t want to be a disappointment to his family. He could have started his Alpha’s training as early as the age of sixteen but his mother, Mira, was against it. She wanted him to finish study before the Alpha’s training started.

So, Mathias went to college with his triplet brothers; Ryker and Tanto. After they had graduated from college, they started their Alpha’s training. It doesn’t matter whether the people who take Alpha’s training would become Alpha or not in the end. Because the law has been changed, the number of recruits increases each year. The previous law stated only the ones who were becoming an Alpha were needed to undergo the four-year training. Now, everyone who born in the Alpha’s family requires to undergo four-years training. That is the law of the Supernatural World’s Council.

Ryker commands the 2nd Battalion while Tanto, well, being Tanto. The youngest of the triplet isn’t keen on commanding people. Still, he ended up as Ryker’s second-in-command. Mathias considers his family as the ones out of the ordinary. His mother, Mira, is a demon wolf and heiress of three thrones; werewolves, vampires, and Lycans. She was the reason why Lycans still survive to these days. His father, Cohen, is the vicious Alpha of the Southern Werewolves Pack. His old man excels in terms of hunting and leading the pack. Mathias strives to be as good as his old man.

To be better than him.

Mathias, Ryker, and Tanto were born as demon wolves with the form of Lycan. Mathias heard many stories from their mother about their Lycans and how they helped their parents to win the wars. He has other four younger siblings; Enzo, 22, Cynthia, 19, Rinzler, 17, and Bonnie, 16. Enzo graduated from college recently and he’s taking a year off before going for Alpha’s training. Cynthia, Rinzler, and Bonnie still have to wait until they’ve graduated. That’s the deal they made with their parents.

“Mathias?” Eva comes in from the front door.

Evangeline ‘Eva’ Blake is the second-in-command of Mathias’s battalion. Also, she’s the daughter of Liam Blake and his mate Jazmine Diaz. She is a real duplicate of her mother; her black hair cascades to her delicate waist—a little feminine touch to her strong figure and her eyes are in the color of silver—so clear and beautiful that Mathias can just drown himself in her orbs and never comes to the surface for a breather.

Despite her strong resemblance with her mother, she inherited her father’s height. Being a five-foot-eight tall girl making her towering all the girls in the battalion.

Eva is four years younger than Mathias but that doesn’t stop her from rising up the rank. She’s considered as a highly-skilled she-wolf and the youngest woman as second-in-command.

“Hey...” Mathias stands up after finishing his push-ups. “Finish your jogging?”

Also, they are dating but their families haven’t know the truth yet. He knows that one day he will have to let her go when she replaces her mate. That condition applies the same to him. They’re unmated. As long as they don’t mark each other, they still have the chance to meet their own mate.

“Yeah. Uncle Brandon is looking for you about something.” She passes a white towel to him. “Something about the new batch of recruits.”

Mathias breathes out and leaves the gym with Eva. Every battalion needs to accept twenty new recruits and train them as the same as those who already gained the title Enforcer. His uncle, Brandon Kane, handles everything about recruitments and also serves as the Gamma of his father’s pack. The recruitment will start in two days.

He knocks on the door of his uncle’s office. “Uncle Brandon?”

“Ah, Mathias, come in,” The Gamma replies, looking up from the file he’s reading. “You too, Eva.”

Ryker and Tanto are already in the office. Suspicion raises inside Mathias’ mind on the presence of his two brothers there.

“Is he in trouble?” Mathias points to his younger brother.

Tanto frowns. “Why are you always expecting me to be in troubles?”

“Trouble is your middle name,” Ryker answers in his rich baritone voice.

Between the three of them, Ryker is the most brutal one. Born as a demon wolf, it can do many things to them. They’re no exception from bloodlust. Their mother experienced the same during her life before she mated with their father. To lessen their bloodlust, she created a necklace with strong magic that can harbor their bloodlust at bay. Tanto is the joker in the family. Nothing bothers him to the core and he always has a grin on his face—a sign of mischief.

“Boys...” Uncle Brandon claps his hands once to gain their attention. “Now, the reason why I’m calling all of you here is the sudden changes in the number of recruitments to your battalions.”

Ryker and Mathias grunt under their breath while Tanto grins. They have their hands full nowadays. With the ongoing missions, now they have to handle a bigger recruits group. The 1st Battalion already has ten ongoing mission. Almost a hundred of the Enforcers are working outside the Council’s land to get their mission done. Mathias commands a total of six hundred Enforcers, not including a total of one hundred recruits from the past three years which still under his guidance. In total, he has nearly seven hundred werewolves under his command. Ryker’s battalion is no different. The first two battalions are the largest in the Council because they are the frontier for both assault and defense.

Mathias wonders how he’s going to command over two thousand werewolves once his father steps down as an Alpha. Seven hundred werewolves already give him a heavy responsibility. Let alone over two thousand.

“These are the lists of your recruits.” Uncle Brandon passes one file to each of the Commanders.

Mathias passes the file to Eva without even taking a look at it. He hates paperwork. She chuckles at his action but accepts the file nonetheless. It is her duty to obey her Commander’s orders.

“Thirty recruits?” Eva speaks after she looks through the file.

“Overkill again,” Ryker grunts again. “For three years, the recruitments into 1st and 2nd Battalion have been overkill, Uncle Brandon.”

Uncle Brandon chuckles, “Should be a piece of cake with your strict rules.”

“Looks like the female birth rate is increasing,” Tanto smiles widely as he reads the lists silently. “So many women in 2nd Battalion’s recruits.”

“Are you trying to say the male birth rate is declining?” Mathias squints his eyes to his younger brother.

“Actually—” Uncle Brandon intervenes. “Majority of the recruits aren’t the firstborn. If I’m not mistaken, only ten of sixty recruits are the firstborns.”

“Also, it means you can expand your list,” Ryker says under his breath. “No offense, Eva. You know how Mathias was before you dated him.”

“You know his ex-girlfriends liked the father more than the son.” Eva jokes.

Mathias whips his head quickly to the direction of his second-in-command. As much as he hates her statement, there is still a truth hidden behind it. Eva is right. All his ex-girlfriends ended up liking his father which is why Mathias isn’t really successful with relationships.

“Your father is a charmer, Mathias,” she continues with a teasing tone.

He stands up abruptly. “I’m going for a patrol.”

He can’t use his authority on these people every time. He’s on the same level of authority with them.

Mathias walks away as they laugh at his abrupt exit. He makes a quick walk to the 1st Battalion barracks and reaches his living quarters in a timely manner. Mathias takes seriously of everything happens in his battalion. No rules can be broken without repercussion. Because of his strict rules, the 1st Battalion becomes the model of all battalions.

“You can’t be seriously mad at me for what I said.” Eva enters shortly after him. “I was joking, you know that.”

Mathias takes off his drenched shirt. “I don’t really care actually. I just wanted to end the meeting. I hate meetings.”

He hates meeting. But as the future Alpha of his father’s pack, Mathias needs to learn to survive every meeting. Meeting means more talking and arguing than replaceing a solution. He hates talking and arguing. In a matter of fact, Mathias isn’t a man with many words. He’s the kind of a man who spends his time to brainstorm for every possible solution than wasting the time to argue with the people who don’t share the same view as him.

He places his index finger underneath Eva’s chin and tilts her head up before capturing her lips. They never show their affection in public because of the professional line. But, behind closed doors, anything can happen. Her small hands rest on his muscular chest as he pulls her closer into his embrace. Eva moans against his lips before granting access to his tongue. Mathias can smell her arousal. With his status as a demon wolf, his senses work better than an Alpha werewolf’s senses.

“You’re going to be late for the patrol.” Eva pulls away breathlessly.

“Such a killer-joy,” Mathias groans against her neck.

He nibbles a small patch of her skin and smiles when moan escapes suddenly from her lips. He knows where her soft spots and does everything in his power to exploit it. He’s not taking advantage of her. Both of them know where to draw their line. They have been dating for over a year now and not even once they speak the words of love or about their future together as a couple. That’s where the line comes in. A mating bond is a sacred thing to the supernatural world. Mathias doesn’t want to force Eva to reject her true mate for him. And he knows she doesn’t want him to do the same. They are on mutual agreement that one day they will have to let each other go.

“It’s my duty to remind my Commander of his duty,” she smiles but her arms still wrapped around him.

Mathias smirks, “You’re telling me to go for the patrol. Yet, your arms refuse to let go.”

Eva withdraws her arms instantly as if his body is burning her. A blush creeps on her cheeks causing Mathias to chuckle even more. Among all of the people who know him, Eva understands him better. Well, his parents understand him too. But, Eva can get to a different level of understanding which is why Mathias feels lucky to have her in his life.

“And make sure you don’t snap the necklace this time.” she pats the necklace around his neck.

The last time he shifted into his Lycan form, the necklace chain snapped because obviously, he grows in size when he’s in his Lycan form. And that is very dangerous. His bloodlust will poison his consciousness instantly. If it wasn’t because his father was around, Mathias was confident there would be collateral damage.

“I know. You should get going with the training,” He says as they leave his living quarters.

They go in a different direction. Eva heads to the training hall while Mathias regroups with his patrol team in front of the barrack. They are already in their wolf form. Mathias doesn’t need to shift as he fears he will lose control again. With the Council’s vast land, about one thousand werewolves make the patrolling for each patrolling shift. There are two shifts; day and night. Usually, the night shift has larger patrol teams. Mathias patrols twice a day; Six hours on each shift. He doesn’t need to do six-hours straight of one patrol shift. In his day shift, he does six times of patrolling. Each lasts for one hour. The remaining of his day hours are spent in training, paperwork and other things. Same goes to his night shift except that he doesn’t need to work on the remaining six hours of the night.

“Alright, boys. Let’s go,” Mathias says as he leads his patrol team into the woods.

Everyone here respects him and his family very much but that doesn’t change the perspective of certain people. Some people think that Kingsley’s family is a family of monsters because his mother is the first demon wolf. Those people blame her for the wars happened since her birth. Mathias gets angry at times when he hears this but his mother doesn’t care much about it. She knows what she is. And he knows what he is. His siblings know what they are. They were born as monsters but they do their best to keep it at bay.

Despite his mother’s origin, his father learned to make peace with her demon wolf. He loves her just as much as his wolf loves the demon wolf resides in her.

Mathias is convinced his future mate will accept who and what he is one day.