Payment To the Alpha
Chapter 45

Avery's POV

"Okay, but wait!" I yelled with my hands in the air and laughing. Lydia, Natasha, and I were in my room, eating snacks and catching up. Lydia told me to ask any and all questions I had regarding anything, and she would answer them. So I had, for the past two hours.

"How come you," I said and pointed to Natasha.

"Didn't know that it was Lydia when she walked out of the forest that day?" I asked. This question had burnt a hole in my mind ever since that day.

"Well, because I didn't get my wolf until I was eighteen, and by then, I was living in Brooksten. So my mother never knew what my wolf looked like. I had only shifted once before that day, so I barely knew myself." Lydia said with a shrug and popped another sour worm in her mouth.

"I see," I said, taking a sip from my wine glass. Being here, with Lydia, talking and drinking wine. It reminded me of how things were before. Whenever I would feel sad, confused, or lost, Lydia was always there to guide me in the right direction. I missed that. She was my best friend. She is my best friend. And I will never let go of her again.

"How are they doing back home?" I asked, and the uncertainty was noticeable in my voice. I don't know if I wanted to know the truth. Lydia and Natasha looked at each other, neither of them answering my question. I nodded my head and took another gulp of wine, twirling it around my mouth before swallowing it.

"I see." I said with a 'tsk' sound at the end.

"I'm sorry, Aves. I don't want to lie to you, but I honestly don't think knowing will do you any good. However, I did promise 'no more lies.' So if you want to know, I'll tell you,"

"Lydia," Natasha said sternly, in a warning.

"No! She deserves to know. I promised you, Avery that I wouldn't keep anything from you, and I won't. She deserves to know, mom." Lydia said. Natasha knew that there was nothing she could do to change her mind. That was also a thing about Lydia; if she had set her mind on something, there was no stopping her.

Natasha put her hands up in defeat and then clasped them in front of her.

"So?" Lydia asked and looked at me expectantly. I raised a brow at her,

"So what?" I asked.

"So, do you want to know?" She said, emphasizing every word. I looked between my best friend and Natasha a few times. I grabbed my wine glass to take another sip but noticed that it was empty. I guess I'm taking pretty big sips.

I groaned, and as if she was reading my mind, Lydia took the bottle and poured me some more wine. I gave her a smile and started drinking like it was lemonade.

"No. No, I don't think I want to know." I said honestly. What good would It do me? They were obviously not doing too well. Neither was I, but at least I knew that I'd be back. They were left with the notion that I will be back, but none of us were sure when.

"Wise choice." Natasha said. I nodded my head, and Lydia quickly changed the topic.

"SO, what's up with James' brother, huh? Is he taken?" Lydia asked me with a raised eyebrow making me giggle.

"Lydia Marie Claeson!" Natasha scolded her daughter. Lydias' hands flew up in surrender as she looked at Natasha with her big eyes.

"I'm sorry, but hey, it's a reasonable question." She said with a shrug and then looked back at me with guilt and a small smirk.

I laughed to the point where I nearly fell off the bed.

"Lydia, you're the daughter of his uncle!" I shrieked, scrunching my nose and shaking my head.

James' POV

What a fucking week. I thought to myself as I dragged my hands over my hair and walked through the woods. I had let Blade out for a run, thinking it might be a good way to get rid of some of the built-up frustration. I am beginning to realize, however that I didn't need a run. I needed blood.

I needed to kill someone, rip someone's throat out, hit someone until they're lying in a pool of their own blood.

Holy fucking shit.

I was walking near the cliffs, thinking about what Alex said.

Dick head.

I went and sat on the cliff, with my legs dangling off the edge. How did life take this turn?

How did this all happen? I needed Avery. I needed her here with me, by my side. Only then will I be able to relax. Only then will I crave her presence more than blood.

"Thought I told you to stay away from the cliffs?" Alex said, coming up behind me. I had sniffed him out earlier but didn't bother to acknowledge him.

"Thought I told you not to sneak up on your Alpha." I retorted. Alex scoffed as he took a seat next to me.

"If I could sneak up on you, you wouldn't be my Alpha." He said with a smirk, and I felt a jolt of childish amusement flood through me.

"I know that it's hard, brother. But suicide is not the answer," Alex's smirk grew even wider as he joked with a fake seriousness to his words.

"You know, one little push is all it takes, and you'll never be able to annoy me again." I said and leaned forward, looking to the river at the bottom. Alex started laughing beside me and shook his head.

"What do you think they would've said had they been here right now?" I asked him as I looked up at the heavens. Alex let out a breath of air before looking up.

"Honestly, they would be on the road, looking for the son of a bitch who's threatening their family." He said. And I couldn't agree more.

"So why don't we?" I asked my brother.

"You know why. He's coming here, James, soon. We just have to be patient." That's the problem. My patience is running thin. It's barely hanging on by a thread.

"So you-" Mid-sentence, Alex was cut off. We both got a mind-link.

'Alpha.Beta. There is a man here saying he wants to meet you.'

'Wo is he?'

'He won't say Alpha.'

'We'll be right there.'

'Yes, Alpha.'

Alex and I looked at each other before standing up and heading back.

"Who the hell would willingly want to meet you?" Alex said, walking beside me. I stretched out my hand, sending him into a tree. He quickly recovered, though,

"Jackass," Alex cursed, patting his clothes free of dirt.

'It's starting.'

What is?

'The war. It's almost time.'

I looked at Alex, who was already looking at me with furrowed eyebrows.

"Blade?" He asked, and I nodded my head.

"He said the war is almost here." I said. Alex clenched his jaw and looked ahead.

"So did Ceasar." He said, and my head snapped his way. Cesar isn't the one to normally know about the pack business deals. Normally nobody did. This means that Ceasar is talking with the moon goddess as well. I believe this to be much greater than any one of us had expected.

Amber's POV

I was watching the unknown man sitting on the chair in my brother's office. His hair was ruffled and dirty, as were his clothes. They were ripped and had stains of dried blood on them.

Whoever this man was, he didn't seem to know it himself. He had walked onto our territory, where the patrol guards had caught him. They asked him what his business here was, and all he said was that he had to meet the Alpha and that it was urgent. The man hasn't spoken three words since walking in here. So I decided to see if his tongue had started working.

I walked up to him and sat on the chair next to the man.

"Excuse me, sir," I said and leaned forward. His eyes were glued to the window behind the desk. He barely blinked. I could tell that his eyes were a darker shade of green and that he had bruising all over his face. He looked like he had been in one hell of a fight.

"Sir, can you tell me your name?" I asked but was met with silence once again.

"Why do you need to see the Alpha?" I asked, trying my luck one more time. He didn't budge, his eyes not moving, nor his head. It was like he was in a trance.

"What happened to you?" I asked, sounding concerned. I scanned his face, as much of it that I could see, and there were bruises, black and blue, blood, and I saw a few broken bones. His nose was one of them. That question seemed to have done something as the man slowly turned his head towards me. We now had eye contact and usually, this is the part where I see a person's true intentions. Where I get a sense of who they are. But from him, I got nothing. It was blank. His eyes showed no emotions, no feelings, no nothing. It was like a pit of darkness behind otherwise telling eyes.

"H-he-He did this to me," The man stuttered. Struggling to speak but managing to get that sentence out. I leaned in a little closer.

"Who did that to you?" I asked him, hoping to get some sort of explanation. But before he could answer, the door opened up, and my brothers stepped in, followed by Jackson and... Sebastian?

James walked around the desk and took his seat, the man looked towards the three men standing behind us, and when his eyes landed on Sebastian, I thought I saw something.

James didn't speak. He studied the man from top to bottom, locking his eyes with his. James' eyebrows furrowed, and I could tell that he saw the same thing I did, nothing.

"Who are you?" James asked while looking suspiciously at the man. Even he was met with silence. However, James and I deal with silence in different ways. Where I may be patient and understanding, my brother is not.

"If you can't speak, then I can't help you. So either talk or scribble it down on paper. If neither of those work for you, then-"

"Crow." The man said, cutting James off. And suddenly, all ears perked up, and all attention was on him.

James' POV

His eyes that earlier held no emotion were now suddenly black and angered. When he said the name of the man I desperately wanted to meet, his eyes changed, but so did his entire facial structure.

I didn't know much about the man sitting in front of me except for the fact that he was a werewolf, based on his smell and the fact that he had information about Crow. But one thing was made clear from the moment I saw him, he can't be trusted. However, he had information on Crow, the question was, is it believable?

"Speak." I said firmly, leaning back in my chair. The man gave me a weird stare, and what looked like a smirk he was trying to suppress.

"I met Crow," He said with hatred laced in his words. He spat venom as well as saliva that landed on my desk. I looked at him with a raised brow and waited for him to continue.

"He is the one who did this to me,"