LIAM

The early morning light invaded our room through the partially open curtains. I laid in bed with Azalea sleeping on my chest. I played with her soft hair as I watched her chest rise and fall. I didn’t sleep well, but I still didn’t want to wake Azalea. Her alarm would go off in the next hour to start her day getting the kids ready for school and taking care of Azly.

I tried to just enjoy the peace of the moment with my mate. The stress of current events weighed on me, but there were too many lives on the line for me to falter. I had to find and kill Warwick before he got to us. Yesterday, an Alpha of a small pack called to tell me that they caught and killed a vampire near their borders. They think he was scouting the pack to attack later. The thing I couldn’t get off my mind was that this pack was far away from the direction Maddox and Langston headed. It didn’t make any sense.

Azalea rolled over, leaving my chest and facing the other direction. I extended my arm as she moved, so she was still lying on it. I rolled myself over to spoon her petite frame. I loved the way her body just curled right into mine.

We laid there for a few minutes, peacefully cuddling until Lily scared me by linking.

“Liam, you better tell him no!” she said rather loudly.

“Lily? Tell who no?” I replied. Then there was pounding on the bedroom door.

“Liam!” Damien called from the other side. Azalea stirred, waking up.

“Is that Damien?” she said sleepily as he continued to pound on the door. I g*****d.

“Liam, let’s go!” Damien shouted.

“Liam, you better not go train with him!” Lily linked me.

“What is going on? Why is Damien here so early?” Azalea asked, trying to sit up now. I flopped onto my back and ran my hands over my face.

Azalea clicked her tongue as she climbed out of bed and hurried over to our door. I watched from the bed as she opened it. “Damien,” she said, placing her hand on her h*p.

“Good morning, Azalea,” he said. “I need your mate.”

“What you need to do is quiet down,” she told him as I sat up and swung my feet over the side of the bed. I smirked, knowing she was going to chew him out. “I have three sleeping children in this hall, one of them being merely weeks old. So, if you don’t mind bringing the volume down just a tad.”

I watched my best friend’s face pale a bit as he looked down at my Little Luna. I chuckled, coming up behind her and wrapping my arms around her middle. “Haven’t you ever heard, don’t wake a sleeping Luna?” I joked.

“Very funny,” he said to me. “Sorry, Azalea, I didn’t mean it. I need Liam.” His eyes traveled back up to me.

“Where are we going?” I asked.

“Training grounds,” he said. “I need to work out.”

“There is a problem with that,” I told him. He looked at me confused and ready to argue. “Your mate is threatening me.”

“Damn right I am! Damien Hale!” Lily’s voice traveled down the hallway. Then we heard crying over Azly’s baby monitor on our nightstand. Azalea threw up her hands in frustration.

“Really, guys? It hasn’t been that long. And I remember something about Lucas being a colic baby that never slept,” she grumbled at them. She pushed past Damien and headed down the hall to Azly’s room. Lily joined us, peeking past Damien to Azalea storming down the hall.

“Whoops,” she said before turning back to us. “No,” she said, crossing her arms. “No. No. No. You have been awake for less than two days and out of the hospital for less than one. You do not need to do anything but relax right now!”

Lily had already started rebounding. She was still in her pajamas, but she looked much healthier than she had a few days ago. Her skin was much closer to its normal color, and the bags under her eyes were almost gone.

“C’mon, Lil. Doc said that I could get back into things as I was ready. There is a war going on! I need to get back in shape as quickly as possible!” he argued. I watched the two with only mild interest. I was personally on Lily’s side, especially after being interrupted in bed cuddling my mate so early in the morning.

“But you came to get Liam, so that means you are going to go hard. You would have gotten scrawny little Jacob if you just wanted a workout buddy. You can throw him around like a doll. But you came up here and woke up Liam, which means that you want a real opponent,” she said pointedly. I had to stifle a laugh causing Damien to shoot me a sideways glance.

“We have been training together forever. I need him; he won’t let me get hurt. You trust him, don’t you?” Damien said. Lily looked at me for backup.

I threw my hands up in surrender. “I am only going to agree if she does,” I said. “I would love to have you back in the sparring ring with me but not until you are ready.”

“I’m fine!” he growled. “Will you all stop doubting me?”

That cracked Lily’s resolve. Her face softened, and her shoulders dropped. She let out a heavy breath before turning to me. “You won’t let him go too hard? Lots of breaks? Only the basics?”

“Sure, Lil. I can do that,” I said with a reassuring smile. Damien smiled triumphantly.

“Unless you want training to start with a tired Luna chasing you with a stick, get out of the packhouse,” Azalea said, coming back to us looking grumpy. Azly was in her arms, fussing.

“I’ll take that,” I said as she joined us. I grabbed my pup away from my mate happily. “Good morning, beautiful,” I cooed at her.

“Let me feed my pup, and I will meet you outside,” I told Damien.

“I’ll warm up,” Damien said, turning. Lily slapped his arm.

“You will not! You will wait for Liam!” she said as she followed after him. Azalea rolled her eyes.

“Didn’t you miss it?” I teased her.

“As soon as he feels 100%, he will stop bugging her so much,” she sighed. “I’m going to get dressed while you feed her. I suspect we will be seeing the boys here soon.” She kissed the top of Azly’s head then went back into our room. I could already tell today was going to be a long day.

–

“Damien, let’s take a breather,” I said. I wasn’t breathing too hard, but he looked like he was ready to fall over. We had started with exercises we use on the young pups, but he had insisted we work on cardio drills after finding those too easy. I had given in, but less than four minutes into the first one, I regretted that decision.

Damien shook his head as he sucked in large amounts of air. “I’m good,” he said between breaths. “Let’s keep going.”

“No, break time,” I said. I went over to the edge of the training ring and grabbed one of the cool bottles of water. I turned around and tossed it at his head. Luckily, his reflexes weren’t lacking as he caught it with an irritated glare. I plopped down in the grass, grabbing my own water. My stomach growled, reminding me that I should be eating breakfast with the kids before they head to school.

Damien lumbered over to me and collapsed on the ground. “You know I don’t care if we have to go back to pup workouts, right?” I said, a little irritated. He knew Lily would have my head if he pushed himself too hard.

“I’ll be okay,” he huffed. I eyed him skeptically as he chugged his water.

“You would tell me if something was wrong after everything, right?” I asked.

“We have been best friends for over 20 years now, Liam,” Damien deadpanned. “Don’t you trust me?”

“I trust you implicitly,” I told him. “But I also know you will do anything for this pack, including getting bitten by a vampire. Plus, you don’t like to lose when it comes to anything physical.”

Damien finished his bottle of water and crushed the plastic in his hand. “C’mon, breaks over,” he said, getting off the ground. He was being pretty elusive, and I was getting worried about him. It made me think there was something he wasn’t telling the rest of us that could be a side effect of the vampire venom.

“Why don’t we just shift and go for a run?” I asked him, getting to my feet. “I bet your wolf would love to stretch his legs.”

Damien’s shoulders stiffened. “Maybe we should just keep at this?” he said with his back turned to me.

“Gavin could use the exercise too,” I said. “I can barely get out lately. I’m either in my office or down here. Plus, the morning group won’t be long, and we’ll have a crowd.”

“Uh,” he stammered. “I, uh, guess. Let’s go.”

He headed toward the treeline, his posture rigid. When we got to the trees, I started pulling my clothes off and tossing them in a pile. Damien did the same, just much more slowly. I was soon sprouting fur and landing on all fours. I turned around and looked at Damien, standing still with his fists clenched at his side.

“Damien?” I linked, not being able to speak now. He didn’t respond. I watched as his fists gripped tighter and muscles flexed under his skin like he was straining himself. My stomach turned; could he not shift?

Damien let out a pained yell and hunched over. His body slowly shifted to his wolf. It was long, and I could hear every cracking bone. When he was finally done, he stood there panting for a second.

“Damien?” I tried. He didn’t answer. “Cage?” I tried.

His head snapped to mine. He let out a low growl. Without warning, he turned and took off into the trees. I ran after him. Was Cage in control? Why couldn’t Damien talk to me? Cage was running fast but not as fast as he used to run.

I continued to speak to Cage, but he either couldn’t hear me or ignored me. Gavin wanted to give it a try as well, which proved to be just as fruitless. I let Cage run for a bit, trying to see where he would go. He didn’t seem to be headed anywhere specific, just running.

After about twenty minutes, he showed no signs of stopping, and I was reaching the end of my leash. I sped up, catching him quickly. I came up beside him, hitting him with my weight to get him to recognize me. Cage snapped at me before trying to run faster.

I easily kept up with his pace, coming up on his other side to hit him again. He snarled and snapped his jaws, warning me. I was his Alpha, though, and he would not disrespect me. Finally, I launched myself at him, tackling him to the ground. Our wolves rolled around, fighting each other for dominance.

Had Damien been in normal health, this would have been a real struggle, but because he was recovering from his coma state, I took control easily. I stood over Cage, my paws in his chest.

“SUBMIT!” I bellowed through my mind with as much Alpha tone as I could. Cage froze under me, no longer fighting to get away. “SHIFT!” A strange expression passed through his eyes before his body started to obey. I stepped back, letting myself shift as well.

Moments later, Damien lay on the ground in front of me, breathing hard. He brought his hands up to his face, groaning. “What the hell was that?” I asked loudly.

Damien didn’t answer at first. He struggled to a sitting position. “I don’t know,” he panted.

“No, Damien. No more bullshit in front of your mate. What the f**k was that? Cage was almost feral, and you had no control! What aren’t you telling me?” I demanded.

“I don’t know-” he started again.

“Bull s**t. I’m not just the Alpha here; I am your best friend, damn it. Tell me now!”

“I can’t connect with Cage!” he shouted. I looked at him, shocked. He turned his head away and took a deep breath. “I haven’t been able to talk to my wolf since I woke up, maybe even while I was asleep; I don’t know that part is hard to recall. I wasn’t even sure I could shift; I was afraid he was gone.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?” I asked. “That is important to know, Damien.”

He gritted his teeth. “I don’t need your pity, and I don’t need Lily to worry more. I put her through enough!”

“You shifted and had zero control. What were you going to do? Test that theory by yourself? What if Cage took you away from the pack, or he hurt someone?” I questioned.

“I don’t know, okay!” he yelled. “I don’t know. I was going to figure it out. I wasn’t going to let Cage hurt someone, and I wasn’t going to let you or this pack down.”

“Damien, could you hear me at all? Could you see where Cage was going or what he was doing?”

Damien was quiet. He looked down at the ground before he shook his head. I threw my arms in the air in frustration. “s**t,” I said under my breath.

“Liam, I need you,” Azalea’s voice pushed through my mind.

“What’s wrong?” I quickly asked.Belongs to - All rights reserved.

“Luna Jessalyn just called. Please, come back to the packhouse quickly,” she said.

“Stand up,” I said in a level voice. “We need to get back to the packhouse now.”

He stood. “I don’t know that I should shift….”

“Wasn’t an option. We are running on two legs,” I said. “Let’s go.”