Abandoned Distillery, Beacon Hills Preserve
Mason
'Pathetic,' I think in disgust, hearing Derek Hale and Peter Hale's werewolf progeny Scott McCall let go of the so-called "Alpha of Alphas" Deucalion instead of killing him. Actually, they aren't even letting Deucalion go, they are the ones who are leaving the building, and the old werewolf is letting them leave without a word.
"Like my mother used to say, I'm a predator, I don't have to be a killer," said Derek during the eclipse.
It was no wonder his pack was almost wiped out.
My father and Alpha Kincaid Hewitt is a predator, and a killer, and my mother… my mother Braeden Hewitt is a professional mercenary, and she used to be a human being, until Deucalion slashed her throat open with his claws while she was on a mission a little over a month ago, which is why we are here.
Jennifer Blake may have failed to kill him, because of the Hale weakling that was Derek and his crazy uncle's rebellious Beta-turned-True-Alpha Scott, but Deucalion the Demon Wolf will not see the moonset and the sunrise. No one attempts to kill a Hewitt and live to tell about it. After Deucalion, Kali and the Alpha twins are next.
"It is time," says Father in his unusually deep voice even in werewolf form, turning towards Mother, whose bitten-Beta yellow eyes glow intensely in anticipation of getting her revenge.
"This is not your fight," Mother tells Alpha Conn Finch, the Alpha of the Primal Pack and mother of Quinn Finch, the white girl who found and saved my mother's life after the Alpha Pack attacked and left her to bleed out and die in a school locker room.
"I beg to differ, and so does our shared custom," replies Alpha Conn, who looks at her daughter between me and her, and then at me. "Once a betrothed pair has signed its names on the Nemeton at full moonrise, their individual packs are one, and so are they. Our enemies are now yours, Braeden, and your enemies are now ours, including Deucalion."
"I know," acknowledges Mother restlessly, yellow eyes on me and not on the moon like I know they want to be. "Our kids aren't going home with us starting tonight. They are moving into their own house in preparation of completing their mating ritual and the union of our packs in twelve moons. It's just… this is personal."
I wish she thought choosing a mate for me was my personal business too, instead of her, Father and Alpha Conn using me and Quinn as their unicorn to unite our packs in the wake of Quinn and Alpha Conn preserving her life until Father arrived to save it with the Bite.
I also wish that I could use the excuse that Quinn and I are only just about to be seventeen and still in high school, but once a werewolf starts puberty and their werewolf gene activates, they are considered adolescents and young adults by sixteen. And as the heirs to our respective packs, it is our duty to be pawns for alliances, even if we don't like it.
"That's why he's all yours," responds Father, to my surprise, but not really.
Mother was a capable and dangerous mercenary as a human, supernatural beings being her targets most of the time. Now that she is a werewolf, capable and dangerous doesn't do her justice, but Father appears to have forgotten that wolves hunt in packs for very practical reasons.
Just as I am about to protest and remind Father and Mother, the latter smiles a sadistic smile, revealing her fangs, from which the moonlight reflects, as she takes out some things from her utility belt.
"Put these in your ears then," she says, handing what I find to be earplugs to Father on her right and me on her left before putting hers in.
I follow her example, giving two pairs of earplugs to Quinn, keeping one for myself, and before I know it, we're walking towards the abandoned distillery with just one person inside: Mother's first kill as a werewolf.
"I thought I heard your voice," says Deucalion when we're a few feet from the door, his surprise audible, as well as something else: resolve. "How did you survive?"
I wonder how… oh, the wind is blowing our scents from behind us into the building.
Instead of answering, Mother throws a ball into the building as we enter. A split second later, I hear a dull piercing long drown sound that disorients me for a few seconds, after which I raise my head to find Deucalion clutching his head in pain on his knees.
"There are far more terrifying things you should have been scared of other than Scott McCall's potential," Mother informs her prey, right before she separates from us to run at the downed werewolf and hit his protected face with a running knee that sends him a few good feet back. "I am one of those things."
Here I am, thinking this is going to be a good fight and I will get to jump in at some point, but as Mother stalks her prey, said prey does not get up to defend himself. Confusion and panic appear to enter his very human eyes, instead.
"Surprised you can't move?" Asks Mother casually, standing over her prey.
"Wha-what did you do to me?!" Demands said prey, unfit for me to think of him as Deucalion the Demon Wolf as he tries - and fails - to hide his panic.
Mother growls in response. "You tried to take away my son's mother and my mate's mate from them, and now… now I'm gonna make you pay like you've never had to pay, Deucalion. When I'm done with you…" she trails off to stomp on the Big Bad Prey's left forearm.
The bones audibly shatter, making me flinch. The Big Bad Prey screams in pain, but he can't move to protect himself, and the pain and terror in his eyes makes it obvious that he is aware of this fact.
"The only intact bones you'll have will be in your right arm and skull," says Mother darkly, moving to rest her foot on her prey's left ankle. "And I'm gonna take them as trophies and carve your name on your skull before I hang it outside my front door for everyone to see what happens when you think you can kill one of us."
"My moon, don't you think the front of your bike would be better?" Father suggests.
"Good idea," replies Mother, and then stomps on her prey's ankle, shattering it and eliciting another scream of pain from him.
NWO: P
Quinn
The Primal Pack has a lot of sadistic werewolves, but my new mother-in-law is putting many of them to shame as she crushes Deucalion's bones one limb at a time like she doesn't have an audience that includes me, Mom, her mate and my new father-in-law Alpha Kincaid Hewitt - who reeks of arousal, sadist - and her own son Mason - who is my mate. My mate.
I steal a look at him from the corner of my eye, and find him watching the scene before us intently with his unusually completely blue born-Beta eyes, fully shifted like all of us. Speaking of, in the month that my pack has been hosting the Hewitt Pack leadership as our packs exchanged pack traditions, I've never seen Mason in his human form outside the eclipse that just occurred, and even then, I couldn't really see his face as it was dark, and my eyesight was very much human.
I could deal with that, as most of my pack lives deep in the preserve - where we've all been this entire month - like natural wolves, and I like that he's proud of being a werewolf, but he doesn't seem interested in me or getting to know me. The boy shows more interest in annoying the racist members of my pack in creative ways that doesn't include rubbing the fact that we're mates in their faces than getting to know me.
It's like he is actively trying to avoid acknowledging our very real arranged interracial pack coupling, but he sure makes quite the effort to learn anything and everything any member of my pack is willing to teach him, and everyone loves him for it. Well, the racists still don't love him, but they respect him enough to stop entertaining overthrowing Mom over the mating arrangement.
I'm the reason his mother is alive, I should have his full attention and interest, but here I am, stealing a look at him and wondering why he isn't interested in me. We are mates, damn it!
"Mason, come over here," Braeden, my favourite person in the Hewitt Pack, attracts my attention as she calls her annoying disinterested son to her. I almost throw up at the mess Deucalion is and the blood and bones around them because of her. It seems Mason Hewitt is a bigger distraction than I thought for me to have totally blocked out what is going on in front of me. "And come with your mate."
Mason and I look at each other with his mother's addition, and I wonder what he's thinking.
"Hurry up, you two!" Braeden tells us. "You have all of your lives to stare into each other's eyes."
'I wish,' I think. 'But your son isn't interested in me even though we're in the same situation. I don't know how we're going to live together, let alone produce an heir when the time comes.'
As we approach Braeden, the more I notice the scent of blood, marrow, piss and sweat, and I imagine Deucalion as a deer instead of a fellow werewolf to prevent myself from throwing up as he struggles to breathe.
"You didn't ask to be mates and the link between our packs, but you are, and you're handling the situation we put you in better than we expected," says Braeden, proud of us according to her tone and the way she is looking at us. "I hope you handle the power and burden I'm about to put on you well too."
"What are you talking about, Mother," asks a confused Mason for the both of us.
"As much as I want to finish off Deucalion myself, I just realised that I don't want to be an Alpha," replies Braeden, surprising me. Does she sound a little embarrassed or am I hearing things? "Not yet. I'm not used to being a werewolf yet, and I want to master my Beta level abilities before I advance to Alphahood. You two - on the other hand - have been ready to be Alphas at least since you were fifteen, in case something happened to your respective Alphas and parents."
Thankfully, nothing has happened to Mom and I don't have to take over from her yet.
"There's only one Big Bad Prey here, Mother," points out Mason, giving me pause at the "Big Bad Prey" part and I almost giggle as I realise that he's referring to Deucalion. "And there's two of us."
Oh, now, he notices me, the annoying…
'Deep breaths, Quinn,' I coach myself so that I don't broadcast my annoyance.
"I called you both here because you're no longer just individuals, son," responds Braeden with music to my ears, because I've wanted someone to tell my in denial mate something along these lines. "You now have to discuss making decisions like these with each other because your choices don't just affect you individually anymore, they affect both of you. This is my gift to you, your first decision as mates. Make it quick, the 'Big Bad Prey' is fading, and I don't want his Alpha spark."
She promptly leaves us to rejoin Mom and Alpha Kincaid, leaving us with a heavy decision to make.
"You'll find us at the Nemeton," says Mom.
"Wait, what?" I ask, looking at her, Braeden and Alpha Kincaid as they move to leave the building.
"You have a big decision to make as mates, and you don't need an audience to make it," replies Alpha Kincaid in his booming voice. "Welcome to your independence, daughter-in-law, son."
Daughter-in-law. I hope Mason heard that loud and clear.
"Oh, I almost forgot," Braeden suddenly runs back to us and kneels down to reach for Deucalion's neck.
"Mother, you said he's ours to kill," reminds Mason, sounding too eager to kill someone, even if that someone is Deucalion.
"Relax, will you," responds Braeden, pulling out a… a dart from Deucalion's neck. "I'm just retrieving my equipment."
"When did you…?" Asks Mason, and I want to know too because I didn't see her use it, but then again, he had my attention for more than a moment.
"My initial attack on his senses was a distraction to inject him with a fast acting modified kanima venom," answers Braeden, solidifying her place as my new role model before she goes to pick up the sound-producing thingy she used to attack Deucalion's auditory senses. "Give me back my earplugs and get to your first decision- making as mates."