Chapter 2

"We need to retreat, Alpha Gery," Zezi said again.

"We don't."

"They are Vampires, Gery." The Luna, Sky, stated the obvious. Even as she tried hard to hide it, fear was clear as day in her voice.

"Doesn't mean they can't be defeated." He smiled weakly at Sky and she looked away, worried.

It was midnight and they had all been forced to come down to the meeting room because of the terrible reports reaching them from the Borderlines. Everyone felt tensed as they all stood at the round table, discussing the next course of action. They were desperate for a safe way out.

Alpha Gery wanted to say something else, but he caught the empty seat next to Zezi, and he snarled. "Where is your mate?"

Zezi bowed her head in respect. "He will be here soon, Alpha."

Gery clenched his fists and Sky patted his back a little before giving him a smile. He relaxed immediately and Zezi looked away.

They were real mates, blessed by the Moon Goddess. Looking at them reminded her of what she was...or wasn't.

"We cannot back down. We keep on moving."

"But Alpha..."

"Have you considered the pass yet? You are the best we have, Zeta; I need you at that Borderline."

"My daughter..."

"She will be fine, I will have my Luna here look after her." He gestured to his wife who smiled blindly at Zezi in return. She was a little woman compared to the Alpha but she was a good and powerful Luna nevertheless, just as she was a wonderful mother.

"You can be rest assured, Zezi. I will take good care of Mira. She will have a great time with my pups."

Zezi's eyes shone with refusal and it didn't take long for the Alpha to figure out what was going on.

"It is your mate, isn't it?"

Zezi could sense the trap. Alpha Gery and George were never on great terms. She knew she had to pick her next words carefully. "I'm sorry, Alpha, but I can't leave my daughter."

He clenched and unclenched his fists in anger that he was trying really hard to control. "I hope you know what you are doing. You are the Zeta of this pack and your pack needs you!"

Zezi could sense the underlying challenge in his statement. He was already questioning her dedication to the pack. If it had been anything else, her wolf would have just easily submitted but this was her daughter. "And my daughter needs me! We all know that she is sick."

There was silence.

Zezi had stood up to the Alpha. But then again, everyone knew never to come between parents and their children, their wolves were always at the most protective.

The room was tense. The Luna held her husband hoping with all her heart that things wouldn't escalate.

"Is your mate lost or something?" Alpha Gery changed the subject while he stared daggers into the empty seat and the tension in the room seemed to have flown right out of the window.

Before Zezi could say anything about him being on his way or apologize for his lateness, the door to the room they were in flung open. There was her mate, looking tired and really pissed. His eyes roamed across the room and when he saw the Alpha, anger lit in them.

"When were you ever going to tell us?!"

Everyone found his tone shocking. Indeed, he and the Alpha were never on great terms but they had always maintained the relationship needed for the position they held in the pack. George's tone, right now, was definitely not maintaining that relationship.

"You don't speak to me like that, Beta."

George slammed the door shut and rushed into the room at wolf speed, but when he spoke, his voice was filled with respect and laced with an underlying sarcasm.

"When were you going to tell us that the Vampire King left you a message, Alpha."

Everyone's eyes were on the Alpha now. He was visibly seething in fury. His eyes filled with anger as he stared George down.

"Gery?" Sky spoke up, demanding an explanation from her mate, but when he didn't speak, George spoke again.

"The only reason we found the body was because they wanted us to. They tattooed on it a reminder for the Alpha to sign a sort of deal and stop all this bloodshed."

"Is that true, Gery?"

"More like slavery." He finally scoffed from being put on a spot. "The deal is a deal with the devil."

"How about we be on the devil's good side for a while?"

Zezi's eyes flew wide open and she held George in a firm grip. Trying to stop him from doing anything stupid.

"I am tired of you disrespecting me!"

"This is not disrespect, this is the truth! How can you call yourself our Alpha, watching us die at the altar of sacrifice because of your ego? This fight has been going on for months and the body says the deal had been down for three months. Three good months, you watched us die, slaughtered like sheeps. How much longer were you going to watch us die? A few more months? Till there is no one left?!"

The Luna turned swiftly to George and snarled. Her wolf didn't like the tone with which George had spoken to her mate.

"George!" Zezi snapped. The room became tense again for a while before Alpha Gery spoke.

"I am your Alpha, you don't question my decisions!"

George snarled. "You are not my Alpha, we both know that."

When George came to this pack some months ago, he was a rogue, and Gery's father had taken him in. The thing was that George came from a long line of Alphas; his wolf was of high rank, and after getting trained for a while, Gery's father had made George the beta. Even after Gery's father died in a war, George's wolf still saw him as the Alpha seeing that Gery lacked the kind of strength that his wolf would consider superior.

The Alpha's eyes changed to blood red, his wolf was at the surface. He took some steps closer to George who stood his ground firmly. "Then it is best you leave."

"I won't be the one leaving," George smirked.

His mind was foggy with anger and he allowed his beastly side to do the thinking for him. All his mind was calculating was how he could easily bring the Alpha down. Indeed, the Alpha was twice his side, but he felt certain that he had a good shot here because, one thing was sure, he had never been defeated before.

They both stood there, staring daggers at each other, waiting for the first person to make a move.

All George could see was red; he couldn't think straight, and anger was rushing through his veins. Someone like Gery was undeserving of being Alpha. If he took him down now, then he would sign the deal and all this bloodshed would stop. His mind didn't take into account the risk involved, his mind wasn't taking anything into account.

He felt someone's hands on his arm and pushed whosoever it was aside, slamming the person across the room while his eyes were still set on the Alpha.

"Enough!" The Luna's voice rang out, radiating with power. Alpha Gery was the first to step aside, letting his mate's voice get to him. Sensing that his opponent had backed down, George's wolf pulled back into his mind and he could see clearly once again.

Then he remembered that he had slammed someone across the room a while ago. Fear rushed into his veins.

He looked across the room quickly to see Zezi slammed against the floor, pain and displeasure etched into her face.