bChapter /bb249 /b

Yorick

bMy /bfirst week back after being gone a week was hectic. Alpha Nevaeh was right that I’d missed a lot. I underestimated how much time it would take to catch up and try to keep up after missing only a week. However, my sweet mate helped me through.

Sparring is the only ss where I feel like I didn’t fall behind. And now that Alpha Leo is gone, I feel like I’m really starting to learn better fighting techniques. I have a lot of fighting knowledge already and unlike some in this ss, including my mate, I’ve fought in real battlesb. /bI know firsthand that what you learn in sses in handy, but you can’t assume that everything will be as easy as it is in a controlled environment. People die on that battlefield. My sister Wendy was almost one of those casualties two years ago.

Having learned from two men who fought in a lot of wars, my father and Quirin, I feel like sparring is my best and easiest ss.

On Wednesday morning, Alpha Nevaeh walks into the dining hall before sparring ss and calls for quiet. Beside her is an older man, obviously an Alpha. He’srge, looks like he’s never smiled a day in his life, and he emits a dangerous aura, as if all he’s ever done his bentire /blife is fight. Based on the multiple scars that I can see on his body, including the one that slices through his eyebrow making him look like he’s constantly frowning, I’d say my assessment is correct. He reminds me of an older Quirin if he’d never mated with my sister.

“Everyone, this is Alpha Michael. He is a new instructor here at the Academy. He will be taking an active part in sparring ss and will be teaching the Art of War and Battle Tactics next semester. Alpha Michael has experience in multiple real–life battles and he will bring that experience to our Academy. We are very lucky to have him. He will be assessing your skills over the next couple of days and he, like meb, /bbwill /bhave a say in who bes eligible for the elite fighting group at the end of the year. Many of you saw one of those teams when Alpha Leo was removed from the school. There are currently four such teams that work for the Council and as members retire, they need to be reced. There are two positions that will be avable this year. You are the elite. Alpha Michael and I will make you the elite of the elite.”

1look around the table. Unlike Wendy who has a penchant for technology, I’ve always been a fighter. In some ways, I’m d that Connor is

the first–born son. It’s left me open to follow a path that I wanted, not one that wasid out for me. Connor has the responsibility of the entire pack, not just mentally and physically, but also financially. His job is a lot more paperwork than I would ever want to do. Bing an elite fighter, however, sounds incredible.

I can see that the others at our table, other than Cyra, look excited at this possibility as well. Cyra’s path is in her pack, and that thought makes me pause. If she is going to be Alpha of her pack, is there a possibility of me bing an elite fighter? What happens when Cyra begins having our pups? Could we put that off for a few years while I was fighting? Would I be able to be away from her for long periods of time while I waspleting a covert operation? And what would happen to her if something happened to me?

Almost as if she can sense my thoughts, she reaches out and takes my hand, squeezing it and smiling at me. I pull her hand to my lips and kiss her knuckles. My path lies with Cyra, no matter where that takes me.

On our way out to sparring ss, everyone talks excitedly about the possibility of bing an elite fighter.

“You need to go for that,” Cyra says quietly as we walk out.

“We need to talk about what that means for us,” I tell her.

She smiles but continues watching the others around us. “I know what it feels like to not be able to follow your dreams. I saw the look on your face, Yorick. You love the idea of being an elite fighter and you’d be good at it. Don’t hold back because of me.”

I stop and pull her to a stop with me. “As I said, we need to talk about what that means. We still have a lot of other things that need bto /bbhappen /b

it what bkind /bbetween now and then, not the least of which is getting you out of the alliance bond with Sten. I’ll do some research to f

bfrom /bbmy /bof operations the teams run and how long that would keep me away from you. But I have no intention of spending my life a mate. I want pups, I want a life. With you, in case that wasn’t obvious. Once you’ve been instated as the Alpha of your packb, /bbwe’ll /bbsee /bbwhat /boptions are open to me.”

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b“/bbYou’re /bbnot /blistening bto /bbme/bb, /bbYorick /bb… /bshe begins.

b*/bbNo/bb, /bbyou /baren’t listening to me, bCyra/b. I want you, more than anything else in this world. More bthan /bbbeing /ba bfighter/b, bmore /bthan traveling, as bthe /bworld, Is my future following a different path than I thought it would with you? Absolutely. But that doesn’t mean that bI /bdon’t wann

“I don’t want you to ever have any regrets or feel like you gave up your dreams for me, Yorick.”

“You are my dream, Cyra. You, our futur

iour /ipups, our life together,” I say, holding her gaze.

She presses her lips together in a firm line. “Let’s see what the elite teams look like. Maybe you can be part of one of those teams. Maybe they

timefram are divided into different skill sets or

for operationpletion.”

“See, it’s already working out,” I say smiling and leading her onto the sparring field.

“Before we start today, a show of hands, how many of you have been in an actual battle?” Alpha Michael asks.

I raise my hand as does Zach, Megan, which surprises me, and one other warrior.

“You four, with me,” he says. I kiss Cyra quickly before stepping aside with Zach and the others.

“Name?” he asks Zach.

“Zach Mont, Alpha.”

“Alpha Zane’s boy?” Alpha Michael asks.

“Yes sir.”

Alpha Michael turns to me. “Name?”

“Yorick Hill, Alpha.”

“Alpha Warren’s boy?” he asks. How the hell does he know our parents?

“That’s correct.”

He turns ito /iMegan. “Name?”

“Megan Alston.”

He raises an eyebrow. “You’re Alpha Cory’s daughter?”

Megan lifts her chin defiantly. “I am.”

“I’m surprised he let youe here.”

“He doesn’t expect me to seed,” she says, the muscle in her jaw ticking.

“Prove him wrong,” Alpha Michael says, making Megan blink and I’m surprised when the defiance falls away.

“Yes sir.”

He nods and turns to thest person.

“Name?”

Chapter b249 /b

bCarlos /bSanchez, bAlpha/b.

“bWarrior/bb?/bb” /bAlpha Michael asks.

“Yes sir.”

b“/bWhat’s your Alpha’s name?”

“Alpha Atticus, sir.”

Alpha Michael grunts. “He’s been in a lot of battlestely.”

“Yes sir, he has. It’s how I got epted to the Academy.”

He nods. “Spread out. You’re all going to attack me at once.”

The four of us look at each other,

“Sir?” I ask.

“Do I look like a man who hasn’t been in a lot of battles, young Alpha?”

“No sir.”

“I’ve been in more battles than the four of youbined, I can promise you that. I was on one of the elite fighting teams for twenty years. Believe me, four young fighters, even those with minimal experience, are nothing to me.”

We spread out around him. Once we’re in position, we look at each other. Alpha Michael doesn’t move, but the aura around him bes even more dangerous.

I look at the others and nod. Almost as one, we attack.

He swings fast and hard, knocking Megan aside, beforending a punch to Zach’s gut. I hear him wheezing as he drops to the ground. I duck from the punch headed toward my own gut and take the hit on the shoulder. Pain erupts across my torso, but I don’t let it stop me. I continue to drop and as I see Carlos flying through the air, both Megan and I go for Alpha Michael’s legs. She uses the same punch that used on Cyra,nding the punch on Alpha Michael’s inner thigh as I swing my leg, ready to take him down. I hear him grunt at her punch and he shifts his weight to the leg nearest to me just as I swing my leg behind his.

As I spin around, I see him starting to go downb, /bbut by the time I’ve spun all the way around and popped back up for another attack, he’s back on his feet, somehow having swiped Megan’s feet out from under her.

Zach is getting up, having finally regained his breath and he goes for Alpha Michael’s gut. Alpha Michael somehow manages to swipe Zach’s feet out from under him, elbowing him in the chest before agilely hopping back to his feet in a move I’ve never seen in someone his size. My moment of distraction is all he needs to get the better of me, but as he takes me down, I still manage tond a punch to his kidney. I hear him grunt just before Ind on the ground, the air in my lungs punching out of me and making it impossible to breathe for a few seconds.

When I finally suck in air, Alpha Michael has called a halt to our fighting.

“You two fight clean. That’s good in ss, not good on a battlefield,” he says to Zach and Carlos.

“You fight dirty. Good on the battlefield, not good in ss. You need to work on your form. You have good skills, but improving byour /bbform /bbwill /bput power behind those skills,” he says to Megan before turning to me.

“How did Warren Hill’s son learn to fight dirty?” he asks me.

“My sister is mated to Quirin Harris,” I tell him. Quirin is the person who taught all of my family members bto /bbfight /bdirty. He’s already bteaching /b

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bhis /bdaughters Kendra and bKaylee /bbto /bfight dirty and they’re not even three yet.

b“/bHarris? As in Harold Harris? I thought he only had the one son.”

b“/bAlpha Harold adopted Quirin after the death of his father, Alpha Quinton,” I tell him.

He raises that eyebrow at me. “Your sister is mated to the man whose father was killed by her father?”

b“/bHow do you know so much about our packs?” I ask him, not sure I like how much information he has about my family.

“Rule number one of being an elite fighter. Always know who you’re fighting. If you make it to the elite fighting squad, learning about every pack on the continent will be one of the most important sses in your second year. You all have some work to do if you’re interested in bing elite fighters, but having some experience behind you gives you a leg up against the others in the ss. Get back into bformation/bb./bb” /bI go stand beside Cyra, watching Alpha Michael. I have no idea if I can make it work being an elite fighter while living in a pack, bbut /bI know bthat /bI want it more now than I did at the start of ss.

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