Killer Mate

Alaiyah Kozlov

They say that all is fair in love and war.

I strongly disagree.

Was it fair that my mother died because of a war she had no part in?

Was it fair that the five children she left behind grew up with no mother and a cruel father?

Was it fair that over 500 men died because of her murder?

Or was it fair, that I was destined to spend eternity with the son of the man who murdered her? Or that said son murdered my father and brothers, leaving me with not even a single family member left behind?

So you see, all is not fair in love and war.

Many of the men who participated in this war, allowed the phrase to blind them from reality. They believed that nothing was off-limits to them and they could kill without consequence, just because.

That proved to be untrue many times.

Alpha Silas Blake of the Blaze Hide Pack, our rival, thought that he could murder my Mom and get away with it.

My father ripped his heart out for his misconception.

Out of all the many words that could be used to describe my father, monster was not one of them.

He never believed in killing those around you to exact revenge. He comes for you, and only you. He'd use your loved ones for some leverage, yes, but never go as far as killing them.

I guess you could say my father doesn't get revenge, he gets even.

The day my father died, a part of me died with him.

True, the man was a ruthless murderer. He was cold-hearted, cruel and probably a psychopath. He was even cold to my brothers.

But never to me.

I got to see a side of my father that no one, apart from my Mom, had ever seen. I got to see the side of him that was loving, caring. His eyes were never cold nor emotionless around me. They were always warm and loving. I was his little princess.

And the day I met my mate, that warmth and love was ripped away from me, leaving me cold, empty and alone.

The war between my pack and the Blaze Hide pack was one that has been happening for centuries.

After my great-grandfather was murdered, most of my family were killed shortly after. My grandmother died along with them. That was 15 years before I was born. Only my grandfather, father, two of my uncles, an aunt and a few distant cousins survived.

A family that has been striving for centuries, all murdered.

About 5 years before I was born, the rest of my family was murdered. Leaving only my father and my two eldest brothers. Then when I was only three years old, my mother was kidnapped by Blaze Hide's Alpha.

She was raped and killed.

This greatly affected my father. Losing his mate made him and his wolf livid and out for blood.

Two years later, he finally got his revenge when he tore Alpha Blake's heart out of his chest.

Everyone thought the war was over, but my father knew a storm was coming for him.

And he spent the rest of his life anticipating it.

If I had known what would've happened that day when I woke up, I would've done so many things differently.

It started with me wanting to go shopping.

My father was the most overprotective man I've ever met, and I knew it would be a fight to get him to allow me to do this normal task that every teenager does.

I stepped into his office, without knocking, and I immediately regretted it.

A bloodied man was being held down, on his knees before my father. He was just about to land a kick to the man's stomach when he saw me and froze.

He straightened up, before motioning to the two guards who held the man down.

"Lock him in a cell, I'll finish with this later."

They briskly removed the man from my father's office, and as soon as we were alone, I gave him the look. He sighed.

"Don't look at me like that princess, you know this is necessary." He crossed his arms over his chest.

"There are other ways to instil discipline."

"But this is the only way that they'll listen."

Silence.

I knew what my father was. I knew what he did. They'd whisper about it everywhere I went. I was 'The daughter of a monster'. And as much as I wish that they were lying, I knew they weren't.

"I came to ask a favour." My father raised an eyebrow at me. His usual lifeless eyes were now filled with much life and warmth as he spoke to me.

"And what would that be?"

"IwanttogoshoppingwithCassandra." I rushed out in one breath. He playfully glared at me.

"Use your words, Alaiyah." I took a deep breath to relax myself.

"I want to go shopping with Cassandra." I repeated, slower this time. His lips fell into a thin line.

"Alaiyah-"

"Please, please, please. We'll be back in three hours, I'll call you every half hour so you know I'm okay, and I'll even take Nathan along with us." I begged. The look on his face made me worry that he still wouldn't agree.

"Alaiy-"

"Fine, I'll take Nathan and Leo."

"Alai-"

"Marcus too!"

"Alaiyah!"

I shut up.

"You can go shopping with your friend," I squealed and went to hug him. "If," I froze. "You take Nathan, Leo and Marcus, like you said, and your brother drives you."

"I have four."

"Any one you'd like."

I hugged him. "Thanks dad." I happily skipped out of his office and found Cassandra.

"He said no, didn't he?" She pulled a face.

"He said yes!"

She squealed and hugged me.

"Wait, don't tell me, you have a body guard?" She asked warily.

"Actually, I have three and a designated driver." She grimaced.

"Who are the three?"

"Nathan, Leo and Marcus."

"And the driver?"

"Any one of my brothers I'd like." Her eyes lit up at this.

"Oh please take Nick. Please." I laughed at her antics. Nick's the youngest of my four brothers, and Cassie is in love with him.

"Fine, I'll ask Nick to drive us." I grabbed her hand and pulled her along with me to Nick's room.

I knocked on his door. "Nick." No answer. I knocked again. "Nick." Still no answer. I pounded my fists into the door again. "Ni-" The door flew open.

"Goddess, can't a guy get some sleep?"

My brother stood there, gently rubbing his sleepy eyes and wearing nothing but sweatpants.

I felt Cassie tense beside me and looked over to see her go crimson red at the sight of my shirtless brother.

"Dad says you have to drive Cassie and I to the mall." Nick swore under his breath.

"Did he specifically say me?"

"No, but I just chose you. Now come on, you have 10 minutes." He muttered something incoherent and retreated back into his room. Cassie and I giggled softly at his obvious irritation. He came back out with his shirt on.

"Well come on." He grumbled. We followed him downstairs and saw Nathan, Leo and Marcus waiting for me downstairs. We all walked out of the pack house and Nick, Cassie and I got into his car while my three bodyguards for the day got in a separate car.

"So what are you even going to the mall for anyways? Cassie, you gonna buy some lingerie?" He smirked at her and she blushed to her hairline. Nick was fully awake now and his usual, mischievous self.

Let's just say he was well aware of Cassie's obvious crush on him.

I laughed at the two as we left the pack lands.

Nick is older than me by three years, making him only 21 years old. My eldest brother Colton is older than me by six years, and my second eldest brother, Alex is older by five. Harry, the third eldest, is only 22.

We pulled up infront of the mall and Nick found a parking spot. I sent my dad a quick text letting him know we got there safely. I checked the time, it was only 11:30AM.

"We'll only be three hours so pick us up back at 2:30." I told Nick. He nodded and drove off.

Nathan and the others fell in place behind and beside us, but stayed a few feet away.

"Okay first stop, Victoria's Secret so I can buy that lingerie your brother was talking about." Cassie said with a smirk. I laughed at her.

A couple hours later, we were sprawled on top of my bed with our shopping bags.

When Nick came to pick us up, Cassie had ensured to put her VS bag infront of all the others, so Nick could see it. He of course, didn't fail to comment on it.

We were putting away our shopping bags, when a sharp knock sounded on my door. I opened it to reveal Nathan, one of the guards from earlier.

"Ms. Alaiyah, Ms. Cassandra, you need to come with me." Before I could protest, he grabbed my arm and pulled me along with him. Cassie followed swiftly behind us.

"Wait, what's going on?" I asked as panic settled in me.

"We're under siege. I've been instructed to get you and Ms. Cassandra to safety."

"Siege? By who?"

He was silent for awhile.

"By Alpha Blake, ma'am."

My head spun.

"B-but Alpha Blake is dead!" As we rushed through the halls, I glimpsed out one of the windows. Indeed, there was people running about outside and a few of the wolves were shifting. We really were under siege.

"Not that Alpha Blake. His son, Seth Blake."

I've heard about Seth. He was the only son of the Alpha who had my mother killed. My father murdered his dad when he was about 8, so he was too young to take over as Alpha. The last I checked, Blaze Hide pack was in turmoil and was still mourning the loss of there beloved Alpha.

I exchanged a look of horror with Cassie, before we both hurriedly followed Nathan in silence. We reached the basement door, and followed him into the darkness. Our advanced eyesight allowed us to see well in the dimly lit room.

We watched as Nathan rummaged through a book shelf. He pulled out a thin, black book, and the shelf moved along with the wall. It allowed us to pass through into a small hallway, before closing. The hall ended at a stairwell, which we briefly descended, before entering a sleek, black elevator at the end of it.

Once inside, it requested a retinal scan from Nathan. Then he pressed the ground level.

My father had this installed shortly after my mother died. It had six levels. The first five were to accommodate all members of the pack. The sixth level however, which is the ground level, was built to accommodate Alphas, betas, third in commands and their families.

Once it got to our level, the elevator doors opened to reveal the luxuriously decorated area.

The whole thing was built to accommodate a pack of 500 for up to two months. So far, we had no reason to use it.

Only Rosie, our third in command's mate, her daughter Amber, our Beta female Josie, who's pregnant, her two older daughters Hailee and Sierra and Carly, my eldest brother Colton's mate were down here, along with a few guards.

"Is everything alright?" I asked, panicked.

"I'm sure there's nothing to worry about. Blaze Hide has been in complete chaos for a decade. They've reached a point where there is no harmony, and it would take another decade to get them under control. This will die down quickly." Josie stated calmly.

Her words were reassuring, but I couldn't keep calm. I just hope she's right.

I don't know how long we've been down there. Hours, probably.

We all found different things to occupy ourselves.

Josie and Rose spoke with Nathan and two other guards in one corner. I knew they were worried although they didn't show. Both their mates and sons were upstairs fighting. Amber, Hailee, Sierra and Cassie watched television. The couch was large enough to fit all four of them, yet they sat on the floor, and by the looks on their faces, they were uneasy.

I sat in the kitchen area, reading. I couldn't focus on the words though.

I had just started to make sense of a paragraph I've been reading for about 10 minutes now, when the elevator dinged.

We all released a breath of relief. Only pack members could make it into this facility, and only a select number of wolves had access to this level.

The relief fled our bodies as soon as it came, when a high-ranking pack warrior, Jamie's bloody body was kicked out of the elevator.