Battling For Dominance (GXG)

Lilia

I wake up to the sound of my alarm blaring through my room. It’s early Monday morning, and as always, I can’t wait to start a new week. There is a pack meeting tonight, I have a test on Tuesday, a book report due on Thursday, and my first day of warrior training starts Friday.

Without missing a beat, I click the off button and my feet swing onto the soft carpet of my floor. I have about half an hour before I need to start getting ready for school, and I already know what I plan to do with my extra time.

Reaching my bathroom, the cold tiles send a jolt through my feet, and the water that I splash in my face removes the last bit of sleep from my body. After drying my face, I meet my reflection to find my normally gray eyes, shining bright blue.

‘Good morning Ember.’

‘Good morning Lil.’ A wave of goosebumps washes over my arms as I feel her stretch her K9 spine and curl her toes with almost catlike grace. ‘How did you sleep?’

I stretch my back as walk back into my bedroom and begin taking off the shirt I slept in. ‘I slept fine, ... Just had a bit of a nightmare. I love you but …’

She laughs, her purring vibrating through my chest, giving me goosebumps again. ‘The caching and killing squirrels in our sleep is a bit much, but I don’t really have control over that. It’s not like I get annoyed whenever you make us dream about boy bands.’

I roll my eyes. ‘That happened one time. But if you’re going to keep mocking me, then maybe I should just cancel our morning run.’

Her laughter stops immediately, her tail curls between her legs, and she lets out a dramatic whimper like I am threatening with animal abuse. I seriously spoil her too much.

With my last time of clothing dropped on my bed, I walk to the balcony door and open it wide. My bedroom is on the second floor in the back of the pack house. Few people walk here, especially in the morning hours. Just a few meters ahead of me, is the edge of the woods that expands into our territory.

With a breath of fresh air, I take in the various smells that surround me, immediately feeling my primal needs take control of me. My hands itch as my nails begin to grow, and the slight sting in my gums takes over my senses as my jaw begins to stretch. ‘We only have half an hour, Ember.’

‘Yes, yes, okay, stop fighting me now.’ Her excitement begins taking over, and I jump over my railing, relinquishing all control.

Withing a second, we land a few meters ahead, on our white front-paws. Ember wastes no time darting into the forest, and I allow my mind to relax and take the back seat.

It’s only been three months since our bonding, and in the beginning I had a lot of trouble. Constantly having another voice in my head, who has an opinion about everything. The hardest part was having her occasionally fight for control. Giving up control is never easy, but in the end it comes down to trust. It’s not easy sharing your body with a playful ageless wolf who easily gets distracted, and has a strange obsession with woodland creatures.

‘It’s not strange, if anything it’s probably healthy.’ Ember interrupts my thoughts, making me laugh.

I become aware of the smell of fresh water and sunflowers, normally this river is the spot we reach before turning around, but for some reason Ember only begins picking up her pace. ‘Ember, what are you doing?’

The sound of her panting fills our ears, and the burning of her pushing her muscles becomes stronger. ‘I’ve been getting faster, Lil, I want to try to jump the passage.’

‘Ember no! We’ve tried this before, we always miss. Can’t you do it tonight? If you miss, you’ll fall in the mud and I don’t have time to clean everything off.’

‘We can do this Lil, we are much faster, I can feel it.’

By the way her heart is racing, I already know that she isn’t going to slow down. She barely has time to finish her thought, before we reach the passage, and she launches us into the air. The moment our back paw lifts off the ground, I regret having doubted her. I can feel the wind in our fur, and see how high she jumped. We have been running twice a day, which is way more than most wolves do. It’s only normal that we would make progress, but I just didn’t expect it to be so soon.

With a loud thud she lands on the other side, her nails scraping in the dirt as she comes to a halt. ‘Told you we could do it.’

‘Yes you did, and for that I’ll snatch a big raw steak from the kitchen for you tonight.’ I smile as she begins prancing her way back to the pack house with a dancing swing to her steps. The thing I like most about Ember is her ability to always be cheerful and appreciate even the smallest of victories. With the stress that I am often under, it’s actually very nice to have her in my head, calming me down.

We reach the pack house property from the front as we did a loop of the surrounding area. On my way through the field, I see more people than this morning when I left. Many stop to stare at Ember, and I understand why. Wolves are almost always some combination of brown, blond, red or gray. Few are a solid color, and even less are completely white. So when I first shifted, the entire family was shocked. Word traveled fast that there was a white wolf in our pack, but I had my father make sure that few people found out that it was me. It’s considered some kind of status symbol, and I find that idea off-putting.

Still he can’t stop people from staring. From a distance, Ember practically shines in the sunlight. Anyone can tell that she is larger than the average wolf, and upon seeing me, many wolves have tried approaching me. Luckily, the moment they come into smelling range, most cower. Any brutish male who dares try and claim me quickly change their minds as they feel my alpha aura, and honestly I couldn’t be happier. The only one I will ever let touch me is my mate. And until I find him, I’ll rip out anyone who thinks he has a chance to lay claim.

It’s only been three months since I have even been able to find my mate, and not that I’m particularly impatient. I’m still young, and my parents are nowhere near retiring, but the sooner I find him, the sooner he can begin preparing. I am the Alpha’s firstborn, and always knew what my role will be. Once we mate, my bite will give him the strength and speed of the Alpha bloodline, and he can take over the pack together.

With a flawless jump, Ember lands on my balcony and I begin feeling the shift of my bones cracking and popping back into place. My perfectly scheduled routine and me showered, packed and dressed and on my way down the stairs and towards the dining hall withing twenty minutes. Ember’s little jump this morning did hit a snag in my planning, but I was able to compensate but just pulling my long blond hair into a tight ponytail instead of brushing it out.

I pass a few pack members, who curtly bow and avoid my gaze. It wasn’t always like that, until three months ago most of them were much less formal and easily approached me. It has been a bit of a challenge to keep Ember’s aura in check, and it’s getting better. But as long as I keep radiating so much power, it causes a strain on low-ranking wolves around me to make eye contact. It’s an involuntary action, one of the things I truly dislike of the changes that I’ve been going through.

I find my father sitting at the head of the table, with my mother to his right and an empty seat on his left meant for me. I kiss my mother on the cheek, but as I begin stepping towards my father, I pull back as I notice the deep frown in his brows as he studies a few documents. ‘I’ll tell you about it later, just let him be frustrated for now.’

My mother’s voice echos through our private link, making me bite back a smile. Whatever is going on with him, she’s probably the only one who can calm him down once he reaches his boiling point.

I sigh, taking place in front of her, and begin eating off my plate. ‘Lil, I have a weird feeling about today.’ I don’t respond to Ember, She knows I feel it to, but for now there isn’t much to do about it, I’ll probably find out tonight at the pack meeting. Instead, I try to focus on my breakfast and the casual conversation with my mother.

I do my best to ignore the two empty seats next to her and myself. Maybe that’s why I’m feeling uncertain. Jax and Jace aren’t here, and the thought that they might be up to something makes me nervous. I love them dearly, but they are trouble by every definition.

The rest of my morning is calm, and I soon find myself stepping into the car. I start up, but before I can press the gas the passenger and one of the back doors swing open. I knew this day was going to be hard.

“What do you idiots want?” I grunt trying to calm myself down.

“We want a ride to school, and since you’re already heading there, we thought we’d save gas.” Jace answers from the back seat.

I squint my eyes at him in my mirror. “And why isn’t mom taking you like she normally does?”

Jace avoids my gaze, looking at his brother to my left. “Her car is being repaired. So she can’t drive us.”

I hear the slight shift in their increased heartbeats. It’s probably nothing bad, if they were up to something Ember would sense it, but right now she’s just calm. “And why wouldn’t she drive you in dad’s car?”

They remain quiet, and I can tell that they are arguing with each other in though their private link. I don’t wait for an answer and drive off. I already know what happened, they probably did something stupid like try to race our parent’s cars and ended up destroying them since neither have a license. At least that explains why they weren’t at breakfast. My parent’s probably grounded them for a month, and I don’t blame them.

My brothers are idiots and deserve way worse. If anyone spends one day with them, they would quickly understand why.

See, all Alpha bloodlines are granted more speed and strength than the average werewolf, but our family has an extra gift. Over fifty years ago, my grandfather, was caught in between a battle of witches over territory. The wolves weren’t even involved, he just happened to be at the right place at the right time. He found a shaman that was caught in the crossfires, and risked his own life to save the man. As a result my grandfather’s lineage was granted even faster heeling than the average Alpha. If the blade is not made of silver, we heal instantly. It’s made my grandfather and his children next to impossible to kill.

I’ve only seen this as an added bonus, my brothers however, see it as an excuse to try and get themselves killed. They’re two years younger than me, and you don’t shift until you turn eighteen, they don’t have wolves to level out their stupidity. They were never this bad, but six months ago, Jax accidentally got his finger chopped off while playing with warrior blades. The kicker was that they sowed it back on and within a day it was as good as new. It’s given them an obsessive disrespect for mortality.

My hour drive to school is normally a calming time I use to reflect, but not today. Thanks to Dumb and Dumber, by the time I reach the campus parking lot. I am frustrated, and my mental energy for the day is drained.

They storm out without even a thank you, leaving my car to smell like sweat, and Jax doesn’t even bother closing his door properly.

My head falls back on my seat and I grunt, closing my eyes. ‘On our way back, I’m tying them to the hood of my car, or they can find their own ways home.’ Ember’s laugh makes me feel a bit better, but not enough to completely fix my day, I already want to crawl into be and start over.

A knock on my car window startles me, and I need to bite back my impulse to growl. “Hey there, Alpha, having a rough morning?” Daniel, grins down at me with a slight taunt. He probably saw my brothers storm out, and if not, he can probably at least smell them.

I roll my eyes as I step out and slam the door shut behind me. “This is so not a good morning.” I grumble, throwing my backpack over my shoulder. Luca and Kay are standing behind him also grinning at me.

Daniel is and always has been my best friend. He’s also going to be my future Beta. There is nothing wrong with that, but on the day I turned eighteen, he wouldn’t leave my side. He tried hiding it, but his motives were clear, he was hoping that once my wolf awoke, we would find mates in each other. His father being best friends with mine, I think our parents were also hoping the same. Around five in the afternoon I first heard Ember’s voice and I immediately looked and Daniel but felt nothing.

I expected to end up with him, but the moment I realized I wouldn’t, I felt relief. Until that moment I didn’t really know how I felt about him, he’s always hinted that we could be more, but we were both waiting to see if we had the bond.

There is nothing wrong with him, by every definition he is extremely attractive. His short black hair is always perfectly kept, he has a strong built, perfect for a beta, and his charisma has attracted, almost every unmated she-wolf and female human in school. I however see him more as a brother, and the mere thought of having to kiss him makes my stomach acid threaten to come up.

I growl my frustration, but all three burst into laughter. These three have been my friends for as long as I can remember, and they are also the only ones who don’t automatically feel the urge to whimper and bot whenever I get pissed and lose control.

Luca will be next in like as Gamma once I take over, and Kay will be taking over from their father as lead warrior when the time comes. All four of us know what our futures will be like, and the responsibility we have to carry. Maybe that’s why we’ve heald on to each other so long, our friendship is the only guarantee in life.

My path to my first class is the same as always, with the wolves of my pack giving slight bows and making sure to step out of my way. They try to be subtle to not alert any of the humans walking the hall, but do terrible at it. Their impulse to jump out of my way has caused many humans to mimic their behavior, and even if I’ve never interacted with many of them, I can still smell the fear oozing out of their pores.

I take my seat in the third row of my advanced calculus class, with Daniel to my left. Sitting around us are about five other pack members, about twenty percent of the student population are members of the Black Creek pack, and look to me ass their leader. The respect they have for me isn’t something I was just awarded, it was something I’ve earned, and it shows with the slight bow that Mr. Dallas gives in my direction.

He isn’t part of our pack, he is one of the few wolves that is considered unaligned, but not rogue. It’s not an option that many wolves have, if someone wants to leave a pack you need permission, if you don’t have it, you will be classified a rogue. Few Alphas would willingly let someone walk away, it is seen as a disgrace and a dwindling of power.

I take my lesson material out as the tardy bell rings through the building. Slowly, I feel myself relax again after my horrible hour-long torture session with Jax and Jace. I just need to calm down and everything will be okay.

Mr. Dallas gets up from his seat and begins walking over to close the door. “Alright everyone, as you may know, there will be a test next week Monday, so I would like to begin with running through the material.” I look up to see him grip the handle and push it close, but as the door is about to click into the lock, when he is harshly shoved aside, almost hitting the wall behind him.

Even from this distance I could hear the slight crack of his ribs as the door collides, but he keeps his face neutral as he looks down on the animal that is standing in the doorway panting and refusing to be locked out.

“Ms. Morrison, you know the rules, if the door is closed, then you are late and will have to get a slip at the administration’s office.” A soft growl vibrates from his chest, but she seems unfazed. Why would she? If anything, she would probably find his anger amusing. That’s just who she is. If my brothers are trouble than Ashe Morrison is the devil incarnate.

With one final deep breath she stands straight from her leaning position and looks Mr. Dallas right in his eyes. “Sir, you know me, I would never want to break any rule.” Her smile is wicked, green eyes shining with unspoken warning. I hear him swallow, and his heart rate pick up. “But…. If I remember correctly, the door wasn’t closed yet. So one of us is lying, and I’m very sure it’s not me.”

‘Oh you have got to be kidding me.’ Ember rolls her Wolfy eyes, releasing a puff.

“But if you insist that I am in the wrong, then indeed I have no choice but to turn around and make my way to the office. I’ll just have to call my father over to sort everything out.” She tisks as she shakes her head at the ground. “He will be so disappointed, I just hope he doesn’t get too angry at me.”

I can’t believe this, talk about abuse of power. Of course, and unaligned werewolf is going to avoid confrontation with an angry Alpha. And if the logic isn’t enough indication, I can smell his fear.

A low growl from Ember forces its way out of my throat, but luckily Daniel is the only one who hears it. ‘Calm down Lillia, control Ember.’ He places his hand on mine to cover the fact that my nails are growing.

I close my eyes, taking a deep breath, I hate this. So far, besides the occasional eruption of my Aura, I am perfectly capable of controlling myself in all situations. Well, all situations that don’t involve Ashe Morrison, otherwise known as the bane of my existence. Any problem I have every had has someway traced back to her. When it comes to our pack, she is a big problem, and even in school I can’t seem to find rest from her.

Twenty percent of this school consists of Black Creek wolves, and sixty percent consist of humans, the rest are her creatures. She walks around reeking havoc, knowing that she is practically untouchable. Typical Alpha behavior, I pity the wolves that will someday be ruled by her and the unfortunate soul she ends up mated to.

I know for a fact that she hates me as much as I hate her, it’s always been that way. For centuries our two packs have been at war, countless battles have lead to too much bloodshed with no one ever ending up on top. In this country there are hundreds of smaller packs, but those are all ruled by the three largest packs.

First there is the Blood Claw pack. The largest pack in the world, led by Alpha Zeus. It’s not his real name, but he has demanded to be addressed as such since he became the self-named Alpha king. The entire idea is absurd, but him holding forty-five to fifty percent of the wolf strength in the country, leaves no one to challenge him.

Then there is the us, the Black Creek pack, ruled by my father and soon me. Our pack consists of about thirty percent of the country’s population. And though Alpha Zeus is to be feared, as long as we don’t piss him off we should be fine.

And finally, the Oval Moon pack that has always perfectly rivals our numbers. It is run by Alpha Morrison, Ashe’s dad. As far as we know, they don’t have a Luna. Our spies have not gotten far in finding out what happened to her, but rumor has it that Alpha Morrison killed her after birthing his heir.

It wouldn’t surprise me if it was true, the entire pack is full of ruthless mutts, and the only reason we have peace at the moment is because of the weak treaty that was signed a century ago. Between our borders there was a small patch of neutral ground created, about the size of a city. It is mostly occupied by humans and the occasional wolf. The agreement states that the only way for there to be peace, is if both packs expose their most vulnerable asset. The Alpha’s heir.

This means that from the moment I started kindergarten, until the day I graduate, I will be stuck attending classes and staring at the smug moronic bastard that is Ashe Morrison.

A/N. So this is my first fansays story, but it's been bugging me to put it on papers so enjoy.