Gone (Book Two of the Dark Lycans Series)
Chapter Thirty-Nine: War

Shade snaps awake as the plane lands with a rough jerk. It was a very bumpy landing and I frown.

"I think I should have a word with the pilot," I say starting to stand up. Shade grabs my arm and yanks me back down.

"Don't you dare," she warns. I purse my lips, and blow an irritated breath out my nose.

"Fine," I mutter. I look out and see that it is early morning. I stand up and see that the landing woke everyone else up too.

"I believe tonight is a full moon, so we will initiate you into the pack today. Shade and Rosa, you will be staying with Hailey, my Beta and I in our house. Camryn and Aiden, you can stay with us as well if you would feel more comfortable," I start to say, but they wave me away.

"We will stay in the pack house," Camryn says with a smile. I give her a nod.

"Very well then, Derek? You show them to their rooms in the pack house, and I'll take them to our house," I tell him. He nods and we all start to grab out bags.

Derek takes Camryn and Aiden to their house, while Hailey and I lead Shade and Rosa to our house. It was a mansion, with eight bedrooms.

Rosa and Hailey have separate rooms on the first floor, while Shade and I have bedrooms right next to each other on the second floor.

"I thought everything was destroyed in the attack on the original pack," Shaded says as I show her the bedroom.

"It was, over the past two months we have rebuilt everything, and even built new buildings," I tell her.

"Wow," she says looking around in awe.

"I have to go attend to some matters, if you need me just mindlink me or ask someone," I say. She nods and I leave her to unpack.

I jog out of the house and follows my Beta's scent. I find him speaking to some warriors near the pack house.

"Luke," I say. He immediately turns around and grins.

"Alpha, it is good to have you back, with more Lycans too," he says with a bow of his head.

"I need to deal with the Lycans in the cells, would you mind accompanying me? You can tell me about the attack by the Silver Bloods Pack as we walk," I suggest.

"Of course," Luke says and we start walking to the dungeons.

"A group of warriors had attacked some of our border guards, and one died in the hospital after loosing nearly all of his blood. We killed three of the enemy pack's warriors, and managed to capture two out of the ten total," he informs me.

"How many of ours were in the attack?"

"Five, three came back with serious injuries, one dead, and the last one had only one minor injury, a scratch on her arm from a tree branch," he says with scrunched eyebrows.

"What is her name?" I ask curiously. Out of five Lycans only one comes back unharmed, and I am not sure if I should suspicious or proud of her.

"Maya Faraday, she is 26 years old, and was in the Arena," he says.

"I would like to meet with her, tomorrow maybe. Have her come down to the training center at 8 AM tomorrow," I order.

"Yes Alpha," he says giving me a nod. We reach the door to the dungeon, and walk down the stairs.

I see there are more wolves in the cells than when I left, two of which are the wolves from Blake's pack. I go over to the cells that have the Lycans I spoke with the day I left.

"You ready for your tests?" I ask them. They nod and I turn to the guard with the keys.

I give him a nod and he opens both of the cells. The Lycans warily step out, and look around with worried eyes.

"Follow me," I tell them turning away. I lead them out of the dungeon and to the training center.

When we go outside, they stop and stare in awe at the sunshine.

"Oh my god, you were in there for a week, you don't have to act like you haven't seen light for a year or something," I snort.

They look at me sheepishly before following me to the training center. It had a fighting ring like in the arena, but for different purposes.

All off duty warriors that are able to fight, report to the training center immediately, I mindlink to the rest of the pack.

Shade, if you want to watch a fight or two you can head down to the training center right now, I mindlink Shade as well.

I'll be right there, she replies. I watch as a few dozen warriors pile in. Shade comes in a few moments later, and I see that some of her bandages have been taken off, and that some wounds are almost fully healed.

I wave her over, and she smiles. I take her and the rogue Lycans down to the underground tunnel, that led into the fighting arena.

My pack is watching from above, they look down into the arena. I take them into the center of the ring, and address my pack.

"We have a few Lycans who wish to join the pack as warriors. You will remember that they choose their opponents, so if you are not willing to fight please leave," I announce.

I smirk when none of them move. I turn to the group of rogues. I tell Shade to take the two females and the child back upstairs.

She nods and I am left with the three males.

"Who would like to fight first?" I ask. The oldest of the three offers to go first.

"How old are you and what is your name?" I ask.

"I'm 32, my name is Jason," he tells me.

"This is Jason, he is 32 and will be fighting first. Choose your opponent," I speak loudly, my voice echoing in the ring.

He points to a large man and I raise an eyebrow, the guy has confidence, that's for sure.

"Henry, come on down!" I smile. He laughs and heads down into the arena.

He was over six feet tall and pure muscle, I was interested to see how this would turn out.

I make the other two males wait behind the iron gate so they couldn't interfere, and Henry and Jason get into a fighting stance.

"No shifting, this fight is in human form. You will fight until you are beaten, then we will have a Lycan form fight if it comes to a draw," I tell him.

He nods and turns to face his opponent.

"You have to disable your opponent, but try not to kill each other," I say, making my pack chuckle.

"Where's my whistle?" I ask looking up. Someone tosses it down and I catch it.

"Thanks," I say putting it in my mouth. I blow it and step back to the edge of the arena to watch.

They dance around for a while, and Jason dodges a few punches, and gets in a few good kicks. He is good, but not nearly good enough for my pack.

Henry throws a punch, but Jason doesn't dodge it fast enough. His massive fist collides with his head, and Jason flies across the ring, hitting the wall.

I go over to him and check his pulse.

"Good news is, you didn't kill him. Bad news is, he won't be joining the pack. If you lose the first fight, that just shows you overestimate your own abilities, and that is dangerous. So, someone put him back in the cells and we will deal with him later," I order.

Two of my warriors come down and drag his body out of the arena, and I fist pump Henry as he returns to the viewing area.

I gesture for the next male to come in, and ask his name and age as well.

"This is Max, he is 25. Now, you can choose from anyone in this room, who do you want to fight?" I ask him. He looks around before turning his eyes to me.

"Can I fight you?" He asks. My eyebrow shoots up and my pack gasps in shock. I look around and see Shade trying to stop from laughing.

"Are you sure you want to fight me?" I ask him.

"Yeah, I mean you can't be too hard to beat, right?" He shrugs.

"Okay, I'll fight you, but let's just hear what my pack thinks about this," I say waving a hand towards them.

"You're stupid to fight the Alpha!"

"You're a goner man!"

"She is going to kill you!"

I hear them all shout warnings, but he doesn't look worried.

"Just so you know, fighting an Alpha is technically challenging their position, therefore it is a fight to the death," I say with a shrug.

"I'm not challenging you though, I just want to fight," he reasons.

"Okay, Shade, will you do the honors of blowing the whistle?" I call out. I see her nod, and I toss it up to her.

I get into a fighting stance across from Max, and smirk. He narrows his eyes at me, and puts his fists up.

I hear the whistle blow and I immediately shoot forward. I do a spinning roundhouse kick straight to his head, and he flips onto the ground, knocked out.

"Will they ever learn?" I sigh shaking my head. I look up to see my pack members cheering excitedly.

Two more warriors drag him back to the cells, and I turn to the last male.

"Think you got what it takes?" I ask him.

"No, I don't. I haven't even shifted into my Lycan yet, I can't fight worth a damn," he sighs. My eyes widen in surprise.

"How old are you?"

"18," he tells me.

"Well, if you are willing to work hard, you can train to become a warrior. The other two already had the Lycans so they can't be trained much better," I say. His face lights up.

"Really?" He asks.

"Yes, now I'm going to leave you in the care of my brother, his name is Derek, he will get you settled in. Tonight we have an initiation ceremony, and you will be there," I tell him.

"Thank you Alpha, I will not take your kindness for granted," he smiles.

I lead him upstairs where Derek is waiting. He takes him to the packhouse and I turn to Shade with the other rogues.

"I need to see how fast you are," I say pointing to the female about my age. She nods and we all walk out into the forest.

"Have you shifted into your Lycan yet?" I ask the girl. She nods.

"Okay, so I am going to run through the forest in my Lycan form, and you are going to chase me. Shade will see how close you get, and then we will decide if you are good enough to keep as a messenger," I tell her.

"Okay," she says. We each of behind a tree, and strip off our clothes and shift.

Black fur covers my body, and then some of it tints to red and white forming stripes. I shake out my fur and walk on four legs back to Shade.

I see the girl walk out on four legs as well. Her Lycan was a red-brown color, and she had the usual ice blue eyes.

"Ready?" I ask her. She takes a deep breath before nodding.

I leap into the trees and take off running. I don't go too fast, or at least not yet. She keeps up with me, her right in my heels, so I speed up a little.

I run around through the trees in a single area, so Shade can see us. I slow to a trot after five minutes, and go over to Shade.

"How did she do?" I ask.

"She is almost as fast as I am," she says with a raised eyebrow.

"Impressive, we could use you as a messenger," I tell her.

She gives me a wolfish grin and we shift back, putting our clothes back on.

Alpha, we are having problems at the border again, someone tells me through the mindlink.

I'll be right there, I say and turn to Shade.

"There's another attack, now stay here Shade. You can't open up your wounds again," I say when she tries to protest.

She growls at me and I give her a warning look before turning away.

I run quickly to the border, and the sounds of fighting hit my ears immediately. I look to see six of my warriors fighting a dozen of Blake's. A few were in wolf and Lycan form, while the rest were in human form.

I growl loudly, getting their attention. A few bodies lay dead on the ground, two belonging to my pack.

They start to fight again and I grab the nearest one by his neck. I hold him with one hand and punch his temple with my other.

He drops to the ground unconscious, and I start to deal with the others. I kill two, and knock out six more before the fighting is over.

"Let's get them to the cells," I sigh, and start dragging two of the unconscious ones back. My pack take the unconscious warriors to the cells, and I have someone deal with our two dead.

I return back to the main clearing to inform my Beta of the attack.

"We need to have more warriors at that border, and I want them to train harder," I tell him. He nods in agreement, and leaves to make the arrangements.

I find Shade back at our house with Rosa, Hailey, Aiden, and Camryn. They were all hanging out in the living room.

"We just had another attack," I tell them.

"What happened?" Shade asks.

"Blake's warriors attacked again. Two of ours died before I got there, but we killed four of his. The rest of his warriors are in the cells now," I sigh.

"Why is he attacking?" Hailey asks.

"I honestly don't know, but I don't think it's going to stop anytime soon," I admit. They nod in agreement.

"I need to announce to the pack the initiation tonight, so lets go," I tell them. We head out to the clearing and I call to make an announcement.

"Tonight is a full moon, and we have some new pack members to intiate-" I start, but a sudden yelling stops me midsentence.

I look over to see Luke running towards me with several other warriors. His eyes are wide with panic.

"What happened?" I demand. He takes a deep breath before turning to the rest of the pack.

"The Silver Bloods Pack has declared war."

*******************

End of Book Two

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