Alpha Zander
Chapter 62

Ashleigh’s emotions are heightened by a thousand after marking her. I feel everything – happiness, frustration, sadness… It was a rollercoaster of a night, trying to navigate everything. Out of all of her emotions, happiness and joy were what I felt the most. I was so f*****g grateful that she is happy to be with us.

After the incident this morning with her brother, Jace was more aware of what was happening. He is unsettled that her family’s drama saddens our mate, and I promise I will get to the bottom of it for her. I only want what is best for her and, at the same time, to have a relationship with her family. I want to work together and fix it. Oliver seems to be on board with an alliance. We just have to convince everyone else.

Thankfully, the day is easygoing: I have a few classes without her, but that was in the afternoon.

Lunchtime rolled around quickly, and everyone gushed around her, trying to get information on what happened and how we found out we were mates.

I know she is a private person, and I can feel her being overwhelmed with everything as all the girls come up to her and say congratulations. At the same time, I didn’t want the rumours going around school about Grace and that problem. We were able to nip that in the bud pretty quickly, and nothing got out. My friends just laugh at me and call me p***y whipped, but they haven’t found their mate yet. One day they will understand.

I reluctantly say goodbye to Ash as she goes off to her last class on the other side of the school. I had half a mind to put someone else from Charwood in her class, but I know the kids in Liverpool still respect her, so there shouldn’t be any problems on that front.

Jace has been agitated since this morning, but I am glad I could now link her and feel her more than before. I’ll have to ask dad to bring her into the pack now that we are mated, so she can access everyone if she is ever in trouble.

On days like today, I would be more than happy to have physical activity, but with Jace stressed out as he is, he’s giving me a f*****g headache. The class is mixed with Riverview and Liverpool kids, and I am the highest rank by far. We were all standing around chatting and waiting for our teacher to arrive. He’s taking longer than usual, but that just gives us more time to relax and do f**k all.

The class is on the top football field below the library and across from the art classrooms. A brick staircase in front of us provides decent seating when needed. The hedges all around the field are lush and green from all the rain and well-kept by the groundskeepers.

I spent half my time here and on the basketball courts when I was younger. It never changes. It was a nice thing to come back to something familiar.

Some guys are mucking around and being stupid at the oval when I smell a foul stench that reeks of garbage. Normally I would jump into action, but this is f*****g human land, so it’s anyone’s game and rogues are technically allowed here. The school has protocols in place, but sometimes that isn’t enough.

I turn to the others and call out, “hoi, stop being d!ckheads for a minute, and link Oliver and Bobby now!”

They stop what they’re doing and look at me like I’ve grown three heads. They didn’t smell anything yet. It’s only faint, but I know something is in the air. I start to move toward the stairs, toward the other entrance of the school, where the stench is coming from, and I heighten my other senses. It’s eerily quiet and calm, I can hear the other classes going on in the other buildings, and beyond the chatter, I can just make out the soft patter of paws.

I bend down and put my hand on the dirt, hoping to get something from mother nature. This Iittle trick was something I was taught back in Alpha training. It had helped me a few times when we were in our animal form and hunting. I’ve connected with Jace’s strength to see what else he can pull through. I feel Jace’s aura pulse as he completely takes over.

‘Rogues,’ Jace growls and starts to move toward where they are coming from.

We have to tell the school, put it in lockdown before they get here, protect our mate and the pack, I try to reason with him and gain back control before he goes all s**t crazy. I don’t want her to become any type of target. I know she can defend herself; she has more than proved that yesterday, but things are much harder with our school in neutral territory.

‘Danni, what’s the class looking like at the moment?’ I call through our link. I know he has AP maths and is probably as bored as anything.

‘Doing f**k all, listening to this old brute talking and not making any f*****g sense,’ he grumbles back.

Before I can link back to him, a medium grey wolf launches over the hedge, followed by others of all different sizes and colours. There must be at least fifty coming from different directions, straight toward us on the field.

I shift into Jace as quickly as I can and link out to my pack members, ‘Rogues on the school grounds, go into immediate lockdown now!’

I don’t even wait for anyone to respond before shutting off the link and linking Danni separately.

‘Danni, Make sure Ashleigh is safe. Take Eric with you.’

‘Yes, Alpha.’ he responds immediately, with his aura radiating through. He’s in full Beta mode, and I need to trust that he will take care of her until I get there.

Snarls and snapping sound’s ring around me as the others shift and start striking back. I see a large light brown wolf heading toward us, which l recognise as Oliver. He looks at me and sends a slight nod before jumping into action.

Two wolves attack my hind legs, and as a third one tries to get the jump on me, I kill it instantly as it tries to go for my neck. I spin around quickly, biting down on the neck of one of them, killing it instantly and stalking towards the second before pouncing and knocking it out.

Jace is not happy being so far away from our mate. We are both pissed and all we could think of is keeping her and our pack safe.

An alarm rings through the school, warning everyone of danger and to go into lockdown. I hear yellıng and screaming as more wolves storm the school, and students scramble to try and get to safety.

More staff members and students from other packs and my own file out to help. I feel a link snap letting me know that someone from my pack died. I look around frantically to see if anyone from my pack is injured, but so far, it’s just the other side that is dropping. These wolves were small and ragged and knew next to nothing about fighting.

They were sloppy and slow, but to have this many, going against a school that they most likely knew had Alpha heirs in, was not a good sign.

The fighting on the field doesn’t last long as more people participate and finish what the rogues started. Fifteen died by my teeth and claws, and I knew Oliver probably killed as many rogues. The metallic scent of b***d assaults me as I look around at the horror of what just happened, the fresh-cut grass is now smeared with b***d.

Oliver and I shift back to our human forms just as everyone does. l approach Oliver when I suddenly feel a sharp pain radiating through my body, making me fall to my knee.

‘Mate,’ Jace whined, trying to push forward and take control to replace Ashleigh.

‘Ashleigh, sweetheart, please tell me you’re okay,’ I pleaded through our link, opening our bond back up. I closed it before hoping she wouldn’t feel any pain from when the other wolves attacked me. I don’t get a response from Ashleigh and start panicking.

“Blackwood, what the f**k happened?” Oliver starts. I shake my head at him quickly before linking Danni to replace out where Ashleigh is.

‘Danni, where is she?’ I call out, frustrated I couldn’t feel Ashleigh or Kia, and neither responded to me, and Jace was two seconds from going crazy and storming the school to replace her.

‘Alpha, you need to get here, now, he responds urgently before cutting the link.

“I need to replace Ashleigh,” I tell Oliver as I pull all my energy and sprint across the grounds to where I knew she should be.

It only takes me a few minutes to replace them, I see her naked form collapsed in front of a building in a pool of b***d. Eric is a few feet away from her in the same state, and Danni doesn’t look much better. He’s bleeding badly from a gash on his arm and many scratches. He looks f*****g distraught as he hovers over her in a protective state.

My heart f*****g shatters as I see her and I try to understand why the f**k she was out here instead of in the classrooms with the others. I fall to my knees in front of her body and pick up her head softly, resting it against my knees, holding her Iike my life depends on it. Jace retreats to the depths of my mind to try and help heal both of them using our bond.

“What the f**k happened” I growled at Danni, I know it wasn’t his fault, but he was supposed to be protecting her.

“She heard your link and saw the rogues going for the kids who haven’t shifted yet. They got to one of them. Tyler Gidding was only fifteen and was going to shift next month. She saved them, Zander, I didn’t even think about the non-shifters, but she ,did. That was her focus, protecting the younger kids,” Danni says, his body shaking as he tries to control his wolf. I can see his eyes flickering. His wolf wants out, wanting b***d for the damage they have done.

“I don’t now how they knew the layout. It was like they had an actual goal and they knew where they were going. They’ve been here before, some of them were stronger than us. It was hard to get to her, they all came at her when they realised she was trying to stop them from getting to the kids. Eric and I tried to help but we were too late. After she collapsed they went for him before I got there.”

Danni sighs, scrubbing his hand over his face in defeat before placing it back on his bloodied shoulder.l just sit there staring at her beautiful face. Her curls are covered in b***d and dirt. She should be nearly healed by now as am close to her and with shifter healing, yet her body still had scratches all over, barely healing. I can barely hear her heartbeat, she’s nowhere near as warm as she usually is. The gush on the side of her head hasn’t started to heal and she still has bite marks all over her legs.

“Zander, let them look at her,” Oliver calls out. I look up and see two paramedics standing there with a trolley to put her on.I stand up slowly with her in my arms and I place her gently on the trolley ,as the paramedics rush to look at her.

“We will take her to Oakwill hospital,” one of them says.

“No, take her to Charwood” I commanded. I know they are both human, but she is my Luna and I want our pack doctors to be the ones to look at her.

“Sir, Charwood is a 20-minute drive at best, Oakwill is much closer,” he responds, looking between Oliver and l uneasily.

“l said, take my mate to my pack hospital, this is not up for debate,” I repeat, with Jace’s aura pushing forward, their eyes widened as they sense the command behind it.

“Zander, even Liverpool is closer,” Oliver says as he tries to help, tossing me a pair of shorts.

“And you think your father will allow that? I won’t have my mate sent anywhere else except to my pack.” I snap back. “Take my Gamma, too, he was also badly injured. Ensure that both of them are looked at immediately.”

Oliver sighs when he knows he’s beat. He f*****g knows his father won’t allow her to be back on Liverpool territory, and he won’t allow me to be close to her either, Charwood is our best option.

A second ambulance appears and two paramedics appear quickly and attend to Eric. They put him on a trolley before loading him into the ambulance. I hear sirens roar past as they go in the direction of Charwood.

“I need to go and meet them there, can you look after this here?” I ask Oliver as I move toward the car park, I need to be close to her, the further away she gets the harder it will be for Jace to help with healing.

“Yeah, no worries, I’ll take care of it and let you know. I’ll get Bobby up to speed as well. Send me the address and I’ll come and check on you guys after,” Oliver says looking between Danni and I.

Danni is now slumped against the brick wall, eyes closed, resting his shoulder against it so it’s not causing him any pain.

“Yep, I’ll let my warriors know that you are coming, so you should be able to pass through without any issues. Danni, let’s go bud, we need to get that looked at,” I call out to him as I walk up offering a hand to help him up.

I wrap my arm around his waist helping him balance, as he gets up, he loses his footing and half collapses on the grass.

“Danni, Danni, look at me,” l call out, slapping him softly on the face trying to wake him up, as I drop down meeting him at eye level. He looks at me with glassy eyes. I can barely hear his heartbeat as it slows down, and his temperature isn’t anywhere , where it should be for a shifter.

“Come on, brother, we need to get you to a hospital quickly.”

I pull him up again leaning all of his weight on me so he can try to use his legs. I don’t know what the f**k happened to my pack, but the fact that my two best friends and Luna were the ones who got affected the most, worries me.

None of us even considered the non-shifters, that’s why we have protocols in place, but sometimes they fail, like today, and I want to get to the bottom of this because losing a pack member is never easy. But losing my mate, I don’t think I will ever be able to recover from that.