章 2: Triple trouble
A few hours ago at the Ironclaw Packhouse…
"Ask me if I care?" Ronan snorted, rolling his eyes at his brother and sister, who were being dramatic as always.
Ronan Ashbourne, the future Alpha of the Ironclaw pack, did not care about their so-called "family dinner" on Sunday nights.
They were twenty-five years old now! It wasn't like they were little kids who needed to eat all their vegetables to grow up big and strong. Their parents worried too much. In Ronan's opinion, his brother and sister worried too much, too.
"You should care," his brother Matthew—who Ronan mostly called Matty just to annoy him—snapped. "You realize it hurts their feelings when you don't show up for Sunday dinner?"
They all thought Ronan had "anger issues," which meant he got lectured about using his powers "correctly." But who got to decide what the right way was to use his powers? They were his! If he wasn't supposed to use them, why was he born with them?
Their sister, Valentina, jumped in to agree with Matty, as usual. "You really have to come, Ron! Mom and Dad get so worried when you skip out. They spend the whole meal talking about you or asking about you."
As werewolf-fae hybrids born to an Alpha father, the triplets were among the most powerful creatures on Earth. Their father, Jasper Ashbourne, had amazing gifts of his own, which all three of them had inherited, along with their mother Elissa's fae abilities.
Ronan had started out with just the ability to control and create fire. Now, he could shapeshift, travel through portals, manifest lightning bolts, and perform quite a few other neat tricks, along with being able to shift into an Alpha wolf. Matthew—who was identical to Ronan with the same black hair and green eyes—could do some of the same things, but his abilities with fire were weaker.
Which was why he was the Alpha and Matty, the Beta.
Their sister Valentina made up the third part of their triplet group. She was blonde, bright-eyed, and delicate. She had gotten beautiful butterfly wings when she hit puberty. Neither Matty nor Ronancould fly in their human forms or wolf forms, but they could shapeshift into things with wings.
Val was their father's favorite, even if he would never admit it. Matty and Ronan took care of her. She and Matty shared one half of a townhouse, while Ronan took the other side by himself. He didn't play well with others. Never had and probably never would.
Ronan really wished he could just go somewhere to forget his family for a while, but if he disappeared, they all went crazy. There was a part of him that understood why they worried—he was really powerful, and his emotions weren't always under control—but the bigger part of him just wanted to be left alone to do his own thing.
"Okay," Ronan said, after thinking about it some more. "Let's go get Sunday dinner over with. But this is the last time."
"Yay! I am glad you changed your mind!" Valentina chirped and hugged him.
"I'm sure tonight's going to be a dinner to remember," Ronan said with a smirk.
Mathew was looking at him strangely. He must be suspecting that Ronan was up to no good.
-~-
Beta Matthew Ashbourne knew they were in for a rough night the moment he saw Ronan smirking the whole drive to their parents' home. The expression alone was a bad omen.
"Anything you want to talk to Mom and Dad about specifically?" Matthew asked, trying to gauge whether Ronan was going to be mildly annoying or a major disaster during their family dinner.
"Maybe."
Great. One-word answers were always thrilling. Matthew was sure Ronan was going to cause problems tonight.
Their brother was volatile at best. He got so angry! Matthew had never understood where all the rage inside him came from, and neither did anyone else in their family. Their father talked about how Ronan might have just been born with a little "evil" in him.
As they piled out of the car, Matthew felt like he was ten years old again when Ronan shoved his shoulder, making him trip on the steps.
"Hey! Quit it!" Matthew snapped, his outrage cut short when Mom threw the door open and pulled him into a hug.
"Matthew! You're not yelling at Ronan again, are you? I'm sure he didn't mean it," Mom said, having no idea what Ronan had done—only that he had likely acted on impulse or by accident.
According to their mother, Ronan never "meant" to do anything bad. He just had control problems, like their father had before Mom helped him with his powers.
"Yeah, Matty," Ronan taunted, pressing between Matthew and Mom to hug her tight against his chest. "I didn't mean it. You should be able to take a joke. How's Dad?"
"Dad is doing just fine, except he's starving. You realize you were supposed to be here an hour ago?" Dad said, looking annoyed as he watched the three of them file into the house.
"I'm sorry, Dad," Matthew said, trying to make up for his brother as usual. "We got delayed leaving out. We're starving, too! Let's go eat!"
"That's the spirit, Matthew! See, Ronan? You should be more like—"
"Like your brother," Ronan interrupted Mom, finishing her sentence with a red-rimmed glare that promised something dark once they went back to their place.
Matthew was used to Ronan's anger; if Ronan was awake, he was angry.
"What's wrong with being like Matthew? He's the best," Val declared, her heart-shaped face tilted up with her temper. "You should be more grateful for siblings who love you. You aren't easy to love, you know?"
Minerva bounced into the room to hug Ronan for all she was worth, saying, "I think you're easy to love!"
Great. They were all going to be picking at each other for the entire night. Matthew already had a headache starting up without even sitting down at the table.
"Very well. Now that everybody is calm, I will proceed with business. There are some important matters I need to discuss with you all," Dad announced.
"What's this about, Daddy?" Valentina asked, perking up already. It didn't take long for her to cheer up, no matter how bad the situation was. She must've inherited that trait from their mother, always looking at the bright side of things. It annoyed Ronan to no end.
"The Bloodmoon pack has a new Alpha, and he is a piece of work," Dad said.
"I thought you said the old Alpha was a piece of work already?" Matthew chuckled.
"But I had a pact with them. The deal was to never cross each other's territory and cause unnecessary problems, but ever since his son came into power, he has been pushing my buttons."
"What did they do now? Should I go over there and teach them a lesson?" Ronan barked.
"No, Ronan. I highly suggest you don't do that. We have to be strategic," his dad said.
"What did strategizing ever do any good? We're beasts, for fuck's sake. I say we attack their territory and claim everything as ours. That would teach them to submit to us," Ronan growled.
"Ronan! We are not savages!" Valentina chimed in.
Oh, I beg to differ, Ronan thought to himself.
The door suddenly slammed open.
"We've been attacked!" Jason, our pack delta, stood in front of us with his eyes wide. "The Bloodmoon pack, they are here and trying to take over."
The Alpha stood up. "I guess they love to fail. So here we go again," he said, rolling his eyes.
Hey, as annoying as this was, Ronan was always up for a good fight.
"I guess we will be meeting the new Alpha today. He didn't want to wait for the dinner invitation." Mathew smirked.
"I want to fight too! Can I go, mom?" Valentina looked at their mom with expectation.
"No! A warzone is not a place for you," Mom shook her head.
"Let her come. It's not like they stand a chance. They look down on hybrids because they know it's hard to beat them. Let's remind them again what it means to cross us," Callan said. He had been quiet this whole time, staying away from our family drama. But Ronan knew he could never pass up the chance on a real battle. His icy grey eyes were glinting with excitement. "Besides, I am hungry again."
"Ew, you pervert!" Valentina pushed him, knowing he wasn't talking about food.
~-~
There were at least thirty of them. They must've gathered as many pack members as possible to attack our neighborhood because they knew we would put up one hell of a fight.
"Not enough," Ronan said, half growling, half chuckling.
Matthew lifted a brow and looked at him curiously. "What's not enough?"
"Wolves. They didn't bring enough to defeat us."
Ronan knew he could take out ten of them alone. And with all of them combined, this battle would end in a matter of seconds.
Their Alpha wasn't just a piece of work. He was a dumb piece of work.
"Stop! Right now!" Ronan's father, the Alpha, roared. The wolves halted mid-fight. They had swarmed inside the house, trying to attack first.
Big mistake.
They had tackled some of their pack members to the ground but released them when they heard Ronan's father yell.
The pack Alpha stepped in front of them. The copper wolf had a pair of amber eyes that glowed with fury. He shifted to his human form, and Valentina gasped out loud.
"Cover yourself," Alpha Jasper growled irritably as the other Alpha stood there naked. "Alpha Jeremiah, what the hell do you think you're doing, breaking our pact?"
"The pact is a joke, and you should've known better than to bring a little girl onto the battleground," the Alpha of the Bloodmoon pack roared with laughter.
"Valentina is no little girl. She could take out five of you with her bare hands if she wanted," Matthew interjected. He looked more annoyed than angry; he loved their damned Sunday dinner and didn't like it to be interrupted.
"Yeah, yeah, I've heard all about your kind and the powers you possess. Think you're better than us because of them, don't you? How about trying to fight us like real werewolves for once?" Jeremiah scoffed.
"What are you asking us?" Ronan stepped forward and narrowed his eyes at him. Jeremiah wasn't as big as them, but he was no weakling. He had a strong build, and judging from the scars on his body, he was no stranger to the battlefield.
"Fight us fair. Use your strength and wolf skills. That means you're forbidden to use any kind of magic powers outside of your werewolf abilities. Then we'll see who the stronger pack is," Jeremiah said and winked at Valentina.
Valentina rolled her eyes and looked away.
"We don't need to use magic powers to defeat you assholes. Isn't that right, kids?" Alpha Jasper fumed.
Ronan grinned at the question, knowing he was about to be let off his leash for a change. His eyes shifted first, which he could always tell because his vision sharpened, clearer and better than any human's; he let himself follow the lead of his instincts as his body became the big wolf he was known to be.
Growling deep in his chest, he crouched down. Their enemy was still staring at him in shock when Ronan pounced, biting deep into Jeremiah's shoulder and shaking him like a ragdoll.
His screams soothed something in him which could have been the animal part of his brain or maybe the part of him that stayed angry all the time.
Ronan didn't know or care. The intruder had invaded their territory—going so far as to literally invade his parents' house—and mocked his sister. Ronan would've accepted a fight from him without any of those reasons.
He liked to fight. He never needed a reason.
Having reasons did make the fight taste a little sweeter, though. The Alpha's blood was a hot rush in Ronan's mouth as it coated his fangs; he wanted to bite clean through his throat, to feel the rush of his life bleeding out.
"Ronan!" his mom yelled.
Her voice brought him back to himself before the bloodlust could overpower his thoughts. He wondered if she knew what he had been thinking. Was she trying to control the monster in him? Was it even right to say he had a monster inside, or was it more that he was a monster?
Ronan was prepared for her to tell him to control himself and stop. He was used to being scolded for being who he really was—but he wasn't used to what his mom said next.
"Not in the house," Mom said, smiling at Ronan. "Take our guests outside to show them what kind of wolves we are in this pack."
[No problem], Ronan told her through their pack connection, using his wolf's voice.
He released the bite he had on the Bloodmoon Alpha, allowing him to escape just enough to shift. There was hardly any point in fighting him as a wolf; if Ronan kept him human, it wouldn't be a fight at all.
Just a slaughter.
"You and your children or your Betas against our children," Ronan's father said, his eyes glowing with the light of his wolf. "Whoever asks for mercy first concedes the fight. Or do you want to go to first death? We are prepared to treat your invasion of our territory as an act of war, which carries a death sentence according to pack law."
[To concession. No need for death today], Jeremiah's wolf voiced after the eternity it took for him to finally finish shifting.
No wonder the guy had been so blown away by Ronan: it took him three times as long to shift as it did him, Matthew, or Valentina. His father could shift even faster. This idiot never had a chance.
Shifting healed the shoulder wound Ronan had caused, but Jeremiah was still so much smaller than the three of them that Ronan couldn't take him seriously. Outside, facing off with the other pack, it was clear their dad was a massive beast, the Alpha among Alphas.
No one called a start to the fight. One minute they were assessing each other, and the next, Ronan had his teeth in Jeremiah again.
[Wild pup], Jeremiah snapped, using his wolf voice. [I'll make you regret trying to take on your better!]
[Big words for my chew toy], Ronan's wolf taunted, shaking him again. It wasn't nearly as effective since Jeremiah had dodged at the last moment.
Ronan had only managed to bite his leg, but he made sure to take a chunk of meat with him before letting go. Jeremiah fought dirty, surprising Ronan with a move where his Beta jumped on Ronan's back from behind while Jeremiah went for his throat at the same time.
Ronan sank his teeth into the Beta, but before he could do more, Matthew crashed into Jeremiah like a furry wrecking ball. The force knocked the Alpha to the side, and Matthew crouched down, growling at him with such menace that even Ronan wasn't sure what Matthew would do next. Would he go for the throat this time?
After throwing the Beta out, Ronan refocused on going after Jeremiah, but his father got to him first. Val had been using her smaller size and speed to tear into the Beta she'd cornered by the big oak near the front drive. The enemy wolf was bleeding from a half-dozen bites all over his body.
[Concede!] Father demanded, his Alpha voice booming in every wolf's mind, including mine.
Jeremiah whined, then yelped as Dad shook him, finally shouting, [Yield! I give up! This territory is yours! We'll return to our own. Release me!]
Alpha Jasper was a fair fighter, though. He let Jeremiah go with the grace to be careful when he took his fangs out of the coward.
[This isn't over!] Alpha Jeremiah promised.
His wolves raced off and Ronan realized he could follow them back to their Pack house.
They'd invaded their territory first and then he'd threatened them again? No way!
Ronan was going after him!
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