The Challenge Two Alphas, One Girl



Maze's POV

Fang was dead to me already. I didn't care what Friday said. I ignored her as I made my way down to the conference room, following Thaddeus. Thaddeus sighed deeply and walked with me. Likewise, he refused to respond to Friday's pleas.

“Thaddeus! Maze!" She cried. "Please, you have to send a squad now! You have to! They'll k!ll him! I know what he did was wrong but he was trying to fix it! Think about my nephew or niece, please!"NôvelDrama.Org exclusive content.

She had tears streaming down her face. "Please, please, I don't want my brother to die. I'm already losing my father, I..."

"How desperate can you be?" I hissed at her, my eyes black. It was not my Baby I was mad with and I shouldn't have taken it out on her but hearing her plead for someone who would sell her to a bunch of bl00ds.uckers made me sick. Forgiveness was one thing but lack of self-preservation was another.

"The brother you're begging for would have had you carted off to live with vampires! Who knows what they would have done to you?! How they would have treated you?! How long you would have lived?!" I snarled, grabbing her by the shoulders and staring into her eyes. She sobbed brokenly. I sighed. She had no ides how important she was to me.

"Stop it, Maze,” said Thaddeus softly. I released her. I was seething.

"Come here, Friday," said Thaddeus.

She climbed into his lap. He was in the head chair in the largest conference room. Thaddeus had called an emergency meeting to discuss battle strategy moving forwards. Ezekiel had slipped away in the fight with Ezra and Raelynn. Someone named Lane who apparently had Katrina was also at large. Friday sobbed quietly into Thaddeus' c.hest while he gently but absentmindedly stroked her hair. His mind seemed far away. Friday stopped crying. She was pulling herself together. The three of us were alone. I sighed, sitting in the chair on Thaddeus' right hand. I had called my Gamma, Slogan, in Marigold and told him to get ready for battle. We would strike Ezekiel's vampires before they struck us. We had a war on our hands.

"You say you want me as your Luna? Both of you say that!" Friday said, sniffling.

I nodded weakly and so did Thaddeus. That was a given so I did not understand her point.

"I want a squad to go retrieve my brother. I was told the Luna gets to decide the punishment of anyone who harms her. After the squad brings Fang back, I'll decide on an appropriate punishment," said Friday, sitting up straight in Thaddeus' lap.

I snorted with humourless laughter. Thaddeus shook his head.

Friday took a deep breath. "If you don't comply, I'm not sure if I can be with either one of you!" Friday said, her voice shaking.

I cackled. Was she for real? "You're bluffing!" I said incredulously.

She took a deep shuddering breath. "Try me," she said.

Thaddeus growled. Friday jumped a little.

“Little Luna, you are out of control," he grumbled, making her face him and grasping her chin to tilt it upwards so he could still see her face. He stroked her cheek with his thumb.

This was the first time all three of us had truly argued.

"You are ours!" I snarled slowly, enunciating and emphasising every word carefully. Friday fixed me with a determined stare. I was livid. How dare she threaten to be done with both of us over Fang? I had never been more insulted in my life. She was lucky I was hopelessly in love with her. I hadn't even gotten a proper chance to tell her what she really meant to me yet.

Friday's POV

I had no intention of leaving either one of them and it was a pretty bold move to threaten my two possessive alphas but I'd been a pretty bold person of late. I knew they probably thought me naive, too soft-hearted or foolhardy, but I knew Fang was truly sorry. I could feel it. He wasn't a lost cause like my father despite what anyone including Fang thought. Astrid needed him as her husband, mate and the father of her pup. My future niece or nephew needed his or her father. Mom couldn't take any more disappointment and emotional upheaval. I needed him. I had begun to think he might walk me down the aisle instead of my father. Even Fallon and Fargo would need their elder brother. They didn't know yet. The position of Beta would fall on them through our family's lineage and honestly I did not foresee them being quite as conscientious of a Beta as Fang had been.

I loved my big brother and I forgave him. End of story. I was the one who had been mainly wronged here and yet everyone else was taking it personally.

"Maze, remember when you saw me and I was a wreck and you said if that was what my situation was doing to me, then you'd save my father?" I asked.

"Yeah," Maze mumbled softly after a long pause.

“Truth be told, that was about way more than just my father. Fang dy-...if Fang doesn't return.......that would wreck me,” I managed to say wringing the handkerchief Maze had given me between my hands. Maze sighed and put his head in his hands.

“It's too much to forgive, Friday," murmured Maze. “He turned his back on you. He betrayed you"

I knew this was a low blow but here went my last shot.

"You turned your back on me," I said softly. Maze winced. He looked as though I had slapped him. Thaddeus regarded me with an expression of shock. "I forgive you," I whispered to Maze. "You didn't betray me but you did turn you back on me, at first," I said, remembering how Maze had rejected me and walked away from the cottage that night without looking back as I fell to my knees.

"Friday," whispered Maze, his grey eyes sparkling with tears. "You know how sorry I am. I'll always regret that. I love you," Maze whispered, a stray tear escaping and rolling down his cheek.

I wiped the tear away.

"I'm in love with you! I just want to protect you," Maze said softly.

Maze had said he loved me for the first time. Thaddeus had said it before but not Maze. Maze came over and knelt before me, right in front of where I sat on Thaddeus' lap. My breath hitched in my throat. For one incredibly intense moment, I thought he was going to propose to me right then and there with me on my other alpha's lap. However, he simply took one of my hands in his.

"Friday, I didn't deserve your forgiveness either. I'm so sorry for everything I put you through. I don't know if I'll ever forgive myself for treating you like that. You deserved so much better. I was pompous, narrow-minded and myopic. I couldn't see how special you were because I was blinded by my own arrogance, my prideful expectations, my upbringing...I didn't know how powerful love really was until I got to know you, Friday. I love you and you might hate me for it but I won't let Fang back into your life just to risk your safety all over again. I can't do it. I put your safety above my own, above all others. Please understand, Baby," said Maze looking up at me. He buried his face in my midriff and I tangled my hands in his long dark silky hair. I sighed.

“I love you too,” I murmured in his ear. “And I forgave you weeks ago.”

I tightened my hold on him. I did love him and I loved Thaddeus. They were my Alphas. I wanted to please them but I could not let my brother die this way. I had already forgiven Fang too. My forgiveness wasn't limitless. Maze more than deserved my forgiveness. We ended up bonding so deeply and he had given me much more pleasure than pain. I flushed a little recalling just how much pleasure Maze and Thaddeus had given me. Farris, my traitorous father, was beyond forgiveness in my mind. I couldn't forgive him. I felt as though he had no natural love for me or Raelynn. He had been prepared to watch us suffer and possibly die even in infancy. Fang deserved forgiveness as far as I was concerned but I couldn't force my Alphas to feel the same way.

I extricated myself from Maze and Thaddeus. "I need a little time alone to process everything," I lied, k!ssing Maze and then Thaddeus as passionately as I could in my dreary state. They both nodded and let me sit out on the meeting. I wasn't going to my room to process anything. I was going to go get Raelynn and then we were going to get our brother back!

Thaddeus' POV

My wolf had gone from agitated to murderous as Fang's treachery had been revealed. All this time, a snake right in the midst of us all, ready to strike at my little Friday. I knew she would never wish him dead. If it were up to her, she would absolve him completely.

I could not force my little Luna being very happy with the way things were working out. She was losing the one thing she craved the most. Family. Her father. Her eldest brother. Ten minutes from now, her twin brothers, tweedle-dumb and tweedle-dumber, would reveal they'd been embezzling pack funds or something.

Her family did seem like it was falling apart, but as things fell apart, they also came together. Her parents' marriage was over but Farris was no suitable husband and father. Now, Felicity finally had her mate, Malachi, after years of longing. Of course, this made Friday and Maze step siblings but there you go, family. We were a family. A weird, hodgepodge but loving family formed from bits and pieces of other families.

I still hoped that Friday would get over this. I wanted the Challenge to be over. I wanted my happily ever after with Friday and even Maze, my fussy snobby bro. Today had been my day, day twenty-two, but all thoughts of dating had been forgotten, same as yesterday on Maze's day. The battle strategy meeting had been a blur. The sun was setting on one sh!tty day after another so quickly.

I still needed to locate Katrina for Ezra's sake. I still considered him an Aly. He seemed to have had Friday's best interests at heart from the beginning, protecting her from the shadows. I was almost certain that had a lot to do Raelynn. She was still a mystery officially but anyone could see how plain as day the truth was. She had to be related to Friday somehow. She was likely Felicity's daughter. Her father could be Farris. It could even be Malachi. I wouldn't assume my future mother-in-law had a third potential baby Daddy just yet. Not that it mattered but there were no other candidates that I knew of.

I was rounding the corner when I almost ran into a small figure clad all in purple. I grabbed her shoulders so she would not go hurtling into the wall.

"Doc!" I exclaimed.

"Don't call me that!" Said Jo.

I grinned at her. Jo was the youngest pack doctor and a friend of the family. She was a pet!te she-wolf with long golden-brown curly hair. She had a Cherubic face but an impish sense of mischief. She was always in purple. Her brown eyes were calculating something. She tried to dart away. "Where are you running off to? You're not even on call!" I said. I had the call schedule for the pack doctors sent to me each month.

"I know," she said sheepishly. She was up to something. "I have to chase a result,” she admitted.

"Let the on-call Docs do it! Go rest!" I ordered, actually turning her around.

She trudged in the direction I had put her in. When she neared the corner, I saw her dart in the opposite direction out of the corner of my eyes. I sighed. I was not going to chase her down. If she was determined to be at work she would find a way to stick around.

Jo's POV (Junior Pack Doctor)

I escaped from Thaddeus. He tried to send me home which was nice of him but I had a really important favour pending. I ran to the lab. I was not a sk!lled runner. When I got there, my friend, the lab tech, grinned at me! Yes! He had rushed the result. I had told Raelynn the shortest possible time was forty-eight hours usually but it was actually twenty-four hours if the lab tech owed you a favour. I had gotten the samples to have first priority even though my senior doc (Jerk!) didn't sign off on it.

I high-fived my friend and grabbed the envelope with the paternity test results. The lab was just outside of the pack house. I ran back to the pack house. I opened the result on the way. I was allowed to review all lab results pertaining to my patients. I had to counsel my patient on whatever the result was and depending on who her father was she would need a lot of counselling. There were two papers. One was Friday's. I felt so sorry for her. She was really sweet. I knew that criminal was her biological Dad. That was a given. Especially because Maze was her mate so there was no way Malachi could be her Dad. Raelynn on the other hand could be anyone's daughter. I looked at the second paper. I almost walked straight into a wall. I stopped in my tracks and caught my breath. I needed to find Raelynn right away.