Three Alphas, Three Mates

PREVIEW Chapter 66

A/N (12/22/18) - I'm not sure how many of you saw my message, but I will not be able to fully update TATM just yet. I got the flu, and my coughing, migraine, and just general deliriousness are so bad that I need assistance to post even this message. Here's what I'll do: I'll post a short preview of what I've written so far, just so I don't leave you guys hanging. I'll update the rest ASAP. Until then, happy holidays.

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Coach Kenet's staying with Shen and Fei at home. My family's being kept inside for what they believe is a tornado warning. I answer as many of my mother's calls and my father's texts as I can, until I step out of the car.

Only alphas, lunas, lunais, and betas are allowed at the summit, so we walk into this alone without Suzie, Krys, Michael, Dante, and the rest of the guards behind us. The meeting place is at the intersection of Dawn, Dusk, and Silvermoon territory-a mountain in the middle of the forest.

The further we walk up the jagged, root-ensnared surface, the more my heart races. The reality of the situation sets in. If something goes wrong, I can't run. I'll either fall off the mountain side, my heart will implode, or those people that tried to take Bri will finally get me.

Axel tightens his grip on my hand. Our palms are pressed against each other. His eyes are on me. The betas pause behind us just as he stops walking. "Do you want me to carry you-"

"No," Aiden says. "She has to walk on her own."

"I just meant for a little bit," Axel says.

"If they see her being carried, that'll make her an even bigger target." Aiden stops a few paces ahead of us. His amber eyes flicker to me before he faces forward again. "Can you make it or not?"

"I can," I say, even though I don't believe it, because it doesn't matter anymore. Whether I can or can't, I'm going to. End of discussion. Aiden's right. I need to carry my own weight. And if I can make it up the mountain on my own, I can get down it.

Aiden starts walking again.

Axel sighs and starts, too. "Just lean on me, okay? If you need to," he whispers to me.

I nod, even though I kind of already am.

Thankfully, we don't have that much higher to go. The tall, densely-packed trees give way to a clearing with five large stones gathered around the center. They're covered in moss and god knows what else, but a few familiar faces are using them-the Dusk werewolves.

Dawson, the Dusk alpha with gray corkscrew curls, holds his hand up to us in greeting. Carson isn't here to run over and give him a bear hug. His face falls. Mine does too. Hazel, his still clearly pregnant luna, sits beside him on the rock. She offers me a smile, albeit sad. I offer her one back.

I take my seat in between the brothers-the brothers being just Aiden and Axel, for now. I never imagined that Carson could be here one second and then gone the next. What does that say about Aiden and Axel? I hold on to Axel's hand a little tighter. I lean against Aiden's shoulder. Thankfully, he doesn't move away.

"Make sure to stop when they come," he tells me.

I nod. Maybe I imagine it, but I feel him lean against me, too.

Behind Dawson and Hazel, there's a werewolf in wolf form. I assume it's their beta, because Onai and Bri are in the same state behind us. Ethel's in human form because, let's be honest, he's a bit clumsy as a wolf.

"So..." Dawson's gray eyes shift to us. "What's your plan if all this fails?"

Axel sighs. "If it comes to that, it comes to that."

Aiden nods.

There's a question in Dawson's eyes that neither one of them answers. I'm just as lost. Are they talking about going to war, or something else?

Moonlight is the next to show up. Translucent eyes, curt nods, tight-lipped, forced smiles. They're just as strange as the last time we met them.

I expect the female Moonlight alpha and lunai to sit on the other side of the Dusk Pack, but they walk straight past them and to the opposite side of us. Now the only two stones left to fill are the ones directly across from us.

"Won't be long now," the Moonlight alpha whispers. "I smell Bloodmoon."

Questions that probably don't matter in the grand scheme of things start filling my mind as we wait. Will the Bloodmoon and Dawn stroll in or stalk in? Will they greet us or just glare? What will their alphas look like?

...How will they bring Carson in?

Images of him beat up, on his knees, barely clinging to life in front of an unforgiving pack fill my mind. If the Bloodmoon... If the Dawn even... Even though it might sound self-explanatory, it's easy to consider the humanity of the "enemy" before they've taken someone you love. I don't want to justify these people's actions anymore.

Blood.

That's the color of his eyes when they meet my own.

He leads the group of Bloodmoon and Dawn werewolves alike into the clearing. A woman is at his side with golden eyes. She walks evenly beside him, so I assume they're the Bloodmoon and Dawn alphas. I lean off of Aiden. I let go of Axel's hand. I swallow the question burning in my throat-where the hell is Carson?

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Carson's POV

There's an art to sacrificing yourself, especially if you're like me.

Because I know I have the strength to take these two asshole ambassadors out. I could kill them. I could end this and go back to my mate, my brothers, my pack.

But I don't.

I can't, because everyone's counting on me to save Onai and Ethel, and bring back a summit invite acceptance, and come back with the job done, but I'm just me. I'm just Carson. I don't think things through like Aiden. I'm not a negotiator like Axel. I just say shit and hope it works out-and it usually doesn't.

Still, there's got to be some kind of value in that, right?

There's got to be something that Mia, my brothers, and my pack see in me. There's got to be something that I see in myself...

The Dawn beta pulls out a rusty pair of scissors. My eyes hone in on it.

"Of course, before you go, there are some things we need to take care of first."

I raise an eyebrow as she gets closer, along with her underlings.

"You didn't honestly think we'd let you leave unscathed, right?" the Bloodmoon alpha asks.

I glance at the arms and teeth outstretched towards me, trying to hold me down. "You didn't honestly think I'd just let you, right?"