Bitter Winter

Chapter 9

A while later, I’m jerked out of my mental vacation by Tess finally addressing Dayn, asking, “So, Dayn, you know they’re gonna be coming for us, right? What’s the plan?” I’m confused - who are they? What the hell is she talking about? Dayn brings his head up from my mate’s mark where he was rubbing his neck, and addresses the table seriously, “I’m going to lay my claim to Grand Alpha.” Everyone’s mouths fly open except Lisbeth, who seems to be chewing on the idea. Completely lost, I question, “What are you all talking about?” Dayn squeezes my shoulders gently, and asks if I know any history, which I don’t. He begins, “So, the world hasn’t always been like this. In fact, the bitter winter descended just a bit before you were born. It started with the attempted erasure of the dire bloodline, but my parents sent me to live with a pack to hide me, but they threw me out after I kicked the shit out of their future alpha for beating up Luke.”

Amazed, I look up at him and marvel, “You got kicked out to protect the male Omega?”

Dayn smiles at me and gives my shoulders another gentle squeeze, “I’d do it again in a heartbeat. That little shit was a nasty bully because he was insecure about being smaller than me, and decided to kick Luke around to feel bigger.” Luke shudders a little, and Blake places a hand on his shoulder. Dayn continues, “As soon as I found out I beat the shit out of him, and we got thrown out. They probably thought we’d die but at eight years old, my instincts and body were strong enough to provide for us. It wasn’t easy, but we made it.” Dayn grins, “A dire warrior is pretty hard to kill.” Dayn continues, “Back to the topic, to make a very long story short, some very evil people in the Black City wanted to sell Omega sex slaves and get very rich, but under the Kingdom they couldn’t make it over the border with slaves in tow. They convinced a lot of Alphas that it was unfair that only dire blood could claim the throne, and incited them to turn on the Grand Alpha in secret. There was a long, bloody war that was timed to the Grand Alpha growing old and with the human and were alliance they were able to destroy the kingdom with sheer numbers and trickery.”

Lisbeth decided to interject, not satisfied with Dayn’s explanation, and continued, “Things like cars and computers were imports before the kingdom collapsed. The kingdom also prevented sex trafficking and omega mistreatment. What Dayn isn't talking about is how dangerous it is to make that claim."

Dayn looks pointedly at Lisbeth, and protests, "The bitter winter has to end. I can end it."

Tess protests, "Dayn, are ya sure you can win all th' challenges? You ain't really fully grown at twenty years old." I pause in shock - Dayn is twenty? He's fucking enormous for a twenty year old! He looks like he's a twenty-six year old in his prime, the most ridiculously muscled bodybuilders would envy his physique; I can't imagine him continuing to grow, but I know all weres continue growing till they're twenty-five or so. If Dayn isn't fully grown, and he's nearly a foot and a half taller than me now, and already makes two hundred and fifty pound alphas look small, he's going to probably end up... terrifying. In a sexy way. My face growing red like an apple ripening, I try to push away those thoughts and focus on the conversation, namely, figuring out what the fuck a challenge is.

Dayn bristles and so do I, feeling angry with him at the thought of his prowess coming into question. Dayn growls, "I'm already bigger than fully grown warrior alphas like Blake. If there's an alpha bigger than me, I'll beat his ass anyway. I’ve got my mate by my side now. Whatever trials I face, I don’t face alone.” Dayn encases me again, wrapping his arms across my chest, dwarfing my small frame. I still haven’t quite figured it out, so I ask, “What’s a challenge, anyway?”

Luke sighs and begins, “To make things simple, Dayn has to fight any Alpha who challenges his authority when he makes him claim. Or they might just have their pack jump ours - but given that Kyle, Blake, Tess, Spencer, and Brandon all have full size packs as part of Dayn’s pack, there’s not much question that we win the numbers game. Also, we do a lot of combat training, and the warriors here at least have pack mates whose mates were saved by us, if their mate wasn’t saved by us themself. We’ll win a pack war, easily. But each alpha can challenge Dayn individually, one on one. Dayn is a living weapon - he’s dedicated literally everything to saving Omegas and his body is no exception. He spends about half his day each day training to fight. He’s also a dire wolf, which means fully grown he makes alphas look like betas - but he’s not quite fully grown yet. The worry is that a really big warrior alpha might be able to best him - Blake is the biggest alpha we’ve ever seen besides Dayn, and he’s probably got some dire in his warrior bloodline. He’s huge next to the other alphas. But Dayn’s like half a head and thirty pounds of muscle bigger than Blake. Their sparring sessions are pretty damn close to one-sided. I think we need to trust Dayn.”

I really don’t want Dayn to be in danger. But I can feel how ready he is for this, and how much he needs my support. So I tune out as Blake begins to protest, and everyone begins laughing as they debate how truly one-sided their sparring sessions are. I bring my palms to rest on Dayn’s forearms and give them a reassuring squeeze, and let him know that I believe in him.