Page 73 of Renegade Kings

I hadn’t noticed that the training grounds had gone quiet as I grabbed one of the towels that someone had left ringside at some point. I swiped at my hair, roughly drying it as much as I could, considering my next steps.

The only thing I wanted right now was to pull a Dean and go off to sulk somewhere. But I couldn’t even bring myself to do that because I knew the others would only worry. Even when I was pissed off, I couldn’t put myself first.

I turned around, hoping the words would come to me when I did, because I had no idea what to do right now. My knee-jerk reaction was to laugh the whole thing off, but I couldn’t muster the strength to do it right now.

Then I saw Dean fly across the ring as he was hit with a massive gust of wind, and Fizzle landed in the spot where he’d been standing, snapping his beak in annoyance. “Your beta is hurting, you overgrown fleabag. Why aren’t you doing anything about it?”

The talons on his front feathered legs clawed at the ground as he snapped at a dazed Dean in annoyance.

Thankfully, he seemed more confused than anything because I doubted Dean would hold back just because Fizzle was supposed to be our ally.

Then what Fizzle had said registered, and I looked at Dean nervously. Beta.

We’d always been close. I considered him my brother, but it was true that things had changed when we’d shifted.

“Explain,” Dean growled, but there was no echo of his wolf in his voice.

Fizzle looked between the two of us and then rolled his eyes as he sighed. “Where is the perch? Why hasn’t he explained this to you?” A blast of air rocketed across the training rings and I was pretty sure it hit Tank square in the face.

“What the fuck?!” he shouted, cradling his nose as Fizzle sniggered.

“Why have you not explained about the beta?” Fizzle snapped. “I’m here for the magic. You can’t expect me to do everything! I’m thinking about downgrading your status as my perch, just so you know.”

“Oh good, we’re back to that,” Tank snarked. “I didn’t explain it to them because… I. Am. Not. A. Wolf! Feathered fucker.”

Tank rubbed at his face and stormed further away from Fizzle as he muttered about how he wasn’t the answer to every shifter problem.

Alyssa sniggered at the entire scene, and I had to admit it was nice to see the carefree smile on her face again. With everything that had been happening around here, there was one thing she had whole-heartedly avoided until now, and I didn’t know if the others had even noticed it. Because apparently we were all ignoring it as well.

Alyssa was queen here.

In fact, more than that, Tank was her king.

But she’d made no move to do anything about that. I didn’t even know if she was supposed to do anything about it. I wouldn’t be the one to bring it up, though, not when she finally seemed like she was working through some of the stuff that had been weighing her down.

“I have to do everything.” Fizzle sighed, fluttering his wings to land directly at Dean’s feet, continuing as he pointed a wing in my direction. “He is your beta. His job is to make sure that everyone has what they need, that the pack is happy. Your job is to make sure he gets what he needs to do that. You. Are. His. Alpha. He is stressed and worried because he can feel the fractures in your pack and he doesn’t know how to fix them, especially when you are all blocking him out and preventing him from doing his duty.”

Dean opened his mouth to shout back at the little owl gryphon. Frankly, they both looked ridiculous given the whole size difference. But then his mouth clicked shut, and he turned his head to look at me instead. The usual slightly pissed off look that Dean sported was replaced by confusion, and I knew exactly where he was coming from.

“I thought Alyssa was our alpha,” Dean pointed out.

Fizzle hit Dean square in the face with another blast of air and paced across the sand in front of him. Every so often, he stopped and clacked his beak at him before continuing.

A hand brushed down my arm before Alyssa snuggled into my side and watched the whole thing with a bemused look on her face. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen him as angry as this before, which is actually really impressive. There was this one time…”

“Enough!” Fizzle shouted, aiming his ire in her direction.

Something in me snapped as he took a step forward. I knew he wasn’t really a threat to her, but I also wasn’t about to stand here and let him throw her across the ring with a blast of air just because he was angry. Training was one thing, but there was no way my wolf and I would let him do something like this.

A flash of lightning blasted into the sand at Fizzle’s feet, and fortunately, he was able to dance back and avoid the blow. As he did so, a gust of wind rustled his feathers and he frowned as he fought with his own magic to take hold of the situation.

Holy fucking shit.

The clouds darkened and a crack of thunder rent through the air, my ears aching from the sudden pressure.

And then it was gone.

As fast as the storm had arrived, the clouds parted, and the rays of sunlight returned. If it wasn’t for the charred patch of sand in front of us, I might have been able to convince myself that it had never happened.

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