Page 192 of The Alpha's Second Chance Mate

“If you’re down for it,” I answered.

He rubbed his hands together. “Oh, this is gonna be fun.”

We spent the day training as a pack. Langston and Trent orchestrated the situations, and I worked through them with the pack—ambushes, small forces versus larger forces, sneak attacks, all-out war. By the end of the day, I’d never been so exhausted, and the pack members looked equally wiped out.

I was bound and determined to be ready for the fight with Kyle, and over the next several days, I spent almost every free waking moment with Langston and Trent. The other pack memberscame by for an hour here and there, but most of the time was spent sharpening my skills.

Three days later, Langston and I stood in the backyard. We were drenched in sweat, readying ourselves for another sparring session.

“You ready?” Langston asked.

“Always,” I said.

Without another word, Langston shifted and bolted toward me. No matter how many times I saw it, the speed of his wolf always shocked me. He was like a runaway freight train. I shifted, dropping to all fours and rushing forward to meet him head-on.

Rather than slamming headfirst into battle, I’d begun to realize I could actually have more success using my natural athleticism versus my strength and power. With that in mind, I banked to the side just as Langston would have intercepted me. Before he could react, I shifted back to my human form, leapt into the air, and sent a kick to his ribs. He tumbled to the side, and I shifted in mid-air. Landing on his chest, I lunged down to clamp my teeth on his neck. At the last second, Langston slammed his paws into my chest and shoved me off, scrambling over to put his own teeth on my neck.

I gave awoofof surrender, and Langston backed away, shifting again.

Rather than being upset at losing, I was excited to have gotten close. I’d never had Langston that close to defeat.

“I almost got you,” I said, pumping my fist in the air.

“Hell, yeah, you did,” he said, rubbing his shoulder. “I like that double shift you did. I wasn’t expecting that.”

“Cole!”

Trent’s panicked voice tore the smile from my face, and I spun around to find my best friend sprinting toward me.

“What? What’s wrong?” I shouted. “Is it Avery?”

He skidded to a stop in front of us, shaking his head. “No. It’s something else. Things are getting bad.”

“You’ve got to slow down,” I said. “What’s getting bad? What happened?”

“Sorry.” Trent wiped his brow. “Something happened in town. To a human.”

Harbor Mills was a town that had a roughly fifty-fifty population of humans and shifters, so this wasn’t entirely surprising to hear, but I still wanted to know what had happened.

“What is it?”

“Just look.” Trent pulled his phone out. “I got the call about it five minutes ago, and Zayde was able to pull the video.”

Langston looked over my shoulder as I played the video. It showed an intersection near downtown. Several people milled around the street, going about their days. Nothing strange that I could see.

“Right here is when it happens,” Trent said.

I watched as a man, engrossed in his phone, strolled across the intersection. He passed another man and jerked, but continued on. Once he was on the other side of the street, he stopped. The guy glanced around, then staggered forward, dropping his phone as he grabbed the lamppost for balance.

“What are we looking at here?” Langston asked. “Is he having a heart attack or…”

Langston trailed off, and my stomach sank.

The man slid to his knees, and people gathered around to see if he was all right, but then he threw his head back and screamed. Blessedly, the video clip had no audio, but the pain and terror on his face were easy to see. Falling forward, the man began to convulse.

“What the fuck?” Langston whispered.

People tried to help him while others pulled out their phones, hopefully to call 911. A few seconds later, the crowd lurched away as the man’s body contorted, twisted, and morphed into a full-sized wolf.

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