Chapter 5 Think like a Greymoor, not a Fenwick.

Marcus stared at him. “You're eavesdropping on us.”

Conan jeered. "What do you mean? Eavesdropping in my pack house? That sounds funny.”

Oz stepped toward him. “This may be 'your' pack house. But this room… is not your space.” Oz's eyes burned with anger. “What do you want?"

Conan ignored him. "I'm not looking for you," he said flatly, before shifting his gaze to Ralph. “Are you alright?"

Ralph nodded. "Mm.

Oz scowled. “Is he alright?" his voice came through gritted teeth. Then he grabbed Conan by the collar and pushed him to the wall. “You're really asking if he's alright when you get him alone in the woods to die?"

Ralph could see how angry Oz was and he and Conan could start fighting at any moment. It was still early in the morning, and he hadn't even dressed for school. Oz and Conan took every opportunity they got to fight each other. Even though Oz is the same age as Ralph, seventeen, while Marcus and Conan are the same age, eighteen.

“What do you think you are doing?" Conan growled, his black eyes turning to amber as his wolf almost clawed its way out.

Ralph crossed toward them and grabbed Oz's shoulder. “Oz it's okay. I'm fine now."

"You heard that?” Conan said, "And why do you care about him so much, huh? Or is it about your girl? I told you she came at me herself.”

“Shut up!" Oz snarled, raising his hand, ready to punch Conan in the face.

"Stop it!" Ralph snapped. "That's enough. I said I'm fine.”

Conan stared at him with amber wolf eyes, his voice mixed with his wolf's as he said. "You heard him. Let's go.” Conan's gaze carried the weight of command and that angered Oz even more.

His hand gripped Conan's collar tightly, and his lips curled. “What? You wanted to kill me? I forgot you're such a daddy's boy. Always chasing approval. Daddy might give you some treat if you really do, and there will be war in Ridgehaven town.”

Conan laughed softly and said in his wolf voice. “You know I could really kill you for that," he snarled. His claws were already out, closing around the back of Oz's neck.

Then came the sound of tearing fabric. Oz smirked, as his dagger cut Conan's shirt open from the torso down to his hip in a clean tear. “And I would have wounded you before you had the chance.” Oz put his dagger back in its place and wrenched himself free. “I'm a warrior, little pup," Oz said mockingly, emphasizing the word ‘pup’.”

Conan's anger flared when he saw the long tear Oz's dagger had left across his shirt. "Whoops, my bad,” Oz said with a smirk.

Conan's claws grew, and he lunged at Oz.

But Marcus stepped between them. “That's okay. Both of you. Enough!”

But Conan was losing it. He growled and attacked Marcus. His amber eyes flared at Marcus, his wolf was ready to break free. Marcus growled back, his black eyes also changed to amber. They growled at each other.

Ralph stepped between them, his honey-brown eyes locked onto them. “Seriously. Enough!” he roared, but his voice unintentionally came out as a growl. That made Marcus and Conan step back instinctively, their eyes changing back to black. Then Ralph immediately forced his voice back to normal. “Are you really going to change fully in my room? I said I'm fine. I really am.”

"Oh, really?” Oz scoffed sarcastically. "Being infected with werewolf disease is a good thing."

Conan frowned. "What do you mean?”

"It means he is not fine,” Marcus said. "You should see this." Marcus nodded toward the bathroom.

Conan held Oz's gaze for a long moment before walking to the bathroom. As he came back, the look that crossed his face said everything. "Did he hurt you?” his eyes moved over Ralph's body, searching for wounds.

“I healed," Ralph said.

Conan's brows pulled together. "Healed?”

"Yes. We think it's because he was bitten by an alpha,” Marcus said.

Conan's frown deepened.

“What did you expect, huh?" Oz said. “That he should be dying?"

Conan moved toward Oz gritting his teeth. Marcus stepped between them. “We should be preparing him for the full moon, not fighting."

Conan's jaw tightened. Something crossed his face – guilt, anger, but something else underneath it that Ralph couldn't name. After that, Conan said nothing. Without another word, Conan turned and stormed out.

They watched him go, Oz hissed in annoyance. When Ralph checked the time, they were already late for school. He rushed to the bathroom, cleaned it up, then took a quick bath. After getting dressed, they ran out.

“Ralph, your breakfast," the head cook at the pack house, a young woman in an apron called after Ralph.

"Don't worry, Miss Reina," Ralph said, running out with his friends.

They got into Mason's car and Mason drove out.

From the moment they stepped outside, Ralph could feel something shifting in his senses. Conversations from the houses down the street pressed into his ears uninvited. The smell of breakfast from three doors away. He was eavesdropping on people's lives when he had no interested in them and he had no idea how to shut it out. It was uncomfortable in a way he did not have words for yet.

Marcus noticed the way Ralph kept squirting. “You'll get used to it," Marcus said, smiling.

Ralph was sitting beside him in the front. Oz was in the back. When they reached the car park there was the usual queue – cars lining up, and it was barely moving. But it was already late in the morning which is rare.

They were still sitting in the car when Ralph heard his name. Someone called him, but he saw no one. He heard it again – in his head.

“Ralph. Can you hear me?"

Ralph glanced around. The voice was inside his head.

“Here. Straight in the front," the voice said.

Then he saw him – Mr. Hale Elias.

He was looking directly at Ralph from across the car park. Speaking through the mind link – what Mason used to call it. Ralph knew Mason did that a lot with werewolves like him. But Ralph couldn't help wondering how Elias knew he could mind link him.

“Your friends cannot help you," Elias said through the mind link. “You have to let me help, or else you and the girl will both be in danger.

Ralph's eyes widened. ‘The girl. How did he know about the girl?’ Ralph panicked, his hands tightening on his backpack on his lap.

“What is it? Are you alright?" Marcus asked.

Ralph shook his head faintly. “Nothing."

"How do you know? What did you do to her?” Ralph pushed the thought back toward Elias, not entirely sure how he was doing it, he only knew it was working.

“I did nothing, Ralph. I'll explain everything to you later," Elias said through the mind link. “But you have to listen to me now. You're not becoming just any werewolf. You are becoming an Alpha. If you understand what that means… You will be hunted. And your friend won't be helping you then.”

“Hunted?" Ralph murmured. The word struck in his throat, sharp and suffocating. “What do you mean by an Alpha? Why would I become an Alpha?" he said through the link. The question left him before he could stop it – even though somewhere underneath it, he already felt the answer pulling at him. He was Greymoor. The Greymoor pack was pure-blooded Alphas. ‘But that was centuries ago,’ he thought.

“Think like a Greymoor, not a Fenwick," Elias said through the mind link. “You're a pure-blooded alpha, Ralph. And I am your guardian. Do you think your friends will still have your back if they know what you are becoming? Not a beta, not an omega – but an alpha.”

He already knew what it felt like to run for his life. The night the beasts came to Hawthorne town, he was the only one who barely made it out alive. And now he was being told it would be his life again – except this time, it would not be the beasts hunting him. It would be the people he considered family and friends.

Ralph clenched his jaw hard. He felt his stomach twist at the thought of becoming an alpha, because if that was happening, it meant he was going to lose everything again, like two years ago.