The entire night I tossed and turned thinking about the ritual that Arina had explained. To what extent anyone would go for power was repugnant. But the biggest question that lies with me now is if the king tried to kill these special babies then, why was he letting them roam free?

Of course, I refuse to believe the current king, my father, was the one who sent those orders. No matter how cruel he looks now, it is the result of my mother’s mind. My father is a rather incompetent king, someone who is weak and is handed the power to everything. The real person pulling the strings is the queen, my vicious and greedy mother.

So it has been my grandfather who issued the orders, and since the Alpha kids were returned meant the ruler had changed then. What exactly happened during that time? Why was the order issued? And why did the kids return after three years?

It was a useless effort into overthinking it and coming to non-confirmed answers. First things first I had to search about this more because if this is true, there should be some way to stop it.

I guess I’ll never know till Channing gets married or until I return back to the castle. My eyes closed for the bare minimum sleep I would get that night.

The next morning Suzan woke me up in a hurry, “wake up Selene! Channing is back with the rest of the pack.”

I got up rubbing my still tired eyes. Half of the pack was asleep yesterday afternoon in my house so we missed Channing’s case. I guess the other half went back for the trials.

Last night Suzan stayed at my house. Although she slept like a log I had barely gotten two hours of sleep.

“Come on Selene! Get ready fast” Suzan was jumping with excitement throwing fake punches in the air, “almost everyone is at the training ground, I can’t wait to hear from Channing”

“Yes, I’ll get fresh quickly”, I yawned and headed straight inside the bathroom to freshen up. I regretted so much about not getting a proper sleep yesterday, sighing I turned on the cold shower so it would wake me up all the way.

After a while, I heard a bike horn outside my house. I was almost done changing so I did a final check in the mirror perfecting my ponytail and rushed out.

Sam was there talking to Suzan with a helmet in his hand, a blue royal Enfield was standing in front of my house. Although I loved the Yezdi bike model that was out recently in the market, Sam pulled the look off perfectly with a bullet.

“Hi Sam. Good morning”, I greeted politely and he immediately lit up.

“Selene! Good morning,” he returned, “Let’s go, everyone is waiting”

Suzan was jumping like a little kid, Sam sat on his bike and Suzan immediately jumped to sit behind him. “Come on Selene!” She gestured with her hand patting the small amount of seat left for me.

I was a bit sceptical about three people on a bike but this was a village, in the capital city it would have been a different thing. I sat at the far end and Sam started the bike.

“Everyone seated properly? Did you forget anything? Check now” asked Sam.

Both I and Suzan chuckled. “Everything is with us, let’s go”

Sam sped off the bike through the dry grass in front of my house, the start totally made me jerk back as a mini heart attack surfaced inside my chest. I gulped holding tightly onto Suzan hoping to not fall till we reach.

The training ground was mere 10 minutes away, everyone was literally crowded around Channing. He looked as if he barely got any sleep last night, but everyone wanted to know what happened.

We got down from the bike and rushed there, Suzan joined the crowd while Sam exhaled and tried to get everyone away one by one.

“Give him some space guys, he will tell us what happened!” Sam was trying to move everyone away, but his dim voice was lost between everyone’s questions and concerns.

Why wasn’t Channing asking them to back off. He was there still kind of looking overwhelmed through it all. Whoever missed the court yesterday was swarming him with questions.

This was useless whatever Sam was trying, there needed to be done something to separate Channing first. Suddenly a thought crossed my mind, and I wanted to try it immediately. This crowd was relatively small but I mustered up all my strength and pushed aside the crowd in one go, making a few of them lose their balance.

I didn’t expect Channing to catch my hand so I took a hold of his instead of waiting and pulled him out swiftly. This man was looking drowsy as if he didn’t get enough sleep, but something looked off.

As soon as the members recovered, they headed towards us to get a hold of Channing again. Are they stupid? And why wasn’t Channing doing anything?

I put my hand up like a stop sign, “Everyone wait, Channing is tired! Let him rest first, you can have your answers after that. So stay back!” As I uttered those words out of my mouth a swift realisation dawned onto me, they barely knew me and I was already ordering them around.

I heard a whistle from behind me that said ‘I am impressed’, and I turned around to see Channing looking at me with shimmering eyes.

His arm came around my shoulder “Ohhh, savage!” and his face got awkwardly close to me as if to kiss me.

“What are you doing?” I exclaimed, shocked by his puckered lips approaching me. That momentary closeness brought a whiff of Alcohol and made everything clear. “Are you drunk Channing!” my words were low only for him to hear.

“Yeeehehes”, he said, balancing himself with my help. He looked sober, not too much wasted but a childish personality like him was expected to react like this even on a few drinks.

I cringed my face looking at him, no one would say that this young man was Alpha of our pack. Somehow my face seemed to cringe around Channing a lot.

“I don’t…No that exprezion on your ph-face!” He said poking my nose, “you did that back in hozpital as wellzz, I’m not cri…cringjy Senele”

My eyes went wide at his every action, our words weren’t that loud but the pack was a bit curious about it. He can’t even say my name! This man is totally down the drain. It is surprising to even see him reach here in one piece.

I slapped his finger off my nose and rolled my eyes. Without any warning, Channing limped down putting all his weight on me, as I struggled to keep him standing straight Sam ran up and held him by his other shoulder.

Channing just hung his head low, and I said to Sam, “Let’s take him away before everyone watches anymore of this lunatic show!”

Sam nodded, “Okay!” Sam turned towards the members, “Our Alpha seems to have overtaken by fatigue, let us wait for him to rest”

The pack nodded to those deceptive words, and we immediately walked away from there. I could tell he was trying to keep himself sound in front of the pack, but was failing miserably!

We walked further ahead and turned inside towards the road that led to the residential area. The pack was nowhere to be seen from here, and I felt bad for them to have witnessed this side of Channing.

As for Channing! I was glad they saw it, this stupid idiot could have stayed back in such condition. But no! He had to come here to try and splatter mud across his face

Channing was limping and suddenly he lost his footing, putting his weight on me and Sam. The sudden jolt made my head collide with Sam’s and a big clash sound sent tingles of pain through my skull.

“Hehehe, Aahahaha”, Channing laughed, totally enjoying his doing.

He is just drunk, is all I convinced myself and huffed in anger, blowing away the hair that fell on my face.

“Let’s go faster, Sam!” I said and picked up my pace. If we were to go any slower who knew I might even murder Channing for trying something new again.

Channing kept twisting and turning his feet trying to keep up with us, “slow down!” He pouted. After walking a few more steps he again talked with a big grin on his face, “Being dragged like this is more fuuuuuuuuuunnnnn!”

I rolled my eyes and continued dragging his hefty body, my height almost matched Sam’s and so it was a bit easy for us. Or else a person so bulked like Channing should be pulled with a trolley.

But Sam was the only one concerned at this point, Me? I was totally pissed off and hoped the rest of the little distance remaining went smoothly.