LUX

18. New Seat at the Table

~**~

I didn't return to the pack house until late in the evening, darkness taking over the sky. When I entered through the back door, I see that everyone is just beginning to sit down for dinner. The anger I felt earlier at the Alpha is still very much present and I was determined to prove to him and everyone else, who I am.

My glare immediately finds Cayne, whose hand is wrapped up, sitting in the chair that was rightfully won by me. I walk right up to the wolf with the purpose of sitting in the seat that should be mine.

"Move Cayne" I warn the wolf but he scoffs at my attempt.

"You haven't earned this spot yet, Lux." He doesn't even have the decency to look me in the eye, only looking ahead of himself.

"I'll earn it right now." I say, looking back down at his injured hand and back to his face, which he has finally turned to me. "And we'll play it on even playing field – one handed."

"You could barely beat him the first time and now you believe that you can beat him with only one hand?" The Alpha is challenging me now, in front of all his wolves that sit with him.

"Watch me alpha." I give him the disrespect he gives me.

"I'd like to see you try, wolf." He says. "Payne, tape up your brother's arm up so he doesn't damage it more. Then tape up her arm the same way. Equal playfield."

It doesn't take long for Payne to wrap up my arm and for me to turn back around to Cayne.

"Do you need a count down or something?" Cayne scoffs as he circles me. I give him less than one minute to believe that I will go easy on him again this time around, let him think he'll win. But right as he goes in for his first hit, with a sneer on his face is when the beast comes right under my skin. Together, we grab his neck and slam him down onto the ground. He tries his hardest to release my grip, but he has no idea what he is up against. His one hand is pulling and pulling at my hand that is wrapped around his neck until he starts to turn blue and weakly taps out.

I release my grip and move off of him. I offer him a hand and help him to his feet. When he's up, another wolf comes by and walks him away. I sit in the spot two down from the Alpha – two spots until I fight him.

"I'm impressed." Isaiah says with a small smile. I dig into the plate that was sat out for Cayne and ignore the Alpha. The rest of the meal I sit in silence and enjoy the food that I have rightfully owned. When I'm finally finished, I push out from under the table and make my way to my new room. Isaiah finishes at the same time as I do and we both walk up the stairs.

"Just two more Beta's and then it's me, Lux. Are you sure you're ready for what comes next?"

"I think I've proved that I'm ready for whatever you throw at me but are you ready for whatever I throw at you?"

"What do you mean?"

"I want to ask you questions, Isaiah. I want to know some things." I tell him and he raises an eyebrow.

"You want to know somethings, hmm?" He says. "You can ask me whatever, but you have to beat me first."

As if he knew he had to still prove to me that he still has the power, he leaves with the final words. Rolling my eyes, I make my way up to my room and reach over to grab the phone that Emmett got for me. I see that I have a few missed messages from Rory, so I decide to give her a call.

"Hello Stanger!" She says when she answers the phone "You've survived, I see." She giggles.

"Your uncle does not make it easy." I chuckle back.

"How is school?" I ask her.

"It's going so well!" She starts telling me about the performance that she was currently working on. She goes on and on about this and that and all the fun things about being a teenager. She must feel so lucky to have the chance to just be normal. I mean sure, she's stuck with human's most of the time but at least she doesn't have to be around all the dramatics of this life.

"And how is Jax?" I have to ask her.

"Honestly, acting weird. I'm not sure what's going on with him."

"When was the last time you saw him?" I ask.

"That party Emmett had before you left." She scoffs. "He'd usually have visited me at least twice by now." You can hear how frustrated this makes her. She really loves that wolf.

"Do you talk often?"

"Almost every day still, but it's nothing special. We usually never have awkward small talk – but now that's all we have. I don't know what to think of it." She sighs.

"I'm sure it's nothing. Maybe he's helping your brother train the wolves? Or maybe he's just training harder when he realized that I could probably beat him now." I joke to try and cut the edge off.

"Speaking of my brother, how's he doing?" By the inflation of her voice, I can tell she's teasing me now.

"What about him?"

"Oh don't play dumb, Luxie." She giggles. "I know that someone has the hots for my brother." I can almost hear the smirk on her face.

"Seriousy, I have no idea what you're talking about! We haven't even talked since he left here."

"Urg, my brother is so bad with people."

"Well I wouldn't go that far." I admit. "He's a busy wolf, Rory."

She asks me next about how I feel about the war, as much as I hate this word, I've accepted it.

"Do you know that ooaf won't even fight in this big war." The way she says the words just proves that she is probably not mature enough to be fighting in this.

"Maybe it's for the best Rory, some of the people in the war don't even want to be. Consider yourself lucky, Rory. This isn't your fight, one day you'll have a battle of your own and you'll thank your lucky stars that you were as far away as possible from this one."

"I'm sorry, Lux. I didn't even think about it that way. I guess I really didn't think at all. I am lucky, Lux. I've always been the lucky one." She admits and I think that there is more to the statement, but I don't push.

We chat a little more before she says it's lights out on her end and we say our goodbyes but not before I promise to caller her sooner rather than later. I agree and hang up. Finally when we hang up I take my well-deserved shower and finally head to bed with nightmares of the war I have to lead. 

~**~

I know it's short and sweet but It's been a hot sec since I last posed and I wanted to add more. (sorry, I know everyone hates fillers) 

happy new year!

lexx