Rise of the Assassin (Child of an Alpha Series Book 1)

by Kaitlyn Taylor

  Nova and I were breathing heavily as we stood there looking around at the eyes staring at us. They all had stopped to watch us, but neither one of us could figure out why. They were supposed to be sparring against their own partners; paying attention to us should’ve been the last thing on their minds.

  “What?” Nova asked as I let go of her. I helped her up off the floor just as my father and Uncle Ben approached us.

  “We told you to stop.” My father looked at me with seriousness spread out across his face and energy. “Why did you keep going?”

  “I didn’t hear you say stop,” I told him, looking over at Nova, who didn’t seem to hear him either.

  “Everyone in the room was trying to tell you to stop,” Uncle Ben echoed my father. “How did you not hear it?”

  “I don’t know,” Nova answered. “It was like we were in our own bubble.”

  I didn’t realize that Nova had felt the same thing I had. When everything started to slow down it did feel like it was just the two of us. There was no sound or movement besides the ones we were making. It didn’t seem strange to me at all until my father brought it up. I just assumed we got caught up in the moment. Was there something more to this? My mind said everyone else was overreacting, but looking back on it, it was odd, and my gut told me something wasn’t right.

  “Lord Alpha!” A man ran into the ballroom towards my father. He realized the rest of the alphas were in the room and quickly bowed to them and apologized for not addressing them all when he first entered. My uncles didn’t seem to care and were more concerned with the message the guard came in to deliver. He was dressed in army uniform, which meant he was one of the ones who protected the castle. He didn’t seem to fear the alphas the way some of the guards did. He must have interacted with them on several occasions, because he spoke to them as if they had some kind of business relationship.

  “He’s been spotted,” the guard told my father. “We have men on his trail right now.”

  “Where?” my father asked as he took a few steps toward the guard.

  “The castle village, sir,” the guard answered. “The guards patrolling the village sent one of their own back to the castle for backup.”

  “We must go,” my father said to the alphas before turning towards our brothers. “Boys, get your shit and meet us back at the front gates. We’re going hunting.”

  “What about us?” I asked, waiting for him to give us our orders. He looked back at me as if he didn’t have time to deal with me.

  “Stay here,” he demanded. “I don’t want you mixed up in this.”

  “You can’t really expect us to stay put,” I argued.

  “Yes, I do!” he yelled, his patience running out. It only took eighteen years. “You will stay here as I’ve told you to do. I swear to the Spirits, Luna, if you leave this castle you will regret it.”

  He turned away from me and stomped out of the ballroom. The girls were standing behind me as our fathers left us behind. I knew they could feel the anger radiating off me. I wasn’t mad that he’d yelled at me. I was pissed that he once again wasn’t bringing me along. He’d been training me my entire life just like he did with my brothers, but for some reason he could trust them but not me? That didn’t make any sense. I was just as good of a fighter as they were. I might not have their size or their strength, but I was just as smart when fighting, and my father knew that. Did he train me to be a weapon only to keep me hung on his wall like the other weapons? And what happened to the castle being on lockdown?

  “Don’t even think about it, Luna,” Juda said softly so that she couldn’t be overheard. “You heard what he said. I’m pretty sure he meant it this time.”

  “I know he did,” I agreed. “But he pissed me off, which means I don’t care what he said. We’re going hunting just like they are.”

  Nova stood with Juda. “This isn’t a good idea. I’m just as angry as you are, but I’m not trying to get in trouble over something like this. What if they’re keeping us behind for a reason?”

  “What reason would that be?” I asked, whipping my head around so quickly that it startled her.

  She panicked as she answered: “I don’t really know but you don’t either.”

  “You’re right, I don’t,” I admitted. “But that doesn’t mean I’m staying behind. I’m going with or without you.”

  Deja sighed as she started to follow me. “You know we’re not going to let you go out there by yourself.”

  “Then come on,” I shouted. “I don’t want to hear one more word about what we should and shouldn’t be doing from here on out. If you can’t do that, then stay here.”

  The footsteps behind me told me every single one of my sisters was on board with the plan. I’m not sure if that’s what you’d call what we were doing, but we were definitely doing something and that’s all that mattered to me.

  I focused on the noises echoing throughout the many halls in the castle and knew the alphas and our brothers had already left. This was our opportunity to sneak out, but it wouldn’t be easy. No doubt my father was keeping the guards on the fence around the castle, which meant we needed to stay out of sight. The easiest thing to do would be to use a portal, but Kota’s portals weren’t stable yet. She’d come really close, but it wasn’t worth risking at a time like this. We were going to have to do it the way we’d always done it and hope that this time we wouldn’t get caught.

  I stayed in front, leading us to a random door that led out to the garden. The cooks used this door to get fresh vegetables and fruits. Once we were down in the tunnel, we were able to relax a little, but when we saw the sunlight, we knew we would have to be quiet again if we were going to pull this off.

  I stuck my head out of the door and looked around. I grunted in frustration as I closed the large wooden piece and faced the girls.

  “Our mothers decided to have tea in the garden today,” I snarled. I paced a little, but we were in a narrow space; I wasn’t able to go far. What was my mother thinking when she decided to have tea outside when our enemy had been spotted just a few miles away? Did no one understand that the castle was on lockdown?

  “What do we do now?” Kota asked, leaning against the wall waiting for the others to make similar inquiries. I slouched, dropping my shoulders as I tried to think, something my mother would never approve of. She would tell me to stand up straight the second I even thought about relaxing my posture.

  “Alright, this is what we’re going to do,” I said when I convinced myself that not all hope was lost. “We’re still going to go out through the garden, but instead of walking through the gate, we’re going to climb the wall and jump over.”

  “What?” the girls said together.

  “You want us to jump over the wall?” Deja shrieked, forcing the rest of us to shush her. “The only one that’s going to be easy for is Juda.”

  She was right about that. Juda was the tallest of us all and would show no struggle while the rest of us fell onto our backs. It would be hard to backtrack though. If someone saw us enter the castle through the tunnel, they would be suspicious of what we were doing and would report it to the alphas.

  “Look, there are trees right outside this door that will cover us while we each climb the wall and get ourselves over,” I explained. I was confident that I’d thought this plan out thoroughly, but I might be underestimating our strength to actually accomplish it. “Juda, you’ll have to go last, because if anyone can get over by themselves, it’s going to be you. The rest of us will need help.”

  “Typical,” Juda sighed. “But fine. It’s better than just staying here in the castle while everyone else gets to hunt that psychopath down.”

  I turned away from them and opened the door once more. As we made our way out of the tunnel and toward where we would scale the closest wall, I watched our mothers to make sure they were distracted enough to disregard movement from our direction. I was nervous about this plan. I wanted to have Kota use her magic to help us, but her mother would
sense her energy and catch us so quickly that the girls and I wouldn’t have a chance to hide.

  Nova went first. Kota and I bent down, cupping our hands together. When her legs were no longer shaking, we gave her a soft push up towards the top of the wall. She landed on her chest; her breasts lucky they were able to make it all the way over instead of being smooshed like her stomach. All we could see was her backside and her legs as she lifted one side of her body over the wall and straddled the top. Deja was the next one we sent up, Nova helping her at the top before the two of them jumped down together.

  Kota was next. It took her a little longer to stop shaking once her feet were securely placed in our hands.

  “No offense, Kota, but we don’t have all day,” Juda said comfortingly. “We won’t drop you or let you fall.”

  Kota nodded, letting us know she was ready to be shot up towards the top. I began to count to three, but she was halfway up the wall after one. She landed very similarly to Nova, but it seemed she landed harder than our shifter sister did. Kota was quick to express the pain she was feeling in her ribs whereas Nova said nothing. Juda had to push me up by herself, which wasn’t going to be hard for her, but just in case something went wrong, Kota stayed at the top, straddling the wall the way Nova had, to catch my hand if it was needed.

  Juda must have forgotten her own strength, because the second I gave her the okay to push me up, I went flying past Kota, clearing the wall by a few feet. Thankfully, Nova and Deja were paying attention and were able to break my fall, but all three of us ended up flat on the ground.

  “You didn’t have to throw her,” I heard Kota say, looking down at Juda from the top of the wall. I saw Kota roll her eyes as I stood up and helped Deja and Nova, apologizing over and over. By the time we had brushed all the dirt off of our clothes, Juda was on our side of the wall, looking as if it was no big deal that she’d made it over by herself.

  It took a lot to break us, but I was still going to feel the pain from the fall later.

  Our next task was getting past the castle gates, but that would be easier than scaling the wall. We knew of several exits placed all over the castle grounds that we could easily sneak out of. We had done it many times throughout our childhood.

  We walked carefully along the garden wall and then ran across the open field of dark green grass towards the stables. We entered the barn, spooking the horses in the process, waiting to see if the coast was clear before we continued. Kota stopped in the middle of the stables, forcing the rest of us to snap at her out of frustration.

  “This is where you and Declan were last night, right?” she asked as if she didn’t notice the anger in our tones.

  “Yes,” I confirmed. “Do you sense something?”

  “Your energy is still present, as is Declan’s,” she said as she walked around in a small circle as if she were looking for something. “There’s a third energy here that I don’t recognize, but it’s strong.”

  I sensed she was hesitating, but I wasn’t sure if it was because she didn’t want to tell us the rest or if it was because she didn’t understand it herself. I waited a minute before I said anything, “What are you getting, Kota?”

  “It’s so dark,” she answered. “Whoever this is, he’s been touched by dark magic willingly. Their strength is not their own.”

  She flinched, the rest of us watching her with worried eyes. She was picking up on this energy so much better than any other energy she tried to read. She was coming along well with her studies, but she wasn’t as strong as the rest of the sorcerers in her family just yet.

  “It’s strange,” she whispered, “It’s like the energy is here but it’s also not. Declan’s is fading away, as expected. Yours is strong because you’re standing here, but the third energy is going back and forth. It has to be the spell they used to knock you guys out. I’ve only ever seen this kind thing with portals.”

  Footsteps started walking towards the stables, all of us moving in order to avoid being detected. We exited the stables through the back and made it to the fence without alarming anyone. I could tell Kota was still thinking about the energy she felt back there. I wanted to talk it out with her, but we didn’t have time. I moved the large boulder leaning against the iron fence to the side, revealing a huge hole big enough for all of us to crawl under.

  One by one, we wiggled our way under and ran for the trees. In them, we could easily hide from any guards left to protect us in case whoever attacked Declan and I tried to break into the castle again. The thought of them breaking in the first time still gave me chills.

  I walked over to Kota and forced her to look at me so I could get a better read on where her mind was.

  “Are you okay?” I asked her.

  “I’m fine,” she assured me. “It was just intense … and confusing. I can look into it more later. We have an assassin to catch right now.”

  “The alphas have the north end of the territory, the boys have the south end, and the guards have the east end,” I explained, revealing to them it was the last thing I heard my father mutter to the other alphas before they left the ballroom.

  “Why is the west end not being searched,” Deja asked.

  “I’m not sure,” I answered honestly. “The only thing I can think of is that the west end is where vampires go to hunt. It’s not the best place to hide when so many vampires go in and out of that part of the forest all day and night.”

  “Whatever the reason,” Deja continued, “if no one is looking there, it’s the best place for us to go.”

  “Agreed,” Juda said, towering slightly over us. You wouldn’t know she was a giant since she was only five-ten, but she was the strongest of us all and could use just about any weapon better than all of us combined. I wouldn’t get on her bad side voluntarily.

  Thankfully, we weren’t far off from the west end of the castle. We were able to figure out quickly which way we needed to go, and then our hunt began. Deja, the fairy, being in tune with nature much better than the rest of us, began searching for unnatural energy, or any kind of energy in general. All of Medova’s forest was filled with large trees and other plants, so we constantly had to change paths when the one we were on contained several trees, making our walkway disappear. Deja didn’t have this problem. She was able to maneuver among the trees, walking around them without even looking up at what was in front of her. It was impressive, but it made me jealous that I couldn’t do the same.

  I wasn’t worried, but I would be lying if I said I wasn’t concerned about being so deep in the forest by ourselves. Yes, vampires from all over hunted in this forest, but that didn’t mean we were safe. The only thing that kept my anxiety from increasing was knowing that the five of us were together, and with all of our powers combined no one could hurt us.

  It was the silence that bothered me. The only sounds that could be heard were our footsteps, and small branches breaking every time ones of us stepped on them. I felt like an owl the way I kept turning my head in all directions. Deep down, I wish the alphas were with us, because we had never done anything like this before. We rebelled every time we were together, and we disobeyed direct orders, but it usually had nothing to do with putting our lives in danger. This guy we were after was a murderer, and I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t hesitate to kill us, especially if he found out we were the alphas’ daughters. I was beginning to regret this plan and forcing the girls to follow me.

  Although, if we had to do it all over again, they would still be at my side even if I hadn’t forced them. They weren’t just my best friends, they were my sisters; we would follow each other anywhere, no matter how dangerous or stupid it was.

  “Luna, how big is the west side of the territory?” Nova asked. I didn’t know exactly how long we had been walking, but it felt like an eternity. The trees all looked the same to me now: tall, wide, and full of branches and leaves. The ground was covered with fallen leaves and twigs; the bushes just looked like the leaves rolled up into a ball shape. Occasionally, there were
grass looking plants around the tree stumps but that was nothing special and I barely noticed it. The point is, we had been walking for a long time and we’d seen nothing but nature.

  “Honestly, I have no idea. I’ve only ever been to the villages and the edge of the forest.”

  “You mean we’re in here blind?” Deja snapped as she glared at me, realizing I had no idea where we were going.

  “I didn’t think the forest was this big,” I said, my voice becoming higher as I attempted to defend myself.

  “All of Medova is a fucking forest, Luna!” Deja said. “Of course it’s this big.”

  It was then a branch was stepped on. We all froze, looking around at each other, hoping one of us would know what to do. We were standing in a circle in the middle of the path, all directions in view, so if anyone saw something behind me, they would have said something already. A second branch broke and my entire spine shivered. It took everything in me not to scream. Nova covered her mouth, holding in her own cry, while the rest of us kept searching for any kind of movement. This was hunting ground, so it could be an animal or a vampire looking for a fix. I listened more closely for another branch to be stepped on so I could determine what direction it was coming from. Everything in my mind told me to run, but I had no idea what I would run into if I did, so I fought myself, convincing my mind to stay put and listen for the step I was waiting for.

  A third branch broke and my head shot to my left. I kept facing the same direction for about a minute, and when the fourth branch broke, I took off at a run, determined to take out whoever was there. The girls followed close behind me, although they had no idea where I was going. I was faster than the rest of them, but they were keeping up, running right into me after I halted, sending every single one of us to the ground.