PIERCE’S POV “Pierce, I think I just found the real mole. Too bad she already slipped out of our hands,”

That was Martha’s voice. My worries about Grace suddenly shifted to the matter at hand. I immediately summoned Martha to my office.

“What do you mean by you lost the mole?” I asked her, anger laced in my voice.

“Turns out it was the girl I pointed out last time. She was the rat that poisoned Grace,”

“She probably brought in a stranger to cover her tracks,” Martha said.

“I should have killed her on the spot,” I snarled.

“Protect Lana,” I ordered. But Martha did not budge.

“What are you waiting for,” I growled.

“She is a white wolf, they would not want to kill her,” Martha said.

“It doesn’t Martha!” I retorted.

“Giving her preferential treatment is what will draw attention to her even more,” Martha yelled. She was not going to do as I say.

“Get out!” I hissed. Martha was hesitant, but she eventually left.

For the next three days, Layer pack was turned upside down to fish out the rats hiding in it. We eventually caught eight of them and executed them on the spot. There would be no more room for another mole in my pack.

After these three days, the pack’s activity returned back to normal with Martha hosting another competition. This time, she ordered everyone to fight each other. According to her rule, only when four she-wolves are left will the game end.

I gritted my teeth, not wanting to watch, for fear that I would lose Lana again. But Martha kept reminding me that Grace was not Lana and that I should stop dreaming.

“Even though you try to turn her into Lana, she can never be Lana Miles,” Martha once told me. I knew she was right, but I was not willing to accept that.

Soon the fight commenced, and everyone was up against each other, with only a few pairing up together. But they all had Grace as their target. I looked at Martha who seemed consented with their action, this was her plan all along.

I watched as Grace fought by herself with the other she-wolves. If she dies, then I would have to give up on replacing Lana, that was Martha’s goal. Even though she allowed me to carry on with my plan on replacing Grace’s actual identity with that of Lana, she never truly consented to it.

The fight was intense, with Grace all by herself until someone joined her. She looked quite familiar, but I could not tell who she was.

“I will fight by your side!” she said to Grace, announcing her support for Grace to everyone before attacking. I was finally relieved seeing her fighting skills. She was as strong as Grace before she got poisoned, if not stronger. But without her wolf, the current Grace can barely fight. Perhaps, this was the reason Martha banned the use of wolf in this fight.

The fight lasted for five hours, leaving the survivors with no strength to keep them up. Four of them were left, luckily, Grace was among them. She made it.

A smile crawled into my lips as her eyes met with mine. But instead of returning my smile, she glared at me; it was deadly.

“She sure has nine lives!” I heard Martha say. I left the arena not wanting to attack Martha there.

“What do you plan to do next?” I said, attacking her the moment she stepped into her chamber. But she ducked.

“I never expected the Alpha to be waiting for me in my chamber,” she said flirtatiously.

“I thought last time was not meant to be?” she smirked.

“Don’t try to change the topic,” I said to her. She laughed.

“What if I say this is my own way of training her?” Martha said. But her actions already belied her preposition.

“We both know you just want her dead!” I said.

“True!”

“But she’s not dead, not yet,” she said. This made me attack her again. We fought long, her power was almost equal to mine. Martha has been training with me for years, so it’s no wonder she’s this strong. But, then I realised, Martha was much stronger than she used to be.

“You have been hiding your strength,”

“No, you have just been slacking off,” she said, scoffing at me.

“It’s time for some training, Pierce!” she said before dragging me out and into our personal training ground.

“You want to be the strongest and most powerful Alpha to ever exist, here’s your chance,” she said, charging at me.

Martha was this strong, I could make her Luna if I wanted to, but no, she can’t take Lana’s place. She would not accept it herself.

I cracked my neck, ready to take on Martha. It was a tough one, I almost lost. Or perhaps, she let me win just to massage my ego.

“Next time, I won’t hold back!” she said before leaving. I laid my back on the floor, trying to catch my breath. This was my cue to train harder. So, with each day that passed, I would train with my wolf till our blood touched the ground.

“Congratulations, you are now close to having a Luna,” Martha’s voice reached my ears. But she wasn’t in my head, she was standing right behind me.

“Who?”

“It’s a tie! It’s been a tie for several days,” she said.

“Tie?” I asked her, a little bit confused.

“On one hand, you have Oteila of Blood Moon pack,”

“And?”

“And on the other hand, you have Grace of Blue moon pack. Or should I say Lana of Layer pack?” she said.

“Who do you think is stronger?” I asked her.

“The one that can beat me in a fight,” she said with a smirk.

“If they lose?” I asked her. Martha cannot be trusted.

“If anyone fails to beat me, she dies!” Martha said.

“If neither of them win against you, will you still kill them?” I asked her.

“Is this your way of asking me to spare her?” She raised a brow at me, but we were immediately interrupted.

“Taste my claws!” it was Grace, and the she-wolf fighting beside her from the last brawl I watched.