Justin's POV

"Damn you!" I shouted, hitting the punching bag a few times, as hard as I could.

The event that had occurred in the throne room left me boiling with anger, and I decided to cool off by taking out my anger on the punching bag before me.

But it wasn't the bag that deserved those punches and I knew it. It was my father who uttered such words without even thinking. Everything was a game to him, even life-changing decisions like that. I loathed that part of him.

I felt so betrayed by him. All through the conversations we usually had, there had been no indications that he had any doubts whatsoever about me succeeding him as the Alpha of the Crimson Pack. So why did he make such decisions? How could he have made such a decision?

The more I thought about it, the harder I hit the punching bag. "Take that! Take that!" I yelled, hitting harder with every new punch, ignoring my body's signal to slow down a bit as I began to feel a bit tired.

"Arghhhhhhhhh." I yelled out in frustration, hitting the punching bag with one final big punch, and this had a great impact... it caused a hole in the punching bag.

I watched as the sand flowed out of the punching bag, but my anger was still not taken care of.

"You need to calm down, Justin. You can't keep doing this." Said Xavier, who was my coach and also my best friend.

Xavier and I have been friends for a long time, he is the one responsible for luring me into doing training. I used to detest them. I thought of them as a waste of time, especially since I was already innately strong, having royal blood flowing through me and the physique to match.

However, he was able to convince me to give it a try. I didn't like it at first, but once I got the hang of it, I began to love it and soon enough, those training sessions became things that I couldn't do without.

"I can't calm down, Xavier. I just can't!" I growled, shaking my head vigorously.

I was mad, and I couldn't even contain it, even if I tried. "How can I calm down when I've been training my whole life, to take over from my father as the next Alpha of this Pack? Now, because of him, I have three other people contending for my position; my birthright. Does that sound fair?" I scoffed.

"You can't even be so sure that your brothers would want to go for it. Who knows? They might not want to go against you, seeing that you're the first child..."

"There's no freaking way that I'll be passing on the chance to be the next Alpha of the Crimson Pack." Jake said, walking into the gym with a smile on his face. "I'd be crazy to give up on something like that, and I'm not crazy at all."

I stared at him, disgusted by his behavior. I wanted to punch him in the face so badly for daring to harbor such thoughts, knowing quite well that I was the first son, and the position was and is mine by birth. Yet, I kept my cool and waited for him to finish what he had to say.

"All my life, I've watched everything being handed over to Justin so easily." He continued..." Finally, it's time for me to get my chance. It's time for me to have a fair go at something with him, to prove that I'm better and there's no way I'm letting that pass. Not in this life!"

"Nothing was handed over to me easily!" I yelled. "I worked so hard for everything that I have gained, and just in case you have forgotten, I am the firstborn son of our father, the Alpha of this Pack, and that makes me the heir apparent."

He laughed hysterically, holding his right hand over his mouth, which further got me upset. "You do know that we are quadruplets, don't you?"

"And so?"

"That simply means that we were all born at the same time." He giggled mockingly. "You always talk like you've been born years before the rest of us, but that's not true, is it? We all came out a few seconds apart and so, you're not the eldest as you claim. Any one of us could have come out first. It just happened to be you, bro."

"But none of you did," I countered. "If that had happened, we wouldn't be having this conversation. I did. I came out first. I was brave enough to take that step when the rest of you couldn't. Even in our mother's belly, I proved to be the best of the bunch. That simply shows that I deserve to be the Alpha. It's my birthright."

"In that case, you can watch me take that birthright of yours from you." He replied with a cheeky smile and that was it for me. I couldn't take it anymore.

I dashed at him and grabbed him by the collar. Then, I took my right hand backwards to hit him but suddenly, someone held my hand, preventing me from hitting Jake.

"Xavier." I called turned around, but it wasn't Xavier who had stopped me, but it was Jackson.

He stood behind me, his hand still not legging go of mine. He wasn't the only new person in the gym, Jared is here too.

"And here comes the two saints of the family." Jake mocked, hitting my hand off his neck and adjusting his collar. "Let me guess. None of you will compete to be the next Alpha of the Crimson Pack, right?"

I turned my attention to both of them, hoping to hear what they'd say about the matter. I needed to know how many people I have to contend with, so I'd know just how to go about it.

"I have more pressing issues to attend to." Jackson opened up, looking quite disinterested. "Besides, being the Alpha of this Pack has never been my thing. I don't look forward to it at all."

Jackson was the one that I feared the most out of the two. He had always claimed to be the nicest by the way he did things, doing his utmost to win the hearts of everyone around him.

He was smart. There was no denying it.

When we were younger, we were often saved from all the trouble that we got ourselves into by his brain. He always knew his way out of every situation and sometimes, I was envious of that part of him.

Hearing that he wasn't interested was a huge relief for me, knowing how formidable he would have been as an opponent. I just hoped he was being truthful.

"What about you, Jared?" I asked, staring at him intently.

"I'm surprised that you bothered to ask." He replied,  rolling his eyes. "Do I look like someone who has any kind of interest in being the Alpha of this Pack? It'll be too much of a burden, and I'm not ready for that. Talk of being the Alpha is just nonsense. Keep me out of it."

"Well, you both better keep up with that attitude." I warned them, before turning to Jake, "You won't my throne huh? Well, I won't let you get it." I glared at him.

"Looks like, is not yours to give." He shrugged, laughing.

I glared at him once more, turned around and made my way out of the gym, but not without stopping very close to Xavier to pass on an important information to him.

"Send a maid to call Rachael for me," I said to Xavier. "I can't take any chances here. I need to make the first move."