"One, two, three!"

On his count, Jai lifted me over his shoulders and I grabbed the top of the stone wall and pulled myself over it.

"Do you need help getting over?" I asked, looking back down at him from where I was perched atop the wall.

There wasn't time to collect a response before Jai leapt over the wall entirely, landing on his feet on the other side.

"Are you a Lycanthrope or a spider monkey?" I asked sarcastically.

He turned around and held his hands out for me to jump down into and I did so carefully.

"Follow me," he said, leading me through a garden and over to a side entrance.

Using the foliage as cover, we slowly crept over to the side of the temple where a door was being guarded by a man who was looking the other way. I recognized him as being the third man that left the boat with Jacob.

"Is there another way in?" I asked, looking around the courtyard for another door or a window wide enough for us to squeeze through.

I looked over to see Jai pull a knife from his pocket.

"You don't have to watch this if you don't want to," he said.

I didn't say anything as he quickly stood up straight and threw the knife with such force that it knocked the man backwards against the wall as it caught him in the left eye.

I gulped noticing the spray of blood that erupted against the clean white stone of the temple.

We emerged from the cover of the bushes and flowers to walk over to the door which was now blocked by the body of the dead guard.

As gruesome as the sight was, I couldn't tear my eyes away from him.

He looked so familiar.

"Grab his feet," Jai whispered, lifting his torso up off the ground.

I did as I was told and we moved him out from in front of the door to lay in the grass.

As Jai placed him down, it occurred to me where I knew him from.

"He was one of the men who went missing when my grandfather did," I said. "I think his name was Philip."

"That doesn't really surprise me," Jai said, standing. "Now that we know that Weber was actually Zosak and he was working with Jacob, I can imagine that all of those men were turned so they could be recruited into this chaos."

I stood over the bloody corpse feeling somewhat reminiscent of the times when I was blissfully unaware of the world around me, believing I was doing a good thing by trying to find the innocent men who had gone missing like my grandfather.

It felt like it had been years since I was on the floor of Cain's office, papers spread around me as I looked tirelessly for a connection between the missing men.

Nearly two months later, there I was with all of the answers I had searched for—yet somehow, I wished that I was still as oblivious and naïve.

"C'mon," Jai said, pulling me from my trance.

Tearing my gaze away from the dead man in front of me, I turned to follow Jai.

With a one hand on the door handle, Jai turned back to me and held a finger to his lips, ensuring I knew to be quiet.

Did he honestly think I was going to burst into the Habanera when he opened the door?

Jai must have known how pathetic I thought his warning was because he smiled before turning back to the door in front of him and opening it slightly.

We both peered down a long, empty hallway.

He opened the door completely and we both went inside quietly before he turned to close it behind us.

The walls inside were covered by the same crisp white paint that the stone outside was. The ceilings, which were nearly thirty-foot tall, were also white. But what caught my eye was the vivid, brilliant red carpet that we stood on. I almost felt guilty for walking on it with dirty feet.

Jai grabbed my hand and pulled me along the hallway, stopping when we got to the end of it to peer around the corner.

When he determined it was safe to proceed, he pulled me behind him and walked slowly down another hallway. This one, however, opened on one side to lead into a large gathering room.

Four large jade pillars sat on the one side of the hallway, stretching all the way to the ceiling to welcome guests into the gathering room.

I could hear murmurs and whispering as we got closer, our bodies pressed against the wall to remain hidden.

I saw the slow rise and fall of Jai's chest and the furrowing of his brows as he listened intently to what was being said.

"Jacob isn't in there," he said, seeming somewhat confused.

"Those three men were with him when he left the boat," I told him. "He has to be here."

Before either of us could say another word, we heard a door open and close. Looking back down the hallway, I could hear someone walking.

"Go," Jai said, pushing me in front of him.

I turned the corner and walked into the room with his hand on my back, urging me to walk quickly.

Some people, not all of them, turned to see us walk in. Among them were both Daniel and Zahra, both of whom looked shocked to see me.

Instead of saying anything, Jai pushed me between the two of them.

"Don't say a word," he said, using a low voice.

Zahra, immediately understanding what was happening, adjusted the handkerchief that was still somehow on my head and brushed my hair back into the cloth to keep it from being seen. She pulled the top over my forehead slightly to hide my face.

"Keep your head down," she said.

Daniel, picking up on the subtle cues, slid his coat off and handed it to me.

"It will help mask your scent," he said.

Just as I slid both arms into the coat, the whole room went silent.

"I'm glad you could all join me."

Jacob.

He walked around the room to stand in front of the large golden statute of Buddha that sat on the far wall.

I wondered for a moment if he realized how irreverent it had been to call a meeting like this inside a temple of worship.

Everyone gathered in closely, concealing me further even if they didn't realize it. The group counted probably forty people altogether and I recognized many of them from the meeting in Casablanca.

As I looked around, I couldn't find Cain anywhere.

Jai had said he was already inside?

"I don't wish to waste your time any more than you want to waste mine," Jacob said. "So, I'll get right to it."

I could feel everyone holding their breath.

"Those of you in this room have been given a vast responsibility to care for the people under your command. Should the same not be expected of your Alpha Sovereign? I believe it should, which is why I implore those of you that have gathered here today to help me depose my brother and advise that you should give his title to me so that it may be treated with the reverence and respect that this great Lycanthropic society has always deemed it to be."

Daniel let out a snort beside me, but Jacob didn't seem to notice.

"If you agree to this shift in power, your life will be spared. If you do not, I will have no choice but to execute any disloyalists."

"So," he said. "Which of you are in favor of my proposition?"

A few trembling hands went up, then more and more.

When I saw Zahra and Daniel's hands go up, I shot them both a glare.

Daniel disarmed me with a wink.

Clearly, this was part of some predetermined ploy.

I raised my own hand.

"Good," Jacob said as the last hand in the room went up. "Now there is the issue of deciding who will be my Beta, which I'm afraid won't be as easy a decision."

Murmurs could be heard as the tension in the room grew with the added confusion.

"There can only be one Beta," Jacob said. "And since you have all so graciously voted unanimously to make me Alpha Sovereign, I am no longer in need of your services."

The room began to shift with unease and I realized almost immediately where this was going.

"Only one of you will leave this room with me," he said. "The rest of you will die fighting for your lives and for the title Beta. The last one of you standing will be awarded the title."

Shouts of curses and fear echoed around the room as everyone turned to see the way out was blocked by seven men who stood lined up in front of the columns to prevent anyone from leaving.

Suddenly, a succession of slow claps echoed around the room, sending everyone into silence.

I looked around to see where it was coming from, but so did everyone else.

No one could tell who was doing it, even Jacob looked somewhat confused.

It wasn't until I looked up that I saw him.

Cain was standing on one of the rafters above our heads, leaning casually against a supporting beam.

I looked at Jacob to see his face fall as he saw Cain.

Before I knew what was happening, Cain jumped from where he stood and landed on his feet in front of Jacob, the concrete tile he landed on cracking and forming a crater under his feet from the impact.

"Nicely done, everyone," he said. "It was a beautiful moment of solidarity. And you, brother, have a flare for the dramatic and it's inspiring, genuinely. I nearly shed a tear when you spoke of the reverence you have for the title of Alpha Sovereign."

Jacob's jaw clenched as Cain spoke.

"I have to be honest, though," Cain continued, "my feelings are somewhat hurt that I wasn't invited to my own going away party. And, if I'm being completely transparent, I'm disappointed at this turn of events."

"How so?" Jacob asked sarcastically.

"Because we were raised to be traditionalists," Cain said. "Everyone knows that if you want to replace an Alpha, he has to fight to the death with his competitor."

"Since when have you had any respect for tradition?" Jacob sneered. "According to tradition, you should never have been Alpha because you are not of pureblood. You are a diseased mutt that doesn't deserve love nor respect, much less a title."

Almost immediately, I saw Cain's demeanor change as he dropped the charismatic act.

"So, fight for what's rightfully yours then," he said.

When Jacob said nothing more, Cain let out a breathy laugh.

"That's what I thought," he said. "At the end of the day, you might be the smartest one of the two of us, maybe even the one with the scariest bark, but you will never be the strongest. You know that with as much certainty as I do, because, let's be honest, I killed you once. I don't have any reservations about doing it again."

"Damn," Daniel whispered under his breath.

Jacob's eyes were burning with such fury, I could have sworn they were glowing.

"You look like a coward just standing there. Shift," Cain taunted. "Shift and show this entire room of people that you deserve to be the leader of their people."

Everyone was dead silent as we waited for Jacob to respond.

When he did not, Cain shook his head.

"It's as I suspected then," he said. "You don't have a wolf. I took that away from you too when I turned you, didn't I?"

Jacob was shaking with rage, his hands trembling by his side.

"Who's the diseased mutt now?" Cain growled.

Jacob managed a smirk as he reached into his back pocket and pulled out a capped vial.

"This is everything you've ever wanted," Jacob said slowly, holding it in front of Cain's face. "It's a cure to Vampirism and it's yours if you turn around and walk out that door and never show your face again."

I gulped.

Even Daniel shifted nervously beside me.

I felt my heart drop as Cain reached up slowly and took the vial from Jacob's grasp, turning it over in his hands.

Jacob was right.

Cain wanted nothing more than to rid himself from the curse of Vampirism.

It was a brilliant move, and I knew with the upmost certainty that Jacob had backed Cain into a corner with just one word:

Cure.

Cain looked up from the vial at Jacob and sighed.

"I'm all different shades of fucked up—there's nothing in a glass cylinder this small that will fix that."

With that being said, he let the vial fall from his hands and shatter on the ground at his feet.

Jacob was as shocked by this as I was.

"Fine," he said, looking up from the shattered glass at Cain's feet. "We'll do this the hard way then."

Before anyone could move, the sound of bodies hitting the ground sounded off one by one behind us.

Everyone turned to see all seven guards laying in a pool of their own blood, with Cain's father looking guilty as he walked away from them.

"Sorry we're late," Adam said, wiping the blood on his pant legs. "Your mother and I got lost. See, there's a temple about two kilometers in the other direction and we weren't sure which one we were supposed to be at."

"It wasn't until we saw the two scary-looking men standing outside the gate that we knew we were finally in the right place," Evelyn added, walking around the corner.

"Don't worry though," Adam said. "They're dead now too."

"What an icon," I heard Jai whisper from behind me.

"What are you doing here?" Jacob asked.

"You called a meeting of the Betas, yes?" Adam asked. "Well, I thought it would be fitting for me to be here since I am the Beta of North America. Everyone forgets, even your brother. I wasn't invited to the last meeting he had in Casablanca either."

Jacob looked at Cain with devilish gleam in his eyes.

"You should have left them out of this."

Before Cain even had the chance to respond, Jacob ran across the room in a blur, knocking everyone out of his way.

Teeth bared and eyes glowing, he lunged at his mother.

Cain ran forward with all his might, trying to stop Jacob before he could reach her.

Evelyn screamed as she realized what was happening far too late.

Everything happened so quickly that it wasn't until after I screamed that I realized I had done so.

In a split-second blur, Jacob had knocked his mother to the ground.

I ran forward, not realizing until I was close that the blood that pooled around them was not from Evelyn, but Jacob.

Adam stood over his wife and son with Jacob's spine in his hand.

He looked down at the limp collection of vertebrae and nerves in his fist before dropping it to the floor.

Evelyn sat up quickly, realizing what had happened as she looked down at the bleeding gash that ran down her son's back.

"Adam," she breathed out. "You-"

"-saved your life," he interrupted.

It took me a moment to realize that Jacob was dead. Seeing his body lying over his mother's legs, I felt a variety of emotions wash over me.

Letting out short and choppy breaths, I walked forward slowly.

The red glow of Jacob's eyes was now a lifeless burgundy color as I kneeled next to him and closed his eyelids with my fingers.

I looked up to see Evelyn staring at me with an expression of both pity and sadness. Turning, I made eye contact with Cain who was standing next to his father.

He gulped before turning away to face the crowd behind him.

"I relinquish my title as Alpha Sovereign," he said.

"Those of you who are standing in this room are the sons and daughters of former Alphas or you are former Alphas yourselves," he continued. "From this day forward, you have regained the title Alpha and will preside over your respective lands as Alpha Superiors, answering to no one but your people."

I saw a few jaws drop, a few heads raise with pride and a few people who looked like they would puke.

"I will take the title over Europe, but I am no longer in authority over any of you. This tyranny ends here, with my brother's blood being the last to be spilt over the title Alpha Sovereign."

After a few moments of silence, everyone began to leave the room, one by one, until it was only myself, Jai, Daniel, Cain and his parents.

Evelyn cried silently over the body of her son, cradling his head in her hands. Adam sat next to her, staring off into the space above our heads in reverence.

Jai was glued to the spot where he stood, unable to speak as he worked to comprehend the last few moments.

Daniel, however, walked over to stand between Cain and I, sighing as he did so.

"Can I please take a nap now?"

- - -