Page 96 of The Alpha and His Childhood Sweetheart

Why do we do this? There are SO many reasons. No one should suffer this way. It is wrong and we won't stand for it. Too many have stood by in fear, wanting to keep their heads down and stay out of the fray. I am not afraid. I will stand. I will not turn a blind eye.

We know where our place is. It’s standing between the innocent and those vile, corrupt, evil masochists leading the Ring. They hide, but we can get to them. They are not safe anymore… and they get my messages about it. I will not stop until they are all dead. I personally want revenge… for the things they’ve done to me… and those I love. I have to stop them. I won’t stop until I have vengeance.

As for your request to be “friends.” I have already told you, you don’t want that. Let’s just stick to our current relationship. It’s symbiotic in nature… so it works. Don’t break it. Finding out more about us, about me, will break that. We have a good thing going. Work within that and let me help the way I can.

How do you find us? Short answer: You don’t. Longer answer: We will not be found if we don’t want to be. If you find us it will be because we’ve crawled into your lap, tapped your shoulder, and said hi. That won’t happen though.

As I said, our relationship works because of the anonymity we have right now. Let us continue to help each other. Stop looking for me. I will contact you if we need help. I will know if you need our help, as I have up until now. Stay safe Alpha’s.

We will fight until this is over. The Ring will go down.

P.S. So I guess you asked for our name and I forgot to put that so…We are the Ring Resistance Or just the Resistance for short.

I looked over at Alexander who had been reading it with me. I asked, “Who did you reach out to? I’ve never asked what they do. I just asked for a name.” Alexander frowned, “I did ask that. I asked who they are, what they do, why they do it, how we could find them. I also included wanting to know how we could make acquaintances with them.”

I raised an eyebrow, “So I’ve been asking for a name for two years and got nothing. You reach out to your contacts, and we get a letter in a few weeks? You're officially in charge of getting answers about the Ring Resistance, brother.”

Alexander snorted, “I don’t know which source got to them. I put inquiries out with over three hundred people.” I shrugged, “Get the list to Micah.” Micah rubbed his hands together, “I do love a challenge.”

My dad said, “This person knows us. She called Julianna and Everly by name. She knows you two as well and thinks you would not welcome a friendship.” We all frowned because that was true. The cadence of the letter reminded me of Melanie.

My head pounded and I shoved that thought away. Melanie was living her dream and her finishing school teacher taught her to talk without rambling. Plus, Melanie would know we’d be her friend. She was mine already and she was family to Elise.

I sighed, “Toby, we need to pull our enemies. Someone who would still care about us but thinks we wouldn’t be accepting of them.” Elise asked, “What about Alpha Raven? My family doesn't like him.” I mused, “The note T got with the code word was found on their border at the start of this. It could be the Raven family.”

My dad snorted, “Alpha Daniel Raven has no reason not to contact you though, son. Or Emmett. They were never our enemies. We stood against their dad, but we have had a prosperous relationship with them ever since his death. We are even friends with them.”

I sighed, “It’s all we have. They do have a sister.” Emmett snorted, “A sister who lives in Washington. She met her mate at the last Summit.” I told my Beta, “Toby, I want that confirmed. I want to make sure she’s where she thinks she is.” Toby nodded, “Alright.” He took out his phone.

Alexander was upset. We scoured the place for anything else but found nothing. Eventually my mom warned, “If you all don’t open that fucking package I will lose my goddamn shit. The curiosity is literally going to kill me! You all know I love presents! Stop doing this to me.” I snorted but she sent me her urgency in the bond.

I pulled a knife out of my shoe. My Uncle Bjourn smiled because I’d it learned from him. I never went anywhere without a weapon. Something all my Fairy cousins were going to have to adopt after today. I cut the tape off the box and put my knife back into my shoe.

I opened the box and stepped back in shock. There were syringes just like I’d seen the sniper give Julianna. She’d given it to us. Alexander asked, “Brother what…?” He trailed off then yelled, “Holy motherfucking shit!” My dad asked, “What is it?” I picked up the note and read it.

This is Laxenread. It will bring your Fairy powers back in a minute if you’ve been hit with iron. I only have so many doses, but this is what I can offer you. Please…. let us keep our symbiotic relationship… I just want to help… and I mean… I am helping…so… I feel like you should do me this favor.

I snorted, “It’s Laxenread.” My mom shrieked, “What?” She stepped forward and read the note. She looked at my dad frowning. My mom’s emotions were strange in the bond. I asked her, “Mom?” She frowned, “Well, it’s...” She trailed off, “I mean….” She made a strange face.

Aunt Lexi spoke, “Hales, what do you think about the note?” My mom answered, “Alexander.” He answered her, “What did I do?” My mom shook her head, “Not you but well,” She winced, “yes you.” My dad laughed, “Angel, just explain it from the beginning.”

My mom said, “Fairies love anagrams. Laxenread unscrambled is Alexander. He asked the questions that got answered. This is a counteragent for iron poisoning, and it’s named Alexander. They didn’t give us the Wolf one, just this one. What if that’s the one that wasn’t perfected? What if our sniper doesn’t go out when Alexander does because she likes him? She’s scared she’ll miss if his life is on the line.” Holy shit.

I looked at my brother, “Did you get a Fairy obsessed with you, little brother? Because ‘like’ is not an intense enough word for all this.” Alexander looked and felt extremely confused. Elise surmised, “So we have a she wolf of some kind, a Fairy, and a Witch or Warlock? How did they meet each other? Were they in the Ring? Did they escape?”

Alexander asked, “Why do they care about me?” I snorted, “Apparently, they care about you a great deal, little brother. We need to see if we can find someone who can replicate these.” Elise snorted, “If Mel wasn’t so damn busy, I bet she could.” I wished we could do that.

I sighed, “That’s true. We haven’t told her what’s going on though. If we want to break that bubble, I’ll ask her.” Elise frowned. Alexander said, “No, she deserves to live her dream.” I sighed, “Alright.” My dad said, “I don’t think the sniper was inthe Ring. I think the Ring killed someone she loves. Maybe her family.”

My mom offered, “I agree.” I asked, “Why?” He tapped the note, “She said she needs vengeance. She’s not going to stop until she gets it. Whatever the Ring did to this girl, she plans to make them live to regret it.”

Uncle Bjourn said, “If they knew her name, they probably would’ve gotten her already.” That was also true. After one last check over the premises and nothing more found, we popped home.

For weeks we had people analyzing what the hell this Laxenread was. We had figured out most of it, but there was a component that was apparently unidentifiable. Our Lead Scientist was losing sleep over it even though we told him it wasn’t his fault.

Uncle Aiden and Uncle Bjourn also had people working on it. We were just running out of ideas. At this point I doubted even Ladybug would be able to figure it out even if we asked. The scientist we had said there was a new element they had never heard of in the serum. I had a constant headache.

Alexander was going to Faerie trying to sues out if there was a Fairy that liked him. Naturally, he’d found plenty. None that appeared to be able to pull this off, though. Micah came up with nothing from the contacts Alexander had reached out to. If they had reached out to someone, they’d done it by word of mouth. We couldn’t put our people on over three hundred people. It was maddening.

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