Stronger

Chapter 113

James' POV:

It’s been weeks since Grayson decided to take in rogues. Many people were wary of taking them in, but they didn’t have much of a choice, and it seemed we had trustworthy people bringing in new recruits.

The young boy we’d taken in, whose sister was pregnant, seemed to look up to Grayson and had taken to following him around. Because I was always by Grayson, he was constantly at my knee. I didn’t mind, though; after a few conversations, it didn’t seem like he’d ever had much of a man in his life to look up to. Grayson’s mom had taken those two in, and they seemed to have truly warmed to the woman.

We now had ten rogues here, all of whom had sworn into the pack. My father wasn’t sure what to think; rogues were more often than not criminals banished from their packs. That’s what my parents told me, at least. It looked like there were far more evil packs expelling innocent people than they had ever thought.

I just threw one of them over my shoulder in the ring. I was surprised by how good of warriors most of them were. Most of them were good in a fight but still out of shape and practice. They needed fine-tuning and exercise, which Grayson had left up to me.

In the past, I had found him domineering, controlling, power-hungry, and negligent. That was because he’d taken my sister away. Then after the battle, he came to me and told me I shouldn’t beat myself up about it; it wouldn’t solve anything and would only complicate things. I had gotten hurt; everyone does, the only way to save my sister was to pick up and carry on. My mother had come to me and wept; my father lectured me, and Theo told me I should have been paying attention even in the heat of battle, but that it was okay, I was still young.

The only one who treated me like an adult was Grayson. He was broken about my sister; he was wasting away in the time between her disappearance and when we found out Christian was alright.

I came from a world of feelings and family, and he’d grown up without any of that resting on his shoulders. I felt stupid for not realizing that he respected me and my devotion to my sister. He didn’t bash me or lay out after Anna’s kidnapping; he helped me up, and we went on together. He sacrificed his chance to get to her for me because he knew my sister would never forgive him if he hadn’t.

I grabbed him and kicked him in the chest, and my sparring partner finally went down, gasping for air and giving in. I helped him up and explained to him how he could have blocked. The man, who was ten years my senior, swallowed his pride and listened to my guidance.

We were building back our numbers, and Grayson had surveillance on his father, trying to see where he was going. If anywhere overlapped with Marcus’s patterns, we sent a strike team to investigate; so far, there was nothing, but I had hope.

Grayson was doing a good job gathering intel, fortifying the pack’s boundaries, stocking up on weapons, and honing our warriors.

We were now all training every day in combat and strength. We were dieting and eating almost entirely protein. Grayson had everyone gearing up to be deadly.

This time, it seemed everyone in this pack was taking it personally. I know Deacon crippled them financially when they

banished the innocent pack members. The way they all came together through this struggle, the way they drew strength from each other, was admirable. It wasn’t just a matter of survival; it was about rebuilding our community and finding new purpose.Property of Nô)(velDr(a)ma.Org.

We were determined to ensure that no one else would suffer as we had. The pack had rallied behind Grayson’s vision of unity and strength. Even those who had doubted him before were now firm believers in his leadership.

I wiped the sweat from my brow and looked around the training grounds. The progress we had made was remarkable. The rogues who had joined us were no longer outsiders; they were part of our family.

“You alright?” Charlie called out to me from the sidelines.

I shrugged my shoulders. “I’m fine, just thinking about how far we’ve come.”

Charlie nodded. “We’ve all had our doubts, but Grayson has proven himself. We’re stronger together.”

I couldn’t argue with that. Grayson had brought us all together, and we were now a formidable force. The future seemed uncertain, but I had faith in our pack and in our leader.

As the training session came to an end, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of pride in what we had accomplished. We were ready for whatever challenges lay ahead.

Charlie went bright red. “I don’t know what all of you keep referring to,” he fumbled his words.

“Don’t lie, especially about this. You suck at it anyway, and now it’s just sad,” I rolled my eyes. Charlie should have realized nobody is as oblivious as they’d have to be to miss his gawking and lovelorn gaze.

I hoped that we could all move on after this, not just from this awful moment in time but from the sheltered world we’d all grown up in. I wanted all of us to see the world and find our place in it and to make it better.