Alpha Grant: Book 3 of The Alpha Series

18. Mongolia

Grant

~

Our flight left Rome and we landed in Bugant, Mongolia after a fifteen hour flight and a two-hour-layover. Traveling on someone else’s time was horrible and I hated this. I checked the time and it was seven in the evening here in Mongolia. We were a full twelve hours ahead of home, so Madison was up and getting ready to go to school while I was looking for dinner and a bed.

“We landed in Mongolia and I’m getting us hotel rooms for the night,” I messaged Madison while I was waiting on a vehicle.

“Oh s**t! Now, when you tell me good morning, I’ll be telling you good night.”

“Yeah. We will figure it out.”

“We always do. I miss looking at the stars with you.”

“I do too.”

“I have to get to school.”

“Ok. Have a good day,” I told her.

“I will. Have a good night.”

“Lol, I will.”

I put my phone in my pocket as I was handed keys to a silver Toyota van that was four-wheel drive. I stared at the vehicle for a moment.

“Sweet van bro,” Otto said, snapping me back to reality.

“I guess. My dad would love this thing,” I told him while looking at the van in disgust.

I snapped a picture of it and sent it to dad. I waited for this conversation and I knew exactly how he was going to react. He was going to geek out on this van.

“What a magnificent machine!”

“I knew you would love it.”

“Too bad you can't keep it.”

“Gross.”

“Now you sound like your mother.”

“Lol.”

I put my phone in my pocket and we went to find a hotel for the night. We would travel to the Pack of Khan in the morning. I was interested in going back and seeing how things were there.

~

We traveled for two-hours until we found the pack in the middle of a field living in huts. Some things never change. The temperature was negative six degrees at the moment and the high today was supposed to be zero. There was frost and snow on everything. At least I will get a white Christmas this year.

“You don’t get this type of weather in Texas do you?” Otto asked.

“f**k no.”

They all laughed at me and we got out to go meet the pack members that had spotted our vehicle. We started to walk to the village with our thick clothing on and soon I saw a familiar face. I remember being here four years ago with mom. Eric and I had come with her to watch as she let out Alpha Alton’s Lycan. He had been born before she could let his father’s, Alpha Tug’s, Lycan out.

Alton walked up to me with a smile on his face and greeted me, “Grant! It is great to see you once more.”

“It’s great to be back, Alton. How is everyone?”

“Good. Let’s get the four of you set up in a hut, then we will have tea and I will introduce you to some new people.”

“Sounds good.”

We grabbed our things from the van and Alton led us to a hut. We went inside and found it pleasantly warm thanks to a fire. We set our things down then followed him to another hut close by. We gathered around a table and sat on the floor to talk with Alton. We were served tea by an Omega and I noticed that there were three extra cups. Suddenly, we were joined by another male and two she-wolves.

“Alpha Grant, I would like you to meet my Luna, Sarnai,” Alton told me.

I stood up and shook her hand and said, “it’s good to meet you.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” she told me with a bright smile.

“Do you remember my Beta, Nomin?” Alton asked.

“Yes, I do. It’s good to see you again,” I told him while shaking his hand.

“This is my mate Qara,” Beta Nomin told me.

I shook her hand, then we all sat down. I introduced my members to them and we started to talk about other things.

“I was happy when Sean got a hold of my father to tell him you were headed here. It will be nice to train with you,” Alton said.

“Did he warn y’all too?” I asked.

Alton laughed and said, “Yes. Since we are in such a remote area, you are required to take both my father and I on at the same time.”

I smiled and said, “alright.”

We sat there and talked until lunch, then ate with them. We had something called Huushuur, which are small, half-moon shaped fried pastries filled with meat and onions. The meat today was sheep and it was amazing. After that, we walked through the village to meet members and learn their customs. As we walked around, the snow and frost crunched under our weight with every step. There’s no way we could be quiet in this if we wanted to.

As we walked around, Otto said, “I almost feel like I’m back home walking through a Navajo camp.”

“I can see how you would feel that way. The Mongolian tribes do remind me of the Native American tribes,” I told him.

We kept walking around until I was frozen, then we went back to our hut. We thawed out in the hut and I got ready to text everyone good morning as we ate dinner on our own. We were having a noodle and beef soup that an Omega had delivered to us with bowls.

“Good Morning,” I texted Madison as I walked into my room.

“Good evening. How are things there in Mongolia?”

“Cold!” I sent her pictures with that message.

“Wow! You get a white Christmas though!”

“Yeah. It’s negative six degrees again tonight.”

“Yuck.”

“Agreed.”

“Make a snow man for me!” she told me.

“I will in the morning and send it to you in your goodnight text.”

“Awesome!”

“Have a good day at school.”

“I will. Sleep well and stay warm.”

“Will do.”

These short ass conversations with her and everyone else sucked. We will be here through the New Year, then go to China. So there would be at least two months where it would be like this.

~

I woke up early this morning, so I went outside and built a snowman like Madison had asked of me. I heard my phone chime and I knew it was her telling me good morning. As I finished the snowman, I opened my phone and started texting her before snapping a picture of what I had created.

I sent her the picture and told her, “for you.”

“Awe thanks!”

“You’re welcome.”

“What are you going to do with your day?” she asked.

“Train with the Alpha and his dad. I don’t know what we will be doing after that.”

“I’m sure you will kick some ass.”

“Always.”

“Lol, well I’m headed to bed and I'm sure you need to eat breakfast.”

“Yeah. Have a good night and sweet dreams,” I told her.

“I will. Have a wonderful day.”

“Will do.”

I put my phone back in my pocket, then went back into the hut. The guys were moving around the main area of the hut and stopped when they saw me come back in.

“What were you out doing?” Otto asked.

“Making a snowman,” I told them.

The three of them chuckled at me and then Otto asked, “Did you send it to her and tell her goodnight?”

“Yes.”

He sighed and said, “I really hope she’s our Luna, because if she is, I'm never letting you live any of this s**t down.”

He started laughing and I chuckled as I called him an asshole. All four of us left the hut to go have breakfast with the pack members. We had coffee, bread, jam, butter, eggs, sausage and cheese. The coffee was strong but it was rich with flavor. As we ate, my belly warmed and I felt better after being out in the cold.

When we were done eating, we followed Alton and Nomin out to their training area in the snow. Everyone was out in the snow training with barely any clothes on. This is going to be f*****g miserable.

Alton motioned for his dad to come up and I saw former Alpha Tug. I smiled and greeted him. Both of them were short, like former Alpha Ivan of Golden Meadows. I’m sure they could fight really well though. I couldn’t wait for this.

“Go ahead and strip down to barely anything but keep moving,” Tug told me.

I did as he said and followed his and Alton’s lead as they began their movements for the morning. Once we were warmed up and ready, without warning, both Tug and Alton attacked me. I moved as quickly as I could to defend myself against them. Everyone turned to us to watch as they kept moving their bodies to stay warm.

I blocked blow after blow and was surprised at how strong and fierce Tug and Alton were. They weren't holding back when it came to me and I appreciated that. After I took several blows to the stomach, I knew where they were aiming and knew how they moved. I took my strength and started fighting back in full force. Using their movements against them and striking when I got the perfect opportunities.

It was a concern when I pinned Alton under Tug at the same time and they both tapped out. I released them and stood up. I was breathing hard and I had sweat dripping down my chest through the dark colored hair that peppered it. I helped them both up off the cold ground and checked on them.

“We’re good. Sean said you were a tough one and too strong for your own good,” Tug said.

“Yeah. He’s right,” I told them while nodding my head.

“We will keep training you while you are here. You shouldn’t need to wait for others to attack you and just attack. You're strong enough to take out others in one strategic blow,” Tug told me.

I nodded my head and went through the rest of the training session with them. Learning what I could and getting advice from Tug. He was a great combat teacher and I really loved that I came here.

As we started to finish our training session, I felt eyes on me once again. I looked over at my guys and they looked at me at the same time. I gave Krew a quick nod and he got his phone out. They felt someone watching us too.

When we were dressed once more, we went to our hut to drink some warm tea and relax for a little while. Krew brought up pictures on his phone that a drone had taken from close by. I saw us and the village but other than that there was nothing but snow. We didn’t see anyone watching us. What the hell was going on?

~

The weeks had flown by and training was great. We hadn’t felt anyone watching us again, but that’s not to say we won’t feel it again some time. We were staying alert even if we didn’t need to.

We had breakfast as usual when we woke up and we watched as the village celebrated their traditional Christmas. The pups were the only ones that got presents and we were told about their traditions. It would be different to experience this here.

Before lunchtime, every hut was given a cake or a pie to decorate. We got a cake and we decorated it together for a little while. The guys did a piss poor job of it and I slapped their hands when I got tired of it. I ended up decorating it on my own while they watched me. When I was done, I had a white frosting cake with pine trees and little huts. There were Christmas decorations everywhere along with a few presents. I was pretty proud of how it turned out and realized that I hadn't touched my sketchbook in months.

“Damn you’re good,” Otto said.

Krew and Aksel nodded their heads while humming in agreement.

“Yeah. I love art and I just realized that I haven't touched my sketchbook at all on this journey.”

“We’ve been busy,” Otto said.

“True,” I agreed with a nod.

Soon it was time for dinner and we all went to the dining hut to eat Christmas turkey with Mongolian dumplings. The food was so good. I loved this and wanted to experience what other places do on holidays.

When we were done eating, we walked back to the hut and relaxed in the living area. I heard my text tone go off and looked to see it was from Madison.

“Merry Christmas!” she texted me.

“Merry Christmas!”

“Are you free to talk?”

“Yeah.”

Suddenly, she was calling me and it was a video call. I smiled and got excited as I answered the phone while the guys watched me and messaged their families back at their birth packs.

“Hey!” I said as I answered Madison’s call.

“Hey. How was your Christmas?” she asked.

“It was good. It was different but I enjoyed it.”

“I’m sure it was different.”

“You're out in the meadow,” I commented when I realized where she was.

“Yeah. I haven't been coming out here much lately and I’ve missed it just as much as I miss you. I figured it would be a good spot to talk without everyone up my ass.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked in confusion.

“Your brothers have been keeping a close eye on me. Along with Logan and Sebastian. My parents keep taking my phone to look through my messages like I’ve done something wrong.”

“Please tell me you deleted our messages from when I was at Trinity Forest?” I asked in horror.

I would be mortified if her parents saw those messages.

“Duh,” she told me like I was an i***t.

I sighed in relief. Then I noticed the guys were all closing in on me to try and get a glimpse of Madison. I haven’t shown them any pictures that I have of her. All three of them got a look at her then backed off quickly.

“Wow!” Otto said.

“Who’s that?” Madison asked.

“That was Otto,” I told her.

“Oh. Do I need to let you go?” Madison asked me.

“No, we don’t have anything going on in the morning. We are all just relaxing right now.”

“Ah. How cold is it there?”

“Negative nine,” I grumbled.

“Damn. It's only fifty six here.”

“Lucky.”

Then I heard her mother calling loudly for her. Sage knew about Madison loving the meadow so much and would always come looking for her there. A few times I had to run off into the woods so she wouldn’t find me out there with her.

“s**t! I need to go, Grant,” Madison hissed.

“Alright. I’ll talk with you later.”

“Ok. Have a good night.”

“I will. Have a Merry Christmas.”

“I will. Bye.”

“Bye.”

I smiled at her before I hung up the phone. I looked up at the guys and they were all staring at me.

“Can I help y’all?” I asked.

“No wonder you’re so f*****g hung up on her. She’s f*****g gorgeous!” Otto said.

Skoll growled at him through me and I frowned in irritation.

“What the f**k, Skoll?” I asked.

“Madison isn’t for him,” Skoll growled at me.

I rolled my eyes then said to Otto, “sorry, Skoll said Madison isn’t for you.”

He laughed and said, “Clearly he’s attached to her like you are.”

“Yeah. He is,” I said with a nod.

It was clear he was and I couldn’t wait to go back to Hunter’s Moon to see her. I was counting down the months to her eighteenth birthday even though no one else knew that. I was excited for that day yet terrified.