Thank you all for subscribing to my story! I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Chapter Eighteen: There are plenty of stars in the northern night sky

Soonyoungs eyes roamed over the lake, trying to spot something interesting in the distance as his mind ran wild. Two months had passed since he said goodbye to the small omega. The hot sun rays blasting down on his skin made him reminisce the warm soft weather that had accompanied spring. Right now it was the middle of summer. The hills that had glistered in fresh green during spring were now sporting a dried out brown colour due to the lack of rain. Even for his own standards of warm summers down south it was hot. Pearls of sweat were dripping down his forehead as he moved along the shoreline. Mingyu trailed a little bit behind him, also soaked in sweat. Their training sessions were tiring and drained them both of all their energy in a good way. But today the blazing sun had claimed yet two other victims as they had called it quits early. Even the shadow provided by the trees had proven to be too warm. The hot air trapped beneath the leaves was suffocating them as they had practised their martial arts on each other. Soonyoung was thankful for the training that the other provided. In the beginning he had trained with Seokmin but in terms of pure strength Soonyoung was simply too powerful for the beta. By no means was Seokmin a bad fighter, but he was lengths behind Mingyu. Who in turn told Soonyoung that Jeonghan was even more difficult of an opponent. Never before had the alpha won of the omega which he blamed on Jeonghan using dirty tricks. Something Jeonghan seemed to acknowledge himself, but he didn’t care about it. “On a battlefield you shouldn’t expect your opponent to fight as honourable as yourself Mingyu. People will take advantage of it. Be happy that I thought you that now, instead of finding out by tasting the cold metal of a sword.” 

Soonyoung had to admit Jeonghan was right. At first Soonyoung had the biggest difficulty while trying to keep up with Mingyu. As they were sparring the first few times, Mingyu had let him taste defeat over and over again. Hurting his pride. Jeonghans words however thought him the flaws in Mingyu’s fighting style. He just wouldn’t use anything that he deemed underhanded or cheating. Following the example set by the omega Soonyoung made good use of it. Throwing sand up from the beach to temporarily blind the tall alpha he had earned his first win. As a result Mingyu had agreed to teach him the basics of Grenhils fighting style. Only the basics. Because the real teacher wasn’t around and his right hand man was too busy to help out. Occasionally Jeonghan would drop by to leave his remarks about both of their shortcomings.

Together with Jeonghan his own friend Jisoo would show up. The two had gotten surprisingly close over the last couple of weeks. Their blossoming friendship creating another bond between their respective packs. In regards to their packs bonding, a part of the Grenhil pack had been quite sceptical about the arrival of the Vanghguards in their middle. Not everyone had welcomed them with open arms. And if Soonyoung was honest, he didn’t know if he would’ve been as accepting as most Grenhillians were. His pack was known for their war waging ways. They weren’t exactly a peaceful pack most of the time, but his injured and lost packmates had been taken into Grenhilian homes. Soonyoungs respect for Jihoon and his pack had risen tenfold when he saw how his friends were treated.

The sceptics however greatly opposed when Soonyoung announced his plan of letting old and now settled Vanghguards join their alliance. Jeonghan had surprisingly taken the side of the sceptics. Despite the alliance the existence of the Grenhil pack had been kept a secret for most Strenyardians. That had been one of the safeguards Jihoon had argued for when they had formed their alliance. Jeonghan and Jihoon didn’t want the world to know where their home was. How their defences were organized and where they could be hit the hardest. Even Soonyoung himself wasn’t trusted with most of Grenhils secrets. And somehow he was sure that they were keeping more from him than they led on.

The declination of Jeonghan had let to Soonyoung sending messages for old Vanghguard pack members to go to Strenyard instead. During his conquest several of his pack members had settled in villages along the way. Founding their own families and leaving the warring ways of the Vanghguard pack far behind. With the message of revenge and protecting old friends Soonyoung had asked them to join his cause. A call for help that most of his old pack members heeded. An almost ongoing stream of old warriors made their way over to Strenyard. At first Seungcheo tried to house them inside the city but he didn’t know what to do with them. Most of them were restless while they sat around waiting for commands. Until Chan came with a great idea.

Chan had been tasked by Jihoon with strengthening the walls of Strenyard (and also Grenhil). As he had designed most of Grenhils defences he was perfectly fit for the job. There had been one problem. Manpower. Building stone walls took a great amount of time. And time was the only resource that they couldn’t afford to lose. With the old Vanghguard members sitting around Strenyard restlessly without a job at hand they became aggressive and started causing problems for the Strenyardians. Chans problemsolving was simple, but it worked. Let them help with building, it will be less dangerous than scouting and fighting which a lot Vanghguards also appreciated since they had families of their own waiting for them at home. It taught them some new ways of building that they could implement themselves later on and it finally did something to ease their boredom.

Minghao and Junhui had helped Chan with pointing out the several weak spots in Strenyards defences, after which the young beta had designed several plans for the town. In the end he reported to Seungcheol and Jeonghan one month ago asking them both to choose which one they liked best. Seungcheol of course wanted the strongest one of them all, but Jeonghan saw the flaws in the design as it would take years to finish. In the end Chan had started working on a more time efficient design and last week they had finally started with construction.

Seungcheol himself had been traveling between Strenyard and Grenhil. Keeping tabs on any news of Jihoon while making sure everything in Strenyard was progressing smoothly. He had joined Soonyoungs and Mingyus training sessions a few times but dropped out with the excuse of little time. After which he would join Jeonghan and Jisoo once again.

Multiple times Soonyoung had caught Seungcheol staring at Jeonghan from afar. With the occasional glare directed at Jisoo when the latter got too close to Jeonghan. It amused Soonyoung to great extents to watch the little drama unfold. He had caught on to the situation a few days ago and had confronted Jeonghan about his troubled ‘relationship’ with Seungcheol. In Jeonghans eyes Seungcheol was uninterested in him but Soonyoung knew better. Seungcheol could easily stay in Strenyard but the alpha insi