Warning: No wolves were harmed or killed in this prank war, wolves are stronger than humans so some pranks you may think - he could die! He didn't.

Picture of Adult Aiden up above (couldn't find it in better quality)!!!!!

Music I used for writing this chapter is Nate Growing Up by Labrinth and Eminem - Survival

"The minute we step into that house, we become prey," I say from my position on the old, wooden table in our hideout, eyes scanning over my team slowly. "Keep your eyes open and your mind active."

"We just have to stick the plan though right?" Jayson asks nervously from his position on the floor between the doorway, his arms wrapped around his knees and his eyes wide as they focused on me. "Once we follow the plan, everything will be okay?"

"Should be," Damon corrects with a shrug, a smirk growing across his face as the scent of Jayson's fear grows throughout the room.

"Stop trying to scare him," I groan, running a hand through my hair and pulling at the ends a bit before I lean back and fold my arms over my chest. "He's not wrong though, there's no guarantee this will work and it probably won't, but if we follow it for the weekend, things should sway our way enough for us to pull this through."

"What they're trying and failing to say," Josey steps in while she cleans her nails mindlessly. "They're too many variables on the other side for the plan to work completely, shit will go wrong - it's guaranteed. But if we stick to it for the most part and get them out of the house, then we'll have them from there."

Jayson only nods and I have to listen to Max's little speech of all the ways he's useful to us to stop myself from tying him up and just leaving him for the weekend. If he didn't get his shit together and fast, he'd just be a liability instead of our best weapon.

This is what I get for working with a runt.

"You'll be fine," I deadpan with as much encouragement as I could muster as I stand up and stretch. "Let's head back, the time is almost up and they've probably completely boobie-trapped the house by now."

"This shit is about to be fun," Josey says as she stands as well, stuffing a handful of small fireworks in the back of her shorts and tossing her shirt end over it.

"We've got two very different definitions of fun," Jayson says as he stands and makes his way back out the way we came.

"You're thinking too much about how you're going to get hurt," Damon says with a frown as he follows after him. "Throw that shit out of your head, there's no way you can predict every move they'll make so stop thinking about it. Focus on how you're going to fuck them up instead."

Surprisingly no more whining comes from Jayson, the words working somehow to relax him as he only nods and continues walking through the tight hallways.

Once we're back on ground level, I shut the door behind us and brush some leaves over it with my foot. I turn to face my lineup and find myself smiling as they study me.

"Do me a favour," I say as I look between them all, "fuck them up real good."

Josey releases a warrior cry which makes Damon laugh as he throws his shoulder around her shoulder and starts walking back to the house. Jayson smiles a little while he scratches the back of his head and looks at me.

"Let's go runt," I say, smacking his head as I pass him by and smiling happily when he winces and curses before scrambling after me. "You're not going to let me down are you?"

"I wouldn't mind seeing you get knocked down a few pegs," Jayson replies and I shoot him a glare he beams at with that annoying, fucking smile that asked to be punched.

"I hope someone makes you choke on a grape," I reply and his smile immediately slips off his face.

He opens his mouth to reply but stop suddenly, his feet sticking to the floor as he looks around and sniffs the air cautiously. With narrowing eyes and senses on high alert, I do the same, testing the air but only finding the scents of some of the pack and some plants.

"What is it?" I ask crisply, halting Josey and Damon's steps from in front of us as they turn to face us.

"I smell Jasmine," He replies slowly, his features tense and alert as he looks back to me. "Levi followed us."

"I don't smell him," Damon replies as he steps closer to us.

"Because he masked his scent with Jasmine," Jayson replies calmly, the nervous wolf from earlier replaced with a sure, confident alpha. "It's one of the flowers he loves because of its scent, he sometimes used to use it to mask his scent when he saw me. It grows all over these lands so it's easy to ignore."

I stare at the runt with wide eyes, surprise flooding my veins as he shows some form of intelligence for the first time. Apparently just as surprised, Josey and Damon remain speechless as we all stare at the stupid runt.

"What?" He asks, clearly uncomfortable.

"You're not an idiot," I reply and his frown deepens. "Good job runt, I won't eat any of your grapes for a week."

I sneer with disgust at the joy that quickly warps his features into a cherry expression that upsets my stomach.

"Stop that," I say before turning from him and looking back to the hatch I'd covered only moments ago. "Kat!"

"Sup," Kat replies immediately, appearing directly beside me with a bag of popcorn in her hands. "I thought I wasn't supposed to come in until tomorrow."

"Yeah, that's still the plan but Jayson picked up Levi around here," I say angrily, mostly upset that I hadn't sensed him at all. "Mind safeguarding the bunk for us, I don't need to come back only to be blasted with my own weapons."

"No problem," She replies as she tosses a lone kernel into her mouth. "For the record, I already know everything they are doing and planning but will not be sharing that with you because that'd just be a bloodbath. I'm on your team but only for where you need me to come in, same for Nikola, other than that, we're just watching it unfold from afar."

"Nikola's on their side?" I ask with a groan, I'd expected it of course but I hoped that Hagen would be too stubborn to pull that card.

Apparently my son wasn't above whoring himself to his stalker to win.

"He didn't tell me but I've got eyes," Kat says with a shrug. "Now go so this prank war can start, I've been waiting forever."

With that, Kat disappears to some cloud in the sky I'm sure. Knowing her, she'd prepared the perfect viewing area for her and Apollos to watch the pranks unfold.

"Alright, game faces on shitbags and runt,"

-------------------

Walking up the front steps, I feel my muscles tighten up a little more with every step. My senses all on high alert as I scan the entryway, half expecting to be coated with some disgusting substance or knocked down by some large boulder.

Yet neither come...

Glancing around precariously, I listen in for heartbeats and find four beating on the other side of the door. Adrenaline pumps itself through my veins as I listen to their hearts thumping loudly with nerves and excitement.

This is it.

I open the door and let it swing open, not daring to step in. On the other side, standing on the other side of the large entryway at the foot of the stairs is the enemy.

Julian stands at the bottom of the stairs, golden locks resting on his shoulders as he stood firmly with his arms crossing his chest, on the stair behind him Peter with an expression filled with fear and eyes already shimmering with tears. Behind them on the step above were Levi and Hagen, with smirks that matched the one forming on my face.

"Welcome home," Julian says, his lips turning up in a wicked grin.

"Facing us head-on, brave," I reply with a slight tilt of my head. "But you didn't think we'd be so dumb to just walk in."

With my fingers gripping the edges of the doorframe, I peek my head inside, looking up to find nothing hanging above the door. I glance around the interior, looking for something, anything that was out of place but I only find myself coming up short.

"Looking for something?" Hagen asks from his post behind his father.

I swallow any reply as Josey comes into my vision. I pull back and watch as she slowly kneels down to the floor, eyes narrowed and full of suspicion as she looks across the glossy floors. Reaching out, she swipes a finger across the smooth, marble tiling before she stands again.

"There's eight of us living in this house and no matter how OCD dad gets about keeping this place clean, the floor is never this shiny." She says as she rubs her fingers together before showing them to us. "Oil."

I lift Josey up immediately, setting her over my shoulder and fist-pumping the air with my other hand. Damon high fives her from over my shoulder and Jason releases a weird cheer noise I try to delete from my memory.

"That was pitiful," Damon says, raising his middle finger to a steaming Levi.

"We're taking the back door, see you inside for dinner," I say, sending a wink to my mate who's eyes were narrowed to slits, one of them twitching with anger. "Love you."

Descending down the stairs, we make our way around the house with vigilant eyes and smiles spread across our faces.

If it weren't for Josey, I honestly would've gone into the house and fell on my ass. But Josey was like Julian in that aspect, she used her brain before she acted unlike Damon and me, that would help us out this weekend way more than I originally anticipated.

I set Josey down before pressing a kiss to her head that she wipes off the second I let her go. "Keep this up for the weekend and you'll get whatever the fuck you want when we win,"

"Sounds good to me grandpa," She says, giving me a shove before she follows after Jason and Damon.

We make our way around the edges of the house with quick, fluid movements, only steeping in the areas the person before us did. The sun was long gone and we could only rely on our night vision to step over rocks and large roots.

As we round the last corner to the house, my eyes snag onto the end of a long piece of rope tucked into the branch of one of the large trees surrounding the house one second too late. I didn't have a chance to question it let alone warn the others as something sharp clicked into place and we were suddenly swept off our feet.

My head meets the floor in an unfriendly gesture as something strangles my ankle and pulls me into the air. The night air sends a chill down my spine as I'm yanked into the air and turned upside down, propelled off the floor I hang limply from one leg.

Anger boils in my veins as I begin to spin, turning to find Damon in the same predicament as me though he already had a knife out and was cutting at the rope around his ankle. Between us, Josey and a screaming Jayson were stuck in a large rope trap full of the leaves it was hidden under.

"It's just a trap, calm down," Josey says boredly but apparently Jason lost his fucking mind with the first prank alone but he was still screaming.

"I-I t-told you i-it would s-scare h-him," Peter's voice comes from somewhere, but my involuntary spinning left me facing the woods so I couldn't see him.

"I didn't think he'd have a fucking panic attack though," Hagen replies, obvious sympathy lingering in his words.

As I finally spin around in the direction of the house, I find the guerilla forces looking at us from a window, heads piled on top of each other as they watched with a mixture of amusement and regret.

Julian only wore amusement on his face.

"You okay babe?" Levi calls out, his voice snuffing out Jayson's panicked screams. "It's just a rope trap, you'll be down in a minute okay?"

Jayson doesn't reply, too busy focusing on trying to breathe to actually conjure up some kind of vocal response.

Damon falls to the floor with a groan and series of curses to follow as he frees himself from his trap, standing up he runs a hand through his hair and doesn't waste any time climbing the tree to help the rest of us.

"I suppose that means that's one point for us," Julian says innocently while tapping his index finger against his chin thoughtfully. "Don't underestimate us, love."

"I'm going to make you eat those words," I reply with a pointed figure that doesn't reach its target as my spinning takes me away from the house and back to the side of the trees.

"I'm sure you'll try to," Julian replies with a doubtful chuckle, "Now, dinner will be ready in five minutes so don't take to long getting them down Damon."

With that, they walk away leaving us dangling off the ground with one point already in their ballpark. I stifle my quickly rising frustration, forcing myself to focus on the end goal. We'd lose points along the way, that much was inevitable but it would be a long war and we'd have time to double the amount we lost.

We'd get them back.

-------

The atmosphere around the table is tense, all present bodies on edge, prepared and waiting for an attack of some kind to be made. Eyes flicked viscously from side to side and Peter and Julian brought the last bowls of food to the table before sitting down.

"War or not, we still eat dinner together and say what we're all grateful for," Julian says as he palms his hands over his thighs.

The familiar gesture and actions making the kids relax a bit but I planned to avoid blinking for the next two days.

"I'm thankful for this awesome family," Hagen starts with a smile that would usually warm my heart, but now only served to make me feel further on edge. "The awesome coming from our half, you know... the winner's team."

"Shitbag," I mutter.

"Aiden," Julian scolds.

"I call them as I see them, who's next," I say ignoring Julian's disapproving gaze.

"I'm thankful to Goddess for making me the smart twin," Josey says eyes narrowed to slits as she studies her twin. "Imagine being the liability to a broken team, can't relate."

"You're a bitch," Hagen shouts and Josey just shrugs.

"Bitches are strong, can't say the same for you," She replies and Hagen shoots her the finger.

"I'm thankful for my smart dad, the one who's going to ensure a win," Levi says next, sending me the type of wicked smirk I never would've placed on his face.

"I'm thankful for my old man, the one who's going make sure we eliminate you all," Damon replies quickly and Levi's smirk falters just a little.

"I'm thankful for grapes," Jayson pipes in making me roll my eyes because what else was he ever thankful for.

"I-I'm t-thankful I-I'm a-a-alive," Peter stutters with a whimper before he begins muttering something about not knowing if that would last for much longer under his breath.

"I'm thankful for my family," I say with a smile. "For having one close enough and fun enough to do this."

All glares and snide comments come to a halt as they all look to me with parted lips and wide eyes. I understood why, they expected me to say something cruel and horrible, to make a jab but I couldn't bring myself to.

I could really only be grateful to have the family I had, most wolves didn't get up to this kind of activity and I never had siblings to try my pranks on. So the fact that I could do that with my own fucking kids and have a good time, meant more to me than I think any of them could properly realise.

"Someone's going soft," Hagen calls, sinking into his chair with a look of defeat. "This is not going to be any fun if you're not going all psycho on us dad!"

"Shut up," I groan leaning over to give him a smack that makes him wince a little but he smiles anyway. "You're last Jewels, hurry up so we can eat."

Julian's eyes were kind and full of love now as he looked at me, clearly surprised that I decided to act my age once instead of my inner thoughts. He looked absolutely perfect from the other end of the table and I wanted nothing more than to kiss him and remind him just how much I loved him.

Waves like these came over me often, ones where I suddenly felt a rush of inexplicable love and excitement when I was looking at him and just wanted to hold him and kiss him. This rush of emotions that grew too big for my body and filled me to the point where all I do was breathe him in and let him invade all of my thoughts.

It was like falling in love with him again in one singular moment.

"I'm also thankful for my family," Julian begins, his eyes parting from mine to look over the kids. "I never would've imagined I'd have kids, let alone love them as much as I love you all and I am eternally grateful to have you all in my life. You may not be my child Jayson, but you're part of this family and I am happy to have you with us now, where you're safe and loved. I'm thankful for all of it, for all of you."

"If you're done being all sappy and adorable can we eat?" Damon asks gruffly, his expression and tone completely opposing his words.

"Yeah, let's eat," Julian says as he reaches over for one of the bowls.

As always, we pass around the steamy bowls, pots and pans full of food until everyone has a bit of all the things they love on their plates. I make sure to take a greedy portion of the fried chicken and basically drown it with the sauce that came soon after it passed.

I pick up the first piece and bring it to my lips but don't bite into it, watching carefully as Hagen took a greedy bite of his wing. He chews it with a look of hunger I'm sure vultures wore when they went scavaging. He tears the meat from the bone and chows down on the bone before taking a spoon full of rice into his mouth.

My eyes meet Damon's from over my one piece to find him simply steering the portion of soup he had in the bowl in front of him. His eyes glow in confirmation before they settle back to their usual hue and he continues stirring.

"Why aren't you eating?" Levi asks Jayson with a small frown after he swallows a mouthful of baked potatoes.

Jayson opens his mouth but fucks up all attempted answers, so he looks to me as if tossing the question my way.

"We didn't spike the food," Levi says with a chuckle. "We're all eating it, isn't that evidence enough."

"We know you didn't touch it," Josey says dropping her fork to lean back into her seat, his eyes alight with mischief.

Julian chewing slows down gradually as he looks around the table, taking in those who were actually eating before his eyes settle to me. He swallows slowly as worry soaks its way into his expression.

"Remember when we were kids Jewels," I start, unable to keep the pleasure from my voice as I watch him start to catch up, "and you fucked with my doughnuts? Remember that day?"

"Peter and I were the only ones in the kitchen," He denies immediately, his face tight with concern now as he shakes his head dismissively. "Only Peter and I cooked food tonight."

"But you ran out of salt didn't you," I remind tilting my head to the side with a small pout. "You asked Peter to fetch a new bag didn't you."

Peter pales as he quickly looks to a smiling Damon, the mouthful of soup in his mouth struggling not to pour out as he freezes in his spot.

"But you couldn't reach the top shelf could you Peter," Damon continues with genuine concern in his tone. "It's always too high so you ask one of us to reach up there for you, I did remember?"