The Axelridge Series Book 1 Finn's Slapshot

Four Years Ago

‘CLOSE THE BRIDGE!! CLOSE THE GODDAMN BRIDGE!’

I skate on my hover jet boots as fast as I can. I see the Ops Enforcers slam the 10 foot barricades attached to the supports shut, closing off the 4 lane suspension bridge. On the other side, 500 lycans heading this way.

‘RAMPS!’ I link out and four trucks with slight half pipe ramps get into position, giving us perfect access to the other side.

‘PUNCH IT!’ I link to all behind me. Links of affirmative come from hundreds of fighters all lining up for the ramps. The bridge is lit up against the night and the road is lit up from the LED lights on our high tech boots.

You can hear the sounds of demonic growling ride the wind across the lake. It makes you feel like hell has actually risen. Hell is no match for me.

Griffin, Noah and Jax are around me, pushing more power from their boots. Eddie has Marcus on his hover snow board.

I side eye Jax. “Line ‘em up, bring the pain.” I hold out my titanium goalie stick.

“Jax to the Max.” He smirks and hits his titanium mace off it.

We kick our boots into high gear and hit the ramps. We shoot off into the air. With us Alphas head of the pack, my fighters hit the ramps. The ramps shake against the pressures of hundreds of hover and jet propulsion boots. The sky turns dark as we fly over the wall. Underneath us, lycans pour onto the bridge from the shore. They look up and start to back up when they hear our growls from the sky.

“HOLD ON!” Eddie yells to Marcus. “540!” He kicks in his propulsion and his board rides the ramp. He grabs the front edge of the board, does a forward spin and Marcus jumps off like a sky diver when he’s lined up.

As he falls, he throws baseball sized grenades at the lycans. The balls hit their targets and explode, sending lycans back off the bridge and into the waters below.

He hits the ground and rolls, pulling out his sliver metal bat. He swings, knocking heads and beating them into the ground with infuriated growls. Within seconds of landing, he’s covered in blood.

The hits are like No Hold Barred body checks. Jax and I are covered in specialized metal, spiked shoulder and chest armor.

I shoulder check one, driving my spikes into his chest. He screams and stumbles back enough for me to spin around with my stick sword out. It’s edge gleams against the lights of the bridge then it slices the lycans head off like a hot knife in butter.

I block another and drive the angled edge into the chest of another. I hook him and throw him off the bridge.

Jax spins with his five foot metal mace. The spiked ball takes out several in one spin. He crushes skull after skull.

The hard bodies hitting each other are so loud and heavy, the bridge is shaking.

My lungs burn as I slice one after another. My rage is making sure they get no farther. April and Ben sit in mind as I make my kills.

The horde of beasts pour in from the shore and my fighters are spilling them off the bridge in pieces. The water below boils with bodies both live and dead.

Gunfire rings out as iron bullets fly from our gunners.

I bring the back of my goalie stick down on a head and turn. I grabbed by the throat and my eyes fill with even more anger.

“Finn…” His wolf head growls in my face.

“Liam. Phoenix cut you loose.” I snarl. I bring the stick down on his arm, but it only knocks him off. I swing and he grabs it. He rips it out of my grip and throws it. I watch it go over the bridge.

He growls and I back up.

He opens his mouth. “Now, you die.” His black lycan grows and my eyes glow blue.

I turn and run over the fights. He lunges and chases me, growling and snapping at my back the whole way.

At the wall, I plant my foot, run up the wall and un-holstering my gun as I go. I push off, twist and fire three bullets into his back as I soar over him.

I hit the pavement and roll. I twist around and watch him. He twists around and looks at me with his glowing gold, murderous eyes. I watch the bullets fall out.

“Fuck!” I scrunch my face and throw my head. He’s hopped up on human blood.

Liam pushes off the road and jumps at me as I turn and get to my feet. I kick my boots on and skate as fast as I can.

Off the bridge, I skate down the highway road. I spin around and fire more shots as he dodges them.

‘Jax I need an assist! Liam’s on my ass!’

‘Bring him back.’

I spin around and skate back at him. He runs at me and at the last second, I fake him out and deke around him. He tries to grab me, but I’m too quick.

I punch it down the middle of the road and see the bridge.

He’s like a bullet train. I feel his breath on my neck. I see Jax, Eddie, Marcus, Griffin and Noah all waiting for me. As soon as we enter the zone, Marcus and Noah deploy weapons. I drop and slide in between Eddie and Marcus.

Eddie steps up and throws silver knives. He’s damn quick. Blade after blade hit Liam and Marcus hits his chest with an exploding ball. Liam flies backwards and Griffin throws his soccer ball net launcher. It throws a net over him and shoots 2500 volts into his body. Liam screams as he shakes on the ground. He grows his claws and shreds the net.

He jumps at us and Jax comes in with his mace down. He swings it up and hits Liam in the head. He flies into the shallows of the lake. Marcus walks up, bouncing a ball in his hand. He smirks then throws it. Liam jumps before it hits and lands in a tree. He roars and takes to the treetops. We heard splashing and the 50 or so lycans left alive, jump the bridge, land in the water and swim to shore follow Liam to escape.

I stand in the middle of my brothers.

“Axelridge still stands.”

“And she always will.” Marcus says.

We hit our weapons together and turn back to the blood covered bridge. As always, we will clean this up and prepare for the next attack. Unless we can figure out a permanent way to stop them, this is the life of the Axelridge Alpha. It’s been this way since the island was founded.

My great grandfather couldn’t have pick a better spot for a pack to be founded.

Sitting in the middle of Lake Ontario, we set up on the border between the US and Canada. There’s three suspension bridges. One to the south, one to the southeast and one to the northwest. It’s actually pretty impressive. The bridges are our only points of worry. The lake isn’t exactly an easy swim.

Axelridge is a man made island. My great grandfather made it big during the gold rush and literally built himself an island. Over time it grew to 60, 000 permanent pack members, but can accommodate another 50,000 people at any given time to take in a game and shop or work. My pride and joy. My legacy. All we have to do is make sure it never falls to enemies. They try, but fail.

Our biggest? The Vinelli family. Not as old as us, but the creatures themselves are older. They came from Europe and set up shop in Brooklyn back in the 20's.

When Antonio Vinellis grandfather got wind of us, that’s when the war started. When Antonio was killed, his nephew Liam took up the family. He moved them out of Brooklyn and into Rochester, NY. A move that made me extremely nervous because now they’re closer. With lycans being as strong as they are, they are formidable, so we had to be better.

As the tech world developed, so did we. Designing defenses and weapons that can get around a lycans strength. I learned it all in my spare time. I became quite tech savvy with the help of Hunter in my college years.

Where does hockey fit in? Again, my grandfather. With the constant attacks from New York, my grandfather felt our pack needed something to take the edge off. He built the Axelridge Hammers and joined the NHL when it became founded. Through other alliances, we found other sport based packs and formed them into the city. Fast forward, we now have a city that has all the major sports except football. We might add them later, but for now it’s just baseball, lacrosse, soccer, basketball and snowboarding because Eddie wouldn’t leave me alone. He’s a stoner, but he's smart and a good fighter.

As far as fighting goes, we don’t do military in any formal sense. Everyone, and I mean everyone, learns defense in our education system right from 1st grade. I think everyone has a right to protect themselves and not be bound by army rules. Does that mean we’re undisciplined? No. Not in the least. We learn all aspects of combat and organized defensive action. We have leaders and give orders, it’s just not our focus like Falcon Ridge or Phoenix. We have a small group of what you would class as military, but every pack member is entered into the reserve at age 17. They can be called at a moments notice and must keep up with the skills by being in top physical condition. Which, in a sport based town, isn’t too hard, unless you make it hard for yourself.

Anyway, I’m prepared to defend this island at all costs and it’s one of the many reasons why I don’t need the help of the Midwest packs. I can protect myself as long they clean up their own garbage. These days though, it’s getting tougher. They keep kicking beehives and everyone else it getting stung by the monsters they release. It’s really starting to piss me off.

“What the fuck, Zander?!” I pace my office as I unleash hell to the King of wolves on my speaker phone. I have a hand on my hip and rubbing my forehead.

“Watch your tone, Finn.”

I lean my hands on my desk. “Watch my tone?! You release Liam Vinelli and you’re telling me to watch my tone! Go fuck yourself!”

“Finn!”

I sigh and turn around. “Sorry, Ricky.”

“We didn’t have anything to hold him for. Just because he’s not suppressed doesn’t mean we can lock him up. Our laws state he must be deported back to New York.” Ricky informs.

“This is bullshit. You know he’s responsible for the attacks in the city.” I turn back to the desk.

“We have no proof. When we find some, we will arrest him for it. For now, our hands are tied.” Zander says.

I slightly growl. “Fine. Keep releasing him. Just stop sending him to me!” I thump my finger on the hang up and pocket my phone.

The only reason why it pisses me off so much is because every time he comes back, he attacks. I can’t do anything if he's operating under pack war regulations. I can only lodge complaints with Zander which seems to fall on deaf ears. Unless he gets in and loses, I can’t touch him. I won’t risk my people like that. I would prefer to kill him on the battlefield.

I sit at my desk and go over the casualty reports coming in. 3 dead and several injured. It’s not horrible, but even one death kicks me in the gut.

No one should lose a loved one to something as senseless as war. It kills me to have to deliver these messages and see the pain.

The crushing grief is something I wouldn’t even wish on my worst enemy. Including Liam.

I will always feel honor to defend my city, but when it comes to this, it’s the worst part of the job.