Struggle is all I've ever known.

The wind is howling. The windows of our house are struggling to keep shut. My mother is comforting my youngest sister in the living room because she has always been afraid of thunder and a storm is brewing.

My other sister is in her room. It is Winter, so the cold temperature doesn't help either. I am tossing and turning in my bed, feeling restless about my future, which is up in the air right now.

My name is Bradley Pendragon. I am 19 years old and I live with my family in a three-bedroom house in a small town in Utah. My father was the Alpha of our pack. Around ten years ago, he passed away after getting into a battle with rogues who penetrated our territory. We are a very small pack, so we don't have enough warriors to defend our land.

I was heartbroken to lose my father, who was not only a war hero but also an incredible foundation for our family. He is dearly missed. At the time of his passing, the Beta would take over the leadership of the pack. However, my uncle petitioned the Utah Wolf Council to let him assume the role of Alpha until I came of age.

This way, we wouldn't lose a fantastic Beta, and the Alpha would remain a Pendragon like the Lycan King wanted when he 'gifted' this pack to my father a long time ago.

Werewolves dominate the world, condemning what's left of humankind to ghettos, far from our eyes and ears. All forms of government, commerce, industry, and science are made up of our kind.

As in most societies, there are some who rise while others fall. The wealthiest werewolves are almost always pack Alphas, who rule their territory with an iron fist. It's impossible to escape their reach, the few and far between werewolves who live outside the reach of an Alpha are called rogues and are exterminated upon sight by any pack enforcer they encounter.

Above all Alphas, the Lycan King.

Each country has a ruling dynasty that governs it. All citizens are subjected to their rule, it has been this way since the rise of the werewolves centuries ago. Had it not been this way, the United States would have been impossible to govern, with Alphas battling it out endlessly for power.

In the old days, the stronger the pack, the more their Alpha was hungry for more subjects, more land, and more power. Countless battles have been fought over the greed of powerful men, but the Lycan King brought order to all the territories.

There is only one thing a powerful Alpha fears more than anything else in this world. That is an Alpha with more power than him. One by one, he sent his armies to bring all the territories to heal and to punish the Alphas who acted in discordance with his law.

With every land conquered, he conscripted more men to join his army and thus became more powerful and fearsome than anyone else. If his army was sighted, it could only mean trouble.

As time went on, the Lycan King's power settled and everybody respected his rule from all corners of the nation, for fear of his retaliation. Alphas began using diplomacy in their dealings with other territories and the country was stronger because of it.

That was then, this is now.

Corruption has seeped its way into the monarchy, the King grew drunk with power, becoming erratic and belligerent. His advisors and ministers only work to help their own territories, leaving entire provinces without any help from the King, condemned to misery.

With his lustful ways, mate pairings started dwindling among the nobles. The Moon Goddess was not pleased with the treatment some royals were giving to their mates, so it became increasingly difficult for any member of the royal family to get mated.

Nowadays, it has been generations since any member of the royal family got mated. Most nobles were also left out of the mate pairings, only the common folk remained being blessed by the Goddess for they never ceased to respect Her teachings.

Our reigning King, Lucius Whittaker III, is a man believed to be cursed. He has had three marriages so far and countless other mistresses, but not a single one of them has been able to provide him with an heir. What first became a tragedy for his then-wife, now is an anecdote told across the country that the King has lost favor with the Moon Goddess.

Desperate to maintain their privileges, the nobility has been working nonstop to put forth suitable candidates for his succession, but he has shut them down every single time. Despite his old age, he still remains hopeful that his seed will prove fruitful.

The problem is that in the eventuality of the King perishing without a chosen successor, the nobility and other power players in the country will undoubtedly start a never-ending civil war to decide who will be the next King. Though wars could be profitable for certain people, a civil war, on the other hand, is not good for the country.

It could weaken us in the eyes of our foreign enemies and give them a reason to invade. You can understand why nobody wants that to happen. A King can be manipulated, but a foreign power cannot be reasoned with. We simply must not see that day come.

Unable to sleep, I walked to the kitchen to grab a glass of water. I had a water bottle in my room, but I wanted to see how my mother and sister were doing. It's sometime past ten p.m. As I poured myself a glass of water, I saw my sister being comforted by my mom.

"Are you okay?" I checked on her, worriedly.

"I will once the storm passes." She responded, frightfully.

Yeah, I am not so sure that it will pass any time soon...

I drank my glass of water and returned to my bedroom, where I watched TV until I passed out. It's not the most advisable when you have to get up at 6 a.m. the next day, but what else am I going to do?

My uncle insists on me training every day, even during high school, to prepare myself for being Alpha. He told me that my father would've insisted on it being this way. The truth, however, is that my uncle is a ruthlessly ambitious man who would have poisoned me to put his own son as the next Alpha, but he doesn't have any.

He has three daughters. Of course, women can be Alpha. But my uncle is more traditional in that sense. Maybe a tad sexist. In his eyes, Alphas can only be males. So, he has been putting me through the wringer ever since he took over as Alpha of our pack.

Despite our capacity as the leading family, the reality is that our town is tiny and we are poor. My mother doesn't get any pension, just my dad's life insurance policy that was spent over the last decade. Our uncle pitches in with some help, but not a lot because he has mouths to feed of his own.

If you ask her, my mother will tell you that no one should ever trust Damian Pendragon because he has only one agenda, his own. He says he is training me for Alpha, but my mother doesn't believe that he will ever relinquish his position in favor of me.

Despite him being a regent until I came of age, he still would need to get the ball rolling for me to ascend as the next Alpha. It's not an automatic proceeding and I am already 19 - though I only graduated from high school last May.

The next morning, our family reunited at the breakfast table when my uncle barged into our house with a wicked smile on his face.

"Good morning, family. How are you doing on this fine morning?" He greeted us with a mischievous grin.

"Fine, Damian. What can we do for you?" Mom replied, already expecting him to want something she wouldn't agree to.

"It happened." He announced, cryptically.

"What happened?" I asked him, puzzled.

"It's all over the papers! The King finally announced how he will select the heir to the throne." He informed us, causing me to gasp in shock at the news.

"Really? How will he do that?" My mom asked him, not liking his devious smile.

"A tournament open to male Alphas from 18 to 25." He revealed, practically salivating in anticipation.

"Oh, my Goddess!" I was baffled by the news.

"The time has arrived, nephew. This is what I have been preparing you for your entire life. You are going to be the next Lycan King of the United States." He declared, boldly. My mom was not amused by his enthusiasm. We all gaped at him in utter shock.

A|N: Welcome to my new deviation!

I want to test out a new storyline and see how that would go.

It's a new take on enemies to lovers that no one expected from me.

Don't worry, I'll still update "Conquering" twice a week like I usually do.

Love,

Léo.