Mae really hated patrol. Everyone knew that the days of werewolf pack wars were far behind them. These days, nothing like that happened. The rogues were gone as though a figment of their imagination.
Other werewolf packs preferred to stay within the borders that protected them rather than go hunting to expand their borders when they would be unable to hold the pack lands.
But here she was, patrolling as though something of import would happen in this dreary location.
As the full moon rose high in the sky, Mae signalled her watch partner, it was almost time for a circuit. Dawson nodded. He was in his wolf form and was a strong perceptive warrior. They made a great team even for something as mundane as this with years of experience hunting and protecting their pack together.
But little did they know, the danger was lurking just beyond the forest’s edge. Maybe if she hadn’t been so weary of being on patrol for the third week in a month – ever since she had declined the advances of the Beta, she had been given only the most rotten, boring and unwanted shifts – she would have noticed something in time.
But then again even if she had there was no way she would have known that a group of rogue werewolves had been watching their pack for weeks. And on this particular night, they had decided to strike.
The first sign of trouble came when a lone howl echoed through the trees.
It wasn’t one of their pack members.
Dawson’s triangular ears flicked and drew back as his lips drew back into a snarl. She felt his request to mind link her and allowed it.
I’ll check this out. Stay here and keep watch.
Mae nodded, tensed, sensing that something was wrong. But she didn’t stop her longtime friend from going to check it out. It was their duty after all how else could they keep the pack informed?
Several moments passed serving to make her even more anxious. He should have been back already. She couldn’t leave her post. Anyone or anything could break their defence. She quickly shifted so that she could howl a warning to their pack.
The wind shifted and Mae’s eyes widened in shock and shifted as quickly as she could hoping she wasn’t already too late before howling to her pack in warning. She was on her third howl when she heard the sound of footsteps and menacing growls approaching from all sides.
There were many wolves. Too many for a standard rogue evading force and they were led by a wolf larger with a more malicious air about it than her Alpha. He looked down at her disdainfully, his snout stained with blood. He’d injured or possibly killed Dawson. She snarled angrily wanting vengeance for her friend but even she knew it was a lost cause. She couldn’t get through all the rogues.
The wolves herded her and although she fought and swiped at them, it would only be a matter of time before she fell. She saw the wolves move past her, their numbers unceasing to attack her pack.
********
Before they knew it, the Midnight Pack was surrounded by the rogue werewolves. The two groups clashed violently, teeth and claws ripping through flesh as they fought for control.
The Midnight Pack fought bravely, but they were outnumbered and outmatched. One by one, their members fell, their bodies mangled and bloodied.
It was carnage, a slaughter. As the rogues went in and killed indiscriminately. Shewolves, pups, pregnant wolves, men and warriors.
The Alpha of the Midnight Pack tried his best to hold his ground against the invaders but he was eventually overwhelmed by the sheer force and power of the rogue werewolves.
As the battle came to a close, the Midnight Pack lay in tatters, their territory now firmly in the hands of the rogue werewolves. The Alpha of the pack and a few of his surviving pack members limped away barely escaping with their lives, injured and scarred.
There would be no grand return to reclaim their pack lands. It was an absolute defeat.
******
The aftermath of the fight was almost as daunting as the main fight itself.
The air was foul with the miasma of death, blood and gore. Not that it bothered the man overseeing it all. He was rather used to this sort of thing.
“Rally the wolves. I want a check of all the members of the Midnight pack. Check them one after the other and kill those who are still alive. Tell Gerth to take some company and go after the Alpha. There are to be no survivors.”
The man spoke dispassionately, his face wrinkled with disgust. He was far ahead to still be getting missions like this.
The rogue he spoke to nodded and went to do his bidding, its eyes shaded with unslaked bloodlust.
To work with baser creatures like these more than rankled him but he didn’t let it bother him too much. They were a necessary evil for the plan to go through.
His burner phone rang and he picked up the call.
“Is it done?”
No pleasantries. Straight to the point, just how he liked it.
“Yes.”
There was a pause.
“I didn’t expect any less from you. Good job.”
*********
Ava didn’t know how exactly Adrian has guessed it so easily but she knew he knew what Gabrielle had done.
His face transformed with rage so bright and furious that she felt an echo of it in her chest. It was the mate bond. She could now feel his emotions.
Did it go both ways? From all she had heard about the mate bond, it most likely did. Was that how he’d discovered the truth about Gabby?
Adrian let her go and opened his wardrobe and pulled out a shirt to put on looking more than a little angry.
“Adrian. Adrian, where are you going?”
He pulled the shirt on ignoring her and started towards the door. Ava blocked his path.
“Answer me for goddess sake, Adrian!”
“Where do you think I am going? She assaulted the Luna of her pack, for this kind of capital offence there only suitable punishments are death or banishment. I have tolerated Gabrielle for far too long, today, she will get her comeuppance. Let me through, Ava.”
Ava shook her head as she balanced on unsteady feet. After all she had done to make sure that Adrian didn’t find out, the cat was out of the bag. All her sacrifices had been in vain.
“Please, Adrian. Please forgive her this time.” She pleaded.
Adrian looked at her in disbelief. When he got over his shock, he pushed her gently out of his path.
“I can’t. Not even for you, Ava.”
He moved towards the door again but this time, Ava fell to her knees and held on to his leg.
“Adrian. Please.” Her voice broke on the plea.
“Please. She is my sister. I can’t let you kill her or make her into a rogue. What she did was wrong, very wrong, I know but I plead with you to have mercy.”
Adrian crouched so they were on the same eye level and removed her hand from his leg. “What are you doing, Ava? Do you have any idea of the ramifications of what she has done? Of what you allowed to go unpunished? She planned for you to get framed. It could have led to an interpack war between the Mountain Coast Pack and the Primo Pack.”
“You were brought in front of the entire pack for a trial. You were pelted with fruits by your own people. You nearly lost your position as Luna. She could have stepped forward at any point, to tell the truth, but she chose not to. Instead, she stepped up to be a consort that could potentially usurp your position. Is that the sort of person you wish to protect?”
Ava began to cry. Her chest was wracked with uncontrollable sobs. Adrian hugged her to comfort her, stroking her back. She could still feel his anger towards Gabrielle through the mate bond but he chose to comfort her instead. The moment she was able to get words past the lump in her throat, she spoke.
“I’m wrong to want to protect her. I know. I should have her punished for what she has done. To do otherwise will only encourage get to do worse things but I am helpless. When I see Gabby, I don’t just see all the terrible things she has done, I see all the great times we have had.”
“She has been a great sister for years. How can I decide to punish her knowing that I might have been the one to push her to the path she is currently on? How can I punish her knowing how my parents will feel when they find out what she did to me? They will be so disappointed and heartbroken. My family just got together after such a turbulent time, how can I go ahead to ruin that and put them through something like this?”
Adrian pulled back to look at her.
“What about what you put us through? Our mating bond was in peril because of your choice. I was so angry at you, I was hurt. I doubted you. I doubted myself. I doubted the feelings I had for you. I hated you. You should have said something, Ava.”
“I’m so sorry.” And at that moment she realized how sorry she was. In trying to be considerate to her sister, she had hurt Adrian deeply.
“I wanted to tell you from the moment I discovered the truth but I was scared of what you would do to Gabrielle. You were so angry that I thought you would kill her and when I finally convinced myself that I had to tell you about it, the pack had gotten wind of the issue and it had grown so large that I couldn’t out my sister like that at the trial.”
“How can you be so selfless, Ava? How?”
She wanted to tell him that she wasn’t as good as he thought she was. That when he’d still been with her sister, that day at the staircase when she had watched them kiss, she had wanted him for herself. She would have done anything to be the one he had been kissing then.
Maybe the reason she was so bent on letting Gabby go unpunished was the fact that she still didn’t think that she deserved him.
Adrian inhaled deeply and buried his head in her hair and they held each other as they knelt on the floor trying not to fall apart.