Mateo tunes back in, his face ghostly pale, before he could say anything, though Andrei clutches his chest before a growl escapes him.
“I need to get back,” he gasps, his entire body trembling.
“What?” I asked, but he was already gone.
“Get every warrior to the borders and send Andrei reinforcements!,” Ezra yells to Mateo before rushing out the door after Andrei. I chased after him to see him shift, Maddox, taking over.
“5 trucks left while both sets of scouts followed the trucks, it was a distraction,” I hear come through the link. My blood runs cold as Alex’s voice suddenly flits through everyone’s head.
“Where did they head?” I ask him
“Howlers pack,” Alex answers, and I can tell he is running in wolf form.
“Mateo, lock the place down!” Ezra orders, and I turn to look for Mateo.
“Mateo?” I call out to him as I walk back into the office to find him gone. Stumbling back out, I hear the roller shutters come down and race for the door, only for Mateo to step in my way.
“You aren’t going out there.”
“Mateo, Angie is there!” I object.
“Sorry Kat, Alpha’s orders,” Mateo apologizes before his canines slip from his gums. I step back, but it’s too late Mateo sinks his teeth into my neck, and I struggle in his grip, so I can command him, but then everything goes black.
Ezra
By the time we got there, the entire place has been decimated. Andrei’s pack was huge, but mostly consisted of older members. The youngest were all out scouting Jackson’s pack and running the outer borders on the southern side. Jackson’s pack came in from the northeast side.
Andrei’s pack never stood a chance because of the rocky terrain. There is no way those on border patrol would have gotten back to the pack in time to save the rest of their pack members, even those on the southern border would have found the trek back far too difficult. It was deadly, a mistake Andrei would now have to live with. He should have left enough patrols to monitor all borders, instead, he had most on the one with the only road in, especially when roads aren’t necessary for wolves.
Nearly every house was burnt down, even the hospital was nothing but a black crumbling husk of its former self, and Jackson didn’t just have the pack slaughtered. He made an example of them.
Bile rises in my throat as I peer at Andrei, looking around stunned, he is in shock. No one could have imagined this happening. Andrei wasn’t the target. This was simply because he was one of my allies, a mere warning to the other packs not to get involved. He knows he can’t take my pack, we are too well protected, but now he is targeting the surrounding packs and cutting them off. Jackson had to have known his pack was defenseless, or he would never have stepped foot across here, meaning he had out scouted us to work out the numbers.
We had been so consumed with him trying to get Kat that we didn’t think he would target Andrei’s pack. The carnage left was heartbreaking. Everyone was dead, and It was hard seeing the younger members carrying their families out. The oldest left was Andrei, the rest were all dead. Jackson even killed the children. Nothing was left. Alex comes over to me, nudging me.
I look at him, and he has a sombre expression. “No one is alive in the hospital, not even Anthony survived, I found him next to Andrei’s mother. The only people left are the scouts and border enforcers, no one else could get back in time.”
Andrei falls on his ass in the middle of the park across from the packhouse.
“Tell everyone to clean up, we will take everyone back with us, they can’t stay here,” I order Alex. I glance at Andrei, he has been staring at the packhouse since he got here. I walk over to him to check on him. He doesn’t even look up as I touch his shoulder.
His howls were agonized as he ran here, I know the pain of feeling tethers snap. Knowing it all too well, but I couldn’t imagine losing 85 percent of my pack at once. I also couldn’t imagine losing my mates, and by the heartbreaking guttural howl that left him as we were halfway there, I knew Angie was dead.
He is forced to shift back after his wolf goes berserk, tearing himself to shreds as he fights that agony. I have to wait for him and send my men ahead to ensure he doesn’t kill himself. His wolf claws at his face and nearly tore his own paw off before Andrei was able to wrench back control from him. Now all that is left is an empty shell as he stares at the packhouse.
“Get her down,” he mutters, and I am confused at first before I look up at the packhouse, how I didn’t notice before shocks me.
Angie’s naked body is hung and staring up at the wooden pole home, the flag pole that sat on the roof with his pack emblem flag. I swallow, looking back down at him.
His expression is cold and murderous. He growls, the noise raises goosebumps even on my arms, the sound is so threatening. “Get her down,” he snarls before getting up and plodding away. He walks toward the forest, disappearing amongst the trees.
“Alex!” I call out, seeing him helping one of the pack members put out a house that was well ablaze. There was no saving it, they were best off letting it burn itself out.
Alex walks over to me, and I point to the flagpole, and he staggers back horrified, clearly having not noticed it either. “That’s not, please tell me?” he gasps.
Her brothers are close with Alex, Angie was almost like his sister. “Help me get her down,” I request, and he nods, tears running down his cheeks when I hear her brothers. They must have heard of the attack.
Myles collapses in front of the packhouse on his knees, looking up at her, before he starts wailing. Tate shoves past us before rushing toward the house. “Angie?” he whispers on his way past. I chase after him, and so does Alex. Alex grabs him, and I duck inside, racing up the steps. I needed to get her down before her father got here, they shouldn’t have seen her like that. I knew she was dead, but no one should see their sister like that, see their daughter like that. And to put her on display the way Jackson did was utterly disgusting.
I found the room with the window leading onto the roof, and by the destruction of the room I could tell that Angie did not go easily. There are broken plates and lamps everywhere, blood is sprayed all over the scene and there are deep claw marks all over the wood. She tried to fight back, which would be Angie. I hoped the bastard that got her was suffering from whatever wounds she gave. She was a fighter. I carefully step through the smashed window and onto the tin roof, and over to the flagpole. It has a spear point on top of it.