Lucas couldn’t sleep a wink; he kept tossing and turning on the bed. With the moon shining brightly, he got off the bed and staggered to the window, praying to the moon goddess to watch over the dawn pack and his precious Luna.
By morning, Lucas was already prepared for the war. He was about to leave when Ava grabbed him by the hands.
“Not so fast,” Ava pulled him close to her.
“I’m sorry precious, I wasn’t thinking straight.”
“I know, love,” Ava whispered to Lucas while holding onto him like her life depended on it. Lucas hugged her so tight, placing her head on his chest.
He raised her face up and planted a kiss on her lips, deepening the kiss for a long while,
“I love you, my precious Luna”.
“I love you even more, my alpha,” Ava replied, and with that, Lucas strolled out to meet his men.
***
Everything was ready, and Lucas’s men were already at the dawn borders to fight for their pack and keep possession of their lands. There would be a lot of bloodshed today, but they were all prepared to fight for what they wanted.
The black dynasty, in their thousands, were on the other side of the border with their leader, Vulcan. It would never be an easy war, but the dawn pack would never surrender to the rogues without a fight.
Just when Lucas thought he had seen it all, the rogues made way, and Filip Kirundi walked amongst them, standing next to Vulcan. The dawn soldiers were surprised to see the former Gamma Filip standing next to Vulcan. Lucas was lost for words; he couldn’t believe that Filip had it in him! How could he scheme against his former pack? How could he make allies with the rogues?
Lucas was brought back to reality when Vulcan made him yet another offer.
“Surrender the dawn army now, Lucas and I might go easy on you,” Vulcan blurted out while his men laughed.
Lucas knew their chances of beating the rogues in open battle were slim, for they were outnumbered. Surrendering the dawn army was absolutely out of the table. Still, he decided then that there was only one thing he could do to lessen the damage.
He took one final look at Ava before he spoke up.
“I will never surrender my men to your rogues, Vulcan. I would rather fight to protect my men and my territory than give them to you to slaughter.”
“It’s a shame we can’t come to a truce, Alpha Lucas.”
It was time to let his decision out. Lucas had once been with the rogues, and he knew how much Vulcan valued his numbers. He also loved his soldiers just as much. This war could still continue without all men risking their lives.
“Perhaps we can still work something out, Vulcan. How about a duel, your best fighter against my best fighter? If I win, you take your men off dawn territory and disappear forever.”
“And if you lose?”
“Then you can claim the dawn territory. I know you will also agree that it is better than to lose innocent lives.”
Vulcan let out a mischievous smirk, “you think well, Alpha Lucas. It’s a shame your people won’t have you as their leader anymore. I agree to this pact of yours. Choose the strongest amongst you, and let him begin to count his last moments on this earth!”
“Let me do it, Alpha Lucas,” Kiron said. “I am willing to lay down my life if it means saving this pack. I have had years of training, and you trust that I will be the one to handle this.”
Lucas shook his head, “the only reason I settled for this dual is because I want to protect the lives of my men, and that includes you, too, Kiron. I will be the one to fight for this pack.”
“You can’t be serious!” Ava protested. “Do you know what will become of the dawn pack if your life is taken?”
“I thought about it all night; I have already made up my mind, my love. I put all our future in jeopardy by not killing Filip and Vulcan when I had the chance. Now, I have to fix my mistakes. If I perish in the process, I want you all to know that I loved each and every single one of you.”
Ava was in tears as she watched Lucas walk forward to meet the other opponent. It didn’t come out as much of a surprise when Filip stepped forward from the other side. He would be the other opponent.
“Guess we meet after all,” Filip said. “You don’t know how much I’ve prayed to the goddess for many years to finally humiliate you before all your men!”
“I treated you like a brother. What did I ever do to deserve this from you, Filip?”
“Everything! You did everything to deserve this! You stole my life all because you had the people’s favour! I should have been the dawn alpha, not you! You’re just a weakling who pays more attention to a woman than his own pack. Now with Vulcan’s help, I will finally take back what belongs to me.”
Lucas was boiling inside, but he needed to channel this anger to kick his ass. The fight began, and they both shifted to their wolf forms. Lucas started beating the hell out of Gamma Filip, and just when he thought he had an edge, Filip used the one thing he didn’t see coming, and that was Lucas’s weakness.
Though Lucas seemed fine, he was still traumatized by his experience at the hands of Sabrina, and it sometimes affected his composure. Still, he needed to do his best for his pack and his family. They both retook their human forms as he landed deadly blows on Filip. Just when he thought he had his opponent where he wanted, Filip quickly used a special enchantment he got from Darin on him.
Vulcan knew first-hand what Lucas went through at the hand of Sabrina; the spies he planted at the Dawn pack had given him all the information he needed. He helped Filip acquire this special potion just to win Lucas.
Lucas staggered backwards as the very image he had feared these past few days was staring him in the face. It was as though he was seeing something. Each time he looked at his opponent Filip, he saw Sabrina. Filip smiles mischievously, knowing fully well that Lucas has been enchanted. Filip got up, taking the victory and leaving none behind.
Lucas heaved out slow sighs as he lay there, fallen to the ground, badly beaten. His whole body ached from the bruises as he stayed in a pool of his own blood.
Like the pain had just started, he felt the sole of a heavy shoe crush against his chest. Looking up to see his opponent, Filip Kirundi, smirking down at him, revelling in this humiliating state he put the man he once served as master, stepping on him.
“I’m the master now,” Filip stated, “and you are nothing, Lucas De’ Clan. This is how it was always meant to be, I as the Alpha, and you, nothing.”
Pity was the last thing Filip felt as he kicked Lucas over and over on the ground, hurting him as his body ripped even more. He bled even more from the sharp edge of Filip’s boot pulverizing his skin. He lost everything there and then, his pride, his pack, his ego, everything.
“Nooooo!!!!!”
Ava screamed upon seeing Filip hurting him more. He’d won. Why couldn’t he take what he wants and leave her mate alone? Why wouldn’t he let mercy prevail, if nothing, for the sake of their past relationship?
She couldn’t take this anymore, wanting to leave her people behind to help her mate. Thankfully, one of the guards spotted her and held her back.
“Leave me alone, dammit. Can’t you see that he’ll get killed if we don’t do something?”
“We are sorry for this; we wish we could do something, ma’am, but this is an agreement we cannot stop. You’ll get killed if you try to interfere.”
Ava paid no attention to his words as she kicked against the guard, setting herself free, but then she only invited more force as more soldiers held her against her wish by order of the gamma.
“Kiron!!! You too?? Is this how you serve your Alpha?”
Ava could see the sadness in his eyes as he spoke, “I’m sorry, Ava, but even I, as a faithful servant, cannot go against the terms of a duo. We can only pray that Alpha Filip should agree to spare his life. We cannot do anything more than that.”
Ava could only shed tears as she watched her mate take more blows to his face and other parts of his body on the ground. Filip kicked and kicked him like a lowly rag. It felt as if her heart was ripped out slowly as she watched him in that state.
“Lucas!!!!” She cried her eyes out as she wished for her mate to survive this one. She prayed in her heart that the goddess would spare her mate from this torture. She could not lose her mate like this, not again. And what hurt the most from all this was that there was nothing she could do. Her strength was draining as she fought against the guards that held her back.
The last sounds that Lucas heard before he closed his eyes for the last time were the cries of his mate. She is crying because of him; she is hurt from seeing him hurt. Lucas wanted to hold on for her, but he couldn’t hold on to his strength any longer because the more Filip saw him struggle to get up, the more he kicked him back to the dirty ground.
He then closed his eyes, finally, because it felt much easier to give up. Still hearing Ava’s cries, some part of his heart felt fulfilment because they were the last sounds he heard… even though it all ended in a tragedy, he couldn’t have had it any other way.
“The dawn alpha is dead,” Filip smirked. But then he wasn’t done. The job wasn’t yet done, of course, as he needed to make a public show of the body. He wanted to torture and humiliate Lucas De’ Clan, even in his death.
He thought of whether to behead him there; that would be nice, but no. His mind birthed an even better idea as he spotted the edge of the high cliff nearby. He then called on two of his guards.
“Yes, sire!” They answered.
Pointing towards the cliff, Filip instructed them without having to say any words. The guards understood well, and they got to work immediately.
Lifting up the bloodied corpse as everyone watched before walking the long distance to the edge of the cliff. Then in one mighty swing, Lucas De Clan’s dead body was finally disposed of. Ava felt her heart drop with him then.
Filip was sure that even if he survived the fall, there should be some wild animals in the valley below to clean up the mess. Now that it was taken care of, it was time to get back to business.
He lifted his shoulders in pride as he strode with Darin and his troops to cross the dawn border, where the dawn soldiers were still standing, their heads bent in acknowledgement of what had just taken place.
“Lucas De’ Clan, your former leader is no more. From now on, all of you will answer to me. You will serve me just like your Alpha agreed. So now, all of the dawners, bow down to your new leader!”
The majority of the dawn soldiers refused to bow down; they were ready to fight to their death.
“Kill Anybody still standing on his feet!” Fillip ordered his men.
The Dawn soldiers intended to fight back, but they were greatly outnumbered. They all got to their knees when they saw that this was a lost battle, but Ava wasn’t focused on the fight.
“Noooooo!!!” Her cries saturated the air till she fell to her knees, wailing for her dear Lucas.
Ava just wanted to die with him; she couldn’t bear the thought of living in a world without Lucas De Clan, her Alpha, the father of her child. What would become of her and Ramsey now?