Chapter twelve

“She can’t take anymore,” Sean whispered when he saw how frail Aliyah was looking. He rushed to Alan immediately. “She can’t take anymore, Alpha,” he said to him.

“Sean, step aside please. The punishment clearly said it would be two hundred whipping; now it is already one hundred and fifty. She only has to endure fifty more,” an Elder said to Sean.

“But she can’t take anymore, look at her. For goodness sake, she hasn’t fully recovered from the Garuda poison and you are putting her through so much stress. She would die,” Sean said.

“Beta Aton, please control you son,” another Elder said.

Aton sighed, “Sean, rule is rule. She broke the rule, she would take the punishment.”

“I am not against that, but can’t you tell when one has had enough? Look at her dad, one more whip and she would be done for.”

“Sean,” Monica rushed and grabbed his hand immediately, “let’s go Sean,” she tried to pull him away but he pried his arm away from her.

Sean stood, glaring at his alpha, “fine then, if you won’t have a change of heart, let me take the remaining ones for her.”

“Sean no,” Monica refused immediately. She looked up at him with her tear-filled eyes, “please Sean, don’t.”

Aton sighed once more, “it is not done like that, son. Look, she only has forty more to go.”

“What if she dies? She is your daughter for crying out loud!” Sean yelled at Alan. “Can’t you look at her and see? How can you sit there and watch her go through such pain?”

“The Alpha is impartial!” the first Elder yelled. “Beta Aton, if you don’t control your son this moment, he would serve his own punishment for yelling at his Alpha.”

Emily stood up and went to Sean, “let’s go Sean,” she grabbed his hand to pull him away.

Sean stood rigid on the ground, his brown eyes glaring daggers at Alan.

Scarlet sighed and smiled at him, “don’t worry Sean, she will be fine, she is a strong girl.”

“Listen to your Luna, Sean, or we won’t forgive you anymore,” the first elder warned.

“Sean please, let’s go, okay?” Monica pleaded and Emily pulled at his arm.

Sean closed his eyes and heaved a deep sigh. He turned then to leave but a sudden commotion made him glance sharply at the execution ground. A cloud of smoke suddenly appeared and before they knew it, the executioner was lifted off the ground by an invisible force. “How dare you?” a cold voice rang in the whole arena.

Everyone stared in utter shock as the executioner’s head was ripped out of his head. The cloud of smoke kept growing bigger and bigger but there was no sign of anything inside it. When the executioner’s lifeless body hit the ground. Alan stood up immediately, “who dares to kill in my pack?” his voice thundered.

Two glowing red eyes suddenly appeared in the middle of the smoke and looked tauntingly at Alan. “Your pack? Yet you punish one of you so mercilessly,” the voice answered.

“That is of no business to you. Any wolf that breaks the rule is reliable to be punished.”

“Oh, is that so?” the voice asked.

“Rule is rule, so leave now while we are still being merciful.”

“Rule is rule indeed, but this little wolf won’t be punished anymore,” the voice declared.

“Who are you to tell me what to do?” Alan asked annoyed.

“Trust me, you don’t want to know.”

Alan growled in annoyance. He has never had anyone talk to him like that before, “leave now, or forever regret it.”

The red eyes taunted them and a cold chuckle sounded, “oh no, you will be the one to regret.”

“How insolent,” Alan growled again, “wolves, attack!” he yelled and jumped up, shifting mid-air. The warrior wolves all shifted as well and Sean joined.

A pack of wolves started rushing towards the smoke and everyone heard the cold voice say, “You are courting death,” before the smoke swarmed through them and lifeless wolf bodies fell, shifting back into their human forms immediately.

Scarlet watched in horror at what was happening. They were the strongest wolves in their pack and that smoky thing killed them in a breath? What is that thing and why is it killing in our pack? “Alan,” she yelled, seeing as her mate was thrown ten feet from the smoky thing. She shape-shifted and rushed to him, feeling the pain he was going through as his mate. She shifted into human again and cradled the head of the big brown wolf in her arms.

The glowing red eyes landed on them and they heard a sigh, “pathetic,” the voice said. “Your ancestors couldn’t do harm on me, what makes you think you can?”

More of their men shape-shifted, prepared to launch an attack. “Stop,” Scarlet yelled at them and then turned to the smoky thing. “What do you want?”

The creature didn’t answer and mainly turned to the wounded Aliyah. The ropes hanging her hands on the plank suddenly burnt into ashes, freeing her. The smoke swarmed down and picked her up. Seeing the creature’s intent, Scarlet screamed “no!”

Alan lifted his giant head then, although wounded, it was clear he wasn’t going to let any creature take his daughter away. He charged after the creature, willing to do anything to save his child.

“If you want to die, come after me. I won’t hesitate to finish you all off,” the cold voice said and in a blink of an eye, the smoke vanished like it had appeared. Sean, in his wolf form rushed after it but where could he go? The smoke just disappeared leaving no traits. He growled and howled in frustration and a gray wolf ran up to him. Putting her head under his to calm him down and also prevent him from running off. ‘Please Sean, I don’t want to lose you. We will find her, if we all calm down and think, we will find her,’ Monica pleaded to him through the mind link.

‘Sean, come back son. We don’t know what we are up against so we shouldn’t just rush into a fight. The lifeless bodies of our men are a perfect example of that,’ Alan’s voice ran in his mind and he could sense the regret etched on his voice. ‘We have already lost too much, we shouldn’t lose more.’

With the creature gone, a lot of howling sounds soon filled the night sky as wolves howled at the lost of their mates and family members. Alan shifted into his human form, not caring that he was naked and a young man rushed to him and covered him with a blanket. Emily also rushed and covered Scarlet with a blanket as well as they all stood and watched the bodies of their pack-mates that were alive only but a few seconds ago.

“Alpha, what should we do? Aliyah was taken,” Aton whispered to him.

Alan closed his eyes. “We will find her. While some wolves would stay and watch over the pack, I will lead some into the forest to sniff her out.”

“But alpha, you are wounded.”

Alan turned to him, “that is my daughter out there. I don’t even know if she is still alive or not.”

“She is,” a voice said and they turned to Catherine who walked up to them and offered a pill to Alan. “If the creature wanted her dead, it would have killed her right on the spot. However, it only took her with it, so I believe she is still alive.”

“Do you know what that thing is, Catherine?” Scarlet asked.

“I’m sorry, Luna, but I have never seen that creature in my life before. I will take the wounded wolves and tend to them,” she smiled but her smile saddened when she saw the dead ones. “However, there is nothing to be done about them.”

Alan heaved a sigh, “for centuries, our nemesis has been the nightwalkers. Who is this now that is picking a fight with us?”

Everyone turned silent for they too were thinking of the same thing. The witches had minded their business for ages; they hated both them and the nightwalkers, calling them abominations. However, they have never caused a fight. The demons see themselves as superior and never meddled in their fights with the nightwalkers, so who is it? Who could it be?

***

Aliyah was suddenly dropped on the ground and she yelped in pain. She watched in wariness as the cloudy smoke swarmed down and like magic, a man was standing in front of her with the smoke gone. She gasped when she saw his face, his midnight blue eyes that have haunted her sleep in the morning. “It’s you.”

Edward glared at her, “I can’t believe this. All the irritation was because you were being punished?” he spat out.

Aliyah frowned, “what are you talking about?”

Edward stormed towards her and he jerked her up from the ground. His fingers curled on her neck as he lifted her off the ground, “perhaps I should kill you now and be rid of all these nonsense.”

Aliyah tried to free herself from his hold but she was too weak and her hands fought weakly, “let me go.”

“Why should I? This is just me freeing myself from future troubles. I can’t believe I broke the treaty because of an insignificant like you,” he growled.

“I didn’t ask for your help okay,” she challenged weakly.

“You were calling for me!” he yelled, his eyes turning red. “You were calling for me in my head and it was driving me insane!” his voice became distorted for a second before returning to normal. “I knew from the very first day that you would be a problem,” his eyes glowed redder. “I should have killed you that day instead.” Her blood wafted into his nostrils and his fangs elongated.

Aliyah gasped in horror seeing the sight. “What are you trying to do?”

“Ridding myself of future troubles,” he replied. “Although I enjoyed killing those wolves, but I won’t be breaking anymore rules for a little wolf,” he growled and pulled her closer to him, tilting her head to the side to expose her neck to him.

“No, no, no!” Aliyah screamed as he buried his fangs on her soft neck, right where her mate would mark her.