"...stuck together like superglue right?"
Leon pulled Selena by her hair as she dragged her feet across the ground, leaving dirt tracks on the forest ground. She had initially tried to get up on her feet and try to walk at least but had realised that was wasting her energy. Leon tugged her randomly and handled her extra brought just because he could.
With this realisation, Selena only focussed on taking deep breathes. Meanwhile, she kept trying to connect to Evelyn and Jayce through their mind links. Try to make as little movement as possible, Selena tried to look backwards to see how her wolves and warriors were doing.
Jayce was still moving a bit. He was coughing up blood, making Selena worry about internal injuries. However, when she saw her beta was trying to move rapidly at random intervals, in an attempt to overpower the hunters holding on to him, she felt a slight relief. At least, he was still holding on mentally, she thought.
Jayce's whole body felt like it was on fire. He was disgusted with the position he was in, manhandled by the hunters... he feared this the most, and for once, he was glad that he had sent Nic away with Ileana.
'Conserve your energy, Jayce,' Selena linked him. Jayce's surprised gasp was the only indication that he heard her, 'Just let go. We need to have some energy left for when we get back to the pack. Try forming a link to the pack, be it Xavier or anyone there.'
'I can't, alpha,' Jayce answered back after a long pause, in a hoarse, weak voice, 'I think Asteria is blocking my link. Wait, how are you linking? And how am I even talking to you?!'
'I think it's Inara.'
'Who?' Selena had long back faced the front again but she could imagine the frown on her beta's face and hoped the hunters would mistake it for him being in pain.
'My witch.'
'Ah, makes sense.'
'Relax Jayce, I will keep trying to contact them.'
Trying to form a link with Evelyn was hard though. Her body was completely limp as one of the hunters carried her like a sack of potatoes over his shoulder.
'Eve, c'mon girl, talk to me.'
No response.
She sighed. Her focus on connecting to Evelyn had left her ignorant of the suspicious glances Leon was throwing at her. She gasped for breath when Leon gave a sudden harsh pull on her hair.
"Do not try to act smart with me, sweet cheeks," Leon growled as he stopped walking. He pulled her from his side and made her stand in front of him so that her face was right in front of his, "I know your head is racing to find ways to save them," he snarled, "Give up."
"Let them go, please," She gasped as she held his hand, trying to get it off and failing. The word 'please' felt like acid on her tongue when speaking to Leon but she knew she had no choice. He had the upper hand. "They didn't do anything to you, none of us ever did!"
Leon, for once looked annoyed instead of amused and without another word, raised his knee and sent it directly into Selena's stomach. Selena was not prepared for this sudden attack and with a groan, she hunched over trying to wrap her hands around her body where she knew a bruise was going to forming.
"No," Jayce gave a weak growl.
"Ugh," Leon threw Selena harshly on the floor and walked to where they held Jayce, throwing a right hook at him, "Shut up, bitch."
"Please!" Selena cried as he came back and pulled her up again. "That stupid dog of yours had a lot to say about me. I will show him his place. That is if Max isn't finished with him by the time we get there."
Selena paused. Leon didn't miss it.
"If Max doesn't, and I get to follow my plan, I can promise to give him a show as he bleeds to his death," he brought his face closer to hers, sniffing around her neck hairline.
"You touch him and I promise you the most painful..."
"Oh but you're not in a position to be making, threats, my pet," Leon said before he licked the drop of blood that was trailing down her neck, making her shiver in disgust. The reaction brought a smile to her face and with a sigh, he continued, "I swear, you waste so much time, we could have been halfway there by now."
Selena groaned in pain, feeling her scalp burning as he started pulling her.
'This stupid meat bag of bones...' Inara snarled.
'Shush,' Izzy calmed the witch. She could feel how close Selena was to falling apart, the wolf knew the human needed the support of both of them to hang on. 'You have a lot to do once we reach there. Focus on that now. Our human can take this.'
Asteria had her complete focus on Leon and Selena. Her topmost priority was to get her book back from Leon. She planned on taking it once they reached the pack.
However, Asteria couldn't shake off the strange feeling about Selena. There was something about her, that seemed so scarily familiar to her that it gave her goosebumps. Asteria looked away from the girl and looked at the floor as she glided over instead of walking on.
She remembered the day she was taken, she remembered having to make her mate go through the feeling of losing his mate, she remembered when the hunters told her that they were working with her mother; she was devastated. That was the one thing that broke her. The hunters showed her proof that it really was Irene who was behind the growth of this group of hunters.
Asteria had decided to give them what they want. She had figured that if she didn't put up a fight, it would be easy for her to make an escape with her book. Oh, how she was wrong.
She couldn't even get close to the book. Over that, if she got caught, there was always the threat of the hunters attacking the people she held dear, killing her whole coven, killing Saanjh, and taking the life of her sister and her family. Asteria couldn't risk it, add to it the fact that she had been given several doses of anti-magic potions that Irene had provided to the hunters which reduced her powers.
Lately, they had stopped with the potion. She was sure that they needed her full strength in order to defeat this pack, this also proved that this pack was very strong.
Asteria sighed and looked at Selena. She didn't know from which pack the girl was, but she felt sorry. She was young, maybe just past her twenties, traumatized at such a young age.
'I feel different,' her witch said.
'It's because you are feeling your full power after a long time, Serein,' she responded with zero interest.
'No, Asteria. I remember what strength was. This is different.'
'Whatever you say,' Asteria sighed and closed the link. One whole century with the hunters had taken away her very personality. She didn't have time to be polite neither did she care about it.
That was it, she thought, maybe she had just lost her ability to care, maybe that was why she didn't care that she might be killing a whole pack of wolves within a few hours.
She looked at Selena once again, she couldn't help but feel the goosebumps as she once again felt the eerie familiarity.
On the other side, Xavier and the rest of the pack were on the verge of losing. More than just a few wolves had been shot down. Lorcan had disabled the guns of numerous hunters but there was only so much that he could do alone.
"Xavier, I cannot hold them off for long!" He screamed as he used his full power to hold back the hunters. But there were just too many of them.
"You have no choice!" the alpha screamed as he shifted into his wolf and jumped on a hunter, tearing his head off.
Lorcan suddenly felt lightened as the hunters were pushed back a bit. For a minute, the wolves seem to be winning. Lorcan frowned in confusion and looked around to see if Selena was there.
He knew there was another witch who just helped him but he even in his wildest imaginations he hadn't expected it to be his lover.
"Clysmic?!" He exclaimed as his face paled and eyes widened in horror, "What are you doing here?"
"I came to help, of course," she answered back with an easy smile. Her eyes glowed a bright green as she too joined in on helping Lorcan with her full force. She was providing him with her energy.
"You should have stayed in the room," Lorcan said, as his eyes moved around rapidly observing the scene, "You shouldn't be here."
Max was quite a few feet away and had a sniper in his hands. He had been aiming at the wolves from far away when he noticed that his last few victims didn't drop to the ground like the others did.
It was almost as if the bullets vanished.
He checked the area with his scope and noticed the two figures floating in the air high above the ground.
"Barrier," he whispered as he noticed the waves coming off their hands. With a scoff, he put his gun away.
Xavier was in his wolf form now as he jumped from hunter to hunter. There was a large gash on his left side where a bullet had grazed his skin.
Roy was limping on one leg but was still giving a good fight to the hunters.
"Xavier!" Ryan screamed as he jumped over a fighting Xavier on a wolf sneaking on the alpha. Ryan bit the leg of the hunter who in defence, stabbed Ryan on his side with a knife.
Xavier snarled at that hunter as he raced towards him. The hunter managed to put a small scratch on his right arm but it was a negligible wound. Xavier had already bitten into the man's head and ripped it off.
"Enough!" A voice screamed, halting all the hunters. The werewolves halted too, along with Xavier who turned towards the voice with his hackles raised and a sneer on his lips.
Max stepped forward with an amused smile on his face.
There were many warriors who were down on the ground. Some were groaning while the others were dead. Even a lot of hunters were down too.
Xavier knew the hunters were not using their full firepower, but he couldn't comprehend why. They were dying themselves but the hunters with the guns were not using them, except for to shoot down one or two wolves here and there.
Twenty-seven werewolves had died till now, twenty-seven of his pack members, twenty-seven of the people he had sworn to protect and lead.
"I do have to say, you are stronger than the Lunar Eclipse," Max commented as he looked around the bodies of his downed comrades.
The sound of bones cracking made Max look back at the alpha. Xavier stood tall. The glaring, red, bleeding line across his side had no effects on his posture. His eyes glowed bright silver as he glowered at the man.
"Maybe if you hadn't been a coward and attacked them sneakily while having a traitor helping you from inside, you would have seen how strong they actually were."
Max chuckled, "Oh he defends," he breathed out and looked at his hunters, who slowly walked away from the wolves to stand behind their leader. Seth attacked one of the hunters but Max instantly shot him with a gun, making him groan and fall on the ground.
"I said enough, didn't I?"
Lorcan and Clysmic flew down to the floor and glared at the hunters with as much hatred as the wolves did. Lorcan stood guard as Clysmic worked her powers on Seth. She tried to force back the bullets lodged in his body before using her magic to heal his wound.
"You are a stubborn lot," Max said intrigued, "Are you really this eager to fight? Why not just give up? We will let you go if you give us the girl," he smirked.
Xavier chuckled in response, "How unsurprising, I don't expect you to know what loyalty is either."
Max's expression changed slowly as his lips straightened.
"Losing all these wolves, just for that one girl?"
Xavier stared at Max while Lorcan and Clysmic slowly moved on to Ryan. Aiden and Connor stood on both sides of their beta, to make sure the hunters didn't try a cheap shot to kill the already wounded wolf.
Xavier held Max's eyes and only answered when he felt his beta being treated. The pack doctors were on the other side, treating the werewolves away from the eyes of the hunters as much as they could.
"Every single pack member, every single wolf of mine, is worth fighting a war over," he answered.
"You're too emotional to be a leader."
"And you are too uncompassionate to be one."
Max raised his gun at Xavier.
"I would mind that tongue if I was you."
"You think I am scared?" Xavier scoffed, "Try again."
"Well, he definitely should be," a new voice said.
The hunters parted on both sides to give space to the new group that appeared and Max smirked. He took a step to the side and looked straight in the eyes of Xavier, "Join the party, brother."
"I hope you don't mind, alpha. I brought some guests," Leon entered the space made by the hunters with an arrogant smile.
The whole atmosphere of the place changed. What till now was anger, rage and fury, changed to fear, chills and anxiety.
Leon pushed Selena forward roughly, making her fall on the ground motionlessly as he came to stand by his brother, making her lay right at their feet. Jayce and Evelyn were also thrown forward, making them land beside her. Connor growled and took a step while Aiden stood still, his wide eyes stuck on his mate unblinkingly.
"What. Did you do?" Xavier gritted. Connor stopped still in his tracks when Max pointed the gun in his hand towards his mate.
"Well, that girl might have a brain bleed, the guy has some broken ribs and organ damage for sure, and Selena," Leon slowed, his eyes roaming over the said girl lying on the floor, "Poor little Sel tried to fight fair. Too bad I had a knife laced in Wolfsbane."
"You sick, son of a bitch," he growled,
Lorcan turned his head to look at the girl behind him who was oblivious to how the raw emotions shining in Lorcan's eyes as he stared at her. He couldn't even imagine the way the wolves around him were feeling with their mates in such poor conditions.
He couldn't help but appreciate Clysmic, even though he felt like he'll lose his mind with worry. The girl left the safety of her room and came to fight, by herself, even when no one asked her to. She came all by herself, reminding Lorcan of all the reasons why he fell in love with her.
Her eyes were now glowing green again as they moved from Evelyn to Selena and focused again, Lorcan knew she was trying to heal these wolves too.
'Don't spend too much energy, Love,' Lorcan said to her in his mind.
'Stop treating me like a child, handsome,' Clysmic smiled slightly, making Lorcan's eyes drop to her lips. He was just letting the barrier out to protect her as he couldn't rest assured with the hunters so close to them.
Only, he was a little too late.
Lorcan watched her lips open slightly as she gasped before the sound of the loud bang registered in his head. His small smile dropped as fast as lightning and his eyes rose to meet Clysmic's now wide eyes as he watched a single drop of tear roll down her cheek and a red patch growing around her chest and stomach.
"No," he whispered, "No, no, no..." he kept mumbling as he turned around and held Clysmic in his arms before she fell down, slowly lowering both of them on the floor.
Clysmic coughed violently as drops of blood landed on her lower lip and chin.
"I told you not to come," he whispered as his voice cracked, "I told you to stay at home."
Clysmic smiled as a streak of blood rolled from the side of her lips, "Couldn't let you go to a war alone, stuck together like superglue right?"
"Save your breath. This is not how this ends," Lorcan said in a steely voice as he tried to heal her but nothing seemed to happen.
"Did you forget my body rejects magical healing?" Clysmic coughed out with a painful smile.
"No, no not like this... I love you, please," he sobbed, "Please God please don't do this to me. Please! Clys..."
"Find love, handsome, you deserve it more than any-anyone I have everâ" she coughed as Lorcan pulled her slightly closer to his chest, "I will always love you, Lorcan," she smiled as she closed her eyes, "my knight in a black robe."
Those were her last words.
"No, Clys, please! For god's sake, just open your eyes, Clys!" he sobbed, "NO!"
"Ishowed mercy when I allowed her to heal those wolves there, my brother doesn'tshow that mercy when you try to steal his kills," Max broke the silence.