"J-Janeen. I-is it true?" I asked in a shaky whisper.
Janeen looked at me with sorrow filled eyes and nodded hesitantly.
"I'm really sorry sweetheart."
"Th-then who are...." I trailed off, unable to finish the sentence. But she understood what I meant.
Janeen held my gaze for a couple of seconds, her eyes glazing over.
"Doyle." My eyes widened.
No.
"You're Doyle's illegitimate child."
And that's when I burst into hysterical laughter.
---
24 hours earlier...
I snapped my head towards my small window at the familiar sounds of battle howls.
I quickly dropped the towel that I had in my hand and rushed to see what's going on outside, and to my horror, a group of what seemed to be about seven hundred wolves were attacking us.
I rushed downstairs, watching as people yelled at each other and ran everywhere.
Some of the men where ushering the women, children and elderly to the safe house while the others where readying themselves for battle. It was only a secret annex in the house that we built years ago for a situation like this.
Our warriors were already fighting fiercely, not leaving any room for mercy.
I removed my gaze from the window that showed the fighting wolves and started helping with the movement of the weak towards the safe house.
It'll be best to make sure that they are safe first before going out to fight.
Uncle Adam thought the same as he too was helping move them.
He didn't wait till the end though before going out and engaging himself in the fight.
After making sure that everyone who couldn't fight was safe, I started making my way to my room, but I was stopped mid-way.
"April, where are you going?" One of the pack men, whom I recognised as Dave asked.
I turned around to look at him, not knowing what to say but then decided to settle for the truth. Things had already gotten this far and I couldn't act like I was weak and not fight.
This is my pack and I'm the alpha.
"To help you guys fight." I answered truthfully.
He and the other three men left started laughing and shaking their heads.
"Okay April. Come on. Just get to the safe house." Dave said between chuckles and held my upper arm, in an attempt to drag me to the safe house.
I held his hand in return and in one swift movement, I flipped his body and threw it to the ground.
The other three men stopped their chuckles and looked at the scene wide eyed.
"I'm more than capable of fighting." I said before making my way again to my room.
I put on my earpiece first thing and called for Hugh.
"Right here April." He answered back.
"Hugh, I need every piece of information you can provide about those wolves. Their exact number, where are they coming from and anything else you can find." I ordered as I rushed to ready my weapons.
"The CCTVs that we have installed show them rushing in from the north, all in wolf form. They were detected to be exactly six hundred and fifty in number and up until now, I didn't notice any one of them being of a higher rank that the others." Hugh spoke.
"And remind me how many warriors do we have again?" I asked as I looked out the window once again. Blood covered the once green grass and dead bodies decorated the area, mostly from the rogues.
"Our whole pack is only a total of four hundred." Hugh answered in a low voice.
"And the warriors make only one third of that number." I continued.
We were dangerously outnumbered.
"Don't worry. I called in for help Alpha." Hugh said with pride, making me scrunch up my face in confusion as I ran down the stairs.
"What do you mean?" I asked once I stepped out the house.
"You'll see." Hugh replied. "Oh, but April?"
"Yeah?"
"I can't get a hold of Lucian. He's not responding and Freya doesn't know where he is." Hugh said with a worried tone.
The wheels in my head stared running at a faster speed than normal, thinking where he was and if he was okay. I was starting to worry myself but quickly shrugged the thoughts off.
Lucian can take care of himself perfectly and right now, I have a battle to fight.
Holding both swords in my hands and making sure that my gun in still in place, I confidently charged towards the enemy.
---
Lucian's POV
I took heavy steps towards my father's office, reciting in my head what I'm going to say for the billionth time.
I wanted to secretly investigate about his beta and at the same time not give any hints about anything and I didn't want to hurt him again with the harsh memory.
I took in a deep breath and was about to knock on the door when it suddenly opened, revealing my father's face.
His lips curved up into a small smile once he saw me.
"Lucian. What brings you here my boy?" He asked in his gentle father tone making me smile at him.
"I just wanted to talk to you about certain events that have been occurring lately." I replied.
My father nodded before stepping out of his office and shutting the door behind him.
"Okay, let's talk on our way to cells. There's a prisoner that I want to interrogate."
I nodded my head and we both started walking down the stairs.
"Father, have you noticed anything strange about Beta Oliver before he passed away?" I asked cautiously.
"What do you mean son by anything strange?" My father asked in confusion.
I shrugged my shoulders like I don't know so that I don't accidently disclose anything to him.
"I don't know. Acting more secretive than normal? Being absent at random times of the day perhaps?"
"I'm not very sure Lucian. But if there was anything, then I guess I was too blind to notice." My father sighed.
We were now walking down the hall between the dark cells which were only lit by a couple of hanged torches.
The smell of death, mould, and rust were harassing my nose and the insides of my stomach, but I kept a stoic face and didn't allow my disgust to show.
"What would make you ask that son?" My father asked as he stopped walking.
I turned to face him fully. "I'm just being curious." I lied. "It's not every day a royal beta is killed."
My father nodded as he had a thinking face on.
"You know what's the most interesting thing in this world son?" My father asked, making me furrow my eyebrows at his question.
"It's when the children try to fool their parents like they were just born yesterday." He replied as he opened the cell behind me and the next thing I know, I'm being pushed inside.
He then shut the cell door and locked it, incarcerating me inside.
I quickly rushed to my feet before running to the door with wide eyes.
"Dad? What are you doing? Let me out!" I screamed as I tugged at the door.
My father shook his head.
"This is for your own good Lucian. I'll let you out when everything is settled and your little girlfriend is out of the way." He said, spitting the last words with disgust at the mention of April.
My eyes went wide and my wolf went ballistic.
"Don't you dare touch her." I growled loudly, ready to shift any second.
"Don't worry." My father said, letting out a small scoff. "I'm not going to touch her, my men will." He smirked before turning around to leave, ignoring my calls and growls.
--
April I kicked the rogue in his chest before pressing the trigger and hearing the bullet leave the gun and plunge itself into his body, killing him instantly.
I didn't notice the other one approaching before I was tackled to the ground, causing my swords to leave my hands.
The wolf snapped its teeth at my face and I desperately attempted to dodge him.
I bent my legs so that they were under his stomach before pushing him on his back away from me.
I quickly grabbed my sword and plunged it into his chest, killing him.
I looked around to find us losing terribly. It doesn't matter how skilled our warriors are, there were too many of them against the little of us and the idea of my pack members dying like that boiled my blood.
I angrily rushed towards two rogues who were circulating around one of the warriors and before they attacked, I jumped in and fought one of them as the warrior successfully killed the other.
The warrior bowed his head in gratitude, obviously getting over the shock he and the rest got at the beginning of this fight when they saw me killing off rogue after rogue still in human form. They never thought that the pack's slave was a fighter just like them.
However, Uncle Adam was anything but happy about it.
I turned on my heels to go back to fighting when I was taken aback with the four rogues that stood right in front of me with their teeth barred.
Two more joined in and it looked like most of them were targeting me now and leaving the rest.
I took a couple of steps back but was stopped as more rogues came from behind me, trapping me inside a circle that they've formed.
"Oh. So that's how it's going to be?" I said with a raised eyebrow. "Okay then." I finished before dropping my gun and the one sword left to the ground and then calling on to Rose.
The feeling of breaking and rearrangement of my body made a small smile graze my lips. I missed that feeling.
Dark brown fur sprouted all over my body and my face elongated into a snout before I was fully transformed into my wolf.
I was larger than an average male warrior but didn't pass the Alpha male height.
The rogues snarled at me once more before all of them attacking at the same time.
I easily held the throat of the wolf in front of me before throwing him to the side.
Three wolves jumped onto my back while one bit at me right hind leg and the last coming to my throat.
I used my other leg to kick the mutt attached to my limp and tried to shake off the other three while at the same time trying to cover my neck from a deathly attack.
My attempts were failing though, and no one was able to come help me as they were all either still fighting more than one wolf or were trying to free themselves from the wolves locking them down.
I let out a low growl, angry that I felt weak for a second.
Suddenly, a weird smell filled the air before a series of yelps and growls echoed along.
In a blink of an eye, the wolves on top of me were gone, giving me the chance to easily kill the one trying to slit my throat with his canines.
I turned around to find the three wolves being crushed together as a large snake wrapped his body around them.
Cracking sounds were heard as their bones were being crushed to pieces before blood oozed out of their mouths and ears and finally, their eyes glazed over once before the life escaped from them.
The snake unwrapped his body from around them before moving towards me and then shifting into a man whom I recognised as the leader of the serpents clan.
I narrowed my eyes at him.
"Alpha April." He spoke. "This doesn't mean that we're coming to terms with each other, we still hate your kind. But when you're fighting our same enemy then we can't help but aid you." He said in a matter of factly tone.
I curtly lowered my head to him for a second in both understanding and agreement.
"The serpents that were buying the weapons have already been dealt with and are being charged with treason since they were taking us into battle without the clan's knowledge and without my approval. So no need to worry about that." I continued listening as he spoke.
I signalled for him to give me a minute as I go shift.
I went behind as tree and then threw a large shirt over my head after shifting back to my human form.
I went back to the waiting man.
"You look better than the picture." He smirked at me.
"What happened to the wolves that were sold as slaves?" I asked, ignoring his remark.
"They're safe. I kept them all together in a house on my territory until this is over, then you can have them back." He replied.
He must've noticed my confused expression and the million questions that I wanted to ask as he spoke again.
"I only like to play fair alpha and I don't tolerate things happening under my nose that I'm oblivious to."
"May I ask about who sent you and how did you know of all this?" I asked as my eyes trailed to the fighting creatures.
The serpents were of great help as we now matched the number of the rogues, if not more, and our survival chance has increased by a double.
I shifted my gaze back to the man next to me as he started talking.
"I got a call from a man named Hugh." He answered. "I didn't believe him at first, but he sent me all the files and data that he had. He was able to successfully convince me."
The corner of my lips lifted up into a smile.
Was this what he meant by sending help.
"Well, are we just going to stand here and chat the night away or are we going to fight?" I asked with a smirk and a raised eyebrow.
"I think I'll like you April. Oh, and the name's Travis." Travis smirked again.
I didn't answer as we both charged in for another kill.