“Shit!” Callan cursed, grabbing me by the shoulder and forcing me to duck just as multiple arrows successively flew past us, two out of them stabbing the large Cedar tree behind us.
I choked back a cry and allowed Callan to lead me away once more. Terror twisted my belly, whoever the shooters were had to be from the same group that had killed Radley too. Too many unanswered questions left lying had brought this upon us, too many secrets being kept.
And Grace? My mind refused to believe it, believing that she was behind all of this. Surely, she couldn't be so cruel. I saw her as a victim, had I been wrong? Had I allowed myself to be fooled by her innocent act as everyone else had been? And everything I thought about her had been nothing but lies. The realization of this was refusing to sink in properly, I still chose to see her as the quiet, introverted teenager she was, but still, she was no child.
“What does she want to do with it? What did Radley want with it?” I asked Callan amidst the shootings and cries, I needed to get my answer regardless. I could not stand any longer not knowing.
“Power, Sophia,” he said through gritted teeth. His chest rose and fell with the rage that ate him up. “Radley was being used, a pawn to Vaughn and his daughter. I don't understand how Grace got intertwined in this, that makes no sense.”
I swallowed. “Does she think you are responsible for Radley’s death, after all, they'd been…” I found it hard to finish my sentence, the right word felt disgusting to say. He had been considerably older than her, and she wasn't his mate, so whatever they’d been doing, Radley had been taking advantage of her naivety, and I feared he must have taken such control of her that even in his death, she still went out of character with him.
It was a phenomenon to be expected in a relationship with such an age gap, I believed his being older and wiser would provide the power play that would give room for manipulation. That had to be the explanation, I hadn't known her for long, but this wasn't her, I still could never believe she would be that vile of her own intentions. No, that wasn't possible, not to her brother, at least.
“I don't think that is it,” Callan said with a strange look on his face. “I have a presumption, but I can't act on it yet. First, we need to make sure you are safe, Luther will get Grace, and our warriors will put an end to the shooting soon, they've been stationed in places they should be.”
“And what about you?” I asked, fear of the inkling that he would say something I didn't want to hear.
“Alexander.” His voice was filled with venom. “He won't step a foot in my pack, and killing him should be easy, he is no Alpha.”
I grabbed Callan by the wrist. “What are you talking about? You can't go at him on your own, Callan, no!”
The air is thick with blood, and I fear for the things I can't see - the cries that resound around me, the death that hangs, the bodies that had been slew, all for a reason I was yet to understand.
Vaughn was dead, and Amelia was injured, so that left Grace and Silviu, but Silviu wasn't here right now. Grave had stolen the wolfsbane, and Amelia was not in attendance. Did Grace plan to use the wolfsbane on Callan? Or was it Amelia who wanted him dead? I imagined Silviu would want Callan dead before we were mated, forcing me to return to Alexander, but what would it profit Amelia if Callan was dead? The only one it would be beneficial to be Grace, she would take over Callan’s position.
Was this what it all was about? A sickening fight for the Alpha position, willingness to kill and be killed, to lie, be vile and cruel and betray those who trusted you just to ascend the Alpha position, but something told me there was more to this, more I didn't know and I needed to if I was going to fit in the pieces of the puzzles because what I had so far were refusing to fit in.
“I am not an Alpha who sits and waits for his enemies to invade his home.” He thrust me into the hold of an incoming warrior. “I’ll get to Luther and see if he has gotten to Grace, stay inside the manor, I'll come to see you before I leave.”
I opened my mouth to protest further, but he was gone, slinking into the dark and sprinting through the wild.
“Be careful, Luna,” the warrior said, using his body to shield me as he led me back toward the garden. The fire was still brimming hard, and a tear fell from my eyes, knowing we should have been circling it now. I'd known people had been killed, but nothing prepared me for the bodies I came across, flung at different angles and lying around us in such high numbers we stumbled past them.
“Wait,” the warrior ordered, stopping as we made our way to the exit of the garden, still crouched and sticking to the walls. I paused and stared at him, his eyes were darting around as though he could see something I couldn't, and soon enough, I saw it, or rather heard it; the heavy sounds of footsteps marching towards us.
“Run, I'll stall them,” the warrior whispered with an urgency in his tone, pushing me.
He couldn't be much older than me, but he had a glint in his eyes that told me he’d seen enough death to have grown immune and had trained enough to be unfazed by the possibility of his and so, like a true warrior, he was prepared to delve head into a fight he knew he wouldn't survive but I would be damned if I allowed it.
“You cannot fight them, come on, there must be another way out of….”
My own scream cut short my words when a blade glinted, and swiftly, it came down on the warrior’s neck, severing his head from it. His head rolls down, coming to rest at my feet.
My stomach churned, and bile rose in my throat as blood splattered on my face and body, I could taste its metallic taste, and I fought hard not to keel over and release the contents of my stomach. Slowly, I took steps back when my eyes lifted to see the people in front of me.
I counted eight people in total, all clad in black, their eyes hard and disdainful. Two of them were women and were the only ones I recognized; they were the manor’s kitchen staff. I would have let out a laugh if I wasn't so shaken - traitors really had been planted in every inch of the pack.
The woman who had severed the warrior’s head rolled her sword in the air and took another step towards me, her lips lifted in a smile.
“Hail thy Luna,” she said, her voice laced with burning mockery.
I took another step back and began mentally pleading with my wolf to take over, with her, I had a chance, but without it, it would be completely impossible. I was unarmed, and even if I was, I was unskilled, and even if by some miracle I was, there was no way I could take eight evidently skilled people on my own.
“Kiss my blade!” a voice announced from behind me, and we all snapped our heads toward it.
“Sophia, duck!” Natalie yelled at me, and I fell to the ground immediately, a small knife flew above me, barely missing my neck, and lodged itself into the chest of the woman who had just been speaking, her eyes rolled back, and she fell next to me, her lifeless eyes staring directly at me.
And chaos broke out.