Chapter 104 CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND FOUR

Chapter 104 CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND FOUR
The ancient council hall stands solemn and imposing in the middle of town as the meeting of werewolves begins. Tension hangs thick in the air while the Alphas debate the growing threat of rogues, witches and their attack of Alpha Caius’s pack. Alpha Brent sits rigidly at the long oak table, his face etched with concern for Caius and Maeva. Beside him, Alpha Quail leans forward, his sharp eyes scanning the room as voices rise in heated discussion about diplomacy versus decisive action.
Alpha Hills and Alpha Haze, the main haters of Caius and his pack insist that Caius is the architect of his own problem and that what happened to him won’t happen to anyone else.
No one sees the attack coming. The heavy wooden doors explode inward with a deafening crash, sending splinters flying across the hall. Dozens of rogues surge through the breach, snarling and foaming at the mouth, their eyes glowing blood red. Chaos erupts instantly. The Alphas closest to the entrance half shift to match the rogues in half shift and they attack.
“Make sure none of them survive!” Alpha Brent roars.
He shifts mid-sentence into his powerful brown wolf and launches himself across the table, slamming into the first wave of rogues with devastating force. Alpha Haze shifts a second later, his lean gray wolf darting through the fray with lethal efficiency, tearing out throats with surgical strikes.
The other Alphas fight bravely. Tables overturn. Chairs shatter. Blood sprays across ancient tapestries and stone floors as wolves clash in a violent storm of fangs and claws. One alpha is torn apart before he can complete his shift. Alpha Hills kills rogue after rogues and becomes overwhelmed as four rogues pile on top of him, tearing him apart limb by limb.
The attackers are relentless. Wave after wave of rogues pours through the broken doors. Alpha Brent fights like a man possessed. His powerful jaws crush rogue skulls while his claws rip through flesh and bone. He takes down three enemies in quick succession, shielding a wounded Alpha behind him. Because of his strength, five rogues swarm him at once, biting, and tearing. He roars in fury, shaking them off.
Alpha Quail moves like a shadow, striking fast and retreating, picking off isolated rogues with deadly precision. But he quickly realizes the battle is lost. His eyes meet Brent’s across the blood-soaked hall and understanding passes between them. If they remain here, they will all die.
“Retreat!” Quail shouts, his voice cutting through the carnage.
“Use the secret exits!” Alpha Brent yells and turns towards the nearest exit.
Alpha Brent grabs a fallen alpha who was still alive and drags him along, refusing to abandon anyone he can save. Rogues swarm them from every direction. Quail takes a vicious bite to his flank but keeps moving. Brent’s fur becomes matted with blood — some his own, some belonging to his enemies.
The rogues follow them into the exits. The alpha that alpha Brent dragged in with him dies in Alpha Brent’s arms and he drops him as the rogues almost catch up to him. He bursts through the side doors into the forest and sees Alpha Quail, Alpha Haze and some other alphas. They run in different directions. The rogues pursue them relentlessly, but Alpha Brent is faster, driven by desperation and adrenaline. They vanish deep into the trees, leaving a trail of blood and fallen enemies in their wake.
Inside the grand hall, the slaughter continues without mercy. The rogues are blocking the secret exits so no alpha makes it out. The remaining Alphas are overwhelmed one by one. Screams of pain and defiance echo through the chamber until, gradually, they fall silent. The rogues feast on the dead remains of the alphas.
In mere minutes, almost all of the once respected Council members lay dead and defeated on the blood-stained floor. The surviving attackers begin to withdraw, dragging with them, remains of some alphas. They walk through the pack, not bothering any of the pack members cowering in fear. They dump the remains of the alphas back at the council and disappear the way they came.
As soon as they’re gone, news of the attack starts travelling to different packs and the wives and pack members of all the alphas hold their chest in fear and hope that their mates and alpha will make it home.
Alpha Brent has shifted into full wolf form and he’s running as fast as he can, not stopping to check for the rogues after him. In all the years he’s been alive, he hasn’t seen something as dark as this and he was alive and grown in the time where paranormal creatures killed each other for sport and humans hunted them.
When he sees his pack border, hope, and relief flash through his body and he falls to the ground in front of the border and shifts into human form. His border security sees him and rush towards him. They recognize him as their alpha and carry him to the healer.
Alpha Quail continues to run from the rogues but they refuse to stop chasing him. He’s tired and he’s exhausted but he refuses to die at the hands of rogues. The possibility that they might not succeed in killing him but might infect him instead, keeps ringing in his mind and it’s not a chance he wants to take.
He comes to the edge of a cliff and the rogues stop when he does. They snarl at him and keep coming towards him. This is it, he thinks. He’s about to die at the hands of filthy rogues. He spits out in disgust and jumps. He falls for a long time before he reaches the ground. His head falls on a pointed rock, which splits his head in two. The rogues watch from above and laugh at his demise before they leave.
The other alphas are eventually caught up with and killed. All except alpha Haze who used to spend his time walking around the council perimeters imagining what he would do if they were ever attacked. He never knew a day would come when that will become reality. When he managed to lose the rogues for a second, he hid in his secret underground hideout he made with Alpha Hills. The hideout is stocked with food and water to last a few days. He has already called his pack and told them to come get him. He’ll wait here quietly until they come.
His heart aches for his good friend Alpha Hills. He was one of the first rogues to be killed. Alpha Haze shakes his head. When he realized the rogues were piling on strong alphas, he rubbed blood on himself and pretended to be dead. It was cowardly but he just couldn’t die today. When Alpha Brent told everyone to use the secret exits, he pushed an alpha into the rogues to pass through. He will always feel guilt about what he did but he has always been selfish and everyone knew it. He doubts anyone saw him but even if they did, he doubts they’re alive to tell anyone.