Chapter 5 Rogues
Liam's POV
The night wind hit me like fire as I shifted.
My wolf exploding out of me, massive and black with white paws slamming into the dirt.
The ground trembled beneath my weight.
Finally, my wolf, Connor snarled inside my head. Blood and battle, how I have missed this.
We ran.
The forest blurred as my paws tore over the ground, Josh's lean gray wolf, Felix, beside me, followed by the other alphas and some warriors from the council.
We didn't even make it to the east border, when the rogues came into sight.
Shit, the guard was right. I thought.
More than a hundred of them and they had already made it this far.
They stood their ground, growling with their red eyes filled with madness and chaos.
Not all rogues were blinded by madness, only those who had stayed in their wolf form for too long had this problem.
They moved around us, trying to circle us.
They are trying to remove all escape routes. I discovered.
This definitely wasn't by chance, it was well thought of.
Someone was directing them.
I growled, lips peeling back over sharp fangs.
“Kill them all,” I roared as I charged and aimed for the first rogue in sight.
The rogue lunged, and I slammed into him with all my weight, snapping his spine in one brutal twist.
Blood sprayed across my face and the grass.
Another came at me from the side, I clawed his throat out before he could even touch me.
My wolf howled as the battlefield erupted.
Josh tore through enemies with precision.
“They're too organized,” his voice reached me through the pack link. “Someone's pulling their strings.”
“I know,” I replied, biting down on another rogue's neck until the bone cracked. “We will find out who's doing this later. For now, we hold the line.”
More rogues came at me but they were no match.
Connor was enjoying the fight as much as I was, but I still felt a slight ache in my chest.
My mate.
Even now, I still worried about her and longed for her presence.
My wolf whimpered, hearing my thoughts.
“Focus, Alpha!” Josh barked, dragging down two rogues at once.
I shook my head, slamming another enemy into the ground.
“I am.”
But part of me wasn't.
Part of me was still back at the council hall, when she was being accused by those assholes.
Hours or maybe minutes had passed by as we fought together.
After a while, the rogues started backing down as they went into the woods like cowards.
I looked at the field, so many rogues lay dead but so were some warriors and even alphas.
I let them go, because something didn't add up.
Josh ran towards me, shifting back into his human form, chest pounding. “Too many losses, Liam,” he muttered looking back at those who had died. “And too coordinated,”
I shifted back too, pulling on some spare pants that Josh got for me from the emergency stash. “They wanted us occupied—distracted, for something else to happen.
I said as I thought hard about what could be their possible reason.
“The council,” I looked at Josh as his face reflected the same shock.
Everything came to a stop.
No, she was still there.
I turned around and headed back to the hall, I ran as I let Connor take over and for the first time since my parents’ death I felt true fear.
Getting closer, I saw the hall, it was still standing and I thanked the goddess for that, the guards looking around in alert, just in case something happened.
My wolf growing impatient as I finally got there.
I walked past the guards, ignoring their greetings.
My eyes searched for her once I got in.
Panic clawed at my throat as I could not find her. I tore through groups of people until I saw the blonde haired girl and her mate from earlier.
“I saw her heading outside,” she said, like I had asked her and had the nerve to smile.
“She said she wanted to be with her new family, the rogues.” I was worried to even process the fact that she insulted my mate.
“Where is she?” I demanded.
“I—I don't know,” she stammered.
“I think she might be at the garden,” her mate finally spoke up.
“Yes, she—she goes there sometimes,”
I didn't have the time to ask her how she knew about that because it was obvious they weren't friends.
I turned around as I pushed through everyone and ran trying to find the other door leading to the garden.
The garden, what was she doing there?
That was the least guarded place.
I found the door and headed to the garden, praying that she was okay.
Then I heard it—a scream.
High, sharp and terrified.
Her scream.