STORM

THIRD PERSON'S POV

It wasn't long after Guilford disclosed Rosa's imminent arrival, and the rogue vampires showed up with her. Everyone was shocked to see that Guilford didn't have just werewolf rogues, but also vampire rogues on this mission of his.

"And here, she is." Guilford grinned and Ryan instantly released his hold on him, making him fall gracelessly to the ground.

Ryan tried mindlinking Rosa, but found it impossible to do so.

"How?" He whispered, as he tried to figure out what was happening with their mindlink.

He watched with full attention, as Rosa shivered in her spot. Without wasting any more time, he made his way to her and gave her a fierce hug that let the tears freely pour down her eyes.

They had killed Dean MacQuoid, and she couldn't have felt the pain of that any worse than she was presently feeling it. Just when their relationship was at its turning point. She had lost the one man who...

The one man who had willingly given his own life to protect her. Her father.

Everyone stood still, watching Rosa and Ryan remain in their tight embrace. Guilford however, was fast getting impatient, wanting to get on with the show for the night already. He had promised himself to not go down without a big fight.

So suddenly, Rosa freed herself from Ryan's embrace, and let out an agonizing howl. She rushed at Guilford, giving him a tough punch in the eye. She was seeing red, and so was Guilford in that moment.

"You bastard!!" She yelled out, tears falling from her eyes. "You killed my father!" She cried out much loudly, throwing another punch his way.

Ryan's features hardened, the moment he heard that. Just as Rosa was about to throw another punch towards an already aggravated Guilford, Logan made his way to her and pulled her wailing figure away from the devious man.

Everywhere went silent for a minute, Guilford's party waiting for command from their leader to start war.

"By now you may have come to the realization that this is a lost cause." Guilford muttered, eyeing Ryan squarely. "Sorry to disappoint you, but I cannot be arrested today, or any other day for that matter. You would have to pass through them first." He nodded his head towards the rogue army behind him.

"Why can't we mindlink ourselves, Guilford?" Angus asked the very question that laid in Ryan's mind, knowing he couldn't be the only one with that issue.

"You are finally making sense of the whole situation now!" Guilford chuckled. "You all are trapped here. No one would be able to call for more help from the castle or the Kennedy Estate. Anyone who tries to, would most likely.... die." He completed, actually contemplating his last words to himself. "And clearly, your party do not stand a chance against my formidable army." He said in a cocky tone.

"How much more stupid can you be, brother?!" Angus lost it, pushing through the couple of people who stood between he and his brother. "Or are you so absorbed in your world of senseless fantasies, that you think your army of baby rogues could win against the crown and the hybrid alpha? When did you become this way?! When did you become this person?" He whispered the last word, genuinely concerned.

Guilford stared at him speechlessly for a moment, before letting the next words tumble out of his mouth.

"Since you stole what was rightfully mine, Angus. You have no moral standing to caution me about nothing!" He yelled, little drops of his saliva kissing Angus in the face.

"I stole what was yours?" Angus questioned incredulously. "How could I steal my own birthright?"

"Tell yourself that, all you want, but we both know I was more qualified for that position than you'd ever be."

"Really??!!" Angus was overcome with great disbelief, that he chuckled humourlessly at some point.

"And this...." He gestured towards Guilford's rogue army. "This is what you would have done now that you didn't have such power. What more would you have done if that power had gotten into your hands? You're such a disappointment." He shook his head in pure irritation.

"And so are your daughters." Guilford whispered, before shaking his head in disagreement. He had forgotten to add something more. "So is your mate." He added, a glint of excitement in his eyes. Elsa visibly swallowed, hoping no one caught on to her discomfort.

"Don't you dare mention my family." Angus warned. "They will never bring shame upon the Kennedy Clan, the way you have done."

"Really?" Guildford asked, amusement swirling around his eyes. "Are you sure?" He asked again, and Angus's resolve faltered a little. His family couldn't have done anything to stain their name, could they?

"You should be on your knees, Guilford, apologizing for doing such evil against my late daughter and the Alpha. To what end, was it all? Why did you deceive them into thinking they were meant to be together?"

"Ohhhh...." Guilford released a bored sigh. "I guess you're the daft one after all, Angus. Who said Brenda wasn't in on my plans?" He asked, and everywhere fell silent.

Rosa didn't have to look at Ryan, before knowing how thrown off balance, he must have been. Ryan had thought Brenda had been deceived by Guilford too. Little did he know that.... she was in on it as well.

No wonder it had been so easy for her to have cheated on him. She knew they weren't true mates after all.

"KEEP SPEAKING!" Ryan's Alpha tone rang out, shaking Guilford to his core.

"She already had a mate, a couple years before she met you. He was a rogue. Adrian." Guilford supplied. Angus and Elsa were visibly aghast by the things they had heard in this past few minutes.

Why did that name sound so familiar to Ryan?

"Adrian." Ryan muttered, trying to remember where he knew that name.

"Yes." Guilford replied. "The true mate of Brenda. The man you murdered on the same day you killed her." His tone went harsher, and his expression even more angry. He had no right being angry!

"No!" Elsa angrily cried out. "You killed my daughter, Guilford!"

"Shut it!" He warned. "Didn't you know she was cheating on the Alpha?" He threw his question at Elsa, who went silent. All eyes instantly fell on her.

"What?!" Angus spat.

"Yes. I had informed your dearest mate about it. At the time, she had no idea Adrian was Brenda's true mate. She thought Brenda was actually cheating on the Alpha, but decided to keep it a secret. She begged me not to reveal it, knowing Brenda could lose a lot due to that."

"Is that true?" Angus turned to his wife, who slowly nodded her head in remorse.

"I'm sorryyy.... I was only trying to protect our family."

"Uncle, how could you?!" Sonya asked, looking at Guilford in disbelief. "You promised that you simply spoke to her, and convinced her to step down from being power custodian, so I could instead."

"You what?!" Angus asked his daughter. "All along, you were in on the plot of pushing your sister aside, to become power custodian? Why?!"

"He supported me!" Sonya yelled at her father angrily. "He never made me feel stupid for wanting to be power custodian instead of my sister! He promised to make me the power custodian, and he did!!"

"And what did you give in exchange?" Angus muttered calmly, in contrast to how he felt. This was a very heartbreaking moment for him. All along, he thought he knew his family, but it seemed liked he didn't.

"Oh, she gave me some tangible things." Guilford nodded happily. "Like access to the Kennedy relics."

Another silence ensued, as tears stung Sonya's eyes. Yes, the price she had to pay for being power custodian was a bit too much, but she didn't regret it.

She hadn't seen it coming, when her father swung his palm across her cheek.

"How dare you, Sonya." His gritted out, his eyes red with pain. "You have desecrated the position of power custodian."

"Father...." Sonya whispered, her hand on her cheek. She couldn't believe the man had hit her. "You always loved her more than me, I know. Even her spirit still contends with me for your love."

"She would never have done what you did." Angus slowly shook his head in disappointment.

"Oh really? But she let uncle Guilford fuck her. Countlessly." Sonya exposed.

This one came as a huge shock to every single person, including Guilford. No, he had never planned on letting them know that part.

"What are you saying?" Guilford glared at Sonya, fear taking over him. Deep down in his heart, he knew there was a limit to which Angus could take. And for some reason, he was scared of reaching that limit.

"Oh! You think I didn't know? You thought I was gullible enough to believe you simply just convinced my sister to step down for me?" She asked rhetorically, making Guilford swallow hard. "You think I wouldn't put two and two together?" She smiled bitterly. "Years before then, you had somehow convinced majority of the Kennedy clan into believing the Alpha position was stolen from us. Because of that, we had stupidly participated in the rebellion against the former king. I can't tell if we had actually killed him, but now, I think you had a hand in it. Your thirst to have the Kennedy clan recover their lost mantle of the Alpha position was soooo bad, that you threatened your own niece into having your pup, and presenting it as the Alpha's. That way, the Kennedy clan gets back in power."

"I never threatened Brenda! She was just gullible!!" Guilford defended, already at the edge. "She was mated to a rogue, at an unusually young age. She fell pregnant, and wasn't going to be able to claim her position as power custodian! I simply offered her an easier alternative. I performed a ritual to abort the abomination of a pup and in return, she stepped down for you to be power custodian. I compensated her by creating a fake bond with the Alpha, so she could still be Luna!"

"While sleeping with her to have your pup! You deprived her of her true mate!" Sonya threw back.

"Oh now, you care?!" Guilford mocked. "Why didn't you say anything back then? Probably because you couldn't risk not being custodian. That was why you were so willing to give me free access to the relics that were put in your custody! You never cared for nothing else, but yourself."

The bitter truth had hit Sonya a tad bit badly, making tears escape her eyes. She had truly been selfish. A terrible sister.

"Did you. Sleep. With. My daughter?" Angus's steely voice filled the place, his eyes slowly turning dark.

"He did." Ryan muttered, having put it all together. "Brenda.... Aliya.... Isabella.... You got all these women pregnant, knowing I had intimate relationships with them all. You were trying to plant an illegitimate Kennedy seed in the Alpha position."

In that moment, Guilford still had such dirty audacity to smirk.

"Audacious of you to think you could do the same with my mate, and get away with it."

Before Ryan could take the next step, Angus had already gotten to Guilford. His hand was red hot as a burning coal, wrapping around Guilford's neck as an ugly wound formed round his neck.

Guilford managed to push Angus off him, quickly blowing out a whistle for his rogue army to attack.

"Let's go!" Ryan yelled out his command, but Rosa's face fell.

"We are less than they are, Ryan."

"Sonya, can you manage to hold them off for a bit?" Logan called out, and Sonya looked up in confusion, residual tears in her eyes.

"Y.. yes... yes?" She nodded in uncertainty of what was required of her, before Logan sped out of the premises.

Ryan sped towards the two rogue vampires, grabbing them both by their collars, and hitting them hard against a nearby wall.

As the rest of the rogue army approached the soldiers on Ryan's side, Sonya was still in a pit of confusion, and just did what she thought was best in the moment. She casted a barricading spell between the rogue army and the rest of them, preventing the rogue army from further approaching them. Ryan was still in a hot fight session with the two rogue vampires, and her father was in a much deadly one with her uncle.

Her mother had broken down by a corner, wailing at the top of her voice as the two brothers fought heatedly. Deep in her heart, she knew one of them was going to end up dead, and it was most likely going to be.....

After a couple minutes of fighting, Ryan finished with the two hearts of the defeated vampires in his hands.

"King Logan is the fastest amongst us. I believe he left for the castle to get more soldiers. The rogues can be quite deadly, and just the few of us can't handle more than hundred of them." Philip filled in Ryan.

Just then, Angus let out a loud howl in pain, and Elsa wailed even more loudly as she watched her mate fall to the ground, his bloodied beating heart in Guilford's hand.

Tears spilled from Sonya's eyes as she watched her father's body jerk uncontrollably.

"What have you done?!!" She cried out, running towards her father's lifeless body.

"I don't want to hurt you, Sonya. Step back!" Guilford warned, before undoing the barricade spell that she casted, and his rogue army all closed up on Ryan and his men.

"Don't hurt the Luna! Make sure she is unhurt!" Guilford yelled out his instruction.

Immediately, Ryan's men shifted to their wolf forms, battle ensuing. Ryan's tentacles instantly sprouted off his forehead, piercing their venom into any unfortunate rogue it came across. Guilford was shocked.

Ryan was tempted kill Guilford already, but he had to fight off these rogues alongside his men, knowing how much work it'd be for only them. Deep down, he knew some of his men would die today, but he was Alpha. He had always been prepared for this since he was just a child.

Atleast, Guilford had instructed the rogues not to touch Rosa, so he could work with that. He knew the man had an ulterior motive behind it, but things weren't going to get to the point where he would have the opportunity to carry out his evil plans.

Just then, Logan showed up with Audrey whom he had carried in his arms. Seeing the state of things, he quickly shifted alongside a raging Audrey.

"Blaze?!!" Ryan yelled out his question to Logan, seeing as he brought Audrey with him.

"Ralia and Lily would take care of her!" He yelled back, plunging his fist through the heart of an unlucky wolf, and retrieving his hand with a heart in it.

The heated battle went on for minutes, and just a few of Ryan's men were left alive at that point. Guilford let out a victorious bout of laughter, as he watched and foresaw his imminent victory.

Just when it seemed like all hope was lost, Ryan's army arrived from the castle, turning the tides.

Seeing the unexpected change of events, Guilford eyes went wide in fear. A part of him knew he had lost, but he wasn't going down without a good bang. Even if it meant killing the very person he had wanted alive.

In the twinkling of an eye, the rogues all went down one after the other, Ryan's soldiers seizing their victory.

Suddenly, Guilford blew out a loud whistle thrice, and the rogue who had waited at the roof of his building all the while, took position.

The moment they heard Guilford blow a whistle, they knew something wasn't right. Ryan's eyes quickly fell on Guilford, following his gaze until it landed on the rogue archer, who had just shot an arrow Rosa's way.

Audrey's heart fell to the pit of her stomach as she watched the arrow approach Rosa.

She mindlessly ran to Rosa, knowing it was a useless effort, but couldn't help herself either.

In a split second, Ryan got to Rosa and just before the arrow could hit her, it pierced his heart through his back.

"Ryan!!!!" Rosa yelled out dreadfully, holding onto his arms as he flashed her an uneasy smile.

"You're okay..." he trailed off, his eyes color continuously switching between black and his normal icy blue ones. What was happening?!

"It's the rainos!" Guilford supplied, grinning wickedly as Philip and Ray subdued him. "You cannot save him."

A loud thud was heard, and they all looked up the roof to see Logan standing there. He had thrown the rogue archer down the roof.

"Oh, no no no!!!" Rosa cried out, trying to hold Ryan steadily as he fell to his knees. She joined him on her knees as well, her protruded belly slightly brushing his. "Please stay with me." She begged, not wanting to allow the obvious truth scare her.

He was most likely not going to survive a rainos infected arrow. No vampire, wolf, witch or fae, could survive it.

Ryan's tentacles recoiled back into his head, as his eyes got fixated on Rosa's crying face.

It was so obvious he wanted to speak to her, but he just couldn't. Logan got back to them, tears in his eyes as he watched his friend and brother struggle to not breathe his last.

For the very last time, Ryan's wolf did the impossible, breaking through Guilford's spell, mindlinking his last words to Rosa.

'I love you... more than life itself'.

In that moment, Rosa knew her life would never be the same again.