Chapter 115

The war was here 2.

Derek's POV.

It's almost time... It's almost time, I thought asi surveyed the damage that was ongoing at the Hidden Moon pack. I was surprised none of their warriors had spotted me and my other men yet but that was a good thing. The others behind me paced back and forth, already antsy and itching to throw themselves into battle. I smiled. Soon they would get what they wanted. And we would get what we so desperately needed.

I stared at the ground beneath my feet and wondered how my Father felt knowing all this was taken from us. It should be ours, all this lands, yet were stuck in the middle of nowhere and forced to live like rogues who were a step away from wild animals. I stumped my feet and some of the warriors closest to me turned to look at me, their gazes filled with varying degrees of worry as they wondered what could have ticked me off just now. I wondered how the precious Alpha heir and his excuse of an Alpha king Father would feel when they realized they were in way over their heads in this and they there was no way they would win this. I had planned meticulously for this and have been waiting ages to execute my plan. I would win.

The plan should have happened some time ago but with the push back from a lot of people, especially Ray I had to take things slowly and ease things into their minds that this was the only way for things to change for the better for us. We had to fight for it, and we would win. I had planned too much for this to go some other way.

"Alpha Derek, do we move in now?" A warrior closed to me asked and I shook my head.

"Not yet," I told him. "Pass the information on to the others. It's almost time, we just have to wait a little longer." He nodded, then bowed, turning around and heading for the closest group of warriors who were talking amongst themselves. It was almost time, I told myself once again. I was starting to get antsy to and my fingers itched to grip my sword and venture into the battle.

I still hadn't sighted the Alpha heir and the Alpha, even the Beta was no where near in sight, but that was fine. Something told me that they were waiting things out to see how it would go. Or more specifically, they were waiting for me to show up,but I had a little surprise for them. I would come out from the place where they expected me to come from.

I knew they would be worried by now, wondering what is going through my head and what kind of game I was playing but I relished in it. Right about now, their guards would be way up after studying how their warriors were faring against my own and noticing how they were losing. I had thought about numerous possibilities. It was one thing to have the numbers which they did, but did they have the skills? If the biggest tree could be considered useless if it didn't bare any fruit and it's bark was no good, and the same thing could be said for an army of warriors of that nature. They were a lot of them but in the same vein, a lot of them were lacking in skills.

They trained all they liked under their Alpha heir, I rolled my eyes. He seriously thought because he traveled from pack to pack that he was suddenly better than everyone else when it came to fighting. He didn't even measure up when it came to strategizing because from the way the battle was going, both he and his Father had severely underestimated us. They underestimated us in both the brain and brawn aspect of the war. I gripped my fist and thought about how I was told that they thought of me and my pack as nothing but lowly rogues who didn't have a brain cell in their head. But that would make beating them all the more sweeter because a bunch of brainless rogues would take them down and the name they like to hide behind of, that they were the strongest pack in the region would be stripped clean from them. It was a matter of time, and that time has run out because they had had this coming for years.

I felt around for the sword at my side and smiled when my fingers brushed against the hilt. I couldn't wait to fight that entitled prick and reach him a lesson. I breathed in deeply, not at all bothered by the rain clambering down. The air smelt like dew and damp wood in the forest and the ground under my feet was nothing but mushed soil.

Just a little longer...

A blur of a figure passed from the corner of my eye and I turned to look at Ray, his eyes held an expression I couldn't place but it reminded me a way a Father would look at his son when he was disappointed.

"Is there something wrong?" I asked, and a sigh left his lips.

"Are you really asking me that?" He said, sounding irritated. So we were dropping the Alpha and Beta relationship for the Father and son one?

"I'm sorry, I don't follow."

"Look around, just see what is happening and tell me if you can't see that there's something wrong?" I stared at him for a while, and for the first time, I noticed how stressed he looked. He looked older too with the grooves on his forehead running deeper than I had ever seen them. The rain had soaked him through just like the rest of his, and his mass of dark hair was plastered to his head. His dark eyes shone with concern and I took his question literally and started scanning the horse of warriors. They were soaked to their skin like Ray and I and some were hurdles together, having conversation with each other. I didn't notice anything at first and decided to do a second sweep of observing, and this time I took notes of their faces. A lot of them had neutral expressions on, while some were border line unhappy. It took me a while to realize that some of them really didn't want to be here and would rather be behind the closed doors of our pack house, warm and s ugfled up with their families.

"They aren't happy," I choked out. Ray had been wearing for me patiently and his shoulders sagged when I let out the words. I didn't understand any of it. We all needed this, didn't we? It's not like I had gone on my own selfish revenge war and had dragged them all with me.

"I'm glad you see it," Ray said, halting my thoughts. I really looked at him now and his expression seemed more tender than it had been seconds ago.

"But I wish you had realized it earlier," he added and I frowned.

"But this is all for the good of everyone, if we can take back the pack, then, then-"

"Then nothing. We shouldn't have gone about it like this." He sighed like before, but this one was heavier and sounded more grief striken. He looked ahead, where we could spot some warriors going at it. Another sigh left him.

"But it's too late for any regrets now, the only way to go is forward,"he said, and I nodded, finally getting some of my spirit back. He turned to me, and I thought I saw the shadow of a small smile grow in his lips, I blinked and it was gone.

"And you never know, we could succeed like you said and everything will be okay... I'm glad they were able to get their women and children to their safe rooms, because that's not why we are here and if they were out and about, they would be in danger of getting in the way of things." I agreed fully with his words, ten turned towards their pack house. I hadn't seen a single soul pass by any of the windows.

As much as I hated the Alpha and his son, I could never bring myself to hurt women and children who had done nothing to me. Yes, this was war, and there would be bloodshed but I wouldn't allow it to be the blood of innocent children who still had their whole lives ahead of them. I wasn't that kind of person.

"We will succeed." I smiled. One look at the sky and it was obvious the weather was poised and getting ready to hit with another wave of storm and wind. I looked back at the battle field, the storm for us was yet to come.

"I'll hold you to that," Ray said and he smiled in return. He turned his attention back on the fight and the silence that settled was nothing short of comfortable, I felt good about everything. Or at least I felt good until my mind started nagging me about something I refused to allow myself to think about.

I turned to look at theie pack house again, glancing through all the windows like the figure I hoped to see would just happen to be staring back at me. There was no one.