Chapter 11 11
Chapter 11 – Attack
Odessa’s POV
I couldn’t believe my brother and mate hadn’t killed each other yet. I suspect having Raven, my brother’s mate, with us had something to do with how tamed my overly protective brother was right now. If my brother didn’t have his elemental gift, I was sure Hades would win in a fight.
Hades was strong and deadly, even in his human form. There was a darkness in his aura, at first I worried it was evil pulsing through his veins. Bloodlust. But when he held my hand, his wolf was at peace. When the rogues attacked in the woods, Hades didn’t give me a chance to get my paws dirty. And his wolf… his wolf was magnificent.
Although Hades made no move to reject me, I could feel an internal struggle within him through the bond. His wolf was protective, but I wasn’t sure if Hades was being pushed by his wolf or his own will. He didn’t want a pack, which was unusual for an Alpha. I hoped bringing him to our pack might change his mind.
The baritone of his voice did things to me, things I couldn’t understand. I listened as he told the others what had occurred. I also filled them in on what Georgios did, and about an alliance with my father. How they wanted to lure Dimitri from the pack, and made me lie about my mate. Georgios was indebted to the mafia and Stefanos was going to wipe his debt away if he agreed to send his warriors to help attack us.
Alec informed us Georgios was killed a few hours ago by Raven’s mother. Raven’s mother was no ordinary she-wolf and she had claimed Zeus’ Warriors for one of her younger Alpha sons. Our world has yet to see a ruling female Alpha, but I was sure it would happen soon.
“Does this mean that Hades is the next Alpha of Moon Warriors?” Alec asked and I found myself holding my breath.
“Yes, once we take out Stefanos, Hades is the rightful heir.” My brother replied.
“I don’t want my father’s pack,” Hades said with contempt. Olympia let out a low whine. I love Greece and I couldn’t imagine myself living anywhere else.
“It’s not your father’s pack or my father’s pack, it’s our pack. Those wolves deserve to finally have a good Alpha. We can turn things around,” I tried to sway him.
He leaned down to my ear and I could see his eyes had turned black, his wolf was on the surface. “Spoken like a true Luna.”
The rest of the drive was quiet. We were expecting an attack on our pack after sunset, led by our father. With the number of wolves needed to launch an attack, they would have to travel after sunset under the cloak of darkness. We had reached the edge of the territory and needed to cross a small bridge over the river when my brother let out an angry growl.
“Rogues!”
Dozens of red eyes surrounded us, emerging from the trees. Rogues who were most likely waiting for the others to arrive for the attack. They started lifting the front of the Jeep, but my brother used his earth element to shake the ground. They dropped the Jeep and moved a few yards back.
Raven was something special and I knew my future nephews and nieces would also be someday. She could control both the water and fire elements. She quickly got to work and pulled rogues into the river with the water and swept them away. Then she used her element to cast a big ring of fire around the Jeep to protect us.
Several rogues hissed “witchcraft,” as they turned to run away.
“Is she a witch?” Hades asked me.
“No, she’s elemental like my brother,” I said proudly. “It’s a gift given to some of those who have descended from the Moon Goddess.”
We stood around the Jeep, inside the circle of flames, and prepared to shift into our wolves. Just then a rogue wolf jumped over the flames towards me. Hades lunged, shifting mid-air, and dug his claws into the rogue's heart. Hades fought with an unforgiving viciousness and precision. He was raw Alpha male in every form.
Raven launched fireballs and my brother opened up sinkholes swallowing rogues alive. Hades and Alec continued shredding wolf after wolf. My brother's wolf stood next to me, while Hades stayed close to my other side. I wanted to get in on the action, but between my brother and Hades, there was no chance. When the fighting was over, my brother’s wolf Dom tipped his head back and released a victory howl. Hades wolf Haze returned the howl.
“Nothing like bonding over killing some rogues,” Olympia snickered.
We stayed in wolf form and raced through our territory to the pack house. Our warriors and fighters were all in place. Our Delta greeted us with clothing, and we quickly shifted, changed, and moved to the Alpha Office. My brother’s second, Beta Niko was in the office with his mate waiting for us. Raven’s older brother, Knox, and his mate Rocky were still here.
“Hades!” Rocky rushed to my mate and hugged him. “You know each other?” Beta Niko asked Rocky.
“We’ve been friends since we were pups. His mother was from our pack.”
“Odessa is my mate,” he explained to Rocky, and she screeched in delight. All eyes were focused on Hades, whose Alpha Aura had grown much stronger as he healed from the silver.
“I’m here to make sure Stefanos is finally dead,” Hades announced.
We continued to discuss our strategy for the fight. Raven’s brother was also elemental and controlled water. My brother controlled earth, and Raven controlled water and fire. With so many elemental wolves, this was going to be an epic battle. My father wouldn’t stand a chance.
We moved to position and waited in the grassy fields around the pack house. My brother and Hades tried to convince me to wait with the other females and pups in the safe room, but I refused. Hades stayed beside me like a personal bodyguard.
“Odessa, are you okay?” My brother asked through the mind link. “Of course I am. Why wouldn’t I be?” I replied.
“I’m just not sure about him. I don’t know… he’s standing too close to you,” my brother said.
“He’s my mate,” I giggled. “Besides, if he’s standing too close to me, rest assured he’s not going to let anyone near me so you can focus on the attack.” I looked at Hades and found he was staring at me.
“Everything okay?” Hades asked.
“About as good as can be expected before an attack.”
“Your brother and Raven’s brother have identical tattoos on the back of their necks.”
“It’s not a tattoo. The crescent moon mark appears on the nape of elemental wolves blessed by the Goddess. Raven also has the mark,” I informed him.
“They’re all elemental?” He sounded stunned.
“Yes. Sometimes it skips generations and siblings. My brother got it from our mother’s side, but it skipped my mother.”
“Does this mean that you could also pass it on to your pups? The earth element?” He asked.
I nodded my head, unsure of what more to say. My brother had tried to keep the element a secret to help protect me. My offspring could be as strong as he was someday. Dimitri worried this would make me a target for males wanting to create stronger offspring. Now that I’d found my true mate, this shouldn’t be a concern. There was a reason the Moon Goddess paired me with Hades.
Dimitri walked across the field and moved to the front of the pack. “I’m going to stay in human form to start, everyone else should shift and hold formation. We have our sharpshooters in position and my mate is on the roof in the bird's nest ready to put her elements to good use. They’ve crossed into our territory.”
We shifted on the spot, shreds of clothing lay at our paws. I looked over at Haze who stood tense, on high alert, waiting for the attack. I started to doubt if having him here was a good idea because he wouldn’t be able to mind link with any of us during the fight. Olympia admired her mate, he was hulking and terrifying at the same time.
I ripped my gaze away from him when the thundering of running paws approached us. They were here. Growls filled the air and because my brother was still in human form, our Beta howled our battle cry.
Rogues rushed out of the tree lines, eyes red, snapping, and snarling. My brother opened up trenches and Raven set them on fire. The smell of burning fur and flesh filled the air quickly. Rogues swarmed the field and Haze exploded in a savage onslaught. I moved to his side and pounced on a rogue, before I could even sink my teeth into his neck, Haze ripped the muzzle clean off the rogue's face.
He was a killing machine and the carnage around him continued to pile
up.
Popping sounds rang out and I knew it was silver bullets being fired at
us. I looked to the trees to find the source but was quickly squashed by a big
and heavy Alpha wolf on top of me. Haze was covering my body with his. I tried to move but he let out a low growl Olympia recognized as a command from her mate to stay down.
Our snipers returned fire and trees were set ablaze where their shooters were. Water bubbles floated around rogue heads, drowning them. Fire rings erupted as Raven used her element. My brother continued to blind rogues with sand and crush them with boulders. Hundreds of rogues lay dead, and I realized the fighters from Moon Warriors had not arrived yet. My father had sent the rogues in first to try and weaken us before he used the warriors from Hades’ pack against us.
That’s when I heard it. His powerful growl still sent fear through me. Olympia let out a low whine and I tried my hardest to control my fear. For a brief moment, I considered running into the pack house, to the safe room. I suddenly felt like a terrified eight-year-old girl again. Haze moved next to me, gently bumping into my side and trying to assure me I would be okay. I wanted to sink into the comfort of his fur.
My father’s big black wolf appeared at the tree line. He looked the same as I remembered him. My brother looked so much like my father in human form, and their wolves could have been twins. I never feared my brother’s wolf. The only difference was my father’s wolf was missing an eye and he was truly mad.
“Look who decided to join the party,” my brother called out.
My father shifted to his human form and snarls greeted him from his previous pack. “I’ve taken Eros’ pack, and now I’m back for my pack,” he sneered. Warriors stood behind him, I assumed these were the warriors from Eros’ pack.
“Our mate's pack,” Olympia corrected me. Moon Warriors belonged to Hades, he was the rightful heir.
“In case you forgot, when you take a pack, you have to challenge the Alpha. The rightful heir to Eros’ pack is Hades and he’s standing right behind me,” my brother called out. “I’m pretty sure those warriors you have
are technically still bound to their rightful Alpha. Since you never actually challenged him, HADES IS STILL ALPHA.”
My father being the crazy bastard that he was, went on to taunt Dimitri about his mate in an attempt to unsettle him. He insisted he just wanted to meet her, like some happy father-in-law. Unfortunately for him, Raven’s parents arrived just in time. Her mother, Lucy LaRue, was unlike anything anyone had ever set eyes on. Like something spun from Greek mythology. She was a golden wolf, something we all heard about in childhood fables. She stayed in her wolf form, looking as if she had just descended from Mount Olympus.
Raven’s father, Diesel LaRue, remained in human form. He was part of the shifters council and was quick to remind my father of our laws. “If you want a pack Stefanos, you will need to challenge the Alpha and fight fairly.”
My father glared at Alpha Diesel LaRue, he always had a disdain for the shifters council. He moved his gaze to my brother and gave the Alpha order to the warriors standing behind him, ready to attack. “CHARGE!”
Hades quickly shifted into human form and his deep Alpha voice boomed across the field. “MOON WARRIORS, YOU WILL STAND DOWN. THIS IS NOT YOUR FIGHT AND HE IS NOT YOUR ALPHA.”
My father’s gaze moved from Hades to me. Olympia could sense the danger in his gaze and almost recoiled. Hades took a protective step closer to me, his hands shifted into claws, he was ready to kill my father if he needed to.
We watched as my father shifted into his wolf and challenged my brother for the pack. They snarled and growled while biting and scratching at each other. Both trying to secure their bite around the neck of the other. It was difficult to tell the Alphas apart as they rolled around, kicking and snapping.
Gasps and cheers erupted when my brother ripped out my father's remaining eye. Relief flooded through me, I knew the nightmare was finally coming to an end. We continued to watch as my brother plunged his claw into our father’s chest and ripped out his heart. The remaining rogues scattered into the woods as they tried to escape.
“OLYMPUS BLOOD MOON, HUNT THEM DOWN!” My
brother's Alpha voice thundered, and our warriors charged after the rogues.
“MOON WARRIORS, JOIN THE HUNT. NO ROGUE LIVES!”
Hades gave the Alpha order to his pack.
“YES, ALPHA!” They responded and joined the hunt, recognizing Hades as their Alpha.
I wondered if Hades had changed his mind. Would he stay and take over the pack after all? Did he realize he had just claimed the Moon Warriors pack as his?
Olympia stood tall and proud, looking at her mate as her tail wagged. I tried not to let my eyes roam since he was standing naked beside me. His body was impressively carved, strong, and there was something about the flame tattoos running down his side to his thigh that was incredibly hot. He was also dark and threatening. He oozed dominance and power.
Hades remained quiet for a few long moments as the others worked to assess the damage and gather the rogue bodies to be disposed of. His claws retracted and his hands took their human form again. He opened and closed his fists for a moment. I could feel his internal conflict through the mate bond. He didn’t want to be Alpha, he didn’t want to be part of a pack, and worst of all, he didn’t want a mate.
“Alpha Hades,” Raven’s father called out. “I was hoping to speak with you.”