Chapter 58 - The Alpha King and His Second Chance

Edward

I ran towards the portal, praying that I could reach her in time. I dove for it, tumbling to the ground having just missed it.

"Fuck!" I roared, the ground practically shaking.

"King Edward! Its King Bruno! He has an army headed our way!" One of our warriors yelled as he ran towards us.

"Get the women and children inside!" I barked. Goddess, this can't be happening right now! "Summon the warriors!" I got to my feet and grabbed Xander, who was standing there crying, having just seen his mother taken in his place. I helped everyone inside, doing a quick head count.

"Where are Abby and Seth?" I yelled.

"I haven't seen them. Abby went to look for Seth over an hour ago." Ella said out of breath, a multitude of pups clinging to her for support.

"Do we know how many men King Bruno has?" I yelled, grabbing a few potions Sierra had made in preparation for the war. I handed them to Rachael who was in charge of looking after our pups with Ella. The potion would temporarily make the user invisible, coming in handy should King Bruno's men make it into the palace. But he would first have to breach the protective barrier that Sierra placed a few months ago. It would shield us from any larger weapons that King Bruno or the Purebreds might try to use, like a catapult or a tank. I had no idea what he was prepared to do, what lengths he would go to try to get my pups or my mate. I wasn't ruling anything out. King Bruno liked to fight dirty, that much I did know.

"There are hundreds coming from the south, and more coming from all around us. We are being surrounded." Jackson yelled.

"How is that possible?!" I barked, locking up all the doors and windows and nailing them shut as an extra measure, along with a dozen other warriors. I pulled my phone out of my pocket, calling King Carson for the aid he promised, while nailing another board onto a window.

"King Carson! It's Edward, we need you now!" I pleaded.

"I'm afraid I cant help you, we are under attack, I must go!" He quickly hung up the phone, my mind racing. Goddess, what the hell is happening?!

"King Edward. We are ready to fight with you." Gwendolyn said, appearing out of no where in front of me. I almost knocked her out, my adrenaline rushing, trying to get everything in place as fast as possible.

"Great." I sighed, rushing to the next window. "King Bruno and his army are on their way, they will reach our pack boarders in the next ten minutes. We need to hurry."

"They are not your only adversaries. The Purebreds are heading this way by the thousands as well." Gwendolyn announced nonchalantly.

"What?!" I growled. I expected a war against both rivals, but not at the same time! We would be so outnumbered it would almost not be worth fighting!

"Edward, we have to go!" Jackson yelled.

"We can take it from here." Gwendolyn said, my piece of plywood and nails levitating in the air.

I didn't bother taking the time to pretend that it was normal or that I even cared. I needed to get to the battlefield with my men. I booked it out the door, Jackson and William with me. We hoped to keep the battle contained in the open fields and away from our city, so that was where we and all of our warriors were headed. When we finally made it to the battlefield, everyone was lined up in groups of twenty-five awaiting orders. One of the men ran up to me and gave me some armor, though I didn't think it would be long before I shifted, making it almost pointless to put on. My men all had a sword with them, though some were like me and preferred to fight in wolf form alone. I personally felt it to be disrespectful to the moon goddess to fight any other way, but in a time of war, whatever my men felt most comfortable with was fine with me.

"Warriors!" I yelled, "Today is the day we have been preparing for. I regret to tell you that there has been a slight change of plans. King Carson is also under attack, we will not be receiving help. Half of you will go with Beta Jackson, the other half will stay with me. We are fighting against two armies today." I could feel the unease among my warriors. I can't blame them. This was a shit show at best.

"This half follow me!" Jackson pointed and took off into a run, half our army with him.

I could see King Bruno and his army across the horizon. I took four men with me, one carrying our flag, as well as William. King Burno and several of his men broke off from his army and met us in the middle.

"King Bruno, what is the meaning of this?" I asked, praying it was something other than wanting my pups.

"You already know. Hand over your twins and we will leave in peace." He deadpanned.

"You know I cant do that." I growled at his suggestion.

"Cant or wont? There is a difference. Are you even considering what's best for your people? From the looks of it, you are outnumbered. You are breaking your oath as king to protect your people, Edward. Tsk task, what would the council have to say about this?" He said cynically.

"You might be willing to throw away your family, but I'm not. I'll see you on the battlefield." I sneered, turning and heading back to our men.

"I look forward to taking over your kingdom!" King Bruno called, laughing menacingly, as he and his men retreated back to their army.

"This is bad." William said, more to himself than anyone else.

"We can't give up, we can't let him win," I growled. We made it back to our men in no time, their unease still present. "Prepare yourselves! Watch each other's backs, say a prayer to the moon goddess. She will ultimately decide our fate today. We have her favor. She blessed us with our gifted twin pups. That is why they are here. King Bruno wants to take them from us. We can't let that happen. WHO IS WITH ME?!" I yelled, my men hollering in support. "LETS GO!" I took off into a sprint at the front lines, running head first into King Brunos' army who was already sprinting towards us. Goddess help us.

- - - - - - -

Jackson

"This half follow me!" I yelled, sprinting towards the palace where we knew the Purebreds would be heading for. The palace was surrounded, a large group of men trying to tear down the doors and windows, some shifted, others not. "Attack!" I yelled, shifting midstride and letting my wolf take the lead.

I barreled into the mass, biting off a head and tearing into a throat on the way. It didn't take me long to notice how much stronger these wolves were compared to the rogues the Purebreds had been sending our way all these years. This was bad.

"Beta! These look like our own people!" One of our warriors yelled out, in a fist fight with someone.

I shifted back, grabbing a Purebred off one of my men and throwing him to the ground. "They very well might be. But they are trying to take the heirs to the throne. We need to stop them, no matter who they are." I hated having to say it, but if our people had been compromised by the Purebreds, they needed to be stopped. We hadn't had the chance to see what technology was being used on them or if there was a way to reverse the effects, so for now our orders were simply to protect the pups, no matter what. There were far too many to try to take prisoner at the moment.

I shifted back, my wolf revving to go. There were so many Purebreds, and they just kept coming. As I tore into another neck, I looked around and could see a number of bodies lying limp on the ground. Our men were fighting their hardest, but it wasn't enough. We needed more help.

"Beta! There is fire!" Another warrior yelled, pointing to the rising smoke in our city.

Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!

"We can handle that." A woman dressed in gray said, floating off towards the rising flames, her hands lit up in a purple color. This must be the witch army Edward and Sierra had mentioned. A multitude of others went with her, and when I turned around I saw fifty others with glowing hands engaged in battle. It might not be enough, but it was something. Hopefully, Edward was doing better than us.

CRACK!

A terrible sound caught my attention. I turned to see in the distance the east cellar doors being flung open and a group of wolves heading in. Who forgot to block those!? I growled in frustration, linking a few of my men to follow me so we could stop the intruders.

"Ella!" I linked.

"Yes, Jackson?!" She answered sounding panicked.

"They broke into the east cellar doors. We're on our way to stop them now." I warned her.

I knew they had a few warriors posted inside, but they were the younger, newly shifted wolves who insisted on being part of the war should it come. We weren't turning down any help, but we also weren't monsters, putting those who we considered to still be pups in the front line. We never thought they would be able to breech the palace, between Sierra's spell and all the reinforced doors and windows, plus an army to get through first.

"We have a few witches here still, ill send them that way." Ella linked back. "I love you, be safe." Her voice shook even through our linking.

"I love you too."

My paws kicked up dirt, picking up the pace to protect my mate and pups. I was met with resistance when I got to the cellar doors. I peered inside to see a long metal bar that had been placed between the door handles, stopping us from opening it.

"Here" a witch said, the doors being ripped clean off. "Go in, I will make a new door. One you can only come out of, not go into." She began chanting some spell, the doorway glowing. I led the way in with my four warriors on my tail. Seeing things like that made me wonder why Sierra ever lifted a finger. I have seen her pregnant and standing on chairs to get into high-up cupboards. Why the hell wouldn't she just use magic!?

My nose twitched, catching a whiff of the unfamiliar scents. We were catching up. When we reached the ground floor, I sent two men to the left, two to the right, and I continued straight. I didn't know exactly how many had gotten in, and I wasn't taking any chances. I found one Purebred corning one of the young warriors. I lept into the air, biting down on his head and tearing it off on my descent.

"T-thank you Beta." The warrior said with a shaky voice.

I could hear fighting to my left, feeling relieved that I had split us up and more Purebreds were being stopped. Continuing along, I killed two more Purebreds and heard more fighting to my right. My warriors didn't call for help, so I assumed they had it handled. I shifted back, catching my breath for a second, my head buzzing from the adrenaline rush. When I heard the fighting getting more intense, my feet carried me into a jog, heading towards the rustling. I turned the corner, my breath hitching and blood running cold. I looked down, a silver knife embedded in my abdomen, a Purebred halfway down the hall standing over my warrior's dead body, his arm still extended from throwing the blade. I dropped to my knees, my body falling against the wall, breaking some of the fall. A blast of purple flew by my head, annihilating the Purebred where he stood.

"Beta!" I heard someone call, my vision going blurry, darkness taking over.

- - - - - - - -

Abby

"Abby, what happened? Are you okay?!" Sierra asked the moment she saw me come to. My head hurt like hell. I carefully touched it, my hand red with blood.

"Where are we?" I asked, Sierra helping me sit up.

I looked around, noticing that we were in a large cage, wait no, a cell? What were we doing in a prison cell? My memories soon came flooding back, my mood darkening.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"Seth?" I called to my mate, weaving through the garden maze in search of him. "Seth? Are you out here?"

No answer again. Figures. As soon as Edward came over with ice cream and got cuddly with Sierra on her lounge chair, I went to look for Seth. I have spent the last fifteen minutes looking for him with no luck. I rounded another corner leading me out of the garden, my eye catching a strange green glow coming from the edge of the forest. I looked around and didn't see anyone. I could only hear the kids laughing and playing. Despite my better judgment, I decided to go see what was causing the glow.

Quietly, I stalked my way in, the green glow getting brighter and brighter the further in I went. I could see a clearing up ahead, it looked like a man was standing there. My foot stepped on a twig, giving away my position. The man's head snapped in my direction. I was about to run when he called my name.

"Abby?" Seth said.

"Seth? What is this? What are you doing out here?" I asked, shielding my eyes slightly from the obnoxiously bright green that was blinding me.

"You shouldn't be here!" He growled at me.

"Excuse me?" I said, putting my hands on my hips. "What the hell are you doing out here? I thought we talked about you just disappearing? I have been looking for you for almost twenty minutes!" I snapped.

"Is this her?" Someone asked.

I didn't realize he was standing behind me until he spoke. I jumped and turned around, staring at the large male. He had an alpha aura, but he was no one that I recognized.

"Yeah its her. I'll deal with it, just keep her quiet while I finish this." Seth said, not even looking in my direction. He sat cross-legged and began levitating and reciting something in another language.

"Why not just kill her? Master wont let you keep her."

"She could be leverage if needed. Just do what I say, Victor," Seth said without opening his eyes or even turning his head.

"Fine."

"What?!" I panicked, my brain still playing catch up with the conversation.

The man moved so fast I didn't have time to run, he put a gage over my mouth and tied me to a tree. I fought him as hard as I could, but I was no warrior. I wish I hadn't neglected training. Edward always encouraged me to, and I always turned him down thinking he was paranoid. I kicked and threw a fit at the ropes that were biting into my skin, getting absolutely nowhere. I could hear screams in the distance from where I had come. What was happening?

Seth continued what he was doing, while I continued to struggle. I noticed the green glow was coming from him and what he was doing, it looked like a portal in front of him.

"Struggeling wont do you any good." Seth said, still levitating in front of the portal.

"Mmmm!" I tried to growl, the gag making it impossible to do so. I extended my claws hoping that I could tear the rope. Unfortunately, I came up short with each swipe I tried to make.

"Stop fighting and I will remove the gag." Seth said, the glow gone but screams and yelling still in the background.

I nodded and stilled. Seth kept to his word and removed my gag. "Why?" I asked, gulping in fresh air.

"So niaeve, just like the rest of them." He sighed and shook his head. "When I was captured by the Purebreds, I made a deal with them in exchange for my life. I would work for them to achieve whatever goal they wanted, they would spare my life. Of course, my twelve-year-old self couldn't possibly imagine the things they would do to me to make me what I am today. But they kept true to their word and let me live. I worked hard, proved myself, and I am second in command of the Purebreds. The only catch is, I cant freely use my magic, they control when and how I use it with this device." He said, tapping his shirt.

"Seth, we can help you get out. You don't have to do this." I pleaded.

"I don't want out. I finally have an unimaginable amount of power thanks to the good doctor. He enhanced my powers, making me virtually unstoppable."

"But what about your family? What about me?" I cried.

"I mourned them many years ago. Nothing changes that." He scoffed. "You, on the other hand, were an unexpected player in the game.." He cupped my chin. "Purebreds aren't allowed mates, not this high up the latter, they are considered a weakness. I didn't want you to keep me, I did everything to try to get you to reject me. Even though I want you more than I have anything else in my life. My orders are to get rid of you." He said, cutting the ropes, setting me free.

"Youre letting me go?" I asked, rubbing my wrists.

"No, they just never specified when or where I had to get rid of you."

"What-" I looked up at the last moment, a fist connecting with my head, sending me sailing to the ground. My head spun and my vision went black. This certainly wasn't good.