Chapter 160 160
Aurélie POV
I felt it the unmistakable violation of a foot crossing into our territory.
“Shit. Miss Lambert lock the house. Shutters down!” I shouted, my voice sharp and absolute. I had drilled the procedure into her time and time again. She knew exactly what to do to keep the children safe.
The moment I heard the heavy shutters begin to descend, I hurled my wine glass to the floor and sprinted toward the source of the intrusion the presence I’d been sensing all damn afternoon.
“Aurélie?” Maurice fell into step beside me.
“Trespasser,” I shot back. “More than one.”
Without breaking stride, I opened the pack link wide.
“Intruders. All warriors to border location five. Be prepared to fight. Everyone else shutters down!”
I had learned my lesson four years ago. Every rebuilt home had been fitted with shutters, and those that had survived untouched had them added later. I would not gamble with my pack’s safety again. Not ever.
“Aurélie?” Fabrice pushed through the mind-link.
“Fabrice, keep Florence at the hospital,” I replied, breath steady despite the surge of adrenaline. “Tell her to prepare for casualties. I need you”
“I’m on my way. Wait for me. Are you alone?”
“Maurice is with me,” I answered, already spotting his warriors racing toward us from the treeline.
“The children?” Fabrice’s concern trembled faintly through the link.
“They’re in the alpha home. Shutters down. Harry’s with them too.”
Please, I thought, let them still be asleep. Let them be spared the knowledge of what was coming.
I pushed harder, outpacing every warrior and pack member converging on the location. As we neared border point five, the suffocating pressure I’d felt earlier began to ebb.
Had they already pulled back?
Maurice and I reached the border first, our warriors arriving seconds later. I lifted my hand, signaling them to stop. The intruders were no longer on our land but they’d left their mark.
Their scent hit us like a wall.
Overwhelming. Acrid. Too much. Several warriors grimaced, hands rising to cover their noses.
Fabrice took position at my right, having come straight from the hospital. Maurice settled at my left, close enough that I could feel his tension.
I stepped forward.
Maurice caught my arm and yanked me back.
“Remove your hand,” I snarled, my wolf bristling at his interference.
“Damien wouldn’t like you getting any closer,” he said sharply, keeping his voice low.
“Damien isn’t here,” I snapped, shoving his arm away, “and I don’t answer to him.”
I advanced to the edge of the border, scanning the thickening darkness ahead. Shapes shifted within it not one, but many. Silhouettes. Watching. Waiting.
“Do you want us to shift?” Fabrice asked, stepping forward, already preparing but I swung my arm out, stopping him.
“No. Listen,” I said. “There’s more than a few.”
I leaned into my wolf’s heightened hearing, counting breaths, movements, the low growls vibrating through the air.
I could see them now angry wolves, bodies coiled tight with aggression, teeth bared in snarls. Who were they? And what the hell did they think they were doing here?
“What do you want?” I roared into the night, my voice carrying power, dominance, command. I made it unmistakably clear who ruled this land and that submission was not optional.
Silence answered me.
Then one of them stepped forward.
The darkness still cloaked him, but the malice pouring off his form was unmistakable.
“Just you,” he sneered, lifting a single finger to point at me, his grin sharp with intent.
“The bitch alpha is mine!”
He growled the words to those behind him and then he lunged, rage driving him forward as he charged, teeth snapping viciously in my direction.