Chapter 24: All part of the plan
Mikalya’s P.O.V:
"Noooo!" Rhys roared, wolf in his eyes. "How could you? My men have their family in Jever! There are cubs! Call off the attack Devon and challenge me like a man if you have the guts to do so!"
Devon and Aiden roared with laughter instead.
"We both know we can't beat you in a fight that easily even if we team up." Devon admitted, still smirking. "So we planned to get you out of our way with a different approach."
"What?" Rhys and I looked at each other frowning and then back at Devon and Aiden while the rest of the world stood still around us.
"We'd heard about the White Alpha for quite some time now." Aiden said. "We knew what happens to every trespasser that dares to enter these lands without permission. We know how ruthless this pack is. It was your fault for not gathering enough information before you came here, wagging your tail like the pathetic dog you are!" He spat.
"So we sent some of our men here. Willing sacrifices. Martyrs dying for a greater cause." Devon smirked.
"You sent those wolves here to die? Your own pack members! They weren't spies were they? They were common wolves pretending to be spies!" I watched Rhys grit his teeth and fist his hands. They were so tightly curled that I wouldn't be surprised to hear bones snapping any instant now.
"Yes, yes and yes." Devon smirked. "They were expandable. Already replaced and no one's missing them either. But they did serve their purpose. This is why you’re standing in front of us right now. Convincing your third was the easiest part though. The instant he heard that you guys might be in danger if you go alone, he told us everything. Now you see, Rhys? We made you do everything right from the start, from informing you about our missing wolves and telling you about the white Alpha! This was all part of the plan."
Rhys met the eyes of the wolf in command of his pack, tried to connect telepathically, and looked at me when it failed. I shook my head.
They're frozen. No one can contact them. I don't know the full strength of my powers yet, but right now, they're as good as statues.
Rhys nodded and turned back to the maniacs.
"Well," Aiden stretched his arms above his head, his actions telling me that he wasn't as unaffected by my powers as he showed, this being the first time I've seen proper movement from either one of them since the initiation of my powers. "Let's get to the fun part shall we, Devon?"
"Let's." Devon put his hands inside his coat pocket and pulled out a sat phone. "It's time we heard a live telecast of what's going on in your poor little pack." He mocked and then connected the call.
Rhys's P.O.V:
How dare they! HOW DARE THEY!
They're gonna pay for what they are doing. My pack isn't this weak, I know that they'll fight back until their very last breath…but if the women and cubs are hurt?...I can't think of a worse way to destroy a man. Most of my men are mated and have cubs; it’ll destroy them to lose the very reason for their being. Mink was right; I should have trained the females in my pack too. I never thought an emergency like this could even arise. I had underestimated my enemies, overestimated my own strength.
Ring. Ring.
Ring. Ring.
The call sounded through the speakers of the sat phone. I clenched my hands into fists, making my hands turn white. Blood dripped onto the snow white ground as my claws dug into the flesh of my palm. I took a step towards them, fury turning my gaze red. My canines were extended. I wanted to rip them apart. Right here. Right now. There was no other way.
A hand caught mine, stopping me in my tracks.
Don't! I'm not myself right now, Mikalya. Move back or I might hurt you.
Her grip only tightened.
That's cute, but before you go all cavemen on their ass, stop and listen. Just stay calm and listen!
Her words seemed to pierce through the haze of anger. Instead of ripping my hand away from her, I found myself relaxing a bit, borrowing her strength, listening cautiously as the rings stopped and was replaced by static.
Devon and Aiden looked at each other, confused. Dialled again.
"Damn mountains!" Aiden cussed and tried again. I listened with my heart in my mouth.
The call connected.
"What the hell are you nitwits doing? Was the attack successful?" Devon cut to the chase. But what we head from the other side had us all frozen without the use of Mikalya's powers.
There were no words. Only screams.
Men and wolves.
"Chen Su? Xiu Ling?" Devon called out the names of his packmates. "What's going on? Did you succeed? Why aren't you answering?" His voice now held a hint of panic.
Mikalya chuckled from beside me, snapping both of their attention and mine, to her.
"Have you heard about a flower called Rafflesia?" Mink asked them, smiling a not-so-pleasant smile.
"What the hell woman!" Aiden snarled, eyes lighting up from within. "Are you crazy? Do you think we care-?"
"Apart from bearing the biggest and most pungent flowers in the world," Mikalya continued as if Aiden had never spoken. "They are parasites. They are plants that grow inside the host plants root. Keeps taking water and nutrients from the host and keep growing inside the roots slowly and steadily. And then, when it's flowering season..."
Mikalya brought her hands together into fists and then made a sudden movement of spreading her fingers outwards with sudden speed. "Boom! The flower comes out, bursting through the roots and cracking the plant open."
I tried to understand what she was getting at. I looked towards Devon and Aiden only to find them equally confused. We were in the middle of war and she was trying to teach us botany? The irrationality of it made me want to gut someone.
Just stay calm and listen!
Her words reverberated through my mind at that exact same instant. What if the phone call wasn't what she wanted me to listen to? What was it that she said just now? About Rafflesia? Apart from bearing the biggest and most pungent flowers in the world, they were parasites....grew inside of other plants....and in flowering season...burst out of the roots...it didn't make much sense-
Wait.
Biggest flowers...Parasites....flowering season-bursts out.
"Shit!" Devon being the brighter one, figured it out at the same time as I did. "No....no...NO! Come in! Someone! Are any of you guys alive? Answer me!"
Mikalya's laugh echoed through the mountains. "Oh, they're alive all right, just not in any state to talk...right Ruksaar?"
"Thank God!" A woman's voice sounded from the speakers. "I was waiting for you to ask! These hooligans nearly screamed my ear drums out! Who would have thought that all these macho shitbags could scream like five years olds? And I haven't even started yet."
"At least you get all the fun. I'm stuck with the delusional puppies." Mikalya pouted.
"Don't worry baby, I'll upload the pictures on Instagram," Ruksaar, the woman on the other end of the line, mocked before disconnecting the phone.
"Was-what...just happened?" Aiden stuttered out.
"Well, for starters, this is gonna take a while so I'll have a seat." Mikalya moved towards the boulder we were hiding behind and sat on top of it. "Now, where were we? Ah! You're little hypocrite army was failing miserably because despite of being warned repeatedly by mommy dearest, you pigs keep on underestimating women no matter what. Not your fault though, it's the patriarchal society I tell you. But it made my work so much easier." Mikalya sighed and shook her head.
"A woman's place in your pack is either in the bedroom or in the kitchen. You never question outsiders as long as they're women." She smirked. "So you didn't even question when a bunch of them appeared at your doorstep asking for shelter and a better Alpha. You see, I'd been aware of your sudden interest in my pack for a while now. I became suspicious the instant your first real spy set foot on my lands. My suspicion was confirmed when those eight wolves attacked me when I tried to stop them, thus resulting in my killing them. Not even your best spies could hide from mine and the way they died so easily told me that they weren't spies at all. That's when I knew you two would try something stupid and I sent a few pets of mine to warn my spies inside your pack." By pets I'm sure she meant those hairy little monsters. “And when some of my men and women volunteered to help you defeat Rhys’s pack, you let them go without question, thinking that the more the merrier. You didn’t care about anything other than making sure you had both of our packs became enemies and try to kill each other so you could show up at the last minute and wipe out what was left of us and take our people under your wing, thus making you the biggest and strongest pack all over Asia. But by overestimating your own powers, you severely underestimated mine.”
Aiden's face because pale with fear while Devon's was red with anger as Mikalya motioned with her hands to our packmates that were still frozen in their place.
"Now you see," she tilted her head to one side, quoting Devon. "It was all part of the plan."