Chapter 101

The sounds of gunfire and explosions seemed to continuously ring through the entire castle. Although the Half Moon warriors had flocked to the front gate in waves hoping to defend against the invaders, the Silver Lake warriors had successfully fought back each wave of their increasingly larger numbers.

However, anyone watching the battle would be able to tell the direction the battle would go. But it would seem that the Half Moon warriors were not ready to concede defeat. As the battle raged on, they continued to draw their warriors from every part of the pack to send to the front gate to hold their defense.

As another group of warriors ran down a corridor towards the castle entrance, they didn’t notice the slightly ajar door leading to the service entrance into the castle. When the warriors had run past, the door opened and Michael looked through the doorway and around the corner where the warriors had run before looking in the opposite direction. Once he was satisfied that the coast was clear, he gestured for the other warriors to step out of their hiding places and follow him.

“Where to next?” Michael asked as he glanced back at the head lady.

“Down this corridor”, the head lady replied as she pointed the way.

They had positioned the head lady in the middle of their group to ensure that she was defended at all times. But the woman still trembled in fear as she held onto the back of Michael’s vest while they walked down the newly abandoned corridors. He had thought that he would have a tough time trying to convince her to show them the way, so he was pleasantly surprised that she had come with them willingly even though she was frightened for her life.

The once-crowded walkways were now relatively deserted as most of the wolves within the castle had either fled or reported to the front gate. So they walked down the corridors with hardly any interference from any other wolves.

When they arrived at the wide flight of stairs leading down to the dungeons, Michael signaled for his teammates to be quiet as they descended the stairs. The moment they reached the bottom of the stairs, they made another corner that led to the entrance of the dungeons.

They were faced with two Half Moon warriors guarding the entrance, but Michael and his team didn’t give them the chance to respond to their presence. Two quick and well-placed shots took them down immediately as the group continued their way into the dungeons.

They walked down the narrow row of holding cells when they entered the dungeons until they came to the only occupied holding cell in the entire place.

Looking into the cell, he saw Hannah standing on the rusted metal spring bed with a very thin mattress as she tried to gain leverage to look out of the small window high up on the wall.

“Hannah”, Michael called out to the woman.

Spinning around at the mention of her name, Hannah’s face brightened up instantly at the sight of the Silver Lake wolves.

“Beta McKinley!” Hannah exclaimed as she jumped off the bed and stumbled towards the bars. “I knew you would come back for her!”

“We may have come here for Amelia”, Michael said as one of his teammates unlocked the door with a key gotten from one of the warriors they had killed. “But we’re going to take you all home.”

When the door was opened, Hannah rushed out and grabbed Michael’s hands in hers with an expression of gratitude and desperation.

“Thank you, Beta”, Hannah said as she looked up at him. “But I don’t have a home, not anymore.”

“Neither do I”, the head lady said solemnly.

Looking at both women, Michael finally started to understand the predicament these women were in before their arrival. And even with all that they had been going through in this pack, they still decided to help them in their fight.

“You will”, Michael said to the woman. “I’ll make sure of it.”

“Thank you”, Hannah said with gratitude. “But that’s not important right now. Amelia needs your help!”

“Where is she, Hannah?”, Michael asked as his expression darkened.

“The labs here in the castle”, Hannah said with a serious expression. “Some guards came and took her away some time before the explosion. She’s in danger!”

“What danger? What happened?!” Michael asked, unable to hide his concern.

“Thornbury! He’s going to cut the baby out of her womb!”, Hannah exclaimed, shocking everyone standing there with them.

“I’m going to kill him!” Michael growled.

“I know where they took her!”, Hannah said as she grabbed his arm. “I’ll take you there!”

Understanding the urgency of the situation, Michael ordered his remaining wolf warriors to escort the head lady out of the castle. He didn’t have the heart to keep dragging her into danger any more than was necessary. But he was left with a three-man team after the split, himself and two Lycan warriors with Hannah as their guide. Looking at who was left of his team, he gave each of them a glance as he decided that this would have to do.

“After you, Hannah”, Michael said. “Show us the way.”

*****

It was evident that most of the wolves in the Half Moon pack did not possess enough experience when it came to pack conflicts. They had probably gotten used to being the aggressors and not on the receiving end of an attack on their pack. Because of this, most of the warriors either took longer to respond to the threat or lost direction because they had no idea what to do in this situation.

The warriors and the scientists in the lab were no exception to this. When the explosion had rung through the castle, none of them knew how to react. And the moment Thornbury gave them the order to continue before running out of the lab, they all remained rooted where they were standing. They were torn between responding to the threat or continuing with the Alpha’s command.

Amelia recognized their confusion as the opportunity that it was. They had only managed to fasten one of her arms to the operating table, and they had removed the restraint on her neck. But she still had one warrior holding onto the restraint fastened to her other arm.

Without giving them a chance to reorganize themselves, Amelia pulled onto the restraint in the warrior's hands. This pulled him to her as he lost his balance and came tumbling towards her. She then grabbed him by the neck and slammed his head into the edge of the operating table, knocking him out as he crumpled to the floor next to her.

She immediately wriggled her wrist as the restraint came undone because no one was holding onto the locking mechanism. Before the other warriors had a chance to react, Amelia scrambled onto her knees on the operating table and grabbed her restrained hand with her free hand. She raised one knee to give herself leverage as she pulled her wrist with all the strength in her body.

The pain from the burning of the silver-coated restraint was enough to make Amelia scream out in agony as it burned into her flesh. She screamed but continued to pull the restraint with all her might and the locking mechanism finally broke under the strain.

The other warriors could only stare at her in shock as she stood on the operating table. They had never anticipated that she would be able to break free. But now that she was free, they seemed to finally remember that they were in the presence of a Lycan.

The two remaining warriors looked at each other before they rushed for Amelia. She in turn jumped off the operating table and grabbed a silver-coated scalpel from a table just as the first warrior got to her. He lunged at her as he tried to grab her, but Amelia ducked out of the way and stabbed the scalpel into the warrior’s neck before pulling her hand away and slicing his neck open.

The second warrior seemed shocked for a moment as he watched the first one’s body crumple to the floor. But he immediately reached for a knife at his back, deciding that he would rather attack with a weapon than try to restrain her as his colleague had done.

He swiped at her with his blade, but Amelia dodged his attack and instead sliced at his arm with the scalpel in her hand. Screaming in pain, he switched the blade to his other arm and tried to attack Amelia again. But this time she used her free hand to direct his blow away from her as she stabbed him in his armpit, piercing an artery in the process. He stumbled backward before he rushed forward for one final attack. Amelia sidestepped out of the way as she spun around and buried the scalpel in his temple.

Amelia took a deep breath as the warrior fell onto some equipment in the lab. There was now no real obstacle between her and walking out of that lab.

When she looked around the room, she saw the petrified faces of the scientists that had tormented her this whole time.

Deciding that they were not worth dealing with at the moment, Amelia acknowledged that she had a bigger fish to handle. She then began walking towards the lab’s exit, ignoring the scientists who stood frozen in her presence.

“I’ll deal with you all later”, Amelia said as she walked out of the lab.