Chapter 30 The wolf awakens
Writer's POV
The first scream pierced Redcreek before dawn was fully broken. It came from the eastern watchtower, sharp and short, and followed by the deep echo of a horn blown in panic rather than order. Within moments the pack stirred awake with confusion turning to fear as the sound of clanging steel and snarling wolves rolled through the borders.
Rogue Alpha Max had picked his time well.
Fire arrows poured in on the outer guards, burning wooden posts and causing defenders to scatter. Rogues emerged from the forest in black waves and they walked with practiced coordination, their faces smeared with ash and blood. They did not call out battle cries. They attacked in silence and that silence made them more terrifying.
Redcreek warriors scrambled to get into ranks. Some barely had time to pick up their weapons before rogues were on them. Steel met steel. Teeth met flesh. The air was filled with the smell of smoke, blood and fear.
"Hold the line!" one of the Redcreek captains yelled as he cut down a rogue charging towards the inner gate. "Protect the pack house!"
But the rogues were not there to prove strength. They were there to destroy.
Max rode in at the center of the attack mounted on a huge black wolf that snapped at anyone coming too close. His eyes burned not of madness, or rage, but something colder. This was not a raid. This was a message.
"Burn it," he ordered calmly, his voice heard even through the chaos. "Leave nothing standing."
Rogue warriors broke off in groups to follow his command. Homes were set on fire. Supply sheds caved in under deliberate strikes. Healers were pulled from their stations and made to retreat or die. Redcreek's defenses were strong, but they were never built with an enemy that knew so well their layout.
Inside the pack house, there were louder alarms. Elder guards ran down corridors yelling orders. Families were loaded into underground shelters. Children were crying while parents were pushing them into safety with a great fear on their faces.
Right in the center of it all was Alpha Harry Brown, standing in the main courtyard, sword drawn, with a grim expression on his face. He had been in command of battles before, but this one was different. This one carried intent.
"They're not here for land," he told the warriors that were gathering around him. "They're here for blood."
A renegade burst through the smoke and charged at him. Harry stopped the strike and thrust his blade into the man's chest. He did not pause. There was no time.
More rogues followed.
Redcreek wolves shifted in the middle of battle, bones cracking as they assumed their true forms in order to get the upper hand. Howls filled the air and mingled with screams and the roar of flames. Bodies fell on both sides, but the rogues continued to come, onslaught and organized.
On the western edge a group of Redcreek warriors tried to push back the attackers and forced them towards the river. For a moment it seemed that they might succeed. Then Max appeared cutting through them with brutal precision. Dismounting, he sent his blade playing without fail, each blow a death-blow.
"You should have kept hidden," one Redcreek warrior spat as he lunged.
Max caught the blade and twisted it out of the man's grasp, and drove his knee into his chest. "You should have listened," he responded, and broke off the fight.
At length the inner gate fell in with a thunderous crash. Rogues broke charge within, forcing the defenders to withdraw to deeper parts of their own territory. Fires were spreading rapidly, and fuelled by dry wood and panic.
"Fall back!" a Redcreek captain shouted. "Protect the council chamber!"
But Max had no interest in the council. He turned his eyes towards the pack house with smoke curling around him like a crown.
"Find Olivia Brown," he ordered in an angry voice. "Alive."
His warriors made a nod and moved.
Inside the pack house, there were echoes of running footsteps. Guards attempted to bar doors but rogues broke through with sheer brute force. Blood stained the floors. Walls rocked from explosions in the distance as the storehouses burned.
Harry struggled his way back toward the central hall with a deep cut on his arm from a fight. He ignored the pain - his focus was on one thing. Redcreek could not fall. Not like this.
But although he thought so, he knew the truth.
They were losing ground.
Outside the eastern watchtower collapsed in a shower of sparks. The river ran dark with blood. Smoke blotted out the rising sun to turn the morning into a grey nightmare.
Max stood at the center of the destruction, watching with calmness as his plan was playing out. This was only the beginning. Redcreek would remember this day, alive or dead.
"Let them run," at this some of the rogues moved to hunt retreating wolves. "Fear spreads faster than fire."
There sounded once more a horn from deep in Redcreek, calling for emergency retreat. Survivors retreated towards the inner defences taking with them the wounded leaving behind the dead.
The battle raged on, but its direction was obvious.
War had come to Redcreek, not as a threat, not as a warning, but as a brutal reality and by the time the sun fully rose, nothing would be the same again.
Olivia's POV
The ground trembled under my feet as one more explosion ripped through Redcreek and for a moment I thought the pack house itself would fall. Smoke was pouring through broken windows, and was thick enough to burn my throat on every breath I took. Screams came from outside sharp and desperate and mixed with the sound of steel on steel. I stood frozen in the corridor; my heart was slamming in my ribs as fear crawled up my spine.
This was not a skirmish. This was slaughter.
I ran.
I didn't know where I was going at first, and I only knew I needed to move. Servants rushed past me in the opposite direction, dragging kids and maimed wolves to the underground shelters. Blood streaked the walls. Some guard stumbled near me holding his side, his face pale.
"Get inside," he told me: his voice was strained. "Don't come out."
I nodded but my feet didn't want to be obedient. There was a pull, deep inside of me, something that didn't want to be quiet, that didn't want to be quiet outside screaming. Redcreek was burning. My people were dying. Hiding felt like betrayal.
I made it to the courtyard just as another mob of rogues crashed through the outer gate. Their eyes were wild, their move was sharp and cruel. A Redcreek warrior dropped in front of me his body hitting the ground with a dull sound that twisted my stomach.
Something inside my chest broke.
The fear didn't go away, but it changed. It turned hot and heavy and unbearable. My hands started to shake, not from weakness, but from pressure, as if my skin was too tight for what was being built up underneath of it. My breathing was fast and irregular and my eyes became blurry at the edges.
"No," I whispered, clutching at my chest. "Not now."
Not only with pain, but with something stronger, older, the bond inside me flared. It felt like what is called a second heartbeat waking up, slow and powerful. My veins burned. My hearing became acute until all the sounds surrounded me at the same time. I could hear hearts beat, footsteps, crackle of fire, hissing of blood spilling on the dirt.
I dropped to my knees.
Memories that were not mine inundated my mind. Moonlight on stone. A howl that shook the sky. Strength that was not one to ask permission. I gasped and the fingers dug into the ground as heat surged through my spine and spread out.
My bones did not break, but they slid, joining up with something new. My senses were stretched beyond their limits and rather than severing me, the power settled down, like it always had been waiting.
I lifted my head.
The world looked different.
Colors sharpened. Movements slowed. I could see where every enemy was going, how much weight every strike had before it landed. I stood slowly, my body feeling light and heavy at the same time and feeling grounded while at the same time like tearing forward.
One of the rogues pounced at me, blade up.
I didn't think. I moved.
I caught his wrist, my grip crushing, and twisted until I made that weapon fall. And shock flashed across his face before I drove my palm into his chest. He flew back further than he should have and hit the ground hard and didn't get up.
I stared at my hands, my breathing coming fast. "What did I just do?"
Another rogue charged. Then another.
They hesitated when they saw me stand my ground, eyes glowing faintly in the smoke. I could feel the power coiled inside me and just waiting for command. Not wild. Not out of control. Awake.
I stepped forward.
Every strike came easily. Too easily. I passed through them with a quickness which I have never experienced, my body acting before thought had time to take form. I blocked blades, laid unarmed attackers crashing into each other. Wolves backed away, fear shining in their eyes.
"She's not normal," one of them cried.
I didn't feel normal.
I felt right.
A howl came out of my chest, raw and powerful, piercing through the chaos of battle. Redcreek warriors swivelled their eyes to the sound and their faces grew larger as they saw me standing among the fallen rogues, untouched by flame or blade.
For the first time since the start of the attack the rogues hesitated.
The power within me throbbed again, steady and deep, not questioning, not warning, but just existing. At the time, with a terrifying clarity I knew that this was only the beginning. Whatever blood were in my veins, it was more than werewolf. More than I had been told.
The wolf within me was no longer sleeping.
And it was ready.