The warrior in red

Chapter 7 The attack and the road home again

Hunter´s POV

The following days went by fast, and it has been 3 days since Chloe turned 18 and found her mate. She has been avoiding him by keeping busy with the defenses and staying in the trees. She rarely comes down and stay up almost every night. Unfortunately, my brothers haven´t suspected anything and I can tell by Xander that he is hurting as well. But I don´t know what to do or say to either one of them. I mean she is my sister, and he is her mate and yet he was with another girl well knowing he had a mate.

I know cause I have been talking with him. I walked into his room while he was sniffing one of her tank tops from home. I recognized it as the one I gave her for Christmas last year. She loves Christmas so we all go home for the holidays and celebrate it with her and our grandparents. He confessed that he had been picking it up when he went there to visit my grandparents. That´s when I knew he loved her, but he also told me that he couldn´t stop himself around that female wolf so I have been looking into her a bit now.

She is acting a bit weird but maybe it has something to do with the Royal Guard being present. People always act strange around us until they realize that we are only here to help. They think we will take them away for crimes they haven´t committed. Sadly, I understand because the guard have been used to handle criminals but usually by the orders from the council after a lot of evidence been presented to them. But people don´t know that bite and innocent people have never been charged with anything. Thankfully.

We still haven´t heard anything about the trial that might be against Chloe or Roman. I guess the council isn´t concerned about Chloe. Roman’s case has turned into a huge mess. He has sped the last 5 years terrorizing every female he has come across. The council has found files about his obsession with different girls. He had been stalking them for weeks before taking advances of them with under the influence of drugs he would give them. It makes me sick to know that asshole has been near my sister for all this time. Apparently, she and her best friend Sherry was about to be his next target. Which never happened because of that Chloe did.

Liam comes over to me while I am lost in my own thoughts: “Hey you are miles away?” He taps me on my shoulder making me jump startled. “Sorry, I was just thinking about how lucky we have been that Roman never got a change to hurt Chloe!” I say honestly. He nods. Dean and Chris joins us. We haven´t had much time together. “Yeah, I feel you, bro!” Chris states. Suddenly the silence is broken by the alarm: ROGUES!!

The Royal Guard alongside the packs own warriors we take off to meet the rogues head on. We change midair and our amour is shown. Around the hilltop we see the army of rogues hundreds of them. This is a very rare sight. Normally it´s only a small group but nothing like this. Commander Joe snarls angrily: “Take them down!” We all nod and as soon as the order is given a haggle of arrows flow through the air taken down the first line of rogues. The rogues spread out but that´s no challenge for our archers the arrows keep coming and soon we are in head-to-head combat. The archers know how to act and keep taken down the rogues. A howl makes every rogue stop and look around confused. An order is yelled: “I command you to submit NOW!” The young Alpha has taken down the leader of this rogue pack. He stands towering above the rogue who is bleeding heavily from a wound to his stomach. He changes to his human form. Just a kid around my age bows his head in submission and soon after every single rogue does the same: Change to their human form and bow down. Men and women, all young. I look at my brothers and we are all confused by the scene in front of us.

Adrian´s POV

I head that a huge pack of rogues would be attacking the Crest Fort Pack one of my fathers allies. I know I must go and help if I can. My brothers are with me. We go by car and reach the pack borders when the alarm sounds. We quickly run as fast as we can to the aid of the werewolves who my father has been allies with for the past 50+ years. We notice that the Royal Guard is here which means it is more serious than we thought.

We quickly spread out in order to assist in anyway we can. Sean looks at me: “Something is wrong with the rogues. Look at their numbers. This isn´t right. Something is off!” Alan looks at him and nods: “Yeah I sense it too! This is not normal. Let´s find the leader of the rogues and have the Alpha focusing on that one wolve while the rest can take down the others.” “Wow how you seen those archers? They know what they are doing!” Keith says in admiration. My eyes follow the arrows and I find no other than the one person or wolve that suddenly have become a dear friend of mine: Chloe! I didn´t know she is apart of the Royal Guard. I look around and quickly find her 4 brothers. Huge as hole house they are in the middle of the fight.

I run to their aid and soon my brothers follow my lead. We head towards the young Alpha and take down some rogues as we get near him, Allan yells to him: “Seems you could use our help. We are sent by the head of the Santino coven to assist in any way we can!” As Xander looks up at us he nods, and Keith takes down a rogue who was about to jump the young Alpha from the back. Xander turns to see who helped him, Keith nods to him and we all fight side by side. Somehow Allan gets the young Alpha to focus on the leader of the rogues. He takes the leader down after a short fight.

The story the rogues tell us once the fight is over shocks us all. Cassius has forced these young wolves to do his dirty work for him while he has been keeping their loved ones prisoners using black magic to cover his tracks. The commander of the Royal Guard contacts the council who all have decide to come themselves and interview the young wolves, who the Crest Fort Pack have granted sanctions at their land until the council has come and decided what to do about the situation.

I sneak away from the crowd and climb up the tree where Chloe is seated. She doesn´t come down even when the fight ended. I notice that her eyes doesn´t sparkle like them use to. I guess she is tired, but something tells me to join her. “Hey you. Why are you sitting in the tree when you should be down there talking with the other wolves?” I look at her as I ask. I can tell by her heartbeat and emotions that she is hurt emotional. I wonder what have caused her to get hurt like this? I look around and spot the young Alpha. He has the same sad expression in his eyes. It doesn´t take a genius to figure out that the two things have something to do with one another. “What did he do or didn´t do?” I ask her and watch her body language closely. She gets tense and look straight into my eyes. Her eyes fills with tears and she just shakes her head as the tears falls down her cheeks. I reach out and dry them away. “It is no use. They keep falling anyway!” she states in a very low and hurt voice. I smile and say: “That´s the way with tears. They are there to release the pain inside. So, tell me what happen. I might know how to fix it,” I try my best to get her to open up. Honestly, I don´t like seeing her like this. She is always so positive and happy, always smiling ear to ear and has a great sense of humor which makes everyone like her.

She takes a deep breath. “Xander is my mate but when I found out he was having s*x with another female wolf. He knew he had a mate and yet he still kept having s*x with others. I just wish he would reject me so I can move on,” she says heartbroken. I sign in disbelief but can tell by the guilt in his eyes as he is watching us that it is true. However, something tells me that it isn´t the hole truth. “Have you tried talking to him? I mean he can´t really reject you if you keep hiding up here!” I state knowing that he would never reject her, because in his eyes I see a love so true for her. But she can´t see that right now, because she is hurt so badly. I understand why she is hurt, don´t get me wrong. But they need to talk this out one way or another. She signs, I know I hit a nerve, but she needs to hear the truth from someone so why not me?

I leave the tree and head over to the pack house. There I bump into the young Beta Axel. “Can you tell me what happen between the two?” I nod toward the young Alpha and Chloe. “It´s a really awkward story.” He pulls me away from the prying eyes and ears. We walk around the packhouse and start to go down the trails towards the lake. “You see that night of your sisters attack, Xander sniffed his mate. Sherry and Chloe came running out of the house to help your sister. Xander was having s*x with another female wolf. He didn´t know which one of the two girls so we ended up going to visit the pack in order for him to figure out who and to show support for Chloe, due to the rumors about her trail for attacking an Alpha. That´s how we found out that it is Chloe that is his mate. Well, we were told that she was visiting her brothers who are studying in another city. We didn´t know that they are apart of the Royal Guard until they arrived here a couple of days ago. When they arrived, we didn´t know she was here as well. And of course, Xander ended up having s*x with another female wolf, one he has been having s*x with on and off the past year the very day Chloe found out he is her mate. I don´t get it. He knew he had a mate why the hell did he go around and have s*x with another? I don´t get and neither does Pete. We simply don´t get it. His excuse? He couldn´t stop himself. WTF!” Axel is very angry at this point. I grab his arm: “What do you mean by he couldn´t stop himself?!” I ask worried. Axel notice my worried expression. “Xander said that he knew it was wrong, but he was like in a trance and couldn´t stop it. He was pulled to the other female wolf. A w***e if you ask me but none the less, he couldn´t control himself. Why do you ask?”

I look at him and then states my worry out loud: “Cassius is known to play tricks like this on packs. Having the Alpha and the Luna torn away from one another making the pack weak! Look at what he did to these young wolves and suddenly your future Alpha can´t control himself well knowing he has a mate?!” I look him in the eyes making sure he gets the seriousness in this matter. “Show me the female wolf. NOW!” I command. Axel mind links Pete and together they take me to the cottage of the female wolf that Xander slept with. When we get there it´s empty. “That´s odd. Everyone is on lock down until the council has been here. The omegas aren´t allowed outside in case the rogues decide to attack again!” states Pete. “Okay this is even more weird. Smell this!” Axel throws a shirt to Pete who smells it. “That isn´t her smell!” Pete´s eyes get wide as he smells the shirt. The two wolves and I look puzzled at one another. “What does that mean?” I ask not sure about why the smell of a werewolf can change. Their face get pale all of the sudden: “Only two things can have a female wolf change her smell: A mate or she is pregnant!” they say at the same time. Oh f**k!

Liam´s POV

After the final attack we are all heading back. Chloe has finally come down from the trees and join the rest of us on the ground. She has been of great use and helped us a lot like I always knew she would. I can´t put my finger on it but something has changed in her. Her eyes don´t sparkle like they use to. I guess this war with Cassius Wright has gotten to her and now she knows that he doesn´t stop at anything. He is the meanest of the lot.

We get to academy and Louisa meets us at the gate. She hugs me and kiss me passionately. I have really missed her. She turns to Chloe and says: “I guess it wasn´t the greatest way of celebrating your 18th birthday, huh? I am so sorry but here is your gift from this guy and me!” She hands Chloe a box. Chloe smiles for the first in a while and opens it. Inside the box is the most beautiful bracelet with a wolf, the moon and the sun. It is very beautiful. My brothers and I look at one another: How could we have forgotten her birthday. And one so important. I feel like the dumbest brother right now. Chloe looks up at hugs Louisa tight. She turns to me and kiss me on the cheek. “Thank you all of you. I got to go the train leaves in 15 minutes!” She quickly hugs us all goodbye. She waves to the rest of the guard who all waves back.

As we enter the gate to the academy, I feel a sense of sadness. I forgot her birthday and my mate remembered it. As we get to our hallway packages after packages are lined up against the walls. Balloons with “Happy Birthday”, flowers etc. as well. Commander Joe looks at us: “I guess we forgot something important huh?” We nod tiredly and ashamed of the fact that we didn´t remember our sisters birthday. As Hunter and I enter our room I look at him noticing the sadness in his eyes as well as the sadness Xander had when he watched us leave. I thought he would have been happy to see us leave but he had this sad expression on his face especially when Chloe joined us. Hang on! “Is Xander Chloe´s mate?!” I ask Hunter bluntly. He looks at me and simply nods.