Anger of the Devil

17. The golden state of alert

It was dead silent as howls got closer and closer. Everyone had froze, and the ones who were in their wolf form looked alert with their ears pointing upwards. The only two people who weren’t in the form of a wolf were Lena and Nadia. Lena gave Nadia a look, and the concern that she felt was reflected back to her in Nadia’s eyes. 

    “Who is it?”

Nadia’s voice had a nervous ring to it as she spoke. Lena slowly shook her head as she looked back at Nadia. 

    “I don’t know. I haven’t heard that call before.”

Nadia started to nod as to reassure herself and Lena. 

    “Okay, but that’s good, right? It means it’s not the Red Cross Crows. Right?”

Lena didn’t answer as she tried to find anything to say. When she couldn’t, she turned to Kendrick, who looked at her in his wolf form. 

    “We need to see who it is.”

Kendrick squinted as he turned to look at the Harlows and the other wolves from the White Pines Pack. He growled deeply as the hairs on his back rose. 

    “Kendrick, I need you to do this. I’ll be fine.”

Lena knew that Kendrick wanted to protect her, but she was more afraid of what was stepping on to their land than she was of the Harlows. The Harlows were a threat to her, yes, but they had no idea who these others were a threat to.

The big Beta huffed, but he soon did as she said. With the swiftness of the wind, he had started running towards the exit. Lena swallowed as she looked at the other members of the Lake Maroon Pack and Jess. 

    “You too. All of you. Go.”

The wolves slowly started to walk away, all of them hesitant, only Jess seemed to stand her ground. Lena gave her a pointed look, but Jess only stepped closer to her as she growled at the others. Lena sighed, Jess wasn’t hers to command. She closed her eyes and swallowed before once more opening her eyes as she looked at Alpha James. His eyes were still filled with fury, but he seemed distracted as well. 

    “Is there any chance that we can do this afterwards? I know that you hate me for what I did, and I don’t even blame you. I put your daughter at high risk, and you should protect her. But right now I may not be your biggest threat.”

Alpha James made himself bigger as he slowly walked towards her. Jess growled, but James never even flinched. She wasn’t a real challenger if it came to it, and they all knew it. He was only a foot away from Lena when she heard his voice, deep and dark, inside of her head. 

    “This is not over.”

He then turned and started running towards the exit. Everyone followed with the exception of his oldest son, Alexander. His wolf was as big as his dad’s, if not bigger, and just as Jess had walked close to Lena, Alexander now stood close to Nadia to protect her. 

    “Jess, can you please make sure that Cody is okay. And if things start to get wild, please get him the hell away from here.”

Jess shot up to look at Lena, but Lena didn’t look at her as she started to walk down the hallway. Alexander Harlow soon stepped in her way and growled, which made Jess jump forward once more. 

    “Jess, do as I f*****g say! I can take care of this.”

The sternness and determination in Lena’s voice not only visibly surprised Jess, it surprised Lena too. Jess was breathing excessively, obviously conflicted whether or not to do as she was told, but she soon started running down the hallway. 

    “Alex, let her through.”

Lena looked from the big wolf to the small woman standing near him. Nadia looked sad and exhausted, but her words were filled with a calming love. Lena then refocused on Alexander Harlow. 

    “You’re a great brother, you really are. And I get it, I really do. The amount of pain I would put on the person who would put my brothers in danger is immeasurable, but you need to get the hell away from me right now, ‘cause we both have people to protect, and I have very little concern for my own personal safety at this moment, so I will fight you to the very end if that’s what it takes to keep my people safe. You can take your anger out on me at a time where we can indulge in our own selfish motives. This is not that time though.”

    Alexander squinted, but he didn’t move any further as Lena started walking once more. As soon as she had turned a corner, she started running. She wanted to change, but she still felt weak. If she needed to change later, she would change, but right now her goal was to get to the exit to see from whom those howls came. Her running turned into sprinting, and she soon saw the exit. She braced herself for whatever she was about to run into, but she was taken aback when she finally got outside. Hundreds of dirty people were walking around the parking area while being handed clothes, blankets, and towels to cover themselves. Lena searched the place to find anyone she knew, but the area was so crowded that she had a hard time identifying anyone. That was until she spotted one person she would have never thought to see. Jake? Her heart started pounding and she yelled out his name. 

    “Jake!”

The dusty blond man turned to look at her, but he had barely had time to register her before she crashed into his arms. He was barely clothed and he was covered in dirt, but Lena could not have cared less. For the first time since she had woken up after her wolfsbane induced sleep, she felt as if something good was happening. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she roughly squeezed her friend. 

    “Woah, Ace, I’m glad to see you too, but I’m afraid you’ll strangle me to death if you don’t relax a bit.”

Lena started laughing as she let go just a little. She raised her head and smiled as she looked into Jake’s brown eyes. She huffed a laugh as she spoke.

    “You look like absolute shit.”

Jake smiled and raised an eyebrow. 

    “Ah yes, but at least we know that even on my worst day, I still look pretty good.”

He gave her a wink before he pulled her back into his embrace. Lena relaxed as she melted into his hug, but she suddenly felt a jolt in her body as she pushed him away. 

    “If you’re alive, then…”

She hadn’t even finished her sentence before she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned to see Nathan standing behind her. He looked weakened just as Jake did, but he too seemed fairly okay. However, something sad was lurking in his eyes. 

    “Hey there.”

Lena was shocked as she looked at Nathan, then Jake, then back at Nathan. 

    “But… how… we were told that… one of you…”

Nathan furrowed his eyebrows as he looked puzzled. 

    “What? Told that one of us was what?”

Lena exhaled deeply as she tried to process what was happening. One of them has died. That was what we were told. One of them had been killed. Lena opened her mouth to answer when she heard another voice. A tall, tan, muscular man with light brown hair and almost black eyes stepped forward. He, as everyone else, looked dirty, but he seemed as if he was more energized than the others. 

    “You must be Lena Ashwood. It’s nice to officially meet you.”

The man stretched out his arm and presented his hand. Lena took his hand and shook it as she tried to decipher who he was, yet she didn’t recognize him. 

    “I am. And you are?”

    “Caleb. Caleb Valentine.”

Lena started to understand as she kept on shaking his hand. 

    “Alpha Caleb. You’re the Alpha of the Golden Springs Pack from Florida. You never came.”

Lena didn’t mean to be so blunt, but the amount of trauma and surprise that she had been through the last couple of days had made her so. However, Caleb started to laugh in a way that told her that it was okay. 

    “Well, we took a small detour to California before coming here, and it ended up being a pretty important decision.”

Lena frowned as she turned to look at Jake. Jake sighed as he nodded and spoke.

    “Let’s just say we owe Alpha Caleb our lives. If he and his men hadn’t been there to rescue us, we’d be dead by now. But that’s a story for when I’ve slept for an hour or forty.”

Lena gave him a small nod. Alpha Caleb took his hand back as he gave them a nod as well. 

    “I need to get my pack settled somehow, but we’ll speak again soon.”

Caleb then walked away, and Lena turned to Nathan, thinking that perhaps he had some answers. However, Nathan didn’t seem like he paid attention as his eyes roamed the place for something - or someone.

    “Where’s Nadia?”

Lena’s stomach turned. It made sense that Nathan wanted to know where Nadia was, but she couldn’t help thinking what he might think when he heard what had happened. We may not know each other very well, but he is still my cousin. He’ll hate me when he hears. Lena took a deep breath before she answered. 

    “We didn’t know the howls so she stayed inside.”

Nathan looked at Lena and smiled. 

    “That makes sense. You wanted her to be safe. Thank you for that.”

Lena could feel her heart break as she forced herself to smile.

    “Right…”

She wanted to tell Nathan what had happened, but she had barely started speaking before Nathan interrupted. 

    “I’ll go find her, okay? We’ll talk soon. There is a lot to talk about, I just need to see Nadia first.”

Lena didn’t have the time to respond before Nathan had gone. She sighed as she slumped down a bit. She could feel her energy plumpeting fastly when she heard Jake’s voice.

    “Fenris made a deal with the Red Cross Crows. Dom was killed. A lot of the Grey Pines Pack was killed too. It was… not fun.”

Lena tried to process his words, but she had a hard time understanding all of what she had been told - both from Jake and others during the last twenty-four hours.

    “I set Logan free and the Harlows want to kill me.”

It was a matter of time before the aftermath of her wrongdoings would hit her once more, and she needed to confide in Jake. Jake had looked fine but tired until then, yet when Lena had spoken, he looked more alive than he had ever looked before. 

    “What?!”

Lena nodded as she closed her eyes. 

    “Yup. Welcome back.”