Fates Must Be Kidding

It was you?

"What are you doing on my territory?" the Alpha starts his interrogation.

"We got lost, we mean no harm," the prisoner pleads. I don't think I have ever heard a more obvious lie, I hope he never dreamt of having a career in Hollywood! Looks like the Alpha did not believe him either, since he punched the guy so hard he flew off his chair. Wow, I wish I were this strong! I'm pretty sure I can see a teeth or even two laying on the floor. The sorry excuse for a leader wipes the blood from his chin and snarls at the Alpha.

"You can beat me all you want, I'm not telling you anything!" So he isn't only a bad liar, but stupid too. The Alpha remains quiet, but signals something to one of the guards in the room. I can see that he is holding a small object in his hand, but I'm not sure what exactly it is. The guard approaches the prisoner and makes a stabbing motion. I guess that was a syringe. For the next couple of minutes nothing happens. But then...what I see leaves me speechless. The guy starts writhing on the floor in pain and scratching himself as if trying to get rid of something hurting him from inside. 

Suddenly, I am not on the other side of the interrogation room on the Blood Moon territory, I am tied to a medical chair, surrounded by white walls and bright lights...and people in medical costumes reaching for me with syringes. I struggle as hard as I can, I pull on my restraints, kick and scream, but it's not doing anything. I can't free myself! Please, someone help me!

Out of nowhere I feel a gentle squeeze on my shoulder and soothing voice "Breathe! In and out." I can't identify whose voice it is, but I close my eyes and do as it says. A deep breath in, and a deep breath out. I repeat it a couple more times, and only then open my eyes. And...I'm back, looking at the Alpha leaning against a wall with a bored expression on his face, and the prisoner screaming in pain. What the hell happened?!

"Are you okay?" I hear the same voice from my left. I turn my head and see that it's Gabriel. And his hand is still on my shoulder. He notices me looking at it and removes it right away.

"I'm fine, thanks!" I mumble embarrassed by my little episode. Why did he have to witness it?! Leo is standing right next to me, but he is completely oblivious! Gabriel gives me a small nod and moves back to his previous position. Even though I still find the guy annoying, I am grateful that he is not making a big deal out of whatever just happened, and not asking me any questions.  

"Tell me what I want to know, and I'll make the pain go away. Just like that," the Alpha snaps his fingers.

"F-f-fine," the guy grits out. "We were sent on a ...ARGH!" A nod from the Alpha and the same guard gives the prisoner one more shot. After a couple of moments he is even able to roll to his stomach and push himself off the ground. Good, otherwise it would have taken him forever to tell us everything.

"On a reconnaissance mission for the Rogue King," he finishes.

"What does he want from us?" the Alpha asks.

"He wants to turn this region into his stronghold for what he has planned next. The packs here are smaller, weaker, easier to take over. But, at the same time, you are quite well off. And he needs all the resources he can get".

"For what?"

"To take down the Council. He has some beef with them. That's all I know," the rogue shrugs his shoulders.

"How many?" is the Alpha's next question. The prisoner was obviously hoping he would be asked that. Moron, I know. He takes his time answering, but the Alpha makes all his doubts and resistance go away by showing his another syringe.

"About two hundred," he concedes. Well, s**t! We have only sixty fully trained warriors right now, and thirty more in training. We can win this, but how many lives will be lost in the process? We need a plan, and we need it fast. I am so deep in thought that Leo has to shake me to bring me out of it.

"Let's go," he motions for me to follow him. I look around and see that Gabriel is already gone. I wonder what he was doing here in the first place. When I step into the hallway I see the Alpha waiting for us. I open my mouth to say something, but he cuts me off, "We'll talk about this in my office". Fair enough.

The Beta, the Luna, Lucas and Ryder are already waiting for us there. We get settled, but looks the Alpha is expecting someone else to join us before we can get on with it. In a minute or two Gabriel shows up. Who is he and what does he have to do with this? The Alpha looks at him expectantly.

 "They are sending thirty, they will arrive here by noon tomorrow". The Alpha nods, "Thank you, Gabriel, I appreciate it". You don't have to be a genius to understand that help is coming, which is fantastic news.

"We are expecting an attack tomorrow, about two hundred rogues. After this meeting I will contact three nearest packs to let them know what's happening. I expect them to send some manpower our way. As you just heard, thirty more will arrive from the Council. After lunch tomorrow everyone who can't fight will have to go to the bunker. I need you to take care of that, darling," the Alpha looks lovingly at his wife to which she smiles and responds "Of course". 

"The bunker will be guarded by our trainees, they will be the last line of defense. Warriors from the Council and neighboring packs, however many we are able to get, will be providing assistance. Now we have some planning to do," he says. Two hours later we finally leave the office. Before I head out to my place, I drag Leo away for a quick word.

"Who is he and what is he really doing here?" I ask him point blank. 

"I have no idea what you are talking about". I cross my arms to show him that this answer won't do.

"Fine. He really is a friend from school. He is so good that he was invited to join the Guardians even before he graduated. He came here to visit me and keep an eye on the rogue situation. They heard some chatter about them targeting this area," he finally tells me the whole truth. This explains a lot.

"See, it wasn't that hard," I smirk to which he rolls his eyes.

The next morning is chaotic. For everyone except us. My team is already caught up, and we are letting the Alpha do his thing without getting in his way. He asks us to join him at the command center in the early afternoon. We put our gear on, there are way too many strangers around here for my liking. When we get there, the room is crowded. 

"Everyone, these are the Vipers. As you know, they set up our new defense system and they will be assisting us today. Since we are all from different packs, all team leaders will be wearing ear pieces to stay in touch. Try not to shift for as long as possible. Let's get over our plan one last time, and then you can have some rest. Everyone needs to be in position at 6 pm".

After everything is finalized, my team and I have a quick workout session, since we had to skip the morning training. Next we have lunch and relax. There is no worry or anxiousness amongst us, only excitement for some real action. At 5:45 we head to the command center, from there we will be watching the attack unfold. Once we see their numbers and positioning, we will see where our help is needed. We are on a sweeping duty today, if there is a major breach we need to intercept the intruders before they get in too deep.

Our early warning system sends off the red signal around 7:30 pm, it detects them approaching our borders.   Looks like the main attacking force will hit from the South, and two more groups from the East and West. Teddy and his intelligence unit alert everyone out in the field to what is happening. I am so proud of him, he is running everything smoothly and calmly, no fuss and unnecessary emotions. I look back at the map and see that so far everything is going well. Maybe a little too well. Knox's bombs did their job and took out about 20 intruders. Most of the fighting is happening at the South border, but no breaches yet. The Alpha has that front under control, the Council warriors are there to help him as well. What troubles me is that I see only 130 hostiles, where are the rest? My eyes keep going back to the North border, my gut feeling is telling me to go there. And that's what I do.

"Teddy, we are going to the North side. Let everyone know and watch it carefully for me," he gives me thumbs up, no questions asked. The North border is the furthest away from the pack house, I don't want to waste time walking, so we drive there. We have almost reached the destination, when Teddy warns me "Ten vehicles headed your way". Thank you, gut, I owe you, again. "Tell the border unit to retreat and engage the explosives," I order. "Done!" is his immediate response. And that's when we hear a series of explosions. "The vehicles are armored, we got five, the border unit is dealing with them now, but the other five are still on the move," Teddy reports. 

"We'll intercept them, but you might want to send someone our way. Ricky, turn around and take us behind the hill we have just passed". The good thing is there is only one road they can take, the bad thing is we don't have much time to prepare. "Knox and Ricky, do your best to slow them down. Rose take your position behind our car". I grab a sniper rifle and scale the hill looking for a decent vantage point. As soon as I find one, I see their cars approaching at high speed. They almost round the turn, when I hear a loud bang and the first car flies in the air and lands on its roof. The next two car run into it, there was not enough time for the drivers to react. The last two try to turn around, but no such luck, they are hit with a couple more mini explosions. "Great job Knox and Ricky! Are you ready, Rose?" I ask already knowing her answer. "Always!"

Rogues hurriedly jump out of the cars. At first they are easy targets for me to shoot, but soon the smoke makes it impossible to see. Rose probably has the same issue. I drop the rifle and I run down the hill quickly and assess the situation. There are around sixteen bodies laying around, we managed to do some real damage, but most of the rogues must still be alive. 

"Is everyone good?" I check. "Yes, we have them surrounded," Ricky assures me.

I spot a rogue peaking out, that's all I need to take him down with a shot straight to his head. Three more shots sound from where I assume Ricky and Knox are. 

"Surrender, and you will live to see another day," I offer. In response they start shooting in my direction. Oh well, you can't blame me for trying! We exchange fire for a while, but we are at a stalemate, each of us pinned to our positions.

"Teddy, what do you see?" 

"Looks like they will be splitting up. Be careful, 8 more rogues slipped through the North border while the unit was busy dealing with the first five cars. They are about five minutes away".

"How's the situation everywhere else?"

"Contained, help is on its way. Fifteen minutes max". f**k me!

"What's our ammo situation?" I ask everyone.

"Low," they respond almost simultaneously.

"Knox, tell me you have something up your sleeve!"

"No explosives, only flash bangs," she responds.

"That will have to do. On three you throw them in, on five Ricky and I go in, no guns, it will be too tight. One, two, three," I get cut off by three bangs. "Four, five," I take off and slide between two severely damaged cars. Four guys there are so disoriented that it's not even a fair fight. A kick here, a punch there, and I have them tied up in no time.

"Ricky, how are you doing there?"

"All five down," he grunts.

"Rose, Knox?"

"Three more dead". 

"Six managed to get out on the other side. They are about to reunite with the eight rogues I warned you about," Teddy chimes in. Great, just great. I exhale loudly to let my frustration out.

"We can't let them run away, and we can't kill them either. One of them must be the leader of this attack, not the Rogue King himself, but someone close to him..." I think out loud.

"So what are we waiting for?" Ricky asks opening the door on the driver's side of our car. A minute later we  are giving chase (with Teddy as our guide) to a bunch of werewolves who are fleeing for their lives. Finally, I can spot them from a distance, in their wolf form, we should be able to catch up with them in time, and then we'll improvise. Suddenly, two more vehicles join the pursuit, one with Blood Moon warriors led by Leo, the other with Gabriel and a couple of Council warriors. Finally, did they stop for a beer on the way here?!

As soon as we are close enough, I fire a couple of shots at the rogues aiming for their legs. I hit two, which slows them down considerably. Whoever their leader is, he is not stupid, I have to give him that. He gives them the order to disperse, and they start running in different directions. This is making things a lot more complicated. We keep driving towards the border while the other two cars slow down just enough for warriors to jump out. I can see them shifting in the back mirror, and I'm so jealous! I wish I could do that or even just feel my wolf... I shake my head and concentrate on the task at hand - catching every single one of those bastards. When we reach the border, I tell Ricky to pull over. It's time to go hunting! We spread out and assume our positions following Teddy's instructions. Soon I hear growling and fighting from my right and then my left.

"Em, two headed your way, fast," Teddy warns. Fast my ass, they are basically flying at me! A matted brown wolf jumps at me, but I know he is just a distraction. I push him off me with my legs, roll to my stomach and grab the sword attached to my back. I whip it at the other wolf's legs before he gets away from me. It works perfectly, he is down with nasty gashes on his hind legs.

"Going somewhere, wolfie?" I taunt him. He snaps at me angrily and tries to get up, he needs to tries to succeed. "Let's dance, gentlemen!" I joke as two wolves start circling me. Whenever one of them gets too close for my comfort I whip my baby at them to scare them off. My stalling is going great until the brown wolf decides to be a hero and grabs my whip sword with his teeth. Using this momentary distraction the black one lunges at me. I expect him to do that, so I side-step him, and that's when the brown asshole pulls on my sword, hard. Judging by the pain I'm feeling he has just dislocated my shoulder! However, that's not my biggest problem right now. I also lose my balance and fall down. I switch hands quickly and free my sword just in time to use it as a barrier against sharp teeth snapping at me. My injured shoulder is making it extremely difficult for me to wrestle with the wolf on top of me. But I suck it up, since I don't feel like dying today. I take a deep breath, press the blade deeper into his mouth cutting my hand in the process, and kick at one of his injured legs. That gets him off me. 

I jump up to my feet and take a few steps back away from two really pissed off angry wolves. I need only one of them alive, but I'm worried about exposing myself for an attack if I go after the brown one. My dilemma is resolved when Gabriel (out of all people, once again) shows up out of nowhere and asks, "Need help?"

"Yeah, I wouldn't mind. Keep him alive!" I nod in the direction of the black wolf. The brown one is mine. I grab my sword tighter and charge at him. He tries to swipe me with his paw, but I spin away and hit him in the side of his head with the handle, as hard as I can. He tries to shake it off, but I don't give him a chance to, with my next strike I cut his throat and he falls to the ground lifeless. I turn around and see that Gabriel has everything under control as well, he has the black wolf in a headlock. A couple more seconds of struggling in vain and he goes to sleep.

I lower myself to the ground tiredly and lay down on my back looking at the stars. It's been a hell of a day! 

"You don't expect me to carry you, do you?" Gabriel jokes coming closer to me.

"Nope," I snort. "But it would be nice if you could fix my shoulder".

"No problem!" He kneels next to me, takes my wrist in his hands, and starts moving my arm slowly toward my head while also making a small circular movement. I wince when my shoulder joint pops back in its place. After that he gently bends my arm at the elbow and puts it in a makeshift sling using his T-shirt. Probably just to show off his impressive abs! 

"You know, I imagined our second fight a bit differently. I thought we would be able to finish the first one, after all these years," he says with a smile. Wait, what? Second fight? Holy s**t, it can't be!

"You're the guy from the Challenge?" 

"The one and the only," he says helping me up. "I'm kind of insulted you didn't recognize me!"

"I guess you're not that memorable," I snort. "Thanks for today and for that day in the woods," I add more seriously.

"Don't mention it, it was the least I could do," he shrugs his shoulders. Maybe he is not that bad after all.