Chapter 223

223 Chapter Two Hundred Twenty Three

Lina watched the rogues come out of the woods and trap them in one dangerous semicircle. There was nowhere to escape and they hadn’t come with a single hunter. Stepping out from the crowd of wolves, Caden stood in front of them, “You made a grave mistake coming here tonight,” he spoke up to the alpha on the other side of the tree line.

“Oh, I’m shaking with fear at the mighty Alpha Caden. I don’t think even you have the power to take care of this many rogues on your own. Your death might just be one of the most entertaining things I see on this trip. You know, if you had come with that hunter of yours, you might just have had a chance. Her aura was monstrous. However, when I saw this large group of wolves coming here with barely a hunter for protection, I was simply filled with excitement,” the man’s face continuously contorted into a disgusting grin.

Caden’s mind worked fast, but only brought up bad news for him. He didn’t want to subject any of the wolves to a battle that could result in their deaths and yet... ‘I could try forging an opening for them to escape, but they are so many. That will only split them up into many groups...’ his thoughts got cut short as the ground began to shake vigorously.

The rogues stopped their advance and began to look about, “What’s going on?” the rogue leading them yelled out, but no one answered him. The ground continued to shake and before any of them could figure out what was happening, an explosion of vines erupted from the ground in a flurry of green, wrapping around the rogues and restraining them instantly. The vines restrained the rogues, but they were still clamped in groups.

Caden took the chance to yell out his orders to the rest of the wolves that were with them, “All of you, head for the hotel while they are still trapped.”

The vines were starting to get weaker and let the rogues loose. The wolves took the chance to make a run for it. Spreading out into groups that only confused the rogues. The vines gave way and one of the rogues leapt out to attack Lina. Caden turned quickly with every intention of stopping the rogue in its tracks. However, before any of them could react, an arrow went through the rogues, back bringing it down instantly. Caden looked in the direction of the arrow... “The hotel is that way...”

With that said, everyone knew their destination, Lina grabbed Caden’s hand when he was about to shift, “Caden, we have to keep them in a group. If they run about in panic, they will get lost. There is quicksand in the forest. If any of them gets trapped in it, there won’t be anyone to save them...”

“We’ll keep them together Lina. Is your friend okay though?” Lina looked to her right and noticed Honour stumble backwards in extreme dizziness. The same blue glow she’d had in the field on moon lotuses was only getting off her at the moment. She rushed to her and caught her before she fell.

“I’ll take care of Honour and get her to safety,” she said to Caden, “The rest of you and all the alphas are to help with getting the wolves back to the safety of the hotel.”

.....

“Lina, let me help protect Honour,” a female voice rang in her mind. She’d now grown accustomed to hearing the voice popping out of nowhere.

“Just do what you want, Crysta,” the girl replied before shifting. With Caden’s help, Honour was placed on her back. The girl held onto the white wolf’s fur so tight that Lina was sure she was going to rip the fur right out of her hide. The rogues snapped at the vines which kept shifting between weak strands and strong thick vines. “I don’t know what saved us or how long it will hold these rogues down, but all of you are to make it back to the hotel before something bad happens.”

Lina was dashing through the forest at blinding speed with her friend on her back as soon as she had mentioned that. ‘Hold on, Honour. You have to hold on. We’ll make it there soon.’

‘No, Lina, not the hotel. Take me back to the Lotus Lunaria,’ her friend’s voice came through.

‘What are you talking about? You need to rest, Honour. Just look at you, you can barely stand,” she replied.

‘I was the one that summoned the vines, Lina. Take me to the moon lotuses, Lina, please,’ it was as though she’d just been commanded by her mother and she found herself taking a detour in search of the moon lotuses. She had no idea where they were and yet... here she was dashing in a direction she’d never known fully aware of what she was going to find in that direction. The trees seemed to be letting them through the forest and clearing the floor of all obstacles. Wisps of moonlight came through the canopy, illuminating a path for her to follow.

‘Very well, Honour. I’ll take you to that side... Only because you begged me though,’ the girl replied as she dashed at her fastest through the forest.

‘Thank you, Lina.’

Lina rushed through the forest with one destination in mind. She had no idea why she was headed there or how it would help her friend, however, no matter how much she tried, she couldn’t quite control her own feet. Her wolf pressed on with all the energy she could manage heading towards a location she didn’t even know existed.

The woods were constantly shifting and the moonlight illuminated a path for her to follow. Eventually, the blue light from the blooming flowers reached her eyes. She came to a stop at a wide entrance to the field of flowers that she was sure wasn’t there before. Laying down at the centre of the clearing, she watched the trees move back in place, sealing them inside the clearing.

The white wolf lay her friend down and shifted back into her human form. The girl was glowing a radiant sky blue and the flowers seemed to lean towards her, “What in the world is happening to you, Honour?” she asked more to herself. The girl before looked far too tired to answer her anyway.

............

Cole had only been running through the forest for a while when a group of wolves rushed past him. Accessing the mind link, he began to ask them, “What is happening?”

“Rogues... Many of them... Trapped in vines... So many... Vicious rogues... Lina won the duel...” numerous voices filled the mind link giving him incomplete pieces of information that couldn’t help him. He blocked out the voices and linked with his alphas, “Jason, Caden, what’s going on?”

'

“Well, there are rogues in the woods. Our aim is to get the wolves of Sirius together as they run back to the hotel. As far as I can tell, most of the rogues are still trapped at the beach. Caden, Liam, Wyatt and Crystal are taking care of returning the rogues back to the woods. Sandra and I are going to check on the rogues at the beach,” Jason replied.

“Caden, what’s the situation with the wolves being returned to the hotel?” Cole asked.

“Well, everything is going fine as long as we keep this formation. We’ll be at the hotel in a few minutes if all goes well,” Caden replied.

“When does that ever happen?” Cole replied, rushing forward with the intention of getting to the beach. His wolf sensed danger in that direction and that is what he followed. The feeling in his gut was similar to the one he’d had when he’d faced beta alphas the last time, but a little different.

..............

Jason brought his running to a sudden halt when he felt the ground moving. The beach wasn’t far off, however, what his eyes saw couldn’t be described as normal. The was everything wrong with the vines that continued to constrict around the rogues, letting them loose and grabbing them more at the same time. A few rogues were breaking through their natural cages, using the short times when the vines were weak to break through. It was a tedious process as the vines kept growing back and trying to cage them all over again, but there was progress. “Hey, don’t stop all of a sudden without warning,” the girl on his back complained.

“Complain after we’ve disposed of this load of trash,” the alpha replied, keeping his eyes on the scene before him. Sandra turned and froze at the sight before her.

“We should put them out of their misery before they get a chance to resist us, shouldn’t we?” Sandra asked him, unsure of what to do in this situation.

“You sound like you’re trying to read this out of a hunter handbook,” the alpha chuckled.

“Well, there was nothing in the handbook that talked about dealing with rogues that were trapped by moving vines,” the girl replied, walking out to the beach.

“Aren’t you scared?” Jason asked her.

“No, I’m angry... the rogues pulled a cheap move attacking defenceless werewolves,” the girl replied.

“And here we are about to bring their lives to an end while they struggle for their lives,” Cole’s voice sounded, calling for their attention. The royal walked out from the cover of the trees and straight to one of the struggling rogues. Without a second thought, he pushed his hand through the vines and grabbed the wolf by the neck, pressing the wolf to the ground until a sickening crunch rung through the air.

Seeing their fellow wolf lying there unconscious, the other rogues began to struggle. Cole proceeded to the rogues that had made it partly out of their caged prisons and began to put them out of their misery, “What are you waiting for, Jason?”

“Oh yeah,” the alpha replied before getting to work.

“Don’t think for a second that our enemies are redeemable,” Cole said to the hunter who stood behind them as they carried out the dirty work.

“Oh, I know what rogues are like... After all, I was there when Katie was granted her Prometheus gifts. I have never felt any sympathy for them ever since,” she replied. Just then, a woman appeared beside her with a bow in hand and began to kill the rest of the rogues without letting the wolves finish the job. However, her last arrow was caught by her last target. One of the rogues was fully free from the cage and he snapped the arrow into pieces.

“That was a pathetic display...” his deep voice echoed through the night. ‘He is dangerous,’ Sandra’s senses surmised.