366 Things Don’t Always Go According to Plan

Sean looked around. He was surrounded by hunters spread around him in an even circle. They could easily fire an arrow from his blind spot. It was not like he could use the girl to defend himself, but then again, “You wouldn’t risk the life of this girl, now would you?”

Silver sighed. From his back, he retrieved his custom bow and let it unfurl to its full pink length. He pulled an arrow from his quiver and aimed the arrow at Sean, “No, I wouldn’t. Maybe one of these hunters would miss and hit the girl, but you know I wouldn’t.”

The king shuddered at the sight of the bow that was currently aimed at him. The fabled Cupid shooter was so good of a shot that it was not known for him to miss his mark even once. With Bree in front of him, it was just the same as her not being there either and with how fast the arrow whizzed through the air, it was unlikely he could threaten to injure her.

Seeing that he was indeed cornered, he raised his hands and let the girl go. The hunters quickly pulled the girl away from him. “Restrain the girl as well. She has a lot of questions to answer. Not after she injured all those people to break this criminal out of his cell.” Silver ordered, whilst walking to the prince calmly.

“You wanted me, didn’t you? The girl was merely following the orders of a royal,” Sean argued against the hold the hunters had on him.

“Oh no, dear. All you did was escape. Whether you influenced the girl or not doesn’t matter. After all, she was the one that used wolfsbane to poison the guards and make your escape. She’s just as much a criminal as you are. Although, I would say she’s not as bad as you. Seeing as you were the reason for the attack on the capital eighteen years ago,” Silver scowled.

“That was not me and you know it. The king knows it wasn’t me either,” Sean yelled through gritted teeth.

“Oh, I hope you have a good story to feed the king. After that stunt you pulled, he was livid. I would not be surprised if you were executed on the spot,” Silver spat. While these words were only mere words to the hunter, they meant a lot more to someone he hadn’t perceived yet.

'

“Nooo,” a feminine yell broke through their conversation. Silver turned just in time to catch glimpse of a woman with red eyes. The second thing he saw, however, was a muscular man dashing for the wall behind her. They had not been paying attention to anything else. The torn purple-stained clothes the man was wearing were all too familiar to Silver.

.....

He’d been looking at them for the better half of the week, thinking of new ways of getting the man to spill the Rogue King’s secrets. His hand dashed to the arrows at his hip a second too late.

Aidan vaulted over the security perimeter like it was a minor pavement. He was out of the facility in a single leap. The woman, however, was more reluctant to escape. Her eyes were pinned to the man on the ground with tears rolling down her eyes, “What are you...” When three arrows lodged into her shoulders and thigh with enough force to send her flying backwards through the air, Sean stopped talking.

She barely had the time to react to what was happening, ‘No...’ Groaning against the hunters restraining him, Sean suddenly tossed them away with all the strength he could muster, which was more than he thought himself capable of, and made his way to the woman. His mind was clouded by raging emotions. The image of his mate being shot with so many arrows wouldn’t leave his mind. It felt like that image had replaced the nothingness someone saw when they closed their eyes... It was always there.

Silver raised his hand to stop the hunters from approaching him, “Stop... let him move. I’ve seen that look somewhere before...” The hunters watched the man walk up to the fallen rogue and fall dejectedly to his knees beside her. Silver folded his bow neatly and gave his next orders swiftly and quietly, “Capture the three of them. Make sure the woman gets the treatment she requires before the wolfsbane makes her wounds incurable.”

The hunters quickly got to work, securing Sean up once more and carrying the woman off to be treated. Sean didn’t resist them as he had a while ago. His eyes were empty and zoned out. His mind had stopped processing logic the moment he saw the purple veins pulsating from the injuries the arrows had made in his mate’s body, “This is a mess,” Silver cursed to himself.

He knew the look on the prince’s face all too well. It was only a look he’d seen on werewolves. The clouded look they got when they saw their mates in danger. The primal instinct that took over them to protect their mates.

Sean’s face, however, fast-forwarded to part of despair. When they realised there was nothing they could do to protect his mate, his rage faded. While there were still signs of it in his quivering arms, there was only so much the prince could do against Frank Silver.

Bree stood frozen at the sight of the carnage that happened before her. ‘This wasn’t part of the plan... Why?’ the girl’s thoughts echoed into the silent void of her own mind. Sean hadn’t planned to get his mate captured. Amanda wasn’t supposed to get captured. This was not part of the plan indeed.

Knowing his mate’s efficiency, Sean had decided to play decoy so her mission would go smoothly. There was a Mighty Warrior at the facility after all. If Amanda had come face-to-face with Silver, there was no telling what could have happened. The most likely scenario would be that she would get captured.

The hunter was a formidable opponent. The advantage they had over him, though, was that he wasn’t from the Chase family. A Chase hunter would not have been fooled by this plan at all. They would have sensed something was amiss and stopped Amanda before she got the chance to free Aidan.

Why were they releasing Aidan in the first place? This was all too twisted. But every time, Bree asked herself this question, she remembered the answer she’d been given. Amanda had to keep her cover within the rogues... and that involved having to continuously prove her allegiance to the rogues...

This, unfortunately, involved releasing one of the most dangerous wolves on the planet...

That hadn’t gone according to their plan though, had it? The sounds around her sounded distant. Her eyes were planted on the purplish tinge of wolfsbane-tainted blood coming from the arrow wounds in Amanda’s body.

How does one come out of this? What will they tell the king? Will the king want to listen to any of them? Were they going to die? Were they going to treat Amanda? Different questions rang through the girl’s mind as she remained still and silent, cut off from the world.

She couldn’t even tell who was in wrong this time. Sean was the king’s uncle, but she couldn’t deny the fact that he’d aided in the release of one of the empire’s enemies. No matter what way she tried to look at it, things had just taken a turn for the worst.