‘— Howard’s POV —
‘Caroline, try to escape. Try to get away from their attention,’ I mind-linked Caroline, but not before ripping out this hideous rogue’s shoulder off while he let out a lot cry.
‘I’m not leaving you Howard, no matter what,’ she replied before slamming her paw over the rogue’s head, crushing its skull. Woah, who knew my mate could be this violent? I think I was a little scared of her now.
‘Leave now Caroline,’ my wolf snarled, worried that she could get hurt any second.
‘No. . .they want me Howard. . .isn’t it obvious? So I’m not going to be a coward about it and hide while several other pack members give up their lives for me. I won’t ever be able to live with myself, knowing that I had caused the death of so many people.’
‘Please Caroline?’ I pleaded, already knowing what her answer would be.
‘No. . .I’m sorry, Howard.’ I watched from the corner of my eyes as Caroline’s huge wolf jumped on yet another rogue. To say that her wolf was beautiful would be an understatement. With gleaming, pure white fur and bright blue eyes which could be seen from miles away, she was more than just beautiful. . .more like enticing. She was huge for a female as well; she towered over most of the males here and was the same size as Chris, who was my beta, and nearly as big as me. It was truly gob-smacking!
The atmosphere was full of the metallic smell, which everyone of us knew as blood. Dead human bodies decorated the ground as blood oozed out of their fresh wounds. There were still many rogues alive, however more than half of them had been killed. Decapitated bodies were hurled around, both including my warriors and rogues, but thankfully, mostly rogues.
My shoulder throbbed as the injured rogue and I circled each other, our eyes glued at each other. His gait was so altered that I knew even if he did survive (which he wouldn’t) he would never be able to walk properly. Looking straight into his yellow eyes, I watched as he tried to mask his fear for anger. He knew that I knew this weak point. And at that moment, I let my instincts take over, quickly hooking my paw in his right torso. Rapidly, I danced out of the way as his paw sling near mine, narrowly missing it.
Glancing over his head, I noticed that Chris was surrounded by three wolves. I had to finish this fast; whipping around him, I struck him at the base of his skull, the audible hit reverberating through my body as he hit the ground.
Before I knew it, I was beside Chris, biting off and successfully ripping off another rogue’s paw. Spitting out its paw behind me, not caring where it landed, I gripped its neck with my teeth as he let out a loud whimper, struggling against me, trying to loosen my grip on him. In a swift movement, I snapped its neck before tossing it away like the garbage it was. Looking over at Chris, I watched as he finished off the second wolf.
I pushed over the lifeless human body which now laid still on the floor before sprinting over to help another member of the pack who’s neck was wrapped with the paws of a growling rogue.
‘How many more?’ I asked Chris.
‘Less than ten,’ he replied curtly before slamming down another rogue on the ground.
Suddenly, I felt a pain on the right side of my hip. Caroline. I sniffed the ground, in hopes of the finding her scent in the midst of the several sickening scents. Since I was her mate, her scent would appeal to me a lot more and it would be a lot more stronger, even if she had been here days ago.
Finding her sweet scent, I followed it to a more secluded part of the yard. I’d been sniffing out her scent when I saw two wolves push Caroline’s wolf away, while she flew away, her back colliding with the trunk of the tree. Instantly, I was in front of her, snarling at the two wolves in front if me.
The bigger wolf out of the two instinctively pushed the small blond one behind him before growling at me. I growled back even louder, making sure to show my bloody canines. It backed down slightly, however still looked me with challenge in his eyes. Before he could do anything, I jumped on him, snapping his neck in the process. The smaller wolf let out a pain-filled howl before nudging the bigger ones’ lifeless human body. I had to admit, I did feel sorry for the boy since he only seemed to be in his teenage years, however, he had hurt my mate.
Letting the smaller wolf mourn, aware that it was a dangerous option, I ran to check on Caroline, who still sat slumped in her wolf form near the tree. Blood and mud stained her voluptuous fur, tainting it. Nudging her with my snout, I was relieved when she let out a small whimper.
But one second I was beside her and the next I was being pushed away with extreme strength and landing on my side. I immediately stood up, ready to kill whoever had pushed me away, and to my surprise it was. . .Caroline? She scratched her paw across the small wolf’s face, the blood oozing out almost instantly. I could tell Caroline was tired as her moves were a little slow and sluggish, nonetheless, she could easily beat the rogue. She quickly snapped her neck, watching it fall lifelessly to the floor before morphing into its human body.
Caroline stood tall above the young teenager who seemed to be of about the age of fifteen or sixteen. Apart from the huge gash on her face and small scratches on her arm, the girl seemed okay, however, seeing Caroline’s forlorn expression, I could tell that she was upset.
‘Hey, don’t feel bad about it,’ I said, trying to make her feel better.
‘I don’t regret killing her because she was about to hurt you. . .but I just wished that she could’ve had a normal life instead of dying like this,’ she whispered back.
‘I know. . .but it was either me or her.’ I was trying to make her feel better, even though I knew that she wouldn’t forget about this for a while time.
‘Yeah,’ she breathed with a heavy heart, walking around the rogue and back onto the battlefield, with me closely next to her.
‘Alpha, all rogues have been eliminated,’ Chris said in his no nonsense, business tone. I felt like a huge ton of weight had been lifted off of me. I wanted to celebrate.
‘Great, Caroline and I will meet you there.’
I couldn’t help but feel relieved that all the rogues had been killed. It meant that the pack was safe again, and especially Caroline and the twins were safe again, and they were my main priority. Hopefully, now that meant that Caroline, the twins and any more of our kids in the future would be able to lead a happily life. God, I love them!
‘How many from our pack?’ I asked.
‘Three lost their lives and five severely injured,’ he answered curtly.
Thankfully the rogues weren’t trained or else, there was a chance that we wouldn’t have been alive today. Even though my pack was one of the best in the world and one of the strongest, the rogue attack was completely unexpected, thus meaning that they would take us by shock and that we wouldn’t be very prepared. Luckily though, I did make my pack train for these kinds of emergency, so they weren’t completely clueless.
Even though they definitely did have the shock factor, I can proudly say that we had won.
‘Do you have some spare clothes? I want to shift,’ Caroline’s voice suddenly boomed through the mind-link.
‘Er, yeah. There should be some behind this tree.’
Handing her a spare large t-shirt, I shifted back as well, wearing only a pair of grey sweatpants. My midnight black fur retracted back and once again I was on two feet. I was sure my eyes had changed colors as well, from my wolf’s bright silver to my normal blue-greyish.
‘Chris, sent some wolves around the territory to check for any rogues. If they are adamant to come go with any of the guards, then they should be killed immediately. If they comply then they are still to be locked in the cell for inquiries,’ I stated.
‘Yes Alpha.’
“Is everything okay?” an angelic asked from a few feet away behind me. I pivoted on my heels, turning around to look at my mate.
I checked her from head to top, and apart from a few scratches, she was fine. My heart felt at peace again. Though I was a little curious since not a few minutes again she looked like she was on the verge on fainting. She healed fast, that was for sure.
I immediately ran to her, holding her as if she was a fragile piece of glass. I pressed her to my chest, not too tightly, and simply nestled my face in her neck, simply nuzzling my nose against her smooth skin. I was trying to control my breathing, which I hadn’t realised had increased, by inhaling her mouth-watering scent.
God, she looked sexy right now! Her mud-covered smooth legs were showing since my t-shirt only reached her mid-thigh. Although her hair was a little messy with twigs and leaves planted in it, she still looked as amazing as she normally does. I was so lucky to have her as my mate.
I noticed that she was also checking me from head to bottom, although her eyes did linger on my chest for a bit long, making me smirk. Then, I heard a gasp. Following her eyes, I saw that she was staring wide eyed at my healing wound on my shoulder. Bastard took a huge part of my flesh when I was fighting another wolf from the back. Cowards.
“I’m fine Caro,” I reassured her.
“But they took a large piece of your shoulder off,” she said, standing on her tip-toes to inspect it closer.
“Okay, so I have a boo-boo. Kiss it better?” I said cheekily, which made her smile slightly.
“Okay, if it makes you feel better,” she smiled, kissing a good part of the shoulder. “There, better?”
“Much,” I replied with a grin before capturing her luscious lips with mine. She eagerly kissed her back, wrapping her arms around my neck though careful not to touch my shoulder. I felt her smile into the kiss, before she pulled back. Although it was a sweet and short kiss, it was our first proper kiss ever. And it was better than I had ever imagined it to be. “I love you.”
She leaned her forehead against mine, a smile appearing on her lips as her eyes closed. “I love you too Howard.”
I let a huge grin appear on my face but before I could say anything else, I noticed some movement behind Caroline. The familiar blond was glowering at us, practically shooting daggers with her eyes, especially at Caroline. Her lips were pulled up in her grimace.
BANG!
I pushed Caroline away, with her landing on the floor with a loud thud. Before I could say anything, an immense pain attacked me, burning it as well. Slowly, my body collapsed to the floor, landing with a loud thud. The burning spread through my whole body, paralyzing my movement. I felt a thick liquid pour out like water all over my body. My body couldn’t deal with the immense pain. It couldn’t. . .
“Howard!”