Chapter 27

~Laken’s POV~

The fighting had continued well into the night without so much as a pause. Each side fought viciously for victory but to what end? I’d always believed war only brought pain and suffering, no side truly won, whether it was the side that had instigated it or the side that was retaliating.

In our case it seemed to be a losing battle, injured men were being brought in it seemed every minute and the ones that lived were in no condition to continue fighting. I thought of my dad among them, wondering if he too had been brought to another household to get treatment. Had he already died on the battlefield? or was he still out there fighting for us all?

I sighed in despair, I loved my father but I feared the impact his death would have on my mom than it would have on me because despite the fact that I was his own flesh and blood, the bond between mates went deeper than that. At the moment my mother was walking among the children, making sure they were all sleeping.

They’d been put on cots hours before and after telling them story after story they’d finally dropped off two by two. How they slept through the noise and chaos was a guess. She was trying to keep busy and if one could only judge by outward appearances you would think she was just fine but I knew her better than that.

She was wringing her hands in front of her, something she did when she was nervous and every now and then she would look up whenever someone walked through the door. Her mood seemed to take a hit every time it turned out to be someone other than the man she loved.

I wanted to comfort her, tell her it was going to be okay but I figured I’d lied to my mother quite enough already, because things wouldn’t be okay, not for our pack, we’d lost so many already I was beginning to wonder who we had left to continue fighting.

I looked from my mother to the other end of the room where Carson and Thomas stood bent over a map resting on a small table between them. They came in about ten minutes before to discuss strategy and were still in deep debate.

I looked closely at my mate, noticing the way he stood with his shoulders hunched as if he was in great pain. He was sweaty and dirty and there was dried blood on his hands. Every now and then he would flinch and press his hand tentatively to his shoulder and I knew without a doubt that he was hurting.

I watched as he straightened running his hand through his hair, then heaving a sigh. He looked frustrated and tired. Of course he wouldn’t show this to anyone but I also knew he was scared shitless and it wasn’t a weakness in him that made this so; it was the deep love he had for our pack and all that we had lost tonight as well as everything we may still lose that scared him.

It scared me as well and I resisted the urge to go over there and comfort him too. He had more important things to worry about than a clingy teenage boy.

“I’ve already contacted Marcana and she’s agreed to send whatever help she can, but that will still take hours, so we’ll just have to continue driving them back to the border, that way when her troops get here we’ll pretty much have them surrounded. It’ll be easier to finish them off that way.” Carson said to Thomas, who nodded before catching his bottom lip between his teeth and furrowing his brow as he gazed at the map.

“I just hope we can hold them off long enough Carson because at the rate we’re going we won’t have many wolves left to even put up a fight.” Thomas said seriously.

“We must have the upper hand though right? I mean we have thousands of wolves on our side.” I spoke up.

“The numbers aren’t our biggest asset right now. I’m not even sure if we have more wolves than they do, but I’d say they have the upper hand because they have help from at least four different packs, which means different fighting techniques and a variety of fire power.” Thomas replied.

I could only sigh in acceptance and nod at his words. My gaze left Thomas and travelled back to Carson’s face only to realize he was staring at me. His face expressionless but his eyes telling me everything I needed to know. I adjusted myself on the stool and opened my arms.

I wasn’t sure if he’d accept my attempt at comfort but I kept my arms open and my eyes on his. After a brief pause and a look of uncertainty he crossed the room and his arms went around me in a tight embrace. “Everything’s gonna be okay.” He kept saying over and over as he held me, but I knew it wasn’t for my benefit, he was trying to convince himself and that in itself scared me beyond words.

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~Carson’s POV~

I stepped back into the war zone with Thomas by my side. We’d discussed strategy and now we had to find some way to get the word out to all our men, without getting killed before the news could be delivered.

“I’ll take the north side.” Thomas announced and at my nod he shifted into his wolf and bounded out of sight.

So far we’d done a pretty decent job of pushing the enemy away from the camp itself and so most of the fighting was being done in the forestry, where it proved to be much easier yet even more dangerous. I’d told Laken everything would be okay, but I knew that was a lie, we were losing more men than we were producing and the enemy didn’t show any sign of giving up.

If anything, they seemed to be growing in numbers and I got the impression that they were getting more help from other packs by the hour. I put a hand to my bad shoulder and rubbed at the ache that tore at it, then tipped my head and sent a silent prayer up the heavens that Marcana’s troops would be here soon, because we didn’t stand a chance without some outside help.

Taking a deep breath I drew my guns and checked to make sure I had enough bullets in each before returning one to my waist and adjusting the other in my hand. I needed to get my hands on a better weapon; one that would do significant damage in a short amount of time. With this plan in mind I took off running in the direction of the battle.

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~Laken’s POV~

I should be out there.

It was one of those recurring thoughts that wouldn’t go away until you did something about it but in this case I knew it wasn’t going anywhere and neither was I. Firstly Carson would kill me if he found out.

Secondly, I wouldn’t be much help considering my size and lack of fighting ability and thirdly….well I didn’t have a third reason, I was simply stuck here with my mom and the children, with nothing to do but soothe their fears and worry about my mate and my pack.

I couldn’t help it when my mind drifted to thoughts of the first time I’d ever uttered a word to Carson; that being the day I was being beaten up by Daryl as well as all the other instances we’d been together. Now that I looked back on it I realized that ever since we met it had just been one problem after another.

There was more good than bad mind you, but I couldn’t help wondering why it was that we couldn’t just catch a break. Why couldn’t our pack accept us? Why couldn’t we just live happily ever after like in fairy tales? Was it crazy that I still believed in fairytales? That I believed that if we ever got through this we’d have a happy ending? Was it wrong to hope?

I was dragged out of my thoughts when I felt a tug on my shirt sleeve. I looked down at the little girl with her curly hair and her pouty lips. She was about three or four and unlike the other kids here I hadn’t heard a peep out of her since her arrival.

“What is it sweetie?” I asked gently.

“I got to show daddy my booboo.” She said bending her arm to show me her bruised elbow.

She fallen during the explosion and my mom had put a pink band aid on it.

I forced a smile on my face and patted her head. In normal circumstances I’d have given her a hug and a playful poke and told her that her daddy would be back soon so she could tell him when he came but not this time, I could only look at her with pity because her father Randall James had been brought into this very house hours before and had died before he could even be administered treatment.

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~Carson’s POV~

I fired the shots in rapid succession and watched from behind my shelter as the enemy wolves fell to the ground.

“I’m not dying here tonight Alpha, I got a pregnant wife to go back home to and I swear to God I’m gonna see my baby take his first steps.”

I looked over at Cody, an ordinary member of the pack with no training whatsoever, yet he’d come out here to fight for his family. This was a man of honor. I extended my hand and he shook it firmly.

“Then let’s win this damn war Cody, because I’m not leaving my mate behind either.” I said, looking him in the eyes.

He nodded and I pushed up from the ground. “Come on” I ordered crawling on my hands and knees in the bush in order to avoid being spotted by the enemy. Cody followed suit, crawling behind me, his gun slapping rhythmically against the ground as he went.

The fighting around us continued in full swing. I could hear the growling of wolves, the tearing of flesh, the slap of skin against skin and gunfire.

Endless gunfire.

It was chaos, almost like a warzone except usually when I watched war movies, the soldiers seemed to be in the desert, we however, were stuck in the trees fighting for dear life while the other side fought for our death. I stopped suddenly and Cody bumped into me from behind.

We’d run out of cover, there was a gap in the bushes and so we’d have to make a run for it. Our aim was to get into the heart of the fighting, find out where most of the battle was taking place and take matters from there. I signaled with my hand to Cody that we were going to have to run and I took off into the confusion, praying he’d understood me.

When I reached to the cluster of trees I held my gun out in front of me, preparing for the worst. I didn’t flinch when Cody came up behind me, I simply held up my hand for him to be as silent as possible as we walked through the trees. I took aim and fired when I saw the massive wolf bounding my way.

The bullet embedded into his leg but that only slowed him down a fraction of a second. I dove to the ground, and he skidded pass me and came to a stop. Turning around once more to seek us out. I raised my weapon again.

“Cody a little help here!” I shouted my head tilting toward Cody who I assumed was somewhere behind me.

“Kinda busy right now!” Cody shouted back before I heard the scuffle that had developed. It seemed Cody had his own problem to deal with which meant I was on my own with this insanely massive creature. It had taken the bullet as if it was a mosquito bite, what the hell?!

I let off a few more shots in its direction but it managed to doge them with the grace of some kind of….I couldn’t even find a word to describe what I was seeing. It was out of this world.

“What the fuck are you?” I muttered to myself in disbelief.

“Took the words right outta my mouth.” Cody said. We were now back to back, with two seemingly indestructible wolves to give our attention and our guns weren’t doing shit.

“We gotta shift.” I panted to him, keeping my eyes on the wolf that was leering at me like it was waiting for me to do something worthwhile.

“Are you insane? I’m better off with a gun with no bullets. I can’t take on that thing!” Cody said and I could hear the fear in his voice.

I knew if we kept up the bullet spray it would eventually do some damage but not before the wolves did their own damage first. Cody was just gonna have to suck it up and try something because there was no way I could take on both wolves myself.

“We don’t have a choice; you realize they’re just standing there? They want us to shift and I don’t think we can beat them with these toys!” I hissed back at him and felt him shiver against my back. In an instant I threw down my weapon and melted down in size to the form I was most comfortable in.

I growled deep in my throat and took a step toward the enemy wolf who reciprocated the growl in kind. If I wasn’t confident in my abilities, I’d have run for the trees in fear and that’s exactly what Cody was doing. I watched in disbelief as he took off into the forestry with the other wolf at his heels. There was no way he could run fast enough. I’d have to finish up this fight quickly and try to help him.

The wolf I was stuck with took my momentary distraction as an opportunity to slam his big frame into my side, sending me rolling on the ground to slam into a nearby tree which shook upon impact. I shook my head trying to clear it and stood once more, growling once again and my eyes narrowed into slits as we stalked each other, walking a full three hundred and sixty degrees before he tried to take a bite at me.

I dodged his seeking mouth and returned the favor, which he narrowly missed. I had to advantage of size on my side, in that I could move much faster with my small frame. I was much more agile and so it was easy enough to move about. When next he pounced I feinted to the side sinking my teeth into his flesh. He howled in pain but managed to shake me off and pounce again. I feinted to the right and my teeth clamped down into his neck.

I felt the blood oozing into my mouth. I let go and jumped out of the way as he used his massive body to throw me off. For a big guy he wasn’t very smart. It was the second time he’d fallen for that. This guy would be a piece of cake.

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~Lucas’ POV~

“Holy fuck looks like Carson’s in a shitload a mess huh?” I asked, looking over at her.

She sneered at me: “Is that how you talk in front of a lady?” she questioned, her eyes narrowed.

I rolled my eyes and shook my head, so much for making small talk. We stood on the crest of the hill looking down into what could only be classified as just one big mess. Gunshots were going off, wolves were ripping each other apart and people were going down left, right and centre. It was crazy. I glanced at my companion; for want of a better word.

My comrades and I had met up with their group only a few minutes before. They called themselves the Marcano pack. Apparently we were here for the same reason; to save Carson’s ass. She was looking down at the fight with a frown and I had to wonder if she was having second thoughts.

This fight did look a bit daunting but I was sure with our group combined it would be effortless. She had about eight hundred men easy, with more on the way and while I only had about sixty-two, I had skill on my side. Every one of my men were shape shifters. I’d chosen only the best for this mission.

“He wants us to surround the border, force them to the centre of the forest so they have nowhere to go.” She said with her weird accent.

I nodded. “Well don’t just stand there looking pretty, let’s go!” I grinned, completely unfazed by her pissed off expression. She clearly didn’t like me; luckily I didn’t need her to.

I’d already informed my men to shift into their best animals and take down as many as they could. They knew the pack scent so finding the enemy wouldn’t prove to be difficult.

“Move out men!” I shouted and watched as my comrades blazed down the hill to war with a bunch of wolves they’d never even seen before. I turned to Marcana once more and my grin widened .With a mocking salute at the Ice princess I took off down the hill to give aid to the man Laken loved.

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~Carson’s POV~

I found Cody not far away. He was lying face up in the grass, his eyes staring sightlessly, however instead of the bite marks I’d expected to see on his flesh, he had two bullet holes in the back of his skull. I stooped beside him and put my hand to his eyes, pushing them close. I swallowed hard, my heart growing heavy in my chest. Cody wouldn’t be seeing his son’s first steps after all.

AUTHOR'S NOTES

AND THERE YOU HAVE IT!!..I'M SORRY IF I HAVN'T REPLIED TO YOUR COMMENTS ON CHAPTER 26 GUYS..I READ THEM THROUGH MY EMAIL BUT I'LL DEF ANSWER THEM AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.!!! I WANNA THANK EVERYONE WHO GAVE ME BOOK SUGGESTIONS I CAN'T WAIT TO READ EM ALL!!!!!!!!!

AS ALWAYS LEMME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK AND THANKS FOR READING.

ShOuT oUts: To xD_Gingerrr and to Christina Diane Tharp....I think it's sweet that you two always comment. I really really really appreciate your thoughts :D. Thanks for your support and thanks for reading!!! MUAH!

-DoUbLe.A

-unedited.