Owned by the Alphas 4: Saved by the Alphas

Lorelai

I ran from the mansion steps towards the scream, Derik running with me. Brax was with the twins but even he was heavy in the link, wondering what the hell had happened.

But the link was cloudy.

I didn’t know what that meant and I hadn’t sensed it happening. By the feral look on Derik’s face, he hadn’t either.

We got to the gate where the guards there were helping the hunting party through the gate.

They were bloodied, with scratches all over them, and arrows embedded in them. They were alive though, just.

The air caught in my chest as tears sprung to my eyes.

Hank was being dragged through and he was a mess.

“Kai?!” I screamed, looking around the wounded for him.

Derik was already barking orders at others for help, getting the wounded to the hospital.

But I couldn’t find my mate.

“Kai?!” I screamed again.

The link wasn’t working. I couldn’t hear him or sense him.

Panic filled me, my stomach tight, my chest throbbing painfully.

I ran to the gates, looking out as more of the pack were brought back injured.

I stopped Taylor as she dragged an unconscious wolf through the gates.

“Where is he?” I demanded.

Her eyes filled with tears and she shook her head.

“They’ve got a lot of power, Luna. We were ambushed on the edge of the city territory. We didn’t sense them or see them coming. They have toxins. Dangerous ones. Kai stayed to do what had to be done to the infected ones. But he’s alive,” she said, the fear in her eyes making me suck in a breath.

She took the wolf through then and I turned back to the land outside the city. I tried to see into the forest but there was a mist over it that I couldn’t see through, even with my wolf eyes.

Tears welled in them and I turned to Derik. But he was directing and helping the wounded.

I looked up to the window of the mansion where I knew Brax would be looking out. He shook his head, a thunderous expression on his face because he knew what I was about to do.

“I have to,” I whispered, knowing he’d read my lips.

The second I had made my decision, I was off. I ran from the city. I had to find Kai.

“Lorelai!” Derik boomed. It was a terrifying tone I hadn’t heard him use on me, almost like he had tried to Alpha me. But it didn’t work because I was his mate, his Luna.

I ran faster, heading towards where Taylor had said they were.

I turned as I left the city, throwing up my border around it. The border was purple and swirling with magic that went easily from me.

I immediately felt the drain on my body, the energy of the magic not in me but my shadows were there, ready to keep me compensated.

The border would keep them protected.

I turned and ran to the misty forest.

“Kai?!” I screamed as I headed in the direction Taylor had said they were attacked.

And then Brax was there. His shadows first, then him.

He said nothing, running with me as I called for Kai.

Kai said nothing.

“You’re not going to tell me off?” I asked.

“Nope,” he shook his head.

He said it in a way that meant I was still in trouble.

“Because Derik will?” I assumed.

Brax smirked, “Yup.”

“Is he mad?”

Brax gave me a droll stare, “Spitfire, you ran from the protection of him and the city into a forest that is clearly under the influence of forces we have no control of and took his heir with you. He’s not just mad. He’s livid. Which is why I am here to help you find Kai and not Derik.”

I chewed my lip, moving through the mist and trees, my heart growing heavier.

“I can’t leave Kai out here,” I said.

They would come for me if I was out here. I was a mate too. I felt the same when something happened to them.

“I understand that. But going in without a plan is Derik’s Achilles heel. He needs to know where you’re going, where you’re searching, how long you’ll be gone and he needs someone with you. He tried to come but he was too worked up. So he’s on help duty. The injured are bad, Spitfire,” he said and I felt like it was a warning for what we might find.

“I know,” I whispered, “I can feel it in the link. Which is smothered for some reason.”

Brax nodded, “Another reason Derik is going to tear you a new one.”

Brax turned me to him then and grabbed my face so I had to look at him, “Spitfire. You carry his heir and his heart. Two things he never thought he would have. You need to understand what that means in his head because it will break him to lose either of them,” Brax urged.

I swallowed the tight lump in my throat and nodded.

“I do understand but you all carry mine, Brax. And I need to protect what’s mine. It’s a part of me now,” I said then looked out over the forest, sniffing deeply, “We have to go. I smell blood,” I shuddered.

Brax clenched his eye shut, his shadows moving quickly.

His were growing more powerful, strong, and sure like he was becoming. They were mirroring his growth. He used to be a sideline in the pack, the Alpha that didn’t play as much of a part but since he had started sharing duties with Derik, his shadows had responded.

It was hot.

He smirked at me and then kissed my cheek.

“Don’t distract me with looks like that, Spitfire. I am helpless against them,” he said.

I grinned then kept trekking through the forest, my anxiety increasing with every step.

I still couldn’t hear Kai, the blood smell getting worse.

But it wasn’t just blood.

There was something with the blood, a toxic smell that tasted off on my tongue.

I gagged on the taste as we got closer.

Brax ripped a piece off his shirt and tied it around my mouth and nose, “Don’t breathe in too much of whatever this mist is. I’ve never tasted anything like it,” he said quietly, his eyes narrowed on the trees around us.

He put a piece over his mouth, his shadows inspecting every part of the forest ahead of us.

We came to a huge thicket of bushes and Brax swiped through it with his claws. I helped him and we broke into a clearing.

Except it never used to be a clearing. It had been leveled with a massacre.

I sucked in a breath, tears instantly streaming as our wolves lay in disarray covered in blood, black veins of poison all over them.

And then I saw Kai.

He was covered in blood.

And he was fighting one of the pack members. Our pack members.

The mist was heavy and I held my breath as much as possible without passing out, holding the covering to my face.

“Kai,” I whispered.

His head snapped to mine, his eyes going wide.

“Little Luna! Get out of here!” He yelled across the clearing a second before he was tackled to the ground.

“Kai!” I screamed and launched my shadows at the wolf.

It was in its human form, a wolf from our pack. But he was wild and gnashing, naked as he tried to break free from my shadows.

I pinned him against the tree as he squealed.

His eyes were black, his veins black beneath his skin from a wound in his stomach.

“What the fuck?” Brax demanded, his shadows helping me keep the guy pinned.

Kai coughed and spluttered then dragged himself up from the ground.

His pain was so fierce it pierced me through the smothered link. But it wasn’t physical.

He turned to the man we had against the tree.

“Go safely into death. Travel quickly. Find peace. And may the realm accept you,” Kai whispered then sent his sword through the man’s heart.

I gasped as Brax went still.

The forest fell silent then.

Kai’s shoulders sagged and he hung his head.

“We need to get back to the city. It is not safe with the injured there,” he said, his voice filled with so much pain.

I went to him, wrapping my arms around him.

“Kai,” I cried.

He held me lightly for a second before he wrapped his big arms around me and picked me up, crushing me into him, breathing in the scent from my neck.

“You smell like sex. And Derik,” he breathed against me.

I laughed, his joke breaking the tension.

He put me down and grabbed my hand, his eyes glaring into the forest around us.

“Was it the rogues?” Brax asked, his shadows even heavier in the air. They started pushing out the mist and I frowned.

“Our shadows can move the mist?” I asked.

He nodded, “Just use the heaviest emotion you have and put the blame for it on the mist. The shadows want to help alleviate it,” he said like it was the easiest thing. He had become a master with his, knowing how they worked. I was still learning and a little more impulsive but I tried and managed to help. A little.

“It was the rogues,” Kai growled after a moment. On our way out of the clearing, he checked every body, whispering the same words as before then closing their eyes.

Brax started doing the same as I kept the mist at bay.

I had never heard the words but they felt familiar inside me. Like my body responded.

I watched until everybody was put to rest.

They all had the black veins.

“It took one hit,” Kai said coming back over, “They rained down one time with arrows. We didn’t sense them, we didn’t see them. But then the arrows came and it didn’t matter. Once one landed, the wound and the wolf became infected,” he growled, rushing us from the clearing.

He eyed every tree like it was going to attack.

It might if the rogues controlled them.

“How is that possible? Do you think they found a relic or something?” Brax asked.

“A relic?” I had never heard of them before.

“Ancient relics. There used to be rumors of relics in our world that could do different things that defied the realm rules. But they were banned, hidden. Because their power was dark. But it could be possible,” Kai said, still concentrating on our surroundings as we moved.

Normally he’d be running back to the city but since he wasn’t, I knew it was bad.

“We can’t sense them, we don’t see them until they want us to,” Kai murmured.

Brax kept his shadows out, staying ahead of us after that comment. I didn’t complain. With the border up, I wasn’t as much help as I wanted to be.

“Whatever they’ve done has messed up the link,” Brax said.

“I know. We tried to use it but it didn’t work. It’s smothered and it will be until I can get back to the city and deal with the rest of the infected,” Kai said, his pace picking up.

“The infected? What do you mean?” I asked.

“The arrows. They were laced with some kind of poison. It turned the ones that were hit into what you just saw. They turn wild, attacking and biting, trying to infect others. They are mindless, no longer themselves. The arrows infected three but once they were turned, their scratches and bites turned others. Then we had to defend ourselves from our own,” he said, pain heavy in my chest as his voice broke.

Brax growled low and we started moving faster, “Derik just let them all back in the city!” He snarled.

My heart froze, my eyes wide, “The twins,” I couldn’t breathe.

“Derik is not with them?” Kai demanded.

I shook my head, “He was helping the wounded to the infirmary.”

Kai roared and took off, sprinting through the forest. Brax and I ran with him.

“Taylor said you stayed behind. I thought you sent them,” I puffed.

“I did. Some of them aren’t wounded. But they need to be checked before being let in. Hank had my instructions!” Kai growled.

“Hank was unconscious,” I whispered.

“Fuck!” Kai ran ahead, bursting into his wolf as he took off.

Brax ran with me, our shadows keeping us walled in.

We were almost there, the forest ending up ahead when I heard the familiar whistle of arrows.

Brax must’ve heard it too because as long as it took me to react to the sound, Brax already had me tucked against him, an arrow landing in the ground where I had just stood.

Another arrow whistled and we ran.

I threw out a wall of magic, the arrows bounced off it, but I felt every single one like a punch to my chest.

I stumbled and Brax cursed, picking me up and running with me. We made it a few more steps when he cursed and yanked me against him, throwing his hand up, his shadows falling around us like a dome.

He tightened them in around us and not a single arrow made it through.

I clenched my eyes shut as he grunted, holding us and his shadows steady.

The second the arrows stopped, I eyed the shadows.

He had solidified them.

I looked up at him wide-eyed, his nose bleeding.

“Brax, you’re—”

“We have to go,” he urged and we stood up, his shadows went back to their normal state of smoke-like texture and we ran.

I needed to know what the hell he had just done but that had to wait because the rogues were on us.

I felt them chasing us.

We broke through the trees and I looked over my shoulder at them.

Their eyes were glowing in between the trees and I shuddered.

They were pissed about the shadows.

Good.

We broke through the magic border and into the city a second later and I doubled over, holding my knees as I panted, trying to catch my breath.

I coughed and spluttered as the clean air filled my lungs.

My stomach swirled and I stumbled over to the concrete wall, yanking my fabric down from my mouth and emptying my stomach on the ground there.

The foul taste of the mist left my tongue, and I took a deep shuddering breath.

Brax came over with a satchel of water, wiping his mouth like he had just done the same thing.

I took a grateful gulp and then looked around the entrance to the city.

The flame torches were going, despite the day beginning, and there were more guards on the entrance and the wall.

The cobblestone was still stained with blood.

I narrowed my eyes on it and then started running towards the mansion. I wanted to find Derik and Kai, but I had to check on the twins first.

I needed to know they were okay.

Brax ran with me, heading straight to the nursery when we got to the mansion. I wanted to explore the reason the city was so quiet, or why the link wasn’t clear yet. I wanted to know why I couldn’t sense Derik or Kai.

But it had to wait because not knowing if the twins were okay was making me panic more than anything.

I burst into their nursery, tears filling my eyes when I saw Kai with them. Anetta was there too, feeding Zale. Kai had his shirt off, and blood-stained pants on, and his face looked like it had been wiped of blood but not very well.

“Kai,” I let out a breath and he looked up.

“Little Luna,” he said back, his voice soft as he held Enzi’s hand.

I went over to Anetta and held my arms out for Zale. She handed him over and I whispered a thank you. She nodded and left the room silently.

Her eyes were filled with fear too.

“I checked the wounded. They are clear. Hank’s wounds were from fighting those things but he didn’t get infected so he will be okay. The others were heavily infected by the mist. It numbed their senses. Once they have it expelled from their bodies, the link will clear. Or so Cain says,” Kai said, his voice monotone.

Brax came over then, urging me to the sofa. I sat down, the weakness still thrumming inside me from the mist, the border, the running.

It was a lot.

I fed Zale and leaned on Brax who put his arm around me.

“Where is Derik?” I asked.

“Still at the hospital. He wants to make sure the mist hasn’t done anything else to them. He knows you were in it and it’s making him—”

“Irrational?” I offered.

Kai smirked but the expression didn’t reach his eyes when he turned to me, “Your safety is never an irrational fear, Little Luna. Not when you carry an heir and not when you run from the safety of the city.”

I swallowed and nodded, “I know. And I don’t mean to worry him. But I can’t sit by and let you all be hurt. You would not do that, you cannot expect it of me. I am not a damsel, I don’t need to always be protected or coddled—”

“But you don’t always have to be the one in danger either,” Kai interrupted and I looked down at Zale.

That was fair.

I had Zale and Enzi and their sibling inside me. I was reckless and I had too much to lose to be.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered.

“Accepted,” Derik murmured from the doorway.

I snapped my head up and looked at him.

He came to sit next to me, his shirt stained with blood. He put a kiss on Zale’s forehead and then looked at Kai.

“The infected, they had to be killed? There was no way to save them?” Derik asked.

Kai scowled and nodded.

“It was either kill them or let them infect us all.”

Derik nodded, “I’ll let the council know and we’ll have a ceremony for the dead. We can’t collect their bodies but we can give the families closure,” he sighed.

“We need a system. No wolves go anywhere alone. No more wolves outside the city. The rogues are right on the edge of the forest,” Brax said.

Derik nodded, “We need to think of something and fast. They have poison and I would bet now that Lucien was telling the truth about the water. They didn’t poison it, the rogues did. Which means we need to protect it before they get to it again,” Derik said.

Brax nodded, “The mist had the same taste as the water. When I was in it, it burned, and had the same feeling.”

“Nothing I know of has ever done that kind of damage to a werewolf before. These things were not themselves anymore,” Kai said, distracted by Enzi who was playing with his finger.

And of course, I had to ask the question that made everyone go silent, “So what do we do about it?”

They were saved from answering because the door was shoved open, Hank coming through the door holding his stomach that was bandaged.

“Hank you can’t—” Anetta was behind him trying to pull him back, “I’m sorry Alphas, Luna. Hank is being—”

“I need to deliver a message, from the humans,” Hank growled, shaking Anetta off.

I didn’t think I could feel lower than I felt seeing Derik so scared for the pack, Kai in so much pain from what he’d had to do, and Brax so different with his new shadow adaptations, but those words and the look on Hank’s face did it.

Brax gripped my hand in his, squeezing it tightly. I gripped his just as hard.

“What about the humans?” I dared to ask.

“Galen managed to get through to me before I passed out. Maybe he was close, I don’t know, but he was angry. Alphas, Luna, something is happening to the humans. They’re going missing. A few every day at least.”