Saved by the Alphas

Lorelai

I threw up a shield as the bomb went off.

We all ducked as the flames threw out everywhere, rebounding off the magical border I had put up.

“Are you fucking kidding me?!” I cried out, my fists clenching.

I threw out my magic and shadows, chasing down Heather as she took off behind the villages.

Kai went to chase her down with a roar that shook the ground.

I stopped him, “Don’t. She wants us to chase her,” I snarled.

“Clear out the huts, chase them out. They’re not staying here if they can’t play well with others,” I snapped.

The pack dispersed, checking in all of the huts as I eyed the surroundings.

Brax was in front of me, using his shadows too.

He looked back at me, as confused as I was.

“They’re not here,” he said.

Which was more dangerous than if they were because that meant they weren’t finished with their trap.

My eyes went wide, “The City!”

I was running as soon as the thought caught my mind.

“Retreat! Get to the city!” Derik called in the link, catching up to me.

Kai had ripped into wolf form, running ahead of us, checking the forest.

But I sensed nothing. Like something was blocking me. It was infuriating. The rogues were small, and had nowhere near the numbers we had, so why the hell did they seem so confident?

Brax was behind me, following with his shadows out. Mine were too but they couldn’t sense anything either.

We made it to the forest between the areas and I frowned, slowing down.

None of this made sense.

I couldn’t sense anything wrong with the city.

Cain or Beenie would have said something. But it was quiet.

Cain confirmed that in the link and I eyed the forest warily.

What the hell was going on?

Another flaming bottle came flying at us, this time, I was too late to catch it.

I curled away, prepared to get blasted but warm arms came around me and the heat of the explosion curved around me.

I peered out of my eye to see Kai and Derik huddled around me, a wall of shadow up from Brax.

He pushed the flames back out and the forest caught fire, the flames roaring.

The realm screamed in my mind and I sucked in a breath, holding it.

“Something is wrong. The realm, it’s screaming,” I grimaced, clutching my skull like that would make a difference.

Kai growled, looking further into the forest.

“I can’t sense them. How are they doing this?” He snarled.

“They could be using the same herbs as the humans did?” Derik guessed but this felt too planned for that.

We would have known they were growing it. They were still wolves, they were allergic to that shit too.

Lucien caught up then with his two vamps.

Half of his face was healing back together as he dusted ash off his black coat.

“Well. It seems the war is not as over as we assumed.”

“Understatement, vamp,” Brax huffed, his shadows everywhere as the pack hovered under Kai’s orders.

“We cleared out the huts, they were empty but still had a wolf stench in them so they haven’t been gone long. I assume they are trying to lure us into something more nefarious,” Lucien said way too calmly.

But he was calm, it was his entire thing, which was reassuring in a way. But also weird.

So was the situation.

And Lucien wasn’t wrong. My skin still prickled in warning, my shadows and magic still felt a threat.

I just couldn’t sense the rogues or where they were hiding.

“We need to go back there and tear their damn heads off,” Kai growled in the link.

I hated to admit it, but teaching the rogues a lesson sounded damn good to me.

I wasn’t a fan of having bombs thrown at me.

Or being lured into a trap.

“The rogues have declared war. We need to prepare the city for attacks,” Derik ordered.

“And let them get away with throwing a bomb at our mate? At us? Fuck that,” Kai snarled.

“Hate to agree with Mr. Violence over here, but if we don’t assert some kind of statement of dominance over this, they’ll have the upper hand, D.” Brax put his opinion in the mix.

And then they were all staring at me.

“What? So now I’m the tiebreaker?” I asked.

They all waited, which gave me my answer.

“If I may offer the human’s vote, I would rather we retreat now. Then make a plan based on what we know. Out here, we seem vulnerable,” Mom said, with Galen at her side.

He didn’t agree, though.

I felt that much in the link.

He was fuming, radiating anger over the fact that the rogues had attacked Mom. He kept his mouth shut, though, which I expected.

I turned to Lucien, “Vote. Head back to the water villages and show the Rogues where we stand after their declaration, or do we go back to the city to fight another day?” I asked.

Lucien smirked, “We are vampires. We do not run from wolves.”

That left me.

I hated going against my Alphas, but when they were split, I had no choice.

And I hated thinking that either option could end in anyone getting hurt because I had made the wrong decision.

“If we retreat, the rogues will think we are weak. We have to show them we are not,” I said.

“Beautiful—”

I turned to Derik. “Derik, I know it’s not the diplomatic way but the rogues have something going on. They’re declaring war on us. That makes no sense. They don’t have the numbers and they know we just won against the vampires and that I have all the border magic. We have to go back to the water villages and learn more about what they are up to. Otherwise, we head back to The City and a table full of questions with answers we don’t have,” I explained.

Derik hesitated, then closed his eyes and nodded, his hand sliding down to rest on my stomach.

“The idea of you anywhere near them and their traps while carrying my child gives me a fear you could not possibly understand, Beautiful,” he whispered.

I moved into him, holding him.

“I understand, Derik.”

“That is the decision then?” My mom sighed.

I looked over to her and nodded.

“Sorry,” I apologized, but only because I was sorry for outvoting her, not because I thought I made the wrong choice.

“Pearl will come back with me, we’ll check on the humans and fortify the grassland villages,” Galen said.

I nodded to him and said goodbye to my mom.

Then I turned to my Alphas, the vampires, the pack.

“Don’t separate this time. I want us together. If they plan to pick us off, they won’t get there. It’ll be easier to shield you all if we’re close,” I said, my magic ready.

Kai barked orders to the pack, getting them information, and protecting all of us. The vampires headed the group, smirking as they eyed the forest, their confidence radiating off them.

They were not worried about the rogues and normally, I wouldn’t be either.

But this was different.

Their scent was gone, and that had alarm bells ringing in my head.

The fact that they were even declaring war at all was another warning bell.

I eyed the forest we walked through, checking through the trees for any shadows that didn’t belong or any movement that wasn’t one of ours.

There was nothing though. Whatever herbs they had to shield them, were damn good ones.

My skin was still tingling in warning, my magic waiting.

My shadows were with Brax’s checking everything around us.

No more explosives came at us, which made me wary too.

Why had they led us away like they had? And then hit us again?

It felt like they were herding us, like the cattle the farmers herded.

But in this instance, we were the cattle.

“Don’t get too close, Beautiful. Let Kai and the wolves inspect the place first,” Derik whispered.

I knew when to fold and nodded.

But I did let my shadows go ahead with them.

We didn’t get far before Kai stopped, and the pack too.

“Why’d you stop?” Derik asked, narrowing his eyes on the surroundings.

We weren’t back at the villages yet. We shouldn’t have stopped, but Kai, in his huge wolf form, didn’t move.

A growl started low in his chest, and he nodded to Hank.

Hank huffed, his wolf not as big as I thought it would be considering the man himself was huge.

He padded forward.

“Something is warding us off. Like a forcefield or something. Luna, can you feel it?” Kai asked in the link with the pack.

I stepped forward, Derik and Brax with me.

I sent out my magic and shadows to the space in the forest that Kai had stopped in front of.

And I felt it.

A power radiating that shouldn’t be there. It had no scent and I wasn’t sure if it was magic or man-made. But it was a barrier of some kind.

And it felt dangerous.

Hank stopped just before it, looking up and down the forest.

I understood then.

Kai had sent him forward to test it.

“Wait!” I called out before he could touch it.

Something in my intuition told me that Hank would not survive the test. And I was listening to that.

Everyone froze and I bent down, picking up a rock.

“How about we try this instead?” I raised a brow, rolling the rock between my fingers.

Hank looked relieved and stepped back.

I ordered everyone to get back, just in case.

The rogues seemed to have developed quite the taste for explosives.

Brax kept his shadows hovering, ready to intercept anything and I kept mine out too.

My heart was racing as I eyed the forest in front of us.

There was definitely something there. It made my pulse rapid and my magic flare.

I threw the stone into the forest.

It hit the invisible barrier, bouncing back with a whoosh as it flew back at me.

Derik’s hand snapped out and he caught the stone before it got me.

I let out a tense breath and eyed the barrier. It was invisible but I knew it was there. I could feel it.

Like pure energy just waiting for its prey.

“Do you think this encompasses the entire water area?” I asked.

Brax nodded, “That would be my bet. I can’t feel the water there anymore. I can feel the lake but the stream that supplies the water area is hidden from me,” he said tightly.

“How have they done this?” Derik asked quietly, and I wasn’t sure if he was talking to me or not.

He walked forward and hovered his hand in front of the barrier.

Little sparks connected between it and his hand.

He cursed and shook his head. “I’m talking with Galen. He says there is no herb or concoction strong enough that he knows of to pull something like this off,” Derik said, looking up at me with a frown and a bright hue of fear in his eyes.

I understood it.

We had thought we were safe. We had thought we were bringing another child into this world differently than last time. But we weren’t.

We were bringing our child into another war that we didn’t start.

A war we never saw coming because we hadn’t seen the rogues as a threat.

I was dreading finding out what that mistake was going to cost us.

And by the look in my Alpha’s eyes, they were too.