Chapter 25: Chapter 25

I woke up to screams and shouts and a frantic knock on my door. I rushed over and saw the warrior stationed outside my door in a frenzy. People were rushing out of the pack house as I came out.

“We have been attacked,” the man informed me. I blinked twice to make sure I was awake and I hadn’t heard wrong. Who would dare attack Silver Moon? As if hearing my thoughts, he answered, “The Eastline thugs are in the vicinity and causing a ruckus, setting things ablaze. The pack house is on fire as we speak so we have to evacuate.”

He gripped my forearm and stirred me with him while my brain went into overdrive trying to understand what was happening. I didn’t see the fire as we went out but people were exiting the pack along with us.

“Sia!” I turned to see Kade jogging towards me. “Are you alright?” He asked, drawing people‘s attention with how loud he spoke. “The doctor said you needed rest so I let you be. I don’t know why this is happening when you should be resting.”

“What is happening?” I asked, stepping away as a girl almost ran into me.

“Those vandals that call themselves the Eastline boys are passing through pack lands and decided to cause a commotion. We are dealing with them, there’s no need to worry.” He patted my head.

“Make sure you stick close to your guard.” With that, he was gone.

I didn’t need to stick close to my guard as the warrior acted as my shadow. I and several others stood outside the pack house waiting for the firefighters to extinguish the fire. From where I stood, I could see the fire was not a large one but the fact that several others had been started in different areas on our pack land made me nervous.

It felt like the distraction before something major happened. Words that I had paid no attention to resounded in my head and I turned to the man shadowing me.

“What’s the time?” I asked. He pulled his phone from his back pocket and said;

“It’s midnight.” I looked at the stars twinkling in the skies as I shuffled on my feet, my eyes scanning the vicinity for what I did not know.

“Could it be him?” Asena asked in a subdued voice but because we were one, I felt the anticipation in her words as she paced.

In two days, at the stroke of midnight, be ready to leave.

I was fairly certain it was him but self-preservation stopped me from getting ahead of myself.

If it was Cahir – Why would it be Cahir? He already sold me off. He would be going back on his trade deal if he did this and everything – the whole bargain, would be for nothing. He would get no oil and make an enemy of Silver Moon. Although my pack paled compared to his, we were still one of the top twenty most successful packs in the world.

“They are coming back!” A girl shrieked and everyone scattered.

A truck’s headlight illuminated the road as it sped forward with people jumping off it and yelling obscenities as they charged at the crowd in front of the pack house.

What the hell –

They really were vandals. People started to scream and run as they jumped out of three vehicles, machete in hand, hacking at the front garden and chasing people. People ran back into the pack house, others took to the road while some ran in circles.

The snarls of our warriors charging after the shirtless men laughing loudly as they chased those running like headless chickens made my feet move. Unable to decide what to do, and where to run to, I followed the people taking shelter inside the pack house. I was better off hiding indoors than running around and being chased by armed me.

“Fuck you, Silver Moon!” I heard a roar so close to me, I froze.

Turning, I saw a man with half his face painted running towards me with a tree branch. Our eyes collided and he skidded to a halt, surprise shining in his eyes and his mouth fell open.

I didn’t bother dwelling on what his expression meant. From the paint on his face, I already knew what circle he belonged to. Men that painted their faces such colours were rumoured to be solitary wolves banding together to terrorize packs as a means of livelihood.

“I found her!” I heard a yell as I dashed into the pack house.

The hoodlums, the people running about and the warrior wolves snarling and charging at the enemies made everything chaotic. My head pounded as I joined a multitude of people trying to squeeze back into the pack house. Those inside tried to shut the doors to protect themselves so a tussle ensued.

“There she is!” People screamed but I didn’t dare turn.

I was halfway through the doors into the pack house but then I was not. Someone pushed me, another trampled me and I felt my nose bleeding again. My head pounded as I tried to avoid the stamped of feet coming for me while fighting the darkness trying to steal my consciousness.

“There you are.” A hand gripped me and pulled me from the floor as someone stepped on my arm.

“I’ve got you.” I looked up at the face of my guard as my vision blurred.

He lifted me off my feet and shouldered past the scared group and back out of the pack house I had been trying to get into. The warrior wolves were attacking the hoodlums but it was not an easy feat considering their speed and the number of pack mates running too.

The guard put me down and spoke. “The Alpha ordered –“ He fell to the ground and went limp. My mouth opened wide in a soundless scream as he went unconscious from a blow behind his head. I choked on the horror overwhelming me and turned. Before I completely turned, hands gripped me from behind my knees and hefted me off the ground and onto a broad shoulder.

“Hold tight!” The person said and I screamed this time when he ran. I got carried away as I struggled, fighting to maintain consciousness, with blood dripping from my nose as my head bobbed.

I was able to stay conscious by luck. The man ran until we got a good distance away from the pack house where two others were waiting in a black car.

“I found her!” He dumped me into a seat. “Let’s go before anyone notices she’s gone.” The car revved as the other men cheered.

“Wow, she’s as pretty as Aristo said!” One man said. “Hello, I am Kamal.” He extended a hand which I flinched from. “It’s okay, we are the good guys.” There was nothing for me to say as I fought to not scoff.

The good guys? They literally just destroyed things in my pack and abducted me! What sort of ‘good guys’ were these?

“I’m sorry we meet under such unpleasant conditions.” The man who carried me said with a sheepish grin. He was a large and balding man with a splatter of ginger hair on his chin.

“You – You are kidnapping me.” I found my voice at the same time panic kicked into my system with the force of a tornado.

“Technically –“ The man who identified as Kamal said. “Technically, we are delivering you to your mate.” He beamed at me but it did nothing to ease my anxiety. “He said you would be ready to go.

Did he – Was he wrong?”

“Who – What –“ My heart was beating too fast for me to make sense of anything. “Can I –“ Kamal handed me a bottle of water which I accepted with shaky hands. The other man handed me his handkerchief and motioned to my nose.

“Damn, did you do that, Zion?” Kamal asked with a grimace. “The Alpha is going to be pissed you hurt his mate.”

“I didn’t do anything!” The men bickered and I got even more lightheaded. The driver spared me a glance and gave me a pitiful smile.

“They are at it all the time. You get used to it,” he said in a gruff voice. “I am Sean.”

“Can someone tell me what is happening?” I asked and on second thought, I added, “Please.”

“We are here to rescue you on Alpha Cahir’s orders,” Kamal paused his arguing with Zion to speak.

“But – But – You set the place –“

“Yeah, Aristo is my friend. He told us they didn’t treat you right so we thought we should have some fun fucking shit up for them before Alpha Cahir wipes them out of existence. I told the others and they were all too glad to join in on a fun activity.” Kamal winked.

“Your – Your gang?” I asked.

“They’re my friends. My rather large group of friends,” he said. “Some say we are a bunch of hoodlums but I like to think of my friends and I as fun lovers who rain hell on people who act like shit and Aristo hired us to do just that with your pack.”

All of these I should have expected. I’d been warned beforehand yet –

“You can sleep. It will take a while to get to the airport,” Sean piped in.