Chapter 178

nzo’s POV The hideout reeked of rogues; it made me nearly sick to my stomach. There were a lot of them, and they were attacking my men and me.

I was dodging their attacks and even getting a few bites in myself. I was still bigger than most of them, but because there were so many of them, I couldn’t beat them all on my own.

I felt a sharp blade slicing through my arm; it was made of silver. It stung, but it didn’t let that be shown on my face. Just as the blade came back around and was about to slice my face, I shifted into my human form, ducking the attack, and kicking the rogue asshole to the ground. He was also in his human form.

I stepped on his wrist, forcing him to release the blade and beg me for mercy. Max let out a low growl in my throat; he wanted to tear this jerk to pieces.

But as an Alpha, I couldn’t kill someone who surrendered.

“Cuff him and get him out of here,” I barked to one of my gammas.

I shifted back into my wolf form and went toward the other rogues who were continuously fighting my men. A lot of these rogues had already left, but there were still a few bold ones that lingered behind.

There are some in human forms, shooting arrows in our direction.

Some missed me by only a hair, others grazed me.

I ran toward them, growling loudly and being fueled with anger.

I was seeing nothing but red.

A few more arrows flew in my direction and I intended to catch them with my teeth, but as soon as they neared me, they bounced off an invisible barrier and fell to the ground. It stalled me for only a moment, confused as to what just happened.

“It’s Val,” Max breathed, lifting his nose in the air and feeling the energy of his mate circulating him.

“She gave us a shield.”

Categories Search...

“I didn’t know that was possible,” I said in return as more arrows flew in my direction, but like the first one, they hit an invisible barrier and came crashing down to the ground.

“She’s strong,” Max said.

That was an understatement.

Lila was outside with a couple of my trusted gamma warriors, so my only comfort was knowing that she was at least safe. If anything happened to her during this, I would never be able to forgive myself. I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if anything happened to my mother either.

I could smell her in this hideout, so I knew she was there.

I realized quickly that it wasn’t just me that Lila had placed a shield around; it was all the gammas and Ethan as well. They seemed confused when rogues were having trouble getting to them, but they used the shield to their advantage.

With Lila’s help, we managed to get through the clearing of rogues without getting hurt any further.

However, as soon as the last of the rogues was captured, I felt a painful tug in my muscles. Like I was being torn apart from the inside.

“Our mate is hurt,” Max breathed, also feeling the pain she was feeling.

It had to have been the shield; it was draining her of her strength and making her exhausted. It was also tearing her muscles. It was too strong, and she wasn’t trained enough to use that much power yet.

She needed to release the shield.

“Lila!” I said through the mindlink.

She didn’t respond. She was too busy keeping the shield in place keeping herself together. But I knew she could hear me.

“Lila, you need to let the barrier down. You are hurting yourself. I can feel it.”

“I want to help you,” she said through her teeth, and I knew how much she struggled to speak.

“You’ve done more than enough,” I assured her. “We got through the clearing. Release the barrier.”

I felt the tension lessen and I knew the shield was no longer intact. I let out a breath of air.

“I think I found something,” Ethan said through the mindlink, drawing all of our attention down a long and dark hallway.

My mother’s scent grew potent as I went down the hallway, which only made me run to Ethan’s location that much faster. Ethan stood in front of a large wooden doorway with a worried expression on his face.

“It’s locked,” Ethan said. “But it reeks like rogue.”

“This whole place reeks like rogue,” Jack said, scrunching his nose.

I tuned them out and ran with all my force and speed toward the door. I slammed the shoulder of my wolf into the door, ignoring the pain I felt in my body. I ran again and slammed into the door.

The third time I ran into the door, Ethan and Jack ran with me. All three of us ran into the door and the door broke off its hinges and went tumbling down a long flight of stairs. I would have fallen down the stairs myself if Ethan hadn’t grabbed my arm to keep me steady.

“Let’s go,” I ordered my gammas who were quick to run down the stairs.

There were more rogues we had to take care of but we soon found the holding cell they were keeping my mother.

“Where’s Paul?” Ethan asked, looking around the underground dungeon.

I smelled the air, only picking up the heavy smell of rogues and then a faint smell of Volana wolves. He’s had other Volanas here besides my mother.

The thought of him keeping Lila here made my stomach uneasy.

My mother lay on the ground; her breathing was shallow, and she was badly beaten.

“I think I found the keys,” Jack said from the desk across the room.

He dangled a set of keys in the air and tossed them to me. I grabbed them in the air and went to unlock the cell my mother was in.

It took a couple of tries to find the correct key, but soon, the cell door was open, and my gamma was running into the cell.

“We need to get her to the pack doctor,” one of them said, checking for a pulse. “She has a very light pulse and she’s breathing. But barely.”

“Get her to safety,” I ordered.

He nodded and lifted her off the ground, securing her on the back of his wolf. Her head dangled over, and her body was completely limp. I hated seeing her this way; my heart shattered at the thought of what she must have gone through.

I should have been there to protect her, but I wasn’t.

“We should get out of here too, Alpha,” Ethan said, stepping beside me. “I’m getting a bad feeling. A lot of the rogues took off quickly and Paul is nowhere to be seen.”

I sent a mindlink to the warriors who remained outside with Lila.

“How’s Lila” I asked as we sealed the dungeon cell and made our way back up the stairs.

“She’s in pain, Alpha. I’m not sure what happened. But she needs medical attention.”

My heart fell into my stomach. All the attacks on my body, Lila must have felt. I glanced down at my arm which was healing slowly. It would have healed faster but it was a silver dagger.

As we got back upstairs, I froze when I heard something clattering to the ground. Before I could fully grasp what, it was, I heard Ethan and Jack screaming at the same time, “ENZO!!! RUN!!!”

It was a grenade.

I wasted no time in running towards the doorway with all the speed I could musk.

As soon as I reached the door: KABOOM!