Chapter 29; No time for marked graves.

Chapter 29

~Lucas’ POV~

It had been ten minutes since Rivers had dropped the bombshell. Ten minutes since I’d made a note of how many guards we’d need for the mission. Ten minutes since I’d made the swift decision to carry it out.

Ten excruciating minutes where all I’d felt was fear and worry and anger. Fear for the life of a man I loved beyond reason, worry for his wellbeing and anger at the fools who had dared to take him from me.

Since the moment he’d been taken I hadn’t allowed myself to believe that Adrian wouldn’t make it out of this alive. No matter how much time had passed for whatever reason I had housed the thought in the back of my mind that he’d be fine, that his brothers would rescue him and we would put all of this behind us and now that Rivers had relayed the news all I could think about was Adrian; his body lifeless in a marked grave.

I couldn’t allow that. I wouldn’t, because despite everything we’d been through I couldn’t continue without him; I couldn’t stand the pain of having to.

I allowed Jessie to rewrap the large bandage that covered my torso then it was back to business. I pulled out weapon after weapon from the armory passing them out to the others who’d already agreed to come along on this final rescue mission, then I turned to the guards I’d asked to gather.

There were over two hundred of them still here at the camp because, like a fool, Carson had put his pack before his own safety and had only taken less than half the men with him.

“I’ll need at least a hundred and fifty of you with me; suit up and be ready to move out in ten minutes.” I issued the order but no one moved a muscle. And this was the problem with pack guards; they only took orders from the Alpha and his Beta.

I clenched my teeth, pissed at their ridiculous sense of process in a time like this. As I watched them watch me I decided right there and then that I’d go with the few who had already volunteered and no matter what, I’d bring home Adrian and I’d even bring them back their Alpha who they now stupidly thought they were serving by standing there doing nothing.

I’d already turned to resume my weapon gathering so I was surprised when Laken placed a land on my shoulder to stop me and I watched as he turned to address the men.

“I’ve never known a set of pack guards to let down their Alpha in his time of need.” He began and the murmuring started.

“The Alpha himself gave us orders to remain here and protect the pack, do you expect us to defy him?” one guard spoke up and the others were quick to agree. The murmuring grew.

“The job of the pack guard is to protect every member of this pack to the best of his ability. You all made that pledge when you began and now your Alpha, your Beta and even your fellow guardsmen need your help and you would stand by and do nothing? Do you not have minds of your own to do as you deem fit for the wellbeing of your own pack?” Laken continued. His voice had risen a notch and the courtyard went silent.

“As the Alpha’s mate I won’t command you to do what’s right, but just know that if you stay here then you’re no more than cowards and I want no part in it! I’ll be going out to give aid to my leader in a time when he needs me the most. If any of you feel the need to do the same then you have ten minutes to grab your weapons and suit up. We need one hundred and fifty but if we fail to even get one at least I know who was willing to risk it all for a leader who has risked it all for them.”

When Laken ended his speech the yard was deathly silent and I stared at him in surprise. I’d never thought he was capable of such boldness and I found that when you were in love you saw sides of yourself you never even knew existed.

Laken had already turned to gather everything he would need and I watched in surprised and pride as the men and women of the guard began to gather weapons along with us.

They were silent as they gathered with purpose and I tore my eyes away, masking my relief as I continued to prepare myself for what might turn out to be a war.

“Yo Rivers hand me a gun.” Grady shouted from across the room as I was placing a pocket knife into my shoe.

“Dude you’re human, what do you think you can honestly do out there?” Rivers questioned and I saw the annoyance flash across Grady’s face before he clenched his jaw and zipped up his jacket.

“He’s right Grady, it’s not safe for you out there. You should stay here. We’ll bring Thomas back to you, I promise.” I told him with sincerity but he scoffed at my words.

“Don’t even try that shit with me Lucas, nobody’s gonna protect Thomas better than me because I’m the only one willing to give my life to safe his. Now hand be a bloody gun. We don’t have time to waste.” He said and without really thinking it through I decided that I wouldn’t argue with him over this.

If I was in his situation, despite being a frail human, I’d be front and center in my campaign to save my lover’s life. Grady was old enough to know what he wanted and what risks he was going to have to take to get it.

“Okay, you can come but I can’t give you a gun.” I told him with some finality. Grady was too flighty to be trusted with a deadly weapon.

“I swear you guys get dumber and dumber with every word that come out of your mouths.” He insulted and I shook my head.

“You there.” He called out to one of the guards. “As the Beta’s mate I order you to give me a gun.” He said, abusing the little power he had.

The guard looked at him uncertainly then with only brief hesitation handed one to Grady who lifted the weapon to inspect it then shot me a smirk and I shook my head, deciding I’d get it from him soon enough.

Behind me, he continued with his gloating. “See? That guy there has some sen-”

I felt like I’d jumped ten feet into the air when the shot rang out and the screams of shock from the others showed just how frightening it had been.

We all turned to look at Grady who held the gun in hand looking just as shocked as the rest of us...if not a little guilty.

“You fucking idiot! You almost gave me a heart attack!” Rivers was the first to respond.

“See why you don’t get a gun?” I questioned then, going for a calm façade when my heart still hadn’t quite left my throat.

“My finger slipped I swear.” He was quick to defend and I grabbed the weapon from his hand roughly before clicking on the safety.

“You don’t get a weapon dumbass.” Laken said then. He still had his hand over his chest and his face hadn’t quite gone back to its original shade.

“What’d ya mean I don’t get a weapon, I won’t survive out there without one!” he countered and I shook my head.

“If you get a weapon, we won’t survive out there.” Rivers was quick to point out and I watched as he shoved the blade into the side of his shoe before dropping his pant leg to cover it.

“Here, you can have this.” I said handing him a tranquilizer gun instead. He looked at it, scrunching up his nose in disgust.

“Grady I swear if you shoot me with that thing imma kill you.” Rivers was telling him. I turned away to gather up everything else I’d need, ignoring their banter. We had no time to waste, our men needed us and I wasn’t about to let mine down.

It didn’t take us much longer to get going. We’d managed to scrounge up ninety-two guards and a few werewolf civilians in the short time, then we’d headed out with purpose; deciding like Carson before us; to take to the trees to get to the enemy pack. They proved better cover and with the enemy not expecting us, it also provided us with the best element of surprise.

Rivers hadn’t offered much more insight into Marcus and the others situation, other than that there was something seriously wrong with their mission and I was able to focus on our own mission without him adding further to my concern.

I still worried however, that we didn’t have enough men. I’d called the Marcana pack earlier to see if they could possibly lend us a hand, but I’d learned that Victoria’s pack had also carried out a raid on them due to their own part played in her father’s death and couldn’t afford to offer any assistance.

I’d been left with no one else to call who would be able to get to us in time, so ignoring my physical discomfort and with only determination and a loaded gun to guide me, I’d set out as head of our group to take down those who’d wronged us.

It was almost nightfall by the time we got there. It had taken Carson and the others many hours on foot to arrive into enemy territory, but I assumed that was only because they’d been met with violent opposition on the way there. Our traverse through the thick foliage had been easy and without an enemy sighting. I was glad for that.

I’d directed the men to spread out as far as they could around the territory to get a better understanding of what we were up against. From my vantage point upon a thickly wooded hill I was able to see into the court yard where I easily made out Carson and the others.

They stood in a small group and I was able to see how little men they’d brought with them on their recovery mission. It was no wonder they were in this mess. They all stood as still as you’d expect them to be with the number of guns that were trained don them. They’d obviously walked straight into a trap; one in which there was no way they could escape from alive without some help.

The courtyard itself was teeming with enemy guards and from what I could see the camp border was also being heavily guarded. No way in; no way out. Victoria had clearly thought this through. I strained to see Adrian but he was nowhere in sight and my worry grew.

“The place is a fortress. I’m wondering how they even made it in in the first place.” Jessie commented and I shifted slightly to get a better look.

“They only got in because Victoria planned it that way.” I told her and I imaged she nodded.

“Why do you think they’re still alive? I mean it’s been hours since Rivers told us they were in trouble. Why not kill them earlier?” Laken questioned and I shook my head.

“I think she’s playing with them. The longer she keeps them there with guns pointed to their heads the more uncertain they become. She’s trying to scare them before she makes her move.” I guessed.

“But isn’t that a waste of time? The longer she waits, the more time she gives them. Doesn’t she realize that she’s giving Carson’s pack time to come rescue him?” Jessie spoke this time and I sighed.

“Victoria’s smart but you can be smart and still be a fool. This is just her way of showing she’s in control. She makes them sweat a little; make them wonder and worry what’s going to happen next then she puts her big plan into action. She’s always been a drama queen.”

Which just brought me back to the reason I knew so much about her. To think I’d once been her father’s lapdog.

I shifted out of the way when two men carted my 6.8kilogram L96 sniper rifle onto the hill and placed it carefully onto the hard soil. Then I forced the others back and dropped down onto my stomach so I could get a better look at the courtyard through the weapon’s scope.

I noticed the pile of weapons lying on the ground far in front of Carson’s men and gathered that they’d been forced to discard them earlier.

“Jesus! Something’s wrong with Thomas!” Grady exclaimed then and two guards tackled him to the ground to prevent him from alerting the enemy with any further outbursts.

His binoculars fell to the ground beside him and I scooped it up to have a look and sure enough there was Thomas, kneeling on the ground, his hand to his arm; it looked like he was in pain, which meant he was worse off than he had been when he’d called Grady earlier.

I handed the binoculars to Rivers who held it up to his eyes and motioned the guards to release Grady.

“You need to be quiet. We’re Thomas’ only chance of getting out of there alive.” I whispered harshly and watched as Grady grabbed the instrument from Rivers hands.

“Tell the guys their Beta’s hurt and we need to find a way in pronto.” I issued. I imagined that Thomas’ body was already healing itself but without treatment; infection could set in and I didn’t even want to think about how long he’d have left after that.

“It’s not gonna be that easy. They’ll have all their bases covered. There’s no way we’re gonna just find a way in.” Jessie commented and I nodded in agreement.

“We’ll just have to hope that they’ll present an opening. If not, then we’ll just have to take them down one by one from here.” I told her.

“So what do we do now?” Laken asked.

“We’ll wait and when the moment’s right we’ll do what we have to.”

“But we can’t wait, Thomas’ hurt!” Grady hissed and I cut him a glare that had him glaring back.

“If we go in now when we haven’t finished scoping out the area then we’re as good as dead…including Thomas. We can’t just go in blind so we wait.”

When he said nothing more after that, but went back to looking through his binoculars I settled in. To wait.

We only had to wait a little over half an hour before Victoria stepped out into the courtyard with an entourage spilling out behind her. Taking up the rear was Adrian who was held by two guards.

A few guns were instantly trained his way and to my surprise I spotted a small child walking freely beside another guard and I began calculating how old Victoria’s daughter would be today, which placed her at almost a year old, so it couldn’t possibly be this child.

Then who was she? And why bring a child out onto the battlefield? My mind was reeling with unanswered questions and when I looked to Jessie I realized that she was just as confused as I was but then she gasped and her eyes flashed to mine.

“Jesus, that’s Stephanie!” she breathed and I looked back at the child then back at her in question.

“She’s one of the pack orphans. She lost her parents when Victor raided us last year. I don’t understand…what would they want with an innocent child?” Jessie looked distraught and I looked back to the scene below us.

Victoria always had to go all out, that’s why and this time she’d brought an innocent child with her to carry out her pathetic revenge scheme. It was disgusting.

The silence that descended when Victoria came to a stop before her prisoners was disconcerting. I dared not move lest the enemy was able to hear from where they stood.

She spoke then and if I closed my eyes and concentrated I could actually hear what was being said.

“At least let the others go, they had nothing to do with what happened.” Carson was saying but as expected Victoria scoffed at his plea.

“You are going to feel the pain I felt when I heard you’d killed my father. All these men who stand with you are going to die and that’s all on you Carson.”

I missed his reply when a guard whispered something in my ear. There was no way in. Just great.

“We don’t have a choice then, I’ll have to take her out from here and hopefully that’ll cause enough chaos for the others to escape, but we’re going to have to put down a great deal of them otherwise they’ll go straight for Adrian and the others.” I told him and he nodded; moving on so that he could relay the message.

“He’s thinking about me. That bitch could take his life at any minute and he’s down there thinking about me.” Rivers whispered, his voice shaking from the emotions he tried to hold back.

It was moments like this that I envied Rivers his connection to his mate. Looking at Adrian’s expressionless face I couldn’t even begin to understand what was going through his mind and I found myself wondering if he, like Marcus with Rivers, was thinking about me too.

“A child Victoria? Are you insane! Don’t you have a heart?” Carson was shouting and I turned my attention back to the courtyard.

“Not just any child Carson, a child from your pack. As far as I’m concerned you’re all murderers and when I take all you have I’ll make them repent. They’ll regret what they did to my father.” She spat and I gave Carson props for even trying to reason with her.

I slithered down the hill to speak with a few of the men. It was time to go through strategy. I needed to find out what they’d learned about the layout of the camp as well as the positioning of the enemy guards.

“There aren’t as many as we’d first thought, but there are still more than we can handle alone. They’ve got guards positioned at every possible exit; inside and out, plus guards placed randomly around the enclosure itself. They’ve got weapons and some of them have already shifted form; it’s a wonder they haven’t sniffed us out yet.” The guy to my right was telling us and I bit my lip. How would Adrian and the others escape without a free exit?

“Then we’re going to have to line ourselves up in the perfect position to get at them. It has to be precise and it has to be loud. Stealth won’t work here. We’ll need to decide who to take out first and that’s going to have to be the leader, the guys with guns trained on our guys and then we’ve got to choose an exit closest to Carson’s guys and take out all the guards on the inside and outside of that exit.” I told them and they were quick to agree.

“Relay the message to the others. When you’ve decided on the exit, get everyone positioned and we’ll take them out on my signal. Remember, it has to be precise to have the greatest effect.” I drilled and they nodded; scrambling to get the message across to the others.

When I got back up to the hill I fell right back down onto my stomach to look through my scope again. I shifted the weapon slightly so that it was trained on Victoria. Then I stood once more, tilting my head to hear her speak.

“Why aren’t you standing with the others?” Victoria questioned Thomas then, who lifted his head and I pictured him giving her one of his ‘isn’t it fucking obvious’ looks.

I watched as someone broke away from the group of guards and approached her to whisper in her ear. It took me a second to figure it out but by God I wished I hadn’t.

“That fucking sleaze ball!” Jessie hissed then and I nodded. My sentiments exactly. Why wasn’t I surprised that Jessop had betrayed his own pack to form alliances with the likes of Victoria?

“Ah, so you’re the great Beta.” Victoria drawled, her voice tinged with sarcasm. “And you’re hurt, how unfortunate for you.” She continued.

“Might as well kill you now and save me the annoyance of having to watch you bleed out all over my courtyard.” She commented, but something in the way she said it told me she’d like no more than to watch him bleed to death before her, but Grady didn’t catch the inflexion and turned to me horrorstricken.

“Lucas, you gotta do something.” He was holding my arm in a death grip, his eyes wide as he pleaded with me.

“Grady, she’s not gonna kill him, trust me I know this g-”

“You’re just gonna get him killed, you moron!” he hissed and pushed me so that I stumbled backward, Then before I’d completely recovered, Grady was darting down the hillside and toward the courtyard.

I nodded to one of the guards to go after him and he took off behind him. The idiot was going to get us all killed. I only hoped our guy caught Grady before he gave us away.

“I just want this to be over.” Laken groaned and I reached over to give his shoulder a comforting squeeze.

“You and me both”

It was exactly five minutes since Grady had run off and I hadn’t seen him or the guard since they’d both darted through the trees facing the courtyard. I knew bringing him along would have been a mistake and now his behavior could get us all killed.

“You’d have done the same if you thought Adrian was in any immediate danger. He’s only human, he can’t pick up on the same things we can.” Laken commented then and while I knew he was right it still didn’t make the situation any less stressful.

It was as I stood listening to Victoria’s list of threats, preparing to make my move to take her out that everything went to hell.

I watched in horror as Adrian jerked and fell to the ground, face first and before I could really react, enemy guards were falling left, right and center. I flashed around to look at one of my own men in askance and he shrugged.

“That’s not us!” he shouted over the noise in the courtyard below.

“It doesn’t matter, take them out!” I shouted back and dropped to the ground behind my rifle, turning it this way and that to help take down more of the enemy.

As they fell I didn’t allow myself to think about the fact that Adrian was lying unmoving on the ground below or to even consider who it was that was supposedly aiding our fight.

AUTHOR'S NOTES

HOPE YOU ALL ENJOYED THAT CHAPTER...NO THE BOOK IS NOT FINISHED YET SO CALM DOWN....

I HAVE TWO NEW STORIES WHICH I PLAN TO POST SOON...SOON BEING LATER THIS WEEK AND I HOPE YOU'LL ALL CHECK THEM OUT ON MY PROFILE.

THEY ARE CALLED; 'A Vampire's Marine' and 'Shifter and the wolf'

Shifter and the wolf is Marcus and Rivers' story so i'm sure you'll all be excited for that one.

-DoUbLe.A

-unedited.