Rescue

Aidan

Their fierce eyes stared back at me.

Hungry. Ready.

I looked at Jack, but he maintained his gaze forward.

“This isn’t what we want,” I began, “but it’s what needs to happen.”

There was no sound, only my voice and the wind whipping furiously past us.

“As you all know, Luna and her Beta, Angela, are being held captive inside the Apex pack.”

There were murmurs, but all one hundred of the wolves were still listening intently.

Though we had at least fifty more to call upon, I decided that I wanted only those who had seasons of war under their belts.

With the Apex wolves, there was no room for mistakes.

It was eat or be devoured.

“This is going to be messy, it will cause blowback. Make your choice. If you are in, then I thank you. If you are out, I understand and have no judgment.”

Jack stepped forward, “Pack, are we in?” he bellowed across the small band of legions.

A powerful assent flooded the air. Barks, growls.

They were ready.

“Jack, you fetch the witch. We will head toward Apex boundaries.”

Jack nodded and was gone in an instant.

I regretted holding off for so long, but at least now we had a plan and a mission.

“The rest of us, we divide into two groups. Your job is to distract and to dismantle! Take as many of them out as you can!”

I wasn’t sure we had enough bodies.

I was positive we didn’t.

But, as I’d learned a long time ago, there was a difference between wolves in a pack and real pack warriors. What we had here was a group of trained warriors and one shot at it.

As we shifted and moved into position, I wondered just how bad things had gotten. I hoped that after all was done, I’d get Kiarra back.

Maybe we’d be lucky, and that fucking spell was as useless as Jack said it was.

As long as Melody did her part and smuggled Kiarra out of the ball, we were in good shape.

I stalked the front gate. It was as heavily guarded as I’d expected.

~“Alpha,”~ it was Jack, ~“I’m on my way.”~

~“Have you got it?”~

~“We’re good.”~

Suddenly, he appeared, the incantation scribbled on a piece of old-looking parchment.

“This is it? This is what undoes all this mess?” I inquired, feeling skeptical.

“That’s what she said.”

“No special instructions?” I asked.

“Just say it to her, and she should come out of the dream.”

Clearly, Jack had gotten some extra background on the nature of this spell work, but I let it alone.

He could fill me in at any time. Right now, all I needed to know was that it worked.

~“What’s the plan, Alpha?”~

Jack looked pensive, but I somehow knew better.

~“What’s eating you, Jack?”~

~“There’s, there’s a list. I mind-linked Ang. She said they’re executing tonight.”~

~“What do you mean?”~

~“This ball, it’s for Kiarra, yeah, but also it’s a way to make a point. Ange is at the top of the list, Alpha.”~

The worry in his voice was clear and infectious.

We needed to move now.

These wolves were brutal. I knew that if Kiarra didn’t conform, she would be just as quickly added to the list.

It wasn’t like they didn’t have a backup heir.

That’s how the Kendricks worked.

They always had a backup plan.

~“You and I are gonna break through the front,”~ I said, trying to distract him and myself with what we had to do.

~“And the others?”~

~“They’re the cover.”~

~“The bait, you mean?”~ he replied, more cynically than I liked.

In a way, he wasn’t wrong; I was taking a big risk.

We all were.

Still, Jack knew.

They all did.

I couldn’t stand by and do nothing. It wasn’t who I was.

~“I need fifty in the back to storm on my signal. Those in the front and to the north, take out the guards, as many as you can. Whatever you do, show no mercy. They will show you none.”~