Assassin's Raid

As she took some steps forward to join the moving shifters, a hand clasped on her arms and she turned to look at the person only to find out that it was Sage. She raised her eyebrows at him asking why he held her.

"I don't want you to be part of them, just stay with the wood and healer out," Sage proclaimed and Aurora's face formed a disgusting look.

"What did you just say?" she inquired to be sure she heard him. Was he stopping her from doing her work? What arrant nonsense was he talking about?

"I don't want you to go," he told her.

"No, you can't tell me that. Can you imagine what you're talking about? I shouldn't lead the fighters?" She asked and jerked her hands away from his grip. She turned to one of the fighters and pulled out his sword from where it was placed, then, she gave Sage one more glance and ran her way into the woods.

Sage heaved a heavy sigh. Surely, he knew she wouldn't listen to him but he was bizarre to have stopped her in the first place. What was he thinking? She was the leader of the fighters, he shouldn't have halted her from her duties.

With his inhumane speed, he caught up with her and they both joined the fighters. Together they ran after the assassins that had come to attack their pack. Suddenly, Aurora halted and mind-linked one of the shifters that were ahead to do the same. I

"They are closer," Aurora said to Sage. "I can track them. We should be careful," she warned her acquaintance as they walked slowly in expectancy of the assassin's attack.

One by one, the masked men began to pop out their heads from their hiding position. They looked vicious and ready to strike. The sheathing of blades pulled out from its scabbard could be heard through the entire woods and the shifters all positioned themselves prepared for any onslaught.

The assassins then began to stride towards them and Sage tried to sum up the number of assassins but he couldn't get their exact amount because they were hiding behind trees.

Lock hearts pack charged forward while the assassins came trotting to them. The assault erupted between them and the sword schwing became louder. Aurora with her speed was able to knock down three at a time while Sage made sure he wasn't too far from her. The fight continued as they slash each other with none of them giving in. Sage wasn't that good with swords but he was able to knock down a lot of them and since Aurora had trained acquaintances, they protected themselves.

When they saw they were reducing, the assassins began to retreat while shifters continued to chase after them until they lost track of them.

"Be careful while you check them out," Sage notified after he ordered them to search the assassins that had been knocked down and they nodded in agreement.

After checking out for some while, they all gathered back giving the same result as the other day. No one was found alive. Sage heaved a heavy sigh. They need to get at least one of them to know who sent them all. The assassins were good at masterminds. They kill the wounded ones if they can't go along with them.

"Let's get back," Sage told the shifters and all of them redrawn and followed after their Alpha. They got to where the wounded shifters were and saw that Gwen had finished treating them. Sage commanded some shifters to carry the wounded ones and they all returned to the Prime.

Sage then told his Herald to inform everyone in the pack about the assassins. He told him to let them know that they don't shift instead they fight with swords. The Herald bowed and left to deliver the Alpha's message.

"Sage?" Rae called and Sage turned to look at him. "I found this on one of the men," Rae delivered and gave Sage a batch made in red and black colour.

Sage examined the batch and saw an eagle image on it. He looked up at his Beta, "We need to find people who owned this," he said and gave Rae back the batch. "Tomorrow, send some shifters to the neighbourhood packs to search for something like this and let them disguise themselves as marketers. They might be suspected in their uniform."

Rae nodded and bowed to him. He turned to leave to do the assignment his Alpha had given to him.

Sage turned to Aurora who was inspecting the wounded shifter's injury. "Got anything?" He asked her.

Aurora shook her head and moved away from the bed the shifters had been placed on. "The wounds are like normal blades but sharper," she disclosed and Sage nodded.

"Rae found a batch from one of the dead assassins," he told her.

"Really? It might be their batch. Where is it?"

Sage crossed his hands to his back, "I told Rae to visit the neighbourhood pack."

"Okay, good. What does it look like?" Aurora asked as she walked after Sage who had turned to leave.

"It's designed with the colour red and black with a portrayal of an eagle inscribed on it," he relayed and Aurora tried to think if she had seen something like that. "I'm sure we'll find them soon and I don't think they are from Autumn pack."

"Right, I thought so too," Aurora agreed.

Sage turned his head over his shoulders to look at her, then he wrapped his hands over her shoulders and pulled her to him. "You must be tired," he conveyed and pinched her nose.

"Tired? This is sub-war for me, I've been called a lot of times by other packs to fight for them and you tagged me tired? You must be joking," she told him and hissed.

Sage's mouth dropped as he couldn't find a word to say. She just told him what he had never expected from her. She did join other packs in their war?

"You don't have to be surprised, I'm not as weak as you think," she said to him.

"I demote you, Aurora, how could you do something like that?" He asked with amusement written all over his face.

"You mean you won't let me fight for other packs when they come and ask for my help?"

"I'll never do that!"

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