Seventeen

Nicholas stood at the doorway while his alpha angrily paced around his chambers half-clothed. He draped some of his dress wear on one arm calmly keeping an unbothered face.

"The paper works?" He asked.

"All signed," Nicholas answered flatly.

He paced some more, gripping his fist tightly into a knuckle. He pressed them close to his lips thinking deeply. His aide pitied anyone who would fall prey to his paranoia.

"Rescued wolves, rogue attacks?"

"Healing and recovering smoothly. None since the last incident in your chambers" he assured.

"That's good, everything seems to be going accordingly," he said with a distant look. The words so simply seemed to mean something else.

"You are placing a big burden on yourself," Nicholas calmly pointed out. Lucan cornered the table in the room. Taking a big gulp of water straight from the jug. It certainly didn't quench the dry thirst that burned down his throat to his chest. It was getting harder and harder.

"I don't want to hear about that." He dismissed, "Give me a status report on the pack's activities. That's what I want to hear." He pointed at his aide, his chest drenched with water down to his jean pants. He was losing his mind and he didn't even know it.

Lucan had plunged himself into work reducing his sleep hours to almost none. He was a walking time bomb.

"We need to visit the waterfall entrance." He said, then added, "...For patrolling" he put on his true t-shirt and walked past Nicholas out the door.

Reluctantly Nich followed after him in quick steps. They went to the entrance waterfall.

His foot crunched into the dry leaves on the ground. Listening into the hollow tunnel way. you could hear the raging waterfall that covered the entrance. No one stood there guarding the place.

"Nich, Where are the two guards meant to guard the entrance?" his deep voice echoed strongly through the damp rock. One could hear the anger rumble deep in his voice.

His aide Nicholas remained unphased by his anger standing at the opening with a disinterested look on his face. He however pitied the two individuals who left their duty post. They were going to feel his wrath.

"They aren't here," he said in a neutral tone.

"Of course, I can see that" he was cut off by the distant chatters that approached the entrance. The two guards froze seeing their alpha standing at the entrance.

"It was about time you came back to your post" his silver eyes gazed at them intensely. They bowed, not wanting to meet his eyes.

"W-We apologise, alpha, it was a mistake." He stuttered between his words.

"This won't repeat itself," the other said.

He walked closer to them, but they kept their heads low, scared of what might happen if met his angry gaze.

"You had one task" with that he clawed at the neck of one of them, and his head fell to the ground. The other guard, visibly shaken, collapsed to the ground. His lips trembled in fright watching his comrade's body collapse to the ground, blood splattered out from where his head had been.

Nicholas, his aide, passed him a towel to clean the little blood that had splashed on his cheeks.

"Now you have to make sure it doesn't repeat itself or I will have your head too."

"Y-yess" he nodded

They came out of the tunnel, going back to the mansion. Nicholas knew the guards leaving their post wasn't the cause of his real anger. It was something else.

"How merciful of you to spare one of them. I know I don't have to clean them up myself." He said as his lord kept walking ahead and he was behind.

The alpha stopped just in front of the tall bed of green grass that reached their waist length. He bent down, accessing the dirt before him. The tip of his nose sniffed the air.

He stood up from his feet, "make sure to kill the last one too, his death should be more painful" he stated, nich watched his retreating figure back to the main pack. He looked over to where the alpha had bent down to see various footprints.

Then he caught the whiff of human scent in the air. This was disturbing.

Lucan transformed midair landing on his paws he broke into a run towards the town. Everyone was in danger. She was also there. He increased pace pushing his forelimbs faster.

The hunters had made their way into the caves and past the grassy terrain.

"We don't know where this is, we should have gone for back up-" he complained, not wanting to take this risk.

"And arrive to find out they're gone." He intercepted his friend. They were at odds with one another. The cutting edge between both friends with a solemn look he said, "we move quietly and will not leave until we get the alpha's head." He gritted his teeth. The others grunted simultaneously in agreement.

Raven pov

The pigs snorted noisily as I dragged my muddied feet across their messy pen house. My nose scrunched up from the disgusting smell. It didn't help that my nose worked a little better than normal.

Distracted by the distant screams from afar I stopped my task gazing into the distance where I heard the distressed cry.

A young girl ran over the wildflowers towards us. At the top of her lungs screaming for help. No one got the full picture until she was mauled to the ground by some men behind her. A gunshot went through her head and everyone was thrown into panic.

A gasp escaped my lips as she dropped dead to the ground. I ran back in the direction of the servants' house. Designated away from the town was the animal yard where I worked on the pigsty. It wasn't anywhere near the mansion. Pushing past the mass I made it into the town. We were all non-warriors close to the outskirts of the packs.

Wails erupted just near me. A young girl sat on the ground in the middle of the streets and everyone panicked rushing past her. Left with no choice I went after the child, picking up in the nick of time before another person crushed her under his weight. I cradled the girl tightly in her arm. The whole street was in chaos.

The sounds of gunshots raged in the distance. Scared and panicked, my heart raced in my chest. I searched for a small place to hide the child, if not myself.

Almost getting shot at, I crouched down to my knees, holding the child close to my chest. hoping to use my body as a shield for the child. The child clenched tightly to my sleeve. Her face was buried in my chest as she trembled, her hands shaking. I also feared for our safety.

"It's okay," I whispered softly to the little girl in my arms.

The streets had been cleared and just up ahead stood a group of people with guns patrolling around capturing women and children. The guards were nowhere to be found. One of them sited me with the little girl in my arms.

"Get those ones too" he shouted pointing at me, I picked myself up with the girl running in the opposite direction.

We didn't get too far before a stray bullet shot past my cheek missing me by an inch. I collapsed to the ground with the girl. The evident feeling of shock paralyses my legs.

We both didn't move from the ground as they approached. Being quiet and still so they wouldn't shoot at us. The little girl wailed uncontrollably in my arm my futile attempt of soothing her fell on deaf ears. I heard the heavy steps running towards us. It jumped over my body, standing guard in front of me. A wave of relief washed through my body as I recognised the alpha's wolf. Hunching its back as it let out an aggressive snarl at them.