Chapter 151: Trust me

[Warning! In this chapter, there will be gore, blood and death!]

A couple of kilometers away from where the mansion was, although Dane was doing fine, handling Krys on his own, it wasn't the same for Artemis and the others.

After Dane and Kaius left them to handle the mutated rogues, other rogues and warlocks, they were slowly weakening. The fact that Paccia has not been able to destroy the wolfsbane crystals, it does not bode well for Artemis and the others.

Artemis was already tired before Dane had left. And now that he had to fight against one of the mutated rogues alone, it was not easy.

Paws and claws were exchanged. Blood was spilled all over.

The grass that was once green was now dyed in red.

The mutated rogue that was fighting with Artemis had a wild grin on his face, making him look horribly scary, rather than good looking. The glint in his eyes was wild as he continued to rain punches on Artemis, who was now reduced to defense.

His other packmates wanted to rush over to assist their Alpha but stopped when the latter sent over a mindlink, saying to back off. Knowing that Skoll was still unconscious, he did not want to risk having him killed.

All he could do was to command them to protect Skoll and assist Una who was fighting against other rogues and warlocks.

Paccia herself was not in good conditions, either. The many chants and spells she did was now taking a toll on her. Although she did manage to destroy the crystals by then, it did not do much effect as the mutated rogues were still getting stronger.

Both Aric and Elias thought it would be easy to deal with the mutated rogues, seeing how they managed to kill one of them already. But this was their mistake of underestimating their opponents. What they do not know was that the rogue that they had killed was the weakest mutated rogue among them and was new to his power.

One of Aric's claws had been chopped off but that did not hinder him from attacking. He was the shifter trainer, after all. It wouldn't do him good if he was to let his disability make him weak.

The mutated rogue was exchanging blows with Elias when Aric jumped up, pulling his arm back. He then pushed his elbow to the front and was about to slam it against the back of the rogue. However, it seems like the rogue has a stronger sense than Aric as he managed to avoid Aric's attack and slammed his elbow instead on Aric, pushing the latter to the ground, creating a small crater.

The rogue was about to slam his claw at Aric's back, as if he was about to rip the mane apart when his claw was pulled and twisted back by Elias.

And without giving the rogue any chance to retaliate, Elias twisted the arm more, pulling the arm off its socket, resulting in screams of agony.

The rogue tried to kick Elias away but the latter managed to avoid the attack.

Seeing that he could not move his right arm, the rogue became furious. He was about to lunged on Elias when Aric, who had been lying facefront on the ground, lifted his legs and scissor-locked the rogue between his legs.

Filled with fury at his interruption, the rogue clawed frenziedly on Aric's legs.

By then, Aric's legs were unrecognizable as claw marks covered both of his legs. But he could only endure the pain as he, instead, strengthened his scissor-lock on the rogue, preventing him from moving.

Just as Aric felt like his legs were about to weaken, Elias had jumped in, his claw heading straight for the face of the rogue. His two sharp fingers accurately landed in the eyes of the rogue, eliciting a scream. He pushed more force in his fingers until it clawed through the head, cutting the head in half horizontally.

Flicking the blood away from his claw, Elias turned around to see the rogue slowly dropped down to the ground, half of his head cut off.

As if it wasn't enough, Elias stepped on the rogue's chest where the heart beat and pushed his paw down, making a hole. Looking over, his eyes widened when he saw the condition Aric was in.

Aric weakly smiled before falling to ground, unconscious.

"Aric!"

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Lachlan was in his office, trying to do some work. But it seems impossible for him as he could not help but worry about the mission that he had given his packmates.

Although he shouldn't feel so since the Cesaro Alpha was with them too, he felt something off. He had this sense that there was probably something more happening there. And another thing that worries him was the fact that there hasn't been any reports from Fergus. He expected at least a report from him hours ago but there was none.

He even tried to send a mindlink but he kept getting interrupted.

He was pacing up and down the room when there was a knock on his door.

He stopped and said, "Come in."

His eyebrows shot up in surprise when he saw his Luna and the pack doctor walking in the room.

"What are you two doing here?" he asked as he walked over to Luella.

Holding his hands, Luella looked at Melody who then nodded to her. Luella turned back to her husband and said, "Darling, I think you need to go there."

Lachlan frowned. "Go where?"

"To where Erick is," Luella said solemnly. "I think they're in trouble."

Lachlan turned to Melody, who nodded again. It was then he noticed that her eyes were puffy and red, as if she had spent hours crying. "I was working in my office when suddenly I received a mindlink from Aric."

"Aric? Not Latham?"

Melody shook her head. "It was Aric. He… he...s-said… he said… he's sorry!" she cried, the word 'sorry' ended in a sob.

Lachlan turned grim as he tightened his hold on Luella's hands.

"Darling, I'm so worried! What about Erick?" Luella asked.

Lachlan took a deep breath. It was not that easy to get out of the office that easily. Seeing that his deputy chief was also not in the office, he wasn't sure whether he could leave the office empty.

He was about to answer when the door to his office was opened once more. The three of them looked over and were surprised to see the mayor walking in, with his hands behind his back.

"Mayor Hilliard, what brings you over here?" Lachlan asked, turning to face the mayor, his hand still holding one of Luella's hands.

"I heard everything from the outside."

Lachlan's eyes narrowed dangerously.

Mayor Hilliard held up his hands and said, "Why don't you go, Chief?"

"I have a commitment here to the people."

The mayor went to the door and after making sure that there was no one nearby to eavesdrop, he shut the door and turned back to Lachlan.

"What about your commitment to your pack? To your family? To your son?" Mayor Hilliard said, stressing on the word, 'son'.

Lachlan only kept quiet.

"Alpha. I know that you and your pack have chosen me because you trust me with the town and your pack," Mayor Hilliard said. "I know the commitment and the sacrifices you have made for the town, even if it was not for the benefit of your pack."

"This time, your pack is in trouble. Your son is in trouble," he continued.

The mayor then looked at Lachlan in the eyes and said, "This time, trust me and my people. We can protect the town while you're gone. You go and bring your family back."