Chapter Twelve : The Betrayal

"I can help," I said.

Everyone was looking at me in disbelief.

"How?" Zen asked.

"Not gonna save your ass to get killed," I replied.

Zen gave me a cold gaze.

"You won't," he replied.

"Neither is he," I indicated Edward.

"You're not in a position to deal," Zen paused for a bit and leaned down close to my face and replied.

"You neither," I replied calmly again. "Either we all die here, or you can take the deal and live."

I knew he would break. The sound of the war drums were getting closure and closure. The whole pack was at a chaos. There was no where to run and Zen needed to act fast. And fighting back was not even an option.

"Why should I trust you?" he came closure to me and said between gritting his teeth. "What magic can a weak breed like you offer?"

"You are wasting your time, Zen. She is only good at getting people killed. You really think a weakling like her can do anything?" Claire stepped in the middle of the conversation.

"Stop," Zen cut her and turned back to me. "If you know a way, tell us. Or he is going to die first," saying so Zen grabbed Edward and put a knife on his throat. "Don't waste your time. I wouldn’t mind to kill my ex mate's lover, " he said.

"Don't!" My voice cracked in panic. "There's a way we all can survive. But you have to let go of Edward," I said desperately.

"Don't worry about me, Ella, " Edward said. "You don't have to care about my life. Just make sure she survives. You can't let anything happen to her. You were her mate, weren't you? You can't do anything to harm her, please," Edward looked at Zen and pleaded.

Zen increased the pressure a bit more on his throat. "It’s time you care for your own life," he whispered into Ed's ears.

Edward didn’t even shake a bit. "If I had to care for myself, I wouldn’t bother to plead to an asshole like you. My wife's life is precious. She is not alone. There's a life inside her, you can't do any harm to her," Edward said.

"She is pregnant? " The oracle asked. She looked tensed. Claire smirked.

Zen was as if in a trauma. The knife fell from his hand. He looked at me. He took a few seconds to adapt to the situation.

"I will spare his life," Zen said calmly. Then he grabbed Edward's collar, "Only if whatever you're claiming turns out to be true. But if you fail, trust me, none of you will live to get caught by them," Zen warned me.

He let go of Edward. The army was only 50 feet away. The archers were preparing their bows to make the attack. They were positioning themselves.

"Can they invade through the pack house? " I asked.

"This is your plan? You want us to hide like rats?" Claire spitted. " We go in and then they trap us from outside and then kill us one by one like rats. This is what you offer? How long you think we can hide inside without food or water? " She asked angrily.

Everyone was panicking by Claire's words. They were supporting her points.

"Let me finish! " I said. "Tell everyone in the pack including the soldiers to take refuge in the pack house. We are not going to fight them," I looked at Zen and said.

"Then what?" Zen asked in confusion. His eyes were filled with doubts.

"We don't have time. First order them to take refuge. Quick! "

Even though his expressions said he was in doubt but he didn't protest. Instead he listened to me and ordered, "Everyone! To the pack house! Now! "

"Seriously, Zen? Are you out of your mind? You are trusting her with this? Tch, " Claire started to object.

"Either way they die! I am trying right here, can't you see? Do you have something better to offer?" Zen got angry at Claire and almost shouted at her.

"We should trust her with this," the oracle suddenly spoke. "I'm sensing something very dark but this is not of death. Our pack won't die tonight, I can feel."

"Listen to me, please. Tell everyone to take shelter as soon as possible except one shooter, who can shoot the flares," I said.

"He is our first shooter," Zen pointed to a guy. The guy bowed at me. Everyone was running away. The war drums were piercing through my middle ear, making my heart beats go faster.

Angry and excitement filled screams were coming from outside the boundary. They were already breaking the defence wall.

"Why do you want to shoot flares ? " Zen asked.

"We are not celebrating here!" Claire got up angrily. "Are you imbecile? Flares are not explosives to kill," she said.

"If we shoot the flares the Sapphires will see. Anything provocative from any side starts the war again," Zen said.

"Exactly!" I said. "How did the allied force manage to get the army here so fast? " I asked.

"It’s a war break, but allied armies are always prepared to take any attack from the Sapphires. Sapphires are the one who always break the peace rules," Zen replied.

Almost everyone managed to get inside the pack house. A few soldiers and we were the few that left. The soldiers were shooting back to slow the attackers down a bit.

"If the allied Armies were always prepared to attack and they used it against us. It means, the Sapphires are prepared as well. If they find any sign of attack, they will be here to start the war again, right? " I asked Zen.

"Yes," he said looking at me. His eyes brightened.

It seemed like he got the point. "You think it will work? You want to use the Sapphires to fight against them?" Zen asked.

"Why not? The Sapphires don't know that the alliance is broken. If we can successfully send the flares in their village or any camp, they will immediately start a war and when they come, they will find the allied forces. They will think we prepared the army for them. We can use the chance and take refuge in the pack house when they are fighting among themselves. They won't get the chance to attack the pack house. When they finish each other, we attack them from inside," I finished.

"This sounds promising. But if it doesn’t work-"

"You won't get the chance to kill us. We all will die. I know, " I finished his line.

The shooter positioned himself to shoot. Edward was standing there holding me in his arms.

"I'm afraid," I whispered to him.

"Don't," Edward kissed my forehead and pulled me closure. "You gave the best solution. We will surely survive this," he said.

The wall was almost broken. The arches were falling on us like rain.

The shooter shot the flares. One, two, three, within a few seconds the sky brightened up with the burning of the flares. The wall broke down right at that moment.

It seemed like a huge celebration was taking place here. The army that was not even 40 feet away was suddenly paused and stood there confused. Everyone was looking at the sky thinking we had gone crazy. They sky was looking so beautiful. Edward was hugging me strongly. He gave a small kiss on my head. In the flare's light I saw Zen looking at us.

A few seconds later the flares got burnt completely and the whole arena darkened again. The darkness grasped the whole army that was clearly visible a few moment ago. The size of the army sent chills down my spine. They definitely had more than just the allied forces.

Everyone was silent. A very small sound was coming from far away. But soon it was getting clear. The allied army was standing there confused. War drums. The Sapphires were attacking. The commander of the allied forces asked their soldiers to take position against the Sapphires.

"This is the chance. We need to run," Zen said. He ordered the rest of us to move back to the pack house immediately.

When we were making a run for the pack house, me and Edward was a bit behind them, suddenly in that dark night, I was pulled back by someone. A hand was on my mouth so that I couldn’t make a noise. Edward was pulled back by the force as well. He didn’t even got the chance to fathom what happened.

Everyone successfully moved back in the pack house without even noticing that me and Edward were missing.