Chapter 8
RYAN
After the stunt with Rose, I was angry. Fucking furious. My hand hurt like hell from her bite, and for some reason the spot wouldn't heal. It was reddened, a dark shade of red, just like Rose's eyes. The strength it possessed was also abnormal. I had never seen anything like it from a wolf, especially since she had no alpha bloodline.
Maybe Kilian knew more about it? After all, he grew up with her.
In addition, Rose had rejected me and my whole body seemed to ache. I wanted to run after her and claim her for myself, but what value was there if she was completely frightened of me and wanted nothing to do with me. After the escalation, I decided to leave her alone, just like Rose wanted. At some point she had to come back, unless she was tired of living and wanted to be killed by strangers. I could feel her running out of my territory and the connection to each other, be it the mate bond as well as the pack bond, weakening.
Great, those were great foundations to fight a war on.
After she left, I had turned back into a human. I was also mad at Onyx. He was still jealous and wanted to take his "property".
Michael had stormed over to me. Michael had always been a true friend to me. He had a resemblance to my look, black hair, tall build and was tattooed all over his arms. You would have thought we were brothers.
"Boss...there was just a wolf rushing out? You want me to call in the border patrol?" He looked at me askance, visibly irritated by the whole thing. "Was that Catherine?" he asked me, finally looking down at my hand.
I could only nod and sighed, "We had a little argument, it'll be fine..." As soon as I said the words, I felt a twinge in my heart. "Oh God" I groaned out and held my chest.
I contorted my face in pain. Rose and Catherine were really serious about the companionship part. Michael immediately came up to me and tried to support me.
"Little altercation? That looks more like you got dumped. What happened?" he asked me, helping me onto the sofa.
"I'm certainly not going to talk to you about that." I said annoyed and rolled my eyes.
Michael laughed. "It seems like a woman finally has a firm grip on you." He grinned at me.
"Get out of here." I hissed, leaning back on the sofa.
I didn't have time to think about Catherine now. I had tomorrow morning, to be able to lead an entire army.
I pulled myself together and got up from the sofa again. I had to sleep now, I didn't have two more hours left and my hand hurt like crazy. I would take care of Catherine after this war.
Michael looked after me, probably this news had already reached Tristan and his companion, after all we both were not really quiet. However, no one had dared to interfere anymore.
I took off my clothes and lay down on the bed. Before I knew it, sleep had taken over me, but I could clearly feel my heartache.
All the men were equipped. Each carried several weapons. Michael and Tristan had gotten the huge guns off to make Tristan's pack house burst into fire and flames. We would shoot each of them, especially Arnor. This one I would take as a trophy and skin all his fur and make it into a rug.
All the packs had gathered and they were all ready to go to war.
At five o'clock sharp in the morning we finally all marched off. Eleonora had brewed up a camouflage spell for us so that they would not notice us when we crossed the border. Even for the outside world, Arnor's territory was camouflaged so that we could eliminate him quickly and silently.
Arnor was a blond, arrogant mama's boy. He was as pale as a vampire, you could think he was descended from the vampires rather than a wolf. Half of his pack consisted of slaves. Stray wolves that he picked up. Him I would now put an end to.
We marched cautiously toward his pack house.
'FIRE FREE' I communicated to all the wolves.
Tristan and Michael aimed the huge guns with the bombs at the pack house and opened fire.
In a few split seconds, the place looked like hell.
Screams were heard, many tried to flee, but most died under our fire.
I went straight for the pack house. "COME OUT, YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE. YOU WANTED WAR. HERE'S YOUR WAR." I yelled and kept running to find Arnor.
During Tristan's wedding, he ambushed us. Only he captured all my people and blackmailed me into torturing them if he didn't get me in exchange. I would send him to hell along with his people. Even though that was not our way of fighting each other, with Catherine he crossed several lines. This was an act of personal revenge.
"Are you looking for me?" Came the voice of Arnor. One could think, from the way he looked, that he was a weakling. However, he was cunning and one should not underestimate him.
He transformed and lunged at me. I transformed as well and Onyx was so angry at him that he wanted to rip him to shreds right then and there. Me and Arnor didn't need to exchange many words. He knew what I thought about him and I knew what he thought about me. The war between our packs had been going on for decades and no one wanted to put an end to it.
We attacked each other and it became a fierce battle while everything else around us went up in the air. I grabbed Arnor's ear and ripped it off him word for word.
He howled and lunged at me again. We rolled in the dirt and he bit dangerously into my thigh, causing me to howl as well and try to throw him off me.
Kilian came at me, also now in his gray wolf form, and jumped at Arnor, yanking him away from me.
He growled dangerously at him. Arnor recognized Kilian and widened his eyes. He had probably not expected him.
Kilian stepped slowly, closer and closer to him, baring his teeth. He wanted revenge for Catherine, that was quite clear to him.
He lunged at Arnor and bit his flank several times. Arnor howled and tried to break away. Even if he got loose, he would get caught between my teeth. We outnumbered him. Seven packs against one. Even though it seems unfair, each of those packs was fed up with Arnor.
'Don't kill him, I want to torture him to death alive. Do you understand me?' I said to Kilian.
Kilian gave me no answer to that and worked Arnor into slush.
'Alpha, there are some more kids here. What should we do with them?' Tristan asked me. 'Take them with us, we'll take them and their relatives in or let them go.' I instructed him.
As he lay half dead on the ground, everything reduced to rubble, several of our men, wolves from the Ice pack captured, including Arnor. 'I want you to find Arnor's mate and lock her up as well.' I ordered and helped Kilian tie Arnor up. All the prisoners were escorted to the Black Moon. Many of the she-wolves and boys were frightened. Slaves who had been captives for years would now be at large again.
The hours flew by, my adrenaline still high and the breaking companion bond tugging at me. The injury to my thigh had clearly affected me and I had lost a lot of blood, but that hurt me less than the feeling of losing Catherine.
Kilian had changed back to human and stood there in front of Arnor. He put his clothes back on and punched Arnor hard in the face again. "You fucking bitch. I'm going to break each of your fingers one by one and make you eat each of them independently for breakfast." he yanked on his blond hair.
Arnor, on the other hand, laughed like a psychopath. "The girl, may have escaped, but her mind won't stand up to it all." he laughed again. "She didn't tell you everything, you idiots." he grinned at Kilian and I as we raised our eyebrows. I went for his throat "What else did you do to her?" I squeezed on his neck so hard he turned blue.
He shook his head, barely able to breathe. "You'd best ask her that yourself." he still had the strength to grin. I knocked the grin off his face with a hook to the chin and he fell to the ground unconscious.
"Where is she anyway? Catherine?" asked me Kilian.
I stared at him for a moment. "She left," I said, running a hand through my hair.
"How she left?" he asked me, looking at me with an angry look.
"What don't you understand about the definition of 'she left'?", I retorted, annoyed.
"She rejected me and stormed out."
"You just let her go after we finally found her?" Kilian half shouted at me.
"I didn't let her go, she wanted to leave, her she-wolf tried to half maul me, that wound still isn't healing." I showed him my arm and puffed in and out angrily.
He shook his head and laughed. "Oh god, you did a wonderful job. Any normal wolf, would follow his mate. Did you just stand there stupidly and watch her go?"
"Don't push it Kilian." I growled at him. "She rejected me, she told me in no uncertain terms that she didn't want anything to do with me. She left because she wanted it that way herself." Gradually, this guy was getting on my nerves.
I finally turned around and ran off again to help the others. I didn't want another war, against the Crescent.
After several hours, we finally finished.
'Boss, I couldn't find his mate, it seems like she fell off the face of the earth. She probably took off right away,' Michael told me. 'Super Luna they had there,' I muttered thinking of him.
We were in our pack house while Arnor was taken to the dungeon. Eleonora sealed the dungeon extra magically.
While my thigh healed without a problem, my arm was still injured. The rowing doctor took a close look at the wound and looked quite irritated.
"I don't know if you can see it Ryan, but the wound has a slight reddish glow if you look at it closely," he said. He was an older man, yet damn good at what he did.
I raised my eyebrows and looked at the wound more closely. He was right, it was glimmering slightly dark red.
"Your wolf is a dark shade of red. Do you think that has something to do with it?" I asked him, raising my eyebrows.
"Well usually only demons can inflict such wounds on you. Are you sure she's a pure wolf?" he asked me again.
I shrugged "I don't know, she didn't mention anything else." I said and looked over to Kilian who was sitting in the kitchen. "Kilian, come over here!", I called out. He looked at me annoyed and munched on his sandwich. After he finished, he came over to us. "What is it?" He glanced at my arm wound.
"What do you know about Catherine? The wound is glowing red, the doctor here says that can only come from a demon."
Kilian raised his eyebrows. "Well I only know that her mother is half demon and Catherine was given to Arnor because she is also a hybrid and therefore of value. I take it Catherine didn't tell you that?" Kilian looked at me askance and crossed his arms.
"To heal your wound, you need her blood. If you don't find her, then your body will burn from the inside within 3 months. That wound is the least of your problems right now." he ran his hand through his hair and sat down next to me.
"We've been looking for her for a fucking year, let's see how long it takes you to find her buddy." That sounded more like a goodbye than a helpful answer.
"I'll find her." as arrogant as I was "A little wound can't hurt me. She'll suffer for it herself." I shrugged my shoulders. Even if she didn't want to accept me as a companion, if I died, she herself would suffer for just as long.
"What did Arnor actually mean by 'She has to tell you herself'?", Kilian asked me, glancing at the TV.
I shrugged and sighed "Hopefully nothing worse, but that didn't sound like it."
Kilian handed me a glass of bourbon "Here's to Catherine and may she kick your ass forever." said Kilian grinning.
I shook my head laughing and drained the glass.
To Catherine.