Fight for Me

As the head members of the pack, Nicholas’ brothers and his guests gathered in the meeting hall, they all properly introduced each other.

Layla though, feels a bit awkward. She doesn’t know how to act. She’s so happy to see the guys again, but she still feels confused about Nick, especially with what happened last night and them not getting a chance to properly talk about it.

Both her and Nick knew that they were going to part ways anyways. And last night-…….

It was a moment of weakness. I just wanted to say goodbye. She tells herself.

“I see that limp is gone. You seem to be doing much better than I thought you would.” Blake says smiling at her.

“Ugh. Yeah. I told you, I’m stronger than I look.” She says trying to smile back.

As much as she loves them, Layla never told any of them about her weird trait. Other than her parents, no one knows. Well, she’s pretty sure Nick suspects something. How could he not, when she practically came back to life in his arms and every scratch on her was gone. She is relieved that he never asked about it, but she doesn’t know if it’s because he just doesn’t care.

“Yeah, yeah. But you seem to forget you’re still human. You still bruise easily.” Mike says lifting her arm and pointing at the bruise on her wrist.

She feels the room somewhat go stiff, and not just from her remembering last night, but from everyone else that was there as well staring at her.

“That’s nothing to worry about.” She says as she gently pulls her hand back. But then something comes to mind. “Actually, Nick lets me train here with some of his fighters. I might even be at a point to take you on in a fight, Mike.” She says mockingly.

Mike laughs at her as he glimpses at Nick a bit impressed. “Don’t get too cocky. I don’t want you breaking another one of your bones.”

The others slowly look up at Layla with Mike’s words.

“Another?” Ben asks very concerned and curious.

Layla’s expression turns glum and Mike and the others immediately know she probably didn’t tell them about the prison, -the torture.

Blake interrupts the silence. “Well then, Alpha Nicholas. I want to thank you for taking such good care of Layla. I know she can be impulsive and too direct at times, but I’m relieved that she is safe.”

Nick responds with a gentle nod.

He can sense Tyler’s suspicious gaze on him. He never told him why he arranged to have someone train Layla. It’s not like he could tell him of his arrangement with her. They agreed to not speak of it.

“Other than that, I would still like to talk to you about the recent rogue attacks.” Blake gets everyone’s attention.

Blake looks directly at Nick, who is actually pleased with him getting directly to the point. Nick and his wolf always hated small talk, as it just wastes time.

Nick gives him a nod.

Blake leans forward in his seat. “I don’t know how much you know about these wild rogues, but they’re not your typical rogues.”

“We know.” Tyler says. “We ran into them before, and from our own investigation, we determined that they have a rare toxin in their bloodstream. Though we still haven’t figured out what it is.”

“We haven’t figured that out either. But one thing you must know, is that these rogues aren’t willingly fighting or attacking. This drug,……it’s altering them physically and mentally. I don’t think they even know what they’re doing.”

“Who is drugging them?” Nick asks. This is the one thing he’s been trying to figure out for the past few weeks.

Blake sighs, looking between Mike and Jason. They all look annoyed and angry as they clench their jaws and fists, remembering their torture in the prison.

“We don’t know who exactly……..But we do know that they are capturing supernaturals to do their testing on, -shifters, witches, vampires." Tyler gives a quick glance at Nick, finally understanding his suspicions. "It seems like they are trying to make a rogue army to fight for them, - for the humans.”

The word ‘humans’ echo throughout the room.

“Humans? So,……. hunters are behind this?” Tyler asks, looking between Blake and Nick.

“So this is what father was talking about? Us against humans.” Tristan annoyingly says to Maxim.

Nick sees Blake giving Layla a comforting look as he holds her hand. He’s not sure if it’s because she’s the only human in this room, or if he just wants to touch her. “How do you know so much? These attacks have only recently started.”

“Because I was almost one of them.” The room goes quiet. “We,…almost were.” Blake says vaguely, only looking at Mike and Jason, not wanting them to know that Layla was there too. “They capture us from either packs they attack or just wandering rogues. They attacked our pack a few months back. They were ruthless, they killed almost everyone. They killed my alpha, ….my friend. They then locked us up, whatever few of us were left, in an underground prison where they tortured and tested on us. Made us fight each other to the death. Fortunately, we managed to escape.” He ends off with a soft sigh of relief.

“This prison,….where you were locked up in,- where is it?” Maxim asks angrily.

Blake smirks. “No need to worry about that. It’s already burnt to ashes.” The three of them smile at each other as they sneak looks at Layla. “But they obviously have another base if they’re still continuing with this. A while back I already got word that wild rogue attacks were happening in this area lately. When we decided to come get Layla, we made sure to warn any wandering rogues we came across in the woods along the way. I obviously thought to warn you about this as well, Alpha Nicholas. If this war is going to happen, having you fight alongside us would definitely be beneficial to us. It’s not every day one meets a wolf that can take out an entire pack on his own.”

An entire pack? Alone? Layla looks at Nick confused.

“This is not a fight we can stay away from.” Nick announces affirmingly.

“This is actually a fight we’ve been preparing for, …..for a very long time.” Maxim adds.