Freeing Starr

It was time.

The scent of blood permeated the air as bodies collided with snarls and growls. I stood beside Leon, my eyes taking in the disaster as the wolves fought viciously and without regard for their own lives.

I was conflicted, knowing that some of these wolves were simply ordered to participate and didn’t deserve to be teared down like this, but there was nothing I could do.

I kept in touch with a few royal soldiers, keeping my ears peeled for any news of finding either my father or Zion but there was none.

I took a step in a random direction and gasped when Leon suddenly clutched my hand. I looked back in confusion and met his worried gaze, “be careful.” He muttered.

I nodded, “I know. I’m just going to try and limit the damage as much as possible. I’ll do as I promise and won’t fight unless I’m forced to.”

He hesitated slightly then nodded, gesturing to a few men standing behind us, “if anything happens to her, prepare to have your hearts ripped out.”

They nodded and formed a protective shield around me as I broke away from Leon’s group and branched out on my own. I knew why he didn’t stop me from leaving, despite being so overprotective.

I could literally feel the anxiety radiating out of him since we first entered pack grounds. He must have already caught wind of Zion’s location but didn’t want to engage with me nearby. I chose to leave on my own to make it easier for him. I’d already agreed that Zion wasn’t my target and I planned to uphold that agreement.

I took a deep inhale of the forest, my eyes glowing as they took in every single detail, from the torn limbs dyeing the ground red, to the limping wolves crying for help, I saw further than I used to. My heart raced as we ran into a few enemy wolves who didn’t hesitate to attack, but before I could jump into action, the guards had already handled it for me.

“Wait,” I called out to a guard who was about to deal a killing blow to a dark brown wolf that attacked us.

I narrowed my eyes in recognition as the guard held the wolf to the floor with his hands. Yes, they didn’t bother to shift into their wolves and it made me all the more amazed at the power the royal army and the direct packs beneath them were.

I approached the wolf as he snarled and tried to fight his way free to no avail.

“I know you,” I murmured, “shift.”

The wolf growled his disapproval.

I bent down on one knee to level our eyes and stared into them intensely. Bright hazel glowed at me but the more I looked, the more that color twisted and turned into the faint image of a wolf that cowered in a corner, knowing that it was going to die but refusing to show the enemy that it was affected by their power.

I poured my dominance out to press down on his figure and ordered again, ”shift.”

The male paused as his body trembled and forcefully reverted back into his human form, blood rapidly leaking from the claw wound across his chest.

After seeing the man’s face, a bitter smile tilted my lips, “so it is you.”

The faint image of a young she wolf running through the forest with me entered my mind and then the image changed to that very same she wolf lying on the ground, bruised, battered and with cold beady eyes that looked out at the world with scorn and despair.

Guilt tugged at my heart as I remembered the way I tried to justify her suffering and I couldn’t help the tear that slipped down my cheek.

The guard beside me asked tensely, “Your highness?”

I shook my head and wiped my tear, standing back on my feet and gesturing for one of the guards to capture the male.

“Capture him, don’t kill him. He’s not ours to kill.” It was the least I could’ve done to atone for my sins. I chose to be a bystander in someone’s suffering in order to save myself. It’d be a lie if I had said there was nothing I could do back then. Although, my actions as Luna were limited, I could’ve still chosen to risk myself to help free her. Especially since she chose to help me up and run with me on the day of the mating hunt back then. It’s even sadder that I couldn’t remember her name.

“Let’s go,” I muttered, stopping the guards from killing whoever I recognized to be innocent along the way.

I was looking for my father but he was nowhere to be found. I even took it upon myself to ask around but nobody had seen him for the day. A sinking feeling rose in my chest as I listened over the mind link intently for any news on his whereabouts.

I knew that Leon had already found Zion and was now dealing with him but no one had found my father.

I raised a trembling hand to my forehead and tried to calm the panic that rose in my chest. The fact that he disappeared completely unnerved me and I felt like something big would happen if he wasn’t found. Something that I wouldn’t be able to handle.

“Are you alright, your highness?” One of the guards asked worriedly.

I waved a dismissive hand and took a deep breath, “I’m fine. Let’s go watch the king put an end to this whole thing.”

It was better to focus on the task at hand and worry about the future later. I turned to start heading in Leon’s direction but froze, my entire body stiffening as I caught sight of a wounded woman curled up under a tree.

I approached her hesitantly and bent down to listen carefully for her heartbeat.

She was alive but barely, her breathing almost nonexistent. It seemed she had taken a severe injury and would die soon if she wasn’t treated immediately.

T’Niah.

I hesitated as I thought back on all of our interactions, conflicted on whether I should help her or leave her to die. I couldn’t necessarily call her a bad person, but she wasn’t good either. However, her ability to remain loyal to Zion from beginning to end, despite everything he’s done was admirable.

“Hey,” I leaned in and whispered gently, “can you open your eyes for me?”

A shudder of pain travelled through her body as a weak whimper escaped her lips. I watched as she forced herself to crack an eye open and gazed at me with a look of defeat.

She opened her mouth to say something, but it came out as a groan instead so I shook my head.

“You don’t have to speak... but you know you’re going to die, right?” I asked.

A tear traveled down her cheek as she nodded.

“Do you want me to help you?”

Hesitation flashed in her eyes as she doubted my motives but I simply smiled and explained.

“You’ve never done anything to harm me, there’s no need for you to be so cautious. Just as I’ve been a bystander in many lives, you’ve been one in mine. However, I can’t say I never enjoyed your company. You were just biased against your friend and the one you grew up with. I don’t hold any grudge against you. So, do you want my help?”

Another tear fell.

She nodded.

I nodded my approval and muttered, “good. Don’t forget what I did today,” I gestured to one of the guards, “call someone to take care of her. Make sure she doesn’t die.”

^^^

Leon’s POV

I approached the man that I had been desperately hoping to rip apart for a long time now, my anger rising off my body and pouring itself down on his shoulders with a killing intent so fierce, I’m surprised it hadn’t choked him to death yet.

However, despite feeling the clear power difference between us, the trembling wolf refused to submit, his eyes glaring up at me in both fear and defiance.

I would’ve found it admirable if I didn’t already know of all the wrongs this bastard had committed.

“Do you know who I am?” I asked him.

A glare.

I raised an eyebrow and increased the pressure on him, causing his paws to buckle as he collapsed onto the ground in pain.

“I asked if you knew who I was, Rogue King?"

"Alpha Leon,” came his gritted reply through the mind-link.

My eyes narrowed as I stepped closer and pressed my foot down onto one of his paws until a satisfying crunch was heard. His body trembled as he grunted and tried to move to no avail.

“That’s Alpha King Leon to you.”

He turned his head away and his voice sounded in our mind, “you might as well kill me and get it over with. I acknowledge your strength but I will not bow down to it. That goes against everything I stand for.”

My lips tilted upwards, “well, aren’t you a dedicated Alpha? Did you really think that forming a pack out of criminals and deranged wolves would’ve gotten you somewhere big? Forget about following instincts, did you lose a brain cell while in this forest? Did you think your actions through clearly? We’re instinctive creatures but we’re also intelligent. You’re a disgrace.”

“Me? I’m a disgrace!? You don’t get to stand from above and look down on me. You don’t care about anyone but yourself and protecting your throne. There are innocent people running around as Rogues, condemned for the actions of their parents. No pack would accept them for fear of them. They weren’t allowed near any territory and had to fight tooth and nail to even find something to eat every day. That’s the life of a rogue. We suffer and we travel aimlessly, looking for a home that’ll take us but finding scorn instead. I was born a rogue, I didn’t become one and yet not once has the kingdom ever opened its arms and took any of us in!”

I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. It wasn’t like I haven’t heard this argument before. Rogue children, growing up with so much hatred because of their parents’ teachings and cursing the kingdom for their suffering. I wasn’t the least bit sorry for them.

My lip curled as I scorned, “is this your pathetic excuse as to why you banded together a group of fucking criminals? I know you know about the Rogue children policy. As long as you petition the king with at least ten members who have no criminal records or bad history with any other pack, you’d get approved to become an official named pack and would be offered your own small piece of land, free of cost. This is an opportunity for all Rogues who are innocent. So don’t condemn me for your choices. You chose to house criminals and you chose to do it silently behind my back because you knew it was wrong. Yet you didn’t stop. Tell me, why should I open my arms to coddle someone that didn’t earn his place there?”

Silence.

He couldn’t reply to that. Playing the victim didn’t work on me. My body froze as I felt Starr’s presence growing closer. I didn’t want her to see him, yet the urge to grab and torture every inch of him invaded my body.

I was conflicted.

I bent and grabbed the neck of his wolf to lift him up, completely unfazed as he weakly snapped his jaws in an attempt to bite my hand.

I stared into his eyes seriously and said, “You took what was mine and you hurt her. I’m going to return the favor by having a few of my men play around with your back end for a little while. I’m sure you’d love that. Then I’ll carve out every part of your skin that I thought touched my mate. You won’t rest, you won’t eat, you will suffer.”

A shudder rocked his body as his eyes widened at my threat.

“Just kill me!”

I shook my head and flung him aside, taking out the handkerchief from my pocket to wipe my hands, “death is too easy for those who oppose the King. The only reason I bothered to deal with you myself wasn’t because I deemed you as an equal. It was because it was my right and duty as Starr’s mate to kill her hurt and you were a cause of it. Take him to the black cell, I’ll visit when I’m done cleaning up here. Treat him well, boys.”

I watched as they dragged his limp body away just as Starr stepped out from a cluster of trees. I watched as she stared in the direction my men had just dragged Zion off to with a mixture of emotions flashing across her face. I couldn’t tell what she was thinking.

A little dissatisfaction rose in my chest as she paid me no attention and as soon as I hurried to quell that emotion, her head snapped in my direction and she smiled. My serious attitude subsided as I approached her and wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her against me.

“It’s done,” I muttered against her hair, inhaling the delectable scent that had my insides curling and my heart racing. This woman was temptation.

Starr nodded against me and asked, “did you find my father?”

I froze, that completely having slipped my mind. I was so focused on capturing Zion that I forgot the main reason Starr came with me. My eyes clouded as I mind linked my men.

“Any news on the whereabouts of the father?”

There was a brief pause before someone answered.

“It doesn’t seem like he entered the pack at all. He didn’t come to help Zion.”

Unease washed over me at that. This wasn’t within expectations. Where could he have possibly gone?

“Go back to their pack and look for him. The second you find him, capture him and bring him back to me," I ordered then turned my eyes to Starr who was already looking up at me. I shook my head, “he didn’t come here with Zion. My men are currently looking for him, don’t worry.”

She nodded, but the frown on her face hinted at her worry. I glided my thumb across her frown lines and promised, “don’t worry. I’ll find him.”