His Mate: The Demon King

Chapter fifteen

Aliyah frowned on seeing the black hair and black eyes before her eyes took in the form of the boy in front of them. ‘Steven?’
“There is no time. The rogues will be here soon and so will the High Howlers warriors. I have seen them, just the two of you will never win. Come on,” Steven said, turning his back then to walk away.
Aliyah glanced at Sean who in turn turned to her as well, ‘Should we trust him?’ she asked.
Sean shrugged his big head, ‘he spared my life, I guess so.’
“Sean,” Rasmus called as he wanted to know the boy’s decision having not met the other wolf boy before. Sean nodded at him and he nodded back, reaching down to pick Irene up again.
“Come on Sean,” Steven called, having realized that there weren’t following him. Sean moved first and the rest followed.
‘You think this is a good idea Sean, remember you said High Alpha told him to make sure you didn’t leave the pack. What if he found out that he had spared you and so told him to find us if he wants to redeem himself?’
‘Come on Aliyah, where has your trusting part gone?’
Aliyah shrugged. ‘You can’t blame me, you can’t trust anyone these days.’
‘You do realize that Rasmus was willing to risk his life to save you just now, right?’
‘I’m not talking about him, well, somehow but Steven is not our packmate or Edward’s servant, he has no reason to be loyal to us.’
“I hate to break it to you wolf boy but that path you are taking is crawling with rogues,” Rasmus spoke up after silently following Steven for some minutes.
“Who said anything about taking up?” Steven asked, the moonlight illuminating his handsome face and making his smirk noticeable. He bent over and removed grasses and tree leaves before pulling up an iron latch. “I will go first, in case if you think it’s a trap,” and with that, he jumped down into the rabbit hole.
Sean glanced back at Aliyah and said, ‘he is my friend,’ as a reply to her earlier question before jumping in after Steven. Aliyah sighed and jumped down too, followed by Rasmus who made sure to close the latch after him.
“It’s pretty dark, but I assume that won’t be a problem since we are all night creatures,” Steven shrugged and started walking and they followed him. There were many tunnels and each leading to different places. Sean wanted to ask Steven if he had dug the holes himself but he knew he won’t hear him, they are not from the same pack after all.
They walked in silent, not that they were afraid of being heard but because only Sean and Aliyah could hear what each other is saying and they took it as advantage to discuss about what could possibly be happening. Steven suddenly blocked Sean’s path with his hand and looked up, listening. “High alpha trackers,” he whispered. “We must be very still, they are not called trackers for no reason.”
They all stopped breathing as if their breath would suddenly give away their location. They could hear the sniffing going on above them and they tried to be as still as they could. Finally, they heard the paws fading and each let out a deep sigh. “Come on, it’s a long way home.”
‘Home?’ Aliyah asked, shocked.
‘Give him a benefit of doubt Aliyah. He is risking his life to do this for us.’
‘That is if he is not in cahoots with them and all this is just for us to trust him and then he would be handing us to them in a platter of gold.’
Sean sighed but he didn’t respond as he silently followed Steven. “I know you have been in human realm, normally, you would be in big trouble just visiting there for a few hours but you are in a bigger trouble as it is,” Steven chuckled. “And yes, you should know that the nightwalkers are becoming deranged now.”
“What?” Rasmus finally spoke up, “that is impossible.”
Steven shrugged. “I fought three off myself last night.”
“But…it has only been the rogues, why is the demon king turning nightwalkers?” Rasmus asked.
“Demon king?” Steven asked. “Well, I guess we have a lot to catch up on.”
‘Go ahead, hide the human and children, do not let them out,’ A voice sounded in Sean’s and Aliyah’s mind and they both looked at each other, they were approaching their pack.
“We are nearing the Blue Moon’s pack. Let’s just hope your alpha doesn’t sense you or it would be problem. High Alpha wolves have been surrounding the Blue Moon pack since that fight. Neither of your fathers can leave the pack without being followed. I have watched them a few times. Although I think the main reason for the watch is to know when either of you shows up and that is why I said it would be a problem if your alpha senses you. But knowing alpha Alan, even if he senses you, something tells me he would keep quiet, knowing the dangers that comes with it.”
Sean couldn’t take it anymore, what has he to lose since they were all men? And so, he shifted back into his human form, he has a lot of questions that needed answers more than he wanted to cover his naked body.
“Finally, was wondering how long it would take you to shift back,” Steven said not even bothering to stop to look at him.
“First of all, I want to say thank you for doing this and second, why?” Sean asked.
Steven shrugged. “Like I said Sean, you are the only true friend I have ever had and also, you are right, something dark is going on and Alpha Damien is really stupid if he is not seeing it.”
“Thanks, again…”
“Shush,” Steven interrupted, pausing in his tracks again. Soon, they heard the sniffing going on above them once more and they all stilled like statues, holding their breaths and retracting their scents as much as they could. “Coast is clear,” Steven said when the paws started fading away.
“Okay, now, did you dig this?” Sean asked.
“Funny story,” Steven began, “I came across this book that talked about the Vallahan soldiers building underground tunnels to seek refuge from the fight and they built it down to the Antaddon kingdom where they attacked the village while their prince was at the battle front with the Vallahan prince.”
Aliyah linked the story to Irene’s story immediately, ‘but when the Vallahan soldiers started sneaking into the kingdom and killing Antaddon women and children, the Dark Prince lost it.’ So that was how they did it, they snuck into the village underground, she thought. Now glancing at the walls around it, Aliyah felt pain in her chest, the women and children were innocent.
“I decided to check it myself while planning on how to come find you guys. You should know that I am hiding from the High howlers’ wolves too. I don’t know how but Alpha Damien somehow knew that I let you leave that night and so he had been after me. My father pleaded on my behalf but to forgive me, he stripped me off my future alpha tittle.”
‘Oh my God,’ Aliyah said in the mind link but only Sean heard it.
“And yet here you are, doing this for me, the very reason you lost the post you have been training your whole life for.”
Steven shrugged. “Come on Sean, our whole existence is coming to an end as it is, why will I care about not being an alpha for a pack that would soon become deranged?”
Sean frowned at that. “I don’t understand.”
“The rogues are constantly attacking and one bite from them makes you like them. It was hard getting around that and Catherine hasn’t found a cure for the infected wolves. It would have been okay, I mean, we would have been living like that but the nightwalkers started attacking three days ago and with them, the poison spreads faster. A quarter of my pack are already deranged and are locked up in the dungeons. The rogues’ attacks in daytime and the nightwalkers at night, it’s hell up there as every wolf is always prepared and waiting for a fight because no one knows when they would come. I knew I need to find you two, whatever that is going on and whatever reason they want her,” he turned to stare at Aliyah, “she must be able to stop this. I stumbled upon that latch a month ago and had been spending my days in here, finding where each tunnel leads to, hoping to lead you back with it.”
Sean nodded, turning then to glance at Rasmus but the man was still shocked on the news about nightwalkers becoming deranged. Turning back to Steven, he asked, “where are we going to now?”
“There is a cottage in my pack, never been used since my great-great grandmother died. I have been spending my days there since I found this tunnel,” he pointed at one tunnel with a smirk as he stopped, “leads right underneath it. You can stay there and figure out how to stop this plague, no one will disturb you, no one would even know you are there and if someone is coming, you can easily hide under here. I have destroyed that book to make sure no one else knows about these tunnels,” he grinned.
Sean smiled and gave him a friendly pat on the back before they switched to the tunnel that would be leading right to the said cottage.