Alpha King's Mate

11. Attack

"Zac!" I scream, my eyes starting to tear up, memories flooding back into my mind, as I watch the wolves run toward the palace.

A hand grabs my shoulder and spins me around. Zac's eyes have gone black and he grips my hand tightly as he drags me behind him.

"What's happening? Who are those wolves?" I inquire frantically as we run through the winding halls. He doesn't respond.

We come to the mahogany door to his study and enter the medium sized room containing the king's private collection of books and documents all staked neatly on shelves, a large desk, one chair behind the desk and one in front, and a little green lamp on top of the desk beside two pens placed perfectly parallel to each other.

Keeping my hand in his own, Zac pulls me over to the wall on the right side of his desk with a tall bookshelf nailed attached to it. He pulls back a book from the shelf and it opens a small box from behind the book which let out a metal rod and a light. The rod seems to scan Zac's eye before he raises my hand up and has my finger prints scanned my the contraption. The bookshelf and the wall slide back, revealing a secret hallway.

"Zac talk to me, please." I beg after we both stare into the dark hallway for a moment.

"I haven't used this since I was a kid.." He whispers, his thoughts appearing to be elsewhere.

"What do you mean? What-" My questions are interrupted my a loud bang from outside, followed by more howls and snarls.

"This way!" Zac and I start to run again and the wall closes from behind us. We seem to have been running for hours by the time we get to two doors. He opens the one on my side of the hallway and pushes me inside.

I gasp at the sudden push and turn to face him worriedly.

His face is angry. "Stay here, do not move."

He turns and opens the other door  which leads to a tunnel which, I'm assuming will take him to the woods where he can join the battle without revealing where he came from.

Soon he disappears from sight.

I look around the room. There are cement walls and enough room to fit at least a hundred people. Every wall is lined with metal shelves holding canned and packaged food, blankets, first aid equipment, diapers, clothing, bags, and medicine. There are dozens upon dozens of bunk beds and on top of each bed are two sleeping bags.

God, they really are prepared for the worst. We had an escape tunnel back home but it was just a tunnel, not a bunker.

Screams echo from the direction Zac came from. My heart begins to pound and my head throbs.

Another scream sounds and it all comes back to me.

"Julia!" I scream in fear from all of the sounds of explosions. The moon was my only source of light as I sat in my bed, a lonely and frightened seven year old girl. "Julia!"

The door swings open and Julia enters, she squints, her eyes searching for me frantically. I call out to her and she finally sees me.

"Olivia!" She runs to me and lifts me up into her young but mature arms. I continue to sob into her shoulder as she runs out of my bedroom and to the closest common room.

Mommy and daddy are there.

Julia hands me off to my mother who hugs me tightly, squeezing her eyes shut and whispering an "I love you" to me. I wipe my tears, wanting to be brave for mommy and daddy.

Daddy goes to Julia and hands her a dagger. "I know you are only fourteen and I pray that you won't have to use this, but since you can't shift yet, this will be your only way of protecting Olivia and yourself."

"Alpha-" Julia mutters, scared out of her mind.

"You don't call me that." He smiles sadly at her, outstretching his hand holding the dagger and its holster for her to take. She grasps it and wraps the holster around her waist, shoving the dagger into it as soon as it is secured. "It is lined with wolfsbane and made of silver, so even the slightest scratch could kill a fully grown wolf. Be careful."

"Yes, sir." Julia nods, trying to hold back tears.

My mother places me in Julia's arms, kissing my forehead swiftly. I keep my eyes locked on her face as she takes Julia's face into her hands.

"Take good care of your sister, Julia. She will need you." My mother breathes out as tears come to her eyes.

"Mommy, come with us." Julia begs, now starting to cry. "We can stay a family."

Mommy swallows hard. "Your father and I, we have to protect the rest of our family, but we will all be together soon, okay?"

"Promise?"

"I promise."

Lies.

I snap out of my trance. There are growls and howls and the sounds of bombs going off outside.

There is a howl held out for longer than the rest and everything goes silent. It means that the battle is over, someone is dead.

I wait, begging for him to come rushing back to me, but minutes pass and everything is silent and still.

He'll be here. He will.

But he isn't.

You know what? Fuck it!

I swing the door open and sprint as fast as I can down the tunnel. It goes from concrete to stone to dirt and eventually I make it to the end. There is a ladder that I climb easily, I push away the pile of branches and leaves at the top and finally I am in the woods, only a few feet from the edge of the front palace clearing.

The stench of death immediately clogs my nostrils and I gag from the smell.

Please don't be dead. Please don't be dead.

I make my way to the tree line at a slow, careful pace. Praying to whatever all-powerful forces were deciding our fate with every step I took, that my mate would not be dead or dying.

Here it comes.

I approach the last layer of trees surrounding the palace grounds, my last layer of cover, with a weight pressing me down. I emerge from the woods and come across all forty wolves that had been approaching the castle with bloodthirsty eyes, either dead or kneeling before their King.

While I know that we have won the battle, my heart sinks when I see a group of men surrounding the corpse of a gray wolf. A woman races toward the group and two men try to hold her back but she falls to her knees beside the the body. Her sobs fill the air and Zac lets out a furious growl that seems to shake the ground and all of the trees.

He steps toward one of the men kneeling and looks down at him in disgust. "Is this what you wanted, rebel? To kill a sixteen year old boy in his first battle? Is that life worth your loses?"

"Any fight where one of you dies is no loss to us." The rebel spits on Zac's boots and everything is silent besides the wailing of the woman who I am assuming was the boy's mother.

Zac stands still, glaring down at the man kneeling before him. He stands and stares for a good while, until all at once, in one swift motion, he snaps the man's neck.

I gasp and watch in horror as the rebel leader's lifeless body collapses.