𝐓𝐰𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐅𝐚𝐭𝐞 ⸙

2.60༊*·˚

"This changes everything." Liam tried to think of how Zayn would react. He couldn't bear to imagine his breakdown. "Your death has been so hard on so many people."

Xavier looked away again. "Some days I willed for Zayn or Solana to get caught so I could see them. I'm glad they never did. This has been hell, sitting here for almost two years. Mira is the definition of bedlam, but she's been our only visitor. It's hard to stay sane when insane is all you've had."

"We'll get out" Liam sat up straighter. He had to get out to see Zayn, and for his parents to see the sun again, Xavier to see his family again, and for the Pack he had lived with for almost two years to reconnect.

"I think Zayn is close," he whispered, forgetting that Mira's Rogues lurked in the dark corners.

The werewolves shared a nervous glance, and one left the room.

"Can you feel him?" Xavier asked.

Liam rubbed his chest. He was too calm for Zayn to be at the other end of England. "I feel a lot of things right now, b-but I think he's not far away."

******

Zayn needed a way into the cave without Mira knowing, and without causing a scene. Mira wanted Zayn to go back North, but why?

"What will she do when I'm back North?" he asked Leo, the Rogue who was proving to be very useful.

"I don't know. She never discussed that part of the plan with us. Thea's Beta might know, but this is where my knowledge runs out. Sorry."

Zayn had to believe him. Accusing him of lying probably wouldn't squeeze out the truth. He sighed heavily and rubbed his eyes.

"We need more wolves. We're so outnumbered."

Thea's Beta had brought double the Omega's Zayn had with him, and he didn't yet know how much he could trust the rest of Thea's pack.

"If you pretend to go back North, Mira might kill Liam, or she might kill him if she realises you lied," said an Omega, nervously glancing all around. "But we need to find a way of getting rid of Thea's  Beta."

"Kick her into the ocean, like you said," another Omega offered.

"Then her Omega wolves will attack us." Zayn gripped the front of his hair. "I don't know what to do. The longer we stand here, the more at risk everyone is."

"At least Liam is close."

"But not safe."

"Is he on his own in the caves?" Zayn asked Leo, who stood awkwardly with his head down.

"No. There's prisoners in there. I don't know who they are. They've been in there a long time. I don't even know if they're still alive."

Zayn had a horrid image of Liam sitting alone in the dark, surrounded by bodies. "We have to get him out of there now. He might not have enough time for us to wait for backup."

Zayn didn't know the state of the cave, though his chest wasn't tight with fear. Liam was not okay, but he wasn't yet breaking down.

His shifted Omega's suddenly lifted their heads, sniffing the air and trying to peer up to the top of the cliffs. Zayn looked up too, and that's when he saw gold glowing eyes peering down at him.

A grey wolf looked over the clif, a healthy, clean and strong wolf. Zayn's first thought was that Thea had sent backup, but the longer he looked, the more heads popped into view, and the overwhelming scent of werewolves wafted down in the salty breeze.

Zayn looked left and right along the cliff's edge. From the smell, he was willing to bet that hundreds of wolves stood above them.

"What's going on?" he asked. Thea's pack wasn't that big.

"Alpha" Reena said, clutching her phone, looking up too. Her eyes swelled with relief. "I phoned allies. They said Ethdellin Packhouse had already phoned yesterday asking for help." She blinked back her shock. "I think... I think this is our help."

"I don't have this many allies, do I?"

A bewildered Zayn climbed up the side of the cliff, carefully and quietly, wanting to see for himself.

He was out of breath when he got to the top, but the sight of so many wolves took his breath away completely. As far as he could see in the thick woods, hundreds of wolves stood, sat, sniffed, but all of them, brown, black, grey, white, all the wolves stood together and stared right at him.

The closest one shifted into a tall muscular woman, wearing black leggings and a green hoodie with the words, Eastly Howl Pack on the front.

"Malik," she said, tying up her long brown hair. "Got your mate back yet?"

Zayn, so perplexed, shook his head to say no.

"Right then, what can we do to help?"

The hairs on Zayn's neck prickled as wolves quieted down to listen. Another wolf shifted into a person. He was from Sea Claw Packhouse. All the wolves before him stood together, but they were from different Packs. Zayn had never seen anything like it. The North and South had been divided for
too long, but he had put a rift between Northern Packs because of his young and foolish desire for power.

Now, because of Zayn, the wolves were together again. He would have stared in disbelief if he didn't look like an idiot, opening and closing his mouth.

"We need to kill Mira."

"The Bedlam Alpha's mate, human, and mad. We were briefed over the phone. Where is she?"

"In a cave with my mate, if we get near, she'll kill him."

"Then we need to think of a plan. I'm sure two hundred of us can think of something, How do we get in?"

"There's a way in through the caves, and a way in somewhere else, but we can't get there with the tide in."

Zayn stopped tensing his shoulders. With so much help, he could storm into the cave and kill anyone who put themselves between himself and Liam, but was that too much of a risk?

"What if we camp out and wait for Mira to come out of the cave?"

"Something tells me that she'll realise all of you are here in the meantime and kill my mate anyway."

"Why hasn't she killed him already? If her main goal is to destroy your life, Zayn, then why are you not on a Rogue killing spree because you've lost your mate?"

"She's trying to lure me back North, probably so I'm not close enough to direct my killing rampage towards her." Zayn clenched his fists. Regardless of what happened in between, everything would end with Mira's death, and he could barely wait.