Violet String {EDITING}

Focus

"What about her punishment?" Thorn's eyes darted over to the electric blue ones. "She can't get out of this scot-free... There has to be some sort of repercussion, so what is it?"

Blu turned back, his intense gazing into Genesis as he spoke. "She already knows."

The Alpha's words haunted her.

She knew exactly what he was referring to, after all. The answer was right in front of her. Literally.

Her purple gaze drifted over to the man sleeping on a small futon on her floor, his hand gripping hers tightly as it hung over the edge of her bed.

The man whose parents she'd killed.

The man who was supposed to love and cherish for all eternity, and she'd done something terrible to him before she'd even known about who he was to her.

"I hate you, Flix." She whispered, glaring out of the window, staring across the sky at the crescent moon she could see rising in the distance.

***

"You've found their bases?" Finn blinked, nearly dropping Genesis's hand as they all stood in the kitchen of the small church house. "What?! When?!"

"While you two were busy making your lovebirds nest." Blaze said, his expression guarded. "But we'll need your help when we raid them."

"So, we're bringing all hands-on deck?"

"Precisely." Rylan glanced over at the door leading to the garden. "Dusk, you can come in already!"

Umber black skin rippled as the man strode into the room that seemed to shrink in his presence. Genesis wasn't really surprised by that, though. He was the strongest Alpha – Dusk. His Gift was pure strength, and by the Gods did he know how to use it. Everyone had heard the tales about him, especially about his youth. Close cropped black hair lined his skull, sharp brown eyes surveying her as Finn tightened his grip on her hand.

"Finn's mate?"

"Correct."

"She's... tall..."

"Well observed." Arrow muttered drily. "Have you finished dragging Lyra and Juniper back home?"

"Duh." One eyebrow rose. "Why else would I be here?"

"So why are they standing behind you?"

"What?!"

Juniper grinned. "You didn't think it'd be that easy to get rid of us, did you?"

"Don't you want us around, Ry?" Lyra prodded two fingers together, a sad expression on her face.

"I give up." The Alpha King mumbled, burying his face in his hands.

The blonde standing next to him merely grinned, his deep brown eyes drinking in the sight of his mate. "I'm fairly sure I've said this before, but you're a terrible influence, Pookie Bear..."

"I try."

"But anyway..." Rylan said, wrapping one arm around his mate's shoulders. "Who are we going to send where?"

"There's three bases." Arrow said, tapping the three markers stuck in the map. "And thirteen of us... So that averages out around four people per base."

"I'm with Genesis." Finn spoke quickly. "We can take the one closest to here."

"I'll tag along." A certain blue-haired Alpha spoke up.

"Can we go with them too, Ry?" Lyra stared at her mate. "One base needs to have five people."

"Traitor." Juniper grumbled. "I suppose that means me and Black can take that middle one." She said, poking the red pin in the middle of the map of the Hawkdale Region.

"Well, the rest of you can sort out your groups..." Rylan strode towards the door, Lyra in tow. "I'll be preparing everything we need in the cars."

"Sure thing, Ry." Arrow nodded, watching as Finn and Genesis hesitantly followed them.

"Will five of us really be enough to take that place down?" Alpha Blu folded his arms, striding alongside the four of them. "Arrow took me when he scouted the place, and the base we're going to is by far the largest."

"Relax." Lyra grinned. "We'll be more than enough."

"I can call some of my division in..." Blu said, pulling his phone out of his pocket. "It'd be probably easier to round them up that way."

"We can call them after." The Alpha King said, opening the boot of the car, blinking as he spotted the duffel bag already in place. "We've got an enemy base to destroy first."

***

"Are we seriously doing this the covert way?" Genesis muttered, clambering through the small hole they'd cut in the fence. "They're going to notice us in a few minutes..."

"And in those few minutes, we'll have closed the distance between us and them, so they'll have less of a chance of escape." Rylan said, kicking down the door in front of them, striding confidently into the large grey building.

"You just completely contradicted yourself, Alp- Rylan." Blu sighed, his voice barely audible over the loud blaring alarm. "If they hadn't noticed we were here before, then they certainly do now." He said, his expression grim as the Alpha King tackled their first victim to the ground. "Some are going to try and make a break for it as soon as they see us."

"That's why I left Lyra outside."

"Oh, so that's where she disappeared off to..." Blu mumbled. "Wow... I actually feel sorry for the ones who try to run..."

"Yeah." Rylan chuckled, freezing when they ran into a three-way junction.

"I'll go left." Blu said, turning down the darkly lit corridor, waving over his shoulder. "I'll meet you outside."

"Sure thing." Rylan said, charging straight ahead, pausing only once to look back at the pair. "See you in a bit."

"Come on." Finn pulled her down the last hallway. "The sooner we get this over with, the sooner we can go back home."

"You mean Blagmoor Castle?"

"Yep." He said, eyeing the walls on either side of them with suspicion, hesitantly edging forwards as he realised how silent everything had become.

Maybe it was to do with the fact that seemed to be no opposition down their route. Maybe it was because Rylan and Blu were clearing out every single enemy in the vicinity.

The answer to that question soon became obvious.

After all, it was rather hard to miss the man who came flying through the wall, his foot slamming into Finn's guarded chest, sending the Alpha outside via the abrupt, painful shortcut he'd created.

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