Lyle's POV continued
I spent the entire walk back to the packhouse coaching Xander on how to act like Blaze. This coaching included telling him to never speak, continuously have a blank look on his face, and stand in the corner of every room. While Xander whined a bit about having to bite his tongue, he ultimately played his part as soon as we entered the house. Many people gawked at him but didn't say anything. People were more confused by Hayden, if anything. Hayden's delta scent wasn't masked, so people could easily tell that he was a wolf of stature.
We made our way to my office where my dad was discussing battle strategies with Henry's father, Loyd. They paused when the four of us entered. I'm not sure what shocked Loyd the most, Xander, Hayden, or Ace being by our side.
"You better have a good reason for this, Lyle," my father scorned, looking irritated at me. Loyd stood back, trying to observe the battle plans without interrupting our conversation.
"Emilia is going into labor, so I'd rather them here than there." I gave my dad a pointed look, and he accepted my explanation with a slight exhausted nod.
"Quinn, Joseph's brother, is crazy good at tracking down magic, so he knows where their base is at. He also mentioned that they look like they are preparing for an attack. Quinn will be able to tell us when they leave. Blaze is leading a group of his wolves to attack their base as soon as they leave in order to take out the warlock that's helping them," I inform my father, pointing to their location on the map.
"You can start shuttling the vulnerable pack members to my pack. You might want to be as discreet as possible, though. Some of my warriors will be coming here, but the rest are going to make sure your members and mine are protected," Xander pitched in.
My dad nodded, looking down at some notes that he had on positions for attack. "Does Quinn know how many wolves they will be sending?"
I pulled out my phone, rereading some of the details that Quinn told Alex. "Quinn says there are about thirty wolves in the rogue pack, but only about twenty look like they would fight. They are going to take a few witches with them to the base to take down the warlock. Alex is with them by the way."
My dad looked up for a second confused, furrowing his eyebrows. "Why is he with them?"
"I'm pretty sure Quinn and Alex are mates. Quinn wanted him to go with him and if they are mates, I don't think Alex would've been much help here worrying about him." Hayden was the one who reacted the most to this. He nearly fell over once he heard the news, tripping over one of the chairs in the room.
"How do you know that?" He questioned a little aggressively. I rolled my eyes, but kept myself from scowling at the wolf for sounding so disrespectful.
"One, Quinn knew Alex's name without me introducing them. Two, Alex was literally in shock seeing Quinn, but Quinn avoided addressing who he was. And three, Alex's comment about Quinn knowing he was a werewolf. Seems pretty obvious to me. Alex also mentioned his mate being 17 and finding it weird, and we know that Quinn is 17," I clarified, letting all the men in the room sit on that information.
,
"Quinn is 17? How does Alex know they are mates?" My dad asked suddenly. I opened my mouth, but closed it when I realized I didn't have an explanation to give.
I tried to speak again. "Quinn is special. Let's just leave it at that." No one questioned that explanation thankfully.
"Anyway, Blaze has requested that we try to keep the fight in the woods as much as possible. He's going to join us as soon as they take care of the base." My dad nodded at that, pointing to a good place in the woods to keep the fight.
"Let's lead them to this area." I nodded at the suggestion, agreeing with his decision.
"Blaze wants us to stall for as long as possible for him to arrive. He wants to fully circle them. We obviously have the numbers, but they think they have the element of surprise, which they don't," Xander spoke, leaning against the wall, standing extremely close to Ace, who has been quietly observing the conversation.
Loyd looked up, staring at Xander. "If you aren't Blaze, who are you?"
Xander, like the misfit he is, stook out his hand, sporting a smile that would look unnatural on Blaze. "Xander, Alpha of the Black Hearts pack. Sorry, I didn't catch your name?"
I groaned, slapping a hand over my face. "You fucking suck at pretending to be Blaze. You are literally identical, this should be easy for you," I complained, throwing my arms in the air.
Loyd ignored me and responded to Xander. "Loyd Phelps, the leader of the warriors in this pack. I wasn't aware that Blaze had a brother."
Xander beamed at his name. "Phelps, as in Henry Phelps?" Loyd blinked, but nodded nevertheless. "Oh nice! Felix's mate. I love Felix. He's from my pack, and we have been friends since elementary school. I'm sure he will be a great son-in-law." Loyd smiled warmly at this, nodding in agreement.
"Anyway, let's look at strategies for battle?"
...
Ace organized the transportation for the children and non-warrior wolves to go to the Black Hearts. He really was the perfect Luna, something I weirdly envied and admired at the same time. He calmed everyone and easily ushered the groups onto their respective transport.
Joseph joined us halfway through to greet Hayden, who was fully involved in the conversation. Apparently Hayden went to special combat training after his mate died, traveling the world and training at different military bases. I wasn't sure how he managed to get that opportunity, but I wasn't going to question it now.
Joseph also came with some blankets that held Emilia's scent in order to really convince the rogue pack that she was here. The current plan was to lure the rogues to the cabin that is used for Omegas in heat. It is used for birthing sometimes as well, so it was convincing enough that a pregnant girl would be there. It was far enough away from the packhouse but close enough that it didn't appear to be a trap. Lilith amplified Emilia's scent so it would smell as if she was actually there.
A few warrior females will be in there, and they will set up one of the rooms as a birthing room and place the blankets in there. A few witches from the convent will be arriving shortly to disguise the scent of the warriors so they can hide in the woods waiting for the rogue pack to take the bait. Hopefully by the time they arrive, the team going to the base will have eliminated the warlock that is cloaking their scents. The bad part about using dark magic is that once the spell is finished, usually the opposite of what the spell did is amplified since no sacrifice is given. So if you use dark magic to hide your scent, it works really well to do that, but once the magic is gone, your scent is then increased. When they take out the warlock, the pack should reek, which will make them easier to fight in battle.
Xander managed to pretend to be Blaze pretty well by zipping his lips whenever someone entered the room or he left the safety of the Alpha office. He was not doing well at hiding his affection for Ace, which definitely caused some looks. Even worse, he tended to show me unnatural affection as well. He preferred to be right in between Ace and me, keeping us equally close. He didn't touch me like he touched Ace, but he was always watching me carefully. I think it made Loyd slightly uncomfortable once he picked up on it. My dad also sent me some weird looks, but Hayden and Joseph didn't react to it. I wondered if Xander was always affectionate like this.
It was almost sunset when everyone was about to take their position. I had called a brief meeting beforehand to address everyone before the fight began. Everyone was standing outside looking antsy.
I stood in front of the crowd and everyone quieted whatever mumbles were quaking through them. "I apologize for leaving you guys in the dark so long. I appreciate your patience and ability to trust my judgment," I paused to scan for their reaction, but they didn't really express much to my statement. "As many of you may know, my parents took in Blaze when he was only 8." Some murmurs erupted, but not enough to interrupt me. "Blaze was part of the Black Heart's pack before he was kidnapped by their former Beta." This caused even more whispers, filled with all sorts of predictions of what I was going to say. Many eyes landed on Xander, who many believed was Blaze. Xander didn't react to the attention, thankfully.
"This Beta formed his own rogue pack, where he tortured Blaze until leaving Blaze for dead." Now this caused the most amount of talking, but I couldn't concentrate on what they were saying. "This rogue pack has been traveling through America and Canada and has picked up many children who they've kept as slaves. One of those children, who is now a teenager, came to the Blazk Heart's pack seeking asylum. This teenage girl was raped by the leader of the rogue pack and is carrying his child. The rogue pack came here in search of the girl earlier today, in which I purposely led the leader to believe that the girl was in fact hiding here. This was so we could eliminate the element of surprise and instead fight the pack on our terms." I heard many of the warriors agreeing with this plan, even complimenting it.
I took a deep breath before clapping my hands together. "I appreciate everyone's help in ending this ruthless pack once and for all. Some members from the Black Heart's pack will be joining us shortly, along with a few ally witches who will help hide our scents. Everyone should know the plan. If you have any questions, please ask the leader of your group." Everyone started to ready themselves to leave, but I hesitated, not feeling quite finished with my speech just yet.
"I know," I started again, grabbing everyone's attention. "I know there have been various opinions about Blaze over the years, but today is not about that. Today is about the lives this rogue group has destroyed. They killed the Alpha and Luna of Black Heart's ten years ago. They kidnapped a child. They held an incubus child captive. They tortured them, raped them, then threw them out like trash. Then they started over with a new set of kids. A new set of prisoners. Now they are hunting down a teenage girl only to rip her child away from her and kill her too. We are doing this because we are not rogues. We are werewolves with a sense of morals, and we will protect every wolf who asks for our help, regardless of their past," I declared to the crowd. The warriors erupted in agreement, shouting with enthusiasm. I glanced at my father, who was beaming with pride, then at Xander and Ace who both looked fairly happy. If anyone glanced at the smiling Xander right now, they'd have a heart attack thinking he was Blaze with a smile. Even if it was Blaze here and not Xander, I think he would smile too. There are very few people who can make Blaze smile, and I was happy to know that I was one of them.
Everyone ran off to their positions after the witches casted their spells on them. A few of the wolves seemed hesitant, but I think Joseph and Hayden pleasantly chatting with the witches helped ease some of the fear and make the witches appear less threatening.
Xander and Ace stood at each of my sides, lightly touching my arms. I had a feeling they planned this, but they were mates, so it could've just been their similar personalities aligning. The touches eased my anxiety that I didn't even realize was on a steep incline.
"We will be fine, and your speech was great," Ace reassured me, which eased my stress even further. His soothing voice had that power over me, and I thanked the Moon Goddess way too often for our awkward pairing.
Xander stiffened next to me, alerting both Ace and me that something was wrong.
"They just left, and they are headed straight here."