Chapter 46 – Are we going to die?
Ten whole minutes pass before the patrol situation is somewhat sorted. Despite there only being five people out there tonight, they're on a schedule to check back in only every hour unless there's an emergency, meaning that most of them didn't have their phones on them because they were trotting about as wolves. In the end, Justin managed to get hold of one of them, I'm not sure who, and told him to go and round up the others. Dean and Amy went and grabbed eight of the patrol group that David assigned during training and sent them on their way to take their place. According to Justin, none of the five had seen Baldwin escape the borders, which means he either managed to slip past them or is still within our territory. I'm not going to lie, neither of those options are preferable.
The one good thing, thankfully, is that the noise from the dining room seems to have gone quiet, meaning that Richard and Louisa have successfully managed to calm everyone down. Well, to some extent, at least.
By now, almost everyone has turned up. It's verging on half two and Wayne is on his way back with Helen, along with the five patrollers. They're all we're waiting for now, which means we're one step closer to setting off on our mission.
"We should head into the other room so that we're ready for when they arrive," Justin says, taking my hand and leading me into the dining room with Beck, Jess and Devlin following behind.
Upon entering the room, it's easy to see that this is no normal Pack meeting, it's way too disorganised. Instead of everyone sitting around patiently, most people are standing all scattered around the room, and there's hardly much order as they all mutter to each other and cause a quiet murmur to spread throughout the room. Although people have quietened down a bit more now it's obvious that they're nowhere near calm, which is totally understandable.
"Justin, what are we going to do, man?" someone asks, walking over to us when he spots us at the back of the room, and I recognise him to be Ricky Jones. "We've got a plan, right? My parents are completely flipping out."
"Yes, we've got a plan," Justin replies, appearing calm when I know that inside he's probably flipping out too. "I've got to wait until everyone arrives first, though. We need to bring some order back into everyone."
"How exactly are we supposed to do that?" I ask, glancing around the room at everyone as they stand about in a nervous frenzy.
"I don't know, that's usually mum's forte," he admits, looking around the room as well.
Well, great. Okay.
"Maybe we should go around and talk to people individually whilst we wait for the others," I suggest with a small shrug. "If we calm them down one by one then they might listen to us more."
"Okay," Justin agrees, looking around the room until he spots Dean and Amy stood off to one side. Quickly making his way over to the two, he asks them to take the left side of the room whilst we take the right, before pulling me over to a pair of mates that are obviously wondering what the hell's going on. I don't know them, personally, but I'm pretty sure their names are Milly and Fred. We help to calm them down a bit, answering any questions they have to the best of our ability, before moving onto the next people. For the next few minutes we answer the same questions over and over again, trying to get people to understand that we're not purposefully trying to keep them in the dark.
"Where's David?"
"Upstairs recovering."
"Where's Wendy?"
"Upstairs with dad."
"Will Wendy be fighting still?"
"Yes, but she's staying with dad until we have to go."
"Where's Quinlan?"
"At this point, we're not sure."
"What's happening?"
"Don't worry, everything's under control."
"Is the plan still in place?"
"We've had to make a few changes, but we'll explain once everyone's here."
"Are we going to die?"
"No."
On and on and on the questions go, and Justin and I do our best to answer them as we move from person to person. Eventually, though, the door at the back of the room opens to reveal Wayne and Helen, with the other five trailing not far behind them.
Helen looks awful; with puffy eyes and a red nose, it's not difficult to tell that she's been crying. I can't even begin to imagine what kind of hell she must be going through. She has just lost her mate, after all. It's difficult to see, though, her looking so broken; I've never even seen her slightly upset before, let alone crying.
Wayne, on the other hand, just looks extremely sombre. His mouth is set into a grim line and stress pinches at the corner of his eyes; it's not been a good night for anyone.
As soon as he sets sight on Justin, Wayne immediately makes his way over, gathering the attention of many people in the room.
"What's the plan?" he immediately asks, getting straight down to business, and Justin and I quickly explain it to him.
"It'll lessen our chances slightly but it's all we've got to go on right now," Justin says to finish off.
"I think it could work," Wayne agrees with a small nod. "We just need to find some order and get back into the swing of things. We already knew we were going to have to go up against them, it's just come a few hours sooner than expected. We need to tell everyone the plan of action so they can prepare themselves for what's about to happen."
I agree.
Justin and I both nod before the three of us make our way to the front of the room, causing the room to fall into instant silence as everyone awaits the news.
Carefully, we explain what's happened with the Baldwin situation, as not everyone's aware yet that we're two Pack members less, one Alpha down and one captive missing. The news doesn't go down well, as to be expected, but we troop on and plough through the shocked and upset outbursts. Yes, things didn't go to plan and, yes, people are obviously going to be grieving the loss of Max and John, but now is really not the time. Grief, anger and fear will all have to be pushed aside if we want to stand any kind of chance against the rogues.
When people are back to being semi-calm, we continue on to explain the few alterations to the plan. This time, instead of outbursts of shock, the Pack erupts into shouts of agreement and determination.
They're on board, all of them, which gives us one less thing to worry about.
As Justin and Wayne step forward to sort out the individual attack groups, I allow my eyes to scan over the familiar faces of my Pack. God, I hope everyone comes out of this fight alive tonight, losing two is two too many as it is. I frown when I realise that there's one person missing from the crowd, my eyes quickly double-checking to see if I'd just missed him by mistake. I hadn't missed him; where the hell is he?
With my frown still in place, I make my way over to where a tense looking Jess and Devlin are in deep conversation with a very worried looking Amy and Dean.
"Hey," I say, gaining the attention of all four of them. "Has anyone seen Beck?"
They all shake their heads and Amy speaks up.
"No, not for a little while."
Yeah, that's what I thought...
"Maybe he's just keeping away from the big crowd, I'm sure he'll be back in a minute," Jess tried to reassure me when she sees the worry etched into my face.
"Yeah, I guess you're right," I agree slowly. "I'm going to go and look for him. If Justin asks, tell him I won't be long, okay?"
"Okay," they all agree as I turn around and head out of the room.
The kitchen is my first goal of destination, but I sigh to myself when I find it empty. The office, as it turns out, is just as empty at the kitchen. There's no sign of Beck in the living room, either.
Where the hell is he?
I quickly make my way over to the stairs, my heart pounding in my chest as my worry starts to increase. What if he's run? What if – crap. What if Baldwin has somehow managed to get him? He was literally here ten minutes ago. Where's he gone?
I make it halfway up the stairs before stopping cold, suddenly remembering why Justin and I didn't come upstairs earlier. The bodies. What if they're still there? They probably are, aren't they? I doubt anyone's moved them yet, there hasn't been time to. I quickly make my way to the bottom of the stairs again before I get the chance to find out.
"Beck," I call out, glancing around as if he's going to just pop out of thin air. This is really not the time to lose someone.
I go towards the front door and swing it open, getting ready to call out again. I pause, however, when I see the lone figure sat opposite the house, his back leaning up against a tree. Beck.
The night is quiet as I make my way over to him, the sound of my footsteps audible to the both of us as he looks up to see me approaching.
"Hey," I greet quietly, stopping a few paces away from him.
"Hey," he replies.
"I couldn't find you," I tell him, shrugging slightly in explanation for why I'm out here too.
"Oh, yeah," he mumbles, looking away and running a hand through his hair before reconnecting his eyes with mine again. "Sorry."
There's something really off in his tone of voice, and I feel a slight frown forming on my face as I study him. He looks down at the ground and picks up a nearby stone, quickly flipping it back and forth between both hands as the silence stretches around us.
"Are you okay?" I eventually ask, not sure what else to say.
"Yeah," he replies, but it comes out as more of a sigh as he throws the stone into the road.
"What's wrong?" I can't help but ask. Clearly something's eating at him.
"Nothing."
"Beck-"
"Lucy, I said I'm fine, okay?" he snaps, causing me to fall silent again.
As I watch, he runs his hand through his hair and sighs again, clearly stressed. Not exactly a good thing to be before going out to battle a bunch of rogues.
"Do you want to talk about it?" I ask hesitantly. I know I'm pushing, but it's got to be better for him to get whatever this is off his chest now than to have it eating at him and taking up some of his concentration when we set out.
There's another long silence before he finally speaks up again.
"I'll be waiting here for whenever you're ready to set out," is all he says. I frown.
What's wrong with him? Why's he suddenly being so weird? I know he's not exactly thrilled to be going up against the rogues – I mean, who really is? – but he's one of the toughest guys we've got; he'll be fine. Devlin's not being weird about it, so why is...? Because Devlin's not Kailen's son, Beck is. Oh, of course.
"Listen," I start with a small sigh. "I know this must be hard for you-"
"No. You have no idea!" he argues immediately, pushing himself up from the ground and pacing around as he talks, his frustration growing by the second. "You have no idea what it's like to have a monster as a father and you never will. Your dad may not be around anymore, Lucy, but at least he actually cared! You don't know what it's like to be torn in half, with a part of you wanting nothing more than to be the person that rips his throat out whilst the other is wishing for him to be the only one that manages to escape. You've got nothing to lose!"
I don't know what to reply to that; he's right, I have no idea what must be running through his head right now. His father's an ass but he's still his family. That's probably the most he's ever opened up to me about how he's feeling, he usually just closes down his emotions and pushes them away. Not this time, though.
I reach for his arm, wanting him to stop pacing and actually turn to look at me, but he pulls away with a snarl. It's the most feral I've ever heard him and, for the first time, I can actually picture him as a rogue. It's disconcerting, to say the least, but I know he's going through a lot right now so I don't call him out on it. I don't think he'd appreciate a snarky comment from me right now.
"Just go inside, Lucy," he says, his voice now completely void of all emotion.
"But-"
"Go inside. I said I'll be out here whenever you guys are ready to go," he interrupts, making it perfectly clear that he doesn't want me around right now. I stand there for a few more seconds, thinking over the two options I appear to have. I can do what he says and go inside until it's time to leave or I can stay here and piss him off even more: it's clear which one's the better option.
Without another word, I turn my back on him and head back into the house.
The first person I notice when I walk back into the dining room is Wendy, stood talking to Wayne at the side of the room. I immediately head over.
"How is he?" I ask, and the both of them turn to look at me with tired smiles.
"He's going to be fine, don't worry," Wendy replies. "He's a fighter." I smile at that.
"That's good," I sigh in relief. "I wish I could go up and see him before we set out."
"Yeah, it's probably best that you don't, though. Upstairs isn't exactly in the best shape right now," she replies, her smile fading.
"What about-"
"They've been moved into one of the spare rooms for now," Wayne explains, already knowing what I'm going to ask.
I nod in response to that as I feel someone walk up behind me, the smell of apple and cinnamon settling around me and immediately causing my tense shoulders to relax.
"Hey," Justin sighs, resting his chin on my shoulder as he wraps his arms around my front.
"Hey," I reply, taking note of how fed up he sounds whilst also not missing the subtle way Wayne and Wendy both move away towards the other side of the room, giving us some space.
"I can't wait for this night to just be over," he admits, pulling me even closer.
"Yeah, me too," I agree, leaning back into his chest and not caring about the few curious looks we receive. Now is not the time to be worrying about what other people think. "When are we setting out?"
"Ten minutes," he informs with a sigh. "Everyone's saying their 'goodbyes' and 'good lucks' now."
I frown at that, not liking the sound of the 'goodbyes'. We're going to be okay... right?
"Hey, don't worry," he says, apparently feeling the tension flood back into me. "I'm not going to let anything happen to you."
"Ditto," I reply with a small smile, turning in his arms so I'm facing him. "We're a team, remember?"
"That we are," he agrees before leaning down to kiss me. It's a fairly short kiss, nowhere near as long as I'd like it to be, but it's all we've really got time for right now.
"I need to go find my friends," I announce, pulling away from him slightly.
"Yeah, same," he agrees with a sigh before pulling me in for another quick kiss. "Come and find me when we're about to set out, yeah?"
"Okay," I agree, already planning on doing just that.
When I walk off, I immediately spot Jess and Amy stood with their parents in the middle of the room, all in deep conversation.
"Lucy!" Amy exclaims when she sees me approaching, racing over and catching me in a hug.
"Hey," I reply, hugging her back.
"We weren't sure you were going to get back in time to say bye," Jess explains, coming in for a hug too. "Did you find Beck?"
"Yeah, I did. He's waiting outside," I explain, looking over at Richard and Louisa to find them watching the three of us in a mixture of pain and worry.
Just then, the five minute mark is called and Justin calls out for everyone to get into their attack groups. That means it's time for us to separate.
Richard quickly pulls us all in for one last hug and we all wish each other good luck before he and Louisa have to move to the back of the room where their group is waiting. Jess, Amy and I all make our way over to where Justin, Dean, Devlin, Wayne and Wendy stand.
"Where's Beck?" Justin asks, looking around to try and spot him.
"He's outside, he'll tag on when we set off," I explain.
"Okay," he says with a nod, pulling me in for another hug. "I don't like this," he then mutters.
"Me neither," I sigh, "but it's got to be done."
"Yeah," he agrees. "I know."
I turn to look at Jess and Amy who are stood next to Devlin and Dean.
"Good luck," I tell them. "Stay safe."
"Right back at you," Jess says before Amy chips in with, "Now go and show those rogues what your hot Omega ass is made of."
I can't help but chuckle at that before the time to set off quickly arrives and we all make our way out of the house.
Our group goes first, gaining the attention of Beck who's stood leaning against the same tree as before, and setting the lead for the other three groups that follow behind. Those that are staying behind are following behind us, getting ready to set out on patrol the second we disappear. It's a good thing that everyone else in town is fast asleep right now as this would look really odd to unknowing humans.
I quickly make my way over to Beck and hug him, not even caring if he's mad at me anymore. The fact that we're both heading off into the dangerous forbidden land to attack a bunch of rogues overrules everything else that's going on right now. He must feel the same as me as he's quick to wrap his arms around me too.
"You'd better be safe tonight, Shorty," he tells me, his voice completely serious as I pull away with a slight smile.
"Right back at you," is all I reply, but it's all I've got time to say as we quickly catch up with the rest of our group.
Once under the cover of the trees we quickly split up again to change before regrouping and setting off, sticking in our pairs within our designated group. Beck's the odd one out in our group, but I think he prefers it that way, and I'm not sure how the other groups have been paired up. All I know is this: we have to win tonight.
Justin's scent settles around me as I run next to him, the two of us leading the Pack into the attack. We can do this, of course we can.
I'm not sure how much time passes before we get to the edges of the forbidden land, but it can't have been too long, and we quickly slow down to avoid running into any hidden traps. It's dark, which is going to make it more difficult to see where not to put out paws, but I think we've had enough practise at this now to be able to do it.
The other three groups split off, all moving to circle in from their designated sides as we continue to carefully pick our way through the traps, trying to be as quiet as possible as to not alert our presence.
We get about a quarter of the way into the rogue territory before the sound of heavy breathing breaks through the air, and it's not coming from any of us. There must be some rogues sleeping close by.
That thought's confirmed when, after a few more minutes of creeping forward, three large dark grey wolves fall into our path. They're all fast asleep and I don't recognise any of them.
How many more has Kailen recruited since we were last here?
A twig snaps from somewhere behind me, and I'm not sure who in our group stood on it but I do know one thing, the eyes of all three rogues open.
Crap!
Without another thought, the nine of us lunge forward and attack.
(Hey guys!!! So I don't quite know what to make of this chapter, it was an absolute pain in the butt to write. I pushed through, though, as you can see, and finally got it done. It would never have been finished otherwise. Anyways, that's why it took so long to update and why it might seem a bit choppy in some places, so sorry about that. Also, sorry for any mistakes I made, I quickly read through to correct any I could see but I probably missed a few. As you all know, though, I'll be going through once the story's completed to edit out any/all mistakes, which really won't be that long away now as I literally just have the LAST CHAPTER and EPILOGUE to go. How crazy is that?! I'm not too sure what you're all going to think of the ending but I hope you'll like it. I keep on second guessing my story plan which is getting really old really fast and so I'm just going to stick to my guns and plough through with my original idea. The last chapter will be, as I'm fairly sure I've already mentioned, in Justin's POV. I know you've had to wait a while to hear from him again, haha. The epilogue will be back in Lucy's POV, though.
I'm not too sure when the next update will be as I've got exams coming up very soon (which I am in no way prepared for) and so I'll be dedicating the next month and a half or so to revising. I'll try to get some writing done if I get any free time, though :)
Erm... so, yeah, thanks for reading this chapter and don't forget to Vote/Comment/Add/Follow if you think it's worth it :D It'd be very much appreciated, thanks! Right, I think that's all I have to say for now and I need to start getting ready because I'm off out soon with my friends (the last day of freedom before some hardcore revision, haha) so, until next time, byeee!!!)