C H A P T E R T W O:
W A R I S S T A R T I N G
Tori and Micheal are in the picture above
He made a move to come near me but Tori put her hand on his chest and my people became high on alert.
"Back down!" I commanded them but Tori kept her hand on his chest.
"Tori," I warned her, "this man is not a threat. Please take your hand off of his chest."
Slowly she did as I asked and Alec rushed towards me, when he reached me, I was engulfed in a hug.
"I can't believe this," he mumbled, "I thought you were dead.
I didn't hug him back, just stood their limply. "I thought you were dead." I said as I stepped back a bit causing him to let go of me and putting distance between us.
"I think we have a lot to catch up on." He said with a large smile on his face.
"I do not think we do actually," I said, no emotion in my voice. "How did you find us and why are you here?" I said coldly.
He looked hurt at my reaction but ignored my tone. "A few days ago, we sent out three men to see if they could find the mysterious pack in the mountains, we heard word early this morning they had."
At this my eyes became slits and anger contorted my face. "You sent spies?" I demanded. "Why?"
"Rayna calm down, they weren't going to attack, we just needed to know if this pack was real."
I let out a forced laugh. "So you thought sending spies here was the right idea? Are you an idiot?" I was beyond angry.
My brother, who I thought was dead, turns up alive and he wasn't here because he thought I was, no. He needed help from my pack.
"You know I thought you were dead?" I snapped. "Nine years I thought you were dead and you weren't? Did you not think I was alive? Did you not care about me?" I was walking towards him.
"I thought you were here for me, you heard word that I was in charge and came to see if it was true, but no. You came here, hoping this pack was real and wanting help?" At this point I was inches away from him.
"Our link had faded and I couldn't feel you, so yes I gave up looking for you and believed you were dead." He said.
I sighed and rubbed my temples at this, I wasn't going to have this conversation in front of all my people. "Follow me."
Micheal, Tori, his pack and myself all made our way to the map room to talk.
"Who sent you?" I started with.
"The King." He said in a monotone voice.
"Why would the king out of all people send you here?" I continued.
"We need some of your men."
"How many and why?" What they were asking was ridiculous and I would never agree to give them any, but I would hear them out.
This time another man spoke up. He had a strong build, the strongest out of the group, probably the third in command.
"We want at least half of what you have because the vampires are starting another war, only this time they are getting help from witches." He finished.
At this I straightened up and locked eyes with my brother before letting out a small, angry laugh under my breath. How rude they are to come in here demanding at least half of my pack.
"What is their cause of attack?" I said, looking away from my brother.
"They want to wipe us out completely." My brother said.
Micheal spoke up. "And why would we ever help the King when we are not only a pack a rouges which he hates but he has over five hundred of his own men? These vampires don't know we exist, Why would we enter a war that we can avoid?"
I nodded my head in agreement.
"Because we are not strong enough to take them on alone, we will die and then they will find out and come for you." My brother spoke harshly.
"And who says that we can't take them on ourselves?" Tori glared at him, malice in her voice.
"Did you not hear what I just said?" The assumed third in command spoke, "They are getting help from witches! These are beings that use dark magic to get their way!"
"I still think it is a waste of my warriors. If the witches are indeed helping them who knows what they have done to the vampires or made for them. I do not want to lose." I said looking at the map sprawled on the table.
"How many attacks have there been already?" I questioned.
"Only twenty seven Rayna." My brother said walking over next to me. "Do you have a marker?" He asked.
Tori came up next to my other side after handing him one, then he marked the map.
"This is where they have gone." He said once he finished.
I looked at it, confused out of those twenty seven, only nine were decent sized packs, packs with a little over one hundred men. The rest had under fifty.
"How many dead?" I said analyzing the new data.
"That's the odd part," my brother started. "When we looked at it, less than half of the men were missing, the other part killed. They didn't just kill, they captured some."
I shifted my focus from the map to the men my brother had brought along with him, they were about as strong as the weakest fighter in my pack, maybe a little stronger. They would need my men to help them.
"How much room do you have?" I asked impatiently.
"We can hold at least five hundred more men back at the King's land." My brother answered.
"You can't be thinking about helping them Rayna!" Micheal growled out.
"I am, I may not like it but they have a point. They need help and if they die, sadly we die."
I didn't like helping the King, but if it meant that my pack would live on, then so be it.
"Alright, but I will only give you one hundred and fifty of my warriors to fight in your war." I stated.
"This is outrageous Rayna, one hundred and fifty woman and men! What happens if we have an attack here? You didn't even ask for my opinion on this, which definitely would've had a different outcome." Tori shouted at me.
If it would've been any other person talking to me like this, I would've made sure they wouldn't do it again. But this was Tori, my beta, the one who is suppose help with decisions and here I was not letting her speak.
"Tori," I warned her. I could tell she was upset with me but it was the best way to go.
"Who is going to watch those that go? Help them fight and train?" She demanded.
"I would, along with Micheal." I said blatantly.
"What about me? What would I just stay here and watch the two hundred others?" She asked sarcastically.
"That is exactly what you would do."
She stared at me, angry and lost. "This plan won't work Rayna." She spit out.
"We won't know until we try. Micheal, get all the warriors together and split them into groups going from strongest to weakest. Split up who and who will not be going. I want an even amount of strong to weak. Also find someone to help Tori control and make decisions, as much as I trust her she cannot take care of two hundred men and women herself."
He nodded and left the room.
I turned and faced my brother. "We will leave at dawn. I will send for someone to show you all your rooms, right now you owe me an explanation Alec." I said and started to walk out of the room, Alec following close behind.
Once we reached where he would be staying, we entered and Alec made is way over to a chair, I just stood by the window.
"After you ran," he started, "I thought I was going to die. The man who had me had pulled out a dagger with wolfsbane and started cutting me." He paused, taking a deep breath.
"It hurt so bad, like being shot a million times and as much as I wanted to just black out, I couldn't, he made sure of it. He kept me on the brink of unconsciousness, when I was about to pass out, he would let me heal a bit." Alec cleared his throat and looked at me.
"And through it all I didn't even care about me and fighting back, I just hoped you had made it out alive." He said as his eyes became watery.
"Well you didn't die and someone saved you. Who?"
He seemed taken aback at my harshness. "The King."
I turned away from the window and looked at him. "Why would the King, a vicious and cruel man save you? A kid?"
Alec stood from the chair and started pacing. "He thought more were alive. He heard about the attack and rushed over in hopes of getting vampire hostages. He didn't save me moreover he wanted the vampire for interrogation." He stopped.
"Then how did you end up working for him?"
He sighed. "He looked at me, almost dead and said that I had two choices. I could go with him and train to be apart of his pack or I could become a rouge. You know which one I choose."
I stared at him blankly before answering. "Well, I'm glad you're okay."
"That's it?" He was hurt. "That's all you have to say after finding out that I'm alive and okay?"
I shrugged. "I've changed Alec, I'm not a defenseless little girl anymore. I worked to get where I am, it wasn't just handed to me. While you got the luxuries of having a nice place and food on the table I didn't. I stayed with a pack who mainly hated me for two years, became a rouge for another two and now I'm here. I wasn't given family or love or friends, I was given men and women who wanted to become soldiers."
He walked over to me and did something I wasn't expecting, he hugged me.
I stayed stiff in his arms as he spoke. "I'm so sorry Ray. I'm sorry I never tried looking for you more than I did. I'm sorry that was your life."
He continued to hug me, slowly I hugged him back. "It's okay."
We broke apart and stood there in awkward silence for a moment.
"I'm going to go, we have to get up early tomorrow." I said, breaking the silence and leaving the room.
"Goodnight Ray." He said before I closed the door.
Word Count:
1873
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AN
yay for chapter two. I hope you all are enjoying this book so far, and if you are remember to vote and comment!
-mae