Chapter 16 – Wait… what exactly is he saying…?
Lucy’s POV
I don’t know how long I stand there in shock, the phone still pressed to my ear. It feels like hours but can only have been a few seconds before, slowly, my brain starts to kick back into gear.
“They’ve been attacked,” I inform, already running towards the cover of the trees with Justin hot on my heels. By the looks of it, Beck (thankfully) has done as I asked and has stayed behind, probably already on his way to try and find out whatever else he can on these rogues.
“What? By how many, just a few or all eight of them?” Justin asks, but I shake my head.
“I don’t know,” I reply quickly, yanking my top off as fast as I can and not even caring that he’s stood right there. I just need to get back to the others… I need to go and find Amy. Amy… oh, god.
“Luce,” he says calmly, grabbing my hands before I can remove my shorts as well. “Lucy, what did she say? What happened?”
“I – I don’t know,” I repeat, pulling my hands away and knotting them in my hair, my voice not far from hysterical. I try to force down my panic, knowing that I need to keep a level head right now, but it’s not easy… “Um, she said something about going for a run and hearing screams, and then something about a rumour, but – but the signal was shit and she kept on breaking up so I don’t really know… and then I heard her screaming and it cut off and-”
“Hey, hey it’s okay,” he says, cutting off my half-hysterical fast ramble. “Lucy, look at me,” he removes my hands from my hair and forces me to look into his eyes. “She’s going to be fine, okay? She’s going to be fine.”
“I… I can’t lose anyone else like this, Justin, I just can’t!” I reply shaking my head, slightly less hysterical whilst trying to force the unshed tears back. This whole situation reminds me way too much of my parents as it is… I can’t lose Amy to a rouge as well.
“And you won’t, I promise,” he says, the certainty in his voice helping to calm me down some as he continues on. “What we need to do now is get back and find my dad, he’ll know what’s going on. Then we’ll go find Amy, okay?” I nod, not trusting my voice. “Okay. Now, let’s phase back and get home,” he finishes, turning away to allow me some privacy whilst I finish off changing. Once I’m done, I give him the okay before turning away. Within seconds he’s phased and next to me, and then we set off.
We push ourselves to go even faster than before but, this time, there’s absolutely no fun in it at all. When we do finally reach the borders, a number of unknown scents hit us all at once, and it doesn’t take a genius to figure out what the scents are. Rogues…
There isn’t the sound of any screaming, though, which is a good sign… right?
We both move slowly, listening out for any sounds of trouble, staying in our wolf forms until we’re sure it’s safe. I stick close to Justin, our shoulders practically touching, as we walk. I keep watch to the left of us whilst he keeps watch to the right, but there’s still no signs of danger. After a few more minutes, he seemingly decides it’s safe enough to phase back and so we do, each taking it in turns before we turn to look at each other.
“What now?” I ask him quietly, my voice still slightly shaky, the silence surrounding us sounding way too eerie for my liking. The forest is usually calm and tranquil, but at the minute it’s just filled with unbearable silence and tension.
“We head back to mine,” he answers. “Maybe my dad will be there.”
“Okay,” I agree, giving one final glance around at the surrounding trees before we set off.
Within fifteen minutes we’re walking into the Alpha house, and the sound of familiar voices immediately causes more of my panic to dissolve. Well, for now at least.
When we walk into the office, however, it’s complete and utter chaos. There are at least twenty people in here, some I know and some I don’t, and the majority of them are shouting over each other to try and be heard. I don’t care, though, I don’t even pay attention, as my focus is immediately drawn to the girl sitting on the sofa, sandwiched in between Jess and Dean. She looks absolutely scared shitless, and looks to have a few small cuts and bruises here and there, but she’s okay, just like Justin promised.
“Amy!” I call out, relief clouding my voice, and she immediately looks up. She’s not the only one whose noticed our entrance, though, and David quickly calls his son over to him whilst my best friend stands up and makes her way over to me.
Within seconds she’s envoloping me in a hug, and I can quite literally feel her shaking like a leaf.
“God, Luce, I’m so glad you’re okay…” she cries into my shoulder, and a half-hysterical laugh manages to escape my lips.
“You’re glad I’m okay?” I reply. “God, girl, do you have any idea how worried I’ve been? I think I almost had a panic attack!”
She gives a small laugh before pulling back slightly to look at my face.
“What happened?” I then ask.
“Five rogues attacked our Pack,” she replies. “I was out in the woods when it happened. They somehow managed to get through the patrols and into the town, that’s when I heard the screaming. So I called you because I didn’t know what else to do but my signal only had one bar and so it took ages to actually get through. One of the rogues found me, but Dean chased it off before it could actually attack, and then he brought me back here. I… I’m not sure what happened after that but by the sounds of it we managed to chase them off.” Her words are coming out in a rush, and she stumbles over a few of them, but I manage to make sense of them. “I thought… I thought that maybe if they’d been chased of then they’d find you and…”
“Ames, I’m fine, I promise. Did… did anyone get hurt?” I ask, but it sounds like a stupid question even to my own ears.
“I don’t know, I think so,” she says, shaking her head slightly helplessly before continuing. “But they’re not telling anyone anything… they’re trying to get everyone to leave.”
And I can see that. By the looks of things, David and Justin are busy trying to calm everyone down, but it’s not exactly working.
“Lucy…” Jess says suddenly, and I look over to see her also looking shaken. “What’s going on…?”
“I…” I start, before looking at Dean, still sitting on the other side of the sofa. He gives me a clear warning look, shaking his head slightly before standing up and walking over to where Justin and David stand, and I know that I still have to keep my mouth shut.
“Let me guess,” she sighs, sounding slightly hurt. “You can’t tell us, right?”
“I’m sorry…” Is all I reply, not knowing what else I can say.
“It’s okay, Luce,” she says, shaking her head a little. “We get it. This is big, though, isn’t it?”
I nod. “Yeah, yeah it really is…” I admit, and it doesn’t take a genius to see the fear showing in both of my best friends eyes, and then another sudden worry hits me. “Wait,” I ask, my eyes scanning the crowd of people currently occupying the office. “Where are Richard and Lousia, are they okay?”
“They’re fine,” Jess assures. “When the rogues showed up, all businesses went on lockdown. They weren’t allowed out to prevent the rogues from coming in so, when they got the call about Ames, they had to call me to tell me. I think they’re still there, and I came over here to see if Amy was okay.”
I nod at that and let out a relieved sigh. Okay, good, all four of the Harbour’s are safe… I haven’t lost anyone else close to me. They’re all safe.
“Okay, that’s it, everyone out!” Richard suddenly yells in a ‘not to be argued with’ voice, looking extremely worn out. And, slowly, the random people start to file out of the room, some grumbling to theselves and others whispering furiously to each other.
Okay, so I’m not entirely sure on whether I’m supposed to stay or leave with them, so I’m glad when I notice Justin heading over to me, looking just as fed-up as his dad.
“Hey, dad’s called a meeting,” he explains, and I simply nod before turning back to Amy and Jess.
“I’ll be home later, okay?” I tell them, trying to sound confident as they both look completely freaked, not that I can blame them. “Make sure you call your parents and tell them what’s going on.”
They both nod and, surprisingly, Dean comes over and offers to walk them to the door.
Once they’ve both left, I head over to the desk, where the map sits ready and waiting.
Now, there are only twelve people in the room, and they consist of: me (obviously), Justin, David, Wendy, Wayne, Dean, Ricky, Jack, Sam, John, and the two people who took over mine and Justin’s patrol (who I’ve now learned are called Helen and Max).
“Okay,” David sighs, looking around at each and every one of us. “We can’t let this go on. We have three Pack members in the hospital, severely injured, and at least two humans have been killed. The news is out, and people are scared. As far as I can tell, the humans are putting it down to wild wolves, and still remain clueless to the existance of werewolves. If we allow this to continue, then human hunters could get involved, and that would make even our own territory unsafe to run in.”
“So, what do we do?” John asks, looking back and forth between him and Justin.
“We go to them,” David replies, and I immediadely wince slightly. He wants to go to the forbidden land…?
“How? We don’t know-” Sam starts, but David cuts him off.
“Justin’s informed me that Beck has managed to find a rumour of where they’re hiding, and it’s the strongest lead we currently have, so we’re going.”
“Where are they?” Dean asks, looking over at Justin, and Justin points down at the forbidden land on the map.
“Lucy knows more about it than I do,” he admits, looking back up at me.
“What can you tell us?” David asks me, studying the area of the map.
“To the locals it’s called the ‘forbidden land’,” I say, really not liking the sound of this plan at all, but also knowing that there’s nothing else we can do. If the rogues are in the forbidden land then to the forbidden land we must go. “It’s complete hunter territory, and there are traps absolutely everywhere.”
“So then how are the rogues managing to survive there?” Wayne asks, causing me to shrug.
“I have no idea,” I admit. “But they’re apparently managing to find a way. I mean, there are plenty of cave’s and things to use as hideouts.”
“So when would you say is the best time to go? Day or night?” David then asks.
“Um… well, either way we’d have a problem. At night it’ll be too dark to see the traps but during the day it’ll be so light that the rogues could easily spot us. The best possible time to go would be around dusk, that way we still have a bit of light but hopefuly it’ll be just dark enough to give us some cover.”
“Right,” David says with a nod. “I want us all going, do you think the twelve of us would be able to go unspotted?”
I shake my head. “No, there’d be too many of us to be unnoticeable, not to mention how difficult it would be to dodge the traps. We’d have to split up into smaller groups.”
“Okay,” he sighs, obviously not really liking the idea of splitting up. “We’ll split up into three groups of four, but we need to be careful. These rogues are always one step ahead of us, so they might already be expecting an attack.”
“You say that like you know them,” Justin says, looking suspicious, and David sighs again before briefly looking over at Wayne and Wendy.
“That’s because I do,” he admits, sounding grim. “They’ve attacked before… well, some of them at least. Eleven years ago.”
My blood instantly turns to ice.
Wait… what exactly is he saying…?
“Eleven?” Justin asks, seemingly connecting the dots. “But – but that would mean…” he trails off and looks over at me, as do every other pair of eyes in the room.
“That would mean that this is the same Pack of rogues that killed my parents…” I finish off for him, refusing to belive it. But one look into the Alpha’s eyes tells me the truth.
These are the assholes that killed my parents….
“I’ve narrowed it down to there being three from the original group of rouges, and the other five being new rogues, or maybe even children of some of the originals,” he explains. “I… I didn’t want to say anything until I was sure. I’m sorry Lucy.”
I shake my head slightly, trying to sort my head out. “It’s fine,” I reply, taking a deep breath and forcing my emotions back. If there’s anything that I’ve learnt in this life, it’s that emotions only cause more pain. I refuse to cry in front of these people, I’ve already made that mistake once, and I don’t plan on doing it again. I do, however, move to sit down on the sofa, not really paying attention to the others as the discussion slowly moves away from the topic of my parents and back onto strategy and tactics.
I will not cry. I will not cry. I will not cry.
I continuoulsy chant that one sentence over and over in my head, refusing to let the tears escape as I now sit here, wanting nothing more than to just be able to go home.
Fifteen more minutes pass before the meeting draws to a close, and I stand up as the others start to file out, deciding to hang back slightly to let them all disperse and give me the chance to be alone.
Just as I’m about to reach the front door, however, I feel someone grab my arm and pull me back. Spinning around, I find myself stood facing Justin.
“What?” I ask, my voice blank, not showing any emotion whatsoever.
“Are you okay?” he asks back, and that one question manages to piss me off to no end.
“Like you care,” I snap, yanking my arm away from him and turning back towards the door. What the fuck gives him the right to act like he gives a shit?!
“Wait,” he says quickly, and I turn back to look at him with an annoyed sigh.
“What?”
“…Let me walk you home,” he replies after a few seconds, taking me completely by surprise.
“What?” I repeat in confusion, not sure that I heard right.
“Let me walk you home,” he says again.
“No,” I reply, shaking my head.
I have no idea what’s going on but, truthfully, I don’t want him around me right now. I’m definitely not in the right state of mind to be dealing with my ex-best friend/predestined mate who rejected me. I’ve got enough to deal with as it is and, quite frankly, I don’t trust my emotions around Justin tonight… and I don’t trust Justin with my emotions.
He’s already hurt me once, and I don’t want to give him the ammunition to do it again.
And so, without a single glance back at him, I exit the house and close the door behind me.
(Hey guys! So, this chapter has been extremely difficult to write. I had to rewrite it at least three times and i'm still not completely happy with it, so sorry if it's not as good as the others. Anyways, thanks for reading and go ahead and leave a Vote/Comment if you think it's worth it :) Next chapter will be in Justin's POV, and i should hopefully have it posted up on here either tomorrow or Saturday. Also, thank you to all of you who commented on the last chapter, it's great hearing all of your opinions and ideas etc. :D So... yeah, i'm pretty sure that's all i had to say in this A/N so, until next time, byee!)