~ Zack's POV
Growls could be heard from left, right and centre, followed by howls from the wolves in my pack.
Gather the army send 40 men to round up the rest of the pack and keep them safe. The remaining 400 need to stand at front and wait for my orders to attack. I mind linked my beta.
Yes alpha.
"Zara stay with me I will take you to the rest of the pack."
"But Dean I want to help."
"You can't, you haven't been training... please Zara we don't have time for this."
"Okay." She followed me towards the giant safe house that's locked away with iron doors.
The 40 men were already there and what looked to be all the pack. "Zara on the wall there is a list of all the pack members that need to be in here, can you go through them all and make sure that everyone is here."
"Yes now go the army need you." She was right. "Good luck."
"Thanks." And with that I closed the door and Zara locked it from the inside.
"Now where are you?" I said to myself. I shifted into wolf and sprinted towards where my army was.
When I was there I saw my beta in front of the lines of soldiers. "Good job, where are they all." His face showed no expression.
"There." He pointed in front at the horizon and sure enough there they were marching towards us.
"We can't have a war this close to the pack house."
"Agreed."
"Men on my word we march towards them stay in your formation." We waited for a couple of minutes, I needed them to be far away but closer so that we fight on the flat land rather than a hill. "Now."
In formation we marched forwards. The front row was me and the beta in our human form, the second to the tenth were lines of wolves and the last rows were all soldiers who aren't shifted, they are all equally good in wolf and human form so they are some of my best fighters.
In no time at all we had reached a halt and were no more than 40ft from the rogues.
"What is it you want?" I spoke with a booming voice.
"All of were kind to kneel before us!" He sneered.
"Well to bad! No one is kneeling before you rogue!"
"Wrong answer Alpha." He walked away through the crowd of rogues and a few seconds there was a loud howl signifying the beginning.
Rogues flew everywhere, my pack members held strong but there were so many of them.
~ Zara's POV
"Aidan?"
"Here." Tick.
"Sarah?"
"Here." Tick.
"Bella?" I sighed. I've been doing this since Dean left and I've only just got half the way through.
"Here." Tick.
"Helen?"
"Here." Tick.
...
Finally I was down to the last 5 names.
"Jessica?"
"Here" Tick.
"Erin?"
"Here." Tick
"Jacob?"
"Here." Tick.
"Henry."
"Here." Tick.
"And last but not least Scarlett."
"She's not here." Tick. Wait what!
"What do you mean she's not here?" A little girl with blonde hair came up to me and I bent down to meet her size.
"She, she went to go and find Paddy."
"Who's Paddy?" I frantically searched through my list. "She's not on here."
"She's Scarlett's teddy bear." What! No! No no no no no... this is not happening.
"What's your name?"
"Renae."
"Okay, Renae I'm going to ask you some very important questions. Do you know where about Scarlett went to find her bear?"
"Ummmm..." I watched with angst. If she doesn't know I have no idea what to do. "Her room maybe."
"Ok where's that?"
"I don't know." I mentally slapped myself. Wait I know what to do!
"Ok that's fine do you have anything of Scarlett's?"
"Just her cardigan. She asked me to carry it for her when she went."
"That's great! Good girl! Can I borrow it?"
"Sure but if it gets lost it's not my fault." I chuckled a little but quickly remembered this is a serious situation.
"It's fine, okay make sure you stay in here. Do not leave do you understand?"
"Yes."
"Okay run off and play." I clenched the small purple cardigan in my hand and headed towards the door.
"Wait miss! Stop!" I turned around confused if it was me who was being called. "Yes you! Have you seen my daughter? Please she's small, has black hair. Her names Scarlett, here I have a picture of her." Oh no.
"Ma'am you might want to take a seat." She sat down on a bunk bed right next to us. "Scarlett isn't here. Here friend Renae told me she went to go find her bear Paddy."
"Oh no. I have to go. I've got to find her." I let out a sad sigh.
"I can't let you go, I can't risk losing another person. I'm sorry."
"But it's my daughter!" She cried.
"I understand that and I promise you I will find her." With that I hurried away out the door. I informed the guards to under no circumstances let anyone leave.
At this point the pack house seemed more like a maze than a house and even bigger than when I first saw it.
"Scarlett!" I shouted trying not to attract the wrong attention. "Scarlett!" Well I guess there's no point waisting time.
I pulled the purple sweater to my nose and made sure to grasp every scent, and then I was off.
Her smell was like a strawberry laces scent so it was quite easy to track. In record time I could sense I was near, the scent was a lot stronger here. Scarlett had clambered all the way up the stairs to the 4th floor. "Scarlett?" I called.
"Hello? Who said that?" A small scared voice came from the room in front of me. As I walked in I saw her. She was the exact same girl as the one in the picture her mum showed me.
"Oh my Goddess Scarlett don't run off like that you scared your poor mum."
"You know my mum?" Right forgot about this part.
"I help the Alpha and you little Scarlett are my responsibility. I bumped into your mum and your friend Renae they said you were missing."
"Oh... Is mummy upset? I just wanted to find my Paddy!" Tears welled up in her eyes.
"Sh sh it's fine, we just got to get you back so your mum isn't worried anymore. Ok. Come on take my hand and we can go back together."
"But I haven't found Paddy yet!" She whined.
"That's fine, look I promise you that if we go back now when we come back up Paddy will be-"
"Looking for this." A tall man appeared by the door way. He was a rogue.
"Paddy!" She started to walk over to the man. Instantly I pulled her behind me.
"Scarlett stay behind me."
"But Paddy."
"Stay behind me, he's a very dangerous man."
"Me dangerous? Well I never." He chuckled.
"Leave rogue before you regret it."
"I think I will stay around for a bit." He walked cowards to me. "You know I think that the boss would like you." He took a strand of my hair and twiddled it in his fingers.
I took this close proximity as a chance to bring my knee up. Hitting him where it hurts. "You bitch!"
He came forward to hit me but his muscular physique slowed him down. I was just able to move me and Scarlett out of the way before his fist colliding with my face.
I took his stumbling over as a chance to get him whilst he was down, so I picked up the closing thing to me and threw it at him. Fortunately, it was a snow glob and a million pieces of glass smashed and scattered piercing his skin, causing him to hiss in pain.
For now he was down but I knew it wasn't long before he would be back on his feet. "Scarlett run!" I grabbed her arm and sprinted for the stairs.
Scarlett's little legs couldn't run as fast so I had to scoop her up and hold her. "Scarlett hold on tight okay? We've just got to get down the stairs." Fast but carefully I made my way down the long stairs until I was down to the ground floor.
"Scarlett I need to put you down so I can think of the fastest route out of here." I let her stand on the floor her hand still clasped in mine.
"But-"
"Sh I'm trying to think."
"No-"
"Scarlett not now."
"Ahhhhhh!" She let out a deafening shriek that made my ears ring. Scarlett was pointing in front of us. Oh no! Not again!
Another rogue was coming straight for us. This time in wolf form. I couldn't shift because I hadn't done it in so long. The only option was to run. However, if I ran to the safe house it would lead him right towards all the others.
"Okay Scarlett we are gonna have to go a different route, hop on my back." I crouched down and she got on, I darted away making sure to take the smallest, most complex route.
In no time I was outside. I remembered going this way with Jane before I was bedridden. This way took me through the forest to an abandoned shack, it's there to hide an old sewer that connects to the safe house.
"Where are we going?"
"You will see soon don't worry. Scarlett is that big bad wolf still chasing us?"
"Um... I can't see him. Wait, yeah he just got out of the house he looks mad. Oh no!"
"What?"
"That other man in back too."
"Dammit!" I picked up my pace as much as I could. This would be a lot easier in werewolf form but that wasn't happening anytime soon.
The battle could be heard for where we were signifying that it wasn't too far away. I could almost make out faces of soldiers from beyond the forest.
"Zara? What are you doing here? I told you to wait in the safe house!" Crap! Why isn't he in the battle? "And why is there a child on your back? It's not safe out here!"
"I know Zack that's why I left to find her. She escaped to find her toy and her mum was worried sick." I explained.
"Oh, well thank you, but that still doesn't explain why you are so near the battle field." He said in a matter of fact tone.
"Zack I would love to stay and talk but I have two rogues on my tail and I'm trying to get this one back." He sniffed the air.
"I will take care of them." And with that he left and I took of on running again. It's not that I didn't trust that he could handle the rogues it was more because I wanted to get Scarlett back.
"That was the alpha!" Scarlett said amazed.
"Yeah." I replied trying to stabilise my breathing.
In a short time we were at the shack. "Okay, Scarlett go through this little tunnel. Be careful and don't slip." I lifted up the lid to reveal a ladder going down to a dark tunnel. The smell of the sewage worked well to mask any werewolf scent.
"What about you?"
"I will be right behind you." She nodded her sweet little head and proceeded down the ladder.
"Okay I'm coming down." I had got to the bottom and all that was left was a short walk and a few more ladders before we were finally at the safe house.
As soon as we reached the ladder I felt a sharp pain in my chest that threw me to the floor. Scarlett had already got up the ladder and was waiting for me.
"Hello? Are you coming?"
"Scarlett I-I have to go back!" I said scooping myself up from the floor. I knew what this pain was. It was Dean and it didn't feel good.
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Wow that was a longggggggggg chapter. Sorry it took a little longer to write but I hope the wait was worth it! The book is coming to an end soon😢 so I've only got a few more chapters to write! Make sure to vote and comment if you enjoyed!💞💞
~Mia ❤️
Tuesday 24th July 2018