Chapter Eighteen
Finn had multiple emotions running through him as he ran alongside Lea, with Hazel and Ethan running with them. He wanted to take Lea away from the forest. He didn’t want her to have to battle and fight against rogues who were trying to kill her. He wanted to protect her with every part of his being.
But he also knew that they all had to fight. They all had to stand together as one united front, regardless of what pack they were originally from. They were in this together And at this point, they were all a family – whether they liked it or not.
Finn tried to get into communication with his own pack – Lorelei, Desmond, and Tatiana – but no one was answering him. He didn’t know if this was good or bad. They could just be doing something, not having the time to reply. Or… Or they could be dead.
Finn couldn’t think about that right now. If he started to think like that, he knew that he would break. And he couldn’t break until he knew that Lea was safe and okay, and preferably in his arms back at her place, away from all the murder and carnage.
The group continued to run with each other, and Finn could feel where the fighting was taking place. He could feel the blood, sweat, and fear. The anger. He knew that they would be on top of the mess soon, and he tried to brace himself for what was going to be in that clearing.
He prayed that everyone was okay. He needed everyone to be okay. And they needed to win this, for everyone in the shifter world. And to send a message to all the rogues out there who thought that they could attack any shifter. To Gabriel, who was continuously trying to bring destruction into the world that rejected him and his close minded, murderous ideas.
They needed to send a message that they were strong. And that they would win. They had to.
As they neared closer to the clearing, Finn felt some more shifters join the little group that had formed. One look to his right and he saw three big, golden brown wolves that looked as menacing and huge as the rogue that had attacked Lea a few days ago. But these weren’t rogues. They were Lea’s brothers.
Finn could see Lea untensed for a second as she saw that all three of her brothers were intact and safe. Finn nodded at Owen, who nodded back at him in understanding. They, all four of them, would make sure that Lea wasn't hurt. No matter what. Finn felt better with her three brothers with them, and for a second, he felt like maybe they would all be able to get out of this thing alive.
Then, they jumped into the forest clearing where Hann told them all to meet. They left the dense forest and entered hell.
There was no other way to describe the scene that played out in front of them. All of the shifters in Finn’s group stopped momentarily to survey the area. The damage. Finn refused to look at the dead wolves on the ground, afraid that if he saw someone he knew, he would lose it.
He had to keep it together until this whole thing was over.
Finn surveyed the forest clearing until he saw his pack. Tatiana was fighting a rogue with Lorelei, and they took the rogue down in a matter of seconds. Desmond was rolling on the ground with a rogue, both of them thrashing and clawing at each other with such ferocity. Finn nodded over in that section to his group, and they all picked themselves up and ran to help.
By the time Finn and his makeshift group joined his packmates on the other side of the clearing, Desmond had already taken out the rogue that had punctured his shoulder. His three friends seemed to nod at everyone when they joined, but that was all they could do before another onslaught of rogues came spewing at them from behind the black, dense forest that surrounded them.
The group acted, as did all the rogues around them. No matter how many rogues they took down, kept on coming.
But something was… off. These rogues… they were easy to take down. Easier than expected. While it was a challenge, it wasn’t as hard as Finn thought that it would be. He thought it would be longer battles with each rogue that came up to him, but it wasn’t. It was a few seconds before Finn had taken down the rogue trying to kill him, and one look around him at the other shifters showed that they weren’t having any issue dispatching the rogues either.
Something wasn’t right. Finn refused to believe that this was just a result of the practice that everyone was doing. He was sure the practice had worked wonders, and he knew that everyone had improved in their fighting skills greatly. But it should’ve been harder than this.
And then, almost as he began to question when the rogue outpour would stop, everything went quiet. Finn looked back to see that Lea and everyone in his group were fine. The only people who were even bleeding was Desmond, though it was mostly dried blood by now, and Owen, who had a nasty scar on his face that Finn knew would heal in a few minutes.
The group of shifters, all heaving and exhausted from the attack, all looked to their leader, Hann. Michael, in his wolf form, stood beside him. His pure white fur was coated with blood, though Finn could see that none of it was his. Dead rogue bodies littered the clearing floor, and Finn slowly made sure that no one from any pack was dead. He didn’t think that there was.
Which was weird. That number of rogues in a surprise attack? With no casualties on the Moonlight Pack side? Something didn’t seem right.
And one look at how Hann and Michael were staring at each other, deep in communication, proved that Finn’s questioning was correct.
Something was off.