LIAM

f**k, vampires are here. Why are they here? We were days away from our assault on them. My family was in danger; my pack was in danger. I could feel Gavin bristle in outrage. Damien stood with me as I began to dish out orders.

“Austin,” I linked first. “Vampires in the territory. I don’t know how many. Take a patrol to my mom immediately. There are two there now, and she’s trying to protect the kids. Get my children to safety. We need all the warriors in motion now; I want as many as possible here at the packhouse. I need patrols out getting pack members to safety. My family will be their targets, but they will come after anyone.”

“I’m on my way Alpha. I’ll do everything I can. No one is near Missy’s house, though. Once I get the kids, I will get to her. They must have used our thinned patrols to their advantage,” Austin’s voice answered.

“It’s fine. Just get there.”

“Azalea,” I reached out next. I needed her to get to safety so I could focus on stopping this attack. “Vampires are attacking our pack. Please stay with Felix. I sent Austin to get my mom and the kids. Maddox is with Missy, but I’ll get to her, too.”

“Okay, I’ll call Axel so he can make sure everyone in town is protected and get here to help,” she answered quickly. My anxiety eased with her lack of argument.

“I love you, Little Luna.”

“And I love you, My Alpha. Come back to me.” I knew Felix would get Azalea to safety and keep her that way. I turned to Michael and Damien, both looking at me with tense expressions.

“Lily…” Damien worried, looking towards the packhouse where Lily and Quinn were supposed to be waiting for Azalea.

“She’s with my Luna,” Michael pointed out. “Quinn can keep them safe, but I will make sure.” He sounded less worried than either Damien or me.

“Lily isn’t helpless,” Damien shot back. I could hear the protective note in his voice, and I think Michael took the hint.

“I’m not saying she is, Damien. I’m simply pointing out that I’m here to teach you how to fight, and Quinn is my best student. Let me go to them; I will protect our mates. Help your Alpha because he needs his Beta,” Michael urged.

“I do need you,” I told him seriously, hoping he would understand. I never went into a fight without him by my side.

“Fine,” he conceded.

Maddox’s voice came through my head, interrupting my train of thought.

“What is it, Alpha?” Damien asked me.

“Vampires are attacking Missy and Maddox’s house. Austin said there is no one close. We need to help them, now,” I demanded. Damien nodded and grabbed his new weapons.

“Go, Michael,” I told my fellow Alpha. “Please make sure Lily is safe along with your Luna. I can only assume this is an all-out assault, and they will be here soon.”

“I’ll make sure they’re taken care of,” Michael said, more to Damien than me.

He shifted on the run, moving toward the packhouse. Even with the war on my doorstep, I couldn’t help but notice his coat. It was silver with an iridescent sparkle throughout it. The color of the weapon wrap made sense now.

“What the hell are they?” I wondered as I turned to move. Damien was right on my heel. I needed to get to my pup as fast as I could; I would not let Warwick take her again.

“Not so fast,” a voice came from the opposite corner of the training field, directly in our path.

“What now?” I roared. The stench of vampire hit me, and my anger boiled over at the audacity they had to not only attack my family but to come to me directly. Across from us stood an unimpressive creature with silvery-white hair. His appearance matched his pompous expression.

“You won’t be running off to help any of your puppies because I’m here for you, Alpha Liam.”

His smug confidence was infuriating. I didn’t have time for this. I had to get to Missy; I needed to ensure my pups were safe. Austin was right; we had so many warriors completing preparations to leave that he caught us with our pants down. We had to limit patrols of the pack land to allow enough manpower for the preparations. We had no intel that there was any vampire movement, so they caught us completely by surprise, which worried me for the packs between Warwick and us. This obstacle needed to be discarded quickly so I could make sure Warwick was not here personally.

“I don’t care who you’re here for,” I called out to the vampire. “You’re in my way.”

“I’ll be brief,” the vampire retorted, staring intently at me. “I just came to kill you, and I don’t think it will take long.”

“You and what army?” I growled.

“Oh, forgive my manners. This one,” he said, giving a signal with his hand. Vampires appeared all over, and it looked like there were at least twenty or more in addition to himself. They fanned out into a semi-circle, completely blocking our path to Missy.

“Come fight me yourself, coward!” I shouted; I needed to take out the strongest vampire. I thought goading him into fighting me alone might work.

“I think not,” he replied with a wistful smile. “While Bygrave wasn’t as strong as I am, he was still a Sire. One of your mutts killed him, and we know he isn’t an Alpha. That could be troublesome for me, and I’m not willing to risk the lives of my entire kinship. I will not be foolish enough to take any chances in killing you today. These may be young vampires, but I am betting you won’t be able to overcome the odds.”

Maddox reached out to me once more, his voice more confident than panicked now.

“Maddox just told me they’re having trouble fighting us in our human forms. They probably trained to fight us as wolves after the last battle,” I linked Damien. A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth, and I knew it was because this leveled the playing field for him.

“Thank you, Maddox. Is she safe?” I asked, pleading with the Moon Goddess to watch over my children.

“She will be.” While his answer told me Missy wasn’t out of danger yet, his tone inspired confidence. All I could do was thank the Moon Goddess for pairing my pup with a strong mate intent on protecting her as I would.

Everything happened so fast after he got back with Langston, and we hadn’t had a real chance to talk. I hadn’t expected him to go to school the very next day after their return, and he was not in a place to talk about the resulting altercation the next day. With the war preparations pulling my attention in different directions, I hoped letting him take Missy on a date would give them some sense of reconnection before anything else could happen. Still, Maddox was built for this, and he’d become a man that I could be proud of since arriving in my territory.

Knowing that Missy was in good hands, I had one last thing to do before I could fully focus on the threat in front of me. I’d never tried it before, but with war upon our doorstep, it was time.

“Pack members, this is Alpha Liam,” I linked, projecting my voice to all of them at once. It felt strange. The rush of responses back to me let me know I’d been successful. There were so many that I couldn’t make out anything, and it became a wall of noise. “Quiet! Listen. Vampires are here on our pack land. If you aren’t a warrior, get to the packhouse. If you are, rally outside the packhouse and protect it. Your Delta and Gamma will direct your teams. These vampires are here to kill us all, but we will not let them. Fight as long as you can unshifted; they have trained to fight you as wolves. Go now! Protect your home!”

“I didn’t know you could do that,” Damien said, looking at me with a weird expression.

“Neither did I.”

“Are you two done with whatever it is you’re doing?” the Sire asked lazily. “Have you said your goodbyes?”

“You ready Dai?” I asked him, extending my fist out to him.

He met it with his own, “I’ll follow you into battle any day, Liam.” I could hear him tighten the grip on his weapons as we mentally counted to three.

I took off in a sprint toward the Sire. I knew I wouldn’t make it to him without being intercepted, but I had to try. If I could kill him, it could kill all of the vampires here. I’d make them regret giving me that chance. Maddox already ended on Sire on his mission; there couldn’t be many more in league with Warwick. It was only advantageous for us to take out another.

The Sire’s minions closed the circle around Damien and me, attacking us from all sides and diverting my attention momentarily from the Sire. If I left Damien by himself, the odds would be worse, so I had to help cut down the lesser leeches. Even for an Alpha and Beta, twenty vampires versus two was still an enormous obstacle to overcome.

“I guess we’ll have to do this the hard way and kill them before the Sire,” I called out to Damien, whose back was turned to mine.

“My name is Nethercote. You don’t have to keep calling me ‘the Sire.’ It sounds ominous,” Nethercote’s voice rose above the growls and snarls as we fought.

“Your name won’t matter soon,” I told him, confused at the exchange as his riotous laughter filled the training area with its menacing sound. If he didn’t want to sound ominous, he was failing.

I grabbed one of the vampires by the face, palming it and picking him up into the air. His arms flailed, and below my wrist, his mouth opened and closed with his teeth gnashing as he tried to bite me. I flexed my hand, crushing his skull within it before throwing his body into another vampire attacking me behind him. I could hear limbs hitting the ground behind me as Damien hacked them off. The axes were working for him, and I was glad. Not only did it give him a sense of purpose again, but my Beta was again a violent force of nature that I could count on to help defend our pack.Belongs to - All rights reserved.

We were making progress fighting the vampire hoard, but it was taking too long. I needed to get to Nethercote. I wondered if I could bait him into this fight with his kin. I grabbed another vampire by the face after punching her hard enough to daze her. I lashed out with my other hand, raining down blows on the vampires trying to close in as I grabbed her. It gave me enough room to throw her at Nethercote. He swatted her away with a lazy backhand, but he looked displeased with my new tactic.

“Do you really wish to fight me that badly, Alpha of B***d Eclipse?” he drawled.

“Yes,” I growled.

“Let’s tear him apart,” Gavin raged.

“I have to be careful, but I promise I’ll let you come out to fight when it’s time,” I reassured him.

“Don’t wait too long,” he snarled.

The vampires around us stopped fighting and retreated back into their semi-circle without a word. Damien stepped back to my side, his axes dripping b***d. He was breathing heavily, but he looked otherwise unscathed.

“I’ll ask you to have your Beta step aside as I have with my kin,” Nethercote demanded.

“Fine,” I agreed. “I’ve got this, Damien.”

“I will intervene if this doesn’t go your way,” he insisted quietly.

I nodded and turned to Nethercote; I leveled my gaze on him. He walked towards me and stopped a few feet away. He gently untied the cloak he wore and pulled it from his shoulders, tossing it to a vampire waiting on the side.

“I assume you are ready to begin?” he asked flatly.

I lunged towards him, feinting a strike to his jaw with my left. As he moved his hand to block it, I ducked down and punched as hard as I could towards the outside of his knee, intent on buckling it and taking out one of his limbs. The soft thud ended in a sound like broken glass as that joint was utterly destroyed under my fist, but then I felt it.

“I think that was an acceptable sacrifice,” Nethercote goaded.

“What are you talking about?” I asked, stumbling back from him. My head was swimming while my back stung like it was being burnt; The feeling was familiar, but I couldn’t pinpoint where I’d felt it before.

Nethercote held up an empty syringe with a pained grin on his face as he shifted his weight all to one foot, “Wolfsbane, of course.” The pain radiating from my back made sense now; he’d injected me when I ducked under his hands.