My Guard all turn to human form too and Radar pulls the closest one to him with force, holding him in a grip with arms folded across his back as he bears down on his spine with a knee. Holding him still with that grim expression of a pissed wolf, all over his face.
“Who are you to attack our Luna? Do you want to die?” Radar snarls into his ear while a crushing crack echoes as he applies force to his ex-pack mate’s spine, and it makes me flinch. In soldier mode Radar is known for being ruthless. He can be brutal and violent when riled and I am seeing hints of him in war mode. It sends shivers down my spine.
“Luna? Pahhh….. We don’t have a Luna, nor an Alpha! Deserters who turned their back on us and left us to suffer…. Don’t insult us.” Aiden, the wolf on the ground snarls right back despite being held tight but makes no attempt to break free. They three are outnumbered by our dozen and it seems smart enough to know fighting won’t end well for them.
“I’ll show you what suffering is right now.” Radar leans in again with anger but I step forward and tap him on his shoulder to loosen his grip before he does anything to him. A sudden surge of guilt flowing through me because what Aiden said isn’t completely wrong and I know Radar won’t hesitate to break his bones. We did leave them, and they have suffered. I don’t blame the ones left to roam free for hating us and believing we abandoned them. Radar relents a little and sits back on his haunches with a sulking hint of grudged obedience, giving Aiden room to breathe once more. I exhale heavily and try to calm my swirling nerves, knowing as Luna I really need to take command here.
“Aiden…. I’m Alora Santo, Colton’s mate. I’m the Luna Radar refers to and this is Sierra. You must remember her. She is Rema now and once was Juan’s Luna. The woman he locked up for a decade and betrayed. You are still our pack and that is why we are here. We’re here to help.” My heart bleeds for these wolves and I can already tell by reading their emotions that the intention to attack us was not for Juan, but for their own heartbreak and pain. I wonder how many of the villagers were hostile towards our wolves fighting for them for the same reasons. Nerves swirling that maybe already our wolves are fighting among them as well as taking on that blood thirsty enemy.
“Help? How? Do you have any idea how messed up things have become because of Colton? What are you going to do?” Another of the men on the dirt responds with that same bitter, curt tone. Stubbornness strong in his aura.
“The whole pack is here to fight the vampires off. Stop and listen to the noise in the air. That sound of war and death! Your people are fighting for their lives and where is Juan? Who are the ones who came for you? Scoff all you want but she IS your Luna, and WE are here to help.” Carmen steps forward and kicks the thigh of the second wolf with a sharp dig, gaining a snarl in response from the one I recognize as Taemin. A once valued sentinel and someone Colton treated like a brother. A wolf who couldn’t leave because his family were tied here.
“Don’t say that scum’s name. He’s dead to us. Just like his son. Nothing good ever came from the sacred Santo bloodline where they’re concerned.” The third, Robyn, grinds out to join the conversation, another from the same sub pack and yet despite his hateful tone, there’s a sadness in his eyes as I lock my focus on his face. Behind their fury and venomous words, are wolves who have been abandoned and are suffering from the syndrome caused by fracturing a pack and leaving them Alpha-less. It’s a sense of detachment and can cause insane anger and bitterness among our kind.
“We don’t have time for this. We’re not here to fight or hurt you. We’re here to protect the pack and take Juan to the vampires. You can either assist or be tied down until this is all over. You don’t want to live on as free roaming wolves, then help us and we will reunite the pack when this battle is won. Your suffering can end after this.” Sierra becomes dominant in the conversation with a commanding tone I’ve never heard from her. Stamping towards Aiden and towering over him with a fearless aura as she glares down at him with all the presence of a queen. “You can go on with this attitude and become a hindrance, or you can get up, dust off and do everything to free and reunite our wolves. The vampires are the enemy, not us, and Juan….. we’re here to make sure he pays for everything he has ever done. Don’t you want to be part of that?” She spits it at him and then places a flat palm on Radar’s shoulder to move him back so she can lean down and gain eye contact with his prisoner. “We need allies. We need the villagers to join the fight. If not, it looks like a lot of us will die here tonight.”
“Why should we trust any of you? Where were you all these months when Juan turned on us?” Taemin struggles to get free but is kneeled upon by an extra wolf as they regain control of him. None of the guards are letting up and seems even if they were once brothers, the priority is to keep me safe.
“You’re right! We weren’t here…. we were in another place fighting to survive and trying to figure out how to fix a fractured pack. We were out there licking our wounds and struggling to know what to do, while being oblivious to your suffering. We have no excuses.” I try and soothe with my words, feeling the intensity of betrayal among them and attempting to push this conversation onwards.
“We need you to put it aside and help. You’re part of the pack here and you three can be more use if you go rally your friends and family to Colton’s side. Look at me…. You know who I am. I was here until only a few weeks ago, so don’t give me your bullshit and act like you were the only ones. I lived here. I know what went down. I’m telling you to suck it up and stop acting like sulky babies.” Carmen walks around to the front of all three and stands with her hands on her hips, jutting out her jaw while swishing her hair back with a flick of her head. “We’ve suffered too. We’ve been fighting and hiding, and we’ve had our own losses. You chose to stay here so don’t put that crap on us. Cut the bullshit attitude and show some respect to your saviors.”
There’s silence for a moment as they stare her down and then break contact and all three look away. Clearly recognizing her and knowing what she says is truth, but that high strung wolf gene is hard to dampen. I can feel their fire dying a little and look around me to double check there aren’t more to contend with. It seems these three were patrolling near the manor, probably scouting for supplies or maybe sightings of Juan and have no one else with them.
I notice the camera is focused on us and no longer moving around, so someone is watching this scene unfold and I second guess whether these boys are with Juan or not. Whoever is controlling it is interested in what’s going on here and I wonder if they have audio too. I have an urge to wave and throw them the bird.
“Look. You say Juan is the enemy, then help. He’s in there, right? Watching. Holed up like a coward and letting his people suffer. So, get up and do something about it. We’re here for the same purpose.” I aim for a level tone, a hint of warmth in my words and pace around to get eye contact as best I can while ignoring the spying technology. I notice how Radar watches my every move and that the guards follow me closely with a severe stench of mistrust for what were once their brothers. It makes my heart bleed to feel the distance between blood like this and scowl at the manor with a quick glance, at the man who did this to them. A once superior pack and yet we lay crumbled in ruins this way.
“Get up and die by the hands of vampires? None of us are healthy enough to do very much. Isn’t that obvious by how quickly you took us down. We are living like wild wolves nowadays, hunting and foraging to survive. Juan uses the frequency to keep us weak.” He shifts enough to nod at one of the speakers up high and I turn and lock eyes on what he’s motioning towards. Confusion at his words invading my thoughts.
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