#6 The Royal Legacy

Chapter 11: Blue Moon - Knox

With our girls safely back at Blue Moon, the Alphas followed Trever’s map to the abandoned packhouse that the elders were supposedly at. I wasn’t sure I believed this rogue, but it was the best lead that we had. Just as Fox suggested, half the warriors came with us while half stayed behind along with the Lunas’ guardians.

Fox and I were the only two Alphas who had Betas along with us. August’s Beta was standing in as Luna Josie’s guardian while the Gamma was back at his pack looking over things and Noah’s Beta was taking care of his pack in Noah’s absence. Beta Ferra was here with Fox and Clay was running beside me.

It was almost thirty minutes to the packhouse, but the determination of all of the wolves cut the travel time down in half. So, in less than 15 minutes, we were surrounding the woods around the packhouse. It definitely looked abandoned, with rotting wood logs, a giant deck that was falling apart, and creeping ivy covering the entire log cabin. It was small, clearly a packhouse from decades past when packs were much smaller.

And yet, there were shadows flickering in the windows and whispered voices easily picked up by our wolf hearing.

It was difficult for us to all communicate with each in our wolf forms since we weren’t all part of the same pack, so we couldn’t all mindlink with each other. We had made plans before shifting, deciding to surround the house and figure out how many numbers we were up against. Then, the Alphas and their two chosen guardians would take the house, the rest of the warriors following as back up.

“I can sense the elders in there.” Clay mindlinked me.

“I can, too. Their auras are particularly potent.” I said, sniffing the air again. They smelt like stale crackers and burnt toast.

“How many you think?” Clay asked.

“I can’t tell for sure. I saw four elders during the fight on our packlands.” I said.

“There’s got to be at least twenty people in there based on the sounds and smells.” Clay observed and I grunted in agreement.

I looked over at Fox who nodded, ready to go. August was on the other side of me and he looked like he was chomping at the bit. I reared back on my hindlegs and lunged forward, the others following after me.

We burst through the cabin, taking the occupants by surprise. We spotted the elders immediately and took off towards them, leaving the others to our warriors. The Alphas surrounded the four elders, snapping and snarling at them. We could hear the warriors behind us rounding up the rogues. I took the liberty to shift so I could speak with the captured elders.

“The packs are done turning a blind eye to your assassin rogues.” I snapped.

“This is treason.” One of the elders stated plainly.

“We have been awfully patient with you four.” The only elder I recognized spoke.

“Elder Jacob, honestly, you’re lucky to still be alive after showing up to all of our packs and threatening our Lunas.” I was over the pleasantries.

“You dare threaten a Council member!” The third elder huffed.

“Oh calm down, you’re gonna give yourself a heart attack.” I didn’t realize Noah had shifted until he was sneering beside me. I struggled to hold back a laugh.

“Restrain these fools and keep them heavily guarded. They will be coming back to the pack with us.” I called out to no one in particular.

Several warriors from all four packs worked together to wrap silver restraints around the elders and huddled around them in a makeshift prison. I looked towards the others, who I had assumed were rogues, and realized that they didn’t smell like rogues. They smelt like regular wolves.

“You all are pack wolves?” I was shocked. There were about a dozen of them, all clean and put together; very much unlike the characteristics of a rogue wolf. They all had different smells, indicating they were from different packs, and lacked the trash-like aroma that rogues give off.

“Answer him!” Noah shouted, his Alpha command making everyone shiver.

“Yes.” One of them nearly shouted, exposing his neck to Noah with the others.

“What are you doing here?” I snarled.

“The elders called us here.” Another said.

“Why?” Fox asked, shifting to join the conversation.

“We all owe the Council a debt. They helped deal with issues for us.” Someone said.

“What issues?” August was the last to shift.

“Some of us had too many humans in our pack or Lunas who weren’t wolves, others had Alphas who were weak and created alliances with other species even though it was against the law. All sorts of things that went against the Council. We were among the pack members who spoke out and asked for the Council’s help. We didn’t know they were going to kill so many, whip out entire packs. But, they blackmailed us, made it look like we planned the massacres. Now, we owe them a debt.” One of the older looking men explained.

“They called us here last night, saying that their secret was being threatened and that all of our reputations were at stake. They were explaining a plan to move against the Blue Moon pack.” Another said.

“I’m the Alpha of the Blue Moon pack and we are here to move against the Council. It is time that their rule comes to an end. They’ve ruled for too long with an iron fist that was never meant to be, they’ve killed too many. It’s time to end it.” I spoke through my teeth, “Round them up. Everyone is coming with us.” I ordered before turning my back on the traitors and shifting again.

I felt the other Alphas shift around me and we were all running back towards the pack, desperate to seek the comfort of our Lunas.