Chapter 357: Chapter 357 Want For Revenge
And once they became rogues, whatever shred of humanity they had left would rot away until all that remained was bloodlust and chaos. That was why most Alphas showed no mercy; rogues were killed on sight.
"Kill them all!" he growled, his voice reverberating through the pack link as he mindlinked his Beta. "Evacuate the non-combatants and protect the Luna. I’ll hunt the rogues with the warriors!"
Only in times like this did his full, domineering Alpha presence truly awaken.
"Roger that, Alpha. Please take care."
Alpha Hue’s Beta replied through the mindlink before quickly turning to organize the evacuation. He ushered the pack members toward the Packhouse and stationed several warriors around it to form a defensive perimeter.
However, as he barked orders, a flicker of concern crossed his mind; the mages maintaining the barrier around the field where the locust swarm was being contained would be left vulnerable at this time.
It seemed the Alpha, too focused on slaughtering the incoming rogues, had forgotten to issue any command regarding their protection.
Fortunately, he remembered just in time. He immediately assigned several of the more promising warriors to head to the fields and guard the mages. Thankfully, Arch Mage Elric was among them, which eased some of his worries. For now, his priority was to ensure everyone else’s safety within the pack.
Meanwhile, the sudden uproar had already reached Levi, Maxwell, and Lance, who were each stationed at different borders. The distant howls and the faint sounds of battle made them tense, their instincts sharpening in response.
But none of them dared to abandon their posts. The attack from the northeast, Zion’s former patrol area, now under Maxwell’s watch, could easily be a diversion. The rogues had already proven how coordinated they could be, far from the disorganized beasts most Alphas assumed them to be.
So, instead of rushing toward the commotion, they reinforced their patrols and tightened their defenses, fully alert for any signs of a secondary assault.
More than that, before leaving, Zion had warned the three about what he overheard during his scouting trip along the evacuation route for the first batch of refugees. He mentioned a gray wolf named Chase and the whispers of a planned attack.
Although Zion didn’t know the full details of Chase and Greg’s scheme, he suspected the worst. So, he took no chances; he reinforced their defenses and alerted the others, ensuring everyone would be prepared for any sudden assault.
That was why they had set up so many traps around the borders. And now that the attack had truly come, none of the three was caught off guard. Instead, their expressions hardened, their auras turning sharp and murderous. Fortunately, they had managed to hasten their work and send Addison away before the battle began.
However, what they didn’t know was that Greg had already prepared for both outcomes. If Addison stayed in the Golden Hue Pack until the assault, their Plan B would activate from within. But if she left early, she would walk straight into another trap, the one involving the ogres and goblins she and Zion had already faced and barely survived.
"That damn Greg really showed up..." Levi snarled, his jaw tightening as he ordered his warriors to reinforce the patrol around their perimeter.
Maxwell, who was responsible for guarding both flanks of the border, was under the most strain; his team had far more ground to cover than either Lance’s or Levi’s. But even Lance, who seemed to have it easier on the surface, was under heavy pressure. His section was closest to the field where the locust swarm was being contained, making him a likely target for Greg’s men.
Right now, neither Levi nor Maxwell could afford to send him any support, because they were both too busy holding their own lines.
Levi was the most enraged of them all. He’d seen what Greg had done to Addison, the way she’d come back from the dungeon, and he hadn’t forgotten how close Greg had come to killing him when he demanded Addison’s whereabouts. Now the chance for payback burned inside him.
"Just wait. I’ll gut him," Levi murmured, low and hard, his eyes flashing. The wolf within him surfaced; the animal’s heat slid through Levi’s gaze like steel.
"We’ll make him pay, twice over," the wolf growled in Levi’s mind, the words coiling like a spring. Levi felt the anger thud in his chest, a contained, furious force waiting to be unleashed.
"Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten what he did," Levi told the wolf in his head, a cold smile cutting across his face. "It’s almost convenient he came to us on his own; saved us the trouble of hunting him down."
Levi was usually composed and skeptical, but he never let go of a grudge. Hurt his mate and you’d find the darkest side of him; no male werewolf would tolerate that; they’d die before letting their mate suffer.
He hadn’t realized Addison was his mate at the time, and by the time he knew, he’d felt powerless. That delayed fury had only brewed into something fiercer. Now it sat under his skin like boiling lava, ready to explode, and, truth be told, he was a little excited at the thought of making Greg pay.
"Roar!"
A cacophony of growls and feral howls erupted in the distance, followed by the echoing shouts of warriors reverberating through the forest.
"The rogues are here!" voices bellowed from every direction, overlapping with the sounds of clashing bodies and the thunderous rustle of trees and bushes. The air trembled with the ferocity of the incoming battle, the growls of rogues and the war cries of pack warriors merging into a single, chaotic symphony of war.
"Hold your ground!" Alpha Hue roared, his voice cutting through the chaos like thunder. He caught a charging rogue by the throat and slammed it into the ground with crushing force. Without hesitation, he drove his claws down, smashing its skull until bone cracked and blood splattered beneath him.
Another rogue lunged at him, but Alpha Hue spun and slashed upward with his claws, tearing through flesh and muscle. The beast’s belly split open, intestines spilling out like a string of sausages as blood gushed onto the dirt.
"Argh!" the rogue howled. No one knew if it was from agony or rage at being powerless before the Alpha, who hadn’t even been scratched.
"Don’t back down! Push forward!" Alpha Hue commanded when he saw a few of his warriors falter, stepping back to make room for the incoming rogues. His voice snapped them back to their senses.
"Understood, Alpha!" they answered in unison, their unified cry echoing through the forest, strong enough to reach all the way to Elric’s position.
When Elric heard the shouts echo through the forest, he immediately reinforced the barrier surrounding the locust swarm.
"Everyone, ignore the fighting behind us! Focus on the barrier!" he barked, his tone sharp enough to snap his disciples out of their panic.
The sudden attacks had shaken their concentration, and faint ripples began to spread across the shimmering barrier. Elric knew that even a moment of distraction could spell disaster; a single weak spot, a tiny gap, was all it would take for the locusts to slip through and breed anew elsewhere.
Elric’s words snapped them back to their senses. They steadied their minds, pushing aside fear and distraction, and poured more magic into the barrier’s reinforcement, just in case anyone tried to break through and unleash the locust swarm.
"Kekeke... do you really think you can guard against us?"
A man in a dark cloak emerged from among the rogues surging like a relentless tide toward the Golden Hue Pack’s border. Unfortunately for Maxwell, the intruder appeared on his side.
Hearing that twisted cackle echo through the forest, Maxwell’s eyes narrowed. The cloaked figure walked leisurely through the chaos, unfazed by the violence around him, as if savoring the sight of Golden Hue warriors struggling to hold the line. The rogues snarled and attacked without hesitation, yet none dared lay a claw on the cloaked man.
Maxwell’s brow furrowed as he studied the stranger in silence. He had no interest in exchanging words with enemies.
Instead of replying, Maxwell’s claws elongated in an instant as he lunged straight for the cloaked man. The sudden attack caught the stranger off guard; he clearly hadn’t expected Maxwell to strike without warning or a single question, as if he cared nothing for talk and wanted only to end the chaos around them.
But for Maxwell, words were useless. Zion’s earlier warning echoed in his mind, and from the way this man moved and the timing of the attack, he was at least sixty to eighty percent certain this was Greg. Everything matched, just as Zion had described. And the moment that realization sank in, Maxwell saw red.
Rage burned through him as flashes of Addison’s bloodied figure filled his mind. His wolf snarled within, demanding vengeance, its fury clawing for release. Maxwell no longer cared who watched, he only wanted to tear Greg apart for what he’d done to her.