I'm coming for you
22. It begins

Nathan’s POV

I’m glad my little sister’s mates are beginning to get going correctly. I understand that it’s hard for her to see them objecting to each other, and although it hasn’t been hazardous between the twins since they met Aleida, there’s been some brawl anyway. The majority of the time, however, Aleida stops it before it begins, but on the other hand, that’s nothing she should have to do, considering that she’s their mate and not their mother. Kian and Miliano are almost twenty-seven years old, but they behave like they’re twelve from time to time. It takes a toll on my dear sister that they can’t respect each other’s differences and work as a team; that’s also what often makes her feel that she must choose. She hasn’t told you or anyone else, other than me, her big brother. I remember the conversation well...

~* Flashback begins *~

Aleida came into the living room with mumbles and loud sighs before throwing herself down the couch with a groan. She laid her hands over her face, and her whole body was tense. I studied my sister, who had yet to see me; something had happened.

“Why can they never think longer than their noses reach? Idiots!” she grunted to herself.

My dear sister, why is your life always so hard? I stood and sneaked up beside her noiselessly. Aleida’s breath was quick and heavy, as if she were trying to hold back her tears. I gently touched her arm, and she threw herself off the couch in defense by instinct.

“Hell, Nathan!” she exclaimed. “I could have killed you; what the hell are you thinking!?”

She looked at me with a stern expression while I kept smiling sheepishly at her reaction. Aleida’s eyes closed, and she breathed in deeply a couple of times. When her eyelids opened again, I saw how full of tears they were. I took her in my arms without hesitating for a second. I let her cry out on my shoulder while caressing her hair gently. My sister has been through more than most others and seeing how much her memories are eating her every day hurt me. The situation with her mates wasn’t helping.

“What happened, Aleida?” I asked softly, and she wiped away a couple of tears from her cheeks.

“Kian and Miliano started fighting again. It’s hard for me, and they don’t seem to realize it. I don’t want to have to choose between my mates because I love both equally, but in those situations, it feels like I have to. How am I supposed to choose between two big parts of my life when I need them just as much?” she sobbed, and as her eyelids closed, tears fell down her cheeks yet again.

I sighed noisily and desperately tried not to set fire to the whole packhouse for how the brothers made my little sister feel. Since I never had the opportunity to grow up with Aleida and know about her story, I’m incredibly protective when it comes to her.

“It’s going to be fine, Aleida,” I whispered, wiping away her tears. “Stand on your two feet and show them that you aren’t going to choose. You need them both, and if they can’t realize that, then that’s their problem and not yours. You’re a queen; your word is their law. Give them hell!”

She laughed at my words, and I smiled because I managed to make my sister smile when she felt terrible. Aleida put her arms around my upper body and hugged me close to her. I was surprised that she took the initiative to embrace me in such a familiar way; she usually didn’t do that.

“I’m glad I have you,” she whispered. “Thank you for always being there for me.”

“Always,” I whispered back and kissed her head. “I’ll never leave you again.”

~* End of flashback *~

Neither Kian nor Miliano ever blames Aleida unless she does something wrong. But these fights they have in her presence and when they think she doesn’t hear have affected her more than they know. She knows more than many people think. Knowing how all the darkness within her is trying to eat her up daily while no one realizes how serious it is, means a big mistake that we, who are the closest in her life, continue to make. Why is it always like that? Why don’t you realize what you’ve got until it’s gone? Why do we keep being tough on her even though she keeps fighting for us and our survival time and time again? I’m ashamed of what a bad big brother I am for my little sister; it’s my job to make sure no one hurts her. Look how well it seems to be going... If I see Aleida again, I’ll continue to ask for mercy until she forgives me. My sister is gone, and none of us know how far away she is. Moon goddess, if you hear me, please bring our queen back to us...

Kian’s POV

A few days have passed since we had the meeting with the other alphas, and now the threat is soon here. We train three times a day in all forms of martial arts and weapons. I’m a good coach, Miliano is too, but none of us come close to Aleida’s skills. Of course, we don’t push our members to the point that they can’t cope with it; no, we just bend the boundaries a little. The entire werewolf community knows what the situation looks like and that we probably need to fight in this war alone without our queen by our side. Whom am I kidding? Aleida would never stand by our side; she would stand at the front line and try to protect us all until the last, no matter what kind of creatures we meet. There’s one thing I keep thinking about, too, which creatures does a dark witch use? According to the elders, dark witches draw power from death, wars, tragedies, and disasters. There’s only one kind of creature that can possibly imagine fighting on her side unless she creates her own; demons. Demons are sneaky bastards and don’t fight fairly. Before the vampires decided to help us, I had a lot against them. To be honest, that hatred base on the same inexplicable story that we all grew up with; vampires and werewolves are natural enemies. But Blake has shown me that all vampires aren’t the same. I’m ashamed that I always generalize and think in stereotypical ways instead of replaceing out the truth myself. Not all vampires are the same, and I was wrong when I claimed that. A young vampire named Lucas had tears in his eyes when the meeting was over. According to Blake, Lucas looks up very much to Aleida after a practice that went wrong, and they both lost control. Aleida put the young vampire in place, and instead of punishing him for his mistakes, she helped him get better by asking Blake to train him personally. Lucas doesn’t say much but instead observes his surroundings and the people. However, as soon as Aleida comes up, he leaves because it hurts too much. Luis told me that Aleida reminds Lucas of his sister, who died many years ago; hence my mate is a sensitive subject. That said, vampires aren’t a problem for us but rather helpers that we need to survive. They have ancient knowledge of subjects we’ve never heard of, vice versa, which allows us to train each other to become the ultimate weapons against the witch and her hideous issues.

“How much iron powder do we have?” I ask Luis who counts all the weapons we managed to collect.

“Probably not enough,” he responds with a sigh and a sad smile. “If we guess that the witch has ten thousand demons on her side, we might manage half if we’re lucky. And that’s without counting the potential rippers and rogues.”

Iron harms demons, and we plan to hopefully scare back at least some of them back to hell where they belong. Since it’s heavy to carry around iron weapons, we have to settle for the powder to spread quickly if necessary. Rogues and rippers can die the same way as we since they’re werewolves and vampires. Of course, we have to do our best with what we can, and the majority of the werewolves in town prepares. They know that it may be the last hours that they get to hang out with their families, and we know that, unfortunately, many wolves will drop. How do we know the war will begin this afternoon? Simple. The witch sent one of her disgusting creatures here with a letter before the same animal set fire to itself and turned into a pile of ashes on my living room floor. Create drama, tension, and tragedy is what witches like her live for, hence the spectacle. We can’t do more than hope that our preparations will suffice...

We stand ready with all the other wolves in society. Our sons and daughters are hiding well with hex bags around them, which prevent the witch from replaceing them. All those who can’t fight for various reasons are together with all children and are ready to give their lives to provide the kids with a chance to experience the future. Luis worries, though; it turns out that one of the newer members of Aleida’s pack, Holly, I think her name is, remains missing, and no one knows where she is. I don’t know why it worries him, but what I understand from what he’s told me is that Aleida took a liking to her. Holly has gone through similar things as Aleida; hence it was easy for the two to build a bond. I guess Luis worries because he knows that if Aleida comes back and Holly is missing, our queen turns the world upside down to replace her.

“Group one is ready,” Clark says in our mindlink.

Usually, members from different packs can’t contact each other with a mindlink, but since we’ve temporarily created a large group instead of divided packs, we can now talk to each other. I stand ready with Aleida’s, Nathan’s, and our pack at the central part, which most likely is the witch’s end game to attack since it’s the core of Red moon city.

“Group two, five, and seven are in place,” Miliano announces in the mindlink.

“Holy shit, we’re already surrounded by at least four hundred demons, rogues, and rippers!” Paul exclaims in the mindlink.

“Blood fangs’ members who are still at the packhouse, you know what to do,” Luis declares.

“Yes, alpha,” they answer in unison.

The sky darkens quickly, and a strong wind moves the leaves from the ground up into the air. I can feel how the evil is approaching by leaps and bounds, and the hairs on my arms stand as the cold gets closer. Suddenly I feel vibrations in the ground as if thousands of elephants are heading towards us. Growls, howls, whimpers, and screams echo around the city. We all know what that means; the witch slams against all sides at the same time to get to the center where we are. Luis puts two fingers to the ground as if he’s going to start running at any moment, and after a few seconds, he gets up again.

“The eastern side’s defense has ruptured; we have five minutes until they’re here,” he says, and right after that, I get a mindlink.

“The defense in the East is down, I repeat, the defense in the East is down!” Peter exclaims in the mindlink, and I look at Luis with eyes wide open.

“How many can we expect?” I ask back.

“I don’t know, we-,” he begins, and then the mindlink cuts off, which means only one thing; alpha Peter is gone.

The vibrations are getting stronger with each passing second, and the thunder above us isn’t possible to miss. The lightning fights up in the dark sky, and it feels like Mother Nature is fighting the dark forces surrounding the entire region. Luis looks toward the horizon, where black creatures move toward us, and stands ready in defense position before he talks.

“It begins.”