Pursuing My Rejected Alpha
Chapter 26

Wolves were nocturnal animals. Wild wolves were used to hunting and scavenging at night, and they could do that because they had excellent night vision that not many animals could compare with. A certain reflective layer behind their retinas helped increase the light exposure and allowed them to see clearly in the darkness.

Additionally, their eyes glowed in the dark and gave them a haunted look.

In this aspect, werewolves were no different from regular wolves. If anything, their sense of sight was a lot better than that of an average wolf.

The six werewolves were more than interested to go down the cliff to take a look at the actual battleground beneath the thick canopy of leaves, but it was already quite late at night.

They eventually decided to go back to the camping site to get enough rest for the night.

"How many warriors does the Night Prowler Pack have?" Kendra queried on their way back.

"With the sixteen other packs to support them, I would say they have almost three hundred," Acatha replied. The Night Prowler Pack was a huge pack, so it was just natural to have that many warriors going into a war. It was too bad that the Infinite Eclipse Pack, the only pack that was comparable to the Night Prowler Pack in size, was only a support pack.

.....

Just like other support packs, it was only able to send a maximum of ten warriors to help.

"Three hundred!" Desmond exclaimed. "We have almost two hundred on our side. Sheesh. Imagine five hundred pairs of wolf eyes haunting around the battleground." Annalynne and Kendra started to giggle at each other. "We will look like some beasts in horror movies, waiting to tear our victims to shred."

"Unless they tear you to shred first," Desmond raised an eyebrow at the two ladies.

Smiles quickly drained from their faces as they were reminded of the gravity of the war.

"This also means that everyone is exposed to everyone," Lucien remarked. "There is no point in hiding, unless the wolf in hiding keeps his eyes closed the whole time." Desmond hummed while rubbing his chin. "Not necessarily not doable. We can try it tomorrow during our final training, but oooaaaahhhhhhhmmmmm..."

Desmond yawned as soon as he saw the rows of tents that stood all around the camping site. They were cramped together in order to save as much space as possible.

"Oh, whatever. Let's just sleep for the night. We can think about some special training tomorrow to get our warriors used to fighting in the darkness," he said while stretching his back and cracking his neck.

The Beta waved at his brothers- and sisters-in-arm before slipping into an empty tent. Acatha and Kendra said good night to Annalynne, Lucien, and Ronan before they also went into another empty tent. There were neither enough tents nor enough space to build more tents. Due to the present limitations, it was agreed that two people must share a tent.

Annalynne grabbed Lucien's hand and begged, "Big brother, sleep with me?"

"Out of question!" Ronan exclaimed, pulling at Lucien's other hand. "A grown-up man and woman cannot share a single tent! That is unheard of!" Annalynne pursed her lips in displeasure.

"We are siblings who grew up together. Will Alpha Ronan please rid himself of unspeakable, dirty thoughts?"

"Exactly because you are siblings that you must avoid this kind of thing. In the darkness, anything can happen!"

Annalynne put both hands at her hips as she glared at Ronan. "What can happen? Lulu and I sleep together a lot! If anything is supposed to happen between us, it would already happen ages ago!" "Why must you insist to sleep with Lucien? Go sleep with another woman!"

Annalynne fumed. "If you have not noticed, we have exactly three women in this group! Kendra and Acatha are already sharing a tent!"

Annalynne had expected to share a tent with Lucien, so she happily told Acatha and Kendra to get a tent together.

"Then go squeeze with them, three can still fit inside a tent!" Ronan said dismissively.

The red-headed woman roared in frustration. "Why don't YOU go squeeze with another man so I can sleep with Lulu???"

Ronan was about to lose it.

"What are you thinking? Your brother and I are dating!"

"Dating doesn't mean that you two are officially mates. You have even less reason to share a tent with my brother!" Annalynne cried.

"Why less reason? We are both men!"

Annalynne stepped closer to Ronan and narrowed her eyes at him.

"Exactly. I have reason to believe that you are up for something indecent tonight."

"Whether or not it is decent, it is entirely between your brother and me. You have no say in this," Ronan hissed.

"I am his sister," Annalynne claimed.

"You two, stop bickering," Lucien finally decided to speak up.

Both Ronan and Annalynne turned to look at him with sour expressions.

"If you want us to stop fighting, then why don't you decide who you want to sleep with tonight?" Ronan asked, crossing his arms before his chest while pinning Lucien with a glare. "This sister of yours or me?" Annalynne made puppy eyes at her brother. "Lulu? Lulu, you will pick me, right? I am your only sister in this world! And I am also your twin! Can you bear to discard me???" Lucien rubbed at his temples and sighed.

"I told you two to stop fighting because there is only one empty tent left."

Lucien pointed at a tent in a corner of the camping site. Indeed, it was the only tent that had not been zipped up for the night.

"We will have to cramp together into that tent tonight, or else one of us must sleep outside of the tent tonight."

Ronan and Annalynne threw one glance at each other, and then they ran toward the tent in a hurry. They both had one foot inside the tent at approximately the same time.

"It is mine!" Annalynne shouted while pushing Ronan away. "Go sleep outside!"

"In your dreams!" Ronan growled in return. "You are a big girl. Stop pestering your brother!"

Behind them, Lucien rolled with his eyes. It was going to be a tiring night.

The three werewolves changed into more comfortable wear and then slid under their blankets. Lucien, who slept between Ronan and Annalynne, was quickly monopolized by his sister who insisted that she needed to hug her brother in order to fall asleep. Ronan could not be more miserable. Clearly, he and Lucien were the couple, but Lucien was busy with his sister and Ronan became the third wheel.

To make matters worse, Annalynne was acting like a five-year-old spoiled princess. She could not stop talking.

"Lulu, I am so cold, hug me tighter..."

"Lulu, do you remember when we were still young..."

"Lulu, I want a good night kiss..."

In the darkness of the tent, the sounds of the kisses and their breathing were magnified tenfold. Ronan might as well be drenched in oil and grilled over fire. He was so jealous that he was about to explode. Gritting his teeth angrily, the Alpha rolled to his side and turned his back toward Lucien and Annalynne. That was the best he could do to ignore the pair of siblings who were all lovey-dovey next to him.

The Alpha started to make some plans in his head. Tonight he had no other choice but to endure Annalynne. Tomorrow night he must have Lucien all for himself. For that, he needed to stick Annalynne with Kendra and Acatha, maybe get them a bigger tent. Ronan would personally go to Amberport to buy a bigger tent.

Or maybe he could arrange for Annalynne to get her own tent. For all he cared, Annalynne could place her tent next to theirs. It was not like he could do much night activity while being surrounded by so many werewolves. At any rate, Annalynne must not share the same tent with him and Lucien again!

Although he was boiling inside, Ronan too was not immune to exhaustion. The long trip from Blue Hill City to Amberport followed by the run to reach Shadow Mist Creek drained a lot of his energy. Eventually, Annalynne fell asleep. The tent fell into a peaceful silence, and Ronan too slowly gave in to the sweet temptation of sleep.

Lucien carefully disentangled himself from Annalynne once his sister was deeply asleep. He turned to the other side to see how Ronan was doing. The Alpha was dozing off as well.

Lucien tucked Ronan's free arm properly inside his blanket and pressed a kiss on his cheek.

He then whispered gently into his ear, "Good night, Ronan."

After he was done taking care of his sister and his boyfriend, Lucien finally got to sleep. In the middle of the night, a pair of arms wrapped themselves around him and he was pressed against another warm body.

It felt so comfortable that Lucien could not help but want more. He put his arms around Ronan's neck and snuggled closer.

When Annalynne woke up, she was alone on her side while Lucien had been kidnapped by a big bad wolf to the other side.

The fine hairs at the back of Annalynne's neck rose instantly when she saw the two men hugging each other in their sleep.

Ew!

She grabbed her pillow and slammed it at Ronan's head before she ran out of the tent.

Ronan was startled awake by the sudden pillow hit. When he stirred, Lucien too opened his eyes.

"Good morning," he said while rubbing his eyes.

"Good morning, my love." Ronan kissed Lucien on the forehead. "Your sister is too kind for waking us up," he added.

Still sleepy, Lucien did not even register the sarcasm. He merely nodded and muttered, "I will relay your thanks to her."

Some werewolves were hobby hunters. They had the good idea to install some traps in the forest before they went back to the camping site in the evening. Thanks to their effort, the group got to eat wild hare meat sandwiches for breakfast. The war was finally going to commence the next day. Everyone was anxious but they also could not wait to start and finish as soon as possible.

Acatha found another valley that was somewhat similar to their battleground. It was covered with vegetation and no sunlight could pass. It was the best training ground that she could replace to get the warriors accustomed to fighting in the dark. Meanwhile, Lucien gathered a group after breakfast in order to inspect the battleground area prior to the war.

Acatha and Desmond were busy with the warrior training, so only Kendra and Annalynne had time to join Lucien and Ronan.

The ladies were given the task to watch for any unforeseen circumstances on top of the cliff while the remaining two transformed and went to roam around the darkness.

Ronan had a rope tied around his waist, and the end of the rope was held by Kendra. Lucien's was held by Annalynne. The purpose of having such ropes was to ensure that those on top of the cliff knew if something happened to the ones down the valley. Likewise, if Kendra and Annalynne were to be ambushed up there, they merely had to give the rope a tug to get help.

The valley was not as deep as they thought, but it was indeed pitch black down there.

Ronan gave Lucien an intimate nuzzle before he trotted silently to the right, leaving Lucien to check the left area.

The area had nothing but a lot of strong and tall trees with thick trunks and roots that protruded from the earth.

Lucien did not smell anything unusual. There were only the scents of earth, plant resin, and leaves. Other than being deprived of sunlight, it could be considered a natural scenic area.

Thinking that he had enough, Lucien gave the rope around his waist a slight tug to indicate to Annalynne that he was going up.

Annalynne also gave a slight tug in response.

Just as Lucien wanted to turn around and go back, he spotted another pair of bright eyes staring in his direction from a distance. Kinnon.

Lucien could feel his throat tighten.

Kinnon did not come over. He merely stared at Lucien from a distance. Lucien too did not move from his spot. Warring parties were not supposed to get into contact before the war to prevent any cheating allegations.

Lucien was not aware of how long they stood there staring at each other. The soft tugs at the rope around his waist reminded him that he should go back.

After giving Lucien one last look, Kinnon turned around and trotted back to his own side.

When Lucien came back up, he was slightly pale in the face.

Ronan also came back not long after. Lucien wrapped a blanket around him as he transformed back into his human form.

"I came across some wolves from the Night Prowler Pack," Ronan informed them.

"Did something happen?" Lucien asked.

.....

Ronan shook his head and patted Lucien's cheek.

"Don't worry, nothing happened. What about you?"

Lucien lowered his eyes.

"I saw Kinnon."

"Ah."

Ronan's lips were pulled into a tight line. He did not ask further. He merely pulled the blanket tighter around Lucien's frame.

"Let's go back," he said, taking the latter's hand in his and leading the way back to the camping site.

The training was stopped in the afternoon. At this point, they had done everything they could to prepare for the war. It was particularly important to rest well before the next morning arrived. Although it was a chance to relax after a week of hard work, the warriors were restless. When they were fighting, they did not feel anxious. Once they were told to do nothing, they started overthinking. Lucien thus arranged for the restless ones to go and hunt some food to cook a lavish dinner.

After they came back from the valley, Ronan managed to successfully fake a good mood throughout the day. As the sky turned darker though, his mood became worse and worse.

There was a cold, aggressive aura that emanated from the Alpha. The other werewolves sensed the danger, so they avoided him like the plague.

In the end, Ronan got tired of pretending. He finished his dinner and went to sleep early.

Once he got into their tent, he zipped it up without even waiting for Lucien to get in.

Annalynne was happy beyond compare when she saw it, but Lucien felt a stabbing pain in his heart.

Ronan was clearly upset. And Lucien knew it was because of him.

"No need to bother with a sulking big man," Annalynne said. "Lulu, let's sleep together tonight, okay?" Lucien shook his head in response. "You go and sleep with Kendra and Acatha. I need to talk to Ronan."

The woman pouted at her twin brother. "Why do you have to bother with him so much?"

"Because I love him," Lucien answered as a matter of factly.

After bidding everyone good night, Lucien headed toward Ronan's tent and slowly unzipped the tent flap. He expected to replace a sleeping Ronan, but the man was sitting inside the tent, wide awake. "Took you long enough," he said with a blazing pair of eyes.

"Sorry," Lucien zipped the tent shut behind him.

Crossing his legs, he went to sit in front of Ronan and waited for the latter to say something. Unfortunately, Ronan was not interested to talk. He just wanted to sulk.

"Oh, Ronan."

The Alpha's eyes flashed dangerously. Before Lucien knew it, he was already tackled to the ground and Ronan was hovering on top of him.

"I wonder," he said slowly, grabbing Lucien's wrists with both hands. "Will you hate me if I kill Kinnon tomorrow?"

Lucien furrowed his brows. "Do you want to kill him that badly?"

Ronan heaved a sigh.

"I want you to stop thinking of him and only think of me. Is that too much asked?"

"Ronan, I am not thinking of him at all."

Ronan released Lucien from his grip and turned away. "Forget it. You will never understand."

"Then make me understand. I cannot read your mind."

Instead of explaining, Ronan let out a frustrated roar and lay down to sleep.

Lucien sat up behind him and played with Ronan's hair.

"Ronan, I can't change the past. A lot of things happened between him and me. I cannot undo all of them. You understand this, right?"

Ronan gave a grunt.

"If I can make you feel better somehow, just tell me what to do. Just don't bite me tonight. I don't want to risk it before the war."

A chuckle escaped Ronan. "Sorry for being a brute."

Lucien smiled. "I know you didn't mean to."

He gave Ronan a kiss on the back of his head. "Whatever happens tomorrow, I will not blame you."

Ronan turned around and eyed Lucien full of suspicion.

"Really? Even if Kinnon dies at my hand?"

Lucien patted Ronan's cheek fondly. "I trust you."

Ronan crawled into Lucien's lap and buried his face on the latter's stomach.

"Alright," he mumbled in a spoiled tone.

Lucien hugged Ronan's head and went to lie down as well. They fell asleep in that position and only woke up when morning arrived and Acatha started calling outside of the tents. Light drizzle fell upon the forest on the morning of the war. At 10 AM sharp, everyone transformed into wolves at the camping site and walked slowly toward the agreed war site.

They slowly descended into the valley one by one and got themselves accustomed to the dark surroundings.

After everyone came down, the group slowly made their way to the center of the valley.

Numerous pairs of shining eyes in the distance told them that the wolves from the Night Prowler Pack were already there for the war.

Standing at the front was Kinnon Youngshaper, standing in an intimidating pose. One step behind him was Bjorn.

The Silent Walkers Pack had not even stopped walking when Kinnon dashed forward and thus began the war. Lucien gritted his teeth and clawed into the ground hard to counter Kinnon's attack, but it never came. Kinnon went past Lucien and pounced at Ronan instead.

Ronan had a premonition that Kinnon was going to attack him because the brown wolf kept staring at him intently.

While the other wolves quickly scattered away, Ronan stood firm on his feet to take on Kinnon's first attack. He successfully dodged to the side, but one of Kinnon's sharp claws managed to graze his cheek.

Ronan let out a wild roar and snapped at Kinnon fiercely in return.

The goal was to keep Kinnon's attention directed at him. It later proved to be unnecessary because Ronan was Kinnon's target all along. Once he engaged Ronan, he did not even try to attack other werewolves. All of his attacks were vicious and carried murderous intent.

The Alpha of the Night Prowler Pack was determined to end the Alpha of the rival pack in the war.

This confrontation was both good news and bad news.

The good news was that it was a one-on-one confrontation. Alpha against Alpha.

The bad news was that the rest of the Silent Walkers Pack's group had to deal with the rest of the Night Prowler Pack's group.

Ronan's initial plan to take on at least ten werewolves at once while protecting Lucien was thwarted effectively. In the middle of Kinnon's fierce and unrelenting onslaught, Ronan did not even dare to take his eyes off Kinnon. His opponent had two sets of sharp fangs and four sets of sharp claws that he did not hesitate to use.

.....

Ronan landed as many hits as he could on Kinnon in order to incapacitate him. He needed Kinnon to stop attacking him so he could replace out what was happening to Lucien. Unfortunately, the Alpha of the Night Prowler Pack was not that easy to defeat. He was there for a blood bath, and he would not stop until Ronan lay dead at his feet. 'Lucien, please be safe, Ronan kept saying in his mind. 'Please, please. Wait for me. I will be by your side as soon as I am done with Kinnon!

Meanwhile, the soft drizzle had turned into a heavy downpour. Everyone was drenched in the heavy rain. The solid ground turned into a huge field of mud. The fight became more and more ridiculous as every wolf just pounced blindly around to stay alive. Ronan's and Kinnon's fight also suffered greatly from the rain. They kept missing each other because their footing was ruined by the slippery ground.

After attacking each other intensely for an hour, both wolves had to take a little break. Both of their bodies were covered with claw and bite wounds. The heavy rain washed more and more blood away from their bodies as they tried hard to maintain straight postures.

Ronan took the time to scan the surrounding area but he could not locate Lucien at all. Everywhere, giant wolves were rolling on the ground and exchanging bites and scratches. Kinnon had managed to separate Ronan completely from Lucien.

Panic crept into Ronan's heart.

What was happening?

Who was Lucien fighting at the moment?

Was he doing fine?

He racked his brain for a list of the strongest werewolves on Kinnon Youngshaper's side. Landon just recently returned to Lucien's side. Lucien was not going to be able to take one, let alone two or three of them! Ronan's only consolation was the fact that they were all still fighting. If something had happened to Lucien... They would know. He would know.

Before long, Kinnon decided to end their little break and aimed for Ronan's neck right away. Ronan too was at the end of his patience. He ducked and slammed Kinnon hard against his stomach.

A sharp wail escaped Kinnon when Ronan's attack ended up breaking some of his bones.

'Be glad that I did not tear you into pieces and let your guts spill on the ground, Ronan thought angrily.

In his carelessness, he accidentally exposed his backside to Kinnon, who did not need to think twice before seizing the opportunity.

A searing pain spread across Ronan's back when Kinnon buried two sets of sharp claws into it and viciously tore through Ronan's back. 'AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!' Beowulf screamed in Ronan's head.

Ronan bit into his lips to prevent himself from screaming. He violently hurled Kinnon into the air to get the latter's claws out of his back.

Kinnon ended up slamming against the cliff's side. He lost consciousness for a few minutes. The few minutes that Ronan desperately needed to assess his wounds.

He was bleeding severely from his back, and the rain only made it worse. The blood loss caused his sight to become blurry. His head felt so heavy and he started to lose consciousness.

'No,' he told himself.

'No, Ronan. You can't lose now. You can't die here. Lucien is here somewhere, surrounded by a bunch of wolves. He needs you. You must stay strong!'

Ronan shook his head desperately and focused on Kinnon, who was slowly getting up from the ground.

Both wolves glared at each other for a whole minute before they started pouncing at each other again.

Ronan and Kinnon fought valiantly despite their heavy injuries. They kept slamming each other against the cliff sides, intent on ending the fight as soon as possible because both of them could not carry on for much longer. Ronan tackled Kinnon hard against the cliff one last time. After repeatedly bumping his head against the rocky side, Kinnon eventually slumped to his side and lay on the ground, unmoving.

Ronan too fell to the ground while breathing heavily. He decided to take a few minutes to catch his breath before going out there to replace Lucien.

Unfortunately, the continuous attack on the cliffside did not go without any consequences.

A loud crashing sound was heard coming from the cliff. What followed was a flood of mud and soil that flowed into the valley. The flood carried with it huge trees and boulders that rained down on Kinnon and Ronan mercilessly. The last thing that Ronan remembered before his sight turned black was a loud voice that was calling after his name.

'RONAN!!!'

'Ronan...

'Hey, Ronan...'

A worried voice spoke in his head. Beowulf's.

'Mmm...

'Ronan! Ronan!!!' Beowulf started to shout frantically when Ronan finally responded.

'Shut up, Beowulf, you are so loud...

Ronan's head hurt badly. Where was he? What was he doing there? Ronan could not remember at all. He tried to move his body but what followed was extreme pain instead.

"Ahhh...!!! Ow, ow..."

Ronan gritted his teeth. His eyes flew open and there was a huge rock just in front of his face. He blinked in disbelief. Where the heck was he? What happened?

.....

He was unable to move his body because he was lying under a huge tree trunk. All around him, he could only see solid mud and rocks.

'Ronan, don't move. You are severely wounded,' Beowulf advised him.

'I...

Unable to move even a single finger, Ronan decided to just lay low and recall what happened. The first thing that flew to his mind was Lucien.

'Lucien!' he shouted.

He remembered. They started with the war. Kinnon attacked him. He fought with Kinnon and bumped against the cliff a few times. There was a mudslide...

'Oh, that a*****e Kinnon,' Ronan cursed in his head. 'Beowulf, how long have we been here?'

'How am I supposed to know?' the wolf snapped. 'I was also out of it the moment you fainted.

Ronan chuckled. He felt so pathetic. Not only was he unable to protect Lucien, but he also ended up in such a predicament.

'I should have killed Kinnon right away. Look at what happened.'

"Heh," came a voice somewhere to his left side. Ronan's neck turned in the direction right away.

It did not require a genius to guess who else was trapped under the mud layers other than him. Kinnon, the bastard, was still alive!

"Are you happy now?" Ronan snapped at his rival. "Is this how you want the f*****g war to end? Congratulations, dude."

Kinnon scoffed.

"Not really. I had hoped to kill you first but then you just have to bang me repeatedly against the cliffside. Good job, Ronan. This is entirely your f*****g achievement. Your pack must be so proud of you."

Ronan gritted his teeth.

"If I don't die in here and manage to get out somehow, the first thing I will do is snap your neck into two. You better count on it."

"Heh, you took the words out of my mouth. You are a nuisance, Ronan. If only you are not there, Lucien and I would be very happy together."

Hearing Kinnon mention Lucien was enough to bring Ronan's blood to its boiling point.

Dry laughter was heard from Kinnon's side, followed by a series of throaty coughs.

"Shut up! Don't you dare mention Lucien's name! Thanks to you he has to deal with your crazy pack. Are you even still qualified to fantasize about being with him?"

"You fool," he said with a lot of effort after the cough attack stopped. "I would never hurt Lucien. I never planned to."

Ronan smirked.

So Kinnon's plan was to kill Ronan all along.

"What do you plan to do after I die, pray tell? Eliminate Landon and force Lucien to be your Luna again?"

"I will never force Lucien to do anything. I just can't stand seeing you hang around him so shamelessly."

"You are such a hypocrite, Kinnon," Ronan said mercilessly. "You killed his cousin, forced him to become your Luna to save his pack, and now you are here to preach to me about being shameless. Do you have any mirrors in East Temple City? Maybe I should send you

a full-length one just so you can see what a douchebag you are."

It was Kinnon's turn to grit his teeth.

"I never forced Lucien to be my Luna! He agreed to do so!" "Hahahaha...."

Ronan too had once thought that Lucien accepted Kinnon's proposal because he was in love with Kinnon. But Lucien had told him openly that he was not in love with Kinnon. The one he loved, back then and now, was still Ronan. The paintings said it all. Ronan was the foolish one to believe otherwise.

"Hey, Kinnon. Do you really think that Lucien agreed to be your Luna because he loved you? Think again. I am sure that you are not that dumb."

"You know what, Ronan? I am so sick of your arrogance. You are not better than me in any way. The only reason why you can spout such big words at my face is the fact that Lucien, unluckily, is in love with you. Does that make you feel superior, Alpha Ronan?"

Of course, it did. What Kinnon did not know, and what Ronan hated the most about Kinnon, was that Lucien agreed to be his Luna so easily. Ronan had to chase Lucien for months to get him to agree to be his spouse. They had yet to talk about being mates. Or about Lucien being his Luna. They were so far from making it official before the Werewolf Council.

Ronan was willing to shower Lucien with his love and attention until he died, but he was not sure if he had what it took to get Lucien to say yes to his marriage proposal.

What if things went wrong?

What if they broke up again?

What if Lucien's love was again overridden by his sense of responsibility?

"Unable to answer, huh?" Kinnon taunted from the other side. "I knew it. You are so pathetic. You are unworthy of Lucien."

"Shut up," Ronan snapped angrily. "What do you know about him and me? Do you think you are that great? Do you think you are that smart, Kinnon? You actually used your own son to derail Lucien before the war started. Just how sick can you be?"

A moment of silence followed, and then Kinnon's tone became a lot colder.

"What the hell? How dare you mention my son in front of me? Ralph is still being treated at home for his injuries!"