Once Upon A Rejection

I spent the rest of the next few hours at my stepfather’s house catching up with everyone and checking up on June. It was a nice distraction from all of the chaos of the last few weeks. Part of me felt guilty for letting Jimmy and Rich deal with the pack’s security while I was here enjoying my afternoon. I did need this though and I had a feeling that there would be plenty to do in the days and weeks that followed.

Grayson joined us shortly before lunch. He looked miserable when he first arrived but that didn’t last too long. The council had really annoyed him, they decided not to take any action for our ‘disrespect’ but they did say that they would be keeping a close eye on us in the future. Grayson didn’t care about that, he was more annoyed that they refused to apologise for insulting me.

“What if the council decides to bear a grudge over this?” My stepfather asked as we were finishing dessert.

“Then we will have to pay them more money I guess. They have never really helped our pack anyway so I am not sure we would even notice the difference.” Grayson replied.

“You wouldn’t need their help anyway. As Molly is my mate you will have the backing of all lycans that align with my house.” Talen said.

“Are you sure they would help me? A lot of werewolves and lycans seem not to like that I am a hybrid.” I said.

I could feel my anxiety rising. I know that neither Grayson or Talen would accept me saying this but ever since I became Grayson’s mate I have been nothing but trouble. The lycans wouldn’t even be interested in our pack if it wasn’t for me and we wouldn’t be in trouble with the council. Maybe they would both have been better off if I wasn’t their mate or they never met me.

“Whatever you are thinking about, stop it right now.” Grayson said, looking at me.

“I’m sorry, it’s a bit of a habit of mine to blame myself when things go wrong.” I said.

“In future I am going to….” Grayson said before he was interrupted by Jimmy literally breaking down the front door and running into the room.

“What the heck man, couldn’t you knock?” Talen asked.

“We have a serious problem.” Jimmy said.

“What’s wrong?” Grayson asked. He stood up, suddenly in full alpha protector mode.

“The lycans waited until everyone was distracted dealing with the council then they launched their attack. They have set fire to some of the forest and now they are attacking the hospital, the school and some of the houses on the outskirts of town.” Jimmy said.

“We have to go, we have to help.” I shouted, getting to my feet.

“No.” Talen and Grayson shouted together.

“You are staying here where it is safe.” Grayson added.

“Maybe that is what they want. Maybe they are trying to draw you away so that they can get to me when I am alone.” I suggested.

Grayson and Talen contemplated this for a few moments before agreeing to let me go with them as long as I stayed by their side at all times.

That was good, I couldn’t bear the thought of staying behind not doing anything other than waiting to see if my mates got hurt. That would be my idea of hell.

When we stepped outside I could smell the smoke in the air and I could see whisps of smoke at a few different points around us. Despite the opportunistic nature of this attack it was clearly well planned. The points where they had set their fires and where they had attacked all had large distances between them. They were spreading our forces out, making it easier for them to get past our defences.

From what we had seen I didn’t think there were enough of them to launch an attack like this. Maybe that was the intention, maybe they had been hiding their numbers from us so that we underestimated them and let our guard down. Whatever it was I didn’t have time to think about it now, we had to help our pack.

Jimmy went to help defend the hospital while I went with Talen and Grayson to defend the school. It wasn’t far from the house but there was no time to waste so we shifted anyway. As I ran in my wolf form beside Grayson I saw so many children running away from the school, none of them seemed injured but I felt sick. What kind of monsters would try to hurt children? This attack was cruel, I would make them pay for it.

By the time that we arrived the school was deserted with the exception of our fighters and their lycan enemies. The smell of b***d was in the air, I could see the bodies of five or six werewolves lying on the street, not moving. They were alive but they were gravely injured, if they didn’t get help soon then they probably wouldn’t make it.

There were still a few small skirmishes going on around us but in the middle of the chaos was the woman with the red hair. She had a smirk on her face as we approached until she recognised Talen coming up behind us. Then her face changed to one of pure unadulterated disgust.

“Traitor.” She screamed.

Seeing her this close it was clear how out of control she was. Her eyes were wild. I had seen this before in werewolves who had lost their mate and didn’t have friends or family left to help them keep things together. Both of those werewolves ended up going rogue and it looked as though this woman was going the same way. This made her more unpredictable and a lot more dangerous.

“I’m not the one who has betrayed everything we believe in. You are risking the future of our kind and trying to kill my mate over petty revenge for something that isn’t even her fault. You’re lost.” Talen said.

“How dare you talk about betrayal when I am the one that was betrayed. My mate left behind all these filthy hybrids and now it is up to me to sort out his mess.” She shouted, her eyes getting more and more wild by the moment.

The skirmishes around us had ended now. More werewolves were lying motionless but none of them seemed to be dead just yet. Maybe if we could end this soon we could keep it that way. The lycans were moving closer, they were standing behind the woman waiting for her next set of orders.

“I have an idea.” She continued.

“It is your choice. You can choose to surrender your life to me and I will let your little mate live, for today at least. Or, you can fight us even though you are outnumbered, with no hope of winning. Then when we inevitably win, I will force you to watch as I kill her slowly and painfully.” She said.

Talen looked around himself, I could tell he was trying to assess our chances of winning. I didn’t need to see the look on his face to know the answer though. There were nine lycans, we didn’t stand a chance against them.

It had to be some kind of bluff though. Talen was her nephew. No matter how feral rogues were, they didn’t normally kill their own family members, did they?

Talen walked towards me with a sad look in his eyes.

“I love you Molly.” He said.

Then he shifted back into his human form and started walking towards the woman. He had his hands in the air as a sign of submission. As he approached the woman took a silver bladed knife out of her jacket pocket. It was starting to look as though she really did intend to kill him.

No way! I wasn’t going to let her hurt him, he is mine!