Chapter 13

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The two guards carefully studied the surroundings, their alpha wanted the patrol to be vigilant, not that someone would dare to enter the alpha territory. They housed above two hundred wolves here, surrounding the alpha house and any infiltration attempt would be a suicide mission. The humans never ventured in. There were clear marking of private property from the road leading to this housing and it was well protected by fences. Even then they stayed vigilant and looked out, their wolf form helped in seeing through the night clearly to detect any threat.

Suddenly they heard a noise and their ears perked and their eyes narrowed. They tried to peer through the fence for any danger and a sudden gust of wind blew over them. The noise became loud and closer and suddenly it appeared over them.

Over them? They looked at each other confused but looked up.

They saw a black silhouette in the air.

Where the hell had that come from they wondered?

And before they could make out what the hell it was, something pierced their skin, causing a sharp pain, their eyes widened in alarm and before they could signal for help using their mind link they fell drowsy and collapsed.

As the wolves collapsed, ten men quickly rappelled down a rope in to the Lockbourne land. Once the men were on the ground the chopper quickly flew away, for now they were on their own. The men were in full combat gear and few of them had special modified guns for today's mission. Their task was to extract an alpha from his lands, from his home. Definitely not a walk in the park!

They knew where his house was, they had studied the map extensively. So in the cover of the night the men slowly walked in the shadows to reach the alpha house. They were to breach the house from the kitchen door, which led to a large back yard which overlooked the forest.

They reached the outside of the door and waited, till not they had no trouble. Now they had to carefully open the door without a lot of noise. One of the soldiers checked for any alarms of any kind. That would add to their headache, luckily there were none. Werewolves rarely got robbed and they banded together in well protected communities so alarms of any kind were redundant in nature.

As expected there were none.

One of the soldiers gently twisted the knob, it was locked. He stopped and signaled someone to come over.

One guy moved forward as others pressed themselves to either side of the door trying to blend in.

The soldier came forward and inserted something in to the keyhole and fiddled with the lock for a minute until it snapped open.

The men, in a single file entered the house. They had to go to the first floor, this was where the master bedroom was. Slowly one after the other four of them took the stairs while the rest stood guard on the ground floor.

As the lead soldier climbed slowly he set one foot on a step and the wood creaked loudly. Everyone froze in their spot, they could not afford any mistakes. They waited for a few seconds and nothing happened, taking an internal sigh of relief they climbed up the rest of the steps, everyone else avoided that step.

As they moved up to the first floor they looked at the hallway and froze.

What the actual fuck?

Their intelligence told them that the master bedroom was at the end of the hallway. Now there were two doors at the end of the hallway.

Fuck!

Which one was the master bedroom? They looked at each other in dilemma, each second adding to their chances of being discovered.

This was a TARFU scenario if ever there was one!

The leader put up two fingers in the air and pointed to one door and again put up two finger in the air and pointed to the other. They had to split up as a group of two each and enter both rooms simultaneously, no other choice.

Fuck this shit!

They were sweating buckets. Shit could go south before they could blink.

So, painstakingly slow they approached the doors and paused. One of the leader put three fingers up and started countdown and together they opened the doors.

Room one...fucking empty! Looked like a guest room of sorts.

Room two...

bingo! bulls eye!

The alpha and Luna were fast asleep, both men without wasting time aimed their guns the laser pointer marking their targets necks and fired.

The special pellets fired soundlessly and hit their target. The Luna gasped and her eyes open but immediately slumped unconscious. She would be out for a while.

The alpha, sat up on the bed enraged, eyes wide looking around for the source of the pain, as he looked around his eye sight started to blur and he wildly pawed his neck and pulled out the pellet. He then saw the men at the door of his bedroom and he tried to get up and put his hand out towards them, he muttered something illegible and then collapsed on to the bed unconscious.

The men sighed in relief. That had to be some potent shit to knock an alpha out so fast. They men quickly unrolled a body bag to stuff the alpha in so that it would be easy for them to carry him out. They quickly black bagged him and then they literally ran out of the room and down to the men waiting below.

They gave a thumbs up to them indicating they were successful in nabbing the alpha and they silently snuck out as they had snuck in.

They arrived at the spot where the two wolves were still unconscious and shot them with two additional pellets just in case and then a couple of them quickly made a hole in the chain link fence. They would carry the alpha to an elevated spot up ahead half a mile away. This would be a nice vantage point, a front seat to the shit storm they were going to unleash.

In five minutes they reached their spot and quickly pulled the unconscious alpha out of the bag, without any delay they collared him with a silver collar and locked it in place. That should prevent him from shifting and communicating with his pack. They also pumped him with a cocktail of drugs that acted as neural inhibitors that prevented any mind link. They tied him to a tree and waited.

***

The alpha woke up and was extremely groggy. He tried to move unsuccessfully but something restricted him. His hands were paining and were in an extremely uncomfortable position behind him, trying to free them proved futile.

As he got more conscious, he looked around in rising alarm.

What the fuck? His eyes widened.

He was tied to a tree with his hands behind him and men in combat gear surrounded him. He tried to link his beta but he felt no response in his mind, like there was a mental block in his mind, he tried repeatedly without success.

"Won't help" one of the soldiers, he assumed their leader spoke up. He had figured out what the alpha was trying to do.

"We have you in a collar and injected you with a cocktail of drugs, it fucks your mind link up" he told him quietly.

"Do you know who I am?" The alpha demanded "You all are dead men!" he spat "My pack, our packs will hunt you down and skin your pelts out while you are still alive" he said. Fucking with an alpha had serious consequences.

"ohhh! I quiver with fear!" One of the men dramatically said, fake shivering while others chuckled.

"All right you have one shot at this alpha" the leader said and then asked him "Where is Charles? Think carefully and answer"

"Fuck you!" the alpha spat with venom "And fuck Roma! the bitch hadn't learned her lesson even after we killed her parents in her so called territory...may be we will take her out too after we had our way with her." He taunted.

The leader remained stoic and sighed unaffected by the alpha's outburst "Wrong answer" he told him and added "Don't tell me later I didn't warn you. Last chance is that your answer?" The leader asked coming close to the tied up alpha.

The alpha peered closer as closer as his bonds allowed him and spat on the soldiers face.

"That's my answer" The alpha said out in defiance.

"Ok, fuck this shit! Let's do this" the solder calmly said as he wiped the spit off his face.

He extended his hand out and one of him men handed him a wireless radio.

"Raven come in. over"

"Raven here. Over" the prompt response came in.

"Raven the show is sold out. I repeat the show is sold out" he said.

"Acknowledged showman, do we have our audience?" Raven asked.

"Affirmative, Raven" Showman answered

"Ok, we are two minutes out, will ping you once in position" Raven said.

"Acknowledged! Raven" showman said and ended the conversation.

He looked at his watch and then looked at the alpha "Get ready, alpha you have two minutes."

"Two minutes for what?" The alpha asked, there was an alarm in his voice.

"The show to get started" The soldier said calmly. "I feel sorry for you alpha, you should have cooperated when you had the chance."

"Listen" the alpha said "You have no idea who you are fucking with, my cousin is the chair of the world council and he will fry Roma on coals if you touch one hair on my head. Let me go and I promise you that you will be left unpunished.

The soldier sighed as if dealing with a petulant child.

"You don't get it do you?" he asked the confused alpha "Roma isn't just one person, isn't some hick alpha in the mountains of Montana thinking he is on top of the food chain. Roma is an empire, like all large empires they take time to mobilize but when they do...they bring the wrath of hell on to their enemies. You and your so called cousin are screwed, you fucked with the wrong people and you are about to see firsthand what happens when you dick around with things that should never be dicked with in the first place."

"Showman...we are in place, need guidance to start the show." The radio crackled.

The soldier smiled at the alpha "Get ready, the show is starting and you have the best seat in town" and with that he walked away from the alpha.

He motioned one more soldier who opened a box and unpacked a device. It was like a telescope of a gun. He peered through the cross hairs until he found what he was looking for and pressed a button.

"Locked" he shouted out.

"Raven do you receive?" The showman asked.

"Waiting..." Raven responded and after a few seconds of silence said "got it! We are locked and loaded Showman what do you advice?"

He looked at the alpha and gave him a pitying smile and then responded in to the radio "light it up!"

"Affirmative!" Raven responded "Target acquired, weapons free!" and then added "Blaze one away! T minus fifty seconds!"

"Got it Raven!" Showman said.

"What's happening?" the alpha asked anxiously. "Listen we can sit an compromise...we don't have to resort to..."

The soldier cut him off "Too late my friend...you should have let sleeping giants sleep... You are too late now."

"What?! What is happening? You better tell me!" the alpha demanded fighting at his restraints.

"Look at your house" The soldier told him. That was the only warning he would get.

The alpha's eyes widened, they searched fanatically on the landscape and zoomed in to his hose. It was still dark and he did not see any activity. It was calm as the night.

Someone started counting "10...9..8...7...6...5...4.."

3...

2...

...1

Nothing happened.

The alpha sighed in relief, they were just trying to...his thoughts froze.

They all heard a whoosh with a trail of smoke behind it. The trail led to his house.

He watched in horror as it smashed in to his house.

The loud noise alerted the patrols who rushed towards the alpha house. Some of them might have even rushed in but a second later there was a flash of bright light.

The house had exploded in a massive explosion of fireball.

"Good fireball!" one of the soldiers yelled.

"NOOOOO" the alpha screamed in utter agony as the bond broke in him...and it could only happen if his mate was dead.

"No...No...No" he cried incoherently, struggling madly against his restraints causing blood to ooze out from the places he was being restrained. He did not care anymore.

"oh god..." he sobbed defeated..."oh god...my mate...my children" he cried inconsolably his grief eating him.

The explosion woke the whole pack up, lights were being switched on in all houses, wolves streamed out, making a beeline to the alpha house up in smoke. Looking around for threats in fear and in confusion.

"Raven, this is showman, it's time for the ensemble" He said gravely. He knew what was about to come, he know what would happen but it did not mean he would like it.

As the pack gathered around the burning house shocked and gasping, what confused them most that they had felt the loss of their Luna and the children through the pack link but not the alpha, where was the alpha?

Those thoughts were cut shot by buzzing sound in the air coming closer. The shocked pack looked up in to the night sky ad could barely make out anything in the darkness. Whereas the IR screens in the Apaches could clearly make out every single wolf.

There were soon in positions.

"Weapons free" the lead pilot said.

And they unleashed hell.

Half the pack was slaughtered before they could even realize what had happened as bullets rained from the sky, the rest tried to run and hide, some even has presence of mind to turn in to their wolf form and run. It didn't help.

The choppers tracked each heat signature and took it out and once everything in visual range was slaughtered, they fired at the houses each one exploding in to fireballs.

The alpha saw everything in utter shock, his pack being slaughtered in front of his eyes, he felt each loss, each soul die. He watched helplessly as each house they had painstakingly built came crumbling down. His world was collapsing around him.

"You are monsters!" he whispered, the fight had left him.

"Yes we are" the soldier said calmly of someone who very much believed in that statement "You just forgot about it."

The alpha looked despondently at the destruction of his pack "Kill me please" he whispered. He would not live, he could not live...the thought itself was unbearable.

"I will kill you if you do something for me" The soldier told him.

"Anything...I will do anything" the alpha vowed broken.

***

The ringing phone woke him up. He squinted at the alarm clock, who the fuck was calling him so early in the morning? He fumbled to reach for his cell phone and squinted at the bright screen.

It as an unknown number. He was in half a mind to disconnect but someone calling his phone early in the morning might just be important.

"Hello?" Gordon Lockbourne said groggily. Cursing whoever was calling him.

"Gor...Gordon" the voice on the other side cracked.

"Who is this?" Gordon demanded.

"it..it's Patrick...it's me" a voice sniffled.

"Patrick, what the hell?! What are you doing calling me at this ungodly hour?" He asked but alarm bells were ringing in his head. His sleep had all but disappeared.

"It's gone. They are gone!" Patrick said, his voice carried such misery that Gordon's blood ran cold.

"Patrick" he said trying to act calm "What are you talking about man?" he asked.

"Anna, the kids...they are gone...the pack...it's gone...that all are gone" Patrick broke down, crying in to the phone "gone...oh god! Gone! All gone...."

"Patrick...Patrick...Patrick, listen to me man, listen to me, calm down...tell me what happened. Tell me everything" Patrick continued weeping inconsolably "Patrick, I am coming over asap to your pack...hold on man, get a grip of yourself, I will send someone over as well. Alpha Collins is close to you, he is in Montana I will call him and send him to you ok? I want you to hold on till then and tell me what happened. Hold it together damn it! You are an alpha!" Gordon whispered desperately in to the phone, he had never seen his cousin like this and it scared the hell out of him.

"It doesn't matter, nothing matters..." Patrick mumbled "good by Gordon" he said.

"Patrick! Patrick.." Gordon yelled in to the phone and then he heard a gunshot.

"Patrick!" he screamed in to the phone. Goddamit! "Patrick! Talk to me man!" he pleaded.

"Alpha Gordon" a new voice said "Patrick has gone to meet his mate and pack in afterlife."

"Who are you? Who the fuck are you?" Gordon spat his body shaking in fury.

"I am the Reply, alpha Gordon" The voice responded calmly.

"What?" Gordon asked confused. What the hell was he talking about?

"Roma, sends you her regards." With that the line disconnected.

"What? Wait..." with shaking hands he tried to call back the number but receive a message that the phone was switched off.

With shaking hands he called a number.

"Hello?" A sleepy voice said "What the hell Gordon! do you know what time..." Gordon cut him off rudely.

"I want you to go to Patrick's pack asap...Just get out and drive down and once you reach call me...do you understand?" he said.

"What happened Gordon?" the alpha asked fully alert.

"Roma. I think Roma happened. Go to Patrick now" Gordon demanded.

"On my way" The alpha said and disconnected.

***

Her parents were being buried early in the morning, she dropped the mud on their graves fighting back the tears and stood back, she looked across the graveyard to Sebastian who has just finished talking over the phone and turned to look at her and he grimly nodded at her.

It was done.

She stood there expressionless as her parents were being buried her fists clenched to her sides. Her mouth in a thin line. She saw until she could see no more and she turned around and walked away, tears streaming through the corner of her eyes.

***

Alpha Collins walked in to the pack lands dumbfounded. His men surrounding him walked around in equal shock. When Gordon has called him frantically to go to Patrick's lands this was not what he expected, this was not what he thought he would see in his wildest dreams or his worst nightmares. Nothing prepared him for the sight.

Houses burnt and blown apart, smoke still streaming from their remains. Bodies, both in human and wolf form scattered all across the pack land.

Mutilated bodies, parts missing, blown apart. Holes thorough various parts of bodies. He hear one of his men vomiting violently.

What did this? He wondered, what force would cause one of the most powerful packs in the United States be slaughtered overnight, what could bring them down like this?...my god! He thought, what kind of power Roma wield to be capable of doing this? He wondered. He was no fool, he knew what this was. This was a statement.

A statement from Roma.

Gordon has been gloating that he would be the one to bring Roma down, what a fool he had been, what a fool they all had been to believe in it.

How could they possibly fight and win with something that could do this? That could wipe out a pack this way...such terrible power to be held by a single person, no one should hold it. That was why they had been against monarchy, against Roma but they had forgotten the beast that Roma was. The war machine it was, they thought they were safe on the other side of the ocean and nothing could touch them.