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Chapter 19 - Black Falls

Braeden

My lips were still stinging aggressively when Nereyda's chariot rounded the corner. She stood tall and elegant in her wolf fur, leaning into the side of the man whose heart I wanted nothing more than to rip out. And eat. Preferably with Nereyda watching so she'd know for sure that she was mine.

The crowd of Paladian citizens watched with held breath as the chariot drew closer. I knew that the whole city hoped that this Anellian tiger would help end their suffering. Everyone heard stories of the land of Anell, how happy everyone was, how everyone was free to do as they pleased. Some of them had even attempted to run away there. Without success.

I wasn't so sure that Anell was everything people made it out to be. The few Anellians I had socialised with at prize fights had seemed nice enough, a little obnoxious, but nothing to be bragging about.

People threw white roses in front of the chariot to show their happiness at the union. I was sure Nereyda was liking that. She was where she should be. Married to a powerful man with a respectable status and standing for all her people to see.

Her expression was blank as she stared straight ahead, devastatingly gorgeous in her magnificent wedding dress. My wolf saw the white snow catching in her veil and eyelashes. I wished more than anything that I was standing in that chariot with her.

I had originally been worried about the quality of the man she was marrying, I didn't want her to end up with someone she'd be unhappy with. However, after consulting Gelina about a week ago and a few of her fancy spells later, she'd assured me that the Oscar fellow was completely harmless to Rey. My Rey.

Besides my lips stinging from her kissing another man, my right eye throbbed where Asher had punched me this morning. Gelina had told him about how I'd claimed my mate and he'd lost it. Socked me right in the face.

Good thing I had friends like them to sweep up my mistakes. I dragged myself away from the street parade to address exactly that issue.

The walk from the Promenade to Gelina's house was a familiar one. The streets that were usually empty in Paladu City were positively deserted today. Everyone was crammed into the town square watching the parade.

A ripped piece of paper flew past me in the snowy breeze. The fall was gentle at the moment but I knew that it was only a matter of time before the whole city was swamped with the icey substance.

As it was, the snow wasn't settling, and it was easy enough to ignore.

Gelina's door swung open before I could knock. I let myself in without hesitation. The smell of baking cookies wafted through the entire house and I followed the mouthwatering scent to the kitchen.

She was running back and forth between the oven and the counter, wielding a wooden spoon dripping in cookie dough.

Her flaming hair was tied back tightly with a piece of white ribbon and she hardly looked up from her work as I walked into the room.

"Braeden," she greeted me breathily, putting her back into stirring a gooey mixture.

"Gelina," I acknowledged, crossing my arms across my chest. "What are you doing?"

She looked up at this, giving me appalled expression. "What the hell does it look like?"

I sighed. "Not right now, I meant generally," my voice had raised fractionally. "What do you think you're doing with my mate, my alpha and my life?"

She stopped in her stirring but didn't meet my eye. "I did my duty to Lithia," she murmured.

"Bullshit!" The cuss escaped me. "You cover my mate's mark and then blab about it to my alpha. That's not duty, that's fucking betrayal!"

Gelina dropped her spoon in the bowl and nervously wiped her hands down the front of her apron. "I was doing you and your mate a favour. She's not yours to keep."

Her words struck me like a blow, I took a step back. Gelina was too right, and that only made me angrier.

"And telling Asher?" I fumed, glaring hard.

Gelina put her hands on her hips defensively, "Now that was my duty to Lithia."

My fists clenched by my sides. I took a deep breath and spat a curse in the direction of the redheaded woman. Then I left.

I was wasting my time on Gelina, she wasn't going to apologise, and even if she did I wasn't sure that it would make me feel any better.

When I arrived back at camp, the whole place was a mess. Today was the day. The day that we took back what was rightfully ours.

The whole pack was there trying to do their bit. The children, who would obviously not be going into the palace with us, were still trying to help their families, some of them running around in wolf form with bits of string and fabric in their mouths.

I knew then that I couldn't let my pack down. They had all worked so hard towards this one goal, and today was the day I would help them achieve their dreams. Even if my heart broke in the process.

I scooped up a rogue cub in human form as I made my way towards centre tent. Rion, I thought his name was. He giggled loudly and tried to keep hold of my shirt as I returned him to his mother.

There would be no women with us tonight, for no reason other than only five of us were going in. Usually Gelina would be part of this five but today that wouldn't be possible. She was a witch, and witches were inept in the art of murder.

Black silk covered the ground, and I knew the eagles would be here soon. The sun crawled across the sky, reaching, nearing.

I closed my eyes and breathed in the dusk. My heart pounded in recognition of the turn my life was about to take. We either won...or we lost.

Inside the centre tent, Asher and the three other men sat on the floor in a circle. Asher always stood during meetings so it was strange to see him sat with everyone else.

He waved me inside good naturedly when he saw me peeking around the curtain. "C'mon in Braeden, we've all been waiting for you." His lips smiled but it didn't reach his eyes.
I went in and sat down with my fellow pack mates.

"Y'know, the only reason I'm making you do this is 'cause you're the best we have." His fake aloofness was exactly how I could see his nerves.

I said nothing, just nodding and staring at the floor. I could feel the other men's gazes on me.

"After tonight," Asher continued, feigning oblivion, "you're going to have to learn to loosen up." I didn't miss the way his eyes flicked when he assumed the outcome of our attack.

"You're just entirely too damn serious, all the damn time," he surmised, smirking at me slightly.

I didn't know what to say to that. I knew I wasn't a bottle of bubbles, but I didn't think that I was never openly happy. I was happy when I was with Rey.

"Yeah okay man," I brushed off his comment.

I sat with them for a while longer before excusing myself to take a walk. They didn't question me, we all knew that people dealt with these difficult times in different ways.

Asher, for example, needed to surround himself with friends and security before he went out to change the course of his future. I, on the other hand, needed time alone to think and reflect. As I walked through the forest, I squeezed my eyes shut forcefully and begged the world to forgive me.

The sun crept on.

+++++

We cut through the black water of the night whilst managing to meld seamlessly into it. The wind tousled my hair, my hood lying limply at my back, forgotten for the time being.

The hard, feather coated muscle I sat on clenched and contracted in time with the beaten air. The expansive wings on either side of me pulled and molded the black water they flew through, blending beautifully and yet standing out.

Some days I thought I should have been born an eagle.

Creta was my hometown after all and as a wolf, I had never been accepted. This fight here, now, with my people; this was where I belonged. What I was born to do.

The castle grew as we drew closer, rising higher and higher to meet us. The eagles arrived directly overhead and began to circle. I knew it was time.

Ahead of me, a shimmering patch of darkness fell.

I muttered a thanks to the eagle, unsure if he could hear me, before closing my eyes and leaping into the black.

My organs pushed upwards in my body, loudly protesting the change in velocity. I fumbled with the cloth on my back. My heart drummed. If I didn't get this right I would die.

My entire body jolted as the parachute opened, slowing my fall considerably. I breathed a sigh of relief.

My feet touched down on the slated roof with a loud thunk. I bent my knees to soften the impact and ran along the roof to dispense the force.

I saw two hazy figures on different roofs ahead of me and the other two had probably landed further out. It didn't matter. We all knew what we had to do.

The black silk of my parachute swathed one of the Southern rooftops. I detached myself from it efficiently, using a knife to cut myself loose.

I pulled my hood over my head and, keeping my knife in hand, ran lightly across the rooftops.

Memories flooded my mind as I made the familiar jumps between buildings. No, I wouldn't let that distract me now, I needed to keep a look out.

Hours spent poring over blueprints proved their usefulness now. I reached the turret I wanted. The one with the open window.

When I hadn't been with Nereyda or helping the pack, I'd been sat in the trees surrounding the castle, watching closely with a pair of binoculars. Not that Rey knew that. I'd seen her sometimes, standing on her balcony scanning the forest with her lavender eyes. Sometimes I'd allowed myself to believe she was looking for me.

Knowing about the open window was courtesy of my patient watchfulness. I pushed it now, allowing it to swing silently on its hinges.

A storage room, just as the blueprints had said.

I vaulted over the ledge easily, being careful not to let my hood slip. Knife in hand, I crept out into the corridor.

Left, right, right, left. Plan A was going well so far. I hoped the others were having as much luck as I was.

Just as I thought that stupidly optimistic thought, I caught a whiff of leopard from around the corner.

In under a second I had flattened myself against the wall, my ears straining to pick up any unusual noises.

The sound of breathing emanated from the hallway I needed to go down. The pad of a foot against carpet, a rumble. It was a leopard guard no doubt.

Reflecting the light in my blade, an image of a leopard on all fours came into focus. Damn, but there was only one thing for it.

I kept close to the wall on the side of the leopard's blind spot, creeping closer and closer.

I made no sound as I approached and, thanks to Gelina, I carried no scent either. My fingers struck out in a practiced pattern, digging into the leopard's fur.

He dropped to the floor in front of me. I blew out a silent breath.

A few corridors and a few guards later I arrived at my destination.

Asher was waiting for me, obviously having landed closer to this point than I.

We said nothing, simply nodding at each other. Then Asher took his knife and cut an X into the wall to show the others that the first two had already arrived.

Together we made our way towards the East wing of the castle, the King's wing.

Between us, we made short work of the guards and continued down the corridors at a fast pace.

My chest began to ache heavily, but I pushed it down emphatically, unable to deal with any of Nereyda's bullshit right at that moment.

Then, at one corner we stopped and looked at each other in astounded confusion. The woody russet scent of a tiger could not in any way be mistaken for the honeyed grass of a leopard. Why a tiger was in the King's quarters I could not imagine.

Using the reflection of my knife to look around the corner, I barely contained my shock at seeing an image of Delair strolling down the corridor.

He was waking in our direction, in a few seconds he would round the corner and come face to face with us. There was no way we'd be able to sneak up on him from our position.

I met Asher's eyes. We made a silent decision.

A second later we both jumped on Delair, Asher managing to get him in a headlock and clamp a hand over his mouth. I came up with a knife and held it at his throat.

I looked into his green eyes and saw his surprise there. I realised that my hood had slipped back to reveal my face.

In that moment of hesitation he bit into Asher's hand.

Asher jerked back, reflexively taking his wounded hand away from the tiger's mouth.

Blood glistened on Delair's extended canines as he yelled loudly for help. There was only one thing I could do.

The door on the left burst open and two figures emerged. I saw a flash of white hair as I slashed open the throat in front of me.

The body went limp in Asher's arms.

A gasp, a feminine cry.

Oscar held Nereyda's hand as they stared our way in shock. Nereyda's dress was falling off her shoulders. So that was the ache had been about.

Asher dropped the dead body and turned his knife on them. Oscar pushed Nereyda behind him. Good, I thought.

I could hear shouts arising from deeper within the castle. The pounding of footsteps coming our way. I suppressed my nausea.

"Alpha," I said slowly from behind him. "We should go."

The plan had fallen apart, the only way we could have pulled this off was with a surprise stealth attack. That was why we'd taken so few men into the castle with us. Moreover, where we stood couldn't possibly be the King's chambers. Why Nereyda, Oscar and Delair would all be there was inconceivable. We were in the wrong part of the castle.

"No," Asher snarled, taking a step towards the cowering couple, brandishing his knife. "We have to finish this."

The footsteps were only a couple of corridors away now.

I grabbed Asher's forgotten hood and yanked him backwards. "Let's go."

He fought me but I managed to move him a few metres. We were nearly at the end of the corridor when he threw his knife.

I didn't have time to see where it landed because Asher's body was hurled backwards into me. I held onto him in shock as I looked towards the source of his affliction.

A beautiful woman with blazing red hair curled her lip as she flung another dagger in our direction. Shit. Asher's body jerked again as the second knife made contact.

Then the white haired man himself came up behind the woman and wrapped his arm possessively around her waist.

She turned away from us to look at him with something close to benediction.

I took the opportunity to haul Asher's limp, unconscious form onto my back. My clothes were quickly soaked and sticky with his blood.

I sprinted off in the direction of the goods lift, unable to do anything but pray Asher would still be alive when and if we reached camp. 

--- A/N ---

This has to be the most stressful chapter I've ever written. I had to stop several times to hyperventilate. Hope you liked it, let me know if I got your blood pumping! There is only one more chapter of Part One after this *cries*. Lol, vote and comment if you want, I love you all! - Zoe ;p