75. Caleb

**Caleb**


It doesn’t take long to organize the Enforcers and place them in strategic points around the Werewolf Palace. Despite my dislike of Red getting involved in the fight, I can’t order her around as if I am her master. Many Alphas that are paired with Omegas use their voice to keep their soulmates from doing something they think might put them in danger. I don’t want to be that type of Alpha because I see Red as my equal. She not only has strong magic, but I also trust her Theta Knights to keep her safe. While Elton still has a lot to learn, I have seen him shoot a bow. He has an impressive aim. And there is Katherine. That female still gives me nightmares. I would not want to be her enemy.

**‘I am happy she is our Beta female!’** Raven tells me, and I could not agree more with him.

*‘Do you wonder if Conon sleeps with a knife his pillow?’* I joke around.

Raven snorts. **‘If I were him, I would not sleep and never turn my back on her.’**

As I wait for the prisoners to appear, I shift my weight from one leg to the other. Conon, Holgan, and I are on the left side of the Werewolf Palace together with the Enforcers from my pack. Jeremy and Elder Riad are on the right side of the Palace. The Royal Enforcers are with them.

I look at my men, and I pray that they all make it alive. Each one of them has worked hard to become an Enforcer. Everyone knows what is at stake, and failure is not an option. With the Rogue Village gone, the Werewolf Palace has become our temporary home.

When the alarm sounds, I call my Ice to me. Everyone is quiet, and I can hear the steady heartbeats of my men. I am proud of being their Alpha. The first prisoners appear, followed by black witches and humans. I suddenly understood how the prisoners were able to take down the barrier Tatiana put around the Rogue Village.

The prisoners use their claws, canines, fangs, or whatever weapon they have to attack the first row of Enforcers. The humans are also armed, and while they are easier to defeat, they still can seriously hurt an Enforcer. The Black witches are focusing their magic against the Enforcers. I summon my Ice and launch icicles at the enemy.

From the corner of my eye, I see fire snakes burning part of the witches, and a smile appears on my face as I decapitate two werewolves.

**‘That’s our girl!’** Raven says proudly. While I don’t know where Red is, as long as I see her Fire, I know she is safe.

Suddenly, gas bombs are thrown at us, and before I realize what is happening, we inhale it. Several of my men are killed by black spells or prisoners, and Raven howls at the loss of his brothers. I jump to the side and send a strong wind to disperse the gas. While I am busy clearing the battlefield from the gas, I don’t notice a black spell coming my way until the last moment. Holgan jumps in front of me, and the spell hits him in the chest, and he falls to the ground.

“Shit!” Conon swears, but he is unable to check on Holgan because he inhales some gas and is trying to fight two vampires at once with his mace.

A fallen Angel wielding a sword kills one of my Enforcers before he stabs Conon from behind. A silent scream of pain erupts from his mouth when his neck is ripped open by the vampires. Pain ripples through me, and I know Red is hurt. I grit my teeth because I have to choose between helping Conon and Holgan or go find Red. Instinct screams inside my head that I must save my soulmate.

Heart pounding fast in my chest, I rush to help my Beta. The vampires keep attacking Conon and the mace falls from his hand. Conon uses his claws to attack the vampires, but the blood loss slows him down. I use the ash wood dagger to kill the vampires. The fallen Angel stabs Conon once more before I attack him with an ice Katana. Angel’s magic is good, but that of Fallen Angel is evil and twisted. He hits me with a spell, making me feel as if all my bones are being broken at the same time. I breathe through the pain, summon an ice spear, and stab him in the chest before I remove his head.

Once the fallen Angel is dead, I turn my attention to Conon. He is on his back, on the ground, with his palms pressed against his neck. While werewolves heal quickly, Conon still lost a lot of blood and needs medical care. I remove my jacket, rip my t-shirt and press it against Conon’s wounds.

“Hang in there!” I tell him as I wrap a piece of my t-shirt around his neck. “If you die, Katherine will fucking kill me!” I say, and he laughs, only to choke on his blood. Fear flashes in his eyes.

I am about to carry him inside the Palace when dragon shifters and werebears attack me. With an ice katana in my right hand and an ice shield in the other, I fight back and kill two werebears. The last one shifts, and when I attack one of the dragon shifters, cutting his hands, the bear slashes my right thigh with his big paw, just where I have my scar. I hear the bone breaking before I feel the pain. My knee gives in, but I use my katana to stop myself from falling.

*‘Remember when the Leech Queen broke it and left us to heal on our own?’* I ask Raven. It happened soon after I hurt Emma. She punished me for refusing vehemently to do the same to another female, and the Leech Queen broke my leg so badly it nearly killed me. The scar was made by rats because I was unable to defend myself from them while I was running a high fever. *‘Raven, you are my best friend! It has been a joy having you as my wolf!’* I say as I look into a dragon shifter’s eyes. He has a machete in his hand. I grip the shield as hard as I can.

Around me, my men keep fighting with all they’ve got.

**‘Ditto! I only wished we had more time with Red and Safia!’** Raven replies as the werebear breaks my other leg, and I fall to my side.

As the machete is about to take my head, I use the shield to stop it. The werebear and the dragon shifter are about to attack me for the last time when they fall to the ground, dead. Light witches surround me, and Tatiana is in the middle of them.

Tatiana puts her hands on her hips and looks at me like she is about to finish what the werebear and the dragon shifter started. “You are supposed to fight with Rain by your side! Fire and Ice are the strongest when they are together!” She scolds me.

“Can you wait until after you heal Conon and Holgan?” I ask. “And I need to find Red. I felt her getting hurt!”

Tatiana kneels next to me and works her magic on me, and I feel my bones mending. “Light witches are already healing Conon. Rain is fine. She is inside the Palace with her Theta Knights and Naomi.”

“The Oracle?” I ask, and Tatiana nods. “What about Holgan?”

Tatiana looks over her shoulder and shakes her head. “He didn’t make it.”

Raven howls his pain before going quiet. Finn, Holgan’s wolf, was Raven’s friend. Conon, Jeremy, Holgan, and I have been friends for a long time. We had a lot of fun together, and losing Holgan feels like losing a brother.

I close my eyes while I think of all those that lost their lives today. Many of them had soulmates and pups. Tatiana finishes healing me, and I stand. Two Light witches are helping Conon while the remaining Enforcers and Nature witches finish off what is left of the enemy. The Light witches are spread across the battlefield healing the wounded.

I am so angry over the loss of Holgan, and my other pack members that the temperature suddenly drops, and a blizzard starts. If I had Fire instead of Ice, I would have burned everyone! I grab my jacket from where I threw it, put it on, and look at Tatiana. “What about Ben?” I ask her.

An evil smile appears on Tatiana’s lips. “I have him!”

The Light witches finish healing Conon and help him and those too wounded to fight to get inside the Palace. “Where is he?” I ask while I try to detach myself from the grief I feel and fill my heart with the hate I feel for Ben.

“He is in a cell inside the Palace Prison.”

I take another look around the battlefield. Many Enforcers have lost their lives today, and it is my duty to inform the families about the loss of their loved ones. Jeremy is fighting a group of humans, and I am glad I don’t have to have that conversation with Sarah. Elder Riad is nowhere to be seen, so I assume he is either dead, wounded, or still fighting.

“Take me to Ben,” I demand of Tatiana in a cold tone.

If another male would have talked like that to Tatiana, she would have killed him. I guess some relatives are better than others. She does as I ask and opens a portal that leads us to where Ben is.

The cell is small and has a chair made from silver in the middle. Ben is chained to it, and the stench of body odor coming from him almost makes me gag. I suppose he didn’t have a shower in the Paranormal Prison. His hair and beard are full of grease, and he is wearing filthy rags. Big black circles are under his eyes, and it looks like he has had a problem with sleep. Good! I hope that everything he did to Red kept him awake all the time he was in the Paranormal Prison.