81: Running to death

**Tristan**

The pine trees in the woods surrounding the rogue pack always had a distinctive scent. It was raw and strong and almost had a hidden undertone of death. The moment it hit my nose; I froze. I might have conquered the pine forest back at Lucien’s home, but it was clear that I’d not conquered this one. Now, not even the fact that Lucien was here could save me from the potency of the stench surrounding me.

“*Tristan?*” Lucien called out. But I couldn’t hear him. All I could hear was the sound of the wind blowing through the trees. The noise was haunting, like low, morbid moans of the dead echoing throughout the empty spaces.

“*Tristan!*” This time I had no choice but to take note of the voice swirling around in my head and turned toward Lucien who had a look of concern etched onto his face. “*Are you okay?*”

His question rang in my head, begging to be answered. But I couldn’t bring myself to give him one. I wasn’t okay. Although I’d done my best to keep my emotions under control thus far, to think the way I used to, I couldn’t any longer. My emotions were running free, and I couldn’t quite identify the one I felt most. Was I scared? Was I angry? Was I worried? They all seemed to swirl around and amalgamate into some kind of gut-wrenching, headache-inducing feeling I just couldn’t seem to shake. And so, I bowed my head and walked passed him to show him that I was in no position to give him an answer. Lucien said nothing. Instead, he followed closely next to me, close enough for me to always feel his fur up against mine. Breaking was not an option, but I was struggling to keep myself together.

The sun was barely peaking above the horizon by the time we’d met the other packs further on into the pine forest. I was pleasantly surprised at how many people had chosen to join the fight, even more so when an Alpha by the name of Madeline introduced herself to me.

“*You must be the patient mate Lucien told me all about.*” She said telepathically. Her red eyes were bright and cheerful, contrasting to the dark, sternness of the red eyes of all the other Alpha wolves here.

“*You’ve heard of me?*” I questioned. Lucien shifted nervously on his paws next to me. I was sure that if he were in his human form, he’d even be blushing.

“*Of course, and I’ve been anxiously awaiting our meeting. I wanted to see the woman who had profusely perplexed the untouchable King of Seduction. And now that I’m standing here in front of you, I think I understand. Seeing a Blue-Eyed Alpha in real life is truly something!*”

“*You’re over-exaggerating Madeline. I wasn’t perplexed… I was concerned.*” Lucien said, trying to play it cool.

Madeline shook her head, denying his attempt at covering up how much he’d already cared for me when he’d met her.

Madeline was soon joined by another of the Alphas, this one greeted Damon, Lucien and then he tried to mask his intrigue when he greeted me.

“*Our pack members are ready to step in where we need to. We’re ready to follow your lead.*” He said, looking directly at Damon.

“*It’s not my lead you’ll be following, Alpha Nick,*” he then turned towards me and gave a quick nod, “*it’s her.*”

Alpha Nick stared at me, once again, trying to mask what he was feeling. This time he tried masking his shock and partial disdain.

“*Her?*”

“*Don’t start with her Nick. Remember my mate, Jasmine? Well, this is her sister. Their tempers are extremely similar, so I suggest you don’t try to say something snarky. You’ll only end up embarrassing yourself.*”

The moment Damon mentioned my sister, I could see the fear flash in Alpha Nick’s eyes. Immediately he fell silent and nodded obediently. I assumed that he’d not had a very nice encounter with her.

We moved further in front of the large group of wolves with Damon, Lucien and me right at the front, leading them nearer to the packgrounds. The further on we went, the more my nervousness grew and the more difficult I found it to hide the way I felt, especially in front of Lucien. But not once did I stop myself from moving on forward. It didn’t take long before we got to the outskirts of the packgrounds which were tightly guarded. The guards saw us immediately, and for a moment, time stopped for all of us. A weird and awkward silence engulfed the place and even the dead moans through the pine trees were drowned out by it. From my side, we were all patiently waiting for the other side to attack, bracing ourselves for when they did. But they didn’t. Instead, the guards before us, all in their wolf forms, slowly bowed their heads lowly before completely bowing down.

“*What’s going on?*” Damon asked, just as confused as everyone else was. Or at least I thought everyone else was confused. Lucien, however, seemed to know exactly what was going on.

“*They’re showing her respect. It seems daddy dearest never managed to get back the respect he lost when you beat him.*”

He was right. And almost to prove that point, the word “*Alpha*” entered my mind. Immediately, it was as though some of the weight on my shoulders had been lifted off of them. It seemed the bloodshed would be kept to a minimum today. But this was still far from being over. The battle I’d come here to fight was never with these people who bowed before me. It was with the man who raised me.

“*You all don’t need to bow down to me… I’m sure you won’t want to after what I’ll say next. I’m here to kill Ambrose.*”

“*We know,*” said Ivan. I wasn’t too impressed with him after he’d poisoned Loren. But he’d bowed down too earlier and so I could only assume that he’d hurt Loren because he was following orders.

Ivan then walked nearer to me, and it was as though everyone had drawn a sharp breath, all ready to attack him if he tried anything stupid. But he didn’t. Instead, he stopped before me and then said, “*Unfortunately you’re too late. Alpha Ambrose left much much earlier on with Ruth, Ryder and a significant handful of the most lethal of our warriors. They left in vehicles, aware that you might try to ambush on foot. Before Alpha Ambrose left, he had warned that the Blood Moon pack would be arriving with others. We were instructed to massacre everyone. However, our allegiances do not lie with Ambrose anymore. They lie with you, Tristan.*”

I was grateful that there would be no need to fight the rogues, however, the fact that Ambrose was not here made a new fear rise up in me. And so, I asked, dreading the answer, “*Where did he go to then?*”

“*The Blood Moon pack*.”

All of the weight that had previously been lifted off of my shoulders now came crashing back down on me, almost completely crushing me in the process. This was much worse than I’d ever anticipated. I thought for a moment, just a moment that I could outsmart Ambrose. But I had been mistaken. He was already way too many steps ahead of me, and now I feared that we’d never catch up. As I thought this, my eyes met Damon’s. If I thought I was afraid, he was beyond any state of terrified I’d ever witnessed in my life. His red eyes were large with fear and a sense of urgency. I could tell that he now feared that he’d already lost her. And yet despite this, there was a sense of determination in his eyes. As though he’d rather die than give up right now.

“*We have to go back. We have to stop him!*” Damon exclaimed, already ready to simply run off into the direction we’d come from. I admired how much he loved my sister, truly. Perhaps that was why I couldn’t give up either. Ambrose was a menace to the concept of love, and I refused to let him go around terrorising the people in his family who had found it.

“*You’re right,*” I said, “*I don’t think we’d be fast enough with a car. We’ll have to do this by foot. I’m the fastest out of all of us here. If I get there first, I’ll at least have the opportunity to keep her safe.*”

“*You’re not running off ahead without me, Tristan! We agreed that we’d get through this together. We’d fight together. We’d protect Damon and Jasmine together.*” I was startled by the look of fear on Lucien’s face too, closely resembling Damon’s. It broke my heart to see him that scared especially after I’d promised to stay right by his side. But if I didn’t go on ahead without him, I’d lose my sister and Damon would lose the mother of his child. I was afraid too and at no point did I want to do any of it without him. The world was crashing down on top of me, but with Lucien there next to me, it never felt half as dauntingly terrifying as it should have. Unfortunately, I now had a very difficult decision to make.

“*Lucien… I can’t. She’s my sister. I told you that you wouldn’t be losing me today, and I hope to keep my word. But I can’t stop myself from doing what I have to do to keep her safe, because that’s what we do for family.*”

Lucien’s eyes softened and he reluctantly gave in, much to Damon’s relief.

“*Ambrose stopped being our Alpha the moment you beat him in battle. We only stayed here because we were afraid of what he’d do if we tried to leave. But now you’re here, Tristan and we will follow you to the ends of the earth.*” Said Ivan. He was not the only one. Everyone belonging to Ambrose’s pack was more than ready to abandon it and follow me. Perhaps a while ago I would have been more than happy, but that was before everything had changed. I no longer desired being an Alpha anymore.

“*I appreciate the sentiment, Ivan, but I’m no leader. Not anymore. ‘Alpha’ is now an empty title to me.*” I then paused a moment before saying, “*So I guess that means you’re all free from Ambrose, from this pack. You have nothing to fear anymore, because I can promise you this, Ambrose won’t be making it anywhere near this pack after today.*”

Surprised murmurs erupted from the rogues. They’d never been given the choice of freedom before and so now I suspected they had no idea what to do with it.

“*Thank you…*” Ivan said. We’d never really gotten along before, but I could tell that I’d truly earned his respect with my actions.

“*What about the rest of us. Should we follow behind you?*” Alpha Madeline asked.

Damon took the opportunity to answer, and I was surprised by what he’d said. He thanked them all for their time and effort, apologised and then told them that things had now changed. This was a more personal matter.

“*The only reason you all joined was to finally put an end to this rogue problem. Well, now it has more or less been sorted. This matter that lies ahead now is one that my brother, Tristan and myself, must face. It’s time to finally put an end to my father.*”

But the wolves who were once willing to lay their lives down refused to listen to Damon. Instead, they were adamant on trying their best to keep up with us. The rest of the Michaels family were just as enthusiastic as well, all still adamant on having their fair share of spilled blood. I suspected it would all be in vain though. Damon, Lucien and I were much faster than all of them. We’d get there much sooner than them, and although all three of us knew this, we were no longer interested in trying to dissuade them from joining in this rather personal fight. Instead, our minds were occupied with the urgency of the matter we now faced and the fear which had taken over all of us. I knew the consequences of doing everything in my power to get to Jasmine. I knew that what I’d told Lucien was all a lie to trick him into a sense of reassurance. My death was an almost certain possibility in this next battle and yet despite this, I ran. I ran straight towards the possibility of death.