Chapter 21: Stay away from my mate

Mink's P.O.V :
"They’re not stopping!" I whisper yelled, trying not to disturb the white silence around us. "Do they not sense you?"
"Not yet." He looked at me, his eyes wolf golden, voice hushed. "I can’t use the bond until they are close enough. There are a lot of warriors from my pack in that huddle, about fifty of them. I need them to come closer, to see me first before I use the pack link. And if they don’t stop, try and use an ex -"
"No explosives!" I cut him off immediately. "That has to be a last resort for us. There are military camps all around us and if the explosions reach the camps then it can start a war between countries. We have to avoid that at all costs. If they don’t stop, there will be only one way left for us to stop them." To take down the first line by firing bullets. The sniper guns had silencers and it won’t disturb the environment around us.
He gave me a small, sad smile in understanding and brushed the back of his hand on my cheeks. His touch instantly calming me. The knot in my stomach, the anticipation, the worry...everything faded away to be replaced by the kind of calm that I haven’t felt in over seventeen years, not after Abhay.
For Rhys, standing here in the snow and waiting for an army of wolves to attack might be something new but for me it was history repeating itself. This had happened once before, seventeen years ago. It was the battle that had cost me Abhay. All I could do was hope that history didn’t repeat itself in this scenario as well.
I caught his hand when he was about to drop it. Held on to him. "Don't die on me," I said nonchalantly, looking ahead at where the wolves would be appearing any moment now.
He gave me a smirk. "I thought you were dying to get rid of me, sugar." His smirk turned to a full out smile at my glare. "Don't worry," he tucked a stray strand of silver hair behind my ear. "I have no intention of dying..." And then just to annoy me, "at least not before I've had yo-OW!"
I kicked him in the shin with my snow boots. "You were saying?" My sickly sweet voice was enough to make him wince.
"Wait!" He stopped me when I was about to let go and the next thing I know, his lips were on mine.
The kiss took me by surprise and I didn’t have much time to react before it had ended. We separated at the first sound of the wolf paws hitting the snow covered grounds. If we can hear them with our wolf's hearing range, then they're close, really close.
"Same goes for you too." This time he was serious.

Rhys's P.O.V:
So I was playing with fire, sue me. Watching her react so freely to my touch, especially when we were under scrutiny from all sides by her own pack, it made primal satisfaction run through my veins. It won’t be long now before she accepted the mating bond and became my Luna.
"I'm the Female Alpha." She said now as she turned her attention back to the road ahead.
And how can I forget that. She hadn't survived a 100 years being weak and hiding away from trouble.
Living a 100 years isn't unheard of. Like all shifters, wolves live an average of four to five hundred years. They also cannot have children with anyone other than their mates. My father was about a hundred twenty years or so when he met my mom, who was twenty five. My father had another potential mate before he met my birth mother, but his first mate was human and was unable to bear him a child. She died of old age. But what is unheard is the fact that Mink was able to survive all this time alone. Wolves strive in packs, very few are loners. For her to have survived that long alone speaks of her strength.
A crackle of sound in our earpiece.
"Incoming."
Aya's voice. And we tensed instantly.
Not a second later, the first line of my wolves came into view, Adrian in the front line, leading the others to battle. At this point I could feel the connection with my pack again. Good. It's about time I used it.
I took a step forward. Mink raised an eyebrow, but didn't comment. I nodded at her before turning to face my pack. My wolf pack was approximately fifty meters away when I snapped the bond into place.
Every wolf in the first block stopped dead in its track.
The few others behind them got confused and stopped as well. And soon, the entire formation stopped dead in their tracks.
It was a ferocious sight to behold indeed. Over a hundred wolves in varying colors stood dead in the middle of this snow covered land, some looking confused while the others were shocked. Some even growled in agitation but no one dared to move forward.
I let my wolf out in my voice; I knew my eyes were already wolf golden.
"Looking for me?"
The world itself seemed to sit still for some time. Shocked silence. Until the roar of helicopter blades pierced through the silence. The chopper came into view a few seconds later, all black and majestic and it came to a landing almost midway between us and the wolves, making snow and chilly wind sweep around us in a gust. It took a while for the rotor blades to stop moving but when it finally did, the quiet returned to the valley.
"My wolves are marked with a red streak in their front legs." I warned Mikalya and the snipers, in case things get out of hand, which, I had a gut feeling it will.
And my suspicions were proven right the instant Aiden and Devon stepped out of the chopper, dressed in thermals and heavy false fur overcoats, completed with snow boots. All the things that'll slow them down during the fight. But I highly doubt they would be doing any of the actual fighting today. These two bastards were good at letting others handle their dirty work.
"Rhys! Brother!" I raised an eyebrow. Brother? Aiden, whose face was hardly recognizable from all the black he wore, came forward. "We thought you were dead! Adrian contacted us when his continuous efforts at linking with you failed."
Adrian would do no such thing. He'd come up here after me with a group of his own if contact failed. Aiden and Devon were well known manipulators. Although they were neighbors and belonged to two fierce rival packs, Aiden and Devon had said a big fuck you to their ancestors and joined hands to form an unbreakable alliance. From the outside, it's impossible to determine the dominant male, their friendship impermeable, but I have inside information that the blonde male wasn't just the beauty but brains of their little duo. Devon clearly held the upper hand when it came to decision making and strategy planning. And judging from the looks of the pack, he'd manipulated my third into bringing as many wolves as possible, leaving my territory defenseless and ready for a takeover. The ride here was only to confirm my death and take my grieving pack under their command.
He's clever, the blonde one. He's got all his senses on high alert and searching for other wolves in the area.
As expected from the clever and brilliant mate of mine. Though I had to suppress a smile on what she'd done unknowingly. She'd made mental contact with me all by herself. Something that’s possible only between Alpha's and mates. The telepathy with packmates was a lot different as they could only speak to me if I was the first to initiate contact. Even with other Alpha's, we have to 'knock' before we telepath. But hers had been effortless, the contract of mates.
He is. What're you gonna do about it?
I'll let him feel only a few of my wolves. That'll be enough to give him the confidence of an easy win.
And that's why you're my mate.
"No. As you can see, I'm perfectly fine and healthy. I was about to head back to my pack in a couple of days but it seems someone had raised a false alarm." I answered their earlier question on the heels of Mikalya's heated glare.
"Well, then we arrived just in time!" Devon said with forced glee. "Come on then, we'll give you a ride."
"I will," I folded my arms across my chest. "But first, I would like to know what my entire pack is doing here. Only a chopper and either one of you would have been sufficient if you were truly concerned about me."
"We're here for the white wolf." Aiden's eyes held a glint I didn't like, as he looked at Mikalya. "He killed eight of our best spies! He deserves to face the consequences."
"And as I've said before, it was unnecessary to send them here." I glared at them both as some of the wolves took a seat on the snow covered grounds, unsure of what to do. "It was for the women, wasn't it? The female wolves your pack saw down at the valley?"
This time, there was a slight hesitation before Devon answered. "Rhys....you know the condition of our packs, right? You know how few females we have?"
"I know of no such thing!" I snapped, a growl sounding at the back of my throat. " But I do know that you've gone through every female in your packs, even each other's and now you're here for more!"
"Well since you've figured that out," Devon said at last, dropping the pretence. "Why not make way so we can start hunting for them... starting with this one."
Devon and Aiden both looked at Mikalya at the same time and a growl tore from my mouth.
"Stay away from mu mate!"
Both of them froze. "Mate?"
They looked at each other and then at the two of us.
Mikalya, for once, didn't complain. But didn't move from her relaxed position behind me either. She just stood there with her back against a boulder, checking her nails like she had no worry in the world, especially not an army of wolves at her doorstep.
But I knew that the pretence was just that, a pretence. She was super alert and aware of everything around her, especially with her daughter in the battlefield. She'd never let her defenses down, not even while she slept.
"Well, this just gets more interesting. Little girl, take us to your pack house."
I can't believe Aiden just said that! Did he honestly think Mikalya was the kind of women who they can boss around? Yeah, they did. Because they didn't know the real Mikalya yet. And I definitely couldn't wait for this 'little girl' to show them who the real boss around here was.
My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of bubbling laughter from behind me, the kind of laughter that said you're doomed. I looked behind me to find Mikalya bent over at the waist with her hands braced on her bent knees, doubling over in laughter.
"What the-?" Devon asked confused.
Mikalya finally stood from her position, wiping away tears of laughter from her eyes while the other hand clutched her stomach. She walked over to stand beside me, still chuckling.
"My God, Rhys!" She chided. "You sure have interesting choice of friends."
"Who the hell are you!" Aiden asked, angry at being laughed at.
"Me? Oh, didn't you just say that you wanted him to lead you to the white Alpha wolf?" Mikalya pointed her thumb at me.
"Yeah..." Devon said, unsure at what she's getting at.
"Well…you're looking at her."
This time, it was Aiden and Devon rolling around in the snow laughing, while I and Mink watched them with amusement.
"Yeah, little girl, sure you are. And your mate here is as good as dead." Devon said while clutching his stomach as his shoulders shook with laughter.
And as if on cue, the second line of wolves leapt up on to their feet and started to run down the hill towards us while my wolves watched in shock. And an instant later, they were shot down to the ground and left bleeding to their death on the pure white snow.
Aiden and Devon’s eyes widened in horror as they watched their packmates die in front of their eyes. There was no more laughter now, only shock and horror.
This time when Mikalya spoke, not only was the wolf in her voice, but it was the sudden surge of power in the air around her that made every wolf in the vicinity, including me, freeze in shock, her words reverberating through the mountains.
"STAY AWAY FROM MY MATE."
Spoke the Female Alpha.