37. Home

"We begged him to let us go. He didn't listen and turned us into these strange animals." A stout man spoke, standing among the similarly built lycans. "A rogue's life meant nothing to him." His speech was followed by few murmurs of agreement from the crowd. "It means nothing to anyone!" He spat bitterly.

"Damien, you-"

"Jared, you don't have to take his side anymore," Damien continued, silencing Jared, who was standing at the one end of the hall beside Theo. "He is dead. Odis is dead... You're not bound to him anymore." Damien looked around, meeting everyone's eyes. "**We are not bound to him anymore.**" His voice boomed.

Now that their purebred head, Odis, was dead, they were again in control of their will.

"Have some shame." Jared growled, walking to the centre, to be chest to chest with Damien. "His grave isn't even cold yet and you're already trashing him."

"I am not trashing anybody! I am simply stating the truth." Damien growled back, glaring at Jared. "I wasn't the one to make the deal with Odis to kill my homicidal alpha, set my pack free of his chaotic reign, and be turned into a lycan." He sneered. "I was the one to be mercilessly hunted down and given no choice but to be a part of this bloodshed." He raised his head and once again looked at other lycans. "So were you all!" He announced and others nodded in agreement.

Jared resorted to glaring back, to hide for his lack of answer. Damien was right. Jared wasn't a rogue, like others. He used to be a pack's wolf, moreover a stronger one, he used to be the beta of his pack. His then alpha, Cane, wasn't exactly the generous or caring type. Cane's unsolicited reign comprised of killing and torturing pack members over trifle matters, sometimes over nothing. Pack members, even high ranking ones, weren't capable to take down their alpha. The wolf blood in their veins didn't allow them that, and this only made Cane invincible. The secret human authorities had refused to interfere as it wasn't their concern what happened in the supernatural world. As long as their humans weren't hurt, they didn't care.

A desperate need to free his pack of Cane's rule had led Jared to Odis. Odis was an outsider and a lycan, more than capable to put an end to Cane's tyranny. Thus, A settlement was formed. Odis would kill Cane, and in exchange, Jared would join him and become a lycan.

Giving up the beta position and turning into something you had no idea till then that it existed wasn't something Jared had wanted to choose.

However, Damien was right. In the end Jared did have a choice, unlike others who were surrounding him.

"I am not telling you all this to degrade Odis or to take his vacated spot. Believe me, that is the last thing I want. I just simply want to leave and these are my reasons for doing it. The moment Odis died, we had already lost the war against those bloodsuckers. Now, I see no reason to stick around and simply wait for my turn to die. I am leaving." Damien's eyes flashed red, daring anyone to stop him. "I'm going home."

"You're going to abandon us!" Jared yelled.

"Yes," Damien replied, without any remorse, which only enraged the other lycan further.

A second later, the room was filled with mumbling of husky men. Few even chorused their thoughts aloud.

"He's right. We don't belong here. We were turned into these beasts forcefully!"

"Odis is dead. There is nothing that we can do now."

"I didn't want to be here in the first place."

"I'm leaving too. I prefer to live than to die fighting those vampires."

The sounds of shuffling feets echoed as the lycans started heading out of the room. Jared watched the others with a mixture of anger and disappointment. They were all fucking cowards!

"You're all cowards!" A voice shouted out Jared's inner thought. All the beasts' faces turned to look at Theo, whose own face was seething red. "Odis might have wronged you then, but now, you're all wronging yourself. You all have been given a chance to do something greater than your petty chores of fighting and looting other wolves' packs. To do something for greater good and prove the worth of your existence. But you're all too cowards to even take that opportunity.

"When Odis found me at the brink of death, freezing under the snow, he made a promise. Promise to avenge my people. To you he might've been a devil, but for me he was an angel." Theo sniffled and gulped down his sob as the past memories resurfaced. "Last night when a knight was attacking Jared, I just stood there, unable to move, it was Marley who slashed that bloodsucker's throat. To think how worthless I was?! I don't want to be a coward like that again because it hurts. It hurts to not be able to do anything and stand there frozen in fear. I don't want to live in fear anymore. I want to fight, but I cannot do it alone and need you all for it."

The silence fell through, and only heavy breathings of Theo could be heard.

"Those were nice words kid," Damien said half-heartedly, "but I won't sacrifice myself so that some human child can avenge his people. They are dead... but we are still alive."

"Well if you don't fight, soon you'll be joining those deads. Dimitri is coming for all of us!" Jared defended Theo.

"At least I'll live longer." With that, Damien spun around and headed for the door.

Before anyone else could put in their thoughts, a loud howl echoed from the outside, followed by others in unison. For a moment every sound ceased before the men looked outside the windows alarmed.

"Fuck!" Jared cursed. What he had been fearing all this time finally happened.

"It's all Odis's doing. That fool had to nab the Alpha's mate. Didn't he?" Damien muttered. He too was dreading on the inside for having to deal with a pack of angry wolves.

All the lycans rushed out of every door and window available, shifting in mid of their run.

Outside, Marley had stood up, her eyes digging into the woods for a single glimpse of Eden.

"Your mate sounds angry. Be a sweetheart and calm him down. Last night was enough, we don't need another supernatural brawl," Kyle whispered, moving next to Marley. He looked around in search of his own mate, Iosif, who had been paying his last respect to Odis on the other side of the house.

Before Marley could entertain him with a reply, dozens of shadows whipped past her, her eyes failing to make out even a single one. Everything happened too fast. The growls and howls rumbled all around her. Some painful, some enraged.

A loud 'thud' sound came from beside. She turned around to look where previously Kyle had been and found no one. Her gaze landed about five meters away and she found Kyle, lying on the floor and being mauled by a grey-furred wolf. She recognized the wolf's dark green eyes.

"Jessica! No!" Marley yelled. Jessica looked at her and growled, warning the human to stay away.

"Get off me, you bitch!" Kyle spat hysterically, trying to fight off the wolf and failing. Jessica without mercy kept on thrashing him. The way knights had disappeared on her and Matthew in the forest had left her angry and agitated. She felt that these knights were conspiring with the lycans, betraying Eden and the pack.

"Jessica! Please don't," Marley pleaded. "He saved me. If it wasn't for him, I'd be dead."

Jessica stopped her attacks, however, kept the strong hold on Kyle, allowing him no movement. Her wolf form looked at Marley perplexed, confirming what had just spluttered out of latter's mouth. Marley nodded, resting down the she-wolf's suspicions.

"Can you like get off?!" Kyle hissed and in return received the vicious growl, warning him to not push his luck.

Marley looked around frantically and her eyes were met with fighting wolves and lycans. With the way things were looking it was easier to conclude that this time her pack was emerging victorious.

It all needed to stop. She had her enough share of seeing people die last night, and she absolutely didn't want to be the reason for more deaths. There was only one person who could make it all stop.

Finally, she found the one she'd been looking for. In the sea of all supernaturals, there was only one who always stood out to her. Eden. His large brown wolf was tackling three lycans simultaneously, its every movement skilled and ferocious. The lycans fighting it already looked exhausted.

Marley was about to dash towards him, when two wolves blocked her path. It was Oliver and Callum, who had been entrusted with the job to look out for Marley and take her somewhere safe. Eden wasn't taking any risk this time.

Marley looked at their giant form incredulously. "Let me go!" She shouted, desperate to get to her mate. The werewolves didn't move. "You don't get it. It's all wrong. You all need to stop this!" Her eyes darted to Eden, who now only had one opponent standing.

Callum jerked his head in opposite direction, signaling her to head away from the battleground.

"No! I'm not going anywhere until this worthless fight stops." Her statement evoked growls from her protectors. This definitely wasn't a worthless fight to them. It was a payback to the monsters who had intruded into their territory and taken their Alpha's mate. It was needed to avenge their Alpha and the pack.

Once again Marley's eyes wandered in the direction of Eden, but now all she saw were three unconscious lycans. Suddenly, a large shadow hovered above her small trembling frame, making her immediately turn around.

"Eden!" She cried with relief as her sight focused on the familiar ginormous brown wolf. "Listen, you have to stop it all. You don't need to fight them. They already had been through a lot."

Eden looked at her in confusion and anger with flashing golden eyes. He didn't expect his mate to plea for the life of her abductors. He let out a low growl, stating that he wasn't going to go through her request.

"You have to stop it." She begged, her eyes boring into those of wolf's standing in front of her. Her mate let out another vicious growl, ordering her to drop it. "Just let me explain... Please."

After a moment of thinking, Eden finally gave in. He hated himself for caving into Marley's stupid demand this easily. She had too much control over him.

The Alpha looked around and was satisfied to see that his warriors had all the lycans subdued. With one mind link, the wolves stopped their onslaught after making sure their enemies' limbs were well restricted.

Eden turned back to Marley, his glowing eyes warning her: '*You better have a good reason for this.*'

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