61. Last Chance

Theo, standing on the staircase, watched in trepidation wolves running in and out of the main gate of pack house. He was no new to the panic, yet spending months with Odis had still failed to prepare him for the grand finale. It was finally happening.

"What are you doing here?!" Jared said. Between the chaos, lycan's eyes had found the terrified human. "You should be in the basement with Sanjay and Marley."

"I'm not hiding in the basement this time," Theo replied.

Jared glared. "What the fuck are you going to do then?!" He yelled.

"Why will Marley be in the basement?" Theo asked, ignoring the lycan's temper. "Wasn't she-"

"The plan was for her to meet Dimitri, but that bloodsucker instead decided to attack us to get her. How could she possibly step outside?" Jared said, his voice trembling. "Dimitri fooled Iosif. Of course he did that, after all he is his big brother." Lycan shook his head. "Fighting hordes of knights is now the only option we got."

"No, we don't."

"Wha-"

Before he could finish, Theo stormed in opposite direction toward Marley's room. Jared didn't stop or go after him, expecting wolves that were guarding Marley to lump him in too. He had other matters to take care of.

Theo nearly fell back as he stopped near Marley's room. She was outside with Sanjay, and two burly werewolves towering them. She looked confused, angry, agitated, and probably on the verge of crying.

"Marley!" Theo called out when he saw them walking away. They stopped, all turning to look at him. He immediately rushed to them. "Are you really going to hide?" He huffed out.

"I-I don't-"

"That's probably for the best. Her fighting that leach was a daydream anyway." One of the guards interrupted her. The werewolf by his well built physique looked to be in his mid-fifties with a hint of greying beard and hair.

"Joseph, we get it you don't like us," Sanjay said, glaring at the old man, "just keep your mouth fucking shut."

"Maybe seeing how I'm stuck with protecting you humans instead of fighting along side with my pack, it should be you who should keep your mouth shut," Joseph retorted.

The old guy had it for him and Marley since the very first day because they were humans. Sanjay despised how their mates trusted this old hag to protect them.

"We should keep going." Another guard, Sarah -- who was a lot younger than her counterpart -- said, ending the glaring competition between the human and the old wolf. She turned to Theo. "It's good you're already here. We were coming to get you too. Now let's go."

"No. This isn't how it was supposed to happen." He looked at Marley. "Dimitri's here. When he comes he doesn't bring with him his 40-50 minions. For every one of us out there, he has at least 20 knights to put down a wolf." His breath came out in gasps. "It's a death mission Marley."

"Don't underestimate us boy," Joseph said. "The packs were training to fight those knights long before they were expecting a human girl to save them. We can hold ourselves."

"It's not just about strength. You don't know Dimitri. He's good with tricks."

"Nobody needs to know him when he's dead." Joseph narrowed his eyes. "Now shut up and move."

"No!" Theo yelled. "We still have the chance." He again turned to the human girl. "You still have the chance Marley."

"What do you mean?" She asked confused.

"We have his ally sitting right now in the cellars." He reminded them of Sounia. "She knows him, she can take us to him."

"Why would Sounia take us to him?" Questioned Sanjay.

"She will. She just needs some motivation." Theo's eyes glinted. "And I know that motivation."

"None of you is stepping out of the house." Joseph admonished, glaring at the humans, before shaking his head. "We don't have time for your silly talks. Let's get you three to the safe place."

"No, You can't-"

"Shut up!"

"Joseph," Marley said, her voice determined, "this is our last chance."

"I said shut up-"

"You don't want to babysit us either," She interjected. "You want to be out there too."

"No, I just want to follow my orders!"

"We can end this!" Her voice raised higher, shutting the old wolf. "We can save many lives. C'mon Joseph, let's not waste time in this petty banter. We can't do this if you don't let us go."

"But Alpha-"

"He's not here, I am. Listen to me!"

The old man saw a different shine in her eyes, oozing out an aura similar to her mate. It became thousand times harder to refuse her request... no, her order. "Fine." He finally conceded. "But if either of you get out of our sight, I'm throwing you all into basement."

All three of them nodded.

"Marley, go get dressed and inject that valinor serum. Make it fast." After finally getting the green signal, Theo ordered. Marley nodded and rushed to her room.

"Wait, are we really doing this?" Sarah blinked, before following the human girl inside her room.

******

Eden ripped apart another vampire, metallic taste of its blood stinging on his tongue. The wolf licked its teeth, preparing his mouth for more blood as his eyes ran around the surrounding. Once calm forest now ringing with howls and screams. He had lost the counts of life taken just after thirty minutes into the fight.

The Alpha saw his pack mates tearing apart the knights, bringing Dimitri's army down. His eyes fell on Hunter and Matthew, and warriors following them, killing the hordes of vampires surrounding them. He saw Thea's black wolf and Jared's lycan taking on the enemy deftly. He knew his parents and others were battling against them on the other side of forest.

*Was Iosif just scaring the pack of his brother? Did they all overestimate the knights?*

The thought didn't sit well with Alpha. The fucking bloodsucker must had something else under his sleeve. Eden's eyes narrowed as another wave of vampires came clashing toward them.

Whatever Dimitri's trick was, all they could do was wait.

********

"Eden will have my head for doing this," Joseph muttered, rushing behind the three barely human adults, who in turn were following Sarah. They were in the dingy hallway of pack's cellar.

"He won't," Marley replied. Her right hand was placed over the inner elbow of other arm, pressing cotton against the skin which trickled blood. The human had prepared her best to finally put an end to this.

Marley was in the floral knee-length dress, her hair tied in a small pony, and smelling of all those fragments that were given by Iosif. And most importantly, the poison that could paralyze Dimitri was flowing into her veins. But still the probability of success wasn't known.

When Marley noticed the blood stop, she threw the cotton away.

"We're here." Sarah announced as they reached cells. As expected, two guards stood outside them, looking at the other five confused.

"What are you doing here?" One of them asked.

"We need-"

"We don't have time for this," Joseph cut off Sanjay, pushing past the guards who hesitantly let him go inside. They didn't have guts to stop one of their senior and trusted warriors. Other four followed ignoring their questioning gaze.

"He's just a little cranky." Sanjay gave guards an apologetic smile before he moved past them.

Hearing footsteps Sounia looked up from her meditating state. Metal bars separated the crowd of five from the knight, as she carelessly lounged on the concrete floor. She was about to raise her eyebrows at them, but her gaze landed on Marley pulling out an inaudible gasp from her.

"Selene," she whispered, taken aback.

Marley stared back, her eyes scanning the regal knight sitting in front of her. Sounia's blond hair were tied in a neat bun, revealing her shining amber eyes and aristocratic features. Her beauty and manner could definitely outshine any number of people in a room, but Marley couldn't help but wonder that Sounia would have shone a lot better (if that was possible) if she wasn't caged here.

"Listen up Sounia," Theo began glaring at the prisoner. Sounia turned to him and raised her brows. "Your leach of a cousin is here for her-" he pointed at Marley "-and you are going to take us to him."

"Why would I do that Nemo?" She challenged, her thick yet sultry voice demanding everyone's attention.

Theo grimaced. "It's Theo, not Nemo."

"I like Nemo better, like a lost adorable fish in that movie. It suits you."

Joseph almost rolled his eyes, now that he was starting to put pieces together. Ever since they arrived, the softness in her eyes was only spared at the brown-haired human, while others were subjected to hard gaze of scrutiny. Sounia might have been able to hide her true emotions from others, but the graying wolf caught subtle changes in her face, those same changes which he had seen in other wolves. The lady knight had taken a certain liking to Theo, or worse... he was her- Joseph sighed.

"Don't you ever call me that again, you bitch!" Theo yelled.

"Feisty like that fish too. Nemo indeed." She smirked.

"I really don't know or care whatever sexual tension is going on between you two." Sanjay joked stopping Theo, who now glared at him viciously. "But can we come to the point. We don't have much time to spare."

"Yes." Joseph agreed, surprising Sanjay. "That's what your big plan was Theo." He looked at him. "Are you two mates?"

Theo nodded begrudgingly. "I would have preferred to die by the hands of knights than this shit."

"Be careful there, Nemo," Sounia warned in an amused tone.

"Your wish may just be granted if Sounia here doesn't help us." Joseph turned back to their prisoner. "Dimitri and his army is out there. If we don't stop them, they will kill us including your mate. So we need you to accompany us to drop Selene back to Dimitri and end this."

"No," She replied in a blank tone.

Joseph clenched his teeth. "Why not? Isn't that what your cousin wants? And you want what he wants, don't you?"

Sounia looked at Marley, her eyes now sharpened. "You almost fooled me there. You're not Selene." She took a long breath. "I could smell valinor on you. You all want to kill Dimitri."

Marley's hope deflated.

"How long?" A voice came from the door, turning everyone's head. "How long did it take you to figure it that she isn't Selene?" Iosif questioned walking in.

Sounia quirked her right brow. "Not long, maybe a couple of minutes."

"Impressive. It's longer than I expected."

"What are you doing here?" Marley asked Iosif.

"I am here for the same thing that you all are," he answered, and she narrowed her eyes. "Okay, I followed you." He sighed.

"She can't fool Dimitri. You tried but look where it led you all," Sounia said, sneering at him.

"She can fool him for long enough, like I did which led him here for Selene." Iosif smirked. "And you are going to be on our side to finish him."

"And why is that?"

"I don't know if Theo's story about how he survived Dimitri's attack on his village -that killed every person he knew- will move your heart." Iosif looked at Theo, making Sounia's eyes sharpen. He looked back, meeting her glare. "But I have something that might. I wanted to converse with you before all of this happened, but it seems our brother is very impatient. When I was back home, I discovered something interesting.

"When I decided to meet Alena, a chain of whole new events unloaded." Iosif continued, and Sounia's eyes narrowed into two slits. "I wasn't allowed to see her. I could've easily shrugged that gesture away owing to the hostility between Dimitri and I. But guess what Yegor told me." He frowned. "Dimitri threatened you. Didn't he? He threatened you with the life of your little sister."

Sounia's jaws clenched.

"I knew you always fancied Dimitri over me, but still it was unnerving to see you blindly following him into this chaos." Iosif's eyes turned soft. "But now I know why you did it."

"I don't need your pity. You're the one who started it all by killing his mate."

"Now we're ending it. You have a chance, we all have a chance to put him down for good and save so many lives, including your mate's and Alena's."

Sounia's gaze moved around, pausing at Theo, then landing at Marley. "She can't fool him, and you all will die regardless."

"Yes, she can if you help us get to him." Iosif raised his hand and caught the key thrown by Sarah, and unlocked his cousin's cell. "This is your last chance to fight back."

*******