Damon's fangs were deep into the rogue's neck as he shook his opponent like a ragdoll. With one last jerk of his head, Damon opened his maw, and the body of a dark brown wolf fell to the ground. The rogue was not dead yet, but he was unable to move, and if no one tended to his wounds, he would bleed out within minutes.
Damon glanced to confirm that they were still maintaining the formation. Caden and Maya were on his right, and Keith and Caleb were on his left.
The group from the Dark Howlers pack was moving as one unit, while others went with Maddox and Oliver to avoid people from the Blue River pack attacking them accidentally. In the heat of a battle, it was easy to mistake allies for rogues, because neither of those belonged to their pack.
With a ferocious growl, Damon pounced on his next target.
The rogues were attacking and retreating, and every time they attacked, their numbers were not reducing. Almost like reinforcements were waiting for them to replace their fallen comrades.
'How many of them are here?' Damon asked through the pack mind-link while pressing his opponent to the ground with his big body and kicking the second rogue away. He was about to bite the wolf below him and end his life, but when the second one attacked Damon, Damon had to improvise.
'I stopped counting at fifty,' Keith responded. 'I don't remember reports that Blue River pack had this big problem with rogues.'
Rogues usually sneak in between border patrols, steal things, and run away. This was bigger than usual. There was also a possibility that Maddox was not reporting correctly about his confrontations with rogues, but why would he lie? In any case, rogues would usually stay in small groups, no bigger than twenty, in order to avoid detection, and this was almost like three groups came together. In addition that that, Maddox and his units had their hands full on the other side.
Considering that rogues were loners, used to fending for themselves, collaboration implied a big reward for successful whatever they were planning.
'I can barely pick up their scent,' Caden voiced his observation while sniffing his last opponent, that was sprawled on the ground in his own pool of blood.
'Do you think they've got our mixture for concealing scent?' Caleb asked.
Damon's insides churned at this possibility. Talia was the one who shared that mixture with them, and if rogues have it, it meant someone from the Dark Howlers pack leaked the recipe. Only a handful of people had the information on how to prepare it, and they knew how dangerous it could be in the wrong hands. It would enable rogues and all kinds of enemies to move about undetected, which was NOT a good thing.
'It feels like they are leading us somewhere,' Maya said while dodging a rogue that lunged at her. She moved gracefully right on time for Caden to intercept the rogue. Maya and Caden were an amazing team.
'Where are they leading us? What is in that direction?' Caden asked while scratching the exposed abdomen of his opponent. Caden's sharp claws were reinforced with his Beta pressure, easily cutting the flesh and spilling blood.
'One of us would need to shift into human form, and ask Maddox or someone from his pack,' Caleb said, 'And that ain't be me.'
'They are either leading us to a trap or are stalling on purpose,' Maya said. From early on, she had a feeling that this was a diversion, but without proof, she didn't want to raise an alarm. However, this unusual attack pattern of rogues definitely hinted they had a plan.
Marcy's scream was stuck in her throat as a naked man gripped her neck. It was with enough force to cause pain, yet not enough to obstruct her airflow.
His vicious grin was directed at Marcy as he observed her face, obviously enjoying the view of her struggle.
What kind of an animal was he? Marcy wondered. But she knew that he was a werewolf because he was naked; he even shifted into his human form so that he could torture her slowly.
And then it hit Marcy… where was Jane?
Marcy's eyes moved to the left to see that there was another guy, holding Jane by her golden hair that looked nearly black in the darkness. Everything looked dark in this place.
'SLAP!'
A harsh slap landed on Jane's face. "Scream for me, baby," the rogue growled. He was irritated that Jane didn't make a peep.
"Leave her alone," Marcy struggled to speak. "She is just a child."
"We were all just children," the guy who was holding Marcy said mockingly. "Now, what will you..."
His words stopped abruptly when Marcy kicked him between his legs.
Werewolf or not, that was a weak spot, and he was careless.
The guy fell to the ground while clutching his family's jewels and Marcy lunged at the guy who was holding Jane.
Marcy's fingers latched onto rogue's face, and she dug her thumbs into his eyes.
The rogue squealed in pain and punched Marcy into her stomach, but she had no intention of letting go of him. Her fingers dug deeper into his eye sockets as she squeezed through her teeth, "Run, Jane…"
Another punch landed on Marcy's abdomen, and another, each carried such force that her internal organs shifted.
She lost her strength when her shoulder was dislocated, and then she felt a hit in her back as the second rogue kicked her there.
Jane heard Kim telling her to run, but her legs refused to move. She was staring at the horrid scene of two rogues brutally hitting Kim, and Jane fell to her knees when a spurt of blood splashed on her face. Was that blood Kim's? Jane opened her mouth in a silent scream for them to stop. Why were they doing this? What was the point of this violence? Only a year ago, she saw her mother and five siblings being murdered by their abusive father, and Jane survived by accident because she hid under the bed, and he was too drunk to count them all, and Jane slipped through the window when he set their house on fire.
Jane was not her name, but it sounded nice when Kim said it, so Jane thought of keeping it.
Jane's vision blurred with tears, and she cursed at her helplessness as Kim's words echoed in her mind, 'You are just a child. It's OK to do nothing and let the grownups handle it…'
How can this be OK? Kim was friendly and kind, and why were they bullying her?
"St… St…" Jane struggled to speak. "Stop it!"
This scream earned her a punch in the face, and she recoiled in a bush.
Marcy was not sure if she had heard Jane's voice or if she had imagined it.
The two rogues were cursing and punching, and Marcy was losing her consciousness, and she welcomed it because it was numbing her pain away.
Did she see a brown wolf? Somehow, even without her wolf and blood filling her nostrils, Marcy thought of his scent as familiar. Or was it his presence that she noticed?
The sound of growling and flesh ripping was heard, and then things turned silent.
Marcy heard someone sobbing. Was that Jane? Marcy opened her mouth to speak, to tell the silly girl that this was not the time to cry; she needed to go to safety. But Marcy's mouth was full of sticky liquid that had a metallic taste, and she couldn't say a word.
Her vision was blurry, and the darkness didn't help, but she could see an outline of a male leaning over her.
Marcy coughed to clear her mouth, and she rasped, "George?"
