A day had only passed when another wave of attack disrupted their lives and this time, there were not only werewolves on their ranks but there were also some vampires with them. Zayier and the pack warriors were busy defending their borders that they have no time to send help to the other packs. In this fight, they needed to be careful because vampires were not easy to defeat. Aside from vampires, each group that were attacking them had someone who was commanding them which made the fight even more tedious.
Amber had a frown on her face after she heard the numerous reports from the border guards and from the other packs. By sending vampires on the battle field the enemy was only confirming their identity to them. It was as if they were not afraid that their identity was already revealed and what's more puzzling was that the timing of the attack. "We might have a traitor amongst our ranks." She said out loud which made Zael grit his teeth. The mention of a traitor was not good news for them.
"Where will this traitor be?" he asked while filtering all of the names of the people sent by the other packs to them since it was the only possibility he could think of and it was the only possible group that a spy can infiltrate.
"Check those who remained from the special unit once again, investigate their backgrounds once again." Amber was tapping the table with narrowed eyes. It seems that the Blood Pack had thoroughly prepared for their attacks.
She decided that once they found the traitor then she would not spare them from feeling the consequence of what they had done even the pack where they belong will not be spared. She stood up and left the study to help in defending the borders of their territory because right now she was not in a good mood neither was her wolf. Both of them needed a way to vent their anger.
The alpha did not waste time and joined the fight, with her silver wolf both of them bulldozed through the battlefield. The sound of flesh being ripped apart, growls and whimpers were mixed in the area. Both the enemy and Eirian's forces experienced casualties but they did not stop from fighting.
Zayier, as the gamma, was fighting in front against vampires and werewolves. His movements never faltered even with the wounds and scratches on his body. He would bare his fangs and bite without mercy until the enemy's bones break. The same treatment was given to the vampires as he did not spare anyone.
Amber on the other hand was currently looking for the werewolf who was in-charge of this team of rogues that attacked them. Her trail was littered bodies of wolves ripped apart. In the far back of the wave, she saw a man watching the fight. He was only standing there without moving which immediately gave him away.
The man felt the presence of someone powerful approaching him but he did not move, he waited for her to get near before he angled his body towards the direction where the alpha was coming from. Eirian saw that the man was not running away and was instead facing her without any fear.
While she was getting nearer, the man suddenly grinned and mouthed something which halted Eirian from advancing further. "Why don't you calm down first alpha and hear me out." The man's voice was now clearly heard but even with those words, Amber did not calm down and instead she growled fiercely while baring her fangs against the man. "The Monolith will contact you soon, the favor you owe him, he will ask for it."
Amber growled and without hesitation this time, she lunged at the man. The enemy also shifted to his brown wolf to face the silver alpha wolf. Amber took every opportunity to bite the enemy while the brown wolf tried his best to avoid the attacks but he was not as agile and as strong as an alpha wolf. Every bite that got to him caused a wound and every wound caused him to weaken due to lose of blood.
After a few more attacks, the brown wolf fell to the ground. Eirian raised her head and let out a loud howl that reached even the center of Ceurian. This howl was seconded by the pack warriors, their howls had instilled pressure and fear to the rogues who were supposed to attack them. The pack warriors were strengthened upon the lead of their alpha as they continued to chase and defeat the rogues they were facing.
With the last body of rogue on the ground, Eirian shifted back to her human form with Zayier ready for her clothes. "Clean this up. I'll call someone who will be able to help us from stopping these rogues from advancing further. I'll leave the clean-up to you Zayier."
She left and made a detour to the Lurea Woods. She stared at the dark forest for a long time before she decided to enter the forbidden woods. Amber had never thought about entering this forest ever since she became an alpha and now that there were various things happening around her the urge to enter had once again returned. It was like there was a force pushing her to enter and see for herself what was truly inside this forbidden place.
As expected, the trees inside the woods were already gnarly, forming twisted trunks and branches that had already overlapped with each other as they formed a thick canopy that covered the entire forest preventing any sort of light from entering. It felt like the place was in eternal darkness. All of shrubs and grass on the ground were not of green color, all of them were of dark color and does not look any of the normal grasses seen outside of the forest. None of this mattered to Amber though, with her enhanced vision she could still clearly see inside the forest, even with the darkness.
She used her bare hands to part the overgrown vegetation to create a path for her inside. Only the crunching of the leaves and fallen branches could be heard as she made her way deeper. There were no animals nor any sign of life which only added to the eerie atmosphere of the forest.
Lurea Woods deserved its nickname, forbidden forest, because of how desolate the woods were. She could not feel nor see any vibrance and what was dominant in that place was the presence of the lingering darkness surrounding her. Every step she took forward the thicker the darkness would become but she did not stop, she could not stop.
Eirian was going off inside her mind as she kept on reminding her to be careful because the place was very suspicious and she was growing uncomfortable. "I know, you don't have to keep nagging me about that because I'm being cautious right now!" she muttered with her eyes still looking forward. All of her senses were on high alert the more they walked forward.
A 'swish' suddenly broke the silence. Amber jumped to right to avoid the darkness that had attempted to pierce through her. A dent on the ground was left after the darkness missed its target.
'The darkness here is dangerous. They had already formed a being because of how potent they are to the point that they can already attack any intruder that will attempt to get to the heart of this place.' Eirian spoke while both of them were guessing where another attack would come from.
"This darkness might have been influenced by the vampire king's power that still resides within the item in the heart of this place. I think we won't be able to reach the center without sustaining any injuries but let's do our best to stay alive." Amber agreed with her wolf's words but she could not stop right now. She was willing to face this darkness if it means that she could see what was truly protected in the heart of Lurea Woods.
As she had expected, the darkness formed sharp spikes that attacked her. With her speed, she managed to evade the attacks. After sensing that the intruder was able to avoid their attacks, the darkness created more spikes and its attack speed increased. She was able to dodge some of the attacks but not all as one spike managed to land a blow which pushed him back. Blood started to drip from wound on her side but with her healing abilities, the pain slowly ebbed.
"Eirian, we can't just dodge every time, we need to defend too." The atmosphere around her suddenly changed and the air around her vibrated as she slowly shifted to her human like wolf form. Her hands became claws and she grew fangs with her eyes turning gold. Even her hair became silver with her transformation she then let out a ferocious howl. With her wolf-man form, she eagerly faced the darkness without any hesitation.