The looks of disdain from the other members of the council did not escape Elder Veron's notice but he chose to ignore them because they were in a precarious situation. The safety of the Alpha and the pack was more important than any animosity they have with each other. He was willing to let his hatred go for now just so they can cooperate with each other.
"Why is he here?" One of the elders asked. He was not able to hold himself back from giving the other a glare.
Veron narrowed his eyes at the direction of the man but he did not speak and could only grit his teeth but these people were really testing his patience as none of them were willing to move. They were instead looking at him like they were looking at something disgusting but he could not care less.
"If you want to stay here and take your sweet time in criticizing and glaring at me, then do as you please. I'll leave you to it while I go and save the day, so be thankful because your roles today will be just bystanders. You can even run your mouths all day for all I care because that's where your strengths lie, all you can do is talk." He turned around and left without giving them a second glance. With those words alone he was able to mock and even look down on the elders which was clearly felt and understood by the people who were left behind.
One of them even wanted to run after him and curse at him but both Elder Leonides and Zita stopped him. "If none of you don't want to be secretly called useless then we should move. We are not here to discuss the matters of the past, we are here to protect our pack and if you can't cast aside your prejudices for our people's sake then all of you can remain here while we do our best to hopefully prevent a disaster from befalling us."
In the same manner, Elder Leonides left after uttering those words followed by Elder Zita. The remaining elders could only grit their teeth and clench their fists then trailed behind them. They were still elders and they have a dignity and face to uphold.
Elder Veron reached the Alpha first before the others came. The place was completely thrashed with the ground that was liked run over by a bulldozer and the trees that had already fallen with claw marks on them but the Alpha was not stopping. She was circling around a certain place and letting out howls and growls like she was forcing the other to give her a reply. They would see her occasionally nudge the body on the ground but no matter how she urged the other to respond or move it will not happen. The silver wolf let out a long howl as if she was crying to the sky, it was a sorrowful howl that tugged at the heart of every member of Ceurian. They could all feel their Alpha's grief at the loss of her soul mate. All they could do was to send her their comfort but it was not enough to quench their Alpha's desire for destruction and death.
Her mate was now gone so there was no reason for her to care any longer. All the colors around her slowly disappeared as it was slowly replaced by blackness. Everything was utterly black. The howl slowly died down until the wolf remained unmoved while looking down at the motionless body of her mate. Life has become meaningless so why should the world bask in the joy of peace when she was suffering from the pain of a broken bond.
'Why? She only found him and their bond was already strong enough to overcome their differences and yet he was still taken away from her. How cruel. How could the moon goddess let this be? How could he die in front of her…Why…' The pain was too much to bear.
Amber slowly lost all reason and rationality as she retreated to the darkest part of her mind only to leave her savage instincts behind. Eirian has already fallen into her cruel origins. As all of these were happening inside her, the elders were already in position to subdue her.
"Get her attention and I'll take her mate." Elder Veron suddenly instructed through the mind link and before the others could protest, Elder Leonides moved first and shifted into his wolf to attack the silver wolf. At the sudden action, the other elders had no choice but to follow his lead.
All of them shifted into their wolf form and attacked the Alpha while Veron on the other hand was waiting for the right timing to sneak around the wolf and take Xander's body. They worked hard to le the Alpha wolf step away from where their mate was lying then he took the chance to take the body. Using his wolf's mouth, Elder Veron bit the remaining cloth on Xander's body and lifted him up. Elder Zita who was still in her human form came to assist the other as she put the body on his back.
Everything was done swiftly and the moment that Elder Veron was already at a distance, the silver wolf noticed that the body it was protecting was gone. It growled and disregarded her current enemies instead it chased after the elder who stole her mate's body. No one remained in their position as they all chased after the silver wolf.
He was already running at full speed but the silver wolf was going faster and he worried that he might get tackled down even before he could reach that place that's when he heard Leonides's voice. 'Keep running, we will do our best to slow her down.'
A silver wolf was interrupted once a while by wolves that did not stop from attacking it. They were giving the other elder time to put distance between them. This happened for almost thirty minutes when they finally got of the forest into an open space. The place was a familiar area which confused them as to why Elder Veron brought them near the Lurea Woods but even so, they did not let the silver wolf catch up easily.
Annoyed by the continuous disruption, the silver wolf roared and made a swipe of her paw to the left and right successfully hitting some of the elders and sent them flying away from where it was. It did another swipe which created a strong gust of wind that halted the other elders from approaching it and when it saw the chance, it followed the elder who fearlessly entered the forbidden forest.
Elder Leonides looked with wide eyes at the elder's disappearing fur and when he was about to follow, this time he was stopped by the others. 'Don't follow. We don't know what's exactly inside that place but Elder Veron knows that place better than us and I'm sure that he will find a way to survive.' Elder Zita was also looking at the direction where they disappeared to with a sigh. 'Let's just wait.'
Veron navigated through the blackness inside the forest like it was the back of his hand and when he felt that the Alpha followed behind but he did not stop and instead hastened his steps then they encountered tendrils of shadows that attacked them but Veron was a veteran and he evaded all the attacks while the silver wolf destroyed them by using only brute force.
He did not know how long he had been running but the center of the forest seemed to be so far away and when he was about to topple over, laughter echoed through the forest.
"This is exciting and at the same time displeasing," one of the voices spoke up followed by a giggle from the other one.
"Look the other one is carrying something!" the other voice which was more childish exclaimed and a gust of wind approached Veron by this time the silver wolf caught up to them and was about to attack but 'darkness' wrapped itself around it to restrict its movements. No matter how strong it was, it can't go against the forces of the Lurea Woods.
The gust of wind surrounded Veron and after a while the one with a more mature and whole voice spoke, "This is interesting." Then Xander's body floated up as the gust of wind did not stop from circling around him.
"I know this smell," the childish voice exclaimed after a while. "There's a different scent on him aside from the unpleasant smell of those wolves."
Veron listened to this conversation before he decided to shift to his human form and spoke to them. He was not bothered that he was naked because the blackness of the place covered him. "Save him as a return to the efforts that all of our generation has done to protect this place."
The gust of wind stopped from circling around before a part of it separated itself and went down to the man. "This place would have remained safe even without your flimsy protection and your race has no right to order us around."
"Ceurian is about to fall. Without an Alpha to lead us, other packs will cease that chance to take over and they will not stop there. This place had long held a mystery that they covet and they will do everything to enter this place." Veron calmly delivered his piece without missing a beat. He knew by the silence of the voices that they were already considering it because they knew that even though the woods were impenetrable there was still a chance that they would be able to find this place.
"If you insist but we can't promise you anything, if he isn't the one then no matter what we do, 'that' will remain dormant until the right one comes."