It was a long journey from the Lock Hearts pack to the Autumn pack. They had left their pack around 7 pm and arrived at Autumn's pack by 8 am. Typically, they weren't supposed to spend more than six hours but because it was from dusk to dawn, they had to relax and sleep for some hours.
They headed straight to the pack building with Autumn fighters surrounding them to protect their pack from being attacked. However, the Lock Hearts pack weren't there to formulate violence instead they had gone to build peace between the two packs. Either way, they still wouldn't fight since the Lock Hearts pack wasn't as much as the Autumn pack so, they could be defeated easily.
Rae, Sage and Aurora walked at the front and about ten pack fighters followed behind while the remaining four Gammas strode at the back in case there was any attack from behind, they would be the ones to secure the rest.
Not long, they finally arrived at the pack building and were ushered into the pack hall. Sitting gracefully was Alpha Huston as his huge body covered up the throne he was sitting on.
"Your highness!" All of the Lock Hearts bowed their heads to show their respect to the neighbourhood King.
Alpha Huston spread out his hands as a gesture and divulged. "Welcome all ye loyal people of the Lock Hearts pack. We're so glad to have you here."
"Thank you, your highness." Rae appreciated it and they were piloted to a long enormous table that contains close to twenty chairs for people to sit on.
King Huston also strides down to join them at the crown of the table. When everyone had been served a cup of wine, Rae commenced the conversation.
"We read your threat, King_"
"And did you bring along the girl with you?" King Justin cut him short.
Rae went mute for some seconds since the King had caught him off guard. He then muttered, "No."
The King nodded his head, "I see. So you've come to the pack to do what actually?" King Huston asked rudely and it irritated the Lock Packs, especially Aurora.
"We came to make a bargain." Rae continued, ignoring the King's rude attitude.
"I don't bargain."
Rae ignored his words and continued his statements, "We have come to beg on behalf of the mate. We promise this won't occur again."
"It has never happened before, so I wasn't sorry. I want the girl and her mate back together."
"She's mated with someone she loved," Rae explained.
"Love? Isn't it love when you have to mate with each other?" King Huston answered. "Whereas there's nothing like love." He added with a devious smirk.
"Of course, there is!" Sage finally spoke up after finalising his thoughts. Although he knew the King was right, this wasn't the first time something like this would happen. "The girl wouldn't live fine without the person and love."
"She'll learn to love her mate." The King conveyed.
Aurora disagreed, "You can't guarantee."
King Huston growled but it didn't create any fear in them since they already knew he was going to do it sooner or later. However, he was pissed off with the way they weren't giving him what he asked for.
"Go tell your King that I don't accept pleas, I accept what rightfully belongs to me."
"She doesn't belong to you, Alpha Huston and she has every right to mate with whoever she wants to mate with, we can't decide that."
At this point, King Huston was already overhead with fury. How could they come into his territory and blabber nonsense about what he said he didn't want? With annoyance, he hauled himself up from his seat and stamped his hands on the table, leaving it there to address all of them. "Tell your King that I want the girl brought before me as soon as possible or we'll proceed with our thread!"
"Is that what you want?" Rae inquired.
Alpha Huston laughed at his question, "Yes it is and I thought I'd share that with you guys before."
"We'll think about it." Rae acknowledged and stood up, "Alpha Cowell will get back to you." He then beckons to the rest for them to leave.
"He's got a lot of guts, I felt like strangling him at that moment," Aurora swore, mumbling to Sage who sat beside her in the carriage.
"As a psychologist, I presume he's right." Sage delivered, earning a death stare from Aurora.
"He's right?" She asked, unbelievably. Sage was starting to rant nonsense.
Sage stared largely into her eyes and growled "I wouldn't dare to let my mate get claimed by someone else." He uttered, fisting his hands.
"No one can tell, love is not an option," Aurora muttered, finally agreeing with him.
As Sage was about to open his mouth to talk, a spear dug through the carriage tarp, piercing into his arms. He groaned and held onto the spear to stop whosoever had dug the spear in him. Instantly he knew they had been attacked.
"Assassin!" He yelled to inform other shifters. Aurora screamed when she saw blood oozing out from his hand, quickly she helped him pull out the spear.
"Are you okay?" She asked without noticing a spear going to her side. However, Sage saw it and drew her away causing the spear to miss.
All the wagons had stopped and shifters were already running down to reimburse the raid. Aurora helped Sage out of the wagon although his wound was already healing up.
All the shifters plus Rae were already having a sword battle with the unknown killers since they were putting on masks and had hidden their scents.
Aurora pulled her sword immediately when one of them ran towards where she stood with Sage trying to earn his strength. She ran to him and with her speed and skills, she brought him down in a second. She did the same thing to the other person who also came trotting to her.
"Be careful." She heard Sage's mind link here and she looked back only to see him already in a fight as his arm had healed up. The fight continued for almost ten minutes since the assassin was of many numbers to Lock Hearts shifters.
The fight got to an end with some of the assassins fleeing away while the rest of them had been dropped dead.
"Search around and see those that are still alive!" Rae commanded and the shifters began to search around.
Aurora also did hers but unknowingly to her, the only assassin that was alive, scampered towards her. Before anyone could notice and inform her about the killer, he had pierced his blade through her spinal column and it came out from her stomach. Aurora growled and reached her hands to her uniform pocket bringing out a syringe that contained wolfsbane. She immediately dug it into his skull and freed herself from his grip.
In a flash, Sage was already by her side, his claws out as he pulled out the blade gradually from her core. His wolf growled with hers as he tried to control himself from shifting. He was disgruntled.
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