Eren
Last night was the first time I was finally able to hang out with Nico and Cruz since everything happened that f*cking day. From the moment the alarm sounded I had been tracking, patrolling, and receiving punishments for all kinds of sh*t.
Cruz had been with me when all hell had broken loose, but after that day I had no time to even text him, let alone see him or anyone outside of the guards or my uncle.
Vit and Noel had gone with Dylan and my uncle, so when the calls went out about an intruder on the pack lands, the Beta, Harper was the one in charge.
Unlike my uncle, Harper was not able to link with all the wolves of the pack at once, so he linked with a few in succession and had them all reach out to others and so on and so on.
In less than five minutes all of the guards were being sent to the walls, guard gates, and as much of the border lands as possible.
With so much land, there was not enough wolves to be in all places at once, but we have trained for scenarios like this and we knew our lands and their weaknesses better than anyone.
Information was coming in waves so no one was completely sure of what was truly going on. Before I knew it, Cruz had been called to meet up with his father and brother and I was teamed up with Marq and two other guards.
When we had gotten to the Northern border Marq was relying on me to give him updates. Some knew that he was not a wolf, but everyone who did was smart enough to know who he worked for and to leave it be.
The four of us, two in their wolf form, and Marq and I in our human forms, were just shy of the Northern gate. Since this was the area we had most often found the strangers scent, this is where Harper thought we should go.
Harper was linking with me directly and somehow I had been put in charge of my team. Marq had abilities that not everyone was aware of, but I had a feeling that these two knew of them.
I was unsure if my uncle was aware of what was happening, but at the same time, we still didn't really know what was going on ourselves.
Marq seemed to be a bit nervous and I couldn't blame him because everything seemed to be too well timed to be a coincidence.
There were guards at the gate and I could hear the howls of wolves in the woods around us but the one thing that I kept thinking was that I was glad that Dylan wasn't here.
The thought came so suddenly, but Dane agreed with it immediately. Somehow I was sure that who ever or what ever was happening had something to do with the scent around Dylan's house.
Harper finally linked me and said that we were to search for any and every sign that didn't belong to someone in our pack.
Apparently there was a message that had been left on the side of the new training grounds, but no one was sure of when it was made or how long it has been there.
I told the three that were with me what Harper had said. It suddenly occurred to me as I was relaying the information that while he had said there was a message left, he had not told me what it said.
Since Marq needed me in human form, I decided to stay with him, and I sent the other two out with strict instructions to run parallel to each other at all times and to let me know the second they find anything.
Marq was much more talkative then I had ever seen him and he kept throwing out all different kinds of ideas and scenarios that he was running through in his head.
"If they were waiting for the best time to let us know that they are watching us, now was the perfect time," he uttered more to himself than to me.
He was right. For them to have chosen now when Alpha Rogan and two of his strongest guards were gone, was more than just a coincidence.
As we walked Marq continued his mumbling and some of it was coherent, but most of it was just random ramblings that didn't make much sense since I only caught every few words.
Unfortunately, the few that I did catch only made the scenarios that were now playing in my head that much worse. We walked around and I waited to hear from Harper, but I hadn't realized just how long it had been since I last heard from him.
I checked in with the other two guards that I had with me and they hadn't come across anything. Marq was supposed to be sensing for magic or spells or whatever it is that he used.
My mind kept trying to figure out why someone would be targeting out pack so suddenly. If it truly had something to do with Dylan, than why hadn't they tried this before?
There had to be something else, something that I was missing, or something that I didn't know. More than likely this had something to do with my uncle and all the things he has been doing.
Regardless, we had been walking for quite some time now and there was no sign of anything or anyone that didn't belong here. I was about to tell Marq that we should head back when he suddenly stopped walking.
"Damn, they're good," he said as he kneeled down and grabbed a handful of dirt in his gloved hand.
To my surprise, he brought it up to his nose and inhaled deeply. I stopped to sniff the air, but there was nothing out of the ordinary. I wondered if there truly was something that he could sense that I couldn't.
Walking over to him, I noticed that his usually turquois colored eyes were somehow a deep greenish color and the look on his face had shifted from fear to something much darker.
"They are getting the help of a magic user to cover their tracks, and whoever it is knows how to keep their aura concealed," Marq said as he let the dirt fall from his hand.
"Too bad they had no idea that I specialize in concealment magic."
I knew that Marq was fae and that he has worked for my uncle for many years, but this was the first time that I heard anything about his magic put so plainly.
Unsure if I was supposed to hear that, I dismissed his words and didn't react to his statement. Honestly, it seemed more like he was having a conversation with himself and had practically forgotten I was even there.
Marq began muttering to himself again, but this time the words sounded less like words and more like sounds or at least words in a language other than English.
As I stood there watching him, I noticed that thin black wisps of smoke began coming up from the ground around where he was kneeling.
I had never seen anything like that before. The smoke moved around Marq's feet and began spreading out in two different directions.
The smoke thickened as it moved along the two paths and I finally realized that Marq was making the smoke, or at the least controlling it somehow.
Each path stretched far in opposite directions and when I looked back at Marq, it wasn't just his eyes that had changed this time. His short black hair easily showed that his once rounded ears were now pointed at their peaks.
Marq had always given off a sense of something different, of something other. Knowing that he was fae explained it, but this was the first time that he didn't just feel fae, he looked it.
As obviously as I was gawking at him, Marq was completely oblivious to it. But as I watched him do, well what ever it is that he was doing, I finally saw in him what others only whispered about.
There were so many things about the fae that I didn't know, but I had always heard that they possessed magic that was both similar and different to ours, but this was my first time seeing anything like it.
Healing was one of the only things I had ever seen Marq do. I've watched him not only heal my wounds, but many others over the years.
Harper linked me and he was about to ask me for an update, when I suddenly felt the booming voice of my uncle in my head, "what the f*ck is going on in my pack lands?"
For a moment, the sudden appearance of his voice in my head filled me with so many different thoughts and emotions that I couldn't focus.
If I could hear him, he had to be back on pack lands, and if that means he's back that means that Dylan must be here as well.
But, what if the person who left the message was still here? What if this person or people were actually here for her and not my uncle?
Dane was trying to get my attention, "snap out of it Eren, if they are still here then Dylan and her wolf may be in danger."
Sh*t, he was right. Now that my uncle was here, he wouldn't stop until he figured out who did this.
Before I could link with him and let him know that I was with Marq and tell him, whatever the hell it was that he was doing, Marq turned and finally looked at me.
Marq locked eyes with me and right before my eyes, his eyes began to lighten and go back to their usual turquois color. As he stood, it seemed that he was struggling to stand so I reached out to help him.
"Send a message to your uncle, tell him to meet us here immediately," Marq demanded once he righted himself fully.
Linking with my uncle I briefly told him where I was and who I was with. I told him that Marq wanted him to meet us here.
The growl my uncle let out from wherever he was seemed to resonate all around me, and I knew that when he joined us he would not be in him human form. He would show up as his black beast that seemed like it had crawled up out of hell.
It seemed like only a moment had passed before the sounds of wolves filled the woods around us, but only one burst forth into the area where Marq and I stood.
Zane practically roared when he landed next to me, and Dane was practically roaring in my head. "Shut up," I growled at him. I didn't have time for his sh*t right now.
Marq spoke quickly, "who ever it was used the assistance of a fae to cover their tracks. I countered their magic with my own and there is a clear path leading from there," he pointed, "through there."
My uncle linked me, "and where were you when someone was sneaking onto my pack lands?"
Of course that is the first thing that he would want to know. There was no point in trying to make excuses, I knew better than anyone that he wouldn't care so there was no point in wasting my breathe.
"I am here to help find them Alpha. What would you have me do," I asked as I bowed towards him.
Zane growled, but I knew that he wouldn't do anything. My uncle never gave out punishments himself.
I stood there staring at Zane, but my uncle linked, "follow the trail Marq found heading North, but you have to take him with you."
Looking over to Marq, he didn't seem like he was able to stand for much longer, let alone go for a walk, so I asked, "should I shift and have Dane carry him, he looks like he's about to pass out."
Zane looked towards Marq and huffed out loud, "fine, carry him as far as the border, but do not leave the pack lands."
I shifted immediately and Dane walked over to Marq and laid down on his belly to let him get up on his back.
As soon as Marq was on, he stood and we began to follow the path that he had created. It didn't take long to hit the border, but what surprised me is that we didn't come to the mountains, but the coast.
When the path lead straight into the water, I linked with my uncle to give him the news. It had gone over just about as well as I had expected.
He instructed me to meet him at his private office near the old barracks, and I knew that I was probably not going to be leaving there anytime soon.
When I arrived, Marq was near the point of exhaustion, but the moment I opened the door the smell of blood hit me so hard that I almost dropped him off my back.
I got Marq down and shifted so that we could walk the rest of the way down to the basement. The moment the door opened I saw Noel strapped to one of the poles being whipped by another guard.
My uncle was standing near the wall and I placed Marq in the chair near him. The whip sounded through the room like a crack, but Noel didn't even let out the slightest noise.
I looked towards my uncle and he motioned with his chin towards the area next to Noel where another guard was already standing.
Even if this wasn't the first time I've gone through this, it didn't mean that I was prepared for the pain I knew I was about to endure. I swallowed down the bile that was rising in my throat as I tried my best to prepare myself for this.
When I looked back and saw Marq was now unconscious, I knew that whatever relief he may bring would not be coming any time soon.
Reaching the pole, the masked guard walked up to strap my hands, Dane reached out and began to repeat the same words over and over in my head, "you are not alone, I am with you."
As the first strike landed, I let out the breathe that I had been holding. Dane continued to repeat the same words over and over as the blows kept coming. His words were the only things I focused on until everything went black.
-
The marks on my skin had finally healed over enough that I could cover up the worst of them with the right clothes, so when Cruz called that he wanted to hang out, I was ready for the distraction.
When I showed up to his house, I realized that not only was I going to hang out with him, but apparently Nico was going to come with us. The story that they told me was that we were walking Lecia somewhere before we went to eat.
I still had no idea how I ended up standing here, on this porch, with the damn Silvera siblings, about to spend the evening with Dylan. Gods, I was going to make Cruz and Nico pay for this dearly.
The moment that she opened the door I had no idea what to say or do. She looked absolutely beautiful. And in that moment, the only thing I could think of was how absolutely screwed I was.