Mate's Redemption || ✔

Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten

It had been weeks since the conversation between Hayden and I, and my mind was still a bundled mess. His speech hit me hard, but anytime I felt myself slowly feeling something for him, I remember who he had treated me in the past. How he easily chucked me away the second he saw me.

His words warmed both myself and my wolf, but I wasn't ready. I built three years of my life off of the rejection I felt from both him and the Midnight Forrest, what would I be to throw that all away?

I was ripped from my thoughts—as I laid in my bed, my arms behind my head as I relaxed early in the morning—from the shout of someone in the hallway;

"Rogues!"

This was becoming more and more regular even since the warning attack weeks ago. I groaned, jumping up from the bed as I ran downstairs, quickly seeing the scenes in front of me.

Even since the warning rogue attack weeks ago, there have been attacks non stop however none were even remotely challenging however slowly but surely they were bringing in stronger rogues. The recent attack saw the pack lose six pack members and while six doesn't seem like a lot given how big both Golden Redemption and the Midnight Forrest pack are combined, a life is a life. We all felt it when those pack members died.

I froze as I witnessed the fight in front of me—never had it been so horrid as it is right now, bodies were everywhere and I couldn't tell if they were rogues or pack members.

Why—all of the sudden—had they gotten increasingly difficult to beat today? It was clear that the rogues had definitely gotten stronger. There was screaming, crying and loud growling filling the entire land, the garden filled with bodies—alive and dead—spilling into the woods.

Women and children had been ushered out of the way, rushing them to the panic rooms—some women had ripped themselves out of the arms of the fellow pack members, running over to the corpses on the floor—most likely their mates.

My heart ached as I heard the cries of broken mates, feeling their bonds getting ripped from him as they watched the light fade from their lovers' eyes. I looked away, squeezing my eyes shut for a moment. I couldn't' watch, it was too painful to witness.

Children were crying, watching as their fathers were being brutally murdered and they were witnessing their own mothers, the only person who could comfort them in this time of need, breaking down and begging for their own comfort from their mate themselves—it was heart-breaking and it hit me hard, I knew how they felt. The children were being pulled away by pack members, screaming for their mothers who were being preyed on by rogues.

I hated rogues.

From the corner of my eye, I noticed a rogue preying on an unexpecting woman who was bent down, bawling her eyes out as she held on to her mate's body.

"Richard! Richard, please wake up!" She bawled, shaking the corpse. I growled as I watched rogue, charging at them. I launched myself up, shifting in mid-air, and landing straight on the rogue. In comparison to their wolf, mine happened to be much bigger.

I growled at the rogue viciously, lunging myself quick and grasping its neck with my teeth, pulling their head straight off. I spun on my feet, watching as more and more rogues came straight at me—charging with murder in their eyes. I was their prey.

A rogue charged at me, their fangs sharp as they took a bite at me, narrowly missing my leg. I swung my body towards the wolf, gripping them by the neck by my teeth and swinging myself into a circle—knocking out the remaining rogues around me that attempted to gang on me.

I roared, throwing the wolf at a nearby tree before following in that direction, jumping on top of the rogue and proceeding to rip them into shreds.

I seethed as I backed away from the dead rogue, my eyes scanning to see how was around—who wanted a piece of me. From my left, I noticed Hayden was fighting off a rogue. He was aggressively ripping through the rogue's body before launching himself onto another one. I had to say, it was attractive and it made my wolf shiver seeing her mate show his strength.

I pushed my own wolf's thoughts away—it clearly wasn't the place, nor was it the time to gush at our mate, a mate we still aren't even sure about.

The battle in front of me soon ended, thankfully the Golden Redemption was once again undefeated by the rogues, however, we didn't do that without some type of lost.

We had lost around seventy pack members and while the pack is still quite large, seventy people were still a lot—seventy family members had been murder, different families which both the Golden Redemption pack and the Midnight Forrest pack have been broken apart due to the rogues. Children have been orphaned—I had to hold back tears as I watched children cry, even elder children break when they see their parents' bodies scattered all over the floor— limbs everywhere.

I was quick to shift back, grabbing a nearby shirt where we hide clothes in case of scenes like this. The shirt was long enough to fall just up to the back of my knee.

"Nicole!" I called out, watching as she walked out from the kitchen door, her eyes scanning before meeting mine. She lunged herself from the doorway, sprinting across the garden before throwing herself in my arms.

We both hold on each other tight, afraid to let out.

I felt the fear bubble inside of me, the thought of losing someone close to me again.

"Thank god, you're okay!" Nicole cried out, pulling away and I could see that her eyes were slightly bloodshot. With her arms still around me, she turned her head and began looking furiously around. "Have you seen Jared? Where's Jared?" She asked rapidly, I could sense the fear oozing from her.

Just as she said that Jared—followed by Mace and James, all wearing only shorts—followed out from the woods and Nicole instantly let me go, launching herself over to her mate while I ran up to Mace, throwing my arms over his shoulders.

"Oh god, are you alright?" Mace wrapped his ways around me, squeezing tight as he sighed.

"We're okay," Jared answered, his arms around Nicole as she squeezed her face in his chest, inhaling his scent in order to cool her wolf.

Before we could do anything, we found a scream from behind Nicole and I, causing us to turn around sharply to the noise.

A woman was running around, looking at all of the bodies on the ground—it happened to be the woman I protected while she bawled over her mate.

"Where is she? I can't find her! Where did she go?" She bawled loudly, staggering around the garden as she pushed over bodies that were piling up. I moved out of Mace's arms, running over to her.

"Wait—"

"Where is she?!" She shrieked, falling to the ground before I could get to her. I bent out instantly, my arms going around her shoulders as the woman fell to the ground in a fit of sobs.

"Who is she? What is going on?" The woman howled in pain, gripping my shirt as her face was flooded with tears.

"Emilie, they took Emilie!" She cried. The woman pushed off my shirt, leaning back as she howled into the sky before falling back down to the ground, her arm gripping her own shirt just above her heart.

"They took my daughter!"