The Tripartite Mate Bond Chapter 18: CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

I looked at the frail, old woman whose voice resonated around the room, inciting the rest of the people to voice out their cruel thoughts and opinions to me.

I had thought I'd be able to gradually gain their trust and dispel the belief of me being a traitor if I didn't leave as I wanted to.

But now, I was sure that if I didn't convince them otherwise, they would kill me. Their Alphas had declared they didn't want me, one of them openly sleeping around so nothing was holding them back.

“Well, what do you have to say for yourself? You brought that horrible man here with his men to kill us and they brought rogues with them? How dare you?” Someone else shouted, making me feel more terrified than I was when that wolf was hunting me.

“I'm very confused, what do you mean I brought them? And I might be new to all of this but didn't you notice these wolves that attacked weren't led by anyone? They are just pouring in from everywhere! I almost died because of it” I exclaimed, the pain in my leg intensified as I struggled to sit up.

“Yes, we know rogue wolves don't follow any leader but if they successfully come together and smell a war, they join and help one side of it to defeat the other side and they will take over while the other one returns to theirs. So if your first mate hadn't been coming here to fight us, this would have never happened” a man sitting close to the entrance added.

I heaved a deep sigh.

“Look, I thought I was a human, I didn't know of this world until I walked in on a wolf shifting and it led to so many things happening in the space of two weeks. I'm not here to cause any trouble, in fact, the moment they found out they were all mated to me, they called a truce because any war between them could result in my death and that would destroy both packs”, I said, wincing from a sudden sharp pain in my leg.

They were quiet after that, still looking at me warily and I could still hear murmurs and internal discussions but there were no pitchforks and calls for my head on a platter. I heaved a sigh and tried to relax and position my feet properly but it hit something.

"Ah!" I screamed from the sharp pain.

"Shhhh?!" Are you trying to get us killed!?" Someone scolded me and I profusely apologized.

An older man then got up from his side of the cramped up, dimly lit space and walked over to where I was lying down.

“This bite will kill you, you can’t survive it without a wolf.” he said like he was talking about the weather.

“Kill? Wait, what are you talking about? It's just a small bite. It clamped its teeth on me and left its ugly teeth in my leg. I've tried removing it but it's too painful” I replied, the pain increasing with each second.

“What Andrew means is that except your mates mark you tonight, there's nothing our healer can do. He's probably going to be too tired tending to all the injured from this terrible war that you brought on us” the first woman who had given a voice to their “kill her” campaign said.

I was in severe pain and with her words, anger mixed in with my emotions and I went off on her.

“And I said I didn't do anything like that! My life was turned upside down, not that it was any good before but at least, I didn't have strangers calling me weird names and hating me for something I had no control over. Your Alphas brought me here without giving me any choice and I've been trying to learn your culture and lifestyle and now I have to stand trial too? I have no prior connection with this world so how will I have made the choice of betraying you all so quickly? You can tell when someone is lying so look at me! I don't have any plan to betray you and I have done nothing of such!” I shouted in frustration.

“Maybe it's good I'm finally dying. Death has been calling me for a while now” I added, the frustration and pain building up to a tearful crescendo.

I lay back down and I noticed the room had quieted down.

I couldn't stop the tears that flowed, my heart and body in shambles. They didn't even bother to send anyone to come get me and I was left in there to die.

Well, now they will get their wish; my father would be so happy. He finally succeeded in killing me and all he had to do was wait. I had tried to make the best out of my life but everything kept falling apart so if they say I'm going to die, I'll just make my peace with it.

Already, I could feel my legs going numb and I began shivering. I tried hugging my body but it was so hot it startled me.

Suddenly, I felt a coldness on my forehead, I opened my eyes and a little girl of maybe fourteen years was kneeling beside me, a towel in her hand.

“Thank you so much..”

“Avery. I believe you. I heard it from Alpha Ares when he said a great evil had risen. I guess everyone else was running to safety and they didn't pay mind to that but I know if it were Alpha Kane's pack, no child would have been killed but they took my little brother” she said, tears pouring down her face

My heart broke in two, such a sweet little girl going through something so disturbing at this age. I took her hand and I was speechless for a moment. What do you tell someone that just lost someone they feel responsible for? The pain and the feeling of failure mixed together will make you numb and nothing seems to be the right words to use.

“Avery, I don't even know what to say but I assure you, you will be happy one day. All of this will pass and you will find a way to feel less guilty because trust me, this wasn't your fault. Stop blaming yourself, okay?” I touched her face and just like it did with the mother of the twins, she closed her eyes. I quickly pulled her to the bed as everyone watched me.

“Don't worry, she will wake soon. It happened with the Luna the first time we met. That was how I even knew such a thing could happen. It just reduces the sadness a bit. Oh, she's awake” I realized, and before I could say anything, she hugged me, crying profusely.

“Thank you so much Luna. He looked so happy and he told me I was definitely going to have a happy life!” She screeched and kissed my cheek before running back to her mother to gush about the details.

A lone tear escaped my eyes as I watched them. I realized I will never have such a connection with my mom and it hurts. I had not allowed myself to think about her all these while because it brought me immense pain but now I was forced to. Apparently, she wasn't even my mother and was simply helping father treat me the terrible way he did.

I noticed the pain had reduced a little bit after the whole incident so I adjusted the bunk and was about to lie down but people started moving.

I watched as about five people gravitated towards me.

“You, erm.. you want me to do the same thing for you?” I asked, shocked to my core.

“Everyone of us here has lost someone dear to us but the five of us lost our mates so we were hoping you could help us see them one last time. We don't want to burden you so please, you can say no” one of them said.

“Oh, I'll be very happy to help. Come” and I began helping them heal from their pain

In that dark safehouse, as I poured light into people's minds, we didn't know that an evil presence was watching everything.

***

“Axel's POV”

I was tired.

And that is not something I've ever had to say before. I was an Alpha in my prime, the generations that came before me possessed immense strength and they passed it on to us, making us very efficient in keeping everyone scared of us, well, except DarkMoon Pack but the back and forth with them also contributed in making us train harder and harder, yet at this moment, I was exhausted.

Wave after wave of rogues were pouring into our pack, trying to destroy everything and everyone in their path.

It was easy to kill them and everywhere was littered with their bodies but the sheer amount of them made me believe they were mostly suicidal and just wanted to make us tired before the actual attack began.

“Ares, this isn't working. We need to get to the root of this problem before we get overrun. Bring Alpha Kane with you, our pack can handle these ones” I told my twin in our link as I dug my claw into the chest of a rogue, decimating him.

I kept this on but anyone watching could see I was getting slower, they were finally getting very close and I was getting a few cuts and slashes from the rogues sharp claws. It seemed someone took them to the nail salon and sharpened their tools.

I increased my pace, running and jumping over carcasses of dead wolves and dragging injured wolves into houses so they can heal and either get back into the fight or go into one of our many safe houses.

We finally converged at the pack’s major entrance and began killing rogues as they came at us. I noticed I wasn't the only sluggish person but then, my pack wolves were fine, it was just the three of us.

Alpha Kane quickly shifted into his human form, which I honestly think is more deadly than his wolf. He was tearing out hearts of rogues in seconds and releasing his aura in large waves.

“We need to let them through, we will get to the end of this and then enclose them and finish them off” he said before shifting back fluidly. I may not like the bastard but he was a very strong guy. I would have loved to have him as an ally but generations before us wouldn't let such an idea fly.

We nodded at his suggestion and moved out of the way. I guess our initial strategy had given our pack warriors a small reprieve and as we led the horde back in, I could hear a groan of frustration from the back.

“Keep fighting everyone, we will end this soon!” I said to them in the mindlink, giving them hope.

We ran ferociously till we got to the pack borders.

Right there in front of our gate stood, a vampire. But this one had powers.

He had their teeth and pale skin but he was holding open a witches portal that let in the demons we've been fighting for the past four hours.

It was close to daybreak and I realized I was correct in my earlier assumption.

This wasn't the main attack. There were wolves at the other side of the border, but there weren't many, in fact, if they had attempted to attack us head on, they would be dead in minutes. This plan of theirs was brilliant and we were already falling for it.