“Brother,” Derek called his big brother just as he finished his shift, guarding the Luna. He looked a little bit worn out and distraught. Somehow, Derek could guess what was wrong with him, but he was too afraid to confirm such a thing, because that was a very serious accusation.
“Hm?” Darius turned around when he walked in the corridor, his mind was elsewhere, so he didn’t realize that his brother had been following him. “Finished training?”
“Yeah,” Derek muttered. He scratched the back of his head, as he grimaced, a habit of his whenever he tried to talk about something that he didn’t know how to start.
“What is it?” Darius slowed down his steps and walked beside his younger brother.
Their parents died during one of the attacks by humans, but at the same time, he met his human mate. She turned out to be one of the members of the Hound.
That was a mess and all the pack members looked at her as an enemy instead of his mate. They killed her right in front of his eyes, but then the alpha himself had a human mate and they had to protect her instead.
How fair that could be? That sounded like a joke to Darius.
Therefore, he justified himself when he fucked the alpha’s mate. At the very least, he needed to even the score in that way.
It felt great when he humiliated the alpha that way, but at the same time, it bothered Darius to see how heartbroken and mournful Jasmine was.
.....
“Tell me, what is it?” Darius extended his hand and tousled Derek’s hair. He loved his little brother, since it was just the two of them that left.
However, Derek couldn’t bring himself to say whatever that was inside of his mind. He opened his mouth and clamped it shut again, but nothing came out from it.
Darius glanced at him and sighed deeply. “Are you bothered about the rumors surrounding me and the luna?” He caught the change in Derek’s expression, which meant what he guessed was right. “You don’t need to bother about that, you don’t have anything to do with that.”
Derek didn’t like that answer. The way Darius replied to his question didn’t even answer anything.
“So, that rumor is true?” Since Darius had already opened this topic, he could care less about bringing it up. “Tell me, is that rumor true?” Derek could hear his own voice quivering, demanding for further explanation.
On the other hand, Darius didn’t answer immediately to that question, which only amplified Derek’s suspicions.
“You don’t need to know about that. We will not talk about that.” Darius tousled his head again, but this time Derek swatted his hand away from him because he was in disbelief.
“If you answer me that way, I will assume the rumor is true.” Derek looked at his brother intensely, trying to see the non existent dishonesty in his eyes.
“You are free to assume whatever you feel like.” Darius walked ahead of Derek because he didn’t want to answer any questions from his brother right now.
Yet, this made Derek feel even more uneasy. He furrowed his brows deeply and then quickened his pace to follow his brother.
However, before he could say anything, Darius had cut off his words and turned around to look at Derek in all seriousness.
“Stop bothering that human girl, or else Eros will give you a lesson when he returns.”
Derek knew what his older brother meant, but he became defensive because he didn’t like how it sounded.
“You can mess with another human woman, why can’t I?” Of course, what he meant was the alpha’s mate, but he didn’t want to say it blatantly. It seemed at this point, there was a tacit understanding between the two of them.
Darius nodded, as if he was deep in thought, while smiling softly, but there was sadness in his eyes. “Because I know that you can’t endure the consequences of it.”
“But, you can?” Derek asked mockingly.
“Yes. I am ready for that.” Darius was ready to see the look on the Alpha’s face when he knew what he had done, but then, he could no longer see Jasmine and in the long run, he would only make her life more miserable than this.
For some odd reason, he didn’t like the latter option.
============================
Mohan watched as almost all of his men died horribly when the dragon broke free from whatever invisible ropes that held its monstrous form back.
And now, this dragon was way more dangerous than ever, as it flapped its gigantic wings and created harsh winds that could throw you a few meters away. Not to mention how the dragon tried to burn everything around it to ashes once it gained its power again.
“We can’t do this...” Mohan said grimly, now the number of people under his command had decreased by half and all he could think of was to retreat. “We need to back off. We can’t stand this ground any longer.”
Mohan knew that making them retreat was a great decision that he had to make, because there would be great consequences from the organization, since they were not supposed to back down no matter what, but seeing their current situation, it would be a suicide mission, if he continued being stubborn to stay and fight.
Mohan couldn’t understand how Nikolai could stand this kind of situation and remained level headed, while finding way after way to overcome the situation.
He was not Nikolai and he would never be at the same level as him. If only he were here, he would have found a way to fix this situation by now.
Damn it!
The leader badge on his shirt felt so heavy and burdensome.
And when Mohan was about to pull back all the people to the base and rearrange a new strategy, he saw a car approaching them and behind the wheel was Nikolai.
Relief was an understatement to describe what Mohan felt right when he saw Nikolai stop the car and get off from there.
“Oh, my god!” Mohan exclaimed as he rushed toward Nikolai and opened his arms widely, but he simply ducked down and escaped from under his arms, as he strode toward the rest of the soldiers that they had.
“What do we have here?” Nikolai asked in all seriousness, the pain in his body was almost killing him at this time.
“We got a crazy dragon that can’t be tamed. Do you have any idea, leader?” Mohan took off the troublesome badge from his shirt and put it on Nikolai’s. “I am waiting for your order.”
Nikolai lifted his head and then looked at the sky to look at the dragon. The creature was flying very low, breathing fire, trying to turn this city into ashes once again.
“I have an idea,” Nikolai said after a few moments of observation, as he tilted his head to look at Mohan. “Prepare all the people.”
“All right, this is what I am waiting for.” Mohan was more than happy to follow what Nikolai commanded. He felt the huge burden being lifted from his shoulders right now.
Meanwhile, Nikolai narrowed his eyes when he saw where the dragon was heading to. “Wait.” He raised his hand and pointed to the direction where the dragon was going. “What is there?”
“What is it?” Mohan stopped in his tracks and followed Nikolai’s line of sight. “Oh, shit!” he cursed under his breath, as his eyes widened in fear. “That’s the refugee camp. There are thousands of civilians there.”
“Damn it!” Nikolai cursed loudly and then fired orders rapidly to all the soldiers to start to move, while his body kept screaming in pain.
He and Mohan got into the car again, along with the other soldiers there, who followed the two of them.
=========================
“I think the dragon is heading in this direction,” Eros said to Liam, as he stood in front of the camp, with the alpha standing beside him. “Where is your back up? If they take any longer than this, we will die by the time they are here.”
Liam clicked his tongue in annoyance. “Yeah, he likes to come late.” He folded his arms in front of his chest, while staring at the dragon that was heading toward them, while the people in this camp started to run away in panic.
“How late can he be?” Eros tilted his head and then looked at Liam with a dismissive expression. He looked down on the alpha.
“Don’t worry, I will not let you die.”
All of a sudden, among the noises of people screaming in fear because of the dragon, they could hear a man’s clear voice, right behind them.
Eros didn’t feel his presence until he spoke, startled, he immediately turned around and was on high alert.
As a shifter, your back and neck were the points that you couldn’t afford to expose, because once your enemy grabbed onto those weak points, there was a high possibility that you would die.
“Who are you?” Eros growled dangerously. He had enough of seeing a lot of supernatural creatures in this area. Actually, he met many non human- beings that he didn’t expect at all.
However, when he glanced at Liam, he didn’t seem surprised like he did.
“Aaron,” Liam called his name in a greeting tone.
The man named Aaron tilted his head and stared at Eros instead, but then his attention shifted to a car behind Eros and Liam, as someone got off there.