All Novel Sweet
68
Beta Shura’s POV
Our convoy was moving rapidly east towards Sven’s territory, avoiding the other Packs along the way. I was getting pissed off; my man holding Linnea hadn’t responded to my calls or texts, and we were running out of time. I was certain Sven would insist on talking or seeing her before he would pay, and they better be at the rendezvous point we’d set up in Embarrass by five thirty.
My plan was pretty simple; we would distract them with the transfer on the south side of the territory, with me bringing three dozen warriors in a show of force. We’d be obvious, and Sven would have to bring his warriors forward to back him up. As soon as the transfer was done, we’d let Sven start to head back with his mate and then we would attack from the north and south sides at once.
Most of my men turned north as we approached, while six vehicles led by me continued to Embarrass. We stopped at the McDonalds there, waiting in the parking lot for my men. He still wasn’t answering the phone, and by 5:45 I didn’t have time to wait. “Do you think Sven found her?”
“I don’t know. This is going to go bad very quickly.” I got on the phone and talked to my Theta, who was leading the invasion force from the north. “We don’t have the Luna, and Sven may know that,”
“What do you want us to do?”
“Set up on the border at six, and go on my signal.”
“It shall be done, Beta Shura.” I changed my plan, and soon we were arrayed in a line facing the Embarrass River from the south. I made sure my men’s vehicles were pointed towards the Vermillion Pack territory, and everyone had weapons at the ready.
“A vehicle is coming,” my scout linked. I got out of the SUV, standing in front of my warriors as they took stations next to their vehicles. A Jeep was driving down the road, it was an open-top model and I could see a big cooler in the back. It stopped just short of the bridge, and I watched as Sven got out with a younger man, obviously a bodyguard. They walked around to the back of the Jeep as I walked up, lifting the cooler and carrying it forward. They set it in the center of the bridge and walked off. “Is that Miss Donato?”
“It is,” Sven said. “Now show me Linnea.” Good, he didn’t have him.
“Not until I verify.” I walked up to the cooler, guards on each side. I had my cellphone open in my hand, ready to send the text message to my Theta to start the attack. Sven had backed up to the front of his Jeep and was typing something on an iPad. “Open it,” I told my man when we were near it.
“Yes sir,” he said, and he unlatched it at both ends and opened the lid. As soon as it opened, there was a flash, and white gas came shooting out under pressure. I turned to run, but this stuff was a white cloud that surrounded and choked me. “Wolfsbane gas,” I warned as I tried to escape. I pressed SEND on my phone, dropping it as my strength left me. The world started to spin, and the last thing I remembered was looking at the blue sky as the white gas blew over.
Alpha Sven’s POVNôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.
We watched the transfer in the bunker under the Pack House, where the security command was set up. The two men who were in the Jeep were volunteers, both unmated, and close friends of the men Shura had killed. They wanted to avenge their brothers, and I let them, with a little help from Jessie.
Bill was spelled to look like me, and they were off. “How long can you hold the illusion,” I asked Jessie.
“A few hours, as long as I don’t get too distracted,” she said. We went back to watching the screen, as the Jeep stopped. Shura’s men, it looked like at least twenty in six vehicles, were spread out along the south end. “John, does Stan have the drone up?”
John linked for a minute, then nodded. “Drone is live, and they are ready a few miles south.”
My men were a mile back from the line so they wouldn’t be scented. “I hope they go for this,” I said nervously.
“We’ll find out in a minute,” Jessie replied. My men placed the cooler on the bridge, then backed up to the Jeep. They had portable air packs and weapons right next to the doors, in bags that would hide them from view. We’d gone with the Jeep so there wouldn’t be doors in the way. I watched as Shura walked up with his men.
“Jessie, if they set it off, drop the illusion,” I said. “He needs to be in his own form to fight.”
“I’m ready,” she replied. We watched the lid open, the gas went off, and my men grabbed their masks and rifles as Shura and his men scrambled to escape the cloud. We had included a smoke bomb with the Wolfsbane gas, so the cloud prevented his men from seeing our men coming fast. My two guys were sitting in the Jeep, masks on, and firing through rifles with infrared-sensing scopes that could see through the fog. It was a turkey shoot, men were dropping left and right and Stan’s men were still a few minutes out.
“BREACH ON THE NORTH BORDER, DOZENS OF THEM,” one of my men shouted. I looked at the screen and my gut fell.
They were supposed to attack from the west.
*****
Alpha Sven’s POV
“Attack coming from the north, shift to planned defensive positions, and get those suicide jockeys to grab as much as they can and set up in the choke points! Fourteen minutes to the Pack House,” I sent to all my Pack members. The allied Pack members all had one of my warriors with them, so they would relay the word. John was linking with Alpha Stan, who was sweeping in to clean up what was left of Shura’s team in the south.
Jessie was looking between me and the screens, watching the wolves pour across the border like water. The ones in front were fast, while the ones farther back carried packs loaded with weapons. “I thought the northern border was safe because it was on Alpha Pine’s land.”
“I did too. Call him and make sure he know, he’s holed up with all our women and children.” She picked up a phone and made the call while I went back to ordering defenses. “John, get ahold of Beta Peter and tell him the bad guys snuck around him. Have him move to the northern border and start pursuit, don’t give them a chance to regroup.”
“I’m on it, Alpha.”
I looked at the screens, they were at the twelve-minute line. A large map linked with the cameras and motion sensors, showing their progress real time as they charged south. “Alpha, I estimate over two hundred hostiles inbound,” my controller said.
The run was long, but the terrain forced the wolves into chokepoints we had identified. My Beta was directing the defense groups, moving them into place in the positions we’d built just for this purpose. Using boulders and steel, the fighting positions had good fields of fire and allowed a small number of wolves to put a hurt on the intruders. “How is the redeployment,” I asked as I looked at the cameras at the forward defense points.
“We can’t make the first line, not enough time with having to re-deploy from the east,” he said. “We’re sending men to the second line, and we’ve already re-deployed snipers around the Pack House to face the new threat. I’ve sent hand and gas grenades out from our reserve stocks.”
“Tell the explosives guys to deploy on the third line. They’ll need the extra three minutes to set up.” We used a layered strategy, with defensive positions roughly every three minutes hard run. The first set was only two minutes from being overrun, there was no time to set up.
“Already done, sir. We’ll get them.”
John patted my hand. “Alpha, Alpha Stan reports the southern group has been routed. He’s got eight prisoners, the rest dead. Beta Shura is among the captured, he’s unconscious.”
Good. “Ask him to send any men he can spare with my men,” I said. “Wolf form only, loop around to the east side of the compound. We can’t let them surround us.”
“Got it, sir.”
“Alpha, helicopter approaching fast from the north, just over the trees,” my warrior in the second line linked. “Is that ours?”
“No, take it out.” I looked at the room. “Dammit, they brought a helicopter!”
“Our defensive position is deep in the trees, they won’t see it until it is on top of them, Alpha.” He spoke just before the camera overlooking Line 2 Position 2, with a dozen men with rifles, showed it exploding in a huge fireball that none could survive. “They’re dropping bombs, sir!”
Jessie watched the screen in horror, then ran out of the room. John raced after her.
Jessie’s POV
I couldn’t sit there and watch good men die. They were helpless against the bombs being dropped from the helicopter above, and the wolves would pour through the opening without being slowed down. I ran for the stairs, ignoring John’s yells for me to stop. “WHERE ARE YOU GOING?”
“I am leveling the playing field, my love. I’ll be back.”
“JESSIE!” I closed the mind link as I burst through the door of the Pack House. I could hear the gunfire and explosions from the north as the defenders tried to hold back the horde. Using my levitation, I rose off the ground in human form before shooting north just above the treetops. I flew faster until the trees were a blur below me. I saw the helicopter a minute later, men hanging out of the door and readying another improvised bomb. The plastic barrel had a couple of highway flares attached to the side, and they were lighting it as the pilot banked to attack the next defensive position.
I formed a fireball ahead of me, shooting it out with my thoughts. It flew towards the helicopter, growing in size as it went until it was the size of a basketball. The pilot saw it coming, banking hard right to evade it. The barrel fell out, dropping to the ground and exploding in a huge fireball as the helicopter dove for the trees.