Riannon didn’t even gasp when Gideon lifted Brayden up in the air, growling fiercely. She expected for it to go this way between the two of them at some point.
“lf you think I am leaving my mate with a piece of garbage like you, you must be crazy!” he snarled. The werewolf tried desperately to fight the clutch of death, but was unsuccessful.
“Gideon.” Ria placed her hand on Gideon’s chest, calming him instantly. “Please. Just let him go. Not now, ,okay?”
The Lycan unclenched his fingers, and Brayden fell down to the ground in a loud thud. However, he got up quickly, baring his teeth at the opponent.
“Bray!” his ex-wife warned him, “You asked for our help, remember? Not the other way around! Be grateful we are doing this for you in the first place, and behave.
Remember our deal.”
He took a step back, still panting and looked at her.
“l asked for your help. Not his!”
“Well, too bad,” she snapped, folding her arms across her chest, “We come as a pack.”
She could swear she heard him grit his teeth, but chose to i more his reaction. None of this was important.
“They will kill Harper the moment they see him!” he said spitefully.
“Plainly speaking,” Gideon interjected, ” don’t care about Harper. If you don’t like our plan, I am taking my queen back and we are leaving this very moment. Good luck getting your sister and fake mate out on your own.”
Another growl emerged from the Alpha’s chest, but this time someone else interrupted them.
“Why leave if we are already here?” Castiel’s voice echoed through the forest, and they all turned to see him in the company of two bulky warriors and Harper with tied hands. Her eyes were puffy and red from crying, which probably occurred during her time in captivity. It was typical of her.
There was no sign of Roxie, though.
“You!” Bray recognised the man and his lips parted as he was stunned. However, the next second he furrowed his brows as he realised he had been tricked.
“Me,” Castiel mocked as he grinned wickedly, “Long time no see, Alpha. Such different circumstances. Don’t worry, I treated your little sister and the mother of your future child better than you did me. One might say they enjoyed staying with me.”
The fox chuckled, and the wolf snarled at him.
“Where is she? Where is Roxanne?!” Brayden growled again.”This is not what we agreed on!”
“It’s indeed not what we agreed on,” the Fox King confirmed with ease as a sneer formed on his handsome face. “You brought one more person, and I brought one less. It’s only fair.”
Brayden turned to glare at Gideon as if blaming him for what was happening, but the King didn’t give a care in the world.
“No,” Ria smirked, “You were supposed to bring three. We counted the baby too. So”
“Riannon,” Castiel smirked, ” always a pleasure.’
“Can’t say the same,” she retorted, and his lazy grin only grew wider. He enjoyed this game.
“Cut the small talk!” Brayden grunted, “Where is Roxanne?”
“Oh, she is here,” Riannon confirmed, sniffing a few times before pointing East, “Not too far. I would recognise that scent anywhere.”
With that, she let Ash and Maya know of Roxy’s location via mind-link.
Bray snapped his head at her. She knew where Roxanne was, while he couldn’t feel anything. Surely, he was supposed to feel his mate’s closeness, or at least her scent like Ri did. There was nothing. His wolf Ragnar wasn’t restless, he only thought about the future fight.
This new information made him wonder if Riannon had been right all this time. She was always right before.
What if Roxy wasn’t his mate after all?
“Excellent,” Castiel snapped, clapping as if they were in a theatre, each clap of his hands louder than the one before. “I have to say, you don’t cease to impress me. I placed her at a distance which would be far enough for any alpha or lycan to sense her. But, you did, I wonder why.”
“I have to say you’ve disappointed me so far,” Riannon mocked, c0cking her brow, trying to change the subject. She wasn’t aware of all her powers and abilities herself and had no desire to share this information with strangers. “Why don’t we get to the part where you tell us why we are all really here?”
“Ouch.” The fox touched his heart with a smirk. “
Nevertheless, you are right. Why don’t we? I want the Lycan King to denounce himself from the throne and to free the lands of the Crimson Fang, Silver Stone, Fenrir’s Eye, and the Moon Wisdom packs.”
I want you to stab yourself in the heart right now to save me the trouble,” Gideon scoffed. “Those two girls are not worth my lands nor my throne. Considering you’ve brought only one–“
“It’s absurd! Where would the wolves from those packs go?” Brayden was furious. These were impossible conditions. “Their Alphas aren’t even here!”
“They can go to your land,” Castiel sneered as hetilted his head. “After all, you still have a vast territory and no money to sustain it. You can charge them. It would be a win-win. You have already figured out you are bankrupt, haven’t you?”
“What?” Riannon’s head snapped in the direction of her ex-husband, but he looked just as surprised as she was.
“Oh, you didn’t know?” The fox gave them a sly smile. “Your pretty mate and sister gave us all the information we needed to access your money. All of it.
Not that there was much to begin with. You are not great at bookkeeping, are you?”
Brayden became pale. His whole world crumbled under his feet. His ex circled him angrily but whispered, You will deal with this later. Concentrate.”
Her words gave him strength just like they always did before. He realised he had missed this. She was right though, now wasn’t the time to think about this.
“He can’t give you those lands, and you know it.” Gideon intervened, a mask of boredom on his face.
“You can,” Castiel challenged, looking as if he was having the time of his life. Riannon tried to fiqure out his plan. Did he want tó simply kill them all? Or was there something else? He sure looked confident and quite different from back when she interrogated him. He played her and everyone else too well in her past. She couldn’t be sure this was his real personality.
“Yet, I won’t,” the Lycan refused, chuckling and looking down on the fox. “I just wanted to finally see your face. You’ve been hiding well in your fox hole all this time.”
“Why thank you!” Castiel bowed mockingly. “It was challenging after your father kiled mine. However, staying incognito helped me do so much. It was essential to unite the fox clans and create our own kingdom.”
“I don’t remember my father killing a Fox Alpha,” Gideon responded, narrowing his eyes at the enemy.
“Who said my father was an Alpha?” C astiel chuckled, looking directly at Riannon. “See? There is no imagination! Such a predictable way of thinking! How do you even live with him? You must be bored to death!
The King growled so loudly the ground shook under their feet.
“Bray!” Harper squeaked through tears, “It’s a trap!”
They all remained silent. No one reacted to her words. Of course, they all knew it was a trap.
The Fox laughed menacingly and wrapped his hand around the bound female, pulling her closer.”Sweetie, don’t you see they already know that? They’re prepared for me! They really did want to save you. Too bad their plan wasn’t a good one.”
They heard sounds of approaching footsteps, and in a few seconds, huge warriors arrived holding their people hostage. The warriors who were hidden in places Ria had pointed out to Alice.
Ash was one of them. They had to make it believable, after all. Harper cried louder when she saw him, her desperation evident on her face. She really did have feelings for him.
“See?” Castiel smirked, “I qot them all. Also, I am a bit insulted that you didn’t take many fighters. I am a far more serious threat than you imagine.”
“We did,” Riannon said, and he looked at her with interest.
“You did what?” he asked, and this time her lips curled into a sneer instead of his.
“We did bring more,” the Alpha female informed him while at the same time contacting her Beta to initiate their plans via the mind link. Howl after howl sounded in the distance, signalling to their groups of warriors that they had ready and waiting for their signal. The signal that their moment had come.
“Release the girl and surrender quietly” Gideon suggested firmly, stepping forward. “Then we’ll consider.
“No, thanks!” Castiel only pulled Harper closer, covering himself with her body as a shield.
“How manly!” Riannon couldn’t help but snort.
Somehow, her snide remark made his eye glow just for a second. Her words definitely had an effect on him.
“Kill them!” He commanded his people through gritted teeth. At the very same second, every hostage of Castiel’s, with the exception of Marcus, who released himself because he was an accomplice to Castiel, started fighting back. Each of them had a little surprise carefully prepared by Riannon.
Concentrated aconite injections. The dosage was the biggest they could fit in a small syringe.
Ash was the first to pierce his captor with the short but thick needle in the leg. The poison worked quickly. and he managed to overpower the man with ease. A few of his warriors followed his example, but it didn’t work the same for everyone.
“Useless!” Castiel shouted, “I have more people in-
“In a ravine nearby,” Gideon scoffed, taking off his jacket and throwing it to the ground. “We know. My Beta, Reid, and my sister, Savannah, are dealing with them right now.”
“Now!” Ria commanded, and the three of them joined in the fight as well. Brayden helped the warriors who were his just a day ago. He couldn’t bear to see them get hurt. Riannon did the same while her mate tried to get to the Fox King. His path was blocked by the two guards, who shifted into two huge werebears before his eyes.
Swearing under his breath, Gideon shifted as well, tearing one of them in two pieces with such ease. The second took the form of an enormous wolf. He turned out to be more work. Gideon then focused his gaze on following the fox, who tried to escape with his hostage.
Riannon noticed that too, but the remaining warriors turned out to be bears as well, and with the bears being all muscle and very strong opponents, Riannon considered shifting. After all, Onyx was eager to go into battle. Nonetheless, Ria did not want to give away all her cards yet.
Luckily, before she had to, their second wave of warriors arrived, circling them. They submitted the enemies easily as the numbers were surely on their side.
“Keep them alive!” Ria ordered as she spotted her mate kill one of the werebears. Their eyes met, and she shook her head in disbelief. They agreed to capture as many as they could alive.
“This one was extremely stubborn and did not want to surrender,” he confessed apologetically via the mind link. She rolled her eyes. “Ria, I àm going after that fox.
Stay here and make sure everything else goes smoothly.”
“Fine,” she said, and watched him sprint away in the direction where Castiel had left with Harper. In a few seconds, Brayden followed them too.
She stayed with the warriors, hoping they would be able to retrieve Harper. While this wasn’t the most important part of the plan for her, she did not want Harper dead even after the cruelty she subjected Ria to.
“Not a bad operation for your first days as an Alpha, “Ash chuckled as the two of them watched the werebears getting cuffed. The two foxes who were with them were heavily drugged on aconite. It affected every shifter, but it had less effect on bears than on wolves, cats, foxes, and other shifters.
“Thanks,” she replied, forcing a smile. Looking around, she tried to figure out why she had such a bad foreboding feeling in her gut. It felt as if something was off.
Ash told his men what to do with the prisoners.
Then it struck her.
“Where is Maya?” she asked her Gamma. He replied in question, “Wasn’t she supposed to come with this group?”
“She was” Ash confirmed before turning to look at the warrior beside him. “Mick, where is Maya?”
“She sent us alone,” the guy replied, rubbing the back of his neck, “She said there was something important she had to do.”
“s**t!” Riannon swore and turned on her heels, running in the Eastern direction. There was only one thing her best friend could be doing other than aiding her. And that was finding and killing her brother’s murderer.
“Ash,” she mind-linked her Gamma, “See to it, the prisoners are locked up properly and heavily guarded.
Send a group of warriors to the East as well. Lycans, if you can find any. They are faster.”
“I can come and-“
“No, you have your own task. Until me, Brayden or Gideon return, our captives are your responsibility.”
She did not shift, running as fast as she could.
Finally, she reached a clearing in the woods and heard the sounds of a fight.
Before her eyes, a fiery red fox and her Beta were fighting. Riannon couldn’t ignore the bodies of a werebear and a fox lying on the ground. Maya must have taken them down first.
She noticed her friend was bleeding in a few places but continued to lunge at the fox. That Beta of hers was stubborn.
Ria prepared to shift when someone grabbed her from the back, grasping her hands painfully before placing a cloth over her face. Instinctively, she tried to take in a deep breath and felt a strange weightlessness overcome her while heat suffocated her from within. It was as if her whole throat was on fire. The more she fought for air, the worse it felt.
“l am sorry, I have to take you like this,” Castiel whispered into her ear. “I really imagined it differently in my head. But you are not the only one who likes to play with aconite.”
The fox charged at the wolf, going for the side and digging her canines as deep as she could into the rival’s flesh, making Maya howl from pain.
The last thing Riannon saw before the world went blurry was her best friend keeled over in defeat.