#12 The Triplets of Emerald Forest

Griffin

I arrived at the pack shortly after Gabriel mindlinked me telling me about another breach. I jumped into action with the rest of my team. It wasn’t long before a blinding pain gripped at my heart. Frost started whimpering, becoming distracted and nearly took a hit from one of the rogues. Callie defended me easily and I ran blindly, trying to find Gabriel.

“Alphas! Someone took the Luna!” Annie frantically mindlinked me.

I ran into Lewy then, who looked like he was in as much pain as me. Before I could reply to Annie or say something to Gabriel, an ear splitting scream rattled the packgrounds. Everyone froze, knowing exactly who that scream belonged to.

“Harlow!” Gabriel snarled.

Lewy threw back his head and howled, and Frost copied his actions before we both took off running in the direction of the scream. We were too late. Our mate was gone and all that lingered was her scent surrounded by the foul stench of rogues.

“We need to get her back!” Lewy snarled at me when we realized Harlow was gone.

“We need to regroup and get trackers on her scent. When we find out where they took her, we need an entire army ready to mobilize. This ends now.” Frost snarled dangerously. Lewy howled in agreement and we ran back towards the packhouse.

Fueled by the rage of knowing that their Luna was taken, the rest of the pack handled the remaining rogues within minutes. Brett, Catie, Grant, Zinn, and Sylvia of the Luna’s guard were the pack’s best trackers. Luckily, they were all healed enough at this point to head back to the location we last sensed our mate and follow her scent. Williams and Henry of the guard were killed defending their Luna, along with fourteen other members of our pack. When Waylon woke up in hospital, he was enraged to learn that his Luna was missing.

“What are we doing about this?” Waylon growled as he stormed my office.

“We’re waiting for the trackers to return along with Godric and his team. They should be back any minute.” I said,

“You’re waiting?” Waylon didn’t like that answer.

“The pack is recovering. Once the trackers return, we’ll assemble every able-bodied warrior and create two groups; one will come with us to find the Luna.” Gabriel said, glaring at Waylon. We were both pissed and on edge, and neither of us was in the mood to deal with someone questioning our decisions.

Waylon grumbled and left the office, probably afraid that he would say something he’d regret.

I felt a sharp blow to my face and doubled over in pain. I glanced over at Gabriel to see him holding his cheek, his eyes dangerously black. He flipped his desk over in a single motion, growling as it shattered into several pieces.

“Someone is touching our mate!” Lewy and Gabriel growled together. Frost was digging inside my head, trying to be let out.

“And that someone will die.” I said in a scary calm voice. I imagined all of the things I was going to do to the person who took my mate and it momentarily soothed Frost’s bloodlust.

“Let’s go before I destroy the rest of this room.” Gabriel grumbled.

He literally walked right through the office door. It was ripped from its hinges and crumbled to the floor. I sighed and stepped over the wooden debris, following Gabriel out of the packhouse.

Before we could make it to the front door, a little voice cried out. We turned towards the door to the staircase next to the elevator and saw Maggie running from it. Tulley was chasing after her.

“What’s going on?” I asked, my eyes pinching together in concern. Suddenly all of my rage was gone.

“She’s upset about Harlie.” Tulley explained, trying to console a crying Maggie.

“Where is Harlie? Is she gone like mommy?” Maggie sobbed.

Gabe moved before I could. He swept the girl up in his arms and hugged her tightly to his broad chest.

“No, Maggie, I will never let that happen. We’re going to bring Harlie home safe and sound.” Gabe said, rubbing the girls back in small circles.

“Y…you…p…promise.” Maggie sobbed.

I walked up and placed my hand on her back.

“We promise, Maggie.” I assured her.

Gabe sat her down and she sniffed, running her hand across her runny nose.

“O…okay. I want to h…help.” She hiccuped.

“You know what you can do to help? You can go upstairs with your sister and I’ll have someone bring you up a bunch of art supplies. How about you make Harlie a card and a sign for when she comes home?” I suggested, kneeling down so I was eye level with her.

“Yeah!” Maggie immediately cheered up and jumped in Tulley’s arms.

Tulley mouthed thank you before they went back upstairs in the elevator.

“I swear, it’s like those kids are mine.” Gabe grumbled, watching them leave.

“I know exactly what you mean. I think our mate could have brought us a stray dog and our wolves would have accepted it as our kid. They’re such lightweights when it comes to her.” I chuckled, teasing Frost.

Frost growled in my head, so not in a joking mood. His anger brought me back to the situation at hand and I was immediately on edge again. Gabe sensed the shift in my mood and that set him off too. We turned back towards the front door and stomped out of the packhouse with renewed determination to bring our Luna home to her pack.

Outside, we sent out a pack wide mindlink that ordered anyone who was able to, to gather in front of the CC. Once everyone was gathered, Gabriel addressed the pack,

“Our Luna has been taken by the rogues who have been attacking our pack. We now believe that this has something to do with former Alpha Cambridge’s twin brother, Cairo. We believe this is a revenge plot led by his son and grandson. The trackers are following the Luna’s scent and they will get results. Once they return, we will be taking a large army to the location of our Luna and destroying anyone who dares to keep her from this pack. We need volunteers to come with us and volunteers to stay behind with our Betas to guard the pack.”

Immediately, every single pack member volunteered for the two missions. We selected fifty of the most elite warriors as the Luna’s army. Of course, the remaining members of her guard and Waylon weren’t about to be left out, either.

“Gabe, Griff, I found this.” Our father and mother came up to us and handed over a square photo, “This is my dad’s twin, Cairo.”

I studied the photo and noticed that he had the same green eyes as my brothers and me. He looked startlingly similar to my father, which I guess made sense since he and my grandfather were identical twins. I handed the photo over to Gabe who had passed around the pack.

“You’ll get her back, I have no doubts.” Dad said, putting a hand on both of our shoulders.

“Where’s Godric?” Mom asked, looking around. She was probably worried he was off doing something stupid.

“He’s on his way back from the Maryland camp. He should be here soon.” I said, offering her a small smile.

“Mom, can you help keep things settled here while we’re gone? All the Betas and Gamma are coming with us.” Gabe said and, of course, the former Luna nodded in agreement.

“I would like to come with you.” Father said,

“We assumed that already.” I told him.

The trackers mindlinked back that they found the rogues camped out at a cabin about sixty miles from the pack, and their Luna’s scent was all over the place. Now, we were just waiting for Godric to return.

We knew the second he was back by the threatening growls and snarls that filled the packgrounds. He was lashing out at anyone who got in his way. His team fled from his presence and I could only imagine what an unpleasant trip home it had been for them. Quill was so forward that Godric was half shifted, claws and fur sprouting from his fingers and canines were extended.

“Where is she?” He snarled at us. I had a feeling if we didn’t have an answer for him, Gabe and I would both be dead meat.

“At a cabin 60 miles from here. We’re ready to go.” Gabe said, motioning towards the army who was waiting orders.

Without a second thought, Godric shifted into Quill. Gabe and I followed suit and then the three of us tilted our heads back, letting out three equally horrifying but very distinctive howls. The army shifted and howled in response before taking off after us.

We covered the miles between us and our mate in no time at all. The army didn’t even pause before we charged into the camp, taking the rogues by surprise. Our orders were clear: kill any rogue who didn’t immediately surrender but leave the leaders, Christopher and Cairo, to us. Our wolves were chomping their way through rogues before they even had a chance to shift. Ric, Gabe, and I were making a beeline for the cabin where our mate’s scent was the strangers.

Before we could make it inside, the door was thrown open and a man who looked creepily like our father casually strolled across the front porch.

“These must be my dear cousins.” The man sneered. Gabe shifted but Lewy was still very much on the forefront of his mind.

“Ah, and which one are you?” The man asked.

“Alpha Gabriel. Who are you?” Gabe was barely able to keep his voice calm enough to speak coherently.

“Christopher Emerald, of course. My son is inside with your lovely Luna. She really is a thing of beauty, but oh that mouth of hers! It’s really a shame you three let her go unmarked for so long,” He tsked, “Alas, Cairo will have no issues claiming her for himself now.”

“Over my dead body.” Frost snarled in my head.

Frost growled at Christopher, showing him his teeth. Quill was less subtle. He lunged forward, tearing through the two rogues who attempted to stop him from getting to Christopher.

“Now, now, we mustn’t be too hasty if we want our Luna to live.” Christopher chastised us.

Quill froze before he could cover the steps to the porch, his black eyes trained on our apparent cousin.

“You will die for laying a hand on our mate.” Gabe spoke plainly.

“If you do not leave now, your Luna will pay the consequences. If you cooperate, she will live. Cairo wants her as his Luna, anyway, so we have no reason to kill her unless you give us one.” Christopher delivered the news as plainly as if he was speaking about the weather.

“You’ll never have our Luna or our pack. They will never bow to you and they will defend their Luna even in our deaths.” Gabe said, his hands curling and uncurling into fists.

“Everyone has a price and everyone has a weakness.” Christopher shrugged nonchalantly.

“Christopher.” Lewy turned his head to see our father stepping forward. We had never seen him so pissed off before.

Christopher tilted his head to the side curiously before a look of recognition dawned on him.

“Awh, you must be the former Alpha Lukas.” Christopher chuckled, “Nice to finally meet you, cousin.”

“You are no cousin of mine. You have no family here. Your father betrayed his pack and his family, and you, it appears, have followed down his path.” Dad said, walking closer and closer to him.

“Your father was the traitor! He went against the very instincts of werewolf kind!” Christopher’s calm deemer began to falter.

“Maybe a hundred years ago, but not in this century, not anymore. You could’ve come home, to your pack, Christopher, instead of following down your father’s path. Now, you have also led your son to his death.” Dad looked sad but I knew he was as determined as we were to end this. He would show no mercy.

“You have no idea what has gone into this, we will not fail! Your life will be ruined no matter the outcome of today.” Christopher sneered.

“Enough talk! I want this man’s head on a pike!” Quill snarled through our mindlink.

“He has Harlow and can give the order for his son to kill her before we could even make it to the porch.” Gabe replied in his usual diplomatic tone.

“We can’t leave without her.” I whimpered.

“We can pretend to leave and then go around back.” Gabe suggested.

“Do it.” Quill and Godric grunted in response.

Gabe opened his mouth but before he could make the deal, a sound escaped the cabin that changed our minds in an instant.

“Gabriel! Godric! Griffin!” Harlow shrieked from the top of her lungs, fear and pain evident in her voice.

The fact that she screamed meant that she was far enough away from the son that we had a window of opportunity. None of us waited for the other to give the order, we all ran straight for the cabin. I barreled right past Christopher, not even caring about him at the moment, and inside the cabin. Gabre was behind me but I didn’t sense Ric, who must’ve stayed to deal with Christopher.