498 Wolf’s Fury
The chaos from the birds, seemingly erratic, was well orchestrated to peel the rogues away from the civilians. Caden had witnessed this same occurrence back at his King’s coronation and knew what would happen.
What he hadn’t expected, however, was for there for Jeremiah to show up at the same time as the birds. His arrival felt too perfect to have been an accident. Nevertheless, Caden was happy to see his Luna’s old friend after such a long time.
Something was different about him though. Whilst he’d smiled upon seeing Caden, his face was now set in a focused expression as he let loose one steel arrow after another.
When the hooded man aimed at one of the rogues, the birds would clear an opening and his arrow would sail through, downing the rogue in a single shot.
Even under the overgrown mop of black hair that tumbled to his shoulders and the stubble that had now grown to give him an older appearance, Jeremiah had a face that was impossible to forget.
Caden recognised him immediately and a plethora of questions assailed his mind but before he could ask any, the man yelled out—his voice, like everything else about him, sounded older too— “I’ll handle everything out here. Hurry up and get to the ones that already went inside.”
‘Catherine!’ a single thought gripped the beta alpha wiping the questions that surfaced within his mind.
Caden set his jaw tight and pulled the knife out of his shoulder. The wound was already starting to heal, finally unobstructed by the foreign metal that kept the tissues apart.
The beta alpha rushed into the shelter at top speed, deciding against shifting as it was bound to scare the civilians inside. As he ran through the open steel doors, he could hear Jeremiah speaking calmly at the top of his voice.
.....
“Nobody panic. The situation is under control now. You’ll all be settled safely within the Bunker in no time.”
‘Will they really listen to him,’ to his surprise, the chaos seemed to lessen, ‘Ugh, humans have always trusted hunters more anyway,’ Caden mentally grumbled as he rushed deeper into the establishment.
The bunker had been built to hold numerous facilities within it, from essentials such as toilets to storerooms and kitchens meant to hold food that could last a month at most.
It was a surprisingly large facility with so much to offer, with sleeping quarters numbering far more than anything inside.
That said, navigating this place would be hard. It was not like he could simply find what he was looking for by simply running through the facilities.
And since this was a facility that was rarely used, even Caden was unfamiliar with its layout. For some reason, it felt even harder than navigating the Great Colosseum.
He strained his ears in search of any signs of trouble. Using the mind link to try and track for any irregularities. Without direction, he wanted to use everything at his disposal to find the rogues.
He didn’t even know if Catherine had found them yet… or if the delta had been able to find her.
If they had noticed the commotion that was going on outside, then they were probably hiding somewhere in the shelter…
Caden wasn’t fond of playing a game of Hide and Seek but what choice did he have?
‘Asking around?’
The beta alpha looked around and thought it wouldn’t hurt to ask around. Perhaps the civilians had seen something amiss and spotted where the nurse or delta had run off to.
Wiping the look of worry off his face, he made his way to the first person he could see with the hopes that they’d seen a stunning doctor running around.
No one could miss her. She was like a flower that had been plucked from the Moon Goddess’s garden and placed on the earth for him to find.
‘Strawberries…’ he froze as a familiar scent hit him.
Now that he was catching that scent a second time, he didn’t need to ask what or where or to whom it belonged. He simply rushed off in its direction, weaving through the endless grey halls and facilities that covered the ground floor of the Bunker.
It wasn’t long before he heard the sound of a scream.
The scent had led him into one of the residential wings, filled with minimum-sized rooms aimed at maximizing the space on which they had been built in order to hold as many people as possible.
In one of the residential rooms, the scent of strawberries poured out, getting stronger the closer he got to reaching it.
Caden found the room from which it came locked tight. He could tell from the scent that the woman was panicked. Not being able to withhold his anger, as well as that of his wolf, he took a few steps back and came barreling at the door like a battering ram.
......
Catherine had rushed into the Bunker as soon as Caden ordered her to and after asking around, she’d discovered that most of the civilians that had been let in, hadn’t started settling into any of the rooms yet.
Some of them were waiting for the rest of their families to make it through the checkpoint at the entrance while others were simply getting used to the sudden changes that were happening in their lives.
That said, a few did tell her of a pair of men that, unlike the rest, went to look for a room to sleep in.
That’s how she ended up walking through one of the residential wings in search of the two people that Caden wanted her to find. Could they have been rogues? Or was there something else the beta alpha wanted to know about them?
Questions swarmed through the female doctor’s mind as she searched the rooms for the two men. Eventually, she opened a door and found them.
Seated on one bed facing each other were the same men she’d admitted into the Bunker, claiming they’d only been registered less than two years ago.
She’d found that information fishy but considering they had other workmates that could vouch for their day-to-day activities, they seemed legal enough. But why then, did she get the feeling that they were a lot more dangerous than she’d thought them to be?
“Is there something wrong, doctor?” one of them asked her.
“Uh, I’m not sure. Alpha Caden wants to see the two of you. Would you follow me out? It should only take a short while since you already passed the checkpoint,” the woman told them.
“Oh okay,” one of them responded. They made it to the door and stopped at the threshold, the taller one stopping to ask another question, “What’s this about, doctor?”
Catherine took a step back and gave a tight-lipped smile, “He just wants to confirm you finished your registration correctly?”
“Hey, Bartrum, I think I don’t want to see his Majesty’s lackey anymore,” the shorter one sighed.
“What about her?”
“Just grab her already,” as soon as this was said, Bartrum’s hand flew to Catherine’s and pulled her violently into the room. The shorter rogue closed the door and bolted it.
“Hey Steve, have you noticed?” Bartrum strained against Catherine’s struggles pulling her further from the door.
Steve stood by the door, checking through his bag for something, “Noticed what?”
“This is the same one. The same doctor that checked us on our way in. She smells good too. You think we could have some fun with her before disposing of her,” Bertrum chuckled.
With one hand clasped over the doctor’s mouth and another wrapped tightly around her arms, he sniffed the woman’s neck.
Catherine struggled even more, getting on hand loose. The rogue quickly let go of her mouth and grabbed the free hand. The doctor used that moment to let out a loud scream… if at all anyone could hear her.
The rogue quickly secured her hand once more and covered her mouth to muffle the scream.
“You scream really loud for a human. I noticed the way that alpha was looking at you. A werewolf can tell. You’re important to him, aren’t y…”
The door came crashing down, stunning the wolf inside.
Caden barged in to find Catherine restrained to the opposite wall. The rogue had his hands around her, restricting any movement and from the looks of it, he seemed to have ulterior motives.
Caden’s eyes turned red with rage as he rushed forward, oblivious to the second rogue in the room. A prick in Caden’s back alerted him of another presence.
He turned in time to see the rogue regaining his balance and brandishing his knife once more. Because of Caden’s sudden rush, the man had missed, only delivering a shallow cut.
“So she is important to him. Turning this one would definitely throw the monarchs into a frenzy,” the man holding Catherine snickered.
After dodging the knife and momentarily stopping to reassess the situation, the rogue quickly grabbed the woman and held her between himself and the beta alpha, keeping a set of claws on her throat, “Careful. I might slip and accidentally kill her.”
“You won’t get that chance,” Caden growled, his eyes flashing crimson. Rage flooded his veins and he fought to keep it contained... He was seeing red.