Rejected, Broken And Forgotten
Chapter 82

Jeffrey’s POV

Elena and I are standing in front of the cave where the werewolves of old hid the white oak stakes decades ago. I still remember the day as if it was yesterday. We need those stakes, and I know the booby traps the wolves have set there. They can kill you, and I know the dangers. I know I will have to keep Elena close to me so she does not set off the traps.

“Stay behind me, and look where I step,” I tell her.

“Okay, babe,” Elena says. I smile as I think of how different she is when she is with me. She is now my mate, and I have marked her. I know, and I love being with Elena. She is so different than the other mates I had. She is spicy and independent but will listen to me and follow my instructions when I talk to her. She knows it is for the best, as I know these caves better than anyone and that she can not go ahead of me. She knows I am trying to protect her and will never put her life in danger.

We enter the cave, and I walk to another cave. There are steps leading down to the dark deepness of the cave. I know what steps to step on. I step on the first, skip the second, and step on the third. I waited for her on the fourth step to ensure Elena was okay. She has followed me and stepped where I stepped, so I am glad she is paying attention to my actions. I skip five and six and step on the seventh step. There are only ten. They are big steps, and I do not want Elena to lose her footing, so I help her to the seventh step. Eight, nine, and ten we can step on. As we reach the bottom, I know we must walk close to the cave’s walls. The caves are deep and like a maze. One can easily get lost here.

“It feels like we are in an Indiana Jones movie,” Elena laughs.

“I know, but the werewolves of old had to hide the stakes to keep them away from Mikhail. He wanted them badly as it is the only weapon one can use against him to kill him fast,” I say with a smile.

“Yeah, it is a shame he did not put on that daylight ring,” Elena says.

“I know all our problems would have been solved if he did,” I say. We walk for hours before we come to the next cave. We go into the next cave, and I carefully step on the stones that lead over a small underground river.

“Be careful, honey. You do not want to fall into the water. The water is poisoned to all creatures—even werewolves and vampires, and we can not even touch or use it as a weapon against Mikhail. Some of the wolves of old fell in, and they died. We have to be very careful here,” I tell Elena.

“Wow, why is it so poisonous?” She asks.

“We do not know, but we think it must have silver and other minerals in the water,” I say.

“How do you know vampires die of it?” She asks.

“Well, a vampire stayed in the cave, and he followed us as he wanted to see what we were doing. He lost his balance and fell before he could turn into a bat and fly away, and he turned into dust immediately. Besides, we do not know if it will work on an original vampire, but we will never know as we can not use these waters as a weapon,” I say.

“Well, let us get out of here and get to the other side. I do not like these waters,” Elena says. We move over those waters as fast as we can without putting ourselves in danger of falling in. As soon as we reach the other side, we run to the next cave. This cave is safe, and we will sleep here for the night as it is already late. If you are in these caves, you have to be on high alert all the time and can not take chances of being tired or not resting your mind and body. Although we are werewolves and can go on longer than humans, we also sometimes need rest. We take off our backpacks and quickly set up a camp. I have a little gas stove, I make coffee, and we make something to eat. We do not need a tent, and we sleep on a sleeping back next to each other. It is hot in the cave, and we do not need to warm ourselves.

“Do you think the stakes will still be there? What if one of the wolves took it out to keep it in another safe place?” Elena asks.

“They would never do that. The wolves of old trusted each other and worked together,” I say.

“When did Mercia become a Kingdom? Do you think they would have taken it?” Elena asks.

“The wolves of Mercia did not know about the stakes. Mercia became a Kingdom long after the other two kingdoms settled here, and the old Kingdoms never trusted the wolves of Mercia. They stole land from the two kingdoms, remember? They were not royalty, and they caught the kingdoms by surprise and declared the land they lived on as their own Kingdom, and the Kingdom of Mercia was started. The wolves of the other two kingdoms did not want a war as they wanted to live in peace, so they never fought the wolves of Mercia, but Mercia always looked for trouble and wanted more ground. That is when the other wolves started fighting back, and Mercia could not become bigger as the other Kingdoms kept them off their lands. I am sure you know the history,” I say.

“I do, but I like it if you talk about it because you were there and have seen most of it,” Elena says. I smile and k**s her. Elena lies closer to me, and I can not help but make love to her in the cave where we are all alone. We fall asleep in each other’s arms. I know the caves are safe, as no one can make it in here without setting off traps. Even if a bat flies in here, some traps will shoot them down.

The following morning, we got up early, packed up our things, and continued with our adventure to find the stakes. We go to the next cave and are careful as we must walk along the walls again. I know we are getting closer to the stakes as this is the last cave before we find the cave with the stakes. It takes us hours to walk through the big cave, and we must keep close to the wall where all the booby traps are in the middle. At last, we reach the last cave, and we walk in. In the middle of the cave is a stone vault. I know how to open it as I was here with the wolves when they put the stakes in the vault. I tell Elena to wait for me at the entrance to the cave. I know where to step, and it will be difficult for her to follow me. She waits patiently for me at the entrance, watching my every move. I walk over to the vault, which is made of stone. I know that I have to pull some levers in a specific order. I start pulling them, and after a while, the vault opens. Inside are the stakes. I take them out carefully and put them in my backpack. I walk carefully back to Elena, and we start the journey back.

We will sleep in the cave again on our way back as it will be late when we get to the cave we slept in last night. The walk around the cave walls takes hours, and we need to be out in the open in the daylight. I do not want to risk running into vampires at night. We know they want to visit this area, as Mikhail does not trust human equipment anymore. He wants his vampires to use their senses to track the wolves and the Kingdom. Paris and Walker are back in the Kingdom, leaving the woods of Russia to the wolves living there and doing a great job destroying the labs, human soldiers, dogmen, and rogues that can not be saved. Most dogmen can still be saved, and we are helping them adjust to being werewolves.

We get up in the middle of the night to be outside the cave when the sun rises. As I said, I want to be outside when the sun is up, and we do not have to run into vampires. As the sun rises, we reach the cave entrance and start running back to the Kingdom. The caves where the wolves of old hid the stakes were not in the kingdoms as they knew Mikhail would look for them in the kingdoms. We run as fast as possible as it was not far from the Kingdom. We link the King and Queen to let them know we are on our way with the stakes.

“We will meet you halfway,” Paris links back. Halfway, we see them running up with troops to protect us. I feel relieved as it will be dark before we reach the Castle of the new Kingdom. We can not run into vampires without the help of the troops, as we can not fight all of them and protect the stakes. We run with the troops and our King and Queen to the new Castle. It is dark when we get there, and I run inside with the stakes. No vampire can come inside if they are not invited in.

I hear a commotion outside and run to the palace’s vault and hide the stakes there. I close the vault, locking it. As I go out, I see the wolves fighting the vampires. I do not see many of them, but they are good fighters. The magical wolves and gypsies are chanting, and I know they make sure the vampires can not fly off. We do not want them to get to Mikhail and tell him about our Kingdom. We do not want him to bring his army here, putting the older and younger wolves in danger. We want to fight him on our terms and where we want to fight them. We do not want him to come to us, not that I think he will, but he will send his humans and vampires to fight us while making a bigger army to protect him. We can also not allow him to make more vampires by turning humans, so we will have to start watching the towns and cities around his Castle. I am glad Luca can spy on him now, so we will know about his plans before he can execute them.

I run outside and start fighting the vampires with Elena by my side. We have regular wooden stakes for them, as we might need all the white oak stakes to kill Mikhail. The vampires are good fighters but not a match for our troops, and soon, we have them all turned into dust. I know Mikhail does not know where they are, as we did not give them time to use their phones. It is a quick fight, and although the vampires tried to flee by turning into bats, they could not, as the magical creatures prevented them from turning into bats and flying off.

We have the white oak stakes now, and we know we must use them carefully as we only have about five. We can not even use one on Mikhail without our strongest fighters having one to kill him with. We can always try to rip his heart out or behead him, but the white oak stakes are our best bet to kill him fast.