The Alpha Prince And His Bride
Episode 35

ERMANNO’S POV :

“THANE!” I shouted. “Catch!”

In one fluent motion, Thane caught the sword in his hand and pierced it through the rogue’s heart. Nolan followed right after and pierced it through the skull. I spun with a high kick landing on top the bleeding rogue and with one swift swipe ripped it’s head off.

Marcus leaned against the tree while watching us. “Well that was easy.” He drawled. “Are we ever going to get a real challenge?”

Thane shook his head at our brother. “Be careful what you wish for.”

I was with Thane on this one, from the way things were shaping up, my brother might actually get what he was asking for, a real challenge. It wasn’t like we had never been faced with a real challenge before, we were hit with many dangerous battles in the past, but as of recently things had calmed down in the battle field, only for problems to escalate in our family lives.

Luthais throwed a water bottle my way. “Thanks.” I mumbled before taking a big gulp.

“You guys ready?” Thane asked as he took a quick look at our surroundings. “I don’t think we should be out here too long.”

I nodded. “Let’s go home.” I told my brothers while lighting the body on fire.

Our trip back to the council didn’t take long, this, I was grateful for. Ever since the entire incident with Lucy, my brothers and I haven’t gotten any proper rest. Vincent had tried to make our lives a living hell, especially after he’d tried proving that we helped Lucy and Austin to escape and had failed miserably due to the fact that he didn’t have any solid proof to support his claims. He couldn’t accept the fact that we had gotten away without any punishments when instead he had gotten punished from the prosecutor for disobeying his direct order.

“What’s going on here?” Nolan asked suddenly. His question raised my alertness and I quickly forgot about my thoughts.

I followed his gaze, it seemed as though the entire castle was experiencing some sort of make over, it looked like they were preparing for an event. Which was insane, no one had told us anything about any upcoming events.

“We’re about to find out.” I told him as I spotted our father leaned up against one of the doorways. His face was grim and his eyes shadowed with worry and concern. He met my gaze and started to move in our direction.

“What’s happening?” I asked him, scanning all of the decorations and chairs coming in from all directions.

“The marriage arrangements between Eden and Hunter is taking place.” He explained. “The Prosecutor just left, taking Vincent along with him in order to have the final discussion with Hunter , it wouldn’t be long before the engagement happens and right after the wedding is set to take place .”

I stiffened, so did all of my brothers. “Father you can’t possibly be allowing this wedding to take place?” I demanded, his words striking a nerve.

He sighed, staring of into the distance. “It’s not in my hands son, Eden belongs to the council, it’s a sacrifice that must be made … I wish I knew how to get her out of it. Believe me, I haven’t slept the past few days thinking of ways to stop this wedding but every idea I’ve come up with so far seems to have a bad ending for all of us. It pains me to say it but there isn’t a way out of this.”

He was staring out the window at something when his eyes softened. I followed his gaze, Eden was out there laughing and spinning with one of the villager’s little girl child, my heart broke at the image. She was so pure and innocent, to be given to someone as ruthless and deadly as Hunter. From the happy look on her face, I was sure father hadn’t broken the news to her as yet. We all had once thought it would be a very long time before we had to give her away, in fact, this was the last thing either one of us expected to have thrown at us this soon. It was the last thing either one of us thought that we would have to worry about … but I knew why it was rushed. The prosecutor wasn’t taking any chances, he understood what it meant by Eden and James being mates. He also knew the power James and his family had, if James really wanted too, he could wreak havoc upon the council.

Silence fell amongst us as we all just continued to stare at my sister, our minds got lost in ways to possibly help her. Lost in the anger and frustration building up inside of us with how helpless we felt in this situation.

“I think you should get some training done today.” My father finally said, breaking the silence amongst us. He was looking at us without actually seeing any of us and I understood why, we all felt it. If Eden was given away to Hunter, none of us will ever be happy knowing how unhappy she was. It didn’t help that James was her true mate, giving her away to Hunter would be like killing her slowly, killing us as well in return. It wasn’t something I’d ever hope to see happen to any one of my sisters.

It was sad that Isabella would also share the same faith. For once, I was happy that Lucy wasn’t caught up in this mess. It was the only good thing that came out from her separating from us. She didn’t have to be tied down to the council like we were and that was a blessing on its own.

“I can’t believe this s**t .” Thane grumbled as we neared the training court outside the castle’s walls.

We needed to let some of the steam off before we did something all of us regretted. Like murdering Hunter in his sleep, it wouldn’t be easy, not with the power he held and none of us would be ready to deal with the consequences of our actions either … I understood now what my father had meant when he said he’d thought about all of the ways to get Eden out of this marriage but none of them had a good ending for all of us. No matter what direction we turned, there was danger all around us. I felt like we were surrounded and all of the darkness was closing in on us.

A sigh escaped my lips as I took in the training area, luckily for us, it was empty today as most of the warriors were still out on individual assignments. Like always, we were the first to finish each task. It was one of the reasons why the council favored us over the others. Another reason why Vincent gave us a hard time. We were often given the chance to escape punishment because of the speed in which we did things, we had learnt to do it the hard way and were still learning.

I picked up some of the swords laying on the ground and threw them for my brothers to catch. One by one, they grabbed onto the weapons and faced each other.

“Think of it as Hunter’s head.” Marcus commented as he poked the sword outwards.

Thane’s eyes darkened as he charged forward with his sword and knocked Marcus’s sword out of his hand with the power of his strike. We all watched as the sword made contact with the wall giving of a loud bang .

Marcus chuckled , staring at his broken sword on the ground . ” I see that definitely helped .”

My head snapped up , my gaze connecting with my brothers as a loud howl broke our concentration . My sword dropped from my hand in shock . It took me a moment to recover before my brain could finally remember how to speak again .

“Lucy .” I whispered .

“What’s she doing here ?” Luthais asked the question that we were all thinking .

“Does it matter , she’s clearly crying out for our help .” Thane shouted , his face in distress .

“Thane’s right , let’s go !!”

Within seconds we were all shifting into our wolves , not waiting for any explanations as we raced to our sister .Whatever it was she needed , whatever help she was crying out for , we were going to give it to her !

…….

AUSTIN’S POV:

“Are the packs ready ?” I asked Alex , taking one last look at the outlined plan in front of me .

He nodded . ” Everyone’s already here , they’re just waiting for your signal.”

“Okay .” I told him .”Let them know I’ll be out in a minute .”

“Yes Alpha .” Without another word he turned and left me to my own thoughts .

It’s been a rough day so far , one of the most difficult days of my life till date . I was torn between wanting to go after Lucy and bringing her back safely home and getting revenge for the injustice that was done to us both . No matter how much I wanted her here with me now , I didn’t want to have her back until I had punished every single person behind the spell that was put on me . Nothing bothered me more than knowing I’d hurt Lucy because of it , at the same time I was pissed at myself for not recognizing her sooner , if my wolf had sensed it all along I should have as well . I let a damn spell separate me from my very own mate , the woman I loved . The woman I was supposed to lay down my life for and fill her own life with happiness . Instead I had only brought sorrow upon her , from our very first meeting till now , she had to suffer because of me .

With a mighty roar I pushed the table in front of me over , everything shattering onto the floor . I gave a frustrated sigh as I rested my head against the wall , forcing myself to remain calm . This was not the time for me to lose control , no, it was time for me to get revenge , for both Lucy and I . I owed it to both her and myself to let the people responsible for our pain to suffer for their evil deeds. And we were very close to getting that revenge , I’d spent the entire day getting the packs ready to invade Eric’s territory , we wanted answers and if the answers weren’t what we wanted to hear then a freaking war was going to break out , the friendship my parents shared with Alpha Eric all these years would be broken in but a few seconds .

I didn’t understand why but I felt very uneasy , my wolf felt it as well , it had me on edge and I knew this feeling had nothing to do with Lucy’s absence … Something wasn’t right and I couldn’t put my finger on it , couldn’t explain the feeling within . It was as though my wolf sensed that we were in danger , could it be because of the upcoming confrontation with Eric and Ariana or was I missing something ?

James entered followed by Lucas and Maya , breaking my concentration on the matter . ” Everything’s set .” He told me .

His gaze wandered to the overthrown table on the floor before turning back to me . “Is everything okay ?” He asked , his eyes shadowed with concern .

I exhaled .” I just can’t f*****g believe I didn’t see all the signs before now … I should have known .” I whispered more to myself than to him.

He placed his hand on my shoulder . ” Don’t beat yourself up over this , it’s in the past . You have to focus on getting Lucy back now . All that matters is that you realized that she was your mate even while under the spell , it took you longer than you would have liked but you still did and that’s what is important .”

Before I could respond ,a loud howl echoed throughout the quiet night .I instantly froze as I stared at the shocked , terrified looks plastered on each of my siblings faces .

“BREACH!”James roared , within seconds we were all shifting into our wolf forms and crashing out the pack house from all directions .

I took in my surroundings as soon as I was out in the open , the first thing I noticed was both packs all huddled in a corner … trapped . There were wolves to the front , the back , the sides , all growling and closing in on us .

F**K!

We were surrounded .