Chapter 255: The Vampires

Leo’s POV

​The guard’s voice in my head was pure panic. "We are under attack!"

​The words cut off sharply, leaving a heavy silence in our minds. On the couch, Liam threw his blanket to the floor and stood up in one smooth movement. The tiredness that had been weighing his shoulders a second ago was completely gone. His eyes shone dark in the moonlight, full of the fierce power of a leader ready to fight.

​"The western border," Liam said, his voice dropping to a low, angry tone. "Leonard just got the message too. He is already heading down."

​"Then we don’t have time to waste," I replied, my own wolf pushing to get out.

​We didn’t say another word about Scarlett, or the bedroom, or the suspicion that had been hanging between us. When the pack is in danger, everything else stops. We ran out of the private study and raced down the dark hallways of the mansion, our heavy footsteps echoing off the walls. By the time we hit the front doors and burst out into the cool night air, we were already tearing off our shirts.

​The full moon was high in the sky, big and bright, pouring white light over the trees. It was the time of month when our wolves were strongest, when our senses were sharpest. I felt the skin along my back split open as my bones began to shift and break, changing shape in a flash of heat. Within three seconds, both Liam and I had fully changed into our large wolves.

​With a loud howl that shook the night air, we leaped into the thick forest.

​We ran at top speed through the trees, our paws pounding against the damp dirt and leaves. Ahead of us, I could smell the familiar scent of our brother Leonard. He had taken a shortcut from the other side of the house and was leading a small group of our best pack fighters. Liam and I caught up to them quickly, our large bodies cutting through the brush like shadows.

​As we got closer to the western border line, the smell in the air began to change. It wasn’t the smell of rogue wolves, and it wasn’t the smell of normal humans.

​It smelled like old dust, dry earth, and frozen iron. It was a smell that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. It was the smell of death.

​Vampires.

​We broke through the final line of thick trees and reached the wide, grassy clearing that marked the very edge of our territory. I braced my feet against the ground, digging my claws deep into the dirt as I slowed to a stop. Liam and Leonard flanked me, their ears flat against their heads, low growls vibrating deep in their chests. Behind us, ten of our strongest warriors stood in a tight line, ready to give their lives for the pack.

​But when I looked across the border line, there was no active fight happening. The guards who had sent the mind link were still alive, standing on our side of the line with their teeth bared, but they looked completely frozen with fear.

​Across the line, standing perfectly still in the white moonlight, were five figures.

​They didn’t move like humans. They didn’t even seem to breathe. They wore dark, heavy clothes that looked like old armor, and their skin was as white as paper. But it was their eyes that caught the light—they were glowing a bright, scary red.

​Liam didn’t hesitate. He stepped over a fallen log, his large wolf body shifting back into his human form in a quick, smooth motion. Leonard and I followed his lead immediately, shifting back to our human skin. We stood naked in the cool night breeze, but none of us cared about that. Our eyes were locked on the monsters in front of us.

​Liam took a long step forward, his jaw set in a hard line. He looked at the leader of the vampires—a tall man with short black hair.

​"What the hell is a group of vampires doing at the full moon border?" Liam shouted, his voice booming through the quiet forest. "You know the laws. If you cross into our land, we have the right to tear you to pieces."

​The leader of the vampires didn’t look scared at all. He didn’t even move a muscle. Instead, his cruel smile grew wider, showing the tips of two sharp, white fangs against his lower lip.

​"We have no wish to cross your little line, Alpha," the vampire leader said. His voice sounded smooth, like wet stone, but it had a strange, old echo to it. "We are only here to deliver a message from a much higher power."

​"We don’t take messages from leeches," I spat out, taking a step toward them. My hands curled into tight fists, and I felt my wolf pushing under my skin, wanting to rip the smile right off his pale face.

​The vampire leader ignored me and kept his red eyes on Liam. "You will want to hear this one. We are here for the Red Wolf."

​The moment the words left his mouth, the entire clearing went dead silent.

​My heart stopped. Liam stiffened beside me, his hands freezing at his sides. Even Leonard, who had been completely quiet and still all night, took a sharp breath.

​"We know she is in this pack," the vampire continued, his voice full of dark joy as he saw our reactions. "We traced the blast of her power when she shifted earlier today. You cannot hide her from us."

​A wild, animal growl tore out of my throat before I could stop it. The sound was so loud it echoed through the trees. "You will never touch her!" I yelled, my eyes flashing with absolute fury. "She belongs to us!"

​The vampire leader let out a soft, mocking laugh that sounded like dry leaves scraping together. "She belongs to no one but our King. The great King of the vampires. He has looked for her bloodline for hundreds of years, and now he knows exactly where she is sleeping."

​He stopped, his red eyes turning cold and dead serious.

​"Our King is reasonable," the vampire said, though his smile told a different story. "He does not wish to waste his time clearing out a nest of dogs. So, he is giving you a choice. You have exactly three days to willingly release the girl to us. Bring her to this border line in three days, and your pack lives."

​He stepped closer to the line, the red light in his eyes burning brighter. "If you do not bring her... if you try to hide her or run away... it will be war. Our King will bring his entire army. We will burn your packhouse to the ground, we will slaughter every single person in your territory, and we will take her anyway."

​The fury inside me exploded. I couldn’t control it anymore. My mind went completely red, and I lunged forward, ready to shift back into my wolf and tear his head from his body.

​"Leo, stop!" Leonard’s voice cut through the air.

​Before I could cross the line, Leonard’s strong hand grabbed my shoulder, pulling me back with immense force. I turned on him, my eyes wild, but Leonard looked at me with a calm, hard expression. His face was still pale, but his mind was clear.

​"Don’t," Leonard whispered to me. "Look at them. They want us to attack. They want an excuse to start killing right now."

​I bit my lip so hard I tasted blood, but I forced myself to stop moving.

​Leonard turned his gaze to the pale fighters across the border. His voice was cold and completely flat. "You have given your message. Now leave our land before we forget the laws of the border."

​The vampire leader looked at Leonard, then at Liam, and finally back to me. He bowed his head in a fake show of respect, but his eyes were full of malice.

​"Three days, Alphas," the leader said, his voice fading into the wind. "We will be back with our armies in three days. Make the right choice."

​In the blink of an eye, the five vampires turned and moved. They didn’t run like wolves; they moved so fast they looked like black blurs against the trees. Within two seconds, their scents and their presence were completely gone from the forest, leaving nothing but the smell of dead leaves behind.

​I turned to my brothers, my chest heaving as I tried to calm the rage burning in my blood. Neither Liam nor Leonard said a single word. Their faces looked like they had been carved from ice. The warriors behind us stood in total shock, waiting for an order, but there was nothing to say. The threat was real, and it was bigger than anything our pack had ever faced before.

​"Let’s go back," Liam said flatly.

​We shifted back into our wolves for the run home, but the ride back wasn’t like the fast, angry rush to the border. It was a heavy, slow run. The weight of the vampire king’s words hung over us like a dark cloud.

​When we finally arrived back at the large packhouse mansion, we walked up the back stone steps and entered the house naked, covered in sweat and dirt from the forest.

​Without speaking, we headed straight up to my bedroom. We needed a place to talk without the rest of the pack hearing us. We each grabbed a simple pair of dark sweatpants from my closet and pulled them on.

​Liam sat down heavily on the edge of my small leather couch, rubbing his hands over his face just like I had done hours earlier. Leonard stood by the large window, staring out at the trees with his arms crossed tightly over his bare chest.

​"We need the Seer," Liam said, his voice sounding completely drained. He closed his eyes and opened a mind link, sending a message across the pack grounds. "Madame Karen. Come to Alpha Leo’s room immediately. Do not let anyone see you." 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ

​A few minutes passed in complete, agonizing silence. Nobody wanted to state the obvious. Nobody wanted to talk about how Scarlett’s sudden claim that she felt nothing for us had happened right before a vampire king came looking for her.

​A soft, hesitant knock sounded at my bedroom door.

​"Come in," I called out.

​The door pushed open, and Madame Karen, our pack’s old Seer, stepped inside. She was an older woman with long gray hair and deep-set, kind eyes that usually held a lot of peace. But today, as she looked at the three of us standing in the room, her face grew worried. She adjusted her thick wool shawl around her shoulders and closed the door tightly behind her.

​"Alphas," she said softly, bowing her head. "I felt the dark energy from the western border. What has happened?"

​"Vampires," Liam said, not beating around the bush. "Five of them came to the border line. They said they were sent by their king. They want Scarlett."

​Madame Karen gasped, her hand flying to her mouth. All the color drained from her face, making her look incredibly old. She stumbled back a step until her back hit the wooden door. "The Vampire King... he has found her? Already?"

​"You know about him?" I asked, stepping forward, my eyes narrowing. "The healer told me that the stories about Red Wolves were lost hundreds of years ago. What do you know, Karen?"

​The old Seer took a deep breath, trying to steady her shaking hands. She walked slowly over to a wooden chair near my desk and sank into it, looking like the weight of the world was on her shoulders.

​"I do not know everything, Alpha Leo," she whispered, her voice trembling. "But the visions of the future do not lie. The Vampire King... he is not a normal vampire. He is ancient. He is over three hundred years old."

​"Three hundred?" Leonard asked, turning around from the window for the first time. "Vampires live a long time, but their bodies still age and die after a couple of centuries. How is he still alive?"

​"That is exactly the problem," Madame Karen said, looking up at us with wide, serious eyes. "Vampires have longevity. They have the gift to live a very long life, far past what any human or normal wolf can reach. But that spell... that ancient magic that keeps them from aging... it has been broken for a very long time. The strength of their blood is fading. With every new year, the vampires are growing weaker, and their king is finally starting to feel the touch of time. He is dying."

​She paused, taking a sharp breath before delivering the final blow.

​"There is only one thing in the entire world that can fix the broken spell," Karen said, her voice dropping to a whisper. "The blood of the Red Wolf. Her blood holds the pure, ancient magic of the first gods. If the Vampire King drinks her blood, or takes it into his body, it will revive the magic. It will give him and any of his people who drink it another thousand years of immortal life. In short... they want Scarlett’s blood to save themselves from dying out."