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Haley’s POV

Dead bodies everywhere. It reminded me of what happened ten years ago, the same scene, the same scent of death. 

A feeling was telling me the rogue king was behind this bloodbath.

I shifted back and someone handed me spare clothes. I wore them and walked to Ashton, who was staring at the horrific scene. 

“Are those rogues?” Ashton asked as he tried to catch a scent over the heavy smell of blood.

“I don’t know,” I mumbled. I just hoped it wasn’t them. I still didn’t want to believe that my time was up.

A familiar scent passed through my nostrils. “Look for any survivors,” I shouted.

I pushed a few of the dead bodies, and my eyes landed on the owner of the scent. “He’s from Tyrone’s pack,” Ashton said, standing right behind me.

I got on my knees and moved my shaky hand to his neck, checking his pulse. I sighed when I felt the faint pulse. “He’s alive, but he needs medical attention,” I mumbled, glancing at the deep cut in his abdomen.

“You two take him to the pack’s hospital,” Ashton shouted at two warriors who were looking through the bodies. They stopped and came over, carrying the injured man.

I stood up and my eyes roamed my surroundings, taking in what just happened. 

Then I realized most of them weren’t rogues. They all belonged to Tyrone’s pack. 

“Haley…” Ashton called out, and I turned my gaze on him.

“... I think this is for you,” he trailed off with wide-open eyes. My gaze traveled to where he was pointing, and I covered my mouth, muffling the gasp from escaping my lips.

Scattered parts of the dead bodies formed letters. The sickness kicked in as I looked at that horrific scene.

The message was for me. He slaughtered this pack to warn me.

‘we know about Payton.’ my eyes followed to the end of the letters and a scream finally escaped from my lips.

“Oh dear goddess,” Ashton whispered when his eyes fell on the familiar man.

I rushed to help the old man who I always considered as a father after mine died. My heart clenched as I grabbed his hand in my grasp. “Tyrone, hang on,” I whispered, tightening my grip around his hand.

He had a deep injury in his chest; it wasn’t made by a werewolf as the claws made deeper cuts.

“Ashton, get help, now!” I ordered him. Panic trailed in my voice.

I cut a piece of my shirt and pressed it on the injury, trying to stop the bleeding. He grabbed my hand and locked his gaze with mine.

“Let me help you, Tyrone, don’t be selfish for once.” 

He inhaled sharply, and my eyes welled up with tears. “It’s too… late for me d-dear, call my son, Scott.” He coughed, and more blood came out of his mouth.

I shook my head and squeezed his hand. “You will live, Tyrone. I won’t let you die like my parents.” 

My gaze blurred from the tears and I burst out when he smiled weakly at me. He cupped my face with one hand and wiped the fallen tears with his thumbs.

“This isn’t… you-your-fault, Haley, you predicted it,” he stammered, inhaling air sharply in-between his talk.

More tears rolled down my cheeks. “Just stop being stubborn and let me help you.” He smiled, and his skin wrinkled around his eyes because of his old age.

Hands reached out to take him and I noticed they were the pack’s medics. They took him and rushed him towards the pack’s hospital. I stood up and wiped my tears, trying to focus on my next moves.

I mind linked Kevin and ordered him to contact Tyrone’s son as he knew him before. “Now what?” Ashton asked, hugging me from behind.

“I messed up,” I whispered in disbelief. 

“No, you bought us ten years,” he tried to reassure me, but it wasn’t helping.

What waited for us was something big.

“The rogue king is declaring a war,” I whispered, getting out of Ashton’s grasp. His green eyes locked with mine, and he sighed heavily.

“Ashton, mind link the other warriors to come. I want fifty warriors with me. The others keep looking for survivors,” I said out loud. Ashton nodded and did what I ordered.

“If you find a rogue, take him to the dungeons,” I added, then shifted into my wolf. I lunged towards Tyrone’s pack, with a few omegas following me.

There must be survivors in the pack.

When we reached the pack, it was exactly the same scene as the forest, dead bodies, blood everywhere, and body parts scattered randomly.

I howled, letting them know it was clear outside. My head snapped to the creaking sound. A bunker opened and people came out.

Mothers hid their children’s faces away from that bloodbath, and old women cried. I noticed Tyrone’s mate, Madeline, coming out with her omegas. Her eyes fell on me, and I lowered my gaze to the ground.

She covered her mouth, muffling her scream as the tears rolled down.

“Take them to the pack, and take Madeline to Tyrone,” I ordered the omegas through the mind link. They walked to help the elders and pregnant women.

"How do we stop him?" Maya asked.

I don’t know. He can’t kill us because we are the only ones who know her place and the damage of the other packs will be on us forever. I spoke with guilt, making Maya whimper at that thought.

Many people will die just for him to get Payton.

After Ashton came to take my place and clean that mess, I headed back to the pack to check on Tyrone. We were taking the rest of his pack back to ours because of the damages done to their houses. 

"He said it wasn’t your fault," Maya said, trying to comfort me as I walked towards the morgue. I built a wall and pushed her to the back of my head.

The rogue king wanted me at any cost, and he wasn’t stopping any sooner.

 Tyrone died because of me.

I stared at the lifeless body with tears in my eyes. After my parents died, he was the one who taught me everything I needed in this life; he taught me how to become an alpha.

“Alpha?” I quickly wiped my tears and turned to face the speaker.

“Did you call him?” I asked Kevin, and he nodded.

“I’ll go fetch him. He didn’t answer any of my calls.”

 “Do you need anything, alpha?” I looked at the body, then turned to face his concerned face.

“… I need some time alone with him.” He nodded again and left me in the morgue, all alone with the body.

I closed my eyes and grabbed his hand in mine. I shut off any distractions and tried to focus on projecting my soul out of my body, a power I inherited from my great grandmother who was a witch.

I could communicate with souls and be their portal, sometimes help them pass to the souls’ realm if they were trapped here.

My soul left my body, and I floated next to it, glancing at Tyrone’s body. Seconds later, a blinding light appeared in the room and swallowed me.

I groaned as I opened my eyes, noticing I wasn’t in the morgue anymore. Instead, I was in the same place where I left Payton.

But Tyrone wasn’t there to know this spot...

Tyrone came out of nowhere and stood by my side. His eyes were on the path that led to the couple’s house.

“Are you in my brain?” I asked.

“You invited me in,” he mumbled.

“Death wasn’t hurtful, as I thought. I’m waiting for Scott’s arrival. After that, I will go to the other side.”

I looked at my fingers as I tangled them together, not knowing what to tell him. “I wanted to tell you, you were like a father to me. You taught me a lot, and I did nothing except failing you.” I couldn’t lift my eyes to meet his gaze. 

I was ashamed of myself.

 He put his arm around my shoulders and brought me close to him. “Haley, you can’t control evil, but you can win against evil. Just remember what I taught you.” I nodded my head.

He lifted my chin, and his grey eyes met mine. “I’m fine, Haley. Don’t worry about me.” He smiled.

“Oh, and I’m waiting for you to bring me, Scott and Madeline.”

“Please take care of them for me, especially Scott. He needs someone to comfort him.” 

My eyes shot open and fell on Tyrone’s body. He had a smile on his face now, reassuring me he was fine.

I covered his face with the white cloth and returned the body to the freezer to keep him from decaying. I wasn’t sure of Scott’s arrival yet.

I walked out of the morgue and headed to the packhouse for the meeting I recalled.

Many cars were parked by the house entrance. Exactly Fifteen packs were inside, thriving to know why I called the meeting.

I took a long breath in and let out, rubbing my palms nervously. I had to tell them. The secret I kept was about to be known.

I entered the house and walked towards the meeting room. Every head in the room turned in my direction. 

There were fresh faces in the room, most of the alphas in the country showed up. I guess Kevin invited every pack he knew in the area.

I gulped down my saliva, scared to face those alphas and tell them the truth.

But I fought that feeling and dragged myself to my chair at the head of the table.

Their eyes were focused on me. “Where’s alpha, Tyrone?” One of the soon-to-be alpha asked. His father glared at him, but he didn’t care.

“Earlier we received terrible news,” I said, gaining their attention. My gaze lowered to my clasped hands on the table.

“The rogue king attacked the goddess pack. Alpha Tyrone passed away recently from serious injuries.”

“Does he have a replacement?” one alpha asked, and I lifted my gaze to him, glaring with rage. 

The man died an hour ago, and he only cared for having his place. 

“His son is on the way.” I spat at him, and the old man rolled his eyes, staying silent.

“So, what does the rogue king want? Was it a random attack?” one of the new alphas asked.

“Some of you are new and don’t know what happened ten years ago,” the elder alphas had a pale face as soon as they heard ten years ago.

They knew what my sister was capable of.

“You told us you had that devil under control.” One of them hissed angrily.

“I killed my sister to keep us safe. I told no one about this, but there you have the truth,” I spat out.

“The problem isn’t her anymore. It’s her daughter, she’s a shapeshifter just like her.” their gazes were on me, probably killing me alive.

“I gave her away to a human couple. I don’t know how he knew about her existence, but if we have a mole between us, I’ll end his life.” 

I finished my confession and looked at them. Silence filled the place. They exchanged looks with each other, deciding whether they wanted to hear my story or leave.

“Do you know her place? We can bring her here and she will be safer with us than the human couple in case the rogue king does anything.” 

“Alpha...” I stopped, not knowing his name.

“Chris.” I nodded my head.

“The couple moved after I left the baby on their doorstep. So, I don’t know where she is. If we took her, he would still attack us.”

Between all the alphas here, I only knew seven out of the fifteen. So if any of the new people stayed, I will have to explain everything from the top.

“Are you declaring war? Because if so, we have zero chances of winning,” Chris said.

“This is the rogue king we are talking about. If I didn’t know any better, the dragons would be on his side. Those traitors seek destruction more than peace.” Some alphas agreed with Chris.

He was telling the truth. Dragons broke the truce to be with the rogues and I don’t think they were the only supernatural creatures with the rogues.

“If I told you we have the vampires and witches on our sides, does this make our chances higher?” I asked.

I clearly didn’t have any of them by my side yet, but I could talk to them and land on something.

“I guess so,” he said nervously.

“Are we really letting a woman in charge? She is the reason this is happening.” I turned my head to the alpha who just spoke. 

His icy glare was on me, blaming me for what happened.

“Alpha Winston, I saved your asses from my sister alone!” My voice became louder than my normal tone.

I glared at the elder alphas as they kept glaring back at me. “You men left me when I was eighteen to deal with a very rare shapeshifter. You even knew what she was capable of, but never told me.”

“The rogue king is nothing now without Lily. If we gather our forces together, we can take him down.”

Each pack had over one thousand warriors if we worked this out. There was a chance of taking the rogue king down.

I waited for their answer.

"They will leave you to do it alone again." Maya growled.

She tried to push her way through the mental wall I created earlier. She was angry at them and wanted to rip their heads off their bodies, so I pushed her again behind the wall.

These men were getting on my nerves.

“We are sorry, Haley, but no, we won’t be a part of your war.” Winston stood up as he spoke and ten of the alphas followed him, leaving the room one by one.

Only five alphas stayed behind.

“As I expected,” I muttered.

Chris pushed a file on the smooth surface, and it reached my spot. My gaze dropped on the file.

I knitted my eyebrows as I picked the file, then looked at Chris, his bluish eyes locking with mine.

“These are the things we will need to prevent this war,” Chris said.

“Do I get that the five of you are in?” I asked, and they looked at each other before nodding.

“Then Consider them done.” 

We could still stop this war.

I did my calculations based on ten packs. Now that I have only five, there will be a shortage of warriors. I could use Scott’s help when he comes here.

Let’s just hope he wanted to be the alpha.