3. Forty- three

~ Harper’s POV ~

My ears were ringing and my head was pounding with the revelations made by my father. I could see from my mother's stony face that she had had no idea that my father had had another family out there somewhere. He had hidden this fact from us for so long as if it were inconsequential and wouldn't matter to us. Moreover, he had discarded this small family because he didn't want to risk his life with his mate, something which would happen anyway. I had no idea what my mom would do now but I would support her without any second thoughts because doing something other than that was out of the question.

 Zara had been with Ethan in front of my eyes and it burned my very soul to see her with him. It took every ounce of self-control I had to reel my wolf and not let him tear Ethan into pieces. The thought of Zara having babies with someone else was imaginable for me. The ironic hypocrisy of the fact that I had a baby with Natalie, who was going to be the next alpha wasn't lost on me.

I shifted into my wolf and tried to dispel any thoughts of my half-siblings from my mind. It was difficult, considering the rogues running towards the pack borders could very well be my half-siblings and I would have to fight with them. I hadn't yet completely accepted Katelyn as my baby sister and now, I had to accept three more half-siblings. I wasn't sure I was ready for that. I wasn't sure I wanted to accept them. I wasn't sure I could accept them.

My mind drifts towards the horrific massacre of Elijah, the ruthless killing of children, and numerous attacks on me, my dad, and the pack. My mind flashes to the horrified and fearful faces I had encountered when the rogues had attacked the pack to celebrate Katelyn's birth. Not only this, they had kidnapped Zara and kept her as a hostage after they came to know that she was my mate. I clenched my eyes shut. No, I couldn't accept them. Their horrible actions had condemned them and nothing would stop me from meeting out punishment to them. 

I growled low in my throat and forced my wolf to run faster towards the southern border where the rogues were reported. My wolf has almost recovered from the wolfsbane arrow and we would have been on our way to look for our mate right now if these rogues hadn't intruded upon the pack boundary instead. 

The pack warriors at the boundary would have been able to sense the rogues bounding towards the borders because of the thundering of the footsteps and the innate sense of someone intruding upon the pack lands. 

Alpha, the warriors are assembled at the borders and waiting for your command.

I want one of you to contact Ethan and inform him to report at the southern border, I mind-linked the warrior who had reported to me. There was no other way to communicate to Ethan and with everything he has done, he deserved to be at the pack border and fight the rogues. His added backup against the rogues wouldn't hurt either. I shut off the mind link and picked up speed to reach the southern borders as fast as possible.

I huffed with pride when I found my warriors assembled on my command and I nodded to Ethan when I spotted him amongst my wolves. I had decided to propose to Ethan to relinquish his rogue status and join my pack. It still rankled me that he had set his eyes on Zara but I could see that he would be a valuable asset to the pack with his scroll keeper knowledge. 

Everyone tensed as we heard the thundering footsteps rushing towards us. I faced the direction from where the rogues would encroach upon my territory and all of my pack warriors, including Ethan stood by my side, while we waited for the wolves to show themselves. We waited in tense anticipation as the thundering of paws grew louder and my muscles tensed in anticipation of the battle that would soon come. 

A brown wolf emerged from the thicket of trees and I held my breath to see Zara atop the wolf, frantically trying to look behind her as if to watch out for the wolves who were pursuing her. What was happening? This brown wolf was carrying Zara and running towards the pack boundaries, away from the rogue wolves. I had no idea who the wolf was and I didn't care as long as Zara was safe in my pack land. 

Let the brown wolf pass through the pack boundaries, I mind-linked my warriors who growled in return and stood in fighting stance as several other rogue wolves entered our view, ruthlessly chasing the brown wolf carrying Zara. I stole a glance at Ethan and he too looked like had no idea what was happening. Once, Zara crossed the pack boundary, she would be safe because every other wolf in my pack would make sure nothing happened to their true Luna.

All the wolves charge towards the oncoming rogues while I stay behind for a little bit, hoping to catch a glimpse of Zara up close, to make sure that she was here and she was safe. My warriors butt head with the rogues while the brown wolf desperately runs faster to cross the pack border as soon as possible. Our eyes meet for a moment, her eyes wide from fear and adrenaline and only when the brown wolf safely crosses the pack border, I snarl at the rogues and join the fight, after having mind-linked Samantha that Zara was in the pack borders safely, perched on a brown wolf. 

Without waiting for Samantha's reply, I charge towards the huge black rogue wolf who had attacked me so many times before, who happened to be my brother and my enemy. I snarled at him and he growled at me while trying to swipe his claws into my side. I duck and clamp down my jaws on his hind leg, making him growl. He turned around and swiped at me, making blood spurt out of my side. 

Before I could lunge at him, a brown wolf tackles me from the side and I lose my breath when I land against a hard tree. I growl and open my eyes to see the two brothers, Damon and Aaron standing in front of me, growling and snarling at me. Imagine hating your sibling so much that you want to murder them!

I growl at them and they lunge at me from both sides, planning to ambush me from both sides. Aaron swiped at my legs while Damon went for my face. I twisted my body and lunged at Damon and barely registered Aaron smashing into the tree behind me. Me and Damon swiped some blows at each other before Aaron again joined the fight and Damon pushed me so hard, that I went flying into the air. This was not working. I could easily handle both of them in a one-on-one fight but together, they worked like a well-oiled machine. When one lunged at me, the other aimed to throw me off balance and made me lose my breath. 

I stood up on shaky legs and threw Aaron into the air because he made the mistake of attacking me before his brother Damon. With Aaron out of the way, I focused my attention on Damon who was snarling ruthlessly at me. Because of his black coat, it was difficult to tell if he was wounded while the red color coated my white fur, as if I would bleed out on the ground any minute which meant that not all the blood on my body was mine. It was a great relief because I doubt, I would have been able to sense any deep injury because of the adrenaline coursing through me at the moment. 

We both lunged at each other. I went for Damon's spine while he went for my injured hind leg to throw me off balance. I jerked my body away from him at the last minute but managed to get a good swipe from his stomach and I could see blood trickled down from the wound onto the grass, standing it a deep red. 

I smirked at him and taunted him by not hastily attacking him again and we circled each other I noticed with frustration that Damon's wound had closed because it and stopped dripping blood. Damon growled at me and before I could lunge at him again, I noticed a flash of brown mixed with black.

I growl in pleasure and smirk at Damon because Ethan was now keeping Aaron busy which meant that he won't be meddling in our fight. When I defeated Damon, all his troops would admit their defeat and stop fighting. So, I aimed to disarm him as soon as possible so that I could spare innocent lives. He was attacking me because he wanted the fight to end as soon as possible, conquer the pack and skin alive the brown wolf who had dared to rescue Zara from his evil clutches. 

Enraged, he lunged at me, and in a split-second delay, he managed to bite off a chunk of my tail, making blood spurt from it and my hold howled in pain. I clambered on unsteady legs, my wolf incredibly angry at the lucky swipe Damon had managed to get at us. I growl at him and he taunts me by repeating my previous actions by delaying in striking and by circling at each other. 

 A deep howl rings in the air and both of us stop and look at each other. When a wolf howled in the middle of the fight, it was usually to signify that a major leader of the opposite party had fallen, to encourage their fellow wolves to fight with determination. This particular howl was unrecognizable to me and dread settled in my gut to check which one of my pack leaders had fallen. Aiden had been commanded to rest by my alpha compulsion because he was still recuperating and I had no idea who else the rogues could consider important enough to howl for. 

Both me and Damon looked around and I stared at the sight in front of me. A black wolf was standing atop a dead brown wolf and I understood why the howl had been unrecognizable to me. It was because I had never heard it before. Ethan was standing atop Arron after defeating him which favorably tipped the weighing scales in our direction. One of their leaders was down and only Damon was left standing. 

Damon howled in pain and I faintly registered that Aaron was his brother and he was dead. My gut churned at the thought that one of my half-brothers was dead and I never even had the chance to know him. And I had plans to kill the other one too. It was a good thing I had no idea where the girl was otherwise, she would have bled here on this forest floor. 

Shocked by grief, Damon set his eyes on Ethan instead with a determined murderous gleam in his eye. He was going to kill Ethan who had already moved on to fight with another rogue but lunging on Ethan while he was busy fighting someone else won't deter a rogue like Damon. I watched as Damon changed course and lunged at Ethan who had no idea that Damon was going to attack him. 

I howled in the air to warn Ethan and ran after Damon to try to throw him off course but I could do nothing as I watched Damon sink his jaws into Ethan's neck. I saw the blood spurt from his neck and watched with horror as he fell to the ground as soon as Damon released his hold on Ethan. Ethan's eyes landed on me and I kept my eyes on his and watched as they became glassy and he stopped breathing and lay perfectly still. 

My wolf paused in his pursuit of Damon and watched in utter horror and shock as I watched Damon howl into the air, signaling the rogues that someone important had just been defeated from our side. 

My wolf snarled at Damon and lunged at him. No more games now. Damon exacted his revenge on Ethan and I was going to exact my revenge on him. Months’ worth of revenge.