Chapter 4: The Rouge Fight

"Never take your eyes off your opponent, even when you're bowing."

-Bruce Lee-

***

The full moon was glowing in the sky, giving the werewolves chance to go for another rogue hunting. All the warrior wolves and the alpha’s commanders were ready to eliminate another pack of rogues. They knew doing the hunting frequently was not really necessary but it would be better if they just finished everything off quicker.

The less wolves they had to handle in the day, the more stamina they could store for the real fight with the witches. Even if they had magic power, physically the witches were far weaker than they were. They just needed the wolf mage to finish the protective amulet so they would be immune from the witch magic. In the meantime, they just had to get rid of these pests.

Before they left, like usual, Maxi gave his men briefs of what they were supposed to do for the night. There were a total of thirty of them going hunting. Maxi felt the need to increase their number considering what happened last time. Their pack would be considered one of the largest pack in the United States, so bringing thirty of the best men they had would not be an issue at all.

In the country alone, there were at least fifteen packs spread all over the states. Those were just the known and major ones. Azure Blood pack had at least a thousand hundred members, their homes were located all around the area, but they had been hidden with magic so no one would be able to see them. The only one left visible was his manor, just so anyone outside of the pack could still visit when necessary.

“Is everyone ready?” Maxi questioned as they lined up waiting for the order to go. All of them had a firm look on their face. Maxi was about to give order to go when suddenly he heard someone’s footsteps approaching from behind him. Turning his head around, he saw Reinhart standing there with an equally determined look on his face.

“Reinhart, what are you doing here?” He questioned as if he could not believe his own eyes. The blonde man stepped forward and removed his clothes right there.

“I wish to join you in the rogue hunting.” It was a sentence Maxi did not think he would hear from Reinhart that soon. The man always made up excuses to avoid coming. In the end, he never even bothered to invite him anymore, however that night was slightly different. His younger brother looked serious. After he publicly requesting it, there was no way Maxi would be able to refuse him, especially since he was his younger brother, it would humiliate the Dravos bloodline if a member was not allowed in the hunting after they became an adult.

“Okay, you can join us, but make sure you do not make yourself a burden.” He stated coldly and Reinhart could only nod. A few seconds later, he gave a sign to start the hunting an in matters of seconds, all the werewolves who participated quickly shifted into their wolf form. Reinhart had also shifted into a golden colored wolf, while Maxi who had turned into the large black wolf was marching in front as he led them.

The rogues should be scattered around the forest and they needed to split themselves into two groups of fifteen and sixteen. One of the group led by the alpha would find the rogues around the lake area while the other led by Jayden would go deeper on the forest area. It did not take long for them to find the rogues they were seeking for, as expected, these rogues just kept on coming. They wasted no time to battle them and a fight occurred on each side.

All of the wolves brought that night were warriors who were used of murdering their enemies so it was not that difficult for them to tear these rogues apart, since most of the rogues were useless and weak wolves to begin with who was blinded by pride and emotion, daring to do crimes within the pack which resulted in their exiles.

Only one wolf who was not as capable in combat as the rest of them. It was Reinhart. Of course, he had been trained to fight in both human and wolf form, but it did not automatically mean he was good at them.

Mostly because he despised the sight of blood. As werewolves, it was in their nature to be wild and beastly, but Reinhart just could not bring himself to kill others even if they were his enemies the way his family did and he had been deemed weak for it.

That was the reason why he needed to prove to them, that he too, could be useful in the field. He started biting on the rogues and managed to injure a few, but he was not able to kill them. One of their member who saw it immediately rushed over and killed those he had managed to injure. He watched as their necks were ripped apart and in his head, he received a mind l**k from the wolf who just tore it apart.

“Young master Dravos, you must not hesitate during this time.” The dark haired brown wolf tried to remind him before marching away. Reinhart was upset with himself, he did not know why he still could not bring himself to just did what was necessary. Perhaps coming there was a mistake to begin with. He should have just stayed at home and watched over his family.

While he was contemplating, he had not realized that one of the rogue saw this weakness of his and wasted no time to charge. Fortunately, he noticed it right away and managed to dodge the gray wolf. Of course, since the rogue tried to hurt him, he wasted no time before he bit on the wolf neck once and scratched his body deeply.

The wolf was already bleeding but it was still alive. He could taste the wolf’s blood on his tongue and it disgusted him. He planned on murdering the wolf right away but then realized that the wolf before him was still a juvenile.

Once again, he could not bring himself to kill him and this opened up path for another rogue who saw how distracted he was to attack him. A bigger rogue ran toward him and nearly attacked him when Maxi suddenly jumped and bit the wolf’s body. There was a bit of fight going on since the wolf managed to bit Maxi’s leg but it was not enough to slow him down.

Reinhart thought of helping his brother and was about to rush to his side when the gray juvenile wolf leaped and bit his body. Maxi saw this and pushed the wolf he was attacking off to rescue Reinhart.

He managed to bite on the gray rogue’s neck, killing him for good but the bigger rogue from before suddenly marched in and bit him. It was at this time when one of his pack saw this and attacked the rogue, killing him on spot but as he released Maxi’s body, he was thrown away to the other side of the lake and fell on the water.

This made everyone who witness it scared and after murdering all the rogues, they tried to find him but it was to no avail. His legs were bitten and bleeding so it must have been difficult for him to swim. Reinhart howled as he called for him but they never saw him coming out of the water.

Once the rogue was taken care of, the rest of the pack tried to search for him both on the surrounding area and on the water for hours but at the end, they were still unable to find him. These werewolves had super sense of smell, yet for some strange reason, they could not smell his scent at all. Which made them assume the worst thing.

“We cannot find him, what are we supposed to do now?” One of them questioned the other. Right then, the pack led by Jayden had arrived to the leg after he received a mind l**k telling him that Alpha Maxi had fallen into the lake and none of them could trace him.

It was almost dawn and they had been searching but it was to no avail. Eventually, Jayden had to make the decision.

“We need to return first and recharge our energy. We’ll send more wolves here to find him but in the meantime, we need to go back home.” It was such a difficult decision to make and Reinhart could not believe they were going to stop trying to find him.

“We are not quitting, we believe he is still alive, because Alpha Maxi is not someone who will die from something like this, but we also need to go back, we have been fighting the rogues all night. Most of us have lost plenty of stamina. I hope you understand.” He stated as the rest of the wolf followed him. Reinhart was speechless.

He could not believe his brother disappeared just like that. Warm tears began to gather around the rim of his eyes.

Maxi is lost because of me, how am I going to live with this?