Ch. 4

Garrett and Cole’s POV

No time to dwell on finally finding her, their wolves roared in rage as they crashed through the trees.

“Shawn! Oliver! Get to Sam’s position and help him protect the she-wolf.” Garrett snarled through his mindlink.

They each crashed into a rogue and for a moment everything was chaos. The rogues moving on momentum, Garrett and Cole intent on inflicting as much pain as possible on their mate’s pursuers.

A flicker of a thought from Sam, and Cole growled into the link telling him in no uncertain terms to stay put, Garrett adding his own command.

“Do we leave any alive?” queried Cole.

“As much as I’d love to torture every single one of them over a period of months,” responded Garrett whilst ripping the throat from the rogue he battled, “I say we kill them all and hear the story from her.”

“What if she doesn’t know it all?”

“Fine. One. And only one.”

The rogues quickly circled themselves around the twins, acting very much like a unit - a pack.

“We can’t fight them like we fight most rogues,” Garrett cautioned.

“Pack to pack, it is.”

As light as Cole tried to sound in his reply, he knew Garrett didn’t buy it. Packs fought much differently than rogues. Rogues were disorganised, out for themselves - they were easy to pick off in fights, even when they were aiming for the kill because they don’t typically work together.

This was new - and far more dangerous.

When packs fought each other, they almost always wiped each other out.

Like lightening, two wolves lunged at Cole just as three lunged at Garrett, one biting a chunk out of Cole’s golden coat whilst Garrett managed to dodge his attackers.

Both twins sent out a roar that sent birds flying out of nearby trees.

“Alphas! We’re almost there!” Markus’s voice rang through the mindlink.

“They’re surrounding us - so surround them. No one escapes - only one prisoner - preferably the big one. Luka - if you’re ahead of the group, you wait for them. Don’t come charging in ahead. Not with these rogues.” Garrett answered, as he dodged another attack.

Luka gave a dissatisfied assent.

Garrett knew he wouldn’t like it, but he couldn’t have his beta killed trying to get through that circle.

Cole saw his opening and ran at the smaller of his two attackers, grabbing him by the scruff and shaking.

As the rogue’s neck snapped, the other wolf charged Cole, flipping him onto his back.

Garrett roared, ripping the throat from the rogue blocking him and launching himself in front of his brother, just in time to take the full force of the rogue’s bite.

Pain seared through his shoulder and he swatted the attacker with his massive paw, allowing his brother time to stand back up as three more wolves now advanced on them.

“Fuck, what do we do,” Cole murmured.

“Give ourselves a little more time.”

Both looking in opposite directions, they watched as the circle closed in - all the rogues growling darkly.

Just a few more seconds.

The twins both lunged forward, each engaging a wolf, jaws snapping and legs kicking.

Cole rolled under one of his assailants, ripping out his intestines with a well placed claw.

But as he rolled back up, another rogue took the opportunity and snapped his jaws around the middle of his spine. Cole made horrific noises as he tried to reach back to bite his attacker but he couldn’t quite reach.

Garrett howled as one of his attackers got a hold of his neck, whipping his head around to force the wolf to release - when finally, blessedly, they heard the howls of their own pack.

Not a second later, the circle became a mesh of wolf fighting against wolf - their own pack fighting against the rogues.

Cole was released as Garrett and Luka both bite into his attacker’s neck, nearly decapitating him.

“Can you fight, brother?” Garrett asked, nosing him, as their warriors gave them a momentary shield.

“I’ll manage,” Cole playfully nipped at his brother in response.

The twins sent up a gleeful howl and nodded to their warriors who were shielding them - time to go back in.

“Remember - the big one we capture,” Cole reminded everyone.

Even with their warriors, the rogues proved so strong that the battle was not over as quickly as the many similar battles their pack had fought.

Garrett and Cole both winced and sent up a mournful howl as they felt one of their links snap and disappear - one of their warriors, Ethan, had fallen.

Standing over him was the big brute they’d hoped to capture, and the twins focused their entire energy now on him.

The other rogues seemed to guard him in the same way their own warriors guarded them. Why did they act so much like a pack and still smell like rogues? It didn’t make any sense.

Garrett and Cole both managed to kill another two rogues each, attempting to get to the brute, who danced easily out of their way as his rogues held them off.

But then, the tide of battle turned.

The pack warriors managed to kill every other rogue - and led by their Alphas, they closed in on the beast.

He sneered and lunged, grabbing one of the younger warriors by the throat and pinning him down.

Garrett and Cole both roared, pouncing on him in unison and grabbing hold of his own throat, both praying in unison that the moon goddess would make them fast enough.

They cringed as his blood poured down their throats - a rancid taste - rogue through and through - and he gurgled as his grip on their warrior failed.

Was he - was he laughing?

And then his eyes lost their light and he shifted back into a man, as shifters always do in death - and they saw it - the smile on his face.

He’d wanted them to kill him.

Cole and Garrett threw back their heads and sounded a mournful howl, which their warriors all answered.

They didn’t all know Ethan was dead yet - only those connected to him at the time would have felt it - or those who had seen it.

“We lost a brave warrior tonight,” Garrett said through the mindlink, projecting it to all those in the clearing.

“And with his sacrifice, we won an important battle,” Cole added. “One that will change many things about how we operate going forward.”

With a snap, both twins shifted into their human forms, followed by all the other warriors - who followed them over to where Ethan lay in his human form.

“Thank the goddess he didn’t have a mate,” Garrett murmured.

Cole cocked his head.

“I’m not sure if that’s better - or worse.”

At this moment both Cole and Garrett’s wolves growled, urging them to go to their own mate.

“Everyone,” Garrett called, earning the silence of his warriors.

“If you’re injured, get back to the pack house. The healers are there.”

“If you’re not,“ Cole continued smoothly, “either help someone who is or help in returning Ethan to the pack house.”

“We’ll have other warriors come out and collect these bodies, but we have something we need to tend to first. Luka, Markus, you may want to come with us. But in your wolf forms, please.

We’ll meet you all back at the house.”