Chapter 207: It’s a trap

Dorian was returning from the meeting with the Court Council when he felt a sudden shift in the air.

Earlier on, the Council had wanted to inform him and Alyssa that the two of them would lead the run through the forest the moment the Solstice began, as if he didn’t already know that.

Their concern centered primarily on Alyssa, whom they still assumed was wolfless and incapable of shifting.

They wanted to know how he planned to handle it, and whether she would be riding on his back, insisting it was imperative that the Alpha King and Luna Queen led the Solstice run together.

In anger, Dorian had told them to ’fucking mind their business and leave his Luna alone’. He had ignored their hasty apologies and stormed off just as midnight struck and the Solstice began.

He stopped for a moment, raising his face to the sky, feeling the snow melt against his skin. Shutting his eyes, he breathed in the clean, crisp air as the full moon emerged from the clouds; round and enormous, brightening the entire forest in its silver glow.

He felt Shadow and Soren stir within him, already itching to be let out for a run. He would be taking his Demon Lycan form in order to let both beasts out at once.

But first, he needed Alyssa with him. She was the one he wanted to spend the Solstice with. He wanted her by his side and in his arms.

He opened his eyes and made his way back to where she was, watching as hundreds of Lycans began to shift, filling the forest with the sound of howls and snarls.

Suddenly, he stopped. He scanned the clearing, his gaze lingering on the bonfire that had started to die out. He stared at the Lycans that had already shifted, wondering why the air suddenly felt wrong.

He squinted through the falling snow, his Lycan vision locking on the far edge of the forest. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Everything seemed normal.

Yet, the air felt wrong. Really wrong.

He broke into a run, intent on finding Alyssa first, then putting a call across to the army stationed around the borders. He needed to be sure the rogues hadn’t broken in.

As he drew closer to where Anthony and Pandora stood, he froze. Alyssa wasn’t with them.

Anthony and Pandora were in a heated argument, talking at the top of their voices about mate bonds, love, and emotion. None of them seemed to realize the Solstice had begun.

Jake, Henna, and Alec were nowhere to be found.

"Where is Alyssa?" he demanded coldly, his deep voice hard as ice.

Anthony and Pandora went silent. They looked around, suddenly realizing that Alyssa hadn’t returned after she left to relieve herself.

"Where the fuck is Alyssa?!" Dorian roared.

"Dorian... she..." Pandora stammered, while Anthony began to search around for her. "She said she was going to relieve herself. I..."

"I gave you one job," Dorian growled. "One fucking job, Pandora! You and Anthony had better hope she’s safe."

As they started to search for her, that strange feeling came again, the feeling that something was terribly wrong. The air didn’t feel clean anymore. It felt polluted, tainted with a darkness that had nothing to do with the forest.

Suddenly, he heard her call out his name from afar. He whirled around, following the sound of her voice.

?"Alyssa!" he yelled, hurrying toward the direction the voice came from. "I’m over here. Follow my voice."

Soon, he spotted her running toward him. Even from that distance, he could see how terrified she looked. Pandora and Anthony followed behind him as they hurried to meet her.

She crashed into his arms, breathing heavily, her face sweaty and pale.

"Where were you...?" he began to ask, pushing her hair away from her face when she started to shake her head frantically.

"It’s a trap!" she yelled. "The rogues aren’t at the borders. They’re here!"

Dorian froze, the color draining from his face. Beside him, Pandora and Anthony looked utterly confused.

"What are you talking about?" Anthony asked with a frown, but Alyssa was already speaking again.

"They’re already here," she repeated breathlessly, clutching Dorian’s arms tightly. "They’re in this forest as we speak. We’re surrounded!"

The moment the words left her mouth, the air rippled, and vicious snarls and growls echoed from every corner of the woods.

Several she-wolves who had not yet shifted screamed shrilly as dark shadows materialized from the forest, black smoke trailing from their forms.

[ALPHA!] Jake’s voice suddenly came through the mind-link, panicked and filled with terror. [WE’RE UNDER ATTACK!]

At the same time, someone screamed, "ROGUES! TAKE COVER!"

The rogues poured in like a raging sea of black smoke, their black eyes glinting with soulless fire, claws and canines bared and ripping into every soul they came across.

No one asked questions as the battle began. Anthony and Pandora immediately shifted into their Lycan forms and threw themselves into the bloody fight.

The clearing quickly became covered in blood–a mix of black and red–and the severed limbs of dead rogues and Lycans alike. It was a gory sight. The rogues kept pouring into the clearing in large numbers while the Lycans fought as hard as they could, trying to push them back.

As for Dorian, he was pissed as hell. Infuriated was an understatement. He had been fooled. The entire army was at the borders, with little to no protection back here at the clearing.

A rogue suddenly lunged at him, claws outstretched, eyes gleaming with evil fire. Alyssa screamed. In the next instant, Dorian shifted.

?His Demon Lycan form burst out violently with a furious roar. He grabbed the rogue midair, sank his claws around the head of the creature, and ripped it in two.

Black blood splattered on him, soiling his fur. But that was the least of his worries. He needed to protect Alyssa.

Another rogue lunged forward and clamped its canines around his arm. While he was distracted trying to shake it off, he didn’t see two more creeping around him to attack from behind.

Alyssa saw them and screamed his name. Before she could stop herself, she lunged forward without thinking, intending to shield him.

Another rogue slammed into her unexpectedly from the side. She was knocked to the ground, rolling a few meters before she clutched her ribs, groaning from the excruciating pain.

The Demon Lycan realized she was in danger. He started toward her as several rogues closed in around her, growling threateningly.

As he lunged toward the rogue closest to her, three others slammed into his side. In an instant, a legion of rogues swarmed around him, biting and snarling, piling over him until he was pinned to the ground, subdued.

The Demon Lycan roared, slashing wildly at the rogues and ignoring the pain of their bites as he fought to reach his wife. But it was futile. Despite his inhuman strength, he was greatly outnumbered. The more he fought the creatures off, the more they swarmed to hold him down.

Alyssa watched him struggle beneath the tide of beasts, hearing his roars of pain and rage as he fought to break free.

She looked back at the rogues creeping toward her, canines bared and dripping with saliva. There was no one to save her.

Everyone was locked in their own brutal fight for survival, and Dorian was pinned down. If she didn’t act right now, her vision would become reality. She would die. Dorian would die.

She closed her eyes, grabbed the talisman, and ripped it off her neck.

Instantly, thunder cracked across the sky, loud and angry. A heavy wind whipped up around her, spinning into a massive storm vortex.

The clouds bled into a deep crimson, and in the next second, the bright silver moon mutated into a sickening blood-red orb, exactly as she had seen in her vision.

With the talisman gone, raw power surged through her veins. Her body slowly lifted off the ground, her eyes glowing an eerie, blazing red as her hair whipped around her face.

With a flick of her wrist, she sent the legion of rogues flying across the clearing to crash into the trees. Lightning struck the earth, crashing into the spinning vortex of wind around her.

Now free, the Demon Lycan scrambled back, watching his wife ascend higher into the air, radiating a terrifying power he had never felt.

Suddenly, she threw back her head and let out an ear-shattering scream, sending a massive shockwave crashing across the entire forest.