Chapter 5

Those words made Aiden’s jaw nearly hit the floor. Why can’t they just leave us alone? He thought to himself as he turned to the audience. “The ceremony will have to wait we need to protect our home first! I need all pups and the elderly to get to the shelter now. Warriors you are needed to defend our home!” Aiden shouted as he turned and faced Roxanne, he looked at her in worry. “Please go get somewhere safe until this is over.” He ran his hand down her cheek, turned, and walked out the door struggling to remove his tie. Once he hit the front yard he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. There was a full-blown battle and the Rogues were attacking anything that moved.

Aiden charged through the battle where he noticed two Rogues stalking a couple of teenage girls. He quickly grabbed the two knives off of one of the fallen Rogues, flung one of them towards the two, and struck one in the leg. The Rogue screamed out in pain as he fell to the ground when the other one turned and glared at him. The Rogue shifted into his wolf and began to charge Aiden with the plan of tackling the weak human and ripping out his throat. Once the wolf jumped, Aiden quickly ducked and raised the knife leaving a deep scratch down the stomach of the wolf which rained his insides along the field. By the time the wolf hit the ground; he was dead, this allowed Aiden to direct the teenagers toward the safety of the shelter. When the teenagers were away safely, Aiden began to refocus on the battle. An uneasy feeling overwhelmed him, a feeling of being watched. He scanned the field and looked for the eyes that were burning into him, but found nothing when suddenly he felt an arm cross over his shoulder. Aiden grabbed the mystery person by the wrist and flipped them over. Once they hit the ground Aiden slammed the dagger he was carrying into the Rogue’s heart causing instant death. Aiden climbed back to his feet and came face to face with a Rogue who was charging at him. He sidestepped the charge, and Aiden quickly pushed the Rogue’s backside with his foot giving the Rogue enough force to lose his balance and crash into a tree.

The screams of both anger and pain overwhelmed the battlefield; Aiden scanned and looked at the situation. New Dawn was losing, and they were losing badly. His heart broke at the sight of his injured and dead pack mates on the ground; Aiden was both angry and scared. He wasn’t sure if they were going to survive this night, and he knew he needed to figure out a way to end this battle. Suddenly a thought occurred to him, the easiest way to end this quickly would be to find who was leading them and eliminate them. Cut off the head and the rest shall crumble! He thought with a smirk.

With his new mission in mind, he began combing through the battlefield to find the Rogue leader. He continued to fight his way through the battle and managed to make his way to the cliffs. He looked towards the cliffs and noticed the same Rogue who killed his father sending him a smirk. Aiden glared daggers at the man and growled in disdain, as he walked toward the Rogue with full intent to kill him. He approached the Rogue, who just continued to smirk at him, and drew his knives. “I don’t know who you are, or what your problem is with my pack, but it’s time for you to leave.”

“I guess I could always introduce myself before I kill you,” the Rogue said arrogantly. “My name is Trevor Swanson. I am just your typical Rogue who will be taking over your pack this evening. Don’t worry little Alpha, I’ll treat your pack members well.”

Aiden growled in anger and charged Trevor as he swung his knife. Trevor managed to duck just in time and swiped his knife towards Aiden’s side. The slice connected, though it only managed to cut through his shirt. Aiden quickly tackled Trevor and began to slam his head against the ground with all of his strength. Sharp pain in Aiden’s ribs broke him out of his trance when he looked down and realized that Trevor had stabbed him. As Aiden tried to regain his bearings, he was then thrown off by Trevor who unsteadily jumped to his feet. Trevor looked at the Alpha on the ground and sent one strong kick to his stomach. The groan of pain coming from Aiden caused Trevor to chuckle in amusement.

“What’s the matter Alpha, at a loss for words?” He followed it with one more kick when Aiden quickly grabbed his ankle and bent it knocking Trevor to the ground. Aiden stood on his own two feet and watched Trevor rise off the ground; they subconsciously began to circle each other. Finally, Trevor broke the stalemate and began to throw punches and kicks at Aiden. They both continued blocking each other’s kicks and punches for a while and it was obvious both men were tiring out. Finally, Aiden managed to land a roundhouse to Trevor’s face, which knocked him to the ground. Aiden stood over Trevor and fell to his knees; he straddled Trevor and held a knife tightly against Trevor’s throat.

“Any last words?”

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you Alpha,” a voice was heard as Aiden looked up. What he saw made his heart jump out of his chest. A black-haired Rogue held Roxanne by her hair and had a knife to her throat. “Now would be a good time to drop the knife and get off my Alpha,” the Rogue ordered.

Slowly, Aiden climbed off of Trevor and stood to his feet, he threw down his knife and held up his hands in surrender. He looked at Roxanne with defeat, when he noticed the smirk she had on her face. Suddenly, she threw an elbow to her captor’s chest causing his grip to loosen, turned around, and gave him a knee to the groin, then took off running towards Aiden. These few minutes caused Aiden to remove his eyes from Trevor long enough for Trevor to grab the knife that Aiden had dropped.

Trevor jumped to his feet, glared daggers at Aiden, and began to charge him when suddenly he was forced to stop. Jumping in-between the two men Roxanne threw her hands up in a protective manner. “WAIT PLEASE STOP!”

“Roxanne, what the hell are you doing? You need to get to safety this guy won’t think twice about killing you!” Aiden screamed at his mate in sheer disbelief and panic.

Roxanne turned to face Aiden when her facial expression changed from panic to smug almost instantly as she smiled at him. “Well, if I let him kill you I wouldn’t have the chance to do this. I Roxanne Messick hereby reject Aiden Lockhart as my mate and Alpha. I want nothing to do with him or have any further contact with him.”

His face distorted in pain as he looked at her in disbelief. She was laughing; he couldn’t believe that she was doing this. “Why,” was all he could ask in horror?

She ignored his question and looked at Trevor; she wrapped him up in her arms and kissed him passionately. Once they broke apart, she sent him a wink and turned back to Aiden. “Oh one more thing,” she added as she smiled deviously at him. Suddenly he felt immense pain as she jabbed a knife into his stomach. “It’s ironic; the same knife I used to kill your mother is going to be the one I use to kill you.” Giving him a small peck on the lips Roxanne winked and smiled at him. “You probably should have listened more carefully to your friend... David was it?” she said as she laughed at the look on his face, and then pushed him over the edge of the cliff. As he fell, Roxanne turned to Trevor smiling proudly. “Shall we go see our new home?”

Trevor nodded in agreement, grabbed her hand, twirled her around, and they cockily strutted towards the pack house. “Ladies and Gentlemen, My name is Trevor Swanson. You will now refer to me as Alpha.” The look of dread on the faces of the remaining New Dawn pack members had them both giggling in delight.

Aiden couldn’t feel anything, he had just lost his parents, best friend, mate, and pack in a matter of 24 hours. He closed his eyes as he continued to fall and hoped that the Moon Goddess would spare him and take his life, when the feeling of the cold river took over his body. He just lay there floating allowing the water carry him where it may, he didn't even bother to try to come up for oxygen until his world went dark.