Revenge of the Luna Queen

Chapter 22

Kaiden was standing at the edge of the forest, wolves spread out on either side. Night fell quickly now as winter came to the North, and already a deep twilight had settled around them. Blair and Clay's shifted wolves flanked him on either side. He should have been shifted for the attack as well, but his wolf wouldn't allow it.

Not the shift itself, in fact his wolf was fighting to be let out. Clawing and desperately fighting against the control Kaiden had forced upon his other side. The problem was that his wolf wanted out but not to wait patiently for an upcoming battle. Rather his other side was overwhelmed by the urge and instinct to find and protect his mate. While he had still had a visible target, a specific goal like getting to Pack Hiems, Kaiden had been able to remain well enough in control to shift and lead the three packs that now stood around him. However once they had arrived and secured the pack house, where they had been met with only a minimal resistance, his wolf's assertion and agitation to return to Aislinn had become overwhelming. It was instinct versus reason. The struggle wasn't helped by the fact that his rational side was also worried and anxious about his mate and was wanting to return to her side.

He had felt the change over the night; the feeble connection he had been able to maintain with her wolf had evaporated like an exhale of breath. It had taken him a while to fully understand that the anger and fear his wolf was exhibiting wasn't only attributed to the mutated bonds that he had felt change or to the feel as his mother had been murdered.

It was only Richard's constant updates on her well-being and safety that was allowing him to stay where he was now. Kaiden's eyes swept over the pack house that stood illuminated before them. They had restrained the light guard that had been left and had locked the others that had remained in the lower levels with a royal command to not warn their Alpha or any of their pack mates. Kaiden wasn't sure how strong it would be or how effective it would work but he was hoping it would hold long enough to give them an edge.

He was unsettled. Anxiety and panic burning in his chest, the inactivity and stillness intensifying the loss of the feel of his mate. The severing of their connection was alien and wrong. Sensing his swirling emotions Clay and Blair shifted their bodies closer to his.

"She's fine Kaid. Richard has her. He won't let anything happen again." Clay sent the words to him, trying in vain to reassure his Alpha. Instead of being reassuring however they caused him to growl, his emotions spiking as he was reminded that Aislinn had already eluded her guard once, and taken off on her own.

He was early for their next check in, but he and his wolf needed to know that she was okay if they had any hope to concentrate on the fight that was certain to be coming. "Guardian." Kaiden sent the thought across the mind link toward Richard, his heart dropping when nothing but silence greeted his call. Nearly fifteen minutes of calling through the mind link later and with Kaiden on the very verge of turning around and heading back, Richard finally answered.

"Alpha." Came his deep timbre, Kaiden stiffening and his wolf stilling in his pacing. Both man and beast responding to the unusual level of respect and the hint of nerves he picked up on through the bond.

"Why haven't you been answering me?"

"We have a situation."

"A situation? What's happened? Is Aislinn okay? I'm coming back right now." Kaiden thought back, his mind racing through the possibilities.

"The Queen is fine."

Kaiden frowned at the words. "Why do you not sound sure Richard? Where is my mate?"

"Well now your highness, that is where the problem is." Richard thought back, Kaiden receiving a flash of guilt and anger accompanying the guardian's words.