The Story of the Exile (The Belesone Pack #2)

Chapter 5

Milo followed the trail they had picked up, with his nose. The scent was strong and unknown to him. It had to be the strangers.

There was the smell of fire, long extinguished. It lingered in the air around him and he knew the strangers hadn't long moved on. He sent the thought to Marlan and Leo, who moved around, trying to pick up the scent and see which direction these strangers had moved off in.

Five minutes later, they approached a small brook in the middle of the forest.

Marlan stepped forward to take a drink and paused, his head over the water. There is something bad here, in the water. Do not drink it! he snapped, backing away in a hurry.

Milo stepped up to the water and lowered his nose to it, using his heightened senses, from his mating, to try to decipher the new scent. Bleach and blood. Someone has contaminated our water with their misdeeds. They must pay! he decided, raising his head and sending out the call to the other pack members to meet him in the area.

When the pack assembled, he spoke to Marlan. If you can reach them all at once, tell them that the water is contaminated and that we will hunt the strangers who had trespassed on my land. he asked, knowing that the kid might face some opposition because of his talent. But, if that was the case, he would deal with it, before anyone knew Katarina was capable of the same thing.

Milo watched as a few of the pack members accepted the voice inside their heads, whilst others clawed at their own heads in protest.

Enough! I am your Alpha...you will hear me! Milo snapped with his jaw, to seal the point.

Marlan nodded, to let him know that his message had been heard by one and all. Just as he thought, Marlan worked as a conduit, just like Katarina did. But where her talent extended only to those she was connected to, Marlan could choose who to target with his thoughts. It would definitely come in handy.

Marlan, can you send a thought to the strangers? Leo asked, to their united surprised.

Marlan cut the others off from the conversation, before he had even said more than his name, and listened as he heard the request. Why?

We will draw them here...to us. Challenge them to face our Alpha and his wrath, Leo explained.

Milo was intrigued by that approach. Baiting them was not logical or the best idea, but they had hurt someone and he couldn't let them hide from his justice. This was his land, under his rule. They wouldn't get away with it. Besides, they had contaminated his water. He would have to get a shifter, in human form, to clean out the brook to ensure it was safe.

Do you think it will work, Beta?

I smell the water too, Alpha. It smells of blood lust, he said, in anger. There is no bleach in war. These strangers have killed or harmed on purpose, for fun, and covered their tracks, Leo snapped his great jaw and pawed at the ground restlessly. His anger and frustration, so previously aimed at himself, was now all transferred to the intruders.

As they were going to do to Katarina, Milo growled again, unable to help it.

A few of the more defiant of his pack shrank back from view, sinking lower to the ground in respect. They knew that the strangers had insulting his mate and so had they. They were trying to hide, but he didn't care about petty squabbling. He would deal with them later.

Can you do it, Marlan?

Marlan nodded briefly, looking around and sniffing the air. I think so, yes. I just need a moment of complete silence. I need to find their thoughts.

As he began searching for the strangers, Milo used the moment to calm his breathing. He felt chaotic, on the brink of violence. If the strangers came for a fight, they would get one.

Unfortunately, when Marlan caught their scents and sensed their thoughts, he only had one thing to say. They are planning on leaving, Alpha. They have sensed the pack and believe it too dangerous to stay.

Milo hated cowards. He decided this needed dealt with immediately. I won't let them leave after causing harm. Stay with a guard of three, search their thoughts and tell me who committed the crime and who it was against, he asked, sharing his thoughts through the connected line to his pack. He wanted them to know and hear his plans, so that no one questioned Marlan if he sent for them. If there are injured parties to be saved, tell the others and send them to collect them. Beta, you and I go to face these cowards.

Leo delegated who would stay behind with Marlan and the kid accepted his position with grace. Call on the guards, if you need aide. You must not fight alone; we don't know what these people are capable of, he commanded.

***

Milo followed the path that Marlan sent him on and came upon the three strangers ten minutes later.

He and his pack of sixteen gathered around the makeshift camp site, before Milo made his appearance. He walked calmly over to the fire, in full wolf form and watched as the three strangers instantly took in his approach.

They barely gave him a second glance before transforming into their own wolves, shredding their clothes in the process. All three were snarling, but one had blood on his paws and muzzle.

Retain the bloody one for questioning, he decided as he headed straight for the one on the right.

Within a moment, chaos erupted.

Milo had to snap at a young wolf, when he almost killed the bloody stranger. I can't question him if he's dead, he growled, before shoving him towards another target.

The three strangers were bulkier than their kind and skilled in the art of violence. They also played dirty, Milo noticed.

He snapped at the neck of one of them and felt another slam into his hip.

They were trying to tag team him, while Leo kept their own people at bay, and tried to take the bloody wolf alive.

He wrestled one of the wolves to the ground and buried his muzzle in his neck, wounding him but not killing. He moved back and grabbed a skinny leg into his mouth, twisting until he heard the tell tale pop and roar of pain that came with a broken limb.

Milo didn't care. They had hurt someone in his territory; justice was death or punishment. He couldn't decide who or how many had been involved. The pack knew that if they couldn't safely take in the two non-bloody wolves alive, death was the only way to clean their lands of their crimes.

He felt terror overtake him and instantly pushed it down into the pit of his stomach.

It wasn't his own. It was Katarina's.

Milo couldn't spare the time to think of her pain and fear. She was well guarded and capable of fighting off an enemy. He only wished he knew why she was so afraid. Then he heard the thunder overhead.

The sound of the fight had drawn his attention from the rain that made their paws stick in the mud of the forest floor. Lightning lit up the bloody wolf, fangs bared and ready to strike at Marlan, who had joined the fight.

Milo wouldn't allow that. Running from the wolf that was charging at him, he headed straight for the bloody criminal. He butted his head into the wolf's tender stomach and knocking him out, as his head colliding with a tree.

Take him back to the house and have him put under guard, he commanded, before running back into the fight.

Two of the weaker fighters, who were already injured in some way, grabbed the bloody stranger and hoisted him onto the back of a stronger wolf.

The three of them trudged back to camp with their burden, to receive medical attention. They didn't bother going to warn the others of the fight. It would be over soon enough.

Milo was ferocious. He took Katarina's fear and used it to drive him on in the fight.

Some of his pack were hanging back, afraid to attack the well experienced fighters that the strangers were. He understood that. He hadn't commanded them to fight, only to do what they could. If it was safer for them to hang back than to step into the fray and get killed, then so be it. He wouldn't have any more blood spilled on his land.