The Four Protectors

Eighteen

3rd Person POV

Cassius walked into the packhouse clearing to find his dad, Michel and a couple of others standing outside the packhouse. Michel was holding his arm as he spoke aggressively to the others. His dad looked disgruntled and lost in thought.

"What's going on," Raphael asked.

Cassius came to stand beside him, Azriel partially hidden behind his body.

"One of those rouges infiltrated the territory and took a chunk out of my arm," Michel said dramatically.

He took his hand off his arm to reveal what was little more than a scratch. Cassius resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Michel had broken his leg when he was twelve and had barely shed a tear but when he wanted to he could whine about a scratch for hours, the prick.

"I can fix that," Azriel said graciously.

Before Michel could protest, Azriel's glowing hands had erased the scratch and the scar that it probably would have left.

"Whatever. That rouge is still alive and dad won't let me kill it," Michel said angrily, still sounding like a spoiled brat.

Cassius would have tried and potentially failed at kicking his ass for being rude to Azriel but now wasn't the time.

"You captured a rouge? Alive," Raphael asked in shock.

"Well yes it was just a twelve year old boy so the guards couldn't bring themselves to kill the little savage," Michel snapped.

"Black hair. Pretty scrawny," Cassius asked eagerly.

"Yeah do you know," his dad started.

"Where is he," Azriel interrupted.

His dad frowned at the interruption but still told them the cell number that they'd put the boy in. Cassius was off, Azriel on his heels. He collided straight into Desmond as he entered the building.

Desmond looked relieved as he held Cassius back with his hands on his chest.

"There was an attack. Where the hell have you guys been," he asked.

"The attack was by Alex. He's here," Azriel explained quickly.

Desmond didn't ask for much else as he followed Cassius and Azriel down to the prison cells. They finally stumbled on Alex's cell in the winding catacombs that were the pack dungeons. The boy was nothing like the one that they'd rescued and if Cassius didn't know better, he wouldn't have even recognized the boy.

There were no whites in his eyes as he clawed at the ground with bloodied nails.

The moment he saw them he leapt towards the bars at a speed, faster than Cassius had ever seen any living being move. He bared his teeth and growled viciously. The three of them took a startled step back, more out of shock than fear.

"Oh god what have they done," Azriel asked.

They'd known that this happened but to see it happen to someone they knew was a new level of horror that made Cassius want to puke. The boy they'd known was quiet, moody, and said all of two words if pressed to. This boy, well, wasn't really a boy at all.

The boy was now banging his head against the bars as blood dripped down staining his torn navy blue shirt.

"I can't watch this," Azriel said.