Alpha King’s Lost Luna by Aubrey Pepper

Chapter 282 Inevitable battle CASSANDRA il Asher approached us silently, and once Helene stepped away from me, I glanced at Rayden, who was rubbing his shoulder with an unpleasant expression on his face.

“What happened?” I asked him directly. “Where are your people, Rayden?” Rayden rolled his eyes at Helene. “Ask her. She’s responsible for what happened.” I frowned. “What do you mean?” The Alpha of Wild Crawler gestured around the area. I peered over the bushes and noticed several people were lying on the ground, clearly

unconscious. When I turned back to | Helene, she simply shrugged nonchalantly. | «I saw this man and the others sneaking around the grounds with a large wooden box,” she answered, her eyes watching Rayden suspiciously. “I supposed they were planning on taking something out of the castle, so I used some tricks.” «What tricks?” I asked as fear swelled within me. I could see the men’s chests rise and fall with their breathing, so it was obvious they were still alive, but that didn’t mean that Helene hadn’t done something lethal to them. The necklace weapon she’d gifted me proved that she was capable of plenty, and besides, Iwas still a little hesitant toward her after the way she’d acted around Ronald.

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She had been under his spell for a good deal of time, and while she seemed fine now, I was still cautious. n “Twasn’t going to fight against so many men alone, so I used some drugs to make them pass out,” Helene answered calmly. Her tone was so casual that it was a little alarming, and I fought the urge to groan.

Instead, I glanced at Rayden, who very much didn’t appear to be drugged.

«what about him?” I asked her as my eyes trailed over my friend from Wild Crawler.

«J needed at least one conscious man to negotiate with,” she answered. “So I gave him an antidote. And then you walked over here. Is it safe to say that he’s your friend? You seem quite worried about him.” i.

I sighed and then nodded.

Though I'd been initially cautious, Helene seemed to have recovered from her state of hysteria. She was speaking calmly and seemed to be making sense.

But now we had a bunch of unconscious allies around us that needed to be roused at once. We needed all of the manpower we could muster if we were going to leave Yurene for good.

“p]] keep my promise to help you get | out of here, but I need these men in order to carry out the plan,” I said.

“Can you wake them?” Helene let out a small gasp of happiness and then nodded quickly.

She got to work administering the antidotes, and as we waited for the

men to wake up, Rayden asked us what happened.

«I saw smoke and then watcheda bunch of soldiers rush to the checkpoints,” he explained as he rubbed his neck. “I was so worried about you guys. Thank the Moon Goddess you're alright. What happened exactly?” I glanced at Asher and struggled to find the right words to say. How could I summarize this madness when I didn’t understand the details myself? “This country is doomed,” Helene spoke up, and all eyes fell to her.

“Kaleb is crazy and Ronald isn’t any better than his cousin.” Rayden furrowed his brow. “What does that have to do with the fire? I don’t understand.” »

| “Kaleb set fire to the main building,” 1 explained. “He was trying to kill Ronald and his accomplices, but they managed to escape somehow-" “It wasn’t ‘somehow’,” Helene interrupted boldly. “It was magic. I saw it with my own eyes!” I shot her a glare. “Stop, Helene.

Things have been complicated enough.

We can discuss the details later. For now, we need to figure out our escape plan, alright?” Helene didn’t seem too keen to let it go but nodded anyway.

Asher finally spoke up.

“The men are all awake,” he pointed out. “We should be good to move out.

We just need a plan.” Rayden offered him a polite bow of

respect. “Your Majesty, it’s good to see you. I'm sorry for not bowing sooner-" “Don’t worry about it,” Asher assured him with a nod and when Rayden softened, he continued speaking.

“Where is the Alpha of Red Stone?” | “He left the castle earlier today,” Rayden replied. “He should be waiting for us with a few of his soldiers in the nearest town.” Asher nodded thoughtfully and then turned to me. “I suppose we return to Erika. We need to take advantage of the commotion over there.” I nodded in agreement, and when Helene, Rayden, and Rayden’s men obediently did the same, we left the area surrounding the bushes and

reunited with Erika.

Once everyone was in place, we observed the gate. A bunch of guests were running toward it, hoping to leave the castle, but it was soon made obvious that no one was allowed to leave. One of the guests tried to forcer through the checkpoint without permission and was shot immediately.

Based off his attire, the guest seemed to be a high-born from one of the Packs outside of the country.

Everyone was shocked. Both us and the other guests stared on in shock as the high-born man fell to the ground dead.

My heart sank and I turned Finnick away so he couldn’t see what was happening. He buried his face in my neck again and I held him close.

“Twonder if the other gates are the same,” I whispered as my eyes scanned the perimeter of the castle grounds.

“Most likely,” Asher replied, much to my dismay. “No one will be able to leave this place tonight. I'm certain of ICR I wanted to fight against this idea, but I knew he was right. The guards must have received orders from someone.

Ronald or Kaleb. It didn’t matter. The cousins likely knew the other had tricks up their sleeves and we were all collateral. They didn’t care about us.

They just cared about killing each other and maintaining control of this country. This fight was inevitable.

[ wanted to pull my hair out at the very idea. I'd seen more violence in the past

few months than any person should have and 1 yearned for a more peaceful existence with my family. But in order to do that, we needed to survive and then get out of here for good.

So, I reached into my pocket and retrieved one of the syringes of sedative. I injected Raven with it and then we put her in the wooden box. We delegated responsibilities amongst the group and decided that Erika and one of Rayden’s men would be responsible for taking care of Finnick, Lila, and the box while the rest of us would fight to break through the gate.

Helene had originally been appointed to stay with Erika, but she insisted on fighting with us.

“I don’t know how to fight with claws, but I know how to use poisons,” she

argued, and she showed us her knife, I suddenly remembered the eagle necklace she’d given me and pulled it out of my pocket.

“You might need this,” I said as I handed it to her. She accepted it and stared at me.

“Did you use it?” she wondered.

I shook my head. Helene snorted.

“If we fail, I’d better use it to end our lives,” she said bitterly. “Better that than being caught and tortured to death by those crazy Northerners.” I didn’t like the sound of that but nodded my head anyway.

Once the plan was confirmed, I kissed Finnick and gave him a hug.

“I love you,” I'said as I held him close.

“Listen to Aunt Erika, okay?” He nodded his head. “1 will. I love you too, Mommy." We parted ways a moment later, and after Asher and I shared a nod, we headed toward the gate.