Chapter 18
Nicole yawned and began to think about moving off the road to set up camp for the night. She wasn’t looking forward to sleeping on the forest floor again after sleep on a bed for months but at least she knew she had somewhere to go to. Her own lands.
‘Maybe now we have coin and smell of a pack we can get a room in an in? If we pass a village?’ Rua huffed and Nicole scoffed.
‘You are after turning into a pampered pooch!’ The Alpha said as she laughed as the wolf growled at her.
‘It would be better if we went back and climbing to omega’s bed. I’m sure Waverly would give us a warm welcome to her bed.’ The wolf said sadly and Nicole sighed.
‘Stop.’ Nicole ordered, feeling a pang of longing for the Omega, her lips tingling as she remembered their kisses. She shook her head as she turned her horse off the road and trotted into the trees to find somewhere to camp. It would at least be a distraction.
She found a small clearing with some grass beside a small creek and she nodded, happy with the spot as she dismounted and took Firefly’s tack and her belongings off the horse so he could rest and eat too while she set up her bed for the night and opened one of her bags to pull out some of the bread, cheese and dried meat she had packed.
She sat down against a tree trunk and chewed her food as she got lost in thought again while watching the horse graze until it got dark and she climbed into her makeshift nest, falling asleep quickly and dreaming of the Waverly.
‘Wake up’ a voice boomed in her mind what was not Rua’s and the human startled awake and sat up with a yelp.
“What the fuck?” Nicole growled as she looked around her but saw nothing but the horse but he definitely hadn’t spoke and it had sounded female.
‘I don’t know.’ The wolf growled as they began to scent the air but she couldnt smell anything over the smell of horse shit that suddenly hit her when Firefly dropped a load right beside her and she quickly stood up, stripped and shifted to her wolf and trotted away from her camp so she could smell better and immediately became alarmed.
On the wind she caught a whiff of Rogues, multiple and foul. She changed direction to follow the scent and almost gagged as it got stronger and stronger. She ran as fast as she could for an hour to find the source of it and When she finally came upon it she felt her blood run cool.
There was an army of Rogues, in wolf form, marching towards the Angel Pack lands. In fact the front door few dozen already crossed the boundary line.
Nicole felt panic course through her veins and Rua shouted at her to do something so she took a deep breath as she lifted her head into the air to let out a booming warning howl/battle cry and when she stopped she looked to see the small army had come to a halt and were staring at the huge red wolf who they could see in the distance.
In the village miles away Waverly awoke with a start when she heard Nicole’s Call and for a moment she thought she had dreamed it as she had been feeling morose about the Alpha’s earlier departure but she heard her father’s call to arms and she quickly got out of bed, grabbed her bow and quiver of arrows which she through over shoulders and ran out if the pack house before shifting and following Julian.
‘Dad, what’s happening?’ She asked her father via mindlink as she caught up with Him and Wynonna.
‘Yeah, is this a drill?’ The dark wolf asked and Julian growled.
‘No. What ever this is its real. We have intruders and it smells like a lot.’ He said to them, his sense of smell stronger than theirs. Waverly and Wynonna shared an worried look before Julian told his daughter to take all the archers as they needed the cover from the ridges near where they would meet the enemy and Waverly did as she was told.
When they reached the army they were shocked to see Nicole’s wolf was locked in combat with so many as the rest had watched or prepared to fight the pack. Nicole was brutally dispatching any that attempted to take her on but there was so many the giant wolf was quickly becoming swarmed.
Waverly snarled as she found a good position and her archers all shifted and notched their bows. Waverly shouted at the closest to Nicole to shoot at the rouges tearing at the Alpha while the others were to target the front lines to lessen the number her pack had to face.
Nicole caught Waverly’s scent through the haze of the sour scent of the rouges and the Alpha felt terrified the omega would get hurt but she could do nothing to protect her until she could get out from under the male wolfs biting chunks out of her but soon she heard the sounds of arrows flying and the tell tale thud when they hit their target before her attackers began to fall away.
Nicole was able to break out of the scrum as she continued to fight viciously.
Jeremy appeared beside Waverly and quickly offloaded more arrows from the bundle in her arms before quickly moving on to reload everyone else on this side.
Waverly was worried Nicole would get hit but she continued to shoot at the curs attacking her, Angel barking encouragement to her human every time they hit an enemy wolf and they tumbled away from the giant, shaggy, red wolf who was making sort work of some others.
The omega saw the blood covering Nicole and hoped none of it was hers. She would heal over night but blood loss would get her first if she was hurt badly enough but Waverly could see the enemy rogues thinning out as Nicole viciously killed one after another and her pack took on the rest.
After a short and brutal fight the rogues that were still alive turned tail and ran yelping and whimpering and some of the Pack gave chase to capture them while others turned to see to their injured pack members.
Waverly threw down her bow and jumped off the ledge to run to Nicole who was back in human form and kneeling on the ground covered in deep bites and lacerations. The omega skidded to a stop by her side.
“Nicole, are you ok?” she whimpered as the Alpha let out a pained grunt as she tried to stand but Waverly stopped her as Julian appeared and called for someone to go get carts to transport the injured.
“Nicole, thank you for the warning.” Julian said.. “I thought you would be long gone by now.”
“I was. I caught their scent and ran back.” Nicole groaned as she leaned back against Waverly, feeling weak and exhausted, closing her eyes.
When the Alpha woke up she was lying in a much finer bed than she had ever slept on before and it smelled of Waverly. She blinked her eyes open and found the omega asleep on her side beside Nicole, her hand resting softly on the Alpha’s chest which was bandaged up and she had no memory of how she had gotten here.
She knew she had been badly hurt but she could feel that she had mostly healed. She should get up and speak to Julian to see if he had learned anything else but as she turned and looked at the sleeping brunette beside her. she just couldn’t bring herself to move yet. Waverly cuddles closer to the Alpha in her sleep, almost like she sensed Nicole was awake.
The redhead smiled to herself as she gently pulled the omega closer to her and bit back a purr as Waverly snuggled into her side and Nicole felt tiredness over come her again.
Not long after she woke up again because the omega was stirring.
“You ok?” Waverly mumbled sleepily.
When they returned to the village after the fight Waverly saw to Nicole’s wounds with her mother, they were healing incredibly quickly but she had wounds that were so deep they still bled. When Waverly and Michelle washed and bandaged the Alpha Waverly told Dolls and Doc to bring her to her own bed while she saw to others.
Truthfully Waverly was relieved the Alpha was back but she was frightened by what this would mean. A mob of Rogues attacking a pack in such numbers was unheard of. If they has been caught unawares it could have been catastrophic for the Angel Pack.
Nicole being back also filled Waverly and Angel with a warm feeling.
They had spent much of the day before discussing their time with the Alpha in the forest and Waverly admitted to her wolf she had enjoyed every second of it.
When she had finally been able to go to bed to sleep for a short while she had been filled with a warm feeling to see Nicole in her bed and their scents mixed together. After she checked on her patient she had laid at the edge of the bed, not wanting to be to close lest she accidently hurt or wake her but she couldnt resist putting a hand on her chest to monitor the Alpha’s breathing while she slept.
“I am. Are you ok?” the Alpha’s voice was rough and deep as Waverly nodded in reply. “I must speak with Julian.” Nicole made to move but Waverly’s arm held her down.
“Rest for a little longer, he knows you were badly hurt and need some time.” The omega said as she moved her arm over the Alpha’s bandaged waist.
They fell asleep again but before sunrise a number of Alpha howls woke them up.
Those howls weren’t from the Angel Pack.