Pack Gems by Kuro Kusai, WhiteWolf Aura (year 2 reading books .txt) 📕

"What aren't you telling me?" his tone changed to one of barely contained rage.

Daren hesitated, putting distance between them, "They've hired outside help."

He nodded. It was what he figured but why did this make Daren so jumpy?

"Which they have already been doing, considering all the strays we've caught prowling around Axel's. How many Weres did they employ?"

"….not Weres….witches."

He stared at Daren for several heartbeats, "Pardon?"

"Magic carrying bitches." Akira growled from the open doorway, his arm cradled into his side, "And you haven't heard the best part. Guess whose leading it all?"

His heart was stinking as he suspected the answer, "…Gaby."

"Gaby." Daren nodded in confirmation.

Shit.

Mason's mind whirled. How much did she know? She had been present at all their meetings, all their prisoner questionings. No wonder the bastards hadn't broken. It was either a snapped neck from them or some magical horror of a slow death from her late in the night.

Christ! She had even been a guard.

That was how wolves kept getting in Axel's perimeter so easily.

"Where's Kaden?"

"No idea, but she's not in danger, YOU are. Gaby doesn't care about getting Kaden or Taylor. She's merely using that as an excuse to appease those packs in exchange for manpower. Persuading them that you won't concede and death is the only option. I wouldn't be surprised if she's arranged attacks at home too. With Axel and you gone and a coven to support her, she'd get what was left of both packs and rule the territories with no opposition."

"Then we need to find Kaden. Where Kaden is, so is Axel. We need to band together and stop her before this all goes to hell." Mason took a step forward.

"No you need to rest—" Daren was cut off by a feminine voice.

"Sorry Alpha," he didn't need to turn around to recognize it was Bree, "But this is for you own good."

He felt a sharp blow to the back of his head before his vision went dark for the second time in one day.

~ Taylor's Pov ~

Was this mutiny? …More importantly, why was she still alive? Her body wasn't in mind numbing pain anymore. That was a good sign.

She sniffed the air subtly, still keeping her eyes closed.

"Bree! I can't believe you just did that!" Daren chastised.

"Yeah, well, you know that he wasn't about to stay put and considering this was the first time out of nine others that he could actually understand you and wasn't screaming nonsense about her—"

Taylor could practically feel Bree's fiery gaze on her.

"What did you expect me to do? He kept passing out before he even got to the door. I figured it save him the trouble."

"Not funny." Daren growled.

"Its fine," Taylor recognized Akira's strained voice, "He needs to stay put anyways. There's no way he could fight right now and he wouldn't have listened to us."

"I'm switching guard duty. Daren, you take my post, I need to be where some action is. "

"Fine….besides the more distance we put between you and Mason when he wakes up the better."

Taylor waited what seemed like forever for the noise of footsteps to fade and the doors from the back and front of the house to close.

It was lucky to wake up in her Wolf form because she didn't think she had much energy to Change again. Inside, what little magic she had, rolled, a spiking beat still dancing in her head.

Opening her eyes, she attempted to stand. Weres of all breeds looked at her progress with unease, as if they could sense the magic her body leaked. With a shake of her head, her vision cleared. Putting one paw in front of another she realized that her body was more than fine. What used to be her bond felt…different. Taylor wasn't sure if this was how she used to feel before sharing a bond with Kaden but she didn't feel empty as she had when it first snapped. Maybe she had acclimated while she was out.

With a glance to the windows, she could make out Akira and Bree in the front lawn, alert and focused on the center of battle that was only a block from their doorstep.

Taylor's eyes next roved over Mason, who lay in an unmoving heap. Sorry, Mace…She felt her ears go back at the prospect of what she was about to do.

He had protected her and now she was going to abandon him.But she had to find Kaden.It comforted her to know that she left him in good hands at least…although Bree was questionable.

She turned to the audience she had gained since she had rose to her feet. Showing her teeth in the fiercest silent snarl she could muster, she felt good about making all in her company flinch further away from her—and more importantly, Mason.

Bounding down the hall and jumping through the back window, she thought she'd made it home free…until Daren's voice of alarm reached her ears.

With a snarl of annoyance, she poured on a burst of speed and twisted through the familiar back alleys. She recognized where she was now, only two blocks from the awful purple office.

"Taylor!" Daren called from behind her. He was losing ground, at a severe disadvantage because she was in her Wolf form and he was not.

I'm sorry Daren, I have to find her.

..::. Kaden's POV .::.

Kaden placed the gun back against the small of her back, and knelt down to Gaby's level, placing two fingers on her wrist. She was definitely dead.

Kaden was indifferent as she took this chance to search Gaby's body for anything that might be useful. She wasn't sure if Gaby had been a part of the ongoing raid or not, but as she searched her pockets the only thing produced was a small red stone.

Before she could figure out what to do with it, Kaden's decision was made for her as she heard a group of voices, freezing her on the spot.

"I heard the shot this way!"

Kaden jumped to her feet as she heard people coming closer, and bolted for the backdoor of the horrible pink office, simultaneously sliding the stone into her pocket.

She reached the door and tried to give the doorknob a twist, realizing with dread that it was locked. Kaden wiped her damp brow on the back of her hand while debating if she could just knock the damn thing down, she rejected that idea as too noisy and conspicuous as she went around the side of the house.

Luck finally being on her side, she spotted a small window big enough for her to squeeze through. Hoping the window was unlocked, she ran for it. Kaden could have leapt for joy to see the glass slide up so easily, only a screen covering the frame.

Popping the frame out with a single jab, she leapt through the opening, expecting for an easy landing, but instead her shoelace caught hold of a piece of splintered wood making up the old window frame, sending her off balance.

Landing with a loud thud on the hard wood floor, she rolled with the fall and went into a low crouch. She crept through the dark room, now seeing that it was some kind of staff lounge, and out into the lobby. Prowling into the next closest room down the hall, she closed the door while praying no one had heard her.

Taking a deep breath, she leaned her head against the door, listening as the battle raged on outside. If she had any idea what was going on, she would probably be out there fighting alongside Axel, or one of the other Wolves that had waltzed into her life, but she didn't even know who was fighting, or even who the enemy was. For all she knew, another "friend" of theirs could have pulled a "Lucas" and betrayed them again.

With a wary sigh Kaden pushed herself off of the tile floor, and flipped on the light switch, illuminating a small, elegant restroom.

She grabbed a few lilac hand towels and stuffed them into the door crack to block out any outgoing light. Taking stock of the damage done to her body—she couldn't feel the palms of her hands, and her back throbbed from having been thrown backwards on it, but otherwise no major injuries.

Her shirt and jeans, however, hadn't boded so well. They had big burn holes perforating them, and her boots had no soles.

Thinking it was better to go barefoot, she took her shoes off.Her clothes however, she'd have to deal with.

Wanting to refresh herself a little, she turned on the faucet, letting the water run until it got cold. As she reached down to scoop up some water to splash on her face, she jumped back as a blue electrical discharge left her hands and traveled into the water's stream before she made contact with it.

Slowly she reached for the water again, and the tips of her fingers lit up with what Kaden had to conclude was an some sort of electric current flowing from her insides.

With a pause, staring at her outstretched hands, she sighed warily, "You just HAD to blow that damn necklace into the afterlife, didn't you Kaden?"

With a sudden hardening resolve she didn't know she had, Kaden stuck her hands in the water.

No shock, no pain—nothing. A light still drifted from her hands and traveled through the water, like a harmless illuminating flashlight.

Kaden's heart was beating a mile a minute from the adrenaline rush she'd just induced. Ecstatic she hadn't died from electrocution, she splashed her face with the icy water, helping cooling her nerves a bit. She was still chuckling as she bent over the sink, not believing the situation she was in, when a loud crash shook the little house.

Turning off the light, she forced open the towel barricaded door and crept back out into the hallway only to find that the soul shaking crash had been a body tearing through the walls. Connor's body.

Kaden ran to him, seeing that he was bleeding from a wound on his thigh where he had been staked by a piece of wood from the house.

She grabbed his face between her hands, "Oh shit, oh shit Connor…Connor wake up!" She slapped him lightly on the cheek.

"Come out and play pup, I ain't done with you yet," Came a taunt from just beyond the hole in the wall.

Grabbing a hold of Connor, she dragged him back to the open restroom door with her, before proceeding to turn and lock it, hopefully slowly whatever happened to blast Connor through the wall in the first place.

She propped him up against a wall and turned to the sink, opened the faucet, and splashed him with water, "Connor! Wake the hell up, man!"

Connor's eyes snapped opened startled, "Kaden?"

"Connor! You okay?" She asked, giving him a slight shake as his eyes started to drift close again.

He placed a hand on her shoulder, eyes still resolutely closed, "Are you daft? Stop shaking me, it's giving me a bloody migraine."

Kaden smiled, "Guess you're ok."

"I'm aware sweetheart, I'm still alive, eh?"

"You're welcome for that." Kaden mused, reaching towards the stake.

"Thanks sugar," he replied, as he pushed her hand away, smirking up at Kaden, "Though you have to know, since you two came into our lives, thing have got a bit dodgy."

Kaden looked away, shamed, sitting back against the opposite wall. "What do you know about all this?" she gestured about the warring outside world, but as he opened his mouth to reply, the door blew up into a million pieces.

A tall, slender man stood on the other side. Around his neck hung a pendant that looked exactly like Gaby's.

Which wasn't good news for them. Not good news, at all.

"You're the filthy dog that killed our leader? Give it back, and I may spare your life." He said in a calm voice.

Kaden looked back at Connor, and then at the man, "The hell are you talking about?"

"Her pendant."

Kaden's wolf was in a frenzy, she wanted to run as far from this man as she could, but Connor was injured, and the only exit was blocked.