Rise of an Alpha Female (Two Moons Book 1) Page 6

  Have these dogs no discipline and respect taught to them before being allowed to leave their den? Insolent savages! Mahli thinks but keeps his face even.

  "How about you leave this discussion to your betters, Personal Guard Alastair? You don't see Nazih speaking out of term, and technically he would be your superior if you were in my pride. Plus two warriors left with your Diplomat are more than enough while in the safety of my compound. Not to mention there will be more than enough of my own warriors left to defend the settlement and subsequently, your Diplomat, don't you think?"

  "An equal share in bringing down those rogues and solving this problem would indeed be beneficial to our relations. I agree," Jena says, but immediately Alastair starts objecting through their mindlink:

  "This is wrong Jena, and you know it! This so-called Alpha has shown nothing but disrespect since we arrived, and you want me to leave you here with just two warriors? This could be a trap!"

  "He can't harm me in any way, Alastair. He would risk a reaction from the council that could lead to him losing his position and maybe even the pride disbanding. It makes sense to do as he suggests."

  "It may make sense, but it feels wrong!"

  "I know my friend, but I can not refuse him and remain in good relations on the feeling of our gut instinct, or how our hearts tell us to act. I can't go back to my father, your Alpha, and say this deal failed because I didn't like the Alpha of the pride. And please stop mind-growling at me! I know you don't agree, but it is my call."

  "Understood. But if anything happens to you, I'm going to rip his throat out; relations be damned!"

  "So I guess this concludes our meeting. The rogue hunting party will leave tomorrow after breakfast. Meanwhile make yourselves at home," says Mahli, dismissing all people present at once.

  The next day, Jena is walking around the pride grounds, taking in the surroundings, accompanied by her two remaining guards and four of the pride's warriors.

  It is past noon now, and she is both worried and confident that Alastair can handle the task set before him.

  They have been keeping in contact and will continue to do so for as long as the distance will allow it.

  "Nazih says we will reach the last known attack location in a couple of hours. I must admit he and his men are fast in their beast forms. We are going as fast as we can as wolves, and they barely appear to be jogging with almost no effort. But we will be exiting mindlink range in about an hour so I won't be able to keep in touch. Stay safe, or your father will have my hide, and I’m rather fond of it!"

  "You too, my friend!"

  While the pride warriors are stoic in their expressions whenever she approaches them, regular members of the pride seem more wary of her. Respectful and ready to serve while she cruises the market stalls, but wary nonetheless.

  Meanwhile, in the comfort of his working space, Mahli prepares the blood link ritual of communication, almost feeling sick to his stomach with anticipation.

  He feels his plan is solid, but the Master is never pleased.

  "Anyone there?" Mahli asks tentatively.

  "Yes, I am here. What have you to report, Mahli?"

  "I... I have devised a plan and acted on it..."

  "YOU WHAT?"

  "I swear you will be pleased, Master. I've convinced Diplomat Jena to send most of her escort along with some of my warriors to look for the raiding party, leaving her exposed here in the central compound. My Beta has instructions to keep going until they find your warhogs so the entire hunting party will be gone for an unknown amount of time. Therefore you can arrive here safely and take care of her."

  "I swear you are dumber than a night is dark when the sky is clouded! How many times do I have to tell you, Mahli? Don't think! You don't have what it takes to think. The raiding party I use consists of only four warhogs, and they know the location of my camp. And wolves actually have good enough noses to track them, unlike your stupid cats. How many did you send?"

  "My Beta and 10 cat warriors..."

  "Hmm, that's not really that bad, and wolves?"

  "Eleven wolf warriors, including their Personal Guard."

  "Mother Fcuker! I'm diverting my Second and 20 warhogs to help. How many wolves does the Diplomat have with her?"

  "Two."

  "OK. Then it's settled, I will arrive with 10 warhogs at your camp come early morning. Will your people obey and not interfere?"

  "I am their Alpha. They will."

  "Alright, I was going to come to your settlement and outnumber the wolves three to one. But I think since your cats are as weak as they are and run at the first sign of trouble, it will be fine. The hunting party should be properly annihilated. If all goes according to plan, you may just live to see another day. Now go be a nice host and make sure she suspects nothing."

  "I understand, Master."

  Chapter 6 - Confrontations

  "This is the location of the last attack, Alastair," Nazih says after changing back to human form.

  "My scouts found a trail. We will follow them," Alastair says back confident and orders four of his wolves to run concentric circles around them about two miles away, so they don't get ambushed.

  "May I suggest using my warriors in their swift form to do that? I'm sure you realize by now that they are much faster, not to mention they can cover the same area and with the same frequency with just three of them and they will hardly be exerting themselves. That way we have everyone rested if it actually comes to a fight," Nazih finishes.

  "Your suggestion is sound. Do it."

  Some time later Nazih signals for a stop and everyone does, while both he and Alastair switch to human form so they can communicate.

  "What is it? Why have we stopped?" Alastair asks.

  "Because your scouts are remarkably accurate. The warrior that was passing in front of us two minutes ago caught the trail himself and went to investigate; I had the other two follow him to back him up..."

  "That is not the proper way to do things; you should have sent others to investigate and keep our 'eyes' in place; we could be flanked from any direction now, and we would have no advanced notice," Alastair says.

  "Good point! But if you let me finish – we found them," Nazih continues with a satisfied smile.

  "Found who?"

  "The rogue raiders. Their camp I mean. They appear to have five prisoners, and there are only four warhogs guarding them at the moment. With our numbers, we will easily handle them."

  "What do you mean warhogs? Aren't warhogs supposed to be mindless wandering beasts? Why would they hold prisoners?"

  "Not the ones we have been dealing with. The one Merchant that managed to escape and reach us while his hired help held the monsters back said the warhogs appeared sentient, and goal oriented as they only attacked the guards when they weren't allowed to get to his merchandise. He also said they charged with unbelievable speed and regular weapons had almost no effect on them," Nazih explains.

  "You mean to tell me they don't bleed and get hurt like everyone else?" Alastair asks incredulously.

  "Merchant said they bleed, but they are oblivious to it like there is no pain or feeling whatsoever."

  "So are they really standing guard?"

  "Scout is mindlinking me that three are around a fire and one is a little further off keeping a lookout on the entry. They are in a little gorge with a single access point."

  "OK, leave two of your men here to watch the road, and with the rest, we go in. I have a plan we can use unless you come up with something better," Alastair says.

  "I got nothing so share yours and let's see," Nazih answers in turn.

  "I say since we've agreed your cats' swift form is faster, get one of the scouts to lure the guard and lead him away and towards us. You take the left, I'll take the right, and when your man passes between us with the warhog, we jump him. Oh and get the other two you sent ahead to watch the gorge's entrance, so the warhog's friends don't get any ideas and surprise us in return."

  Alastair
and his wolves take the higher right side of their path, hiding behind the ridge of a nearby hill while Nazih and his remaining cats use the island of green that is 60 feet away on their left.

  ***

  "Get ready, they are coming," one wolf says.

  "How can you tell?"

  "Shhh... Listen! I think I can hear grunts."

  "Quiet! Everyone back in wolf form!" Alastair orders.

  "By the Moons, would you look at that thing?"

  "It has almost caught the cat! That is way faster than we can run."

  "Wolves don't run, we fight! Get ready everyone! The warhog is so focused it won't even see us coming. So let's not risk anything as we don't know them yet. Strafe run it down. Bite your piece off and move away, making room for the others," Alastair mindlinks them, laying down an action plan.

  The wolves charge in, but when the cats attempt to follow, Nazih stops them so they don't hinder their wolf partners.

  After three of the wolves have already passed the warhog, their mouths full with muscle, fur and blood; the beast seems to ignore them, almost reaching the cat he was initially chasing; Alastair goes for a shoulder charge, bumping hard into it, making the warhog lose its balance and fall over, while several more wolves take their bites and move off.

  Panting hard and already back on its feet, the beast is no longer down on all fours, but standing upright, looking around as if assessing the situation.

  It looks as if a human form got greatly mutated. The head is entirely that of a wild hog, with two great tusks as long as an elbow, but its feet are obviously longer than its muscular arms. The hands are ending in four fingers instead of five, two longer in the middle, and two to the sides, covered in a chitin-like substance, giving them a solid rock aspect when the warhog gathers them in a fist.

  It is trying to keep the wolves at bay, always facing the one that seems closest, trying to punch out the attacker. It is, however, hard for it to face all the wolves seeing as he is not only surrounded but also constantly being circled.

  As another wolf attempts an attack and is quickly forced to step back, Alastair dives in and bites off a large chunk of leg muscle and fur, quickly getting out of range, before the warhog turns to attack him.

  Dropping to all fours and starting a charge, there is an obvious limp in its movement, and it appears hard for the warhog to reach the speed it had previously displayed.

  The rest of the wolves are quick to move in, taking advantage of the beast showing them their back and they target the muscle area in the hind legs to make it even harder for it to maintain its chase of Alastair's wolf.

  Giving up its target, it collapses, still attentive to the wolves once again circling him.

  An eager wolf, thinking the downed pray is now weak and defenseless charges in and is immediately hit across the head with a powerful swing and subsequently thrown several feet away. The wolf lays unconscious, and this has Alastair charge in turn.

  The swing from the hogs comes, but the wolf is ready and bites down on the wrist, almost immobilizing that arm. Seizing the moment, the rest of the wolves charge in, each biting and clamping down on the beast.

  A loud death yowl marks the end of its life, but more yowls come in response from further away in the distance.

  The warhog's friends are coming.

  "Nazih, since we have three incoming, want to join in?" Alastair asks as he finishes changing back to human form.

  "We'd love to. My warriors have been itching for a fight ever since the attacks started. We just haven't been able to catch the damn beasts. How about we use the same tactic?"

  "If it works, don't touch it! You and two of yours over the dead body, and then you get spooked, and you split in three different directions hoping each of those overgrown hogs follows one cat?"

  "Sounds about right. We distribute our remaining people equally on each as we surround them and attack from all sides?"

  "Yup. Watch out for those swings of theirs. Charge first, think later Mark over there is just coming to his senses now, and I'm almost sure he won't be able to help. Apparently, they hit like they have clubs instead of hands."

  "Will do. And everyone, please avoid those tusks, they look dangerous!"

  As they both switch back into their animal forms, the groups are split in three with Nazih and two others over the dead carcass, poking and mewling at it, while one of them starts to actually groom himself, making a show of having his muzzle covered in blood and attempting to clean it off.

  "So did you have a hard time running away from the thing?" Nazih asks the cat that initially played bait via mindlink.

  "Not really. I found that we are faster if we go full out and they charge.

  Their acceleration is surprising though, and I was lucky I had an initial distance advantage.

  If I were to start from the same point as the damn beast, he would overtake me from the start and be in front of me for about 10, maybe 15 seconds. Then I would continue to accelerate, and he would be at top speed, while I'd be steadily moving away."

  "Wow! That is amazingly useful! We may have gotten hurt without knowing it."

  "Get ready, I hear them coming," the third bait cat that had been listening intently points with his head, ears perking in the direction of the sound.

  The warhogs arrive at a swift jogging pace, being all alert and scanning the area for dangers.

  They were not expecting three large cats over their buddy's still warm body, dirty with blood as if they had taken him down for a meal.

  Frankly, they are rather surprised their mate has fallen to such a small number of cats, who are obviously inferior to their combat prowess. The warhogs are likely less than 30 feet away, and the stupid cats still have no idea they are being watched. Through a series of almost whispered grunts and signs, they decide to take the cats alive, as a present for the Master. He is always in need of slaves, either for his blood rituals or other grim tasks. Suddenly the cats get spooked, look at them for a brief moment, and then start running.

  They may be weak and cowardly, but at least they're not stupid since they know we are the superior warriors and are running away. This will make things fun! The lead warhog thinks to himself.

  He grunts the order to charge in, and all three of them do, goading each other on who will get the most bodily damage done to the scrawny looking cats. What they were not expecting was for the three cats to split in three different directions.

  But the top warhog isn't stupid; he isn't going to let any of the cats get away so they can bring reinforcements, but most importantly he wants to present three new slaves for the Master, any less won't do. So he order-grunts the other two to split up, each going after one cat, with him picking the strongest one, which is slightly less pathetic looking than its buddies.

  Nazih is happy that he knew about the rapid acceleration of the beasts, so he and his warriors were in a good position to start running.

  The plan was indeed to split the warhogs up and keep them going, but he is so keen on running that he doesn't notice at first the over drooling spittle machine running after him has stopped giving chase.

  So he stops too and looks back; the warhog is there, but no longer charging at him, instead simply walking. Wanting to keep it interested, he drops to the side and pretends to pant heavily, wheezing hard with each breath.

  As planned, that picks the beasts interest, which keeps getting closer, and at a certain point starts charging again – a clear sign for Nazih to in turn start running again, with apparent difficulty.

  Going for a hard to do and dangerous gamble, the Beta decides to run just barely ahead of the warhog, matching its speed, slowing to almost feeling the huge elbow-length tusks touching his tail, then sprinting slightly ahead, just like someone would from fear of imminent death.

  The lead warhog knows the cat he's chasing is slightly faster than he is, but apparently, it doesn't quite have the stamina to keep going; even now he can see the cat barely managing to keep ahead, wheezing for brea
th as it did earlier when it thought for a moment that it got away.

  No problem though; his kind can keep running almost an entire day before stopping, so he will most likely wear the cat down. He only needs to be patient and then kick the cat when it's down, catching its breath.

  Nazih is aware a significant amount of time has passed. They must have been running for the better part of an hour, and he starts circling back, heading to where the others were.

  The other two warhogs are neatly stacked on top of the first victim's carcass, their bodies clearly marred by multiple injuries with no cats in sight.

  But there is no way two cats could have done that so the warhog stops by their bodies and starts sniffing around; it quickly becomes clear to him there are some unfamiliar scents present, definitely from more than just two cats.

  He can also smell wolves. But while wolves are still no match for his kind's fighting prowess, they are not pushovers like the cats either. And the problem is they usually tend to fight in groups.

  The Master had already eliminated a pack of wolves earlier in the year, but that was because they were matching them warrior for warrior and they overpowered the damn wolves with their superior strength. And it made a powerful statement for anyone wanting to resist the Master in the future.

  So if there are wolves involved and his party members have been killed, there must be at least five of them. The scents are fresh so probably nearby.

  He can only hope the wolves have also killed the two cats, and he soon realizes that his life is probably forfeit, since he can obviously outrun them, but then the Master will, in turn, have him killed for running away.

  Unless he has something to show for it.

  Like the pelt of the stupid cat, he has been chasing for over an hour, which is now looking his way as if mocking him.

  So he allows his anger to fill him. Thinking about his dead companions, and how this damn cat has been apparently playing him for a fool for some time now.

  He wants blood, the cat's blood, and he is going to get it if it's the last thing he does.

  Nazih can see the confusion on the warhogs ugly mug, probably at seeing his partners dead at the hands of the two other cats. Oh if he only knew! He thinks and smiles a cat grin at the beast.