Jasmine stood just as everyone else watched the wolves pointing their arrows at them.
She swallowed heavily and felt her heart pound so fast it seemed ready to pop out of her chest.
"Jared betrayed us." Xaden swore.
No one said a word.
Not a single person.
Even those at the edge of the wall remained with their arrows pointing at them.
Erik stood behind him.
"Do you want me to give the order?" Erik asked Xaden.
Xaden looked his eyes pointing in suspicion.
"No. We still have the rest of the men. Garrick was supposed to be looking out for the pack." Xaden said. "Where is he?"
"If you are looking for your commander." A male voice said.
Jasmine felt chills in her bones and everything in her wrote fear.
She looked up at the verandah top of the wall and saw that it was none other than her father.
Xaden on his own path gritted his teeth.
"Then he is here." Bale finished.
And with that he tossed a head over the wall and it dropped right at Xaden’s feet.
It was none other than Garrick’s decapitated head.
Xaden looked at him in rage.
In boiling anger and fury.
Bale smiled at him. "You thought that you could outsmart me. For what you did to my son I have plans for you."
Then the wolf council members who had escorted them came to Xaden’s front.
"Bale. This is monstrous." One of the members said. "You need to cease this immediately! You have out fully broken so many rules and disobeyed the order of the royal family. This is treason!"
"I do not care." Bale spat. "This is for me to decide."
"You can not do this! You will be putting an end to your life and all your people! Even if you succeed in killing Xaden then you must be aware that the royal family will exterminate you without mercy."
"There will be no royal family by the time I am done." Bale said.
One of the other members gasped. "What do you mean by that statement."
Bale turned away from responding to them and faced Xaden.
"The way I ended your family is the way I will erase you." Bale promised.
Xaden’s hand clenched in rage at the words that had been used at him.
The reminder of the family he had lost.
Then Bale saw her.
She felt him see through her.
She swallowed.
"I see you have my bastard." He said.
She flinched at his choice of words at her.
"What? You think she is leverage against me? Kill her, do whatever you want with her. She means nothing to me."
It felt like a bomb had been dropped on Jasmine’s chest.
Like a heavy weight had hit her.
He had rarely ever expressed his distaste for her.
This was the first time and she felt horrible.
She swallowed and felt her insides boil.
Boil at the rage and anger that she had sacrificed everything within her and he had taken the will to use her.
Even thrown her to the wolves.
Their enemies.
And see how he had paid her back.
Then they turned around to see from where they had come from and saw that Jared’s men were already there.
They were trapped.
Even with their over one thousand men in their shield, they were surrounded.
Xaden stood breathing and looked up at Bale with hate.
"Give up. Surrender and I will deliver a less painless death." Bale told him.
And then Xaden howled.
Before Bale could react, it echoed through everywhere. Bale waved his order for the archers to throw their arrow down but a second before it made impact, there were shields that seemed to appear from nowhere block it.
All the wolves of the crescent pack had one over their heads and then to the side and it formed such a powerful formation.
Not even one penetrated through the shield.
When Bale had exhausted all his archers, Xaden howled again.
Taking him by surprise and before he could react, arrows lit with fire came from the trees.
Going up to the archers at the wall killing then on impact and lighting the wall on fire.
The same happened for Jared’s men.
Eventually Xaden took down his own shield and set it aside.
He howled.
And instantly all of them went charging to the walls and attacking Jared’s men from behind.
Bale who had not calculated this entire move was shocked.
"Fall back." One of Bale’s commanders said to the remaining men on the wall. "Use the bombs."
"Fall back?" Bale demanded. "You are supposed to be fighting for us! Not falling back like cowards."
"They used their tactics against us." The commander said. "We have to retreat back to the walls of the pack."
The men were all shouting as the fighting resumed.
Bale looked down his heart racing.
"We need to retreat back down the wall and into the pack." The commander warned .
Bale sighed inward and said. "This walls have been here for centuries. It will not break down. They can never get in."
At that moment they heard a loud sound and then the wall tremble.
"What was that?" Bale asked looking worried.
Before the commander could reply, they heard another one.
To Bale’s horror there was a large wolf down below. Almost half the height of the wall and it kept on hitting the wall.
"This is madness." He expressed in shock.
"There is no way they think that will work."
Jasmine looked as Kire hit the wall over and over again.
"He is going to be hurt." She said worried and going ahead.
Xaden caught her hand and pulled her back
"What are you trying to do? Kill yourself?"
"He is hitting the wall!" She jerked her hand free from him and Xaden was surprised at how she had just defied him. "He will die. Can you not see?"
Erik shook his head and behind her said. "No, look."
And then Jasmine angrily faced the wall and what she saw shocked her entire bones.