NOVGO.NET Chapter 61
Chapter 61: Chapter 61
Stone’s Point of View
The silence in the study stretched so long it felt heavy enough to suffocate us. Behind me, I could feel the stillness of Ash and Shadow, neither of us dared to utter a word. Telling Alpha Alaric that Lady Ivy was a top shaman... the true face behind the legendary Divine Doctor—was a gamble that shook him.
To the rest of the world, Lady Ivy was simply a quiet woman, overlooked and underestimated. No one ever dreamed she possessed that kind of immense, ancient power.
Now, we knelt on the cold floor, waiting for our punishment. The mind of an Alpha is a dangerous place, and Alpha Alaric was one of the most formidable leaders in the territories. We had no idea what his verdict would be.
Would he punish Lady Ivy for concealing her identity? Would he execute us on the spot for acting as her accomplices in this deception? In our world, hiding secrets from your Alpha is a capital offense. My heart hammered against my ribs.
"Stand up," Alpha Alaric finally commanded. His voice wasn’t filled with the roaring fury I had expected, but rather a deep exhaustion.
We rose to our feet, keeping our eyes strictly trained on the floor. To our utter confusion, he extended his hand, holding out the stack of bills he had pulled from his desk earlier. I hesitated, my mind spinning as I tried to comprehend why he would still pay us after discovering our ruse.
"Take it," Alaric muttered, shoving the money into my hands. "Dominic is alive because of it."
We couldn’t understand him right now. "From this moment on, your orders remain unchanged, but your scope is wider. You will protect my daughter-in-law with your lives. When she goes outside to practice her medicine, you will be her shields. The world outside our walls is growing darker, and a shaman of her caliber will attract dangerous eyes."
"She has our absolute loyalty, Alpha," I replied. Ash and Shadow nodded in unison beside me.
Alpha Alaric offered a few more brief pieces of advice regarding her security details, his eyes tracking our expressions one last time. We listened intently, absorbing every word. Once he dismissed us, we swiftly pulled our medical masks back over our faces, secured our cloaks, and slipped out into the chilly night air.
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We boarded the carriage, as we left the safety of the main pack house. Our immediate destination was the Azure Leaf Pharmacy, the hidden sanctuary where Ivy formulated her remedies. The plan was simple: arrive at the pharmacy, shed our elaborate Divine Doctor disguises, change into our standard warrior gear.
As the carriage entered the narrow, tree-lined path leading toward the pharmacy, a terrifying howl shattered the silence. Before our driver could react, the carriage door was violently ripped off its hinges. Dozens of rogue wolves exploded from the dark tree line, their snarling maws dripping with saliva.
They weren’t hunting for meat, their movements were highly coordinated.
"Ambush!" Ash roared.
We leaped from the tilting vehicle, shifting instantly into our partial werewolf forms. Our hairs coarse sprouted along our jaws, our claws extending, and our eyes glowing. We fought in this hybridized form to maintain human coordination while utilizing our beastly strength—but more importantly, I had to keep my mask firmly pressed to my face. If a rogue survived, the true identity of the Divine Doctor could not be compromised.
Instantly, it became clear that the attackers had a specific target. The rogues swarmed past Ash and Shadow, focuses entirely on me. They knew the Divine Doctor was supposed to be the man in the lead.
One massive rogue lunged, a wicked, curved knife gleaming in his grip. I blocked his claw, but another rogue sliced across my flank. A blinding, agonizing heat flared through my side. I gasped, tumbling backward, but the wound wasn’t closing.
The metallic smell of blood in the air confirmed my worst fear: the blades were forged from pure silver. To a werewolf, silver is a slow, agonizing poison that halts our natural cellular regeneration.
"Shield him!" Shadow yelled, seeing me falter.
Ash and Shadow threw themselves into the fray, creating a desperate, aggressive wall of muscle and claw around me. They tore through flesh and bone, trying to absorb the rapid, chaotic strikes of the rogue wolves. But we were vastly outnumbered. For every rogue they took down, three more appeared from the thick bush, their silver daggers flashing dangerously to us.
Blood pooled beneath my boots, my vision blurring as the silver poison began to seep into my bloodstream. We were losing. If we stayed in this defensive formation, we would all die in this clearing.
"Ash! Shadow!" I wheezed, coughing up dark blood. "Take advantage of the gap... the signal gun! Now!"
Shadow caught my drift. Utilizing a brief opening created by Ash’s brutal counter-attack, Shadow reached into his hidden vest pocket. He drew the heavy flare pistol, aimed it directly above, and pressed the trigger. A red flare erupted into the sky, a desperate scream for help hoping anyone would see it.
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Alpha Alaric’s Point of View
I stood by the window of Dominic’s bedroom, my gaze fixed on him, as I watched over my son’s still form. Suddenly, a brilliant streak of red light shattered the darkness over the eastern ridge, painting the sky. My heart dropped, that was the exact route Ivy’s guards had followed just minutes ago.
The signal gun meant only one thing: extreme, life-threatening danger. Without a single second of hesitation, my inner wolf roared to the surface. My bones cracked and elongated, my clothes tearing away as my massive, midnight-black wolf form took over. I leapt cleanly through the glass window, hitting the ground in a dead sprint and disappearing into the night.
The wind roared past my ears as I tore through the thick forest, my paws slamming into the mud. Behind me, the heavy thud of dozens of paws joined the chase. My elite guard had seen my sudden transformation from the watchtowers and immediately followed suit, shifting into their wolf forms to back their Alpha.
When we crashed into the clearing, the horrific scene before us made my blood to boil. Stone was lying on the blood-soaked ground, completely on the verge of death.
The rogue’s silver blades had done catastrophic damage to him, his torso was brutally hacked open, and his internal organs exposed. Ash and Shadow were barely conscious, slumped against a shattered carriage wheel, covered in deep, sizzling silver slashes.
This made anger consumed me.
“Protect Stone! Secure the survivors!” I barked through the mind-link.
My warriors immediately formed an impenetrable wall around the dying guards, shielding them from further harm. With a deafening roar, I lunged into the fray. We surrounded the rogue wolves, cutting off any hope of their escape. A fierce, bloody battle erupted in the center of the clearing.
My jaws snapped, crushing a rogue’s throat, while my claws tore through flesh and bone. The rogues fought like cornered rats, but they were no match for the coordinated, lethal precision of my elite guard.
Just as we completely overwhelmed their front lines, the rogue pack realized they were now defeated. With a desperate snarl, a rogue flinged a silver dagger directly, aiming at me.