Chapter 548: How did they get in?

Viola stumbled out of bed, searching for her clothes on the floor, but found her husband’s hoodie and sweatpants folded neatly on the couch, left there for exactly the moment she woke up. She scrambled into them, her heart racing in time with the blaring alarm.

A pack invasion wasn’t something that happened often, but when it did, it always meant something serious, territory being seized, a major fight breaking out.

It wasn’t unheard of for territory to be seized by stronger, larger packs, but who would possibly dare try that against Silver, being the largest pack in the entire world, a place no one in their right mind would challenge.

Viola hadn’t even heard of a successful pack invasion happening in a very long time, the last one she could recall having struck a neighboring pack near Moonwillow, where the Alpha had been killed outright and the entire pack handed over to the attacking group.

Could it be... Nickolas? Had he somehow crawled his way out of death?

Viola’s heart pounded the whole time she dressed, then rushed to peer out through the glass wall, where the sky had turned a burnt orange against the winter afternoon, snow beginning to fall harder than usual for this time of day. Below, on the streets, she could see pack members in full panic, people running in every direction, fleeing their buildings.

Just as she started to leave the room, her husband’s voice came through the mind link.

"If you’re awake, amor, stay exactly where you are. I’ll send guards to bring you somewhere safe. We’ve got a bit of a problem in the pack." He said, his voice so calm it might have fooled anyone into thinking it was nothing serious, but Viola had the distinct feeling he was only sounding that way to keep her steady, since the panic she could see below told a very different story.

"What’s going on?" She asked, already hurrying out of the bedroom, grabbing an extra coat on her way.

"We’ve been invaded by Darkbur Pack." He told her, and Viola frowned at the news.

Darkbur? She’d nearly forgotten about them entirely. But Sebastian, back when he hadn’t been himself, had signed a contract handing them a quarter of Silver’s territory, and revoking it had dragged on and on, especially once Zoe’s death had pulled Sebastian’s attention away entirely, leaving the matter in the Elders’ hands. It seemed they’d failed to revoke it in time, and now Darkbur had arrived to claim what had been promised to them, or else to fight for the entire pack outright.

"Stay put and don’t come out. Their Alpha is barely better than a rogue himself, uneducated bastard, who handles everything the old brutal way. I don’t want him getting any ideas when he sees you." Sebastian told her, unwilling to let her come down anywhere near this in her condition, already making his way toward the part of the pack that had been seized, where his people were being held hostage and tormented into leaving that part of the pack.

Right now, before confronting the intruders himself, making sure his wife was somewhere safe mattered more than anything else. Once he’d finished speaking to her, he cut the link and turned to Jace, who was keeping pace beside him, waiting for orders.

"How did they get in?" Sebastian demanded coldly, since he’d given explicit orders that no stranger without proper clearance was to enter their pack, and yet somehow these barbarians had walked straight into Silver.

"They showed the signed contract to the border guards, and once the blood print on it was confirmed as yours, they had no legal choice but to let them through, believing they only wanted a meeting with you. Instead, they went straight to the northern part of the pack and seized it outright, beating down anyone who refused to leave their homes." Jace reported nervously, feeling Sebastian’s aura flare dangerously around him, shrinking back instinctively.

"Why in the fuck am I only hearing about this now, hours after it started?" Sebastian demanded. He couldn’t entirely blame the border guards, since werewolf law gave them no choice once his blood was confirmed on the contract, but why no one had reached him sooner was still beyond him.

"I-I tried reaching you, but you weren’t available," Jace said.

Sebastian cursed under his breath, realizing exactly why he had missed Jace’s mindlink. He had been too occupied making love to his wife and had fallen asleep afterward still holding her in his arms, taking the opportunity to get a little shuteye so he wouldn’t upset her again by not getting enough sleep.

"Send men to calm the pack members and get the chaos under control." Sebastian ordered, already walking toward the seized section of his pack.

It didn’t take long to reach it. Even before arriving, he could smell the foul stench of Darkbur Pack members, a smell they were infamously known for among werewolves everywhere. Darkbur had built its entire reputation on seizing territory since its earliest days, so many packs claimed by them now that Sebastian had long since lost count.

The werewolf world had always operated on a strict hierarchy, where seizing weaker packs was never technically against their laws. If an Alpha wasn’t strong enough to protect his own people from invasion, then he didn’t deserve to keep his pack at all. Darkbur, acting like the barbarians they were, had thrived under exactly that loophole, though Sebastian had never once imagined they’d dare come after him directly. But then, signing that contract had been his own mistake, and this was its price.

Sebastian saw smoke rising from one of the largest buildings, the one that housed most of the omegas of Silver, and his expression darkened further as he spotted pack members forced to kneel in the middle of the street, others being beaten and shoved violently out of buildings by force.

"Throw them all out of my building! I want this side of Silver cleared of every single one of these entitled motherfuckers!" came the order from Alpha Price, the Alpha of Darkbur Pack, who stood atop a car with a cigar clenched between his teeth as he barked out commands.

The man stood shirtless, revealing a chest covered entirely in tattoos that ran from his neck down to his waist.

Alpha Price had tattooed his body with the names and symbols of every pack he had ever fought or seized, and he never bothered to cover them. He seemed to enjoy showing them off to anyone willing to look.

Apparently, the cold meant nothing to him either. He stood there with gooseflesh raised across his bare skin, without a coat in sight, his long black hair falling down his broad back. Worst of all, he wore ripped skinny jeans, which made Sebastian even less eager to meet the barbarian.

The moment he sensed the Silver Alpha’s aura, the man turned to look at him directly, grinning wide enough to show off a mouth full of gold teeth.

"Well, well, well, if it isn’t our ever-young, prestigious Alpha Sebastian Kade," Alpha Price said, jumping down off the car, leaving a visible dent behind, and walking straight toward Sebastian, who looked anything but welcoming.

"Long time no see. You never once asked after me, never invited me to a single one of your pack events, if that isn’t rude, Alpha Sebastian, I don’t know what is. But no worries, we’re about to be partners forever." He grinned, reaching out a hand to shake Sebastian’s.