Disclaimer: Twilight belongs to Stephenie Meyer not me.
Author/Note 1: This story is the sequel of Our Dawn 5. For the ones who don't know anything about Our Dawn Series, you can always read Our Dawn 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, and Our Dawn Series Specials but if you don't want to bother I have a resume on my profile page. As it would be expected this is a next generation story and as such, it's focused on Jake and Leah's children.
A/Note 2: A huge thank you for everyone who reviewed Our Dawn Series so far.
A/Note 3: I'm not a native English speaker so I'm sorry for my grammar and spelling. Thank you for reading.
Alpha
Book III – The Challenger
Interlude
Jacob Black
46. Hunting Season – part 2
"Alice!" I yelled from the front door. "We can't stay here all day!"
"They're not answering their phones!" She yelled back from the living room. "Damn it, Jaz… just pick up the damn phone, please!" I heard her begging.
"Edward and Bella wouldn't let anything happen." I yelled again. "Come on! We need you to tell us what's going on."
Alice left the Cullen mansion. She had changed clothes in less than five seconds. Her vintage dress had been replaced by a more comfortable outfit consisting in black pants and an army green hoodie. Of course that changing clothes for Alice had nothing to do with comfort because vampires could hunt and kill enemies or preys wearing any outfit. For her it was just a habit. After changing her clothes, Alice had tried to get in touch with the rest of her family, in vain.
"How many are they?" I asked when she joined William and me in the tree line in front of the house. I had sent Leah ahead to warn the pack and prepare everything in case we had to engage in combat.
"I've seen six but there can be more." She answered. "None of them seems to be a newborn or have a special power but… I can't be sure. They're coming from the east but they're not coming together in order to distract us. There is at least one mile separating each of them."
The legends stated that vampires were creatures without feelings but I could feel Alice's fear from where I was standing. She hadn't been able to contact Jasper or any of the others and she had never taken control in a situation like this before. Usually Carlisle, Edward and Jasper were the ones who organized the coven when an enemy arrived to their lands. Their absence was affecting Alice more than she was showing.
"We can deal with this without you, Pixie." I said. "If you want to go and find Jasper and the others, you can go."
"No. You need someone to establish contact with these vampires. I can't abandon you in a time like this."
"I'll order someone to stay in human form." I looked at Will who immediately shook his head.
"No fucking way!" He opposed. "I'm going to fight those bastards and kill them! If you alpha command me to stay human I'll never forgive you!"
"Fine… I'll choose someone else."
"You'll be two men down since Embry isn't here either." Alice noticed.
"But we still outnumber them. We're seventeen wolves without Embry."
"Five of them had never fought for real." Alice recalled. She was talking about Isaac's pack. "The Gladstone boy doesn't even belong to any of the packs."
"That makes us twelve. One of them for two of us. We can manage."
"I've told you I'm not sure there are only six vampires."
"Can we please go?" Will asked. "We're wasting time here. If Alice wants to stay, let her stay."
I didn't mind if Alice stayed with us. She was an important ally for the pack but I was also worried with Embry and the others. Maybe it would be good if she went to find them.
"The boy's right. Let's go!"
Alice went ahead to give us time to take off our clothes and follow her. William didn't even bother with that. He phased right away, destroying his clothes in the process and catching up with Alice in less than six seconds.
Leah and the rest of the pack were already waiting instructions. Quinn and Quil had stayed behind to protect Season. I had asked Leah to spread the pack in circles around my father's house to ensure that no vampire would reach the girl.
Sam, EJ and Denis were placed outside the house. Sam would be able to stop two vampires on his own but I didn't want Harry worried about his girlfriend so I had put Denis and EJ as Sam's backups.
'We're turning back as Leah asked.' Lance announced. I had instructed Leah to call Lance so they could help us out. They were too far away already to help us fighting but they could prevent our enemies' retreat to the north.
'I appreciate that Lance.'
'We won't let any vamp escape this way.' He promised. 'We'll be in touch.'
'Leah, is Isaac in position?'
'Yes. He's setting up everything as I told him. It will take more time than we planned since it's raining.'
Isaac, Jay, Danny and Collin were at First Beach setting up a long line of wood on the west, right before the water line. If the enemy was coming from the east, like Alice had predicted, they could only escape by north, south or west since I was counting on Leah, Brady and Paul to position themselves behind them as soon as they walked in our lands hence preventing them to run away the way they came.
Seth and Jared were placed to the south and Will, Harry, Alice and I were going to face these vampires directly.
'I'll let you know when they enter our lands so you, Brady and Paul can circle them.'
'Okay.'
Harry joined us then however his presence wasn't enough to ease down William's anger and fear. He was now thinking about what the enemy could have done to Lex. Images of a girl being tortured popped out suddenly.
'I'm sure they didn't torture her.' I said.
'You can't know that for sure dad.'
'I know that vampires rarely resort to torture. Humans are too fragile and it wouldn't serve any purpose to them.'
'In that case, she's probably dead by now.'
'We have to wait for the others, Will. So calm down and focus. Right now I need you to focus on the enemy ahead and not on Lex's whereabouts.'
'If anything happens to her it will be my fault and I will never be able to look at Josiah again.'
'Someone's on the other side of that hill.' Harry warned us.
'Finally.' Will thought and he ran faster jumping over the hill. A blonde vampire woman was there. She was taller than Leah and more athletic. Her eyes were red and she wore brown pants and a greyish blouse. Her boots were also grey and I noticed a small golden pendant around her neck.
Will attacked her but she was fast and dodged him easily. Harry went to back up his brother, circling the woman while Alice and I stood side by side observing and studying the enemy.
"There's another one a mile away that way." Alice pointed out the direction of the other vampire.
'Harrison. Go.'
Harry left immediately and William attacked once again. This time he managed to bite one of the woman's legs but she kicked his nose so hard that he let her go.
"Vlad told you were strong… but he failed to tell you were fast too." She said in a funny accent. "You can call your pet down, little girl. I want to talk first."
"Will!" Alice called my son. "Don't kill her yet. I want a word with her."
Hesitantly, William took a few steps back but he kept snarling at the blonde vampire.
'She took Lex!'
'I know but she's our only way to know what's going on and where Lex is.' I told him. 'Go help your brother. Kill whoever is in your way. We only need to speak to this one.'
He got the message and left. Harry was chasing a male vampire, and just like we had planned, he was pushing him towards the beach. Will reached him in a record time and attacked quickly. He shred the vampire's body with Harry's help and then both of them took off having detected another vampire nearby.
'Brady! Gather the leech's body and take it to the beach so it can be burned.'
'Yes, boss.' Brady replied and went to retrieve the body of the vampire the twins had killed.
Collin phased in that moment to announce that everything was set. The fires were being alight and they were ready to receive the enemy. Isaac, Jay and Danny would only phase if necessary. For now their job was to keep the fires ablaze.
Vampires didn't fear fire because they were fast enough to run through the flames unharmed but with wolves chasing them and having to fight more wolves to reach the ocean for a clean escape route, the fire would work as a psychological pressure. It was meant to tell them that we were ready to annihilate them for good.
I stepped forward, following Alice who was now ten feet away from the enemy.
"Who are you?" She asked.
"Valerya." The blonde answered smiling. "And you're the one who sees the future, right?"
"Alice. My name is Alice."
"Well little Alice, you know why I am here and you know I can't go back without the girl."
"I know. I also know you and your friends never fought a pack of wolves."
"We do not fear wolves. They are just big dogs."
I snarled showing her my teeth. The vampire took a cautious step back.
"Don't provoke him or we'll end up having a very short conversation." Alice warned her.
"I see…" She laughed. "We do not want to fight you or your pets. Our battle is against others. We only need the girl."
"Why?"
"You know why. She can take away powers. She's going to help us to get back what was ours."
"What about the girl you took?"
"She's not here."
"I know that. I want to know what you did to her."
"Nothing. When we realized she was not the right girl, we didn't do anything to her. What do you think we did? Killed her?"
"Yes."
"But we didn't. Killing humans for pleasure is not our thing. We kill to feed. That's all." She informed. "And she is so skinny… she hardly makes a decent meal."
"You're lying."
"I'm not lying. Valerya Irdenovic does not lie."
"How did you know she wasn't the right girl?"
"She was not the girl in Marissa's dreams."
"Who's Marissa? She has dreams that tell her the future?"
"I don't understand Marissa's dreams. I only know what she tells us. And she told us there was this girl here in America that could help us so we came."
So it was like Alice had predicted. The Romanians had now a member with a power similar to hers. Apparently Marissa had foreseen Season's powers and convinced the Romanians to act.
"Is Marissa your leader?" Alice questioned.
Valerya laughed for a while.
"Marissa? A leader? Marissa is just a little whore that Serghei brought after one of his trips to his hometown. She's an idiot but she dreams a lot so we keep her with us. For good fortune."
"You're reviving the clan…" Alice whispered.
"Are you surprised little girl?"
"Yes, I am. After what happened to the Romanian Coven many centuries ago, I am definitely surprised to know you have regrouped. And I'm even more surprised to know that the Volturi have not taken action against you."
"They do not know about us besides they are hunting werewolves. They are too busy to notice."
Alice pondered her next words.
"Aren't you afraid that we might tell them?"
"Why do you think we are keeping the human girl with us?"
They were cunning. They knew we wouldn't rat them out to the Italians if they had a hostage. They knew we valued life too much to risk Lex getting killed.
"So, the girl's life in exchange of our silence, is that it?"
"Yes… and in exchange of the other girl. The one that has the power to erase vampires' gifts." She grinned. "You give us the girl and we return you the other one."
"What makes you think we want Lex back?"
"You just asked about her. If you didn't want her back you wouldn't be worried about what we did to her."
'The bitch got us all figured out.' Leah said. Almost everyone in the pack was focused on Alice and Valerya's conversation.
"What if we tell the Volturi what we know about you after we get Lex back?"
"Then the other girl will suffer."
"You won't kill her. You need her alive."
"Alive, yes. But not in one piece. She'll still be useful to us without a few fingers, or her legs."
Alice clenched her fists tightly. Valerya was winning.
"Little Alice… do you understand what I'm giving you?" Valerya asked with a confident smile on her marble face. "I'm giving you one more chance to choose who you want to follow in the future."
"You won't be able to overpower the Volturi."
"You don't know that. You don't know what we are capable of. We came here, we took a girl without you noticing… we are powerful now that we have the twelve leaders working together again. And once we have the eraser we'll finally take back the power from those bastards."
I saw the apprehensive look on Alice's face. I guess the situation was worse than she had initially thought.
"Why?" Alice asked. "I mean I get it that Vladimir and Stefan want revenge but you and the others… you weren't part of the coven then."
"The Volturi deserve to die."
"They're not saints but at least our kind is safe."
"Safe? Are you telling me you like to live in secret? You like to hide every time you're in the sun? You like to live in the shadows afraid to be discovered by humans?" She spat furiously. "We are stronger than humans! We should rule them, we should make them our slaves, and we shouldn't be forced to hide the truth about our nature. We are immortal and yet we let them live their petty lives thinking that the world is theirs."
"No one knows how many vampires exist right now, but I'm pretty sure the number doesn't even have four digits. There are billions of people in the world and less than a thousand vampires."
"We can repopulate."
"What a good idea! Let's repopulate the Earth with vampires to extinguish humans and then let's battle against each other for their blood." Alice said sarcastically. "You don't understand, do you? If you repopulate how will you feed? It will be like the South American War many years ago. Some of us can feed on animal blood but what about you? What about the other vampires you'll create? If you kill all humans how will you feed?"
"We'll win against the Volturi and we'll rule the world like before. Make sure you're on the right side when that happens." Valerya took a small cell phone from her pocket and pressed a key. "Take her and kill them all if necessary." She ordered.
After that chaos erupted in my head. Sam was the first to be attacked and I took off full speed leaving Alice and Valerya behind.
'To Sam! Now!' I ordered and the pack obeyed immediately, everyone converging to where Sam was. Everyone except for Denis and EJ.
'I'll take care of this one in a minute. Hang on Sam!' Denis was putting up a fight against his opponent but he was strong like Emmett and knew how to fight. Denis wasn't going to kill him that quickly.
Unfortunately I had no way to know what was going on with EJ because we didn't share minds with him.
'Who's near sector seven?'
'We are.' The twins replied.
'Find EJ. Bring him back safe.'
EJ was an idiot and right now Will hasn't on good terms with him, but he was still family. And we didn't leave family behind.
'If they hurt my boy, I'll hunt them down and I'll kill all the freaking leeches in the world! I promise!' Paul growled aggressively.
'Collin!'
'Boss?'
'I want you, Isaac, Jay and Danny here now! Tell them to phase.'
Collin had been in charge of making sure the younger wolves were safe but we were abandoning our initial plan. There was no way we could push the enemy to the beach and fight them there since they were all gathering up in the forest around my father's house. Besides I needed Isaac to know what was going on with the members of his pack.
'Okay. We're coming to you.'
'Sam's down!' Denis roared suddenly. And it was true. Sam was now on the ground with a huge wound on his left flank. He was unable to move because two vampires were holding him down. Fortunately Leah and Paul arrived just in time.
'There are much more than six vampires, Jake.' Seth said. 'And they're all going to Billy's house.'
'How many did you count Seth?' Leah asked while she was trying to bite vampire's head off.
'Seven… there are seven ahead of us.' Jared answered.
'Hold on, Leah, I'm almost there!' I said.
'Is Daniel okay?' Paul asked worriedly.
'He's fine. He's with Collin. They just caught up with Brady and they're coming here.'
Paul focused on his fight then, attacking his adversary savagely. The vampire tried to circle a tree to escape Paul's teeth but he wasn't fast enough and he ended up being split in two. Paul was going to finish his job when two more vampires arrived.
'How many on the north?' I questioned.
'Four.' It was Seth's reply.
The numbers were clearly against us. The twins had dismembered one vampire, who had been burned by Brady.
We thought we were only facing six leeches but now we were counting seven coming from the south, four from the north, four facing Leah and Paul who were protecting Sam, another one was attacking Denis, and two more were facing EJ and the twins. And there was still Valerya who was somewhere in the forest probably battling with Alice.
'Nineteen…' Isaac counted. 'Actually they're only eighteen now… EJ just killed his opponent.'
'Seventeen, baby brother.' Harry announced. 'We killed another too.'
'Burn the bodies and join the pack as soon as you can.' I ordered them.
The male vampire that Paul had dismembered was reassembling himself. Paul had backed up and was now with Leah.
Jared, Seth and I arrived at the same time but by then more vampires had gathered there too. Paul's earlier opponent was talking to three female vampires in another language. Two more arrived in the next minute. And we could feel more coming.
'Sam, go back to the house and take care of that wound. Tell Quil and Quinn to join us.'
'I can still fight, Jake.'
'Make sure the bleeding stops and then come back to join the pack.'
Sam followed my orders and left. A few minutes later Quil and Quinn joined our group. Collin, Isaac, Jay and Danny arrived as well. Denis got rid of his opponent and came to meet us while Brady arrived a second later.
'Ten minutes, Jake.' Lance said. 'That's all we need to get there.'
Could we really face the sixteen vampires that were now looking at us with threatening red eyes without losing anyone? If Lance and his pack mates managed to arrive in time to help us out, we would have the advantage of the numbers. It wouldn't be a great advantage but it was better than our current situation.
'Sixteen of them for sixteen of us.' Said Harry when he arrived. Will and EJ were right behind him.
A one-on-one battle was a method we only used when there was no other option left. This method was only efficient when the wolves in battle had similar fighting skills. When there were less experienced wolves, a one-on-one battle could turn into a bloodbath because each of us would have an opponent to kill and while my pack mates could handle a vampire on their own, Isaac's pack couldn't.
Danny was trembling behind Collin and Brady, Jay was unsure about what to do once the vampires attacked. EJ was acting too confident and Isaac was a bit nervous. As for Quinn I had no idea what was going on inside his head because he wasn't a member of any pack but he was acting pretty much like Danny.
'Leah… since you're the fastest, you'll help Jay as soon as you kill your opponent.' I said. 'Paul, you'll help Danny, and I'll help Quinn.'
It was vital that the younger wolves had assistance from stronger and faster wolves. Paul and I could kill a vampire in only one attack, while Leah was so fast that she could take down a vamp in less than five seconds. It was up to us to help Quinn, Danny and Jay.
'Seth… can you please take care of Isaac?' I asked my beta.
Isaac wasn't as scared or as weak as the others but I couldn't help worrying about him. He was only seventeen years old and wasn't as imposing as a wolf as the rest of us were.
'Don't worry. I'll have his back.'
'What about EJ?' Paul asked. Like me, he now had two children to worry about.
'EJ just killed a leech. I'm sure he'll be able to handle an opponent for at least a whole minute. That will give us enough time to help him as soon as we get rid of ours.' I explained. 'Still… Harry and William will stay close to him. Is that clear, boys?'
'Yes.' The twins replied in unison.
'We should attack now that Valerya isn't here.' I suggested. 'The absence of their leader might give us some advantage.' Everyone agreed. 'Each of you will choose only one target and your goal is to kill him as fast as you can. Our objective is to prevent these bastards to get to the house. Is that clear?'
'Yes, boss.' Everyone cheered.
If we could kill at least half of the leeches without suffering losses, the Romanians would be forced to retreat but I wasn't sure we could do that with five unexperienced wolves. Besides Denis was limping.
It happened a lot faster than I thought. One moment we were standing in front of sixteen vampires, the other we were clashing against them. We rarely fought like this. Usually we would chase our enemy, trap him and finish the job swiftly. Today we were sixteen wolves facing sixteen vampires in the same area.
As expected, too many vampires and wolves at the same place presented us another problem: lack of space to move. If we tried to put some distance between us and the crowd that was battling, we would isolate ourselves which was the opposite of what I wanted. If we wanted to protect the younger wolves, we needed to be close to them.
In order to focus myself on my opponent I was forced to shut my mind to everyone else around me. I did see Leah biting off her opponent's right arm, but I was hit in the stomach by a kick and I lost the connection with Leah's thoughts.
My opponent was a man who looked like a blonde version of Tom Cruise. And I hated Tom Cruise. Not because he was a particularly bad actor, which in my opinion he was, but because Leah had a thing for him when she was younger.
"You are good, dog. But I am better." He mocked me when I unsuccessfully tried to bite his head off.
'The fuck you are, leech.' I thought angrily. I avoided his next two blows making him hiss in fury. He was strong and knew how to fight but I knew those lands better than any vampire and I intended on using that for my advantage.
However before I even had time to plan my next assault, the vampire ordered the others to retreat.
The battle stopped. Everyone was surprised even the other vamps. Two of them complained about the order and tried to persuade their friend to attack again.
"I wish to talk to your leader." The vampire said in the same accent I had heard when Valerya had spoken to Alice.
'It can be a trap.' Leah said reading my thoughts.
"I have a proposition you won't want to refuse, dog."
'I'll talk to him.' I decided. 'If you detect any movement, attack immediately.'
I inspected the pack before phasing back to human. Danny had a nasty cut in his right ear, Jay too seemed to have been hurt during the fight but none of them was seriously wounded.
The vampire stepped back when I regained my human form. I put on a pair of shorts and I realized all of the vampires were looking at me. They looked surprised to see my transformation.
"I had never seen a shapeshifter." The vampire in front of me admitted.
"I can't say the same for myself." I told him. "I know too many leeches for my liking."
"I'm Ivan and I'm here to take the girl. Hand her over and no one else will have to die. There will be no bloodshed between us. I promise you."
Behind me, Harry growled.
"I know who you're working with and why you're here." I said keeping my posture.
"Good. In that case you know you only have two choices. Either you give us the girl on your free will or we'll take her from you and you'll die."
"If this was your proposition, you wasted your time."
"Do you really think you have a chance against us?"
"We're hanging on pretty well."
"We know you're waiting for backups but even if they were here, you would lose."
"We killed three of you already."
"Mario, Denissa and Janika were new in our coven. They were only with us for three years and had never fought before. The rest of us aren't so easy to kill."
"We'll see about that."
"Look… if you don't give us the girl, we'll make sure to kill as many of you as possible. And now we know your weakness." He grinned after saying that.
"What are you talking about?"
"We are not the only ones with new members, are we?"
I didn't reply. I knew what he was implying.
"At least three of you are completely useless in battle. Daria, Hilda and Anton could've killed them easily. If you don't give us the girl, I'll make sure our next attack will end in the death of those three cubs. They will be our only targets this time."
He wasn't bluffing. I could see it in his eyes. We could try to protect Quinn, Jay and Danny but eventually, at least one of the leeches would be able to cut our defenses and kill one of them or even the three of them.
"You finally got it, right?" The bastard added. "Now go talk to your friends and don't be long with your decision. We don't want to kill anyone. We just want the girl. You have an hour."
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Karisan