Rise Of The Beast Queen: Elizabeth

Ch 47 Call To War

"You know where she is. Tell me!" Leon demanded.

"Give me my mate!" Hank countered.

"Tell me where she is!" Leon roared.

"Not until I see my mate." Hank refused and Leon lunged at him, snatching him up by the throat.

"Tell. Me. Where. She. Is!" Leon snarled in his face, being sick and tired of everyone trying to challenge his authority.

"N... No..." Hank refused again, causing Leon's patience and sanity to snap. He threw Hank through the air like a rag doll and his body collided with the partially scorched tree trunk, as soon as he hit the ground Leon was on him again.

"Tell me!" Hank didn't even get a chance to refuse again before he was hit. "Stupid Pathetic! Weak male! Dare to challenge me! I'll kill you!"

"You can't..." Hank tried to speak while barely being able to defend himself against Leon's violent onslaught.

"You think you can tell me what I can do?" Leon saw red as he drew his claws back about to land his first lethal attack.

"If you kill me you'll never know where she is!"

"Why is it so noisy out here?" Tabby asked in a snarky tone as she was drawn outside by the commotion and was quickly surrounded by her mates, who were eager to be the first to explain what was happening.

"Hank returned." A younger male barked excitedly, but was quickly knocked out of the way.

"Ya and challenged the Chief." Another chuckled like the fight was humorous.

"The healer challenged my head male?" Tabby asked with her nose scrunched up in a sneer, before one of her males eased up behind her.

"He said he knows where Liz is, but he wants his mate back before he'll talk." He said in a low whisper, sure the other males close by could hear, but in all actuality he just wanted to get close to his mate.

"Ha. He can have his disgusting impure female. Just tell me where she is!" Tabby practically screamed as she marched forward, pushing past her males who were trying to act as a barrier between her and the fighting that quickly stopped at the sound of her voice.

"I... I want to see my... mate." Hank huffed through his pain, Tabby growled in annoyance but nod in agreement. Dissatisfied with the fight Leon clenched his fists, making his claws dig into his palms as he did as his mate said and led Hank through the tunnels.

When they arrived at the cave where they were keeping her Hank saw Serena still curled up in a ball on the floor, but when he tried to go to her Leon grabbed his shoulder, nearly crushing it with the force of his grip.

"Where is she?" Leon asked barely containing his anger.

"She's... The Rivers Bend Tribe." Hank muttered feeling shame course through him but his mate is more important. Leon let Hank go and he immediately rushed over to Serena, who whimpered and shook as she was startled awake. "It's me. I'm here now. I have you." Hank said gently trying to comfort her as he scooped her into his arms.

"Ha... Hank?" Serena questioned like she couldn't believe he was actually here and Hanks heart broke seeing the state she was in, the left side of her face was one huge bruise, with streaks of blood and dirt coating the rest of her and matting her hair. Serena dove into Hank's arms and burst into tears, he gently stroked her back and whispered gentle reassurances to try and calm her... Well that is before the whole cave started to shake and Hank looked up in time to see Leon punching the walls until the entrance and surrounding tunnel collapsed, trapping Hank and Serena inside.

Tabby had walked away without a second thought, completely uncaring about what Leon was doing or why. She was so excited that she wanted to rush off and tell Zephyr the good news, her mates were happy just seeing that she was finally smiling again...

Only one aloof male seemed to have the forethought to ask, "Is it a good idea to tell Zephyr where his female is? Don't you think he might run off to find her... Alone..."

"Isn't she being protected by Jin?" Another asked as realization began to blossom.

"That would be a death sentence." Someone said and they all quickly rushed to stop Tabby, they all tried to explain in a flurry, but Leon snatched Tabby away from their rushed chaos and explained to her that it would be better to tell Zephyr after they got the rest of the males together and ready for war.

Tabby was slightly annoyed by the delay, but agreed and insisted Leon also find Soren so they could use his rootless beasts. "Their reward could be some of the females from the Rivers Bend Tribe. Whoever we don't want. Especially that arrogant Jamina!" Tabby cackled wickedly.

Leon smiled at her with a proud glint in his eyes, honestly Tabby's suggestion was only a cruel, spiteful, hateful idea, but he looked at her like some highly intelligent creature and wondered just how much manipulation she subconsciously learned from Kinkade. He had just been wondering how they were going to deal with Jin now that he's terra marked, his first thought was naturally to get Soren to deal with him, but it was Kinkade who always dealt with the rootless beasts. How could he convince Soren to do their bidding without having Serena anymore... Though Soren won't know what he'd done and the proposition of giving them females should help convince any male.

"Whatever my lovely mate says. You are the smartest female." Leon said as he nuzzled Tabby lovingly and she hummed happily in satisfaction.

Leon sent a few males from the family out to give the message to any rootless beastmen they came across and sure enough the promise of females was enough to entice them. Which was more than slightly irritating for Leon, since he'd come across multiple rootless beasts when he was searching for Soren before but none of them were nearly as eager to help him then. Now on the other hand, word spread through the forest like wildfire and quickly reached Soren's ears, by the next morning a small army waited impatiently outside the Fierce Claw Tribes territory.