The Betrayal

Chapter Twenty-Two

I walked up to the trees nearing the end of the forest and peaked out behind one of them. "Are you sure this is the place?"

"Yes," Aeron said, standing next to me out in the open. For a moment, I was confused. We were supposed to be sneaking, so the Challengers didn't see us. If they did they would drain the pups as quickly as they could before we stopped them.

My lips parted to tell him to hide, but then Valerio walked up to me. "Where'd Aeron go?"

I gazed over at Aeron as he faded into Valerio's vision. Nodding my head, I turned back to the three groups of Protectors. "Alright, Valerio take your group to the back door, Aeron you'll go to the side door, and we'll take the front."

We quietly jogged through the forest, waiting until we got into place to enter the house.

"If anyone in any of the groups finds a pup being drained stop it immediately. They are our first priority. But, other than that stick to the mission of your group,"I echoed through our mind link, sending the message to all of the Protectors here with us.

A mass of responses echoed through my head for one quick moment. Once they last Protector told me he understood, I turned to my group. Studying their faces, a sense of pride washed through me. They were ready, and they were hungry. Hungry for blood. Hungry to kill. "Keep one of them alive. We'll use him for information. The rest – kill. I don't care how you do it, but I want them dead. Leave one man and that's it."

They all nodded to me, accepting their orders.

I gazed at Aeron on the other side of the woods. He looked towards the back of the house where Valerio would be and nodded. We quietly jogged from the trees to the sides of the house, plastering our bodies to the edges of the wood. One of the Protectors kicked the front door opened and my group filed in.

As soon as the door opened, a stench of iron drifted out, making my nose wrinkle. Blood was splattered all over the ground. Finger prints and claw marks lined the walls of the stairs. A trail of blood as if someone was dragged down each stair lead me and half of my team down the stairs, while the other half checked the upstairs. "Spread out," I ordered. Two men and women each took a room, searching through it.

Terrorized screams suddenly pierced through the hallways. I sprinted towards them with two other protectors behind me.

"There are more pups here than originally thought," someone echoed through the mind link.

"We have two being drained right now."

"I found three upstairs."

"There's a baby in the one of the cellar rooms."

Men and women filled my ears, updating me on the status of the raid. After a few moments, I blocked them out and smashed the door of the room opened. Five challengers stood around a boy, trying to hold him down.

Grabbing one by the neck, I pulled him off of the boy and dug my nails into his neck, squeezing the life out of him effortlessly. While the other two Protectors dealt with a man each, I threw the Challenger's lifeless body to the ground and charged at the last two. They dodged my attacks, but I spun around throwing a roundhouse kick at both of them which sent them flying against the wall.

With a loud thud their bodies hit the thin wall, leaving it dented. They groaned as their bodies rolled off of it and onto the floor. I stalked over to them. A pump of adrenaline rushed through my veins. I grabbed their throats, digging my nails into them. In one swift motion, I ripped them out.

Their bodies doubled over onto the floor. A puddle of blood formed between them. I tossed this parts on the ground next to them in disgust.

When I turned back to the room, all I saw was absolute chaos. Children sprinted from room to room, tears streaming down their faces. Protectors chased Challengers through rooms, crushing them against the walls once they grabbed them.