Chapter 238 Taking Over
Chapter 238 Taking Over
TESSA
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The moment Ronnie’s scream rang through the clearing, chaos broke loose. Winston and Edith immediately pushed to the front, their authority holding the pack steady when panic threatened to spill over. The rest of us moved behind them, the stronger wolves nking outward while those less trained pulled children and elders to safety.
“Noelle, Sol-over here!” I called. The three of us instinctively took up the role we always did. We wove between frightened mothers, shouting men, and half-shifted warriors trying to anticipate where to stand. “Stay close! Keep the children back! Don’t run!” I shouted.
Figures cloaked in ck emerged from the tree line, their silhouettes stark against the morning sun. At first it was only a handful, but a couple more spilled like shadows across the clearing. My stomach clenched, because this wasn’t the wild chaos of rogues or the clumsy strut of humans. This was coordinated.
The one in front caught my eye. His walk radiated the kind of confidence that came from knowing he was the strongest in the field. My heart stumbled, because something about him was familiar.
When he reached the center and pulled down his hood, the air left my lungs.
“Oh, for crying out loud,” Noelle muttered beside me. She leaned in and whispered with incredulity, “Sexy wizard man?”
I whipped my head toward her, ring. “Noelle.”
Her smirk faltered the moment she noticed my expression, and her brows knitted together. “Okay, okay. Bad time,” she muttered, sobering quickly.
In the front, Edith and Winston moved with care. I could see the tension in their shoulders even as they kept their voices level, their hands at their sides rather than their weapons. They had always known that diplomacy was what kept thisnd alive and strong-that strength wasn’t always measured by who swung harder, but by who could keep their people standing in one piece,
But even they could sense this was different.
We’d dealt with humans before-ambitious settlers who thought ournd was theirs to im, who underestimated our strength until they walked away defeated. However, never had we faced shifters aligning with wizards and witches.
I swept my gaze around, realizing toote that the cloaked figures had spread farther than I thought. We were surrounded. Even with our numbers, easily twice theirs, my chest tightened with unease. We were stronger physically, but their magic… if they unleashed it, all the muscle and instinct in the world might not save us.
Kyle stepped forward, his boots crunching against the dirt. “Greetings,” he said, his voice ringing out.
He let his gaze travel across our ranks as though measuring us one by one. Finally, his lips curled faintly. “Wee in peace from Montrose.”
Montrose.
Gasps rose among the pack members, their whispers colliding in panicked fragments. “Montrose? Did he say Montrose?”
“It can’t be…”
“Not them…”
Fear spread fast, visible in the paling faces and stiffened postures of my pack members.
Kyle watched their fear ripple with visible satisfaction. His eyes darkened, the corner of his mouth twitching. My stomach turned. We shouldn’t be reacting like this. Fear was exactly what he wanted.
“Unless, of course…” Kyle continued smoothly, “you do not agree with our proposal.”
A hush fell over the clearing.
Winston, steady even when the ground shook, cleared his throat. “Ournd has always been amicable to beneficial rtionships,” he said, choosing his words carefully. “If both parties are not aggravated, there is no reason we cannot hear what you have to say.”
He nced briefly at Edith, then continued, “We will hear your words in our meeting room. Let us leave these people to their peace.”
It was an offer of diplomacy even when the air screamed for anything but.
Kyle tilted his head, his smirk sharpening, and for a brief moment I thought he might ept. However, his gaze shifted,nding on the nearly finished frame of the pack clinic. His expression soured with interest, and before any of us could react, he lifted a hand and began murmuring under his breath.
The words were foreign, and I realized what he was doing when he uttered thest word. “No
Chapter 238 Taking Over
-“I gasped, stepping forward.
But it was toote.
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? C
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The beams groaned and the ground shuddered. Then, with a thunderous crack, the entire structure shattered-splintering wood and scattering dust in a violent eruption.
Gasps and cries burst from the pack in unison, disbelief and horror twisting their faces. Mothers clutched their children tighter. Warriors surged instinctively forward, barely restrained by Winston’smand.
Kyle lowered his hand with a smirk. “I think you know,” he drawled, “what power you’re dealing with now.”
Silence dropped like a heavy nket over the clearing. The carpenters stood still, their hands frozen on hammers and saws. Children began to wail, and the little swarm of chatter dissolved into the ragged noise of upset and fear.
Sol moved without thinking. He scooped Ca into his arms, and she buried her face into his neck.
I walked forward. Winston’s voice reached me as I positioned myself in front. “Tessa,” he growled.
But the warning didn’t stop my feet. My jaw ached with the words I wanted to tear out of the man who had done this.
Kyle stood at the center of the clearing, hands rxed at his sides. The pettiness of his smirk made something cold clench in my gut. I stepped right up to him until his eyes met mine.
“Kyle,” I said. “What are you doing?”
He brightened when I used his name. “Tessa,” he purred, sounding fond. “I was just looking for you.” His fingers trailed absently over the air where the clinic had been. “That little demonstration took a lot. Weakening the structure was harder than I thought. It took—” he made a show of drinking from the sk at his belt, the tremble in his hand visible “-quite a lot of power. Do you mind helping me?”
He moved to reach out, an adoring hand lifting toward my shoulder. I knew better than to let this man touch me, so I stepped back. “Answer my question. What do you want?”
Kyle set the bottle aside and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “We need cooperation,” he said, pacing like a predator exining the merits of his n to smaller “We need people. Your people, to be exact.”
prey.
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Chapter 238 Taking Over
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“For what?” I asked. I wanted the truth, or at least the lie’s scaffolding.
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“For the betterment of everyone,” he answered. “Trust me. Come with us to Montrose. Help us.
Work with us.”
“You want to take our people to Montrose,” Winston said. “Under what pretense? You didn’t give us a single reason why we should walk willingly into your stronghold.”
Kyle’s eyes flicked to Winston with irritation, then he rolled them. “You can return. Once everything is over, you cane back.”
“But if you don’t cooperate, you might very well have nothing to return to.”
A woman next to him-cloaked, unremarkable until she exhaled and summoned a tongue of me over her palm-snorted with amusement. Her presence tightened the clearing; the pack took a collective step back when she flicked the me to life. Kyle’s smile widened.
With a careless flick she sent the fire arcing toward the splintered ruin where the clinic had stood. Fortunately, the carpenters moved quickly and put it out with water when it was still small.
However, I knew that Kyle’s aim was not just to burn the remains; it was to shatter our certainty, to pierce the sense of safety we’d been building with blood and sweat.
“Why are you doing this?” an old carpenter cried, hands clenched around the tool that had been part of his life for decades. “What have we done to you?”
Chaos erupted. It was what I’d feared. Men I’d grown up beside, women who held my trust, suddenly separated by lines of hate and fear. Winston bellowed for order, but there was no peace to be had while a witch flung me and men in Montrose cloaks encircled our people.
“We will not let you take over ournd!” someone shouted. Others took it up a notch. “We will
not!”
Kyle watched their defiance with all the detached scorn of a man who had never known honest suffering. “Then you have chosen thetter,” he said. “Very well.”
The pack moved as one. We surged. At first we held the edge-wolves on the outskirts deflected the smaller band of cloaks, edged them back with teeth and authority, and for a minute I held the ridiculous hope that we might force them to retreat.
Then, the me-wielder spun through the crowd. Her hand red; like a torch, she burned one of our warriors alive in an instant. He went with a scream that split the clearing open and dragged our focus into a panic. We circled, rigid with shock. Blood pooled dark and fast in the
dirt at his feet.
Chapter 238 Taking Over
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I felt my stomach empty. People gasped or cursed or stumbled back. No one moved forward as one anymore; we fractured into groups. Kyle’s voice rose over it all. “I give you onest chance.” His eyes bored into ours, into me. “Come with us. Cooperate, and you will be spared. Refuse, and you will face our wrath.”
The clearing smelled of smoke and the sharp tang of fear. Around me, my people stared back. My chest ached with the decision I knew I would have to make. The first taste of war hade to our door, and the world no longer felt safe or simple.
I swallowed hard. “We will not bow to Montrose.”