"This way, I see a path." Carter said as he gestured towards a path that led into the forest.
"Okay." Alpha Clause muttered while the rest nodded.
I glanced at Carter and then Alpha Clause, "Alright, I hope it leads to the Lake of Eversea."
"Me too." He added with a worried nod.
We started making our way towards it while looking around and being cautious as we tried to notice any traps or anything like that. I frowned as I realized something as we continued walking deeper into the forest, "It's too quiet, I've never seen a forest as quiet as this one before."
"Me neither, but what could possibly be the reason?" Alpha Clause asked as he looked around, looking like he was thinking more on it.
"There must be no animals because the witch from earlier said that if she can't eat us, she would have to eat fruits." I answered his question as I glanced at him.
"How is that even possible?" Luna Kasey asked in wonder as she looked around the forest along with all of us.
"I think-" Alpha Mason started, but he was interrupted by a cackling laugh as several witches appeared from around us, surrounding us.
They were all dressed in black and had odd colors of hair like the other witch that placed the illusion on us. There were ten anf were shooting bolts of lightning out of their palms. We all started dodging the bolts, trying to avoid getting hit. Alpha Clause started shifting into his Lycan form while the other Alphas shifted either into their Lycan form or their wolf form. The Lunas also did the same. I also shifted into my wolf and rushed towards one with silver hair.
I sunk my sharp wolf teeth into her shoulder, enough to wound her, but not enough to do much damage. Killing wasn't something that I wanted to do even though they were the ones that attacked us. So the bite was meant as a warning and also to weaken her. A lightening bolt hit my wolf's hind leg which made me turn around to see a blue haired witch floating towards me. She started forming a purple lightening bolt in hand, preparing to shoot it towards me.
However, as soon as she shot it, I jumped off of the other witch and landed on the ground beside her, dodging the bolt. I rushed towards her still in wolf form as jumped to land on her while she started forming another purple lightening bolt in her hand. When she realized that it would be too late as I jumped to land on her, she stopped trying to conjure up the lightening bolt in her hand and moved to the side swiftly.
I landed on the empty ground and growled at her, barring my teeth at her. A loud, sad, soul wrenching howl filled the forest which made us all turn around to look for where it came from. My gaze landed on Alpha Sloan as he gripped Luna Hailey in his arms, hugging her to his chest. She was lying limp in human form as her eyes fluttered lightly. His face looked pained and I couldn't imagine the agony he was going through at loosing his mate.
The other Alphas all rushed to him and we also followed while the witches took that opportunity to float away. Alpha Sloan finished his howl then started another one, calling his mate's name, "Haileey!"
She finally stopped moving just as we reached them and started shifting back into human form. Alpha Mason crouched down beside Alpha Sloan as he placed his hand on his shoulder, giving him a comforting squeeze, "I'm sorry for your loss, Sloan. We all are, and we will always be here for you. Luna Hailey would want you to pull through and not break down."
Alpha Sloan didn't answer him or even acknowledge our presence as he stared at his mate, sobbing and clutching her in his arms. Alpha Mason straightened up and took his hand off of his shoulder then turned to us as he said with a worried look on his face, "Let's give him some privacy."
We all nodded, and Alpha Clause added, "Sure, why don't we stop here and spend the night since it's already getting dark? It would be dangerous to go any further at night and Sloan needs time to mourn."
Alpha Mason nodded, looking impressed by his suggestion, "Yes, we should stay the night here, we can keep moving as soon as the sun rise."
"Alright." Alpha Wyatt replied to him with a nod while Alpha Nathan kept frowning in thought as he replied, "Sure."
The Lunas including me nodded our heads in response. Alpha Clause turned to me as he wrapped his arm around my waist, steering me towards a fallen tree branch. I glanced at him as we sat down, "I can't imagine the pain that Alpha Sloan is in right now."
"Me neither, and I hope that we will never experience that." He replied to me as his gaze looked pained as if imagining loosing me.
"But death happens, it's inevitable."
He shook his head, "I don't care, I just don't want to think about that with you."
I gave him a reassuring smile, understanding how he was feeling, "Okay, I won't talk about it anymore."
"Why don't we make a fire?" Luna Kat suggested as she started picking up broken tree branches from the forest floor, pulling our attention to her.
"Great idea." Alpha Wyatt commented as he joined her in picking up more wood from the forest floor.
Luna Ashley looked jealous as she frowned while staring at them and muttered, sarcastically, "Awesome."
Luna Kat looked at her with raised brows in question as if waiting for her to say something else, but when Luna Ashley ignored her and followed Alpha Wyatt to the center of our group, she turned around and continued looking for sticks. Alpha Wyatt gathered the sticks in a pile and Luna Kat brought the ones with herto place on top of the pile.
I glanced between them as I asked, "How are we going to light it up now?"