A Gold Alpha For A Silver Alpha
Moon-Colored Eyes Chapter 25

I'm going to bite it until I can't walk again when I see it.

Casiana complains in my head but I notice a tremor in her voice, she's more worried than angry right Think about that after you replace him.

I reply and she growls at me in response.

-Well then, when do we leave? I ask out loud and my brothers look at me with different reactions.

Jace looks at me with obvious disagreement, Julian with understanding and Jack with complicity. -Right now. My older brother answers and I'm amazed that he's not telling me I should stay. That's the thing about replaceing your mate if it changes you.

-We can't leave just because, especially you Jackson. With mom and dad incapacitated the pack needs -Jack and I will go alone, it's our mates that are in danger, we will sort this mess out while you take ca -Mom and Dad will kill us for letting you go, and you for leaving," Julian says with an unperturbed tone -We all turn to see how the hell Caliope appeared at the edge of the room without anyone noticing he there to help your mates- her eyes slide over each one of us- Just remember that not everything is wh And with that last warning he disappeared the way he came, leaving us with more questions than ans -Does anyone else always get chills when they're around? Jack says and we all nod in agreement. The truth is that there was a reason why witches were on the verge of extinction because of being hur And that was that any creature is afraid of what it can't control, and witches were too powerful to be i -I ask with a little doubt in my voice, the memory of her unconscious, full of blood while my father hu -If Caliope says she'll take care of her, then I have no doubt.

Jace and Julian nodded in agreement.

-Well, do we come up with a plan or do we improvise as we go," my twin asks amused and Julian shrug

protect them, they are the next Alpha and Beta, we can't just disappear right now. Jace says and understanding slips between us.

he herd," I propose but my two brothers give me a look that clearly says that will never happen. stifle a chuckle because he is right.

is covered in silver blood and her pale complexion is even paler than usual- I will take care of her mother, and the herd will be fine, but you all need to be eems, blood is thicker than water-.

always.

all species.

er crying was going to be something I would never forget in my life.

-We go into bloodsucking territory, take out the three runaway wolves and kill anyone who gets in our way, we don't need a plan other than that.

-Straight and bloody, just the way I like it," Jack rubs his hands together with eagerness and I don't know if it's because of the thrill of revenge or because of his desire to catch his mate.

-Before we go, I have to grab something," I tell my brothers and they hurry me so we can leave immediately.

I run to my parents' office and open the closet that was always forbidden to me and my brothers.

Despite everything we were going through, I couldn't help but feel excited to have my mom's treasure in my hands.

Those leeches were not going to know what happened to them.

(...)

I can't believe you took mom's blades.

Jace complained for the thousandth time over the bond.

Shut up, she's not going to use them right now, she won't even notice they're gone.

I reply with annoyance as we run in our wolf forms through the forest, Julian who was our best tracker was in the lead following the trail left by Max.

If he doesn't kill us for leaving without telling anyone, he will if anything happens to those leaves.

My twin grumbles and Casiana rolls her eyes internally.

Leave her alone, it's not Juliet's fault that you didn't come up with that idea.

Jack defends me, although he only does it because in the backpack I bring in my muzzle I also keep dad's set of throwing knives that he loves, apart from mom's crescent knives that I took for myself there is also a silver whip for Julian and an axe for Jace, apart from a change of clothes for each of us just in case.

My parents always told us that we had to learn to defend ourselves in every way possible, so I was simply doing what they had taught us.

Or at least that's what I hoped they would see when we got back safe and sound.

My twin keeps protesting, but we ignore him, knowing it's just a verbal diarrhea he gets whenever he's nervous.

We've been running for about two hours and tiredness threatens to make us stop to rest, but we can't, they're already too far ahead of us, plus for decades my parents searched for the bloodsuckers' lair without success, if we didn't follow the trail while it was fresh there's a good chance we'd never replace it.

That's why even though our paws screamed for a few seconds, we ignored it and kept going, only stopping long enough for Julian to sniff and make sure we were going in the right direction.

Which was reaffirmed every time the mating bond between Rafael and I jerked hard the closer we got.

We ran most of the night, sleeping only an hour to replenish our strength and take care of our basic needs when we finally reached the foot of a mountain that was surrounded by a river with sharp and dangerous currents.

Our wolves approached to drink water while we were inspecting around, Casiana urged me to force my gaze to a middle point on the mountain, and with the first lights of the morning I could distinguish how something was shining for a fraction of a second. Up there, I could see the reflection of something!

There are too many lakes and rivers around this territory, that's how they could hide for so long, they must have submerged themselves in the water over and over again to erase their trail.

Jackson grunts in annoyance.

That mountain is in plain sight of a human city, our parents must have guessed that the bloodsuckers wouldn't be so stupid to be in plain sight, besides if they indiscriminately killed mundanes it would have raised enough suspicions among the people by now Julian adds still seeing a couple of lights from the nearby civilization.

If this is the place where Leonardo grew up I can't believe that all these years he was so close to us.

I say sadly although I am angry with our half-brother, I can't imagine what it's like to have a childhood surrounded by enemies.

It's a mystery how they have managed to go unnoticed for so long.

Jace muses and I mentally shrug my shoulders.

I guess we'll replace out in a few moments

Carefully and helping each other we cross the main river that surrounded the mountain, the icy water chilling us to the bone.

As the wet fur only further increased the cold we felt we returned to our human form, I passed a pair of pants to each of my brothers while I put on shorts and a sports top, also handing out the weapons and hiding the backpack in the high branch of a tree to prevent the air from carrying our scent.

They gave me incredulous looks for the scarcity of garments but I gave them an apologetic half smile, I had little time and limited space so I only took the essentials.

We walked cautiously around the base looking for some kind of preset path without success, Jack and I swallowed curses every time we came to a new dead end path making us backtrack, it wasn't until the sun was fully up that we hit a rocky path coming out of the walls in the form of a rappel.

I went up to sniff a broken branch and the scent of chocolate forest overwhelmed my sense of smell.

-It's Rafael's scent, they were definitely here.

In sync we lift our heads to watch the path become less and less clear over the ledge, sighing Jack approaches moving his neck from one side to the other and rotating his shoulders.

-I'll go first, Juliet you go behind me, Jace after and Julian last. We move forward together and stop together, be careful, we don't have the luxury of waiting for a broken bone to heal if one of us trips or falls-. And with that said he hops over to grab the edge of the first rock above him to propel his body up.

Feeling a little discomfort in my chest for going second when we all know I'm the best climber I go after my brother trying to remind myself that he's only in Alpha mode because his partner is in danger and instincts must be kicking him in the a's for not being around to take care of her.

Our progress is faster than that of a human, but slower than we would have liked. The path being increasingly more dangerous than we first thought, several times the rocks we were leaning on gave way under our weight causing us mini heart attacks. And although I did not suffer from vertigo, I could not avoid swallowing saliva every time I looked down and saw how the ground disappeared.

If I didn't know better I would be sure that the damn leeches had evolved to the point where they grew wings.

It was impossible for them to make this journey every time they needed to feed.

With a thousand doubts and a greater resentment for the creatures of the night we continued to climb for what felt like a f*****g eternity.

Until finally Jack raised a hand to stop us, he motioned for us to be quiet and listen.

At first I heard nothing apart from my heartbeat and the roar of the wind, but then came the unmistakable sound of gurgling and moaning.

Adrenaline was pounding with the desire to go straight to the noise to replace out what it was, but caution won out, carefully we approached a ledge watching as a vampire was lying in a pool of his own blood, his bones sticking out in several places, his skull smashed against the stone and choking on his blood, the sun slowly burning him.

-They must have dropped him," Jack analyzes after a few seconds and turns upstairs narrowing his eyes as he shields himself from the sun, "Right there," he doesn't point and I struggle a bit but I finally see what looks like the entrance to a cave.

-Only one entrance and only one exit, I don't know if that's smart or suicidal. Jace shakes his head.

-I don't think they thought anyone would ever replace them up here, to me it would have made more sense for them to settle somewhere subway to protect themselves from the sun instead of where they would be trapped during the day," Julian muses and only adds reasons why they have been evading my parents for so long.

-Let's go in while we have the advantage of the light, in the worst case we run away and they won't be able to follow us, let's hope that in their arrogance most of them have gone to sleep, because I doubt very much that they would leave their city without protection under any circumstances. Jack decides and I go over to kick the dying vampire's body a little.

-I think we'll just have to follow the path of corpses and wreckage that Raphael and Diana probably left behind- I shared a look with siblings not wanting to say the word rouge to describe my couple- I rather doubt they know they should be stealthy so as not to alert a whole damn clan of bloodsuckers of their presence-.

-Then we'd better hurry, the faster we replace them the faster we get out of here and the less likely they'll notice our presence. Jace agrees, earning a nod from everyone.

He then approaches the bloodsucker and finishes pushing him over the cliff, I look at my twin with a bit of disbelief but he doesn't flinch at our surprised look.

-What, it was just in case, besides every damn leech that dies today will be our revenge for what they did to mom and our herd. He defends himself with an icy tone and with his words something other than adrenaline and nervousness runs through me. Something dark and twisted turns in my stomach as I remember the damage they have done to our family, unwillingly my eyes shift to my wolf's as my fangs grow, almost able to taste the blood of our enemies on the tip of my tongue.

I try to control the instincts that tell me to look for a neck to tear because we need to act smart if we want to get out of this place in one piece.

But that plan goes down the tube when from inside the cave a howl echoes throughout the place scaring away a couple of birds resting nearby.

I can't think when Casiana snatches my control and shoots off in the direction of the sound of our mate.

My brothers curse behind me and I am faintly aware that our plan to enter undetected and leave the same way failed before it even began.

But that doesn't matter, the need to watch over my mate's safety increases as a second pain-filled howl sounds squeezing my chest.

I'll tear them from the inside out if they hurt her.

Casiana swears in my head and I give my she-wolf free rein to do whatever she wants in complete agreement with her.

Anyone who laid a hand on Raphael would die a painful death.

Even if it killed me in the attempt.