My Omega Queen
Chapter 35: Plan and Execution

POV: Emily

I take a deep breath and begin organizing my thoughts. The south has been breached, with probably more to come soon. If this would be a large-scale attack, the north might also be in danger of an invasion. Marco clearly needs some back-up, as quickly as possible. As I am closest to the North side, as are the barracks and a larger number of warriors, I can make a decision for the next step in our defense:

“Western patrols, move toward South-West and coordinate with Marco to assist in the ongoing fight. North-West, move toward West. East, move South-East. North-East, move East. North, split up and move either North-East or North-West. Finally, any remaining warriors in the barracks are to go fortify the North. Update me as soon as possible when spotting any rogue.”

This should cover for the current situation, but I cannot sit and wait while everyone is doing the fighting for me. I decide to head to the South-East, since that situation seems more out of control. While heading there, I mind-link Amanda to inform her of the situation and ask her to make sure there are no pack members close to the edge of the forest, as that is the most dangerous place to be at right now.

She says she’ll take care of that situation, so my thoughts focus on what still needs to be done. We’ve fortified our defenses, we’re taking steps in order to minimize our casualties, what more can we do?

I got it! We’ve been reactive to the threat so far, but we must use our territory to our advantage, so I need to rely on the people who know it by hand. The patrols are stretched quite thin, but there is a proactive move we can pull off and prevent even more losses. I communicate the newly formed strategy to the warriors through yet another mind-link:

“Southern patrol, you have not encountered any problems so far, right? Your role in this fight is crucial: spread out and patrol to the southern border. There, one person should be stationed as a scout, remaining hidden. Split up and circle back toward the South-East and South-West and ambush any rogues you see. Relay quickly information, then act as one. Use our territory to your advantage and remain undetected. The warriors headed to replace the Northern patrol, spread out to cover as much area as possible, form groups of two or three, then lie in wait at the border. You are to ambush anyone entering from there.”

Phew, that was quite longer than I thought it would be, but I’m almost at the edge of the forest now. I can faintly see a couple of warriors, waiting, just like I told them to. On the way there, Marco updates me on reinforcements arriving and the situation looking more stable. There have been no losses from our side so far, but they managed to surprise and kill four of them. The rest ran off, so I suggested the same course of action as in the South-East: split, pursue and try to intercept.

I arrive at the pack of waiting warriors, it seems that the ones in pursuit managed to catch and kill only one of the rogues. The rest are still on their way to the village. After only a few seconds, some rustling and the sound of something approaching attracts Accalia’s attention: “Let me out. I’ll take care of them.” I happily oblige and cede control of my body, as I swiftly shift. My wolf form surprises some of the warriors, but Accalia is quick to snap at them:

“Pay attention! Listen closely, they’ll be here soon.”

The warriors now have their senses honed and focused completely on the sounds coming from the forest. A couple of seconds pass, while the rustling gets closer. Finally, two werewolves emerge and Accalia identifies them as rogues. The warriors don’t even get a chance to take two steps forward, as Accalia jumps at one of them and slashes his throat. The other, agitated, looks for an escape, but she takes advantage of his hesitation and pins him to a tree, snapping his neck against it. She’s clearly taking out her anger on them, but I let her deal with her grief, if this is what needs to be done. A few more rogues also get to the edge. However, the other warriors are quicker to react this time and they manage to intercept them. Accalia runs to the nearest one to take care of him and the pursuers arrive on the scene in the meanwhile. They’re clearly tired from giving chase, but they also engage the enemy, making for quite a quick fight. I tell Accalia the next steps and she communicates them to the warriors:

“The gravely wounded shall head to the hospital. Those who can still fight, keep an eye out and continue your patrols.”

Much to my surprise, everyone nods and heads back into the forest, none of them going toward the hospital. It seems Accalia has boosted their morale, as well as reduced their injuries because of her speed and ferocity. We prepare to also head into the forest when a concerning message comes through:

“This is the patrol moving from East to South-East. We’ve encountered a large pack of rogues, close to twelve in number. We took them by surprise and killed one, but we are locked in place, fighting while outnumbered. Awaiting orders.”

This is bad news, but quite great timing, as Accalia wastes no time to rush toward their position together with a couple more of our warriors while I try to manage the situation:

“Fight in dense areas, with your backs to thick trees. Try to stall and focus on survival. We’re coming.”

Accalia’s thirst drives her faster and faster toward the East, going into the forest and using her sense of smell to its fullest extent. In two minutes, she manages to sniff an amalgamation of smells, and in two more she reaches the fight. Most of the warriors are outnumbered two to one and some of them are gravely injured. The situation is dire, so Accalia starts with the people most in need of help. Even while rampaging, her way of quickly dispatching of the rogues one by one is clean and efficient. The relief and elation on the face of the warriors as Accalia quickly tears through their enemies makes me extremely happy and proud. I’m finally fulfilling my role to protect the people.

The numbers of the rogues dwindle and the warriors who can still fight manage to overpower them. Accalia still fights with the same ease as she did in the beginning, but I try to restrain her as the fight reaches an end: “Keep at least one alive, we need to find out why this attack happened”.

I hear an audible annoyed growl, but she stops her killing spree and slams the last of the rogues into a tree, pinning him down with her claws. With another paw, she slashes one of his arms, tearing his muscles and making the arm go limp. The rogue howls in pain, but Accalia pays him no mind, instead addressing two warriors that seemed less injured:

“You two, take this one and throw him in the dungeon, then head for the hospital yourselves.”

They nod and approach, while Accalia breaks the rogue’s other shoulder to ensure that he has no escape, then leaves the warriors to take him away.

The Northern and Southern patrols report successful ambushes, followed by retreats of other rogues. There are minor scuffles, but the fortified patrols are able to take care of everything with ease. Accalia makes her way through the forest to pick off any stragglers and help other patrols which are even or losing.

The fight goes on for an hour or two, but, thanks to the plan and good organization, there has been no death on our side. Our ambushers even managed to capture two more rogues, which may help during interrogation. The fight finally reaches an end after some minutes of complete silence. A few patrols are still left in the forest, besides the ones already on duty, and Accalia decides to pull an all-nighter to roam the woods, in any case.

As the sun rises, I take back control and decide to get some much-needed sleep. On the way, I swing by the hospital to check if everything is fine. Their only problem seems to be the high number of people which have come in, but other than that no one is at risk of dying from their wounds.

With a heavy heart, I go to Amanda’s room, nudge her from her sleep and tell her:

“Sorry to wake you up like this, but I need you to take care of my duties while I go to sleep. Please let me know as soon as possible if any other rogue dares to enter our territory.”

Her morning grogginess goes away in an instant, rising up from the bed and complying with my request:

“Of course, Em! Count on me. By the way, great job out there! I’m certain Edward will be pleased to hear of what you did. You should go sleep now, we’ll talk more when you’re back on your feet.”

I weakly nod and slowly get to my bed. I’m too tired to change, so I slump on the soft bedding and pillows. Before dozing off, I say to Accalia: “Everything worked out as we wanted to. Thank you for your huge help”, but she seems to be too tired to reply.

Waking up in the afternoon, I check with Amanda to see if there are any new updates and thankfully the attacks seems to have truly stopped yesterday. With that, I decide it’s time to head to the dungeon and find out why this happened in the first place.