The Rogues Who Went Rogue
Chapter 56

Ten vampires appeared by Draxon's side and immediately got to work. Their teal-green eyes turned pitch black, confirming that they were decipios, who channeled their manipulation powers on Lucianne.

Xandar was helping those at the back, and had just killed another discretus who almost got one of the Blue Crescent warriors when he felt his wife's mind being compressed and her legs giving way. He started sprinting towards her before he was knocked down by two other invisible bloodsuckers. The king pushed himself up immediately, and started blindly scratching the air in front of him with his claws as he sprinted towards Lucianne, whose heart rate was increasing as she continued the mental battle with ten manipulators. Xandar yelled, "Get those motherf*ckers across the river away from my wife!"

Disregarding their own safety, every lycan and werewolf tried their best to charge forward, but many were blocked by the invisible freaks. Some lycans and werewolves even got nicked, and fell to the ground.

The discretus were working in pairs now. One to distract and one to bite. Draxon was smiling broadly at how things were playing out. He especially enjoyed seeing Lucianne on her knees, her hands on the ground pulling at the grass to cope with the mental torment, and her panting was as visible as the beads of sweat falling from her head to the ground below her.

But within a few moments that felt like an eternity, everyone heard Lucianne growling louder than anyone had ever heard before as she pushed herself up from the ground like she merely experienced a simple fall. The queen emitted her Authority, which pushed back the manipulators' compression just enough for her to get to Draxon.

The manipulators were visibly stunned, and exchanged glances before trying to manipulate her mind again, trying to confuse her into thinking that Draxon and them were actually her allies, and those on her side were enemies. Lucianne exerted her full strength and blocked it all out, wasting no time in compelling Draxon to raise his hands.

The former Alpha's eyes were filled with horror when his claws extended without his control, and he began attacking the manipulators around him. Lucianne managed to get him to kill two and injure one before one of them twisted his neck. Draxon's lifeless body fell to the ground with a thud, and Lucianne was the first to jump across the river with another ferocious growl and fiery eyes, shifting into her lycan form as she did so.

The manipulators panicked and turned to run away from the white-furred, striped-tailed beast. Lucianne easily caught up to the slowest one, and she killed her first decipio, then a few moments later, her second. Xandar, Greg, Christian and the alliance members were catching up as well.

The manipulators mind-linked one another, hastily trying to hatch a plan as they kept running. One tripped, and she met her end when Christian ripped her head off. Juan crushed her detached skull when he leaped over her corpse.

Xandar closed in, and after a quick estimation, leaped from the ground and landed flat on one, ripping off his arms and hearing him scream before Xandar snapped his neck.

Six down. Four to go.

After the four remaining decipios decided on what they were going to do, they leaped on separate trees and climbed higher and higher. Lucianne and the others were not backing down. They started climbing, albeit slower since they don't practice climbing anything. The wolves had to shift back to do the same.

The vampires picked whatever they could find on the branches and threw it at them, mostly fruits and nests. Greg was still in his human form, and he got so frustrated at the mango-throwing that he started catching the fruits being thrown at him just to throw them back. When the vampires were at the highest branches, they exchanged a firm nod and targeted Xandar's mind. Xandar instantly fell onto the ground with a loud thump, and Lucianne leaped off the tree she was on without hesitation. She didn't feel anything in Xandar's body was broken but the fact that his animal seemed to feel trapped was worrying her.

She tried mind-linking him, 'Xandar. Xandar, darling. Can you hear me?'

His animal pushed itself up as it wobbled around, shaking its head hard to get the caging sensation out. Lucianne's lycan steadied him by his arms as her animal whimpered, trying to get her mate to open his eyes. She felt his annoyance, struggle and frustration, and it was getting

worse.

She cupped his face and her thumb stroked his cheek like how her human part often did to calm him down. His breathing hastened instead of steadied, and when his eyes opened, they weren't the lilac or onyx ones Lucianne fell for. They were dark green.

'Xandar, listen to me. You can fight this. Trust your animal. It knows AHHHH-' Lucianne's lycan howled in anguish when Xandar's claws plunged right through her abdomen before scratching her face and then tossing her at a tree. The smell of her blood filled the air as those climbing the trees didn't think twice before aborting their plan to chase the remaining decipios.

Xandar felt her anguish through their bond, and he too held his abdomen as he steadied himself, anger and worry set in his eyes. Even so, he wasn't done with Lucianne, who was still trying to recover as she endured the pain.

He stood before her, shifted back and growled, "You WILL regret hurting MY MATE!"

As her lycan continued whimpering, an express plea for him to wake up, her human part tried to link him again, 'Xandar, snap out of it! I am your mate!'

His face started twitching, like he was fighting off something before the manipulation took full force and he was about to pounce on Lucianne before Greg knocked him out of the way. Almost immediately, the duke then lifted the king and threw him as far away as he could from the queen.

With agonizing eyes, Greg tried to help Lucianne sit up as gently as possible, and when he heard a disgruntled growl and saw Xandar getting back up again, shifting as he did so, the duke barked out his order to his followers, "WE SWORE ALLEGIANCE TO THE QUEEN, NOT THE KING! PROTECT HER AT ALL COST!"

Christian came over, and Greg pushed aside his reluctance to speak to a Blackfur and told him, "Stay with her." He then joined his people and shifted to stop his idiotic cousin.

The sight of Xandar fighting against their friends and allies was so painful to watch that Lucianne's eyes pooled with tears. Christian blocked her view and linked her gently, 'Focus on your recovery, My Queen. They can slow him down, but you might be the only one who'll be able to stop him.' She took his advice and started trying to heal faster. That was when she witnessed a sight that would forever be etched in her memory, that would now invade her dreams and wake her up as nightmares - her closest friends attacking one another.

Blood was already oozing out of the wound on the left side of Zeke's torso, and he was still dodging blows from his dark green-eyed mate when he yelled, "Zel! Snap out of it! It's me!"

Toby was fighting off a manipulated Juan, "Juan! C'mon! I didn't invite myself for this! It's just bloodsuckers' magic! Fight it, Goddess damn it!"

Margaret was facing the same dilemma with Azalea. “Az! Quit it! The real crooks are getting away!"

And that was how it was everywhere Lucianne looked. Tate was trying to land blows on a dead-faced Lovelace without hurting her too much; Phelton was struggling to find his best forms of attack without over-hurting Raden; and even Laurent was blindly attacking her colleagues. With the little strength she had, Lucianne linked them, 'Knock them out cold!'

They threw her an 'are you sure' look before dodging another attack from their respective opponents, and concluded that blacking them out was the only safe way for now.

Toby aimed at the back of Juan's head and the Alpha fell flat on the ground. "Sorry about this, brother. You can punch me in the gut later." He went on to help the next one. Margaret saw what the others were doing, and got the idea, so she knocked Azalea out with little difficulty but a lot of guilt.

Zeke dodged a few more attacks from his mate before he said, "Babe, I'm really sorry about this. I love you." Zelena growled before Zeke knocked her out, then sat on the ground and held her in his arms, burying his face in her hair as he whispered an endless stream of 'I'm sorry'. The sound of bone-cracking brought Lucianne's attention back to Xandar. He was snapping limbs and throwing wolves and lycans. Their anguished howls and blood wasn't making him any more merciful. Greg began wrestling with him but it was clear that the duke wasn't going to win. The mate-bond made the Lycan King almost invincible.