Thirty eight

"Wait, what?" Kira exclaimed as her brows rose up frantically.

"What do you mean our pack is being invaded? By who? Since when?" she questioned, visibly puzzled.

"It suddenly started yesterday when reports came in and we had so many death reports and no one saw anything or knows how it even started," Layla replied, wearing a frustrated look on her face.

"Are you being serious auntie? What the hell! How did it happen? How many victims do we have?" Kira asked, already preparing to get back to her pack.

"Last night, Landon had come with two dead bodies. Both had some kind of weird bite marks on them and to top off, their bodies were dried up and pale looking as if they had been dead for way longer," Laura explained to her.

Kira immediately froze when she heard her aunt's description and a sudden feeling of fear overwhelmed her briefly.

"The creatures cursed by the sun," she muttered absentmindedly as different thoughts went through her head.

She expected them to invade her pack eventually but she did not expect it to be so soon.

"Holy shit, if they're already there, it means that in no time, they will be everywhere," she muttered worriedly as she packed up a few things.

"Exactly my thoughts Kira but is that what the creatures cursed by the sun are capable of? I mean, is their biting that dangerous and quick?" Layla asked, visibly puzzled as she tried to figure out why their bite only let to their death.

"That's a mystery I'm yet to unravel but I know I will find out soon," she said as she walked out of her chambers with Layla following closely behind her.

"Where are you heading to Kira? That's not the way out of this place," Layla pointed out when Kira took a different turn.

"I have to tell Damien that I'll be leaving. I can't leave without informing him," she replied to her aunt.

"Oh, that's true dear. Hurry and do that, I will be here waiting for you," Layla told her and she nodded her head before leaving for Damien's chamber.

After telling Damien that she was going to her pack, he bid her farewell and she left immediately with her aunt.

Kira returned back to her pack to see the bodies of some of the people she grew up with and some of the guards that had worked with her father. Even though her aunt had warned her to prepare to be saddened by the number of dead bodies, nothing could have fully prepared her for the number of people that had turned up dead.

Her heart shattered into pieces seeing their pale bodies and it hurt her so much that she wasn't there to protect her people. As her teary eyes stared at them, she couldn't help but wish she at least knew the face of the bastards behind everything.

It annoyed her that she had never come in contact with any of them and everyone who came in contact with them died and the only one who had managed to survive was killed later on.

She knew Rogan's death wasn't because of the bite he sustained but because these creatures have the audacity to infiltrate wherever they like and commit these murders without ever being detected.

She didn't bring it up because she wasn't suspicious of anyone and didn't have proof of her suspicion.

"Welcome back Alpha Kira," Eliot greeted the moment she walked into the meeting room.

Everyone was gathered as they awaited her presence. Unlike the Silvermoon pack who were only just finding out about the creatures cursed by the sun, the Red Moon pack already knew the little Kira had told them and they had actually expected them. The only issue was that they didn't think it would happen so soon and they also weren't expecting that they'd be this difficult to detect, much less fight against.

It seems to Kira that the creatures cursed by the sun were scared to face them so instead, they chose to ambush them like cowards.

"Prepare yourselves for the most dangerous battle of your life,"

Those were the first words that came out of Kira's mouth the moment she sat on her seat.

"As far as we've learnt, these creatures do not like close contact with the sun and they mostly attack during nighttime. What this means is that when we finally discover their hideout, we are going to attack them during daytime when we assume they are at their weakest," Kira explained to them.

"If you do not mind me asking Alpha Kira, how do you suggest we attack these creatures whose weakness we do not know about? We are simply making assumptions at this point," Sebastian pointed out an obvious flaw in Kira's plan.

Kira sighed deeply as she clenched the handle of the seat with her fist.

"The truth is, I do not know how we will battle against them because at the end of the day, we're basically fighting ghosts but if there's one thing that I'm pretty sure of, it's that we have the moon goddess on our side completely and she is working with us," she spoke, hoping it was assuring enough although she wasn't sure if assurance alone was all they needed at the moment.

Sebastian laughed sarcastically.

"Having the moon goddess working with us doesn't guarantee our victory at all, Alpha Kira. For all we know, these creatures are extremely deadly and we can't just blindly prepare for war and then jump into it when we don't even know what we're fighting or how capable they are. You're literally asking us to prepare for suicide at this point," he pointed out, not holding back.

Sebastian's words had hit her pretty deep. He was right about the entire situation. It would make no sense if they suddenly waged war against something they didn't even know much about and from the looks of it, these creatures knew more about them than they knew about the creatures.

Kira was silent for a few minutes as she thought of what to do about the entire situation. If they did nothing but just sit back and wait for the right timing, several members would turn up dead but even if they decide to do something, several people would still end up sacrificing their lives, she thought to herself.

"If we sit down and do nothing people will die and if we do not sit down and we actually attempt to fight back, a lot of us will still end up dead cause we don't even know what we're fighting against but who knows, if we're lucky and sensible with our plan, we may be able to find out how these creatures look and if that happens, we could capture them alive and interrogate them so we can at least get a better understanding of what we're dealing with. At the end of the day, we can't guarantee the people's safety no matter what decision we make but I strongly believe that it's better to make a move and show them we're more than ready to fight back than just sit around to wait for some lucky tip," she finally spoke up after minutes of silence.

The people in the room exchanged different looks amongst themselves.

"Kira is right you guys," her aunt's husband, Luca intervened.

"We've seen what they can do and yet, we still don't know how powerful they are and if we don't try to find out very soon, we probably may never know. The thing is...," he trailed off.

"These creatures, we've already established them as dangerous and tactical and we're aware that their aim is to wipe us out completely. Imagine we decide to wait for a chance at the expense of more innocent lives being lost?" he said suggestively, trying to help them see reason.

"If we all sit back and keep watching, it won't take long before most of us get wiped out till it's only a very countable number of us that's still alive. These creatures literally asked for war by attacking us you guys and we will have to show them that we are not as weak as they believe we are. If they really thought of us as completely weak and helpless, they would not be hiding amongst us to kill us like cowards. Instead, they'd show their faces and face us properly," Layla chimed in.

"So what are you suggesting we do to Lady Layla? Just fight back? Okay, if that's the case, how do we go about it? How do you suggest we fight back?" Sebastian asked, genuinely curious to see what they had in mind.

"At first I thought attacking during the day would be the best but now that I think about it, it's not a very foolproof plan. Instead, we'll attack at night since it's when they are most active. We will put ourselves out there and lure them to us. The moment they come, we are going to attack them and capture them because we need information from them. We will go to the spot where the dead bodies were found and act like we are not aware of anything and like we're simply doing our job as guards," Kira explained to them.

"Pardon my pessimism but where there's plan A, there needs to be a plan B. So what if this actual plan of yours ends up failing?" Sebastian questioned.

Kira clenched the handle of her seat again as she let out a deep breath to control herself. Sebastian had always opposed her and always had something to say against whatever it is she said and the fact that he was doing it again was definitely getting under her skin.

She had, of course, thought of the possibility of them not being able to succeed with their plan but she also did the calculation and in her head, the chances of them failing, if they executed their plans right, is less than thirty percent. Having a plan A to her was a much better option than not having any actual plans at all.

"You make it sound as if it's that easy to execute," Sebastian added.

Kira swallowed the lump in her throat as she controlled her anger and let out a frustrated sigh.

"Nothing is ever easy Sebastian and this isn't supposed to be easy for us. These bastards have already studied us and they know way too much and it's quite possible that we could even have a spy amongst us that's giving them all the information that they have," Kira hissed impatiently.

"Spy? Do you mean there are actually spies here amongst us? Why are you just mentioning this?" Layla's husband asked as his brows rose up in a questioning manner.

"I cannot confirm that but we will have to find out. Tonight we shall execute our plans and I will put myself out there as the bait so worry not about anyone else having to take the risk," Kira replied calmly.

"You cannot use yourself as the bait. You are our Alpha and it's too dangerous to put yourself at risk," Sebastian interjected.

"Exactly Sebastian, I'm the Alpha of this pack which is why I have to carry out this task myself. I cannot call myself a true leader if I put my people's lives on the line in order to protect mine," she spoke in her own defense.

"Still...," Kira cuts Sebastian off.

"Not a word from you anymore Sebastian. I already made up my mind. It seems everyone is scared of encountering these monsters, so I shall do the needful instead. It's my responsibility and I can assure that I don't plan on dying anytime soon. The moment the sun goes down and the moon rises, we shall set out for the woods where most of the bodies were found," Kira said to them.

She got up from her seat. "Aunt, I need your help with this," she whispered to her aunt as her eyes bored into hers.

Laura placed her hands on Kira's shoulder. "You don't have to tell me dear, I'm definitely here for you," Layla assured her as she squeezed her shoulder lightly.

"Thank you auntie," Kira tells her as a smile crept to her face.

"Since we have come to a final decision, this meeting is officially over. We shall set out tonight and succeed at all cost," Kira announced.