Chapter 189
Dron groaned and pressed a hand to his chest.
That pull was getting stronger.
Tempest was just behind this gate. She had to be.
He didn’t know if she was hurt or not. The people behind the gate better pray that she was okay. The way he was feeling right now, he didn’t know if he’d be able to stop until everyone was dead if something had happened to Tempest.
The feeling was contagious.
Every alpha in the area had the same drive.
They wanted to break down the walls to get inside.
It was harder than he thought it would be.
Most of the gate was electrified. Every time they got close one of the alpha’s would fall to the ground in a shaking fit. That was until Dron figured out a way to build a ram. It was just about done. When it was there would be nothing stopping him from getting inside.
"Dron! You have to listen to me." Mexyn shouted at him as he continued to move through the crowd getting the last of what he needed.
He wasn’t paying her any attention, she had her chance to tell him what she needed to tell him back at the strong hold. He was too close to stop and talk tactics now.
"Dron!" Mexyn called for him again. This time she grabbed his arm and turned him around. Dron growled at Mexyn, there was a clear hostility in his tone.
If something had indeed happened to Tempest he would take it out on Mexyn. They both knew that. He held her responsible for at least part of the issues that Tempest seemed to get herself into. Mexyn was supposed to be watching out for her. Dron had trusted the small always calm Omega. Looks like that was the wrong thing to do.
"Growl at me all you want but you need to hear me." Mexyn lifted her chin but didn’t take her gaze off Dron.
"What do you want? I’m busy." Dron narrowed his eyes on her.
"I see that you’re busy but your busy doing the wrong thing."
"Really and what do you think is the right thing. I’m going to get my mate. There is nothing more important than that."
Mexyn sighed, "No, you’re not going to get your mate. Look around. This isn’t a rescue mission. This is a siege." Mexyn waved her hand in the direction of the crowd. Dron followed with his eyes looking around.
There was nothing calm about what was going on. Every alpha was nearly as deep as he was in their alpha instincts. They were trying to get inside to kill. Not to search.
"Dron, this is bad. In every way. You have to see that." Mexyn continued.
Dron shrugged his shoulders hard, "There’s nothing I can do about it now. They shouldn’t have closed the gate."
Mexyn scoffed. "Really, if you saw a huge military force closing in on your would you leave your gates open? They are scared. They don’t have the resources we have. They don’t have the strength. Of course they are going to close the gate. Right now, the natives of this planet are the enemy. We have to calm the masses down. Try to talk to the leaders inside. It’s the only way we get to Tempest without something happening. You want her back in one piece, don’t you?" Mexyn questioned.
Dron grumbled.
They were wasting time. But she wasn’t wrong.
"They’re not going to listen to me. They have what they believe are their orders. It’s too late." Dron looked out onto the crowd, and he realized how crazy it all looked. Not only were they trying to get into the gate, but they were also fighting each other. It was a free-for-all. Completely insane. There was no real leadership happening here.
"Then you have to make them listen to you. If you want this to go well, they have to calm down."
Dron rubbed his hand over his chest again. He could feel the pull pulsing deep inside of him. He took a few deep breaths.
Soon.
Soon he’d have Tempest in his arms again.
He just had to make sure it wasn’t in the middle of a war.
"Get Crilium, I’m going to need him." Dron snapped in Mexyn’s direction.
"I’m here." Crilium spoke. He wasn’t more than a few feet away. Dron didn’t even recognize him there. He wasn’t more than a few feet away from Mexyn. The man never left her side. Dron should’ve known that he wouldn’t be far.
"You’ll have to get your men on board."
"They are here to follow you."
"No, these are you’re men." Dron shook his head.
"But you are the stronger Alpha, they’ll listen to you before they listen to me." Crilium said as if it were fact.
Dron blinked a few times. He couldn’t process what was happening. How had he become the leader of all these massive alpha’s. There was a point in time that he was considered the bottom of the barrel and now they were all here to further his goal.
Right now, it looked like his goal was to kill as many people as possible. Dron had to stop this, but he didn’t know how.
He looked to Mexyn and she was huddled closer to Crilium. Things were getting out of hand.
Dron looked around and found a large boulder. It would put him above the rest of the alphas. He rushed to climb up. He looked out into the crowd. There were at least a hundred alphas in the crowd. Alpha’s from the strong hold, The soilders he started his journey with. The alphas from Tine’s settlement had caught up to them.
He scanned the crowd and found Mikael. The young kid was armed and ready for the fight that was to come, but Dron could see the fear in the childs eyes. This wasn’t a place for him. It wasn’t safe.
If it wasn’t safe for Mikael, Dron knew it wouldn’t be safe for Tempest. She was on the inside of all of this. The humans inside the settlement would do whatever they could to stay alive, which meant they could possibly hurt her.
"Brothers!" Dron called out, but no one looked up.
They couldn’t hear him. They were too focused on either beating each other up or getting through the gate. The battering ram was nearly complete. Dron knew once it was there was no stopping the massacre that was about to take place.
"Brothers!" Dron shouted again, this time he used his alpha tone.
It would only work on the alphas that were weaker than him.
He expected half the crowd to look up. Expected a few of them to still be lost in their alpha instincts. He swallowed hard in surprise when every last set of eyes jerked up and locked on him.
Some of them not too happy that they were being challenged.
Dron was quiet for a moment. He didn’t know what to say. Didn’t know how to get through to everyone here. He had to take control. This was the moment he’d trained for his entire life. It just so happened that the goal on the other side of this wall wasn’t to take over the savages but to save his true love.
Dron looked out over the crowd and tried to find the words. For most of his life, he had been told what an alpha was supposed to be. Strong. Fearless. Unyielding. A protector. A warrior. Someone the weak could stand behind when the world became dangerous.
Now more than a hundred alphas were looking up at him, waiting.
"My alpha brothers!" Dron’s voice carried through the valley. "We came here because someone we care about may be in danger. I know many of you do not know Tempest. Some of you have never spoken a single word to her. Some of you came because your leaders asked it of you. Some came because you heard there was an omega behind these walls who needed help. And some of you came because when one of ours is in danger, we do not leave them behind."
A roar moved through the crowd.
"That is what makes an alpha. Not our size. Not our strength. Not how many enemies we can put into the ground. It is what we choose to protect."
Several alphas straightened, their attention completely focused on him.
"We have been given strength that others do not have. We can tear through stone. We can fight through wounds that would kill another being. We can stand between danger and those who cannot stand against it themselves. There are people behind that wall who cannot stand against us. They know it. That is why they closed the gate. They are afraid, and I will not condemn anyone for being afraid of a hundred alphas marching toward their home."
There were a few growls through the crowd, but they were quickly drowned out by the grunts of agreement.
"If we truly believe we are better than the creatures everyone calls us, then this is where we prove it. We do not prove our strength by destroying people who cannot match it. We prove it by controlling that strength. We prove it by protecting life when it would be easier to take it. We prove it by remembering that behind that wall are mothers. Sisters. Innocents. People who built something here because they wanted somewhere safe to live."
Dron swept his gaze over the massive crowd.
"They are not so different from us. How many of you have been called savage?"
A roar answered.
"How many have been told the place you came from made you lesser?"
The response grew louder.
"How many of you have watched someone look at you and decide what you were before you ever opened your mouth?"
The reaction wasn’t as loud this time, but Dron could see it in their faces. Too many of them understood.
"All my life, people looked at me and saw a curse." Dron dragged his hand across the black markings on his arm. "They saw this and decided I was dangerous. They decided I was something to fear. They never cared who I was."
Dron pointed toward the gate.
"Do not make the same mistake with the people behind that wall."
The crowd went quiet.
"These humans have been hiding here because someone taught them that people like us cannot be trusted. Maybe some of them have good reasons. That does not mean we have to give them another."
Dron’s voice rose.
"We came here to save."
Fists struck against chests.
"We came here to protect."
More joined.
"We came here because we refuse to leave someone behind."
The roar that followed shook the valley.
"I want my mate!" Dron shouted over them. "I want her more than I have ever wanted anything in my life. I can feel her. She is close. Every instinct inside me is telling me to tear that wall apart until I find her."
Growls of agreement rose around him.
"But Tempest would never forgive me if I reached her by walking over innocent bodies."
That quieted them.
"She would look at the blood behind me before she ever looked at me, and I will not have that be the first thing she sees when I finally hold her again."
Dron breathed deeply and looked toward the gate.
"We will get inside."
A roar answered.
"We will find her."
The response was louder.
"We will bring her out."
Weapons lifted into the air.
"But we will do it as protectors. As warriors. As alphas worthy of the strength we were given!"
The valley erupted.
Dron raised his fist and let their voices surround him for several seconds before he continued.
"Give the humans a chance to open the gate. If they refuse, we will go through it. But when we do, you remember why we came. You protect the weak. You protect the children. You protect anyone who lays down their weapon. And you protect the humans inside from anyone among us who forgets what an alpha is supposed to be."
More fists slammed against chests.
"We are not here to show them why they should fear us."
Dron stared toward the gate.
"We are here to show them why they never should have had to."
For several seconds, there was silence.
Then one alpha slammed his fist against his chest.
Another followed.
Then another.
The sound spread through the crowd until more than a hundred fists were pounding against more than a hundred chests. The sound was deafening, but there was no chaos in it anymore. No uncontrolled rage. They were united.
Dron nodded once before he jumped down from where he was standing and walked over to Mexyn.
She was actually smiling at him. He knew she was proud of him, more over he was proud of himself. In the olden days there would’ve been nothing to break him from his mission. Nothing that anyone would’ve been able to say to stop him from just going into that settlement and destroying all signs of life.
Things were different.
But the mission was still the same.
He would get Tempest.
Dron stopped in front of Mexyn.
"This is on you now. Convince them to open the gate and let us in, or send Tempest out. Do it quickly. I don’t know how long I can keep everyone here back." Dron stood to the side and Mexyn nodded at him. She walked forward all the other alphas backing away and giving her the space that she needed.
Dron could only hope that this would turn out the way they all hoped.
With no blood spilt in the sand.
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⏸ PAUSE■ STOP