The Alpha's Temptation

Aquila's border with Hydra spanned not over five hundred kilometers, and the place where Felis wanted to breach was a little farther from Pegasii Kingdom because that would mean that the Pegasii army would get alerted. So he chose a stretch of border that was near River Eridani. It would be difficult for the Pegasii army to cross over it and help the Aquila army.

The Nyxers marched to the border of Aquila within a day. Felis ordered them all to stop only a kilometer away. Alphard had come to join them over there. Even Alphard didn't go close to the Aquila kingdom for fear of being detected. He was getting wary of the spies of Draka and Pegasii and Orion. It was as if they had eyes all over.

"When would you like us to attack them, Your Highness?" Alphard asked.

Felis was on his horse. He had ordered that no Nyxer was going to camp anywhere. The camps were also like beacons to the sharp eyes of the spies. Felis decided to ride the horse throughout the day and night, stopping the equines only for a few hours to rest and eat.

"We will wait till the moon is on the horizon. I want to take advantage of the darkness so that when we attack, they will be taken by surprise."

Alphard bowed to him and was about to leave when Felis stopped him. "Is there any activity in the Kingdom of Draka?"

"No, Your Highness," Alphard replied. "Everything is just the same. It seems that after they attacked us in Orion, they relaxed. I am sure that no one would be expecting this attack. You are a genius to think of making such an important decision without wasting time. Let them all relax and we will take advantage of their laid-back attitude."

Felis scoffed. "Eltanin thinks that he is too smart, but he can't be smarter than me." After all, Felis was his elder brother and had brains of his father Ukdah, who was the most fearsome demon werewolf of Araniea.

"I fully agree, Your Highness," Alphard said and once again bowed to him before leaving.

"I want you to take ten units to attack them and breach the border. I will send ten more and then another ten one after the other to help you. Do not wait for any signals from my side. If you feel that you have infiltrated the border, ride to the main capital. Plunder, burn, steal, loot, kill — do whatever you want to through the villages that fall in between, but don't stop." Felis sucked in a sharp breath of air. "Because if you stop, it will give them time to recover. I don't want to give them a minute to recover. I want to rain my vengeance on them like they had never seen it in their lives! Is that clear, General Alphard?"

"It is!" Alphard said loudly, standing straight. He knew that Felis was on a very serious mission. It was as if this was his do or die mission.

"Go," Felis growled. "May the moon shine upon you!"

Alphard nudged his horse to move faster. He rode to the front unit and sent them orders to follow him. The first ten units followed General Alphard and they reached the border of Aquila by the time the moon had moved towards the middle of the sky.

They saw that through the vast expanse of the border, there was hardly any activity. Only the border was marked by the high boundary wall that stretched miles and miles from one side to the other. "Break it!" he commanded his army. Immediately the men got to work. The wall was broken and pulled down at several places and the army entered through those holes.

By the time they were further inside the Aquila kingdom, another ten units joined them. Alphard was surprised to see that they were not met with any resistance. He laughed on the inside that every kingdom was happy after his defeat outside the Orion Kingdom and that was why they were all so relaxed. Well, what could be better than to attack them and catch them by surprise.

"March!" he barked orders to twenty units with thousands of Nyxers to go ahead. Almost half of them who were on foot ran ahead. Some of them shifted into wolves and mingled in the mass.

They must have gone barely hundred meters ahead when all at once, a wolf who had leapt ahead, bounced back onto his men. He snarled, shocked and unable to make out what happened. Others cursed him for being callous. However, when more of them did the same, they all bounced back as if they were repelled by a giant invisible elastic wall.

"What the fuck is happening?" Alphard shouted.

"We don't know, m'lord!" The commanders of the units said, equally bewildered.

Soon every and each wolf or horse that was trying to go through the barrier, rebounded and fell back. The horses became scared. They neighed and reared and ran away, leaving their riders behind.

"Go and check it!" Alphard barked at his commanders. He was so pissed that every time he led the army these days, it was not working. His stars were surely misaligned.

The commander nudged their horse towards the mayhem that was just a few meters ahead. Very carefully they took their horses to the place where the invisible wall was. One of them stretched his hand, not believing that this could be true. When his fingers met the wall, his eyes flew wide open. "This is magic!" he rasped. "We would need King Felis to break it!"

They stopped their units from attempting to break the wall because it was futile. But where did this magic come from? They informed Alphard about it. Alphard was puzzled. Nothing made sense. "Go and inform the king!" he said. Because he didn't know what kind of magic they were against and only their king could break it because he possessed dark magic.

As soon as the commander left, Alphard rode towards the wall. It was bizarre. He looked up and saw silhouettes of three winged men against the dark sky. Faes.