Wolfe Pack (21 page)

“What if all fifteen bandits make a break straight away? There are only four of us here and Solynne and Kane will take some time to descend the hill. It could get pretty dicey.”

“Mm, you are right, I am getting ahead of myself, thing is they aren't going to wait around much longer, I am sure of it. Once they are on their horses there is no way we could run down fifteen of them, especially if they split up.  If we could somehow distract the sentry long enough to kill him before he could run into the cave we may stand a chance. Without the bandits alerted inside that will give us time to set up outside. We may even be able to send two of us in to take down a couple of their number and cause them to panic.”

“I have an idea.” It was Loranda who spoke up, “You leave the sentry to me and I will take care of him, you lot just make sure to move fast and quietly once I put him down.” Wollfen wanted to know what she would do,

“What do you plan Loranda? How do you know it will work?” Loranda laughed and gave him an impish smile,

“Oh just wait a second and you will see.” Night rolled her eyes when she realized all of a sudden what Loranda meant,

“Loranda, you don't need to do that.”

“Oh? You have a better idea?” Night could only shake her head, she turned to Wollfen,

“I hope you aren't too shy.”

He looked at her quizzically but then it dawned on him as Loranda started to strip naked on the spot. Dark couldn't help laughing out loud as his eyes went wide.

Once Loranda was naked she grabbed her dagger in its sheath and tied it around her waist behind her back, the thin strap was hardly noticeable from the front. She then positioned the dagger to hang down her butt crack, it was well out of sight. Night looked on trying to appear unhappy but she couldn't help but admire her body, she was lean and fit, certainly a sight to behold. Finally Loranda mounted her horse and untied her long blonde hair, it flowed out in the sunshine and she shook her head for effect.

“So, do you think I can distract the sentry?”

The girls agreed yes, all Wollfen could do was nod quietly as she rode past on her way to the cave entrance.

Back up the valley the sentry was looking around but not out of any sense of duty, no he was having serious thoughts of grabbing a horse and making off. Quite a number of the other men had been mumbling about doing so too.  Blackstorm though would have none of it, there had almost been a mutiny earlier in the morning and Storm had stabbed a man to death to keep the others in line. He had promised to get them out of there though, but why was he waiting? Why weren't they already riding off to safety? He didn't like it at all, nothing had gone right since they had kidnapped the Lord of Outrock over a month ago. He wasn't the smartest man around, in fact not only could he not read or write but he had trouble carrying a conversation. All he gave a damn about was drinking beer, having sex and eating good food. None of which he had in awhile. He didn't see himself sticking around for much longer at all, it was only fear of the unknown out there that was keeping him here for now.

He looked down the valley and spotted a lone rider coming towards him, he almost ducked inside immediately but hesitated, what was he seeing? Looking closer and waiting he realized that it was in fact a naked woman on horseback smiling widely. Wow, she was beautiful. He took a few steps forward keenly watching, a smile slowly crossed his lips as she came closer. But damn that was a fine piece of ass. All thoughts of why she was here didn't even cross his mind, he was too busy thinking with his dick. He was getting an erection as thoughts of what he wanted to do filled his mind.

The blonde girl was still smiling as she pulled up near him, she motioned for him to approach and she held her hand out. He responded by holding up his own and she gripped it firmly, still with that angelic smile of hers. Oh what a beauty and look at those luscious tits of hers, damn he was going to enjoy fucking this sweet piece of meat. He never got a chance to think another thought as Loranda reached behind herself and in a flash had her dagger out and plunging deep into his neck, the only sound that emanated from his mouth was a little gurgle as he sunk to the ground with her holding on slowing his fall. She looked back signaling down the valley and slipped off her horse, then she dragged the body out of sight of the entrance to the cave. There had been no sounds of any alarm so far.

Loranda grabbed her slacks and shirt off the back of the horse getting dressed quickly. Taking her crossbow slung on the other side of the saddle and stealthily moving to the cave opening she peered in from one side. Her bare feet made no sound on the rocky ground. She heard the other three approach from behind and dismount, she turned and gave a thumbs up.

Wollfen silently signaled for Nightwing to take up position on the other side of the cave entrance and he motioned for Dark to follow him to the corral. Once the two of them got there Wollfen open the gate and went inside, tapping each horse he walked by on the rump getting them to move. With the gate open they moved out but stood around. He looked to Dark,

“I don't want to yell or anything until we are ready for the bandits.”

She looked around and gave it some thought,

“Let's just walk them all down past the cave, then Loranda and Night can enter the cave and do their thing, once we hear a commotion start then we can drive them off. We will be closer too and be able to get into position faster.”

“Sounds good, let's make it happen.”

The two of them herded the horses back the way they had come going past the cave, as they did Wollfen gave Night a nod. She and Loranda then slowly moved inside.

Night glanced across to Loranda in the gloom, they moved slowly for a couple of reasons, obviously they didn't want to alert anyone further in to their presence but they also need to give their eyes time to adjust. It would be a few minutes before they got much deeper into the cave. Night moved forward and managed to step into a puddle, ugh. She was in her socks having removed her boots at the entrance. The cold water soaked her foot and made her shiver, it was icy.

Again she glanced across to Loranda and could see her staring ahead intently without distraction. She looked back again, there was movement ahead off to one side, someone was laying down on a blanket. Night once more looked across and saw Loranda give a hand signal. She nodded and gently lay her crossbow on the ground. Then slowly sliding her dagger out moved forward ever so slowly totally focused on the body. Loranda kept watch scanning as best she could, the cave was deep and they couldn't see in very far.

After a few more minutes Night was able to draw right up beside the sleeping man, she could smell his breath. It was rank. Slowly moving her hand towards his mouth she lifted her dagger and then at the last second pressed down hard on his mouth as she pushed the tip of the blade deep into his neck. He struggled in shock at first but couldn't make a sound, the blade was in his throat. His hands gripped her arms and he tried hitting her but already he was getting weaker. Within moments the man's arms fell away and he was dead.

She withdrew collecting her weapon on the ground and moving forward again. This time they were able to make good headway going in another thirty feet before pausing. The cave was opening up into a cavern and they looked around. There were tiny fires burning in multiple locations and about each of those fires were a number of bandits keeping warm. One of the bandits was berating the others giving them some sort of talk. Was he the leader? Night made a note of memorizing his face. She then took a head count of all the men she could see, there were twelve of them.

It was time to start something, they were not going to go any further in, that only made it less likely for them to be able to escape and from where they were now they could easily hit a few of the bandits with their crossbows. Night looked across to Loranda and gave her a nod.  Then she raised her own crossbow and took aim at the closest bandit turned sideways to her. As soon as she heard the thunk of Loranda's crossbow fire she pulled her trigger too. There was a scream from one of the men hit while the other fell dead into the fire in front of him. The other bandits all cried out and immediately dove for cover without looking. It gave the two of them precious seconds to reload and fire once more, there was another scream and then the two of them were up and running for the entrance.

They may have taken almost twenty minutes to get into position but their retreat was accomplished in only seconds. As soon as they burst out into the open they both turned and went to either side making for cover.  Night squinted in the glare of the sun and leapt behind a large boulder, taking aim back towards the cave's entrance.  Within twenty seconds a man showed in the gloom and Dark fired, he crumpled on the spot. After a little time they heard someone calling out and giving orders but for the most part it was quiet.

Wollfen gave a good look around at everyone in position, they were all well placed, there was nothing to do but wait now and see what happened. He doubted the bandits would attempt to make a break for it while it was daylight out.

After thirty minutes he moved and stretched a little, there had been no sound and no movement at all. He looked about and saw Night had her socks on top of the boulder, she was drying them in the sun. Behind her and closer to him was Solynne and Kane both spread wide in an arc. To his right was Dark and beyond her Loranda behind a log laying back with her hands behind her head. She looked across at that moment and gave him the thumbs up with a big grin. He shook his head at her irreverence for the situation. If it had been anyone else he would have given them a dressing down but he didn't doubt her abilities, she had proven herself more than capable.

Then there was a shout from within the cave,

“You out there! Can you hear me?” Wollfen thought quick, should he answer? It couldn't hurt,

“Yeah I can hear you! What do you want?”

“I want to make an offer! We have money! What say you?”

He was about to give an answer when he noticed Dark signaling him excitedly, then he called out,

“Wait on! I have to confer with my comrades!”

Wollfen then shuffled across to Dark's position and asked quietly,

“What is it?”

“I know that voice, his name is Blackstorm. He was of the clan Berengah!”

“Are you sure? He was in your clan? What is he like?” She shook her head as she spoke,

“A real prick. He thinks far more highly of himself than his abilities ever achieved. But I can tell you, he is good when it comes to giving a speech. But beyond that not much else.”

Wollfen digested the information quickly, it didn't change the situation at all but at least they knew who they were dealing with.

“Alright, I will keep talking to him and you get to everyone else and describe what he looks like to all of them. He is our main priority in this okay? We need to target him when the opportunity arises.”

“Got it, I will tell you what he looks like when I get back.”

He nodded and Dark moved off stealthily to Loranda first, then turned and called out to Blackstorm again,

“Give me thirty minutes and you will have your answer!”

He expected that would keep those inside happy for awhile thinking that the posse was actually considering their offer. He looked back to Dark and Loranda seeing the barefoot blonde rolling her eyes and nodding. What the heck were they talking about? As Dark came back past him he gave her a quizzical look , she nodded and gave a smirk,

“Loranda knows him, he was giving his men a speech before they fired.”

Well that explained Loranda's reaction he guessed.

After another thirty minutes Wollfen called out rejecting the offer from Blackstorm and was met with a vitriol of abuse.

“You sons of fucking bitches! We are going to come out there and kill you all slow! You are all goin to suffer at my hands! Who the fuck do you think you are to reject me? I am going to cut all your hearts out and eat them!”

This went on for another five minutes and Wollfen now understood fully Dark's description of the man, he really was all words.

Dusk fell a couple of hours later without anything happening, everyone was getting stiff laying in wait watching on without moving. He was sure there would be one or two bandits watching from the gloom trying to spot their positions. They all knew not to move though but it was taking its toll.

Wollfen's mind started to wander, he thought about what Loranda had done earlier in the day riding up naked to that sentry on duty, he thought about Darkling and how he felt about her. He thought about where Keera and Justin might be right now? Keeping watch was getting monotonous.

All of a sudden the bandits burst out into the waning light and ran at them, Wollfen shouted,

“Watch out!”

He raised his crossbow and fired off a quick shot catching one man in the shoulder and spinning him around. The others too fired off their weapons and a number of bodies went down. No one had expected this to happen right now and Wollfen was up with sword in his hand in a flash.

Two men came at him and he swung hard driving them both back. Then they began to parry, each taking turns to attack and respond. One of then drove in hard from below while the other raised his sword high and swinging down fast, Wollfen backed off a couple of feet and splayed his legs. This time he stabbed at the one who aimed low and he recoiled, the other swung in from the side and Wollfen had to deflect the incoming blade with his own. At that moment the other man took off past him running for the woods.