Filed to story: Owned by the Alphas Novel
But Fractum wouldn’t be. And he wasn’t scared, which made me nervous.
Something inside me wouldn’t let me finish him. I pushed all my anger out, trying to convince my magic to let me end his miserable life, but it didn’t let me.
“What now then? We keep killing each other until a single human remains? There will be nowhere to hide when the vamps get through that border, and right now, I am the only thing preventing that fate,” I said.
He chuckled, blood slipping down his chin from his stained lips.
“Now, my humans destroy you and your pack,” he said, then looked up.
I snapped my head up and sucked in a breath at the boulders that were hurtling through the air toward us.
“Lori!” Derik growled and went to run, but arrows flew everywhere.
I threw my shield up around the wolves, and the boulders smashed down onto it, crashing open, a cloudy mist settling over the shield, slipping down it as the arrows dissipated against it.
The mist burned, fucking burned, and I sank to my knees as more boulders crashed against the magic. I gritted my teeth as Derik grabbed me and Kai gripped my shoulder.
“Let him go. You need the strength in your shield,” Derik said, and my father laughed.
“Who will you choose, I wonder? Kill me or protect them? I know what your decision will be, and so do you.
“So run along now, daughter, and we’ll see you soon,” he said.
I hated that he was right. I was fading fast. My breath was tight in my chest, my brow line damp with sweat and effort.
Whatever that mist was had some herb or component from the debris of the boulders that was pressing in on my magic. I couldn’t use any more to take out my father if I wanted to save my wolves.
I let him go.
He grinned and started retreating back into the forest, which made me even angrier.
I drew on my alphas more as more arrows rained, more boulders came soaring down. They crashed down, breaking, releasing more mist.
I coughed out the sour taste it left, the pressure almost making me crumble, but my eyes were trained on my father, who was walking away with his humans, thinking he had won.
That bastard had forgotten who I was though. I wasn’t just a conduit for werewolf magic. I was a human, a winter born.
I grabbed the athame in Kai’s waistband that I knew he kept there, then launched it.
My father turned just in time for it to sink into his gut. I grinned back as his eyes went wide and he roared, ripping the small blade from his flesh.
Blood stained over his shirt and leather, and I smirked. Good. I hope it fucking hurt.
He glared, grimacing as he held the wound before looking up at his humans in the trees.
“Send it all down. Crush the fuckers. Take out as many as you can,” he said, then barked orders at his army to help him get back to the village.
I turned to Derik and Kai, who were next to me. Derik was ordering the pack into formation, getting them ready for the fight as Kai held me up.
The pressure of the mist, the constant attack of the boulders was something I wasn’t used to, and through all my training with the alphas and Cain, we hadn’t anticipated something so intense.
I would never admit it to my father, or anyone probably, but I had been naive. I hadn’t given my father enough credit to come up with things like this to use.
I grunted as another boulder crashed, clutching Kai, who kept me steady.
“We’ll fight off what we can and retreat,” Derik said.
Kai nodded, but I shook my head.
“No. It’s going to get worse; they won’t just let us go. We have to get moving now so I can keep my shield up long enough to get out of here,” I breathed.
Brax’s shadows pushed farther inside me, and I welcomed the strength as another assault landed.
“What are we doing here, Alphas?” Taylor puffed, shifting into a human, her skin covered in blood, sweat, and dirt. She looked up at the weapons that were still being fired at my shield.
“She’s not going to be able to hold this much longer,” Kai bit, and Taylor nodded.
“So we rip them to shreds.”
“I don’t want to lose any more wolves today,” Derik replied, his eyes going to the ground where our fallen lay.
“Wait, you want us to retreat?” Taylor spat, saying the word like it was acid in her mouth.
“Retreat with the shield and figure out what to do after that.
“Every time we come out, we learn something new about their tactics, including that they have catapults and rocks with herbs that we haven’t gone up against before.
“Whoever is pulling their strings has given them more than we thought.”
My mind flashed to the vision I’d had at the border, and I winced. “The vamps?” I whispered, and Derik shrugged.
Kai’s snarl made me shudder, and I held him tighter.
“Maybe, but they made it up the mountain with good intentions.
“They’ve also been truthful at Tabitha’s when saying they don’t want the border down or she would have sensed the lie and kicked them out,” Derik said, a frown forming as he tried to think.
I wanted to give him that luxury, but I needed to get going. Whatever herbs they had were directly attacking my magic, and it felt like shit.
“We should go,” I said, and Derik nodded.
He went to tell the wolves when the sky broke, the sun disappeared, and rain poured over us. I was instantly soaked, the shield doing nothing against the rain.
The mist disappeared, and I grinned as the pressure started releasing. Energy pulsed inside me, and my purple shield pulsed with it. Like the border when I was close.
Brax burst through the foliage, entering the shield with a cocky grin as he came forward, his shadows caressing everywhere inside me, even more potent since he was there.
“The witches are on our side, and you know what that means, wolves?” he said, holding his arms out as the rain soaked into his skin, his eyes cloudy as the water fed whatever part of him relied on it.
“Brax, no. Rain means winter. Rain means we need to be in the city,” Derik said, but Brax shook his head.
“No, brother. Rain means we get revenge for our brothers and sisters today and we hide tomorrow.”
Brax patted Derik on the shoulder and guided his gaze back to the forest floor.
Seeing the others pale and lifeless there with poison blackening the veins beneath their skin had me agreeing with Brax.
Derik’s eyes narrowed as Kai let out a howl at the next load of arrows that tried to land. They had no hope of getting through now though.
No mist, and Brax’s shadows brimming with power thanks to the rain meant I was full of that same energy, my magic strong and holding within me.
“Drop the shield, beautiful. We’re winning this round,” Derik said, his voice low and angry.
Taylor let out a howl, then shifted into her beast as my alphas rallied. I waited for their signal, my adrenaline racing as another boulder came down.
It crashed, and the rain washed away the mist.
“Now!” Kai growled, and I nodded, the shield falling away as the rain soaked through my dresses and the wolves’ coats. But that didn’t deter them.
As soon as the shield dropped, the wolves attacked.
They leapt into trees, clawed up the bark, reaching the humans, who screamed and squealed as they were ripped apart by the savages they had brought out.
I had a feeling a part of their frenzy wasn’t just revenge but the Fractum craving that they’d all been trying to keep a lid on. They were letting it out now though, and as much as I understood it, it was hard to watch.
So, I didn’t. I went hunting myself, finding the humans I could through the rain and on the ground, wrapping my vines of magic around them and piling them up on one of the flat-bed carts they had there.
Using spurts of magic was much easier, especially with the pack fighting, feeding my strength with the use of their shifting magic. It all linked back to the border and fed me.
I leaned against the wheel of the cart and waited for my wolves to be finished with the last of the humans, who were few and far between now.
My cart was filled with five of them, all passed out, wrapped in magic so they couldn’t escape.
I’d send them on their way soon, not willing to kill them for my father’s mistakes.
New Book: Veiled Desires of the Alpha King Novel
Dayson was the alpha of the largest pack in North America. Powerful figures from other packs sought to offer gorgeous girls as potential mates for Dayson. He steadfastly rejected these advances, he was not a pawn to be manipulated. But eventually there came a mysterious girl he could hardly say No. Who was she?