Filed to story: Owned by the Alphas Novel
I grimaced at the pain and strength it took to keep them there, go against their ask.
It took everything. I collapsed to the ground, breathing hard as my head pounded.
“It’s burning through,” I gritted out as Lorelai bent down to me.
“I can help,” she said quickly, then ran forward before I could stop her.
“Lorelai!” I growled, and she shook her head.
“I’ve got this. Call everyone back to the city.”
“And leave you here? No fucking way,” I said, a growl in my voice that I couldn’t stop because the pain was too much.
It grew in my bones, making me shake as I watched her shake her hands out, then rub her stomach right before her hands glowed.
I wanted to stop her. This fire was unlike anything we had dealt with, the magic in it something we hadn’t anticipated, and the power tasted acidic against my shadows.
I didn’t want it near her, but there was a reason she was given this magic, and what if this was it? What if she held the only magic that could beat it in her veins? I had to trust her.
“That’s right, you do.” She grinned, then threw out her magic. It was an intense purple that left a mist surrounding it as it created a wall.
“Back to the city, wolves,” I ordered down the link.
“The fire will reach her,” Kai growled, but I showed him what she was doing.
She had her magic making a new border, growing out of thin air.
She gently pushed my shadows out of the way, replacing them bit by bit until I could breathe easy again, my chest untightened, and my body stopped trying to pass out.
“I’ve got this, Alphas. The fire isn’t getting through it. I can feel it there, but it can’t attack it. It’s jabbing it. Almost testing the magic,” she said.
I frowned. Testing it? They wanted to know what she could do, what her limit was, what her threshold was.
That was not a good sign, especially because there was no way she could let that fire come at us.
“Don’t use everything you have, Lorelai. Pace yourself,” I warned, standing behind her, whispering in her ear, her scent something like a drug to me.
I inhaled it, breathing in before smirking and doing the only thing I could think of that would help, so that whatever was wielding that fire, targeting her, wouldn’t get the information they were pushing for.
The other pockets of fire burned their way through the forest to the blaze we were fighting, so I joined my shadows with her magic. She let out a sigh as my shadows poured into her, gave her strength.
I ran my hands over her arms, her body, kissing down her neck as my shadows filled her and entwined with her magic the way our souls were. Tight and formidable.
She smiled at me over her shoulder, her hair blowing back as the force of the magic and fire wall in front of us roared loudly, the rain dousing us.
It was a perfect moment, one I had wanted with her for a long time, and there was a tug inside me, something strong and powerful.
I knew what I wanted it to be. I wanted to mate, I wanted to be linked with her like that, and as the feeling and the connection grew, that feeling intensified. But it never crested.
The wave of love and contentment, the safety, the power, it all connected, and yet our souls stayed linked through magic, nothing more.
I gritted my teeth and kissed her cheek, giving her more of my shadows.
The wall of magic and shadow was a cloud, pushing the fire back finally, a border stopping it from being our end.
We fought it back together as the wolves retreated, Kai and Derik checking in every few seconds as they got everyone back to the city safely.
Some were hurt, some were beyond that, but all of them were silent, stressed, fear trickling through. None of us had seen this kind of thing.
Even in the Great War, things like this hadn’t happened. The alphas before had only had to contend with vampires, and somehow, things were worse this time.
I had no idea how we were going to get out of it, defeat whatever it was, or even figure out what we were up against because the big picture just wasn’t what the wolves were getting.
We were getting bits and pieces at a time, and it was frustrating as hell.
“I’ll see if I can get something from it, a magic sense or something,” Lorelai said, pushing her magic out farther.
I couldn’t push my shadows as far. I hated leaving her exposed, even if it was just her magic, but I reinforced us, planting my feet behind her, holding her, making sure we weren’t going anywhere.
Then I steeled my shadows against her magic, making sure whatever it was was not going to be able to read her through them.
And then Derik and Kai were directly in the link, forcing their magic in, staying as wolves so they could give us everything. And it worked.
The fire roared, sizzled, hissed as Lorelai ran her magic over it, coating it until it was dissipating instead of burning. My shadows pierced it, her magic and mine strong and entwined.
The heat was intense, whatever was controlling it fighting back, trying hard against us, but I felt it in our will, hers and mine, even my brothers’.
We were going to beat this thing. This time.
We pushed down on the fire, the force lowering it so the magic was taller than it, creating a dome over it. She shook a little, and I made my shadows stronger.
Then I called on the water. It was a strange connection, not magic but some connection that my pack had to it that the others didn’t.
It was a spiritual thing, and it might not affect the fire, but it meant more strength within me, which meant more for her.
So, I gave her everything I had, every last ounce of fight that I had, and she pushed everything she had combined with what the alphas were giving, screaming out as she forced it all down on this fire demon we had never faced before.
It squealed so loud we both shook, the intensity pushing back, but I kept us steady as she clutched our magic and wielded it like a damn queen. No, like a luna.
And then it was gone.
The fire collapsed into the ground, disappearing into thin air like it was never there, the only sign that it had almost destroyed us being the scorch marks on the forest floor and the foul scent of smoke permeating the air.
I shuddered as my shadows pinged back to me, her own magic falling back on her, the weight heavy on us both.
Lorelai let out a deep breath before turning into me, her body shaking. “I need to be stronger,” she breathed, her eyelids drooping, her face pale.
I held her to me, kissing the top of her head as she shook. “We’ll practice more.”
“We need more than practice. We need to know what the hell the humans have that is letting them do these things.
“How do they have magic on their side when we can’t even get Tabitha to go against them?” she asked.
I wished I had an answer, but I didn’t. Instead, I kissed her again.
“We’ll figure it out. We have to.
“In the meantime though, we need to get back to the city before they decide to come back and we’re alone,” I said, looking around us, my eyes narrowing in on all the trees and the dark shadows that seemed ominous and threatening now.
“I got him though.” She smirked up at me, her voice dragging and lazy. Almost like she was falling asleep. The link was drowsy, and I picked her up in my arms.
“Who’d you get, Spitfire? The fire demon?” I smiled, trying to keep her talking, but she leaned into me, slowly closing her eyes.
“We got him together. But I got my father. I threw Kai’s blade at him.” She smiled again, her eyes still closed.
“Good little luna, aren’t you?”
I kissed her forehead again, walking toward the city with her in my arms, glad that at least it wasn’t just us hurting, that he was too.
The rain was only a drizzle now, the thunder and lightning gone, but the sky was dark. Just as ominous as the forest.
Everything was turning and I wasn’t sure how to fix it, but at least we had beaten the humans this time–and whatever they had conjured.
“He’s not dead though. Wounded, but not dead. My magic wouldn’t let me.” She sighed, and I frowned again, not answering her as she slipped into sleep.
Her magic shouldn’t have held her back, not after everything the humans had done, her father had done, especially kidnapping her.
She was owed that life in blood; it was a realm fact. So why had it stopped her?
Nothing was making sense anymore. How were we meant to beat an entity or a race when the rules didn’t apply to them?
We were savages and we could be monsters, but we had a balance to maintain.
They should have that obligation too, and I couldn’t think of a single thing that would erase that. Or maybe Fractum had?
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?