Chapter 38
THIRTY-EIGHT
BLAKE
Iwiped the bead of sweat from my brow that had just appeared, causing a brief second of happiness that I was, at least, finally warming up.
I’d spent the majority of my time in this dank cell feeling chilled to the bone.
Anyone who decided to peer through the bars of my cage would see me sitting quietly on the floor in a kind of meditative state, but I was actually casting my magic through the floors and into the walls of the cell, trying my hardest to unwind the ancient wards so I could break the fuck out of here.
I was starting to tire, but I was trying to work at a slow, measured pace since I’d need all of my power to fight my way out if I got the chance.
It had been several hours since I’d awoken and the Alpha had been down to taunt me. The fact that they hadn’t thrown Ian in here with me was on the one hand disappointing since I could’ve used his help, but it also gave me hope that they hadn’t managed to capture him.
I was muttering the few spells I could think of from memory that might help to break a magic-blocking ward, with no success, when I heard the door to the stairs bang open and the faint sounds of scuffling outside just reached my ears.
“What the…,” I murmured, and for a second my heart sank. Had they captured Ian? Had they hurt him?
A black rabbit came darting down the stairs, a ring of keys jingling in its tiny mouth.
I grinned. “Are you here to save the day, little bunny?”
She shimmered into a naked Harriet—I was still not quite desensitized to the shock of that whole thing—and she shook the keys at me and quirked her brow. I steadfastly kept my eyeballs on her face and only her face.
“Get your ass up, Blakey,” she snapped at me, and I shot to my feet. “They only left a couple of enforcers up there but one of them was able to radio the Alpha before Mave and Ben started to kick their asses, so we need all hands on deck right the fuck now.”
One of the big knots of anxiety eased in my chest. Wolf Girl was here and she was okay.
Harriet jammed the key into the door to my cell, and with a twist and a yank, she opened it. I held my breath as I walked through the door, but the wards left my physical body alone. Apparently the spell was meant only to contain the magic.
I hustled after her as we pounded up the stairs. I flexed my hands and let my magic pulse through my limbs, feeling for its power and intensity, and finding I was almost at full capacity.
Which meant I was about to fuck up some wolves.
We burst outside the door of my prison, which apparently was just a weathered shack sitting in the middle of a small clearing surrounded by the giant pine trees of the Pack forest.
In front of us, my Wolf Girl and Ben were engaged in ruthless hand-to-hand combat with the two large dudes I’d seen with the Alpha earlier, including the big scary one he’d called Dunn.
“Why didn’t they shift?” I asked Harriet as we stopped to take in our surroundings.
“They wanted to sneak up on them, and they don’t smell as strong in human form,” she replied.
“But I’m not sure why the enforcers didn’t shift immediately once they attacked.
Probably because they think they have a better shot against Alpha wolves if they aren’t in wolf form.
And Mave and Ben are badass either way.”
I quickly spun up a ball of fire and launched it at the big fucker fighting with Mave. It hit him squarely in the back and knocked him off his game for a second, allowing Mave to get a solid kick in to his torso. But, notably, his clothes didn’t catch fire.
“Their uniforms are fire-resistant,” I said to Harriet, who I assumed had been briefed on the whole Blake-is-a-mage situation. “They aren’t as dumb as they look—it’s the best protection they could have against an attack from me from a distance. They’d lose that in wolf form.”
She looked on, wringing her hands in worry. “I’ve had some training but I’m not going to be much help out there. I’m going to stay in the shadows of the shack and keep Mason and Jack updated.”
“Ask them to check on Ian, please,” I said as I encased my fists in solid blocks of ice. She nodded, and I ran toward the fray.
I reached Ben’s skirmish first. The enforcer he was fighting was looking a little worse for wear, while Ben appeared to only have some scrapes and bruises on his hands and arms where he’d been blocking his attacker’s punches.
Ben had just grabbed the guy’s arm and pulled him into a choke hold, meeting my eyes as he saw me stalking his way with my murderous intentions clear on my face.
I slammed my ice-covered fist straight into the side of the enforcer’s head while Ben held him, and he was out like a light. Ben grinned savagely at me.
“Nice hit, man,” he said, slapping me on the back, then he ducked down to handcuff the unconscious man with the restraints he found on the guy’s belt.
I heard Mave shout, her scream at least more like a war-cry than one of pain, and we bolted in her direction. I called my fire again, this time forming it into a long sabre that I could wield in close contact with my opponent.
Dunn had grabbed Mave’s fist midway through a punch she’d aimed at his head, but before he could squeeze her hard enough to break her hand, I barreled into his side and tackled him to the ground.
I held my fire sword to his throat as I kneeled on his chest, but he just smiled at me while the flesh of his neck started to singe and melt.
Crazy bastard.
My victory was short lived as he used his shifter strength to launch me off of his chest, but I rolled quickly to my feet as I hit the ground, drawing him away from Mave and Ben. Mave’s beautiful hazel eyes met mine, and I saw the worry but also her pride shining there.
That’s right, Wolf Girl, I’ll tackle giant assholes all day long for you.
Ben’s and her reprieve was short, though, as we heard loud snarls and growls echo from between the trees in front of us. A large black wolf and an even bigger white wolf stalked out of the forest.
The white wolf radiated the intense Alpha power I’d felt from the man himself earlier tonight. Mave and Ben shifted immediately, tearing their clothes to shreds, and they stood side by side, growling and pulsing their own power.
Dunn turned his attention back to me.
“Your little friends are through. That’s the Alpha, and nobody bests him in a battle.”
I looked him in his crazy eyes so that he knew none of this scared me. I held out my free hand and let another flaming sword shoot from my palm. His eyes widened a fraction before he schooled his features back into cold, crazy determination.
“Your Alpha has never fought my girlfriend,” I growled.
In my periphery I could see Mave’s wolf facing off against the Alpha as they both snarled and circled each other, and Ben was now locked in a fight with the black wolf. I felt a spike of terror for Mave’s safety, but I had my own battle to fight before I could be of any use to her.
Dunn seemed satisfied that his Alpha had things well in hand, and apparently he’d also decided he’d rather risk my fire than take a chance at fighting me in his weaker human form, so he shimmered into his large ruddy wolf form, and charged at me without hesitation.
I slammed my two fire swords together to create one solid flaming weapon, and quickly waved my free hand at the earth beneath Dunn’s wolf feet as he leapt at me.
Thick brown vines, caked with mud and pine needles, shot up from the ground and wound themselves around his back legs, yanking him to the ground with a loud thud a few feet in front me.
The wolf snarled and folded himself in half, gripping the vines in his big jaws and ripping right through them.
He rolled to his feet and immediately lost his balance on the slick ice patch I conjured beneath his paws.
As he hit the ground again, and I launched myself onto his back using a burst of air power to fly through the air and cover the distance.
I landed awkwardly on him, and I gripped his thick furry body with my legs and held on tight.
He bucked and snapped at me, twisting his wolf head back and forth over his shoulder trying to bite me.
He was able to snag my calf and rip a giant hole in my jeans, slicing across my muscle enough to break the skin.
I hissed in pain, but my adrenalin surged, and I gripped my flaming sword in both hands and drove it down into his back with loud yell.
The fire slid into his body like a hot knife through butter, and he roared in pain.
With one final snap of his torso, he threw me from his back, and I released the magic of the sword as I tumbled to the ground.
The fire winked out of existence as Dunn’s wolf collapsed to the ground.
Dark red blood oozed from the gaping wound in his side, seeping into the forest floor as his breathing became labored and slow.
Satisfied he was down, I turned back to the middle of the clearing where Mave and Ben continued to battle the Alpha and his beta for my freedom and safety.