Chapter 25
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
I’d gotten out of one precarious situation just to land in another. What was it with people pointing guns at me? At some point, I’d like to not have the constant threat of someone trying to kill me. Being bored was underrated and exactly what I wanted.
Saga was maybe fifty feet away, and there were no trees close by. The best I could do was use Sean or Unibrow as a shield. They were already dead, so they wouldn’t feel the pain, but something felt wrong about it.
I ’ m on my way , Bart linked with me as he fought off two men. He kept glancing at me, not paying attention to his own battle.
She fired, and I rolled out of the way, channeling the moon. I dodged the bullet by barely an inch.
Focus on your opponents , I told Bart. He wouldn’t be able to reach me any faster, and instead of talking with him, I needed to determine a solution. If I didn’t do something, I’d be lying dead right next to them.
As if Rosemary could hear my thoughts, she glanced in my direction. She paused, which allowed one of her opponents to stab her in the stomach with a knife. She clutched the knife, stumbling back as blood trickled down her stomach, coating her black shirt. She hissed, “You dumbass mutt.”
A deep, threatening snarl escaped me. No. This couldn’t happen. Rosemary was part of my family, and none of us were going down.
What’s wrong? Griffin linked, including Killian in the bond. Are you hurt?
No , I said. Rosemary’s been stabbed.
Killian’s anger rang thick through the bond. Son of a bitch. I’ll kill the bastard.
Not if I get him first, I vowed. I wanted to hurt every single person who had inflicted any sort of pain on my people.
“It ends now!” Saga yelled, and her finger tightened on the trigger.
Sterlyn! Julius shouted through the bond. The amount of pain he felt washed over me. I dove to the ground and shoved myself under Unibrow’s body as best as I could.
His dead weight almost stole my breath as I crawled underneath him, and his body jerked from the impact of a bullet, making a few thick drops of his now congealing blood fall on my face.
Holy shit. That worked. I couldn’t comprehend how I’d pulled that off. With me in animal form, I’d figured there was no way his body would shield me completely, just maybe prevent her from landing a kill shot.
“How do you keep doing that?” Saga screamed, and her footsteps grew louder. “You keep messing everything up!” Her anger propelled her toward me.
The closer she got, the better I’d be able to protect myself. When she was too far away, I was at the mercy of the firearm with limited ability to strike back.
I stayed still, wanting her to get as close to me as she dared. If I moved, she might stop and shoot again. I linked with my brother, feeling his pain exploding through our bond. Julius, how badly are you hurt? I couldn’t lose him like this. There was too much we hadn’t said, and we hadn’t spent any time together. He was my twin, for God’s sake, and I had hoped that we had time to get some sort of relationship established. He and Bart were the only two people from my parents’ side left alive.
Please call me Cyrus , he rasped, even through our bond. I should ’ ve asked you to do that days ago.
Stop. Fear coiled inside me, and I refused to acknowledge why. You cannot die. I won’t allow it. We have so much time to make up for.
But it was like he hadn’t heard me as he continued. I blamed you, which is so fucked up, but you were the only one I could. Bart kept telling me that I had to stop, but I didn ’ t want to listen. I have so much anger inside, and even though shifting has helped, it ’ s still heavy in me. What I ’ m trying to say is —
Do not apologize to me now. He was saying goodbye, and I wouldn’t let him die on me. I didn’t care what it took—Cyrus was going to live. We ’ re making it out of this, and you ’ re going to take me somewhere nice and apologize to me there. Got it?
I — He started.
Got it? I pushed as Saga’s footsteps grew closer. She was beginning to slow but still moving forward. I held my breath to remain still, hoping she thought I was injured. This is not our end, I promise.
He snorted then groaned in pain. Ugh, don ’ t make me laugh.
Then tell me you understand. Even in this horrible situation, the corners of my wolf’s lips tipped upward. I hadn’t realized the extent of how badly I wanted a relationship with him, and now that it was possible, I felt happy, despite the horrible current situation. Or I will be forced to make you laugh.
I don ’ t plan on going anywhere , he reassured me just as Saga stopped.
She breathed in loud, short gasps, making it easy to determine that she was standing at Unibrow’s feet.
My head and chest were lodged under Unibrow’s back, but if she moved to my right, she could hit my back or my side. Either option wouldn’t kill me, most likely, but it would hurt like a son of a bitch. However, if I moved, she could get an even better shot.
As if she read my mind, she fired, but I burrowed under him to the best of my ability. She must have been so angry that her hands shook, causing her aim to be off.
Keeping my head clear was hard with a dead man on top of me. The scent of his blood was overwhelming. His skin was already cooling, making his death harder to ignore. Damn it, I wanted her to come right up to me.
“Get up. You’re coming with me,” she spat. “Hiding under a body won’t prevent what’s going to happen.”
I ’ m on my way , Bart linked as his paws hit the ground, moving closer to me.
No one else needed to get hurt on account of me. Focus on your fight.
Don ’ t worry , he replied. I took both of them down.
Thank God. With his help, the fight would be over soon. From the sounds of it, they were getting things settled back at the house. I connected with all the silver wolves, as well as Killian and Griffin, and felt them begin to celebrate victory, but the fight wasn’t finished. Don’t get overconfident. We might be winning at the moment, but that also means they ’ ll grow desperate. I repeated the words my father had beaten into my head. Desperation makes people crazed. They ’ ll do whatever they can to take down whoever they can. In rare cases, their desperation could even give them leverage to come back on top, but I didn’t want to worry the others more than I already was.
Got it , Killian said. We ’ ll be careful, but with the vampires here, hopefully we’ll end this soon.
Vampires? Really?
Yeah. Griffin sounded even less thrilled than me. It was a shock. The vampire king, vampire prince, and a handful of their own guards showed up with the Shadow City wolves to help. They stayed back and watched until we were obviously winning before stepping in, but we weren ’ t in a position to turn down help in case something went awry or we risked insulting them.
That was true. No, I get it.
I ’ m on my way to you now , Griffin promised. Things are under control, and Alex and Matthew are also heading your way. They have speed that could come in handy with guns.
Those words would normally comfort me, but not now. I didn’t want him to get here and be hurt, but if I tried to dissuade him, that would only get him to come faster.
“You do realize that you won’t make it out of this alive,” Saga continued, and her footsteps shuffled over, I assumed so she could shoot me in the back.
My body tensed of its own accord, bracing for impact.
Bart growled.
“What? No!” Saga screamed, and a gun fired.
Something crashed hard on the ground. I pushed the corpse off of me and scrambled to my feet. What I saw would forever scar me as Bart’s pain washed over me.
Saga stood over my uncle and fired another shot between his eyes. Tears burned my eyes as hysteria licked throughout me. While she was distracted, I pounced on her back, forcing her to fall on top of my freshly dead uncle.
This bitch had taken so much from me. She’d not only kidnapped my brother but slaughtered my family members. If Cyrus didn’t make it, I didn’t know what the hell I would do.
“Get off me,” she screamed as she tried to roll away from my uncle. I chomped down on her right arm, the very one she used for the gun. If I ripped her arm off, she’d never shoot anyone again.
For the first time, I didn’t mind the taste of blood. In fact, I relished it. This woman deserved to bleed for every damn thing she’d done to us. My mind grew hazy with so much hate and anger that I felt like someone else.
Sterlyn, watch out! Cyrus yelled through the bond, snapping me out of whatever warped reality I’d been in.
I stumbled back and let go of the wretched woman, realizing I was acting just like she had—crazed with the desire to kill.
The other wolf! he screamed again.
Shit, I hadn’t kept an eye on Luna like I’d planned. I pivoted to find her jumping toward me, her eyes locked on my neck.
I didn’t have time to move.
Something flashed between us, sacking Luna mid-pounce. I blinked several times as Luna slammed against the tree and the vampire prince came into view.
Alex had saved me.
She snapped at him, trying to bite his arms, but he held her head firmly. Vampires had strength that normal wolf shifters lacked.
“Will you stop it?” he huffed. “You aren’t going to get out of this. Hell, you’re weaker than any wolf I’ve ever fought before.”
“What are you doing here?” Saga bit out the words. “Haven’t you interfered enough? Leave us the fuck alone!” She climbed to her feet as she held her wounded arm close to her body. Blood poured from it, and if she didn’t slow the flow, she would definitely get dizzy.
“Do you want to die?” Alex asked with a chuckle as Rosemary landed next to him with a wince.
Matthew strolled into the clearing with Griffin on his trail. Griffin’s hazel eyes found mine, and he raced toward me.
I inhaled sharply as Saga lifted her left arm.
No. Not again.
Her hand shook as she aimed the gun at Griffin. A cruel smirk filled her face.
Magic like I’d never felt before bolted through me, making the blood rush through my veins with incomparable power. My body propelled itself toward the woman with a speed almost as great as that of Rosemary and the vampires. I reached her within milliseconds, this time sinking my teeth into her neck.
“Imposs—” she started, but my teeth cut off her words as I severed her throat. Her body fell limply to the ground as I landed back on my feet, watching her. I tensed as I kept my gaze on her, waiting for her to move. Every time I thought we defeated our enemies, they surprised us again. At this point, if she’d popped up even missing half her neck, it wouldn’t shock me.
Baby , Griffin said softly as he trotted up next to me. It ’ s okay.
No, nothing is okay. My chest constricted, and air wheezed through my lungs. Once again, I might have lost my entire family. A family I had just found. I’d hoped to get to know Bart, but that had been taken away from me. Cyrus. My gaze flicked to him, and I found Rosemary standing over him, her hands glowing white as she healed him.
I should’ve felt better, but a huge part of me was just numb. I kept my body tense as I surveyed the area. Every enemy was now dead except for Luna.
Darrell’s heartbroken howl pierced my soul as he leaned over his dead alpha. He lowered his head to Bart’s body and cried once more.
Once again, the silver wolf pack had been torn apart, and this time, I’d be expected to put it back together. But I couldn’t abandon Shadow City, either, since I’d demanded my spot on the council. I wasn’t sure how I was going to handle both situations, but I didn’t have a choice.
“Why don’t you go home and shift back into human form, and we can figure things out from there,” Alex suggested. “Matthew and I can handle this one.” He nodded toward Luna, who had stopped fighting as her eyes latched onto her dead mother.
Regret flitted through me. Even though Saga was a horrible person, she was Luna’s mother. In less than two weeks, Luna had lost both her parents at mine and Griffin’s hands.
Griffin nuzzled my neck, trying to bring me comfort. Let ’ s go back and shift so we can take care of everything.
He was right. I didn’t have the luxury of staying here and breaking down, so I turned and slowly walked home.
When Griffin, Killian, Cyrus, Sierra, and I left our house again to deal with the consequences, my heart was still heavy. Dead bodies littered the ground, although this time, they were mostly Saga’s allies. But there was still at least a dozen of our own down with them. There was so much to do, and the first order of business we had to contend with was Luna.
Rosemary was pacing the back patio. “Mom has asked for you, Griffin, and me to head back to Shadow City to meet with the council. We have to deal with the fallout of Dick’s and Saga’s betrayal and decide how to handle Luna.”
“I have to help my pack. They just lost my un—uncle.” My voice broke on the last word.
“Let me be here for them,” Cyrus said softly as he touched my arm. “Lean on me, and let me take care of them for you.”
The sincerity flowing through our bond warmed my heart, making me feel a little bit more like myself. “Okay. But if you need me…”
“I’ll let you know,” he promised.
“One wrong move—” Griffin growled.
And Cyrus nodded. “I know. How about Killian stays with me and keeps an eye out?”
Griffin’s shoulders slackened like the wind had been let out of his sails. “Uh…yeah. That sounds good.”
I hated that it had taken this to get Cyrus and me heading in the right direction concerning our relationship, but at least we were finally getting there. “Is that okay with you, Killian?” I hated not to at least ask, since Killian had his own pack duties to contend with.
“It’s fine.” Killian hugged me. “Honestly, at this point, we all need to work together, right? Just one large pack.”
“That’s right.” He understood what I’d always wanted. Just because we were technically three packs didn’t mean we couldn’t work closely together.
Snarling came from the woods, and Alex walked out carrying Luna. Her eyes locked on me, and she thrashed, trying to get free and foaming at the mouth with desperation.
She still wanted to kill me.