Chapter 15 #2
With a wild look in his eyes, the man crouched low, preparing to launch himself onto the creature’s back.
But before he could make his move, the hellhound’s head snapped to the side in an unnatural manner, its thick neck contorting with unexpected flexibility.
Its gaping mouth opened impossibly wide, revealing rows of razor-sharp teeth.
The creature’s chest illuminated with molten lava, glowing with heat.
In a split second, flames exploded from its mouth like a volcanic eruption and engulfed the man in a fiery inferno.
The warrior’s agonized screams echoed through the forest, drowning out all other sounds.
As he burned alive, his body writhed in pain on the ground.
The air thickened with smoke and the stench of burnt flesh. For a moment, there was an eerie stillness as if even nature itself mourned the fallen warrior.
More angry warriors sprinted toward the monster and shifted into their wolves as they landed on top of the dog, only making it madder. Its eyes burned fire as it kept shaking its body until the wolves who bit him fell to the ground.
I couldn’t blink as I watched more men vanish. The sound of my heartbeat thrashed in my ears.
Nothing seemed to work to kill the creature.
I took a sharp breath and coughed when my lungs started to burn, and acid scorched my throat.
A warrior dashed toward the mad dog—another futile attempt to neutralize it—and the creature turned its back to him, whipping its tail in the air.
With one precise and swift lash of its tail, the man's throat split open, blood seeping like a waterfall.
In the next moment, the man dropped to the ground.
I hadn't realized I had leaned on the tree beside me. The rough bark dug into my back, and I straightened up. I darted my gaze around the chaos for Torin and saw a massive silver wolf dashing toward the creature.
I’d never seen Torin’s wolf, but I had no doubt it was him. Its long silver fur was the color of his hair when he shifted into his vampire. The wolf’s red eyes matched that of the monster.
But Torin’s wolf looked gorgeous. Even his wolf side had changed when Torin turned into a vampire, making me wonder what his wolf looked like before he was turned. Most Alphas’ wolves were similar to the size and color of my dad’s—massive beasts with black fur.
After a moment, it became clear what the silver wolf’s strategy was. He was patient as he jumped on and off the creature’s back, sinking his fangs into the dog’s neck. At the same time, Torin’s men sent daggers and arrows into its body—double the size of Torin’s large wolf.
But the dog wouldn’t go down.
The intelligence radiating from the creature's crimson eyes infused extra adrenaline into my veins as more anxiety built up in my chest. It waited for the silver wolf to jump onto its back and moved fast to the closest tree, smashing the wolf’s body into it.
No. A wave of dizziness washed over me, and I gulped down breaths to stay calm.
The wolf fell to the ground and whimpered. He attempted to stand, but his legs appeared too wobbly. Torin shifted into his human form. Naked and still dazed, he propped himself on his elbows.
I was already moving on instinct toward Torin. The creature positioned itself with its back toward the Alpha. I watched with horror as its spiky tail swung up and aimed at Torin’s head.
“Torin, duck,” I shouted and tackled him flat to the ground.
A whooshing noise sounded close to my head, and my hair flew to the side from the forceful air around the spiky tail.
We’d dodged this one.
“Torin, are you okay?” I asked and crouched next to him.
He didn’t answer, watching over my shoulder with wide eyes. Torin dove, pinned me to the ground, and made us roll to the side. A loud thud, shaking the ground, sounded next to us. The spike of its tail had left a deep hole in the ground.
Torin jumped to his feet. “You messed with the wrong mate,” he said in his inhuman voice.
It was the first sign of his vampire emerging. Until now, Torin was in Alpha mode, the leader of his pack, protecting his territory from this creature.
But where I was concerned, his vampire came out to play.
Completely shifted into his vampire form, naked Torin leaped with such ease on top of the dog, riding it. He dug his talons into its neck, and no matter how much the dog wanted to shake the vampire off his back, Torin hung on and used his claws to do more damage.
The creature sprinted and smashed its side into a tree, but Torin moved swiftly to the other side, hanging on by his talons stuck in its flesh.
Torin lowered his head, his fangs protruding, and sank them into the dog’s thick neck. The creature stilled for a moment and growled, steam escaping its nostrils. Its legs trembled, and its eyes hooded as it groaned with pain.
Torin drank its blood and weakened it. But the Alpha kept draining it until the creature dropped onto all fours and then to its side. Its eyes closed, and the body turned limp.
Naked and covered in dark-brownish blood, Torin jumped off the creature and ran to me. Alexander showed up and tossed him a pair of shorts, which Torin slipped on right before he got to me.
The vampire knelt before me and brushed my cheek with a sharp talon. Did Torin realize he was still in his vampire form? His touch was gentle, and a spark flew under my skin. Torin didn’t talk but watched me with such intensity that it took my breath away.
“Torin…” I paused to give him time to process whatever was going through his mind. “Am I bleeding?” I dipped my chin to scan my body for scratches and then looked up at Torin again. “Why are you not shifting back?”
“My vampire side doesn’t want to retreat until he makes sure you’re okay,” he said in his deep, vampy voice, and my insides melted.
“I’m fine,” I said.
To prove my point, I stood, and so did Torin. His crimson eyes roamed over me, but this time there was more concern than desire in them, and his transformation back to human started. His face and bare chest were covered in the unusual color of the dog’s blood.
I wanted to tell Torin, “You see, your vampire doesn’t want to hurt me,” but his Beta approached us, and Torin started spewing orders.
“Burn the body. We don’t know what healing powers the dog had.”
Others put out the fires and took the bodies on stretchers.
Torin pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’ve never seen anything like this,” he said, but I didn’t like the tone of his voice.
There were notes of desperation and sadness.
If the creature had never visited the pack before, did it show up now because I resided on Torin’s territory? Could I have something to do with its appearance?
Torin took several steps away from me. Was it only his vampire that was concerned for me? Why was his human counterpart such a moody jerk?
“I’ll have to request more warriors for pack protection from the kingdom,” he said.
Torin was aware that telling the King would bring my Dad into the picture, who would judge the situation as too risky for his daughter, and order me to come back to the kingdom.
“So that’s going to be your plan of getting rid of me and dumping me on my dad?”
Torin dared to turn his back on me and walked away. My blood boiled hot in my veins.
Before he got too far away, he glanced at me over his shoulder and said, “I’d like you to join me at the Council meeting.”
And his icy wall had come back.
I clenched and unclenched my hands and wondered what to do with the uneasy feeling tightening my gut.
Torin’s problem wasn’t with me directly but with himself. He couldn’t let go of the past—the one he could remember. And he couldn’t accept his present—the part of him that was thirsty for my blood.
Unless he came to terms with that, we stood no chance of making it as mates.
Later that day, I walked into Torin’s boardroom and sat beside him like last time. Everyone was in attendance, including Veronica.
Oliver smiled at me. “Thank you for helping today, Luna,” he said and bowed his head slightly.
I stifled the gasp wanting to escape my mouth. My heart soared high, and I returned his smile. I wasn’t the official Luna of his pack, seeing that we wouldn’t have the Luna ceremony today, but Torin’s man had recognized me as his leader.
Sebastian pulled on the metal on his bottom lip and said, “So no one knows anything about this creature or how many have entered our realm.”
Alexander cleared his throat. “We’ll need to inform the King at one of his all-Alphas’ meetings. We can’t be too careful.”
The logical part of my brain understood that this was the best route, but Torin used it as an excuse to ignore my existence as he had done before. And he had the audacity to do so after he’d tied me to his bed. But the intimate act must not mean the same to him as it did to me.
Wearing a Hawaiian shirt with a different pattern of interweaving flowers, Mason said, “Can the Vampire Queen create such a monster?”
Robin Hood looked thoughtful and ran his hand over his thick red beard. “It can’t be. She doesn’t have the power to do so. It has to be a witch. A dark witch.”
Torin’s body tensed next to me, and I looked at him.
He finally lifted his gaze, looking at everyone but me, and said, “I know of a dark witch. Cordelia. But I haven’t seen her for more than two decades.”
My eyes widened. What kind of dealing did Torin have with a dark witch? My curiosity burned through me, but I remained silent.
“The book you brought here is a witch book,” Alexander said, and I gaped at him. “Maybe somehow the witch is connected to the book and the creature. If those men attacked you in your office wanting your book, it’s possible that a witch wants your book too.”
“Yeah, another reason to bring the witch book to the King,” Robin Hood said.
Dad would deem the witch book “dangerous” and take it away from me—something Torin and the King had in common. But it was the right thing to do. We had to warn all packs and the royals of the arrival of a deadly strange creature with an unknown purpose.
After the Council meeting, I returned to the apartment and ate dinner. Alone. Torin headed to the hospital to check on his injured men who’d survived the spiky tail and scorching fire. Burn injuries healed slower, even for werewolves.
I lay in bed, hands over my heart, and stared unblinking at the white ceiling.
No matter what I said, Torin wouldn’t listen. He deemed himself dangerous to me. He was scary, but he still desired and protected me.
His report to the King about the demonic creature would only bring Dad to Torin’s pack territory, and I wasn’t ready to have a face-off with my dad. I didn’t want to have the conversation where he demanded I took the throne.
My only chance to avoid the kingdom was to have Torin convince the King I was needed as his Luna by his side.
I wanted Torin to fight for me, to want me to be here.
And he did, but Torin gave up on the fight at the first sight of danger looming over me.
He gave up on us as soon as my life was on the line.
Every time I was in danger, he put distance between us. When I thought we’d made progress, he moved backward and away. His overprotectiveness clouded the side of him that desired me.
But I would not have any of his moodiness, anger, and overprotectiveness. They all stemmed from his past trauma, which I didn’t know much about. But I knew he relived those nightmarish experiences in his dream realm.
If I could only get a glimpse of his dream realm, I could understand his brokenness better and heal him. I had to enter his dream realm to get closer to him and understand him better.
My heart ached for him, knowing that whatever pain he felt in his dream realm, he experienced it in the physical reality, too. Pain or worse—death—in the dream realm meant suffering and death in the real world.
Torin had warned me to stay away from his dream realm. But if I did, I would never find the cause of his torment.
It was past midnight when the quiet creaking of the front door came from the other side of my bedroom door. I waited a long moment, hoping that Torin would fall asleep. Then I opened the door connecting our rooms and made my way to his bed.