Chapter 25
After hunting the mysterious light for an entire day, I finally track down the source. It keeps moving because it isn’t a static item. They’re portals.
I’ve followed their light to a distant buffer region between pack territories. Three blazing blue windows scroll open inside the dense woods of the lowlands.
I sit in the trees and watch around a large trunk. Two soldiers step out from each portal. They are a mix of Myndrous, Denarso, and Nebulous. My ears twitch as I tune my hearing to listen in.
They speak in Denarsoan.
Get the young one first. We will pick up the female later.
They won’t get anyone from our world. This is my job now, to keep the packs safe, not by order. It’s just instinct to protect them. I want Rhysan to grow up in a world that is safe for him, not one on fire.
My problem now is deciding how to handle the situation. Kill them and wait for more? Kill them and send the message through the portal? Kill them slowly and hope one talks? And how do I close the portals?
As they group up and make their way through the forest, their portals shut off, solving one of my problems. I stalk through the shadows beside them, waiting for stragglers. They’re far noisier than our kind as they tread over the ground, while my padded paws and slow steps are nearly silent.
The first Denarso takes a route away from the group.
As he passes the tree I hide behind, I shift upright.
I take him by a hand over his mouth, another to his shoulder, and snap his neck in one swift move.
Then I lay him down gently, free the weapons and armor from his body, set a hand over his heart, and shatter his ribs, destroying his core so he cannot rise again and become a beacon to summon other ships.
Denaroans may be of lower intelligence, but their bodies do not like to die. And they are the worst to fight in mass numbers.
Fucking orange and black zombies.
I cautiously take out the other Denarsoan the same way, sneaking through the brush, snapping his neck, so he’ll go down quietly before I obliterate his core.
The two Nebs are my next targets.
They chat back and forth about the Denarso being unreliable and selfish.
If only they knew they were already dead.
I sneak up behind one, slide a claw around his throat, and slice through his flesh in one fast move. His partner turns toward me and snarls. I lift one of the guns I’ve stolen off the Denarso, point it at his forehead, and fire.
My heart doesn’t even stutter as I watch him fall. Their kind has killed hundreds of thousands of our allies just to steal supplies. The first time I took life was devastating. But it kept Zorin safe. I think of who is safer every time I capture someone’s last breath.
The two Myndrous turn on me. I fire at the closest one, and he goes down with two bullets to the chest, one to the head.
Then I drawn the shock spear I’ve found, flick it open, and lob the point toward the last member of the infiltration crew. It plants in his chest. Something crackles and sparks in his armor that I have to figure is his portal generator.
He staggers back and rips the spear out of his chest, tearing the portal generator with it. Then he roars and charges at me, his augmented eyes glowing. He has artificial claws and veins of metal bracing crawling up his arms.
We bash into each other and tumble through the underbrush, slashing, wrestling to be the one on top until I get a claw into his throat, spin around, and draw him into the nook of my elbow. His face darkens.
“What do you want from our world?” I snarl.
“Not what. Who.”
“Then who?” I repeat.
Blood drains from his mouth. “Fuck you.”
“Your kind takes females. What do you want with a pup?”
“What do you think?” he growls.
“They’re different somehow.”
“Nebs don’t tell us shit. We’re just working animals to them. So if you’re going to kill me, you better just do it.”
“You could help us stop them.”
He laughs, chokes, and swallows against the blood he’s drowning in. “They can’t be stopped. Even if they could be, there will always be a few hold outs that will just wait for their time to rise again. Resisting them is pointless.”
I curl a lip. “They don’t know what they just ignited in me.”
“You?” He tries to snarl, but just oozes blood. “You’re one Shifter.”
Carrying the weight of my world and my pack, the loss of my mate, and our son…
“They’ll destroy you.” He blinks slowly. “Natural selection.”
My fur ripples as I pull the light from the forest and turn it into energy I can wield.
His eyes widen.
“I am not just a Shifter.” I release the energy I have collected and shatter his body so his death is fast. He didn’t ask to be made into what he is or be born the way he was.
Others think my methods are demented. But it is meant to not draw out death any longer than it must be. I need answers. I do not wish to torture him.
I know that fear and the horrid sense of doom, the one that says this is the end. I have felt death’s cold grip, faced my regrets, and known the void of empty thoughts. I am only here to remember it because of Zorin.
I look around the woods at the bodies and sigh in the silence. It takes me just minutes to crack open the ground, scavenge the useful items from the bodies, break the portal generators, and bury the evidence they were ever here.
I wash the blood and dirt from my body in a creek and catch my reflection in the water.
Zorin would tell me to report it. To let Lieutenant Vrasler know.
But I can’t bring myself to go into civilization again. If I hadn’t found this crew, they’d still be wandering the world, looking for someone’s child to steal.
If anyone hurts Rhysan… Fear for his safety churns in me. I get up, water draining from my body.
I drop to all fours and run. It takes me an hour at a full sprint to reach the camp. I pant as I circle the perimeter until I get a glimpse of Emarza’s house. She’s out back with Rhysan and Jorix.
You can’t be here.
I turn to greet the old, scarred Night Stalker, Mykram, one I still wouldn’t mess with.
I growl at him.
He sniffs the air, and I’m certain he’s picked up the wet fur scent and the acrid notes of Myndrous blood on my skin.
Where?
Lowlands. They were looking for a pup.
I will stay close. But you must go. It will only upset your son to see you and not get to be with you. Tension is high in the pack with all the portal sightings. Don’t give them a reason to hurt your only descendent. You know how they are.
I sulk out of the pack’s territory and scout the woods between camp and Zorin’s house. I search from a rocky protrusion for signs of artificial light, while I struggle to fight through reemerging pain over losing Jezza.
They wanted a female and a pup. I wonder if they came here to take my family because of what she was—an anomaly among Lunas.
Her gentle kind of love was the one thing that held me together through the bloodiest of battles. I remember her showing me the silver moonlight she could create when she focused on it. She was my Moonshine, the light of my life, something that was supposed to be a myth.
She was real. A pure soul in a beautiful body with a coat as white as the moon’s glow.
They don’t know she’s dead.
I find myself wandering into a trade camp, following the scent of meat and alcohol. Pushing through the doors, I take a seat at the bar counter and order a Harvest Moon on the rocks and a badger burger.
The noise of a TV screen makes me look up.
Two other males chat about females, making fun of them for how weak they are as they throw a glittering ball in a game on hoverboots, floating inside a contained orb of glass. Then I see a familiar face.
Zorin laughs like I haven’t seen him do in years as the pink ball slams into him, puffing out clouds of sparkling smoke. The camera pans to a human female who opens herself up for a shot, and deliberately takes a hit just so she can drop to the floor with Zorin.
He picks her up and carries her out of the arena. The way she looks up at him reminds me of how Jezza used to look up at me.
The screen pans to other players, then shows clips of a tour of planets, dinner, and other events. But as my Harvest Moon catches up with me, making my head fuzzy, numbing the pain and the emptiness, I focus on the memory of the happiness in Zorin’s eyes.
He found someone. Good for him.
Then I disagree with myself. He shouldn’t be with anyone. That’s just dangerous for her.
Whatever you do, don’t bring her here.
I eat and watch more of the games. I see a clip of Nytheralians fighting their way to the golden egg in the maze with their mates, several of which look like soldiers themselves.
The camera pans to another group, this one of Ginarigons and females in another corner of the maze, most of which is blurred out.
But the moans are enough to make most of the bar cheer.
And then I see a clip of Zorin mid-shift among a familiar M-pack that makes me sit up.
The entire crew is there?
Everyone except me.
Marne and his team, Davarok, and Kren, they’re all holding Zorin back. His female is guarded by Esrynne, but she doesn’t look scared. The way she leans around Esrynne’s shoulder shows concern.
Zorin slumps when Rorsar injects him, and my heart breaks. The screen displays their bond, when it started, and basic facts about them, including prizes the female, Tessi, has won.
She isn’t just a pretty face.
“Can’t believe she’s stayed with him,” a female Shifter mutters to my other side as she chats with her friend. “Humans are so frail. He totally lost his shit. You ever seen a rut that feral?”
I have.
“Kareena, you know who that is, don’t you?” her friends asks. “That’s Zorin Aegeris.”
“Aegeris?” The female beside me doesn’t seem to know what to think.
I listen intently for her reaction, keeping my head down as I finish my food.
“Terrifying isn’t it?” her friend asks. “I mean, that they still exist.”
The female beside me disagrees. “They protected our world from the Nebs.”
“Not doing so great now.”