Chapter 23 - Miles
The rogue leader smiles at me. His teeth are streaked with black stains, and his scent is one of sweat and dirt.
He is a man of the wild. One who lives in tents and eats straight from the bones of animals still breathing and twitching after a hunt.
He doesn’t care about life. He doesn’t have any respect for nature or the order of the universe.
He takes what he wants, and he uses everyone as though they were simply cards in a poker game.
His eyes tell stories of his ruthless heart.
And there is no fucking way on the moon goddesses Earth that I am going to let him take Kelsey.
“Alright, we accept your terms,” Ace says, and I practically collapse with relief.
“The girl and the scout leave unharmed?” I confirm.
Ace nods curtly, sucking in his cheeks as he takes another long look at my wife.
Mudder is screaming to be let out, but he also understands how delicate this situation is.
He will do nothing to put Kelsey in danger.
“Good,” I turn to Kelsey. “Go,” I snap coldly.
“No,” she answers as cool and crisp as the evening air.
“What do you mean, no?” I snarl. “I am your Beta, and I have given you a direct command!”
Ace chuckles and shakes his head. “Now wait, wait a second. Let’s hear what the witch wants to say,” he smirks.
My body sinks. My head spins, and I clench my jaw so tightly I might crush my own teeth.
Kelsey lifts her head higher. “I’m coming with you as well,” she says boldly.
Every cell in my body ignites with panic.
“No,” I say, almost weak with worry.
Kelsey walks to my side and stands next to me.
“I might not be the strongest witch that ever existed, but I still have a duty to my pack, and I swore to protect my Alpha and my Beta and anyone from my pack, for that matter… I’m coming with,” she says.
“To protect him?” Ace scoffs, eyeing the bulge of my muscles. He is clearly finding this very amusing. “Look, darling, I am thrilled that you want to come with so please, let’s not delay…”
“She’s not coming with us,” I snarl again.
“Shut your fucking mouth, Beta. The bitch wants to come with, so she is coming with.”
Ace’s eyes have turned pitch black as his face darkens with anger.
As Ace turns away from us, Kelsey jabs her elbow into my ribs and glares at me.
How the fuck do I protect her when she won’t let me?
But something in her eyes pauses me.
Pleading.
Confidence.
She is begging me to trust her.
“Fine, let’s go,” I huff.
Behind us, Luke groans as he tries to stand up, but is unable due to his injuries.
“What about him?” Kelsey asks.
“What about him? I promised not to harm in further, but I’m certainly not going to help him,” Ace laughs.
“He’ll die out here without help!” Kelsey snaps.
“Is that my problem?” Ace snarls angrily.
To my relief, Kelsey presses her lips together and forces herself to be silent.
Ace and his rogue clan gesture for us to walk, and reluctantly, I obey.
I don’t know what Kelsey has planned, but I can’t bear the thought of watching them hurt her, and I know, I fucking know, that they are going to try.
I’m not strong enough to protect her from an entire pack of rogues. This was never meant to be the plan.
We walk further and further from the border of our territory and deeper into the woods, further from help or any chance of escaping.
My heart is sinking, and my feet feel heavy.
I’m about to whisper to Kelsey when she drops to her knees and buries her hands in the snow.
“What the fuck is she doing?” One of the rogues snarls, drawing everyone’s attention.
Pink glows beneath the crisp white snow like an underground light, moving like a flood through the stark whiteness. Her magic spreads outwards, and the rogues begin to back away nervously.
“Fucking kill her!” Ace shouts.
But he’s not fast enough.
A pink wall of light and smoke shoots up from the ground. Two men fall dead. A third clutches his throat.
Oh my fuck. I suddenly understand what is going on.
We’ve reached the area of the forest where Mira set up the new weapon that was made to enhance Kelsey’s powers. There are several of them scattered around in the area outside our borders for emergencies exactly like this.
Kelsey remembered it, and now she’s tapped into the additional power source!
Kelsey screams as currents of blinding light shoot from her into the ground. It pulses like a living thing. Ace runs at her, blatantly wanting to tear her apart.
I shift in a flash and leap at him. Mudder slams into him, and we roll away from Kelsey.
Other pack members leap at her, but she’s stronger than them. She’s managing to keep them at bay while I fight the leader of the rogues.
He shifts too as we slide over the snow, and now I’m face to face with his wolf.
His wolf is enormous. Alpha blood. Undoubtedly. The biggest rogue that I have ever met in my life? Yes.
But Mudder is virtually the same size as him, and I have something he doesn’t.
I have someone to fight for. I have a reason to fight.
I steal a moment's glance at Kelsey. She’s standing now.
The snow is still glowing pink. Above us, the system set up by Mira has been triggered.
The pack will receive a distress signal, and help will already have been dispatched to this location.
All we have to do is stay alive. All we have to do is fight until they get here.
A flash of glowing pink steals my attention, and I look up to see Kala.
I don’t know when Kelsey shifted, but she did.
And Kala is no longer a grey wolf but rather pure white and breathtakingly beautiful.
She is standing strong as pink tendrils wisp from her fur and spread outward towards the four wolves surrounding her.
I desperately want to help her, but it soon becomes obvious that she’s too strong for all four of them.
Kelsey is fighting four wolves at once. And she’s fucking them up.
Ace slams into me while I’m distracted, and Mudder snarls at him, grabbing his flank and tearing a chunk off his leg.
The iron taste of blood fills my mouth and fuels my rage like a shark in a feeding frenzy.
Ace is ferocious, but I never give him a chance to move away from me. All I have to do is keep Kelsey safe from him, the strongest wolf in their pack, and possibly the only one who could really fight her right now.
And she is managing to keep us safe from the rest of the rogue wolves.
One by one, I hear them dropping to the ground in agony, but even as they fall, more arrive, alerted by the sounds of the battle they have come to fight with their leader.
Finally, after what feels like an eternity, we hear shouts and yelps in the background as our pack arrives to fight with us.
It’s chaos as new wolves leap onto the scene, grabbing rogues by the throat and tearing them to pieces. In the mayhem, Ace makes a run for it.
Behind me, Kelsey screams as a wolf bites down on her arm and drags her to the ground to go for her throat. She shifts back into human form. Maybe from the pain, maybe from fear.
In a flash, I’ve discarded the idea of chasing Ace, and I’m on top of the wolf attacking my wife. He doesn’t stand a chance. His lifeless rogue body drops to the ground with a thump as his blood drips from my fangs.
Kelsey stands up, shaking and drained. Mudder picks up her jacket, which is lying nearby on the floor. Mudder nuzzles against her with it in his mouth. She takes it from him.
“Thank you,” she mutters, grabbing her jeans as well and quickly pulling them on with shaking hands.
Are you ok? I ask her through Mudder’s mind.
She nods and reaches out to touch my dark brown fur. Her fingers trace over my jaw, and Mudder whines as he leans his giant head into her hand. “I’m ok, I promise,” she whispers, her eyes flooded with emotions as she stares into mine.
“Miles!” Someone shouts behind me, and I turn to see that they still need help taking down the last of the rogues.
“Go, I’m ok, I’m coming to help too,” she says, pushing me away. My eyes trace over her briefly before I leave.
I leap away from her and back into the chaos.
Jace runs into the scene and shifts as he leaps onto one of the rogues and rips his arm off.
His wolf, Jux, is even bigger than Mudder and pitch black.
He looks terrifying to anyone who doesn’t know him.
With him here, we make quick work of the last few rouges.
After that, it takes us another half an hour to track down the few rogues who made a run for it and are hiding in the forest nearby.
One by one, we kill them. It is a horrible task, but it is what I was trained for.
After that, the security teams move deeper into the forest to track down their base and make sure there aren’t any more rogues there.
Kelsey leaves with the other half of the team to take the injured fighters back home. She seems very worried about Luke and eager to get to him to help him, too.
I want nothing more than to stay at her side, but I have to go with Jace to hunt down the rogue camp and make sure Ace isn’t there.
We search the forest until the dawn sun begins to pierce through the trees. We find their camp, but it’s empty. Anyone who was here has fled. There is no sign of Ace and no sign of any more rogues.
Jux sits on top of a large rock overlooking the camp. I wander over to sit next to him. Mudder’s coat is covered in blood from the battle, drying and flaking off me.
I don’t think they are stupid enough to come back, he says to me.
I hope not. But I saw their leader. I saw the evil in his eyes. He is a dangerous man, and if we ever find him, we should kill him without hesitation, I reply.
Jux looks at me. His eyes glowing dangerously. He will find out how dangerous I am if he dares to come back here. I will kill him without hesitation, and I won’t make it quick.
I nod, satisfied with his answer.
Mudder snorts out a hot breath that steams against the cold morning air. Let’s go home, I say.
Jux stands and shakes. Muscles ripple over his body as he leaps from the rock down to the ground. I follow behind him.
He barks once, and the team falls into position to head home.
It’s a challenge not to run ahead and leave them behind in the forest. All I want to do is see her.
There are so many things I want to tell her.
I want to make sure she’s ok. I want to kiss her pain away.
But more than anything, I want to hold her in my arms.