Chapter 10 - Torsten #2
The devastation I had witnessed through their eyes strengthened my resolve beyond any doubt.
Burned packlands where families had once thrived, now reduced to ash and bone.
Enslaved wolves working themselves to death while their captors celebrated the holiday, children separated from their parents, the weak culled without mercy or thought.
Mass graves barely covered, the stench of death and despair hanging over everything like a shroud.
This was what awaited the packs allied with the Howling Echo if we failed. This was what Freya and her mates were fighting to prevent.
We all shifted, five snow-white wolves originally from the Snow Moon pack, no longer.
As an alpha, Gabriel stood slightly taller than the rest of us.
As an Odinswolf, I could project my thoughts to the others just like he could.
And of course, all of them could speak to Jasmine through their mate bonds, even though they lacked pack bonds with each other now that they were exiled.
“Let’s go,” I said, and five white wolves flowed into motion like primal power given deadly form.
Jasmine’s smaller wolf kept pace beside Gabriel’s massive alpha frame.
The three brothers moved like extensions of each other, their coordination born from years of absolute trust. As we separated, I split my focus, as though one eye watched where my paws fell, while the other checked in with Awareness.
Lydell’s face twisted with rage, his massive frame radiating with dominance that had broken countless spirits. But Rowan stood firm, and I felt a surge of fierce pride at his bravado.
“Why won’t you kneel?” Lydell snarled, his voice carrying across the clearing as he stalked closer to Rowan. “I can smell your strength, rogue alpha. You’re less dominant than me. You should understand the natural order.”
I padded closer, my paws light on the frozen ground.
“I understand it perfectly,” Rowan replied, his voice steady despite the strain. “That’s why I’m still standing.”
The defiance in his tone made several of Lydell’s alpha enforcers snarl with outrage, but Lydell held up a hand to stop them. His eyes narrowed as he studied Rowan more closely, and I saw the moment recognition began to dawn.
“There’s something familiar about you,” Lydell mused, circling Rowan like a predator. “Something in your scent. Have we met before, rogue?”
Rowan merely snarled in response, one predator’s challenge to another. My heart pounded as I raced toward them.
“Submit!” Lydell roared suddenly. The force of it even made one of his enforcers whimper and cower. “Kneel before your future pack alpha!”
I felt the force of it through the Bonded link as Lydell’s next command crashed against him, but it broke like waves against granite.
Rowan stood firm. Alone, surrounded by enemies, he refused to break.
My mate. The word settled in my wolf’s chest with startling certainty, accompanied by a surge of fierce protectiveness.
“Are you like her?” Lydell growled with disbelief. “Valkyrie? How else could you resist a dominant alpha’s command?”
Gage’s voice cut through the Bonded link, his alpha authority as undeniable as a self-assured mountain, with just as little need to show off his dominance.
“Rowan,” he said, ready to seize the opportunity. “Use our power. All of it. Command them to rise.”
Understanding flashed through me like wildfire, the strategy so elegant it took my breath away.
The slaves, the conquered wolves, the oppressed — they surrounded Lydell’s celebration, forced to serve while their captors reveled.
With the right command, backed by enough alpha power to make it irresistible…
“Free them, Rowan,” Freya commanded.
She packaged it up, bundled it together, then hurled it to Rowan as though expecting him to play catch. The power that tore through the Bonded link was unlike anything I’d ever experienced as an Odinswolf immune to alpha commands. It flowed into Rowan like lightning seeking ground.
Rowan’s voice rose, carrying the combined power of four alphas, a dominant beta, and the ancient magic of two Odinswolves. The words echoed off the mountains themselves, impossible to ignore or resist.
“Rise up!” Rowan commanded everyone around him. “Fight back! Take back what was stolen from you!”
The effect was instantaneous and devastating.
Wolves throughout the gathering jumped to their paws, their eyes blazing with sudden hope.
Slaves snarled with fury, their suppressed wolves finally given permission to fight.
Conquered alphas that Lydell had forced into submission remembered their strength, their dignity, their rage.
Even some of Denraider’s own lower-ranking members turned on their superiors, years of abuse finally given an outlet.
As I approached, I heard an older alpha project his voice over the chaos. “Genius. The alpha bark just forces us to do what we’ve always dreamed of! Now we can fight, and he takes the blame.”
The older alpha roared in laughter as Rowan’s alpha command gave him an excuse to attack one Lydell’s enforcers.
“Kick their asses, Mavis.” Rowan grinned savagely, then faced off against Lydell, the only two left standing in human form.
Civil war erupted across the gathering as the oppressed rose against their oppressors. Through my ravens’ eyes, I saw the tide of battle turning, watched as Lydell’s pack bonding celebration became his nightmare.
Gabriel’s howl cut through the night — the signal to attack.
A few Denraider wolves turned toward my allies, but they were all either drunk, disorganized, or caught completely off guard by the uprising in their own ranks.
The scent of blood and fear filled the air, mixed with the smoke from the scattered bonfires.
I cut through them like a blade. From either side, Jasmine and her mates fought with seamless coordination, each covering the others’ flanks while pressing toward our goal. No longer did Lydell and Rowan stand on two legs above the wolfish chaos. They both must have shifted.
That’s when I saw him for the first time with my own eyes instead of the ravens’.
Rowan’s massive black wolf towered over the center of the uprising, larger than I’d expected, his golden eyes blazing as he stood untroubled by the rebellion around him. His fur was matted with blood — but no one dared challenge him.
“Coward!” he projected his alpha voice across the madness.
The raven Awareness showed me Lydell’s big alpha wolf fighting his way through the roiling mass of attacking wolves. He shouldered through, avoiding fights, bowling over smaller wolves left and right.
But without my ravens’ sight, Rowan didn’t know where to look. He turned around, searching for Lydell, then faced me, going still when his golden eyes fell on me. Our gazes locked.
Mate.
The word resonated through every fiber of my being, my wolf surging forward with desperate need.
Rowan met me halfway, and we collided in a tangle of fur and recognition, our wolves acknowledging each other with desperate intensity.
His scent surrounded me — wild and fierce.
For one perfect moment, nothing else existed — not the battle, not the danger, just the rightness of finally being together.
“Found you,” I managed.
“You’re here—”
Then reality crashed back as a Denraider alpha lunged for me, his larger form radiating killing intent.
Rowan stepped in his way, pure instinct and fury flowing around his opponent.
Taking the alpha enforcer by surprise, his jaws snapped closed, and he tore through the conqueror’s throat without mercy.
“He’s mine,” Rowan growled.
I’d never expected to have alpha mates. I’d never imagined enjoying an alpha’s possessiveness, but in that moment, it weakened my knees.
More alphas converged on us. One tried his luck with his alpha bark, assuming by my wolf’s smaller size that I must be subordinate.
“Submit!” he projected at me, but Rowan and I both just laughed.
I used the alpha’s surprise to end him, coming up from beneath him to sink my fangs into his unprotected throat.
After that, Rowan and I moved as one, complementing each other perfectly despite never having trained together. Where I was methodical and strategic, he used his size and reach to maximum advantage. Together, we were unstoppable.
“We need to go,” I told him privately over the Bonded link as we fought side by side, our wolves moving in perfect synchronization. “Now, while the chaos covers our escape.”
“But Valkyrie—” Rowan began, his anguish catching the others’ attention.
“Rowan, get out of there,” Gage’s voice cut through the Bonded link with alpha authority.
Heath added on with a guilt trip, “Don’t risk Torsten’s life.”
“We’ll go back for Valkyrie later,” Flint swore.
“And my ravens know right where she is,” I promised.
“My sister is strong,” Freya promised. “She’s survived this long. She’ll make it.”
“But you’re too much of a target now,” Zak pointed out.
Through Dream’s distant sight, I confirmed what my heart already knew. “Right now, Valkyrie’s too far away. Staying any longer will risk the lives of Jasmine and her mates, too.”
Rowan growled in warning as another alpha approached, but the older alpha briefly dipped his head. Blood ran freely down his muzzle, but his eyes burned with the fire of long-suppressed vengeance finally unleashed.
“Mavis,” Rowan acknowledged, projecting his voice.
“We’ll keep them busy. Get out of here while you can.”
“Keep your head up,” Rowan advised. “I’ll be back before you know it.”
“We fight for freedom!” Mavis projected his powerful voice, letting the oppressed subordinates and freed slaves know they had at least some alphas on their side.
Rowan turned to follow me, and we broke free of the chaos as Jasmine and her mates flanked us.
“Good timing,” Gabriel said.
“She will walk free,” Rowan vowed, his alpha voice carrying absolute certainty. “Before this month ends, Valkyrie will—”