Chapter 17 - Conan
Running through the forest as fast as my wolf paws can carry me, I’m agile enough to stick to the frontlines while my mate holds onto my fur.
On one side, Simon runs ahead; on the other, Heinrich charges forward with Annika on his back.
Behind us, the wolves from both Bitterroot Valley and Helena Valley head toward Milford, the alliance strong as we join our forces for the first time. All to rescue Alpha Orlando’s son, Nico, from the demons’ clutches.
As we charge ahead, all I can think about is our daughter and how her life is in danger because she’s also a hybrid child. Like Nico, she’s a child of an alpha wolf and a witch, and now the demons are planning on using children like them to power up their portal.
My heart pounds with panic, and I can feel Hannah’s too, throbbing in her heartbeat, coursing through her veins. Alpha Orlando is furious, his son’s kidnapping hurting him in ways I wish to never experience in any lifetime.
I can only imagine what he’s going through, having lost his mate a year ago, and now, his son.
The thought of losing the most important people in one’s life is dreadful, and a new surge of panic rises like acrid bile in my throat, driving in the realization I had earlier.
No matter what has happened in the past, Hannah is my fated mate. Clarissa is my daughter. The two of them are my future, the most important people in my life.
I cannot lose that. I cannot risk a moment of weakness just to quell my ego that forces me to linger on the past. What does any of it matter when the Moon Goddess blessed us with a second chance to be a family?
So what if Hannah ran away because she was too afraid of being my luna?
In eight years, a lot has changed, and not only is she by my side now, but she’s here, on the frontline of this fight, ready to use her powers to fight the demons. Like she did that first night on our way back to the Bitterroot Valley.
She was always fearless, independent, and able to hold her own. She never needed me. And if she was afraid of being my luna before, she’s not afraid anymore. Hannah Young has stepped fully into her power, and I am in awe of the woman she has become.
How can I possibly still be angry with her when only admiration is left? Love is left.
Somehow, the realization spurs me on, my senses heightened enough to pick up the smell of sulfur and rot from far out of Milford. I race ahead, beyond the others, picking up speed and leading the group toward the direction of the decaying smell.
The forest opens up to a clearing, and just over a hill lies an old sawmill with cracking mustard walls and a wooden door ripped apart from years of dilapidation.
I slow down my steps, and the others do the same behind me, our attention going to the darkening clouds over the sawmill.
The sky is splitting open above the building.
Dark energy churns violently in the clouds like a festering wound in reality itself, crimson lightning tearing through the heavens while black smoke spirals upward from the center of the mill. The portal hangs above it, unstable and unfinished, pulsing with horrifying power.
It’s only just beginning, but it’s already terrifying.
My wolf snarls viciously beneath Hannah as we stand frozen at the edge of the clearing. Behind us, dozens of wolves fan out through the trees while the witches begin chanting protection spells under their breath.
“We’re too late,” Orlando growls after he’s shifted into human form, clenching fists like weapons, eyes pierced like snares at the scene unfolding in the sky.
“No,” Hannah says sharply from my back. “Not yet. It’s not complete. There’s still time.” Her voice cuts through the panic instantly.
I shift back into human form without hesitation, Hannah sliding off my back with ease and landing on her feet as I catch her into my arms to steady her.
Heinrich and Annika do the same nearby. Orlando doesn’t even wait for instructions before shifting back into his dark brown wolf and charging downhill toward the sawmill.
“Orlando!” Theodore shouts.
But grief has already made the Nightcreek Alpha reckless.
The front doors of the mill explode inward the second Orlando crashes through them. And then the screams and screeching begin.
Demons pour out of the shadows in grotesque waves, their bodies twisted and malformed, eyes glowing molten red beneath slick black skin. Some crawl on all fours while others tower unnaturally tall, their claws scraping against rotting wood.
“Kill them!” Heinrich roars, and that’s when the clearing erupts into chaos.
Wolves shift mid-run, crashing into demons with snapping jaws and claws while witches unleash blasts of magic that illuminate the dark night in violent flashes of blue and gold.
A demon lunges toward Hannah from the side.
I react before thought even forms, power gathering in my palms. That’s when fire bursts out almost instinctively, and the creature shrieks as flames engulf its body, reducing it to ash before it can even touch her.
I freeze.
That wasn’t my power.
I’m not supposed to wield fire.
I turn my head slowly, shock dropping my jaw as Hannah just stares at me in equal shock, her palms glowing bright orange beside whipping currents of wind.
“The bond,” Annika gasps nearby. “Your powers merged!”
Another demon barrels toward us before we can process what happened.
This time, Hannah raises her hand first, and I feel her magic surge through me like wildfire flooding my veins. Wind spirals violently around my arms, air power returning, but it’s not the only magic I can control.
Fire follows air, whipping torrents of combined magic around my palms.
Together, the elements explode outward in a roaring inferno that tears through the battlefield, flames twisting within cyclones of air powerful enough to shred demons apart where they stand.
The others just stare, amazed by what’s happening because, truthfully, this is the first time it’s happened.
Damian, who wields water magic, was only able to combine it with fire when he fought alongside Sophie, and they consciously joined forces. The same is true for Heinrich and Annika, combining earth and fire magic when they work together.
This is different.
I’m controlling air and fire as if both powers are my own.
But there’s barely time to think about it when Orlando’s roar echoes from inside the mill.
“Nico!”
Hannah and I sprint toward the building together.
The inside reeks of blood, sulfur, and decay. Symbols painted in black cover the wooden floors while candles burn in massive circles around the center platform of the mill.
My stomach drops when I follow Orlando’s horrified gaze.
Nico hangs suspended above the ground inside the ritual circle, unconscious, black tendrils of energy wrapped around his small body, while the portal overhead pulses with every flicker of power draining from him.
“Oh Goddess…” Hannah whispers in shock, a hand flying to her mouth.
Orlando calls out again beneath the platform. “Nico!”
But the child doesn’t respond.
A massive demon suddenly rises between the circle and us, its body towering nearly to the ceiling, jagged horns protruding from its skull.
“The vessel belongs to the gate,” it snarls, and something inside me snaps beyond the churn in my gut.
“Over my dead body!” I growl.
The creature lunges for Orlando, but Hannah’s wind magic slams into it first. At the same time, my flames follow immediately after, our combined powers moving together instinctively now, as if the mate bond itself understands what to do before we can think about it consciously.
The demon roars as fire tears across its chest. Heinrich crashes into its side in wolf form while Orlando leaps upward toward Nico.
But the ritual circle reacts instantly to being broken. Dark energy explodes outward, sending Orlando hurtling backward violently into the wall.
“Break the circle!” Annika shouts from behind us.
The witches begin chanting immediately, and Hannah grabs my arm.
“Together.”
I nod once at the single instruction, recognizing it as her power, not her authority over me. We’re a team, a unit, and together, we unleash everything we’ve got.
Fire and wind spiral together into a massive torrent of magic that crashes directly into the ritual markings beneath Nico. The entire sawmill building shakes violently as the symbols begin cracking apart beneath the force of our combined power.
The portal above us flickers, fighting against the disruption, and the demon screams in protest, a treacherous cry, right before it’s consumed into nothing but ash.
And suddenly, Nico drops.
Orlando catches his son before he can hit the ground, clutching him tightly against his chest.
“Nico!”
The child wheezes weakly in response to his father’s voice, then his tiny body jerks before the sawmill is filled with the unnatural sound of small bones cracking.
Fur in the same shade as his father’s wolf bursts across the child’s skin.
Right there in his father’s arms, Nico shifts fully into a wolf pup.
And the portal destabilizes instantly.
The swirling darkness above the mill shudders violently, the entire gateway collapsing inward for a brief second as if the source powering it has suddenly become the very thing with enough power to rip it away.
“He disrupted it,” Hannah breathes as she grips my arm.
The wolf pup collapses moments later, shifting back into human form, unconscious in Orlando’s arms.
Relief crashes across Orlando’s face so powerfully that it nearly breaks me to witness it.
He clutches his son as if he’ll never let go again. And all I can think about is Clarissa.
If Nico alone was powerful enough to affect the portal, then my daughter is, too. Fear, unlike anything I’ve ever known, tears through my chest, and I cling to Hannah just as tightly. We both have the same thing on our mind.
The portal overhead flickers again.
It’s smaller now. Unstable, but not gone.
Black energy still bleeds through the crack between worlds, twisting through the air like poison.
Outside, more distant screeches echo through the forest, like the demons are retreating.
But only for now.
Deep in my gut, I realize this battle was only the beginning. The portal has been opened already, and now, we’ll have to work together to seal it before our world is taken over by demons.