Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
Greyson stops me by placing a hand on my shoulder. “Did you hear that?”
“No, what do you hear?” I ask and tilt my head to the side.
“It’s a low rumbling growl.” His eyes widen. “I think the dires are surrounding us.”
“How many?” I ask and pull my sword.
“At least six, maybe more. This isn’t good, Beth. They see me as a threat to their territory.” His gaze scans the forest around us.
“Raven, you got your swords ready?” I glance at her from the corner of my eye.
“Of course,” she says. “I’m always prepared.”
“Okay, guys, formation and weapons out. I don’t want to hurt the giant rabid puppies because we’re in their territory, but we need to be prepared.”
“Puppies?” Greyson asks me, incredulous.
“Sorry, this another disassociation thing that I do.” I shrug.
“If you make them seem harmless in your mind, they can’t hurt you in real life.” Raven nods. “I totally understand that and puppies are cute.”
“Should I shift?” Greyson asks.
“I think that would be a good idea,” I say and turn away from him as he rips his shirt over his head.
Seconds later, Greyson is the biggest wolf I have ever seen. He’s definitely grown in power and size since the last time he shifted. Greyson growls low in his throat and advances in front of our group to face off against the leader of this pack.
“Are we sure this is the best way to deal with this?” I ask Raven.
“He’s the strongest and biggest wolf I have ever seen. I think he can get them to back down if he shows the leader who the alpha wolf actually is in this situation.” Raven shrugs.
“Okay then, let’s hope so.” I shrug.
Greyson snarls and leaps forward. Another wolf with a white coat slightly smaller than him jumps from the bushes and snarls at Greyson as it crouches low to the ground, ready to attack and fight for dominance.
I seriously hope Greyson knows what he’s doing because from where I’m sitting, this is completely fucked.
I call my whip to me from the lightning bolt charm and it crackles with electricity, drawing the attention of the other wolves surrounding us. Shit. Maybe that was a bad idea. Should we just let the alpha wolves fight it out?
“What do we do? The others look like they want to attack us,” I say, pointing my blade into the brush.
“They’re probably loyal, similar to Greyson’s wolves, and want to protect their alpha from people who would interfere with what they think is a fair fight,” Adrian says.
“How do you know this?” I ask.
“Since Greyson became a part of the academy, I have been talking to him about shifters and finding all the things we could possibly need to know while saving the world.” He nicks an arrow on his bow, threatening the other wolves at our backs.
“How do we show them we don’t intend to intervene?” I ask.
“The most obvious would be for us to lower our weapons, but we all know that’s not happening.” Adrian lines up a shot.
“Yeah, that’s not happening,” I say.
The snarling grows louder as Greyson and the alpha dire circle each other, snapping and testing defenses. I’ve never seen Greyson fight another wolf before and there’s something beautiful in its brutality and cunning.
The fire lunges at Greyson and I flinch but he dodged the wolf easily, swiping at its side with long claws. Golden blood sprays on Greyson and I scream, turning to Raven, my eyes wide with horror.
“He just got a second dose, dammit. Everyone tighten formation. They have ichor for blood too.” I take a huge step back.
“What’s this going to do to him?” Raven asks.
“I don’t know. Look.” My eyes widen as the dire wolf ripples with some unseen force and shifts into a very naked man.
“What the fuck?” Raven shouts and averts her gaze.
“Why are you in my territory?” the man barks.
Greyson shifts to his human form and hastily dresses. His eyes are wolf as he attempts to rub the ichor off his face.
“It’s okay, Greyson. We’ll figure out what this means for you.” I pat his shoulder.
“Answer me,” the shifter roars.
I point my sword at him. “I don’t answer to you or anyone else. If you want to have a conversation like rational adults, fine. But I get the feeling that’s not what you want since your first instinct was to attack my friend like a feral dog and paid the price for it.”
“Infernal fae are always encroaching on our territory. I will not let you run my pack out of here.”
“Not fae, demigods, and we’re just passing through.” I shrug.
“Passing through?” he scoffs.
“We were told you were wolves, not shifters. We really just need to get to the damn portal so we can get back to our realm. You’re still leaking and I would rather not have to fight you and get dosed with damn ichor again. I’m powerful enough. I don’t need to be even more of a freak.”
“Baby, breathe. You’re rambling.” Jayden bumps my shoulder with his.
“He’s a shifter and instead of having a conversation, he attacks us like a savage, and now Greyson has been dosed again and we don’t know what that means. I have never been disrespected by a shifter so terribly before.”
“Shifters in our realm respect power,” Greyson says. “That’s one reason they would never disrespect you. Plus, you’ve done a lot for my people in the past and they appreciate it. I don’t know what these jackasses here respect.”
“Power? You’re mere children,” the dire scoffs.
White-hot electricity crackles down my whip and across my blade. “I’ve had enough. This realm fucking sucks. Get out of my way. I’m getting to the fucking portal and you will not stop me.”
“What is the female talking about?” the dire asks.
“Shit.” Jayden grabs me around the waist right as I lunge for him.
Greyson takes a step in front of me, blocking me from flicking my whip at the jackass. They are trying to stop me from losing my shit on another asshole in this realm. What is it with the people here and their antiquated bullshit that I’m less because I’m female?
“I would back away slowly if I were you,” Greyson warns.
The haughty man is indignant as he scoffs, “You’re scared of this female?”
“Hell yeah,” Greyson says.
“Me too,” Dax agrees.
“And me,” Draven nods.
“She’s the scariest demigod I’ve ever met and believe me, I have pissed her off enough times to feel her wrath.” Thad winks at me.
“Awww, thanks, guys. This is why we’re friends.” I grin.
“Her magic can’t even hurt me and I’m terrified of her.” Jayden squeezes my waist.
“I feel a little insulted,” Raven says.
“You’re the next scariest, babe. Promise.” Greyson chuckles.
“You are the strangest individuals I have ever come across,” the dire says. “Females are not scary.”
“Call me a female again, jackass, and you will see why they are all scared,” I snarl.
His brow furrows and he tilts his head to the side in confusion. “You are clearly female, so why are you angry?”
“Have you addressed any of the guys as the male? No. You talk to them without singling out their gender, but the girls you use the term female to degrade me and show me that I’m beneath you because I was born a girl.”
“Every male in this realm that we have come across has done the same. People don’t talk down to us like this in our realm because it’s okay for women to be badass.” Raven crosses her arms.
“Why are we even working so hard to save all the realms?” I sigh. “If the rest are like this one, maybe we should just let them burn.”
“You’re the prophesied one?” He straightens his shoulders and his eyes widen. “You really are from a different realm.”
“Yes. We just want to get back so we can kick some ass and save the realms, again.”
He waves a hand and the shifters around us stiffen before slinking back into the forest. “My apologies. It has been tense in our territory recently since the events of the prophecy have started happening.”
“So, you’re going to let us go to the portal?” I ask.
“We will escort you to the portal, yes,” he says. “I am truly sorry for offending you.”
“It’s fine but do better. Stop treating women like they’re beneath you,” I say.
“It’s not like that here, honestly. Females are precious to us, especially to us because there are so few born female dires.”
I nod because that makes sense. If there are few women, then they would face extinction without them. Not allowing them to put themselves in danger by becoming a badass would make perfect sense. I still don’t like it but I understand it.
“Fine. I get what you’re saying. Lead the way.” I wave a hand for him to show us the way.
We follow at a brisk pace through the forest. Raven chuckles under her breath as nothing jumps out at her.
“You’re waiting for the dryads to attack you here, aren’t you?” I ask her.
“What’s a dryad?” the dire asks.
“Tree spirits that love to hate Raven.” I giggle. “They smack her with branches every time.”
“The nexus sounds like a strange place.”
“For us it is, but normal humans don’t see the same things we do. That’s how we keep ourselves safe from them.”
“Safe from humans? They’re the powerless beings who have been showing up here randomly? Why would you need to be safe from them?” The dire frowns.
“They outnumber us about a hundred to one and they have technology. They fear and want to experiment on those they don’t understand. It’s safer that they don’t know we exist.” I shrug.
“I don’t think you will be hidden for much longer.” He shakes his head.
“Fucking Hades, I didn’t even think of that. How are we going to keep the humans from talking about what’s happened to them?” I ask. “There will be a witch hunt for supernaturals.”
“You don’t think they’ll claim they were abducted by aliens?” Raven asks.
“With the way the portal just kind of was there? That doesn’t give me alien abduction vibes at all.” Jayden shakes his head.
“We don’t need to worry about this now,” Greyson says. “We can cross that bridge when we come to it.”
“Greyson is right,” Jayden says. “One step at a time.”
“Hermes might have some magic up his sleeve that could help once he’s back to normal,” Raven says.