Chapter 25 #2
His brows pulled together, more in frustration than concern. “What?”
“You’re not there to tell them anything,” I said. “You’re out here wasting your time explaining your whole stupid plan to a kirre miles from where you need to be.”
Cenric froze, disbelief showing clearly on his face.
His black eyes narrowed as he grasped just how fully he’d been played. And by someone he viewed as his inferior.
His lip curled back in a snarl. Then in a blur of movement, he rushed forward.
“You stupid, little ugh—“
My knee flew up just at the right time, catching him right in the balls. Just like Zahrah said, he collapsed straight down to his knees.
With his hands busy cupping his balls, I did my best to ignore the searing agony in my back, and bent over to grab a handful of dirt and duff, needles and moss, and smashed it right into his eyes.
A new howl of primal pain lifted up to the sky, loud enough for the gods to hear, as Cenric crumbled over on his side.
Holy crap, my friends were right. I could defeat an alpha.
Cenric was at my mercy.
Seizing the opportunity, I slid Kyre’s knife out of my back pocket and straddled the son of a bitch. Then, after raising the blade high above my head, I brought it down hard.
But it didn’t feel like enough.
Even though the tip of the knife pierced Cenric’s skin, the muscle below was too dense, too solid. The blade practically bounced off, refusing to go any deeper.
Again and again, I tried, putting the full force of my weight behind every strike, but it didn’t seem to matter.
The most I could do was superficial damage. Scrapes and shallow cuts. Nothing severe. Nothing deeper.
Damn it!
It was like stabbing at a sheet of solid steel. There was no way I was getting through.
With another roar, Cenric finally recovered from the blow to his balls. Throwing his arm wide as he rolled onto his back, he knocked me clear across the grove of trees.
The thick denim of my jeans did a decent enough job protecting my legs, taking the damage from the sticks and pebbles scattered along the forest floor, but the T-shirt, thin and already torn, was practically useless.
Fresh wounds cut into my back and sides. Dirt and debris ground into the cuts that were already there. Pain surged through every limb. Blood and sweat and tears poured out of me.
And it wasn’t over yet.
The horrible realization hit me like a sledgehammer.
As long as my heart was still beating, there was still more to come.
Every lick of breath knocked from my lungs, I struggled to breathe as Cenric’s dark shadow slowly fell over me.
I raised my gaze and, even though I was shaking with fear and pain, defiantly met his stare.
“Stupid little kirre,” he hissed. “Did you really think you had a chance of beating me?”
I answered by pooling all the blood filling up my mouth and spitting it right in his face.
Cenric smiled as he wiped it away.
“That’s what I thought,” he laughed.
Then, cracking open his jaw, he showed off his fangs. The ones that in just seconds would be buried deep in my neck, ripping at my tendons, severing my veins.
I closed my eyes and got ready to say my last word.
To call out Tauren’s name.
One last time.
I drew in a breath and—
Whomp!
I felt more than heard the wave of concussive pressure that swept past me. Fast and hard and brutal, it was there and then gone before I could even open my eyes.
And once I did, the first thing I realized was that Cenric was no longer above me.
He was just…gone.
Whisked away by a strong and terrible wind.
No, not a wind.
The wind couldn’t growl like a feral bear. It couldn’t roar like a raging lion.
Using the last of my strength, I propped myself up on my elbows to see Tauren a few yards away, tearing into his cousin the way he’d torn into Franklin.
Blood splattered. Gore flew.
First, a disembodied hand sailed between the trees. Then an arm. A foot. A leg.
Soon, there weren’t even whole pieces. Just chunks of meat. Ripped and shredded. Utterly unidentifiable.
Screams turned to whimpers.
Wimpers turned to shallow gurgles.
A few seconds later, even those turned to silence.
The whole attack was fast. Brutally efficient. Savagely animalistic.
And the moment it was over, Tauren rushed back to my side.
Gently sliding his arms underneath my broken and tattered body, he lifted me up into his arms. I winced in pain as his arms pressed against the wounds in my back, but even though it hurt like hell, I had to admit there was no place I’d rather be.
“You’re hurt,” he said, guilt and pain dripping from every syllable. “I’ll never forgive myself for leaving you alone with him.”
“Tauren.” I smiled, and even though every inch of me was screaming in pain, I found myself reaching out to touch his face. “It’s okay. It was meant to happen. It was fate.”
Even though he was already rushing me back toward the village, he glanced down at my face.
“Your dream, you mean?” he said. “This was like your dream?”
I nodded. “But I survived.”
“How?” he asked.
So many reasons.
Because I listened to my dreams. Because I took my friends’ advice. Because I fought like hell.
But mostly, “Because you came for me.”
“I told you I would,” he said. “I’ll always be there, Hannah. Always. Because you’re mine.”
A weak smile lifted my lips. Limp and broken, it was all I could muster.
“And you are mine,” I replied.
And for the first time, I truly believed it.