Chapter Nineteen
Joanna
Marcus kept glancing over the rogues’ shoulders. When his naked body tensed after I released my second arrow, I thought he was preparing to pounce. But once I took the time to study the cool air blowing from the East, it became clear: More werewolves were on the way—and fast.
“I don’t want to fight you, Silas,” Marcus declared, voice booming over the wolves. “I owe you for saving Joanna. So go home. Let’s end this peacefully.”
Silas shook his head, combing a hand through his hair as if disappointed. “I can’t possibly accept your offer.” He leered at me. “Because I didn’t save her for you.”
Malik cleared his throat, causing all of us to face him. “Have y’all ever seen Lord of the Rings?” he asked with a smile.
They looked at him as if he were insane. Even Marcus growled in annoyance.
But Malik’s smile only widened as he glanced around the derelict buildings before his eyes found mine. “This place reminds me of Mordor.”
It happened in a flash.
I pulled Greg’s knife from its sheath and ran toward Silas as Malik did the same, our blades aimed at opposite sides of Silas’s head with one goal: to kill the leader and hope the rest of them fell.
Latoya lunged and shoved Silas out of the way. My arm locked, freezing in midair. Malik hesitated for only a millisecond before allowing his swing to follow through.
I watched, mouth agape, as fear hit the slow-motion button in my brain. But the hesitation was enough time for a rogue to knock Malik on his ass. I sighed with relief while simultaneously feeling horrible.
Malik jumped to his feet as the rogue shifted—as they all shifted.
The long-haired alpha lunged for Maya, while Jerome had his sights set on Lamar.
Marcus shoved my sister out of his way, charging for Silas. I’d stepped back, but pain shot up from the stab wound in my leg, and I lost my footing. Latoya and I fell to the ground, my knife clattering to the pavement.
Latoya’s eyes landed on the knife the same time mine did. She darted for it, trying to swat it away without touching its blade, but my hand closed around its handle.
I scurried backwards, scrambling to my feet and holding the knife so it pointed down at her.
“What’s your plan here, sis?” Latoya teased. “You’ve already proven you can’t kill me.”
I blinked slowly—angry, yet full of hurt. “What should I do, Latoya?”
She rose from the ground with grace, blood weeping from her arm. She flipped her locs from her face with a flick of her head. “Come home with me, Joey,” she insisted.
Marcus and Silas were rolling around on the ground, their gigantic wolves trying to tear through each other’s throats.
I turned back to my sister, sheathing the knife on my thigh. “Ask me again after I kill your alpha.” I bolted for Latoya, arms outstretched to tackle her. Her arms enveloped me in a bear hug as we fell to the ground. She hissed as her arms wrapped around the silver of my new quiver’s strap.
I pushed up from her and punched her in the face, her head whipping to the side, cheek slamming against the cement. Then I raised another fist and punched again, blood spraying from her mouth. And when I raised my arm for a third time, I was thrown off my sister as the human below me vanished.
It was my first time seeing Latoya’s wolf, and she was breathtaking. Her orange eyes gleamed against her soft brown fur. A single lock of coiled hair hung behind her ear.
“Joey!”
I scanned the battle to answer Malik’s call, and my gaze passed over Grace as she and another wolf from the Blackwood Pack fought with the alpha female.
As pitiful as she’d looked in her human form, the luna’s wolf was a formidable creature. She towered over Grace and fought with a strength disguised as fanatic rage, but every snap of her jaw and swipe of her claws were calculated.
Malik ran up to me, blood dripping from his swords. He shoved a gun into my hands. “Fix it.”
I balked at him. “I can’t.”
“You can,” he stressed in a hurried voice. “You have one minute.” He looked at Latoya. “Is that who I think it is?”
I nodded. Realizing he couldn’t see me, I begged, “Please don’t—”
“Stop worrying about your fucking sister and start worrying about yourself.” He ran to Latoya, blades drawn as my blood ran cold.
I looked down at the gun but couldn’t focus. Each snarl from my sister, every grunt from Malik, made me flinch. Malik had trained to be a hunter before Latoya became a werewolf, and I knew he’d have no problem killing her.
“Joey!” he shouted.
Shit.
I took a deep breath, steadying myself, but a rogue changed his course to dive for me. I clenched my teeth as I put my weight on my injured leg for a spinning hook kick, throwing Greg’s knife as the wolf tried to recover from the blow.
The knife met its mark—right in the rogue’s neck. But he kept moving as blood squirted out of the wound.
“Any day now!”
Damn it, Malik. I held the gun with both of my hands, pleading for its cooperation, begging for it to listen to my words. Then, without knowing if the spell had worked, I aimed the gun at the rogue stumbling toward me and fired.
The wolf dropped to the ground, dead.
“That’s what I’m talking about!” Malik cheered, then smiled at my sister. “I gotta go.” He swung his swords as if he were made of water, spinning them and rotating his feet with speed and precision.
He successfully compelled Latoya to inch back, out of harm’s way. But when she least expected it, he struck and sliced through her legs.
My sister yowled in pain as she dropped to the ground.
Malik hurried to me, snatching the gun from my hand. “She’s fine, Joey. Come on,” he growled, pulling at my arm.
I allowed him to lead me a few feet away, to where Marcus’s Hummer was parked by the lamppost.
“Do you need help?” he asked, glancing down at my leg.
For all my complaining about the man, there was no denying the fact that Malik and I worked well together. From the moment he shoved the gun in my hand, I knew what he intended to do… Because the rest of the rogues had arrived. I shook my head and began climbing onto the hood of the vehicle.
Malik charged ahead with the gun in his hand, firing at the rogues before they got any closer.
I pulled the arrows from my quiver and shot one after another, using my magic to do the most damage—tearing through hearts and lungs.
Wolves of the Blackwood Pack dashed forward, crashing into the rogues and adding claws and fangs to the onslaught of bullets and arrows.
“Shit,” Malik muttered. “I can’t tell the dogs apart, Joey!”
As I spun around looking for Marcus, a wave of vertigo struck me. I used my bow as a cane to stop my fall.
Marcus and Silas were feral. Blood coated their fur from their muzzles to their paws. Silas threw Marcus into a building, slabs of brick collapsing on top of him.
“Go help Marcus!” I shouted at Malik.
I jerked my head from side to side trying to clear the fog behind my eyes, but that only made it worse. I squeezed my eyes shut and colors danced behind my lids.
I’d never used my magic to this extent before, and now I was paying for—
My sister howled, the panic lacing her call making the blood drain from my face.
My eyes shot open and I lifted my head in time to see Brody’s mate looming down at her. The frightening alpha female was there to help Latoya, who clearly couldn’t stand on her own…
No… The luna was snarling. And flexing her fingers, each claw already stained with blood.
She was going to kill my sister.
Malik appeared out of nowhere, jumping and swinging one of his swords at the luna’s head.
She spun, catching the blade with her huge paw and yanking it out of his hand.
I tried to stand and fell, the stab wound sending jagged pain through me.
Malik pulled his second sword from off his back and swung again, catching the luna in the side. He ducked as she swiped at his head, howling in fury.
I forced myself to my feet, pulling my last arrow from my quiver. I sighed in relief as Malik drove his sword into the luna’s stomach—but relief swiftly burned into fear as the werewolf pushed herself forward onto the knife, mouth open wide, ready to bite off Malik’s head.
I don’t know where I found the strength. Maybe seeing someone I no longer completely hated in danger evoked it. Maybe it surfaced from an aura reserve, like a generator when the power goes out. But I nocked the arrow, said a small prayer, and shot.
The arrow pierced through the luna’s eye until the silver point caught the sun on the other side of her head.
Everything became blurry. My eyelids fluttered. All I wanted to do was rest. I needed sleep. So, I laid down—although I was still standing.
Time slowed, but the wind whistled in my ear as I descended.
I crashed into a pair of muscular arms. They were warm, but sticky and wet.
“Fuck.” It was Marcus. His voice was dripping with anxiety, but the way it rumbled in his chest made me want to curl up into a ball and sleep forever. “Joanna, tell me you were just masking your power,” he pleaded.
I forced my eyes to open as he sat me down on the ground, propping my back up against his SUV.
He stared at me with narrowed eyes. His chest heaved in a state of panic. He glanced over his shoulder, where a group of rogues were prowling toward us. “Shit,” he uttered. He kissed the top of my forehead before he shifted, his wolf running to challenge the threat.
He tore through the throat of one, but another slashed in his side, eliciting a pained yelp from his maw. A third tried to bite down on his head, but he missed.
My power was sputtering like a dying battery, but I still felt Silas’s viciously. He wasn’t dead. Did Marcus stop fighting him to catch me—
“Silas!” That was my sister’s voice. “Silas, please.”
I realized why Silas’s power was like a blanket of cobwebs on my skin: The wolf was heading straight for me. I pushed myself further into the steel behind my back.
“Silas, what are you doing? The full moon—” Toya attempted to push herself onto her forearms, but they hadn’t healed yet. “We have to wait. It’s too dangerous!”
Silas ignored my sister, shifting into his human form. He stood before me naked, his large frame blocking the sun. Almost every inch of his skin below the neck was covered in scars.
He yanked me to my feet by my arm and scanned my face, wiping blood off my cheek. “Your sister survived it. It’d surprise me if you don’t.”
My head was like lead, but I shook it hard. “I…don’t want—”
“I don’t care what you want.” Silas’s voice had deepened, his eyes now dark.
“Because of you I might have to rebuild my family from the fucking ground up.” He pulled me into his chest, his lips inches from my face.
“Why not start with a human as strong as you, hmm? Then, everyone will see that I’m not the villain here.
Humans have an opportunity to be better with the new order. ”
“You… killed the alpha… who turned Toya against her will,” I stammered through labored breaths. “If you do this…what makes you better—?”
“He was an idiot,” Silas snapped. He turned and studied my sister as she crawled desperately toward us, dragging against the hard ground.
“He thought with his dick, offering the Bite to any woman with a pretty face.” When he turned his head back to me, his gaze was a million miles away. “He got lucky with her,” he muttered.
Joanna! Was that Marcus?
Silas’s green eyes were still vacant when his canines lengthened from his gums.
“No.” I tried to push him away, my chest tightening with fear. He was too strong. “Please, Silas.”
He heard his name, and his fanatic stare snapped to my face, cutting through me like a blade. My breaths quickened, leaving me gasping for air. My body trembled when his hands tightened around my arms, and he drew me in closer.
“Don’t,” I pleaded. “I don’t want this. I don’t want this!” I squeezed my eyes shut. “Please!”
But he’d already opened his mouth and begun to lower his head.