Chapter 24
Kade
Smoke chokes the air. And the scent of terror.
Sirens. Screams. Ringing, louder and louder in my sensitive ears.
Running, racing, paws barely touching the pavement, to reach her.
I’m so close when the beast shrieks, full of fury, that the sound vibrates through the soles of my paws. And through the thread urging me onward—the bond—an answering surge of Alanna’s power.
I need to be there. Now.
Putting on a final burst of speed, I dash around a corner, hitting the edge of the plaza at a dead sprint and vaulting a police barricade.
The shift from wolf to man is a fluid, mindless thing, happening in the momentum of the leap.
I land on two feet beside the wreckage of a merchandise stall and don’t slow as I throw on a pair of dark shorts from the debris.
As I burst from cover, the full scope of the disaster hits me.
The plaza looks like the aftermath of an earthquake.
Cracked concrete, the ruins of art displays and overturned vendor stalls, the constant wails of a dozen car alarms. The Wardens are down.
The echo-beast, a corporeal atrocity of obsidian and rage, pulses with enough stolen energy to power the entire city as it tears through the wreckage.
It’s chaos.
Yet I barely see any of it. Because in the center of it all stands Alanna.
She is the last bastion against the encroaching darkness.
Feet wide, hands in front of her with palms facing the monster, she channels her magic into a shimmering dome—a shield that holds back its relentless assault.
Her ponytail has come undone, and strands of auburn hair whip around her face, as though electrified by the torrent of magic she wields.
Behind her, huddled and terrified but safe, are the civilians and downed Wardens.
The echo-beast has grown new weapons, new ways to rend and kill, but I watch, stunned, as the attacks simply glance off her magic.
The look on her face as she stares down the monstrosity, the determined set of her features that declares that this beast has met its match, is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.
She is magnificent. Powerful. Majestic. And I am in awe of her.
Seeing her like this illuminates my bullshit in stark relief. What a fucking fool I’ve been. She doesn’t need my protection from her power; she is the power.
I launch myself forward, a hulking wolf moving swiftly through the mayhem, leaping over obstacles and darting around debris to reach her. I will not let anything stand between us.
Her head snaps toward the movement and her eyes widen, first with shock, then a flood of relief that rushes through the bond. But mingled with the relief, there’s a flicker of hurt, and anger. “Kade?” My name is a choked whisper—a question, a prayer, and an accusation all in one.
But there’s no time for words. The moment I cross the iridescent perimeter of her barrier, a jolt—hot and electric—shoots through me.
It’s the mating bond. Now that I’m not fighting our connection, it flows into me with the full force of its own unique magic.
The commotion around us recedes to a dull rumble.
All I can sense is her. The steady thrum of her power, the iron core of her resolve beneath a surface of fear.
We lock eyes and in that split second, an entire battle plan passes between us. I don’t have to ask what she needs. I already know. My body moves faster than thought, stepping to guard her left flank.
The creature screeches, and a whip-like tendril of hardened darkness slices through the air, aimed at her head.
She doesn’t flinch, her right hand rising to project a focused disc of light that meets the tendril with a sharp crackle.
But I’m not watching the tendril. Through the bond, I know she’s got it covered.
As Alanna blocks, the beast coils for a low charge. I move, hooking my arm around her waist and pulling her back against my chest just as a clawed foot sweeps through the space where she was.
It recovers, lunging again, this time putting its entire enormous weight behind the attack.
I meet it head-on, planting my feet and catching its onyx shoulder, my muscles straining, nearly tearing, against the impossible force.
For an instant, we’re locked in a stalemate, its gaping maw inches from my face.
Then, a pulse of orderly energy flows from Alanna, creating a flicker of dissonant confusion.
The obsidian hulk falters, and I use the opening to shove it back with every ounce of my strength, shouting as I strain.
It stumbles, shaking its monstrous head. Purple eyes seethe as I fall back into a defensive stance beside Alanna, my body aflame with adrenaline and the electric current of the power flowing between us.
It’s seamless. A perfect, unpracticed choreography. She parries high, I defend low. She launches a shield just in time to block a blow that would have taken off my head, I ram my shoulder into it, forcing it to stumble back.
We act as one, a shield of light and a wall of muscle. But as the beast gathers itself for another charge, I have to face the facts.
This isn’t a fight we’re winning. It’s a delaying action, and we’re on the defensive. We can parry and block and hold it back, but it is relentless. It will never tire—and we will. Every move drains her magic and tests my strength. Defense is a slow death. We need to end it.
The wolf paces beneath my skin, howling for violence, for blood. I’ll attack it with overwhelming force, and I’ll shatter that obsidian hide and tear the chaotic heart from it—or die trying. I draw in a breath, muscles bunching as I prepare to let the change take me, to unleash the predator.
“Kade, no!”
Alanna’s voice cuts through my battle rage. I freeze, just as her shield expands out in front of me to absorb another vicious strike. Her face is still blazing with determination, but her eyes are wide with alarm.
“Don’t worry about me, Librarian.” Shit. This might be my last chance to speak with her, if I can’t overpower this thing. My heart gives an agonized squeeze. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry.”
“I—” Another blow from the echo-beast, and her barrier is flickering. Her words are strained as she struggles to hold the defense. “There’s no time for that. Listen, I have another . . . plan. Sort of. But you can’t attack it. You have to trust me.”
Not attacking it goes against every tactical instinct.
But her bone-deep conviction radiates through the bond.
Maybe she’s not entirely sure about her plan, but she is unshakably certain that brute force isn’t going to help.
She’s the one who’s been researching it, whose magic is somehow connected to it. If she’s sure . . .
Plus, I know what will happen if I charge in.
That thing is unbelievably powerful. If I go on the attack—I won’t be making it out alive.
And for the first time in a long time, I want to live.
I need to tell Alanna how I feel, I need to make things right.
Even if she hates me for being a dick, I have to try.
I’ll never get that chance if I die now.
Fuck. Okay. I don’t understand her plan, and I don’t have to like it. But she’s the only person who has been one step ahead of this thing. Gritting my teeth, I nod sharply, knuckles white as I clench my fists.
Across the plaza, Seb and most of his team are back on their feet, pushing through their injuries.
Seeing me hesitate, he acts according to his own Warden training.
He gives a signal, and the Wardens shoot enchanted silvery chains toward the echo-beast, which wrap around its legs in a conventional Warden binding.
The beast doesn’t even notice. With contemptuous ease, it takes a step, and the silver chains disintegrate into a thousand useless shards, which spiral inward and vanish into its obsidian hide as if pulled by a black hole.
A thrashing tendril whips out as an afterthought and slams into Seb, hurtling him away from the battlefield and out of sight.
Conventional strikes are useless. Her way is the only way.
The strange static that accompanies the echo-beast gets louder, its form crackling with stolen energy from Seb’s failed attack. It’s regrouping.
“What’s the plan?” I shout over the din.
Alanna’s brow furrows in concentration as she says, “Time! I need time to weave magic that’s not a shield. I keep getting interrupted!”
Time. The one thing we don’t have. I look at the monster, a physical manifestation of chaos and power, and I know there’s only one way to hold a thing like that in place.
“On it,” I say, with more confidence than I feel.
Then my body contorts, bones and tissue reforming as I shift.
Fur, the color of wet earth, sprouts across my skin as my muscles bunch and swell.
The world sharpens, sounds and smells flooding my senses as I embrace my full Lycan form.
I open myself to the mating bond, drawing on the unbounded strength it offers—our strength.
It’s the only reason I have a chance at pulling this off.
I don’t give the beast a chance to react.
I charge, three hundred pounds of time-buying distraction.
The impact jars my teeth as I tackle its unyielding bulk.
Digging my claws into the asphalt for leverage, I wrestle the monster into struggling submission, but the cost is immediate.
Sinews pop and snap as I fight to hold the thrashing mass in place, until my mate’s iridescent light washes over us both.
All the while, it lacerates my flesh, over and over.
The gashes knit together almost as quickly as it can make them thanks to the bond, but I still feel every single one, every ounce of agony.
I snarl through the pain, bracing myself for a battle of brute strength, a contest of will and endurance.
But then cold shocks through me. An icy, leeching sensation.
At every point of contact, the bitter frost seeps past my hide, like frozen needles drawing out the very essence of the wolf—the feral rage, the wild spirit, my inhuman strength—leaving an impotent feebleness behind.
This thing is draining my magic. Fuck.
At the same time, a poisonous static pours into my mind, creating a disjointed confusion that threatens to overwhelm me. Worse, a gnawing hunger that isn’t mine, growing with each passing second, seeking to devour my sanity. I fight to keep control as the monster’s madness invades.
Then, the echo-beast senses it—the bright thread that connects me to her.
It latches on, ravenously pulling, siphoning, sapping her magic through me.
The bond turns toxic. My mind fractures, the image of Alanna warping.
Suddenly she isn’t my mate; she’s prey. My claws tearing into her soft skin, my jaws clamped around her throat.
The urge to protect her curdles instantly into a salivating need to feast. Mine. To consume.
No!
I roar in my own skull, rejecting the vision. The damn thing is draining me dry and trying to turn me into a weapon against my mate. The field is clear for her, but a new clock is ticking much faster than I anticipated.
I don’t know how long I can hold on.
I roar again, feeling my grip faltering, my strength failing, my sanity wavering. Chaotic energy engulfs my mind, and my own thoughts begin to unravel.
Who . . . Who was I supposed to be attacking?
Through a red haze, I’m standing over her broken body, a predator with blood on his chin.
I’m so, so hungry.
“Kade!” Alanna’s voice screams, a clear note that cuts through the madness.
Her iridescent light intensifies, and the creature’s insidious influence recedes.
My mind snaps back, but the magical depletion forces my body to collapse, leaving me gasping on the pavement, exhaustion weighing down my limbs.
The beast, freed from my grip, turns its fury on my mate as she raises yet another shield. But she staggers under the force of its blows.
“It’s impossible!” she cries out with desperate fatigue that mirrors my own. “There’s too much interference. I need a contained environment!”
A contained environment. It’s . . . not impossible. Even now, faint silver lines run under my fur, along my skin—the trigger runes for the containment ward I prepared.
But that was meant to trap the monster, so I could face it alone. Not to lock her in with it.
My soul splinters with the realization that I can either let it overpower us, and it will tear me apart and then devour her, or I can willingly lock the woman I love in a magical prison with it.
“I can do it,” I send across our bond. I don’t know whether she can hear me or not, but I have to try. “But you’d be trapped inside with it.”
“Do it!” she screams back, not a hint of hesitation in her voice. “Trust me!”
Her eyes hold mine, burning with that same unwavering resolve I felt through the bond. She has a plan.
This is the true test. Every instinct, every fiber of my being screams in protest. Defend her. Do not trap her with the monster.
In a despairing act of faith, I make my choice. I use the last of my strength to throw myself into the air, slamming my paws down on the cracked pavement. The runes flare to life as I pour all of my will into the trigger.
Activate ward!
A ring of brilliant silver light erupts from the ground.
With a sharp crack like shattering glass, energy spikes upward into a huge dome, enclosing Alanna and the furious echo-beast, and locking me and everyone else out.
I collapse again, shifting involuntarily back to human form in a brutal deflation. Wounded and spent, I nonetheless press my hand up against the translucent, impenetrable barrier. I am forced to watch helplessly as my mate takes on this force of nature alone.