Maddox POV
I stood back as my warriors slowly peeled their clothes off and released their wolves.
"Unless you can develop opposable thumbs in the next thirty seconds and can handle a syringe, this is my fight," I told Shadow.
"I understand," he said. We'd finally come to an understanding. He respected me and I listened to him and now it was all about to bed.
Blake, Lena and Skye were the last to change.
"You take care of each other," I warned them.
"And you take care of you," Blake said as he shifted into his wolf.
"I love you," Skye
sobbed as she let Izzy free. I kept my eyes on her massive white wolf as she took off into the herd rushing over the ridge. Lena was last to leave.
Lena, my best friend for as long as I could remember. No matter how bad things got she was always at my side, always defending me and watching my back. She was the strongest wold I knew.
Maddox POVAlaya stormed towards me her amber eyes locked on Henry's lifeless corpse and his blood-soaked son still standing over him with his fangs bloody and dripping. She didn't care who got in her way, her own warriors or mine, they were all fair game.She tossed their bodies aside as if they were nothing more than ragdolls. They smashed into trees or slammed into the ground their bones snapping and cracking as they landed. The anguished wail tearing from her lungs never waned.Skye tried to slow her down throwing the ground beneath her thick, heavy paws into the air. The earth rumbled and shook. Warriors, ours and Alaya's fell down crevices opening in the ground, their bodies buried by the debris raining from the sky.Willow's coven chanted spells, desperately trying to slow the beast down.I readied the syringe and rushed towards it, jumping over fallen trees and broken bodies. the beast fell to all
Blake POVI dragged myself up from the mud and leaned against a half uprooted tree. Every bone in my body screamed in agony as I scanned the chaos around me. Bodies lay broken and battered. Trees were felled. Dirt and debris still fell from the sky.Skye stood in the middle of it all, howling an agonised howl that burned into my memory like a wretched scar."Maddox! Maddox!"No matter how loud she screamed he offered no reply.I looked over to where I last spotted Lena and my heart crashed to my knees. My stomach twisted into a thick knot. Her tiny, bruised body lay motionless in a crumpled heap against a rock. Blood matted her golden hair."Lena," I croaked still struggling to breathe after the massive blast of energy from Alaya threw me sailing through the skies. "Lena."She rolled to her side, groaning quietly and I deflated.Lena's eyes scanned the same mess mine had seconds earlier, des
Skye's POVWords spewed from the mouths of my friends and my family. My pack, our pack, Maddox's and mine but they made no sense. Maddox was lost. Not gone and yet they insisted on spewing lies at me instead of looking for him. On holding me tight, suffocating me with their grief instead of scouring the lands for him. He wasn't gone. I refused to believe it.We won. Maddox told me we won. Those were the last words he spoke to me before he was lost. Maddox would not lie to me.He promised me if he didn't make it our bond would slowly fade along with the mark he left on my skin but I felt it more than ever. He needed me. He was out there, lost and broken and he needed me."Skye," Blake said holding his hand to me."He's here," I said, "he's right here."I clasped my hand to my heart."Gage has called for transport back to Greystone. We can't stay here."Everything inside me boiled with rage an
Alaya's POV I woke on the soft, mossy mound Henry left me on. The iron tang of blood still rested on my tongue. The horrors of the night came flooding back. The desperate pleas of women and children begging for their lives flooded my mind. It wasn't supposed to be like that. They were supposed to worship me for rescuing them from the moronic leadership of Ralph and his insipid son. The only ones supposed to die were Ralph and Casper and their soldiers. Oh Goddess, the Princess. She was a newborn, only a few days old and innocent. Fat, heavy tears rolled down my cheeks. I wanted power, I wanted revenge for losing Fyre. I wanted people to cower in my shadow. I didn't want terror and massacre. "Hmm," Obsidian murmured as she woke from her slumber. "Last night was the best night of my life," she grinned. "The screams, the terror and the carnage wasn't it just amazing?" "You're insane," I snapped. "You're sick.
Alaya's POVI tossed the empty rabbit trap back to the ground, scowling at it as if my rage would somehow shame it into trapping something edible. Without Fyre hunting was next to impossible but my patient would need sustenance if he ever woke up. A few dozen rabbits waited in the freezer for him, hardly enough to last a large werewolf three days. There was no telling how long it would take him to gain the strength to hunt for himself if he ever awoke.I'd snuck into a local human settlement a few days after finding him and stole some supplies. Patrick left a full pantry when he left but he couldn't live on sugar water forever. His body was already smaller and weaker than when I found him three weeks ago.Since Obsidian finally left me I had trawled Cedar Woods day and night, desperately searching for food. Yet more desperate was my search for survivors or any evidence that my people still lived, that Obsidian had not obliterated my entire pack along with every other pack in our regio
I gazed into the cracked mirror, pursing my lips. It didn't matter that it was cracked right down the middle. There wasn't much to look at anyway. I wasn't ugly just plain. Plain, unnoticed and unwanted. "Runt," the Luna's piercing shriek split the crisp morning air. "Runt," she screeched louder. Runt. I wasn't worthy of a name. I yanked my limp, mousy hair into a messy top knot and dragged my aching body from the floor. The future Alpha turns 18 in three days. The celebration started two days ago and I was the one who had to do all the cooking and cleaning and decorating. I attended to the pack's every need. It's how I earned my keep. I guess I should be grateful. Some rogue and lost wolves are abused or killed by the pack who finds them. I'm ignored when I'm not needed. Unless they want something I don't exist. "RUNT," the Luna barked.
I placed the last pot back into the cupboard, wiped my wet hands on the back of my ripped jeans and leaned against the stainless steel counter. The Omegas had all left to get ready for the feast an hour ago leaving me with a mountain of pots to wash. My back ached, the soles of my feet burned and my hands were cracked and weeping. I straightened myself up, arching my neck to stretch out the stiff muscles. Lower in the pack than even the Omegas my head was permanently bowed. A piercing trill shattered the blissful silence. I heaved myself towards the stove and slammed my hand against the timer. In less than an hour, all the local packs would start arriving for the feast and I was supposed to be waiting to serve them. The walk from the packhouse to the Alpha's cabin was less than a minute on foot but every step was an effort. My bones ached. My joints screamed for mercy. Since the celebrations
Maddox's POV Shadow, my wolf, spotted her first. A tiny, scrawny girl with no curves or femine features, racing towards the Cedar Wood pack house. Her stringy, pale brown hair in a messy pile on top of her head. It was only because of her hair you could tell she was female. She wore mens clothes, at least three sizes too big for her skeletal frame and she had no figure to speak of. She may as well be a teenage boy with a body like that. "Mine," Shadow growled, racing in circles inside my head. His panting grew louder the closer we got to her. "Mine, my mate," he snarled. "Uh uh, buddy," I told him shaking my head. "Not her. No way. You're wrong." She struggled to open the heavy security door as she reached it. Too shy to even look us in the face she stepped aside, pushing the door open with her back. Shadow inhaled, savouring her scent. She smelled of crisp fresh linen on a warm summers night. She sme