Page 90 of Pack Ruin
Like an answer to my question, Sergeant stood in the front of the battle, fighting the Council Enforcers with a deadly grace and efficiency that was beautiful. Like watching a hawk dive, or a deer leap over a stream, he knew precisely where he needed to be to protect the younger shifters around him, and to hurt his enemy the most effectively.
“Tenebris!” he shouted, as the line of Council Enforcers broke.One or two of them were still firing guns, but it seemed like almost all of the ammunition had been used up, as most of them had reverted to the swords or long knives that every Enforcer wore.
“Tenebris!” the rest of our side shouted, though some of the fighters yelled, “For Southern!”
I heard a howl that came from a human throat, high-pitched and strange, and saw my mama running through the battle—almost skipping, like she was playing, though she was bleeding all down her front. She had a knife in one hand and was stabbing randomly, laughing like a child. She sounded absolutely insane. Every once in a while, she uttered a word that… did something. The earth would rumble, and dust would fly into the air.
It had to be magic.
I scanned the battle, looking for Torran. But he was nowhere to be found. In fact, there were only twenty or so Enforcers leftnow, fighting against Sergeant, Mama, and at least a hundred rogues and Southerners.
“Where did they go?” I wondered aloud. Iris pointed in the direction of the front gate, where we could see taillights appear and vanish as they crested the only slight hill on the drive out of Southern.
The last of the Council Enforcers tried to follow, and the rogues broke off fighting at Sergeant’s command, but the girls weren’t having any of it.
“I want to kill that fucker right there,” Iris said. “I need to.” Her gaze was locked on a shifter who was fighting in human form. Normally, that would make them an easier opponent, but this guy was closer to seven feet than six. He had a shaved head and a sword in both hands, and was holding off five of our fighters.
I took in the way Iris stood, practically vibrating with rage. “Yeah, I can see that. You’ll need a weapon.” I jogged a few steps forward and picked up a discarded sword. “You know how to use one of these?”
“No. I’ve never used any weapons.”
Ah, right.The damn Alpha command was still affecting her. “You shifted yet?”
“Yeah. Sergeant helped me find my wolf last night.” She blinked, and a tiny, evil smile crept over her face.
“I bet she’ll know what to do.”
“Hell yeah.” In less than a minute, she’d stripped out of her clothes, dropped to all fours, and shifted into an underfed golden wolf. Her fur gleamed in the dying firelight.
“Go fuck his shit up, Iris,” I encouraged. “You’ve got this.” She gave a quick bark and ran at the guy.
He never stood a chance. Between Iris and her equally revenge-thirsty friends, Sergeant and his wild boys, and theranked and unranked leftover males from Southern, the combined packs of Southern and Tenebris had it covered.
The hourafter the battle was messy and satisfying. Three of the girls had died, but the ranked Southerners were treating their bodies like war heroes. One of the rogues was close to death, but Mama went over and laid her hand on his cheek, whispering in his ear, and holding his shoulder. He died, but he had a smile on his face when he did.
I didn’t understand it. When I tried to approach Mama, she got a peculiar, heartbroken look on her face, and started mumbling again. Somebody had wrapped a bandage around her middle, but I could see blood already seeping through. She needed to stay calm, so I steered clear.
Sergeant was the center of all the work after the fighting was done. He directed the rogues to move through the bodies and finish off any of the ones who were dying slowly, the girls to collect all the fallen weapons, and the ranked Southerners to stack the Enforcers’ bodies and burn them.
The unranked girls got upset when they couldn’t pick up the swords and guns, though. Sergeant cussed a blue streak when he realized Callaway’s orders were still hurting them. “Tenebris! You five”—he pointed to some of his shifters—“pair up with those girls. They’ll find the weapons, you stack ‘em. Look for any ammunition, too.”
“Yes, Alpha!” they chorused. The ranked shifters seemed unsettled when they heard the word Alpha, but no one asked about it. Everyone was too tired.
Sergeant approached me once the pyre was burning. It smelled awful, but no one left the area. We had to see this through to the end. “Where’s Glen?” he asked, holding out a knife by the blade to me.
Not just a knife. My steak knife. I took it with a nod of thanks, and thought about Glen. “He’s in the cave. I think he’s sleeping. Itfeelslike he’s sleeping, but restlessly. Like he’s having a dream.” A good one, actually. I kept getting flashes of his wolf running with mine, or at least I thought it was. It was small and an almost-reddish black color, running with his large gray one.
“Just like your grandmother,” Sergeant mused as we both stared at the fire. “She always knew what her mate was up to. It’s the way of bonds, for our kind.”
“For…blendedshifters?” I wasn’t certain I should speak about it out loud, even if we were surrounded by our own side. I knew how fast shifters could turn on you. It had happened at Northern quick enough.
“Exactly. The wolf bond is more solid, from what I’ve been told. But theother sidegives a more flexible connection.”
“The kind of connection that would let you talk to your mates through the bond, even from a long way off?”
“Maybe don’t tell anyone about that, hm? That’s not something that happens in wolf bonds. Ever.”
“Ah. Got it.”
