Page 81 of Pack Rage
I did my best to keep up, tapping into what felt like a well of my own mad power, the pooled strength all the bonds funneled into me. The bonds and some odd, red-hazed energy that I was almost certain was coming from Flor.
I didn’t grow tired as quickly as I should’ve, though I was breathing heavily after only a few more minutes. But the sheer number of bodies that stacked up around us made it harder after a while to defend the women and girls who circled my father’s body. More than one guard made his way through the fallen, trying their luck behind us.
Trying it, and failing. The girls may have looked helpless, crouching low on the ground, but as soon as one of the males turned their backs on them, they swarmed, driving him to his knees, then to his face, in the dirt, dying under their weight and the dozens of wounds they made all at once with their small knives. One or two of them had somehow transformed their jaws into wolf muzzles, and were… I swallowed, not wanting to seewhat they were doing when they tore into the exposed abdomens of the males. These males deserved it, and the females deserved their chance to taste victory, literally.
I thought wemighthave a chance until a cry of triumph came from the Russians, and a shocking spear of agony ran through my heart, the center point where all the other bonds lay. It was the same agony I’d known at Southern, when I’d thought I was dying, but somehow even worse. Like I was being eaten alive.
We all felt it. Flor, Finn, and Luke screamed out loud, and Grigor’s rage-filled cry filled my mind.
But Brand was silent, sending only a flood of pain, until the bond went numb.
The Enforcer I’d been defeating when the shock hit noticed my second of distraction, and like the well-trained warrior that he was, took the opportunity to launch a flurry of blows. He knocked me back, and my own blade fell to the dirt. He rose up over me in a flash, his sword dull in the oddly muted moonlight.
The strength that had filled me from Flor and the others, the righteous anger and need to defend my father, my mate, my friends, evaporated. I lifted my head, hearing my mother’s scream, knowing it was for me. I had to move, had to rise and defend myself. I couldn’t let her see both her mate and her son die on the same night. But I didn’t know how I could stop it from happening.
Of course, Mom did.
She met the blow, her entire body interposed between me and my death, twisting in the air as she flung herself to intercept the blade, though she didn’t have time to lift her own stolen swords to meet it.Her face turned, her blue eyes meeting mine for a split second as she sailed through the air, before the sword pierced her through.
“Mom!” I screamed for her, but it was too late.
Chapter 39
You Have to Die
FLOR
The moon was still sickly, the ring filled with screams of pain and fear, and the scent of sweat, blood, and silver.
I wasn’t winning the fight with Elina, but I wasn’t losing either, when everything changed. I was bleeding from a good number of cuts and nicks, most of them closing up as fast as my wolf could heal me, but some of them stinging like silver, slicking my limbs with blood. I’d blocked out everything but the fight, until invisible teeth tore at my shoulder, at the same place where Brand’s mating bite lay.
It was agony like nothing I’d ever known, and I cried out for my mate as I fell. I reached for him down the bond, but he slammed it shut faster than I could dive into his soul and send—well, I wasn’t sure if I could send healing power, or anything. I didn’t know how to do all that fancy bond magic stuff he and Grigor seemed to think was easy as pie.
But I sure as fuck was going to try. I battered at the wall between us, howling for him, my eyes searching for him, and not finding, because he’d fallen.
And then Glen cried out for his mother… and a wave of terror washed over me as I saw her, Margarette, just for an instant, through Glen’s eyes.Saw her fling herself between him and a killing blow, saw her take the blade through her own abdomen, and felt his shock and pain.
My knife fell to the ground, and the now-familiarbehrserkerhaze dropped over my eyes, my wolf foam-lipped, my mind welcoming the madness. If I was going to save my mates, I needed to embrace that side of me that was wild, feral.
Time seemed to stop, as it had before. But this time, I wasn’t alone in the frozen moment. Elina was there with me, her arms already around me: one hand holding my hair, and the other wrapped around my neck, pulling my head back. Her small silver blade pricked the base of my throat as the haze subsided, leaving me dizzy, my head pounding, like I’d hyperventilated.
“So much rage. I can feel it swirling in you like a hurricane. I almost don’t want to do this,” she muttered, her breath warm on my ear tag, the blade just nicking the soft skin where my pulse throbbed. She inhaled like she’d sprayed her favorite perfume, humming at the aroma of my blood in the cold air. “You’re such a rare thing, Florida Witch Wills. I’m tempted to keep you alive. The pups you could bring into this world, the spells their deaths alone could power!”
“You’d killbabies?” I choked out the words, trying not to accidentally slit my own throat on the blade. But if it meant saving myself from a lifetime of giving her babies to torture, I’d knew I’d do it.
“I’ve done worse.” She leaned down and licked my temple, tasting my blood and humming like she’d just had her favorite flavor of ice cream. Bile rose in my throat. “And I will again, when I have your death inside me. You’re so powerful, little fool. Such a waste.”
“You won’t win,” I promised.
“You’re still hoping for a miracle? You’ve lost. You’ve all lost.” She sounded truly confused, her hand tightening around my hair.
I didn’t blame her. I had no weapons left but hope. Hope, and…Grigor. Grigor, help. Help us.
I might have imagined it, but I heard a soft, breathless reply.I’m coming.
I closed my eyes, and on the back of my eyelids, glimpsed a shadow wolf almost flying, its four dark feet a blur.If you’re gonna get here for the party, you’d better hurry. I’m afraid they’re about to turn the lights off and lock the doors.I waited a second, then thought,I want you to know, I love you, Grigor Dimitrivich. Even if you killed half the shifters in the whole world, I’d still love you. Does that make me evil?
No, beloved. It makes you perfect. Hold on…
