Forrest snarled at Devin’s right hand, and I locked his wolf’s markings into my memory. The strong bands of rusty brown curving up around his ears, the only lick of color in his black pelt.
When none retreated, I bowed my head to the suffocating ache taking root at my core. I needed to protect my family. No matter the cost.
“Is this your answer?” Devin asked, a muscle in his cheek twitching over a flash of bared teeth. “Are you refusing me?”
He clearly hadn’t anticipated this, I could see his resolve shaking. His hold on that damnable smugness wavering.
I glanced back at my pack, finding nothing but absolute certainty in the set of each face. Vivian let out a guttural snarl, lowering her head for the charge with her mate at her side.
My lungs filled as I released myself to my wolf. When my eyes opened again, I knew they would be aflame with her unbroken spirit.
“So be it.”
I raced ahead of the pack, getting in only two leaping bounds before my wolf exploded out from within, shattering me apart to stitch me back together as something stronger. Our twin tails whipped around our side as we hit the earth, our eyes locked on target.
I had the satisfaction of seeing Devin’s eyes widen in mortified shock before he shifted, bursting into his wolf form. His deep gray coat rippled with the flex of hard muscle beneath as he shook his canine head with a primal snarl, his hot tongue sliding over his bared teeth.
Five others stepped forward, pushing ahead of their alpha, leading the charge and those psychotic green eyes vanished from view, swallowed up by the crush of canine bodies rushing across the barrens.
“No mercy!” I heard Devin call over the din of hundreds of paws pounding against the earth.
I sensed my own pack at my heels and sent up one last silent prayer to keep them all safe as I let my wolf do her worst. But the eyes of the five Devin sent ahead weren’t fixed on me. They split off. Two to one side and three to the other, distracting me just enough so that another coming with the wave of shifters behind was nearly able to catch me around the throat. I put her down before she even knew what hit her. A strangled cry the last sound that would ever leave her mouth.
More of them swarmed, and I knocked them back, the sound of hounds at war filling my ears until there was nothing else.
Jared! I called through the bond, trying to find the telltale streak of white fur in all the chaos while fending off two more attacks. Raking claws found purchase in my thigh, and I roared, launching up on my hind legs despite the pain to come down on my attacker with no mercy.
A flash of white and I spun, racing out of the melee and back the way I’d come, realizing a moment too late where Devin had sent his best. His strongest. He’d sent them straight for my mates, his prime targets.
Fuck.
No reply came from my mate, and I surged forward, reaching centerfield just in time to buck a shifter off the back of Destiny, letting her up from under its jaws. I met her frantic gaze for an instant, acknowledging her thanks before pressing on.
Help Clay! Came Jared’s frantic call, echoing in my skull, and I shifted paths, letting my mate bond tether guide me to him.
On it.
Clay’s roar of pain stabbed into me like a bullet, piercing straight through the ragged fabric of my soul. Hold on!
A hit from the right sent me sailing off course and I smashed against the ground, a rib cracking from the blow.
Motherfucker.
I shook the daze from the edges of my vision, catching sight of him just in time to roll onto my back and kick the shifter sky high as he raced to mount me for an attack.
He was the one sent sailing then, landing in a cloud of dirt against the hard packed earth with a cry. As he tried to get up, I let the full force of my alpha wolf flood my veins, lifting my head with a pride I hadn’t felt in a long time.
Stay down, I warned, whether he could hear me or not and he buckled under the pressure of my stare, whining as his body bent to my will.
He wouldn’t be getting up any time soon.
Behind me was absolute chaos. A pandemonium of snapping jaws and snarls and howls of misery. Too many lay dead on the field, and I didn’t dare look too closely, terrified of what I might find in the faces of the dead.
This ends now.
I spotted Clay and sprinted back into the fray, my jaws tearing into the scruffy neck of a sandy brown shifter, tearing the fucker off my mate’s back.
I put my back to Clay’s, blocking his blind spot as he blocked mine.
You good?
Fucking peachy.
Do you see him?
Clay’s body tensed for the strike as the shifter came again, injured but not giving up.
No, he hissed in my thoughts, pushing his claws into the throat of the shifter after getting him easily on his back. With his windpipe crushed, the wolf choked, its eyes widening fearfully as it tried for air.
I left Clay’s back to snap the shifter’s neck, unable to watch him die slowly when I could make it quick.
Clay nodded to me, his dark head marred with the reddish tint of still-wet blood.
Haven’t seen him since the charge, Clay said. Fucking coward.
Watch out! I launched forward, colliding with Forrest before he could attack Clay. A hard punch to my throat made me gasp for breath as warm fluid coated my chest.
I lost my sense of gravity, of balance, as I tumbled to the earth, bouncing and skating over dirt and stone, spinning until my vision doubled.
Two Clays fought off four attackers twenty paces away, and I blinked, trying to get my vision to clear as a cry pierced the atmosphere. The sound unmistakable. Layla.
Jaws clamped around my throat, holding me down, or trying to, and away to the east, I saw a dark shadow emerge from the trees. A monster coming to claim his prize.
Fat fucking chance.
I braced myself for the pain as I ripped out of Forrest’s grasp, allowing his canines to tear a deep channel into muscle and sinew. But he wouldn’t kill me. Not with his alpha watching.
It was a gamble. But it seemed it was one I would win as Forrest’s jaws came free, letting me up. Before he could mount another attack, a lightning quick spear of deep gray shot into his side, knocking him away.
Piper.
They kicked up dirt in a flurry of scraping claws and feral snarls, but my attention was fixed elsewhere. On the wolf waiting by the trees. The one letting his pack fight and die so that he could claim a prize he had no right to.
Layla’s cry came again, drawing me back. My wolf ached for vengeance, vibrated with it. She wanted the taste of his blood on her lips. She wanted to look into his eyes while his life left him.
She would have to wait.
We raced back, narrowly tripping over a familiar corpse as we dodged and dipped around wolves locked in battle. Until we found her.
Charity got there first, her attack drawing the heat from Layla.
I went straight for my best friend, nudging her with my snout to force her to get up. Go! I commanded, seeing her injuries. Too many. Far too many. She limped to standing, a pitched keening tumbling from her lips. Go! Get the fuck out of here.
I lifted my head. Seth!
Here.
Take her. Get out!
He barreled ahead, tracking at Layla’s side as they retreated from the fight, taking a direct route to the western tree line. I was too distracted watching their backs that by the time I turned around, it was too late to save her.
Charity had taken care of Layla’s attacker, who lay lifeless beneath her, but another was already on top of her. One with bands of brown curving up around his ears. Charity’s eyes widened as her neck snapped beneath his jaws.
My heart spluttered in my chest, my wolf’s immediate need for revenge at war with the splitting ache in my chest at her loss.
My vision tunneled, fixating on Forrest as he lifted his blood-stained maw from the limp neck of my friend. One second I was standing there, shocked still by th
e sudden loss of Charity’s life, the next I was on top of him. Blacked out with the burning need for retribution. My muscles burned and my chest heaved.
I felt pain. I delivered it.
Until he stopped moving and I blinked, coming back to myself with disgust roiling in my stomach at the sickening lump of flesh and bone that was once Forrest.
The others came back into view incrementally, like a curtain drawing slowly open over a stage to reveal a tragedy unfolding within. But this was no act played by men and women of the theater. This was real. The bodies leaking life’s blood into the earth, the fighting, the pain.
All of it was real.
I caught my breath, my gaze finding Charity’s blank stare and crumpling from within.
My wolf tipped back her head in a howl, pouring her pain and frustration into the world for all to hear.
I caught sight of my mates, back-to-back in a brawl against four others. And Vivian, tearing through the throng like a fucking hurricane.
With a whimper, I shifted back, the cuts that had begun to heal reopening with the reformation of my body. I gasped at the pain, bright spots arcing through my vision like shooting stars.
“Come out, you fucking coward!” I called, scanning the tree line in search of him. “Come on!”
One of the attackers got a hold of Jared’s leg, taking him to the ground, and I charged ahead on human legs, slipping beneath Viv as she vaulted overhead to stop a shifter from reaching me.
Clay went down next, his vivid blue eyes hard as steel as he tried to get back to his feet against the brutal attacks of two shifters.
“Get back!” I hollered, lacing my alpha power into the words. I may not have been their alpha, but my authority knew no equal. It was just enough for them to let up. Enough time for me to shift back and reach them.
Devin, seeing his chance, entered the fold and I sensed his own authority overtaking mine, forcing his packmates to fight until they had no fight left to give.
Make sure he doesn’t get away! I called through the pack bond to anyone that could hear me and help. I needed to take care of the ones attacking my mates, but I’d be damned if I would let him get away again.
With the playing field leveled by my insertion, my guys and I made quick work of the last of Devin’s strongest shifters.
My ears pricked, hearing the sound of retreat.
No.
Not this time, you bastard.
I’d rather die than let him get away.
He could have killed one of my mates. He had killed I didn’t even want to consider how many of my own. Too many. Whether he delivered the killing blows or not.
I’ve got him, Clay bellowed, tearing off at a pace that made him appear almost as a blur in the scorching light of the sunrise.
Devin hightailed it back the way he’d come, but my pack was already there, skidding to a halt to block his path into the trees. He made a swipe at Destiny but missed. She was too fast for him.
I sped toward them, a prickle of unbridled fucking glee skating down my spine as Clay tackled him from behind. Glee and jealousy that the hit wasn’t mine.
The two dark wolves clashed and wrestled, flipping over one another as they fought.
Clay, I heard Jared calling to his brother wolf. This one belongs to Allie.
I grinned, letting Jared lope ahead of me.
Go and help the others, I called to Destiny and Archer where they still blocked any chance of Devin’s escape. We got this.
I darted in, narrowly missing Clay’s ass as I clamped my jaws around the bony length of Devin’s hind leg, dragging him out.
A keening sound filtered into my ears like music as he fought against my hold.
Hold him, Jared said, the order meant for a panting Clay as his prey was tugged out from beneath him.
He did as Jared asked, scuffling with Devin until he was pressing both his face and neck into the dirt while Jared nudged me off Devin’s leg to hold him at the other end.
Devin snarled into the earth, blowing bits of dirt with each hard pant through his nostrils. Fear flashed through his eyes as he struggled and thrashed, trying to break free of my mates’ hold on him.
What are you waiting for?
Wait Allie, don’t—
But I already was. My wolf bowed to my request for dominance, seeing victory and retribution within our grasp. I shifted, grimacing as something internal twanged with injury.
It would heal though. We would all heal.
After this was finished.
I eyed my mates, making sure they had a strong enough hold on him before I stepped forward, kneeling at Devin’s side.
“Look at me,” I said, drawing his attention.
His upper lip curled, froth gathering at the corner of his canine lips as he fought.
“I said look at me, you son of a bitch.”
He did, and I didn’t waste any more time. I inhaled and twisted my entire body into the thrust of my fist, punching through the hollow beneath his ribcage.
He cried out, a wet sound that turned my stomach.
I fought the urge to recoil in disgust, a singular focus driving me forward. Toward the jackhammer of his heart racing deeper within.
As my fingers found its edge, and curled around the delicate membrane, I had the absolute satisfaction of seeing him realize what was about to happen. A plea of mercy humming through his lips.
“No mercy,” I mocked and ripped my fist from his chest, letting the useless organ tumble from my fingertips right before his deadening eyes.
32
My skin itched as Devin’s blood began to dry, crusting on my forearm rapidly in the growing heat of the morning.
“Enough,” I demanded, rising to face the shifters still locked in battle behind us. “I said that’s enough!”
Yips of surprise and frightened yelps rang out all around as claws retracted and bodies moved, separating one pack from another under the threat of my command.
My chest heaved, feeling oddly hollow. Limitless. Like no amount of air could ever properly sustain my need to breathe. But still I tried, panting as I slowly regained control.
Countless sets of wolfish eyes turned to me, waiting. Some afraid, others still amped up and looking to spill more blood. They might just get their wish.
Through familiar and unfamiliar faces, I searched the features of both the living and the dead. Bile burned in my throat, finding Charity across the barrens. And next to her, Luke. And closer, Sara, and Tyler.
All of them dead. And there were more, though I couldn’t see their faces.
I found Layla and Seth re-emerging from the trees and sighed, nearly moved to tears when I found Vivian lying next to an injured, but alive, Destiny.
My jaw clenched as I considered the next move.
Pack law dictated that I was now the alpha of the wolves who fought under Devin’s command, but right now…
Right now I was just as likely to rip every single one of them to pieces than force them to bow to command.
“Allie?” Jared hedged, rising on human legs to stand at my back. “We don’t have to do this now.”
“Yes we do.”
Uneasy wolves shifted on their feet, wistful gazes looking for escape. I fucking dared them to try it.
“Please,” came a soft voice, and I searched the crowd to find her. A girl about my age. With reddish hair and freckles over her nose. Not my pack. His. “Have mercy on us. He commanded we fight. He forced us.”
I shook my head, curling my hands back to fists. “Not all of you,” I corrected her, thinking of Forrest. Of the others who seemed all too keen to shed the blood of my family.
A middle-aged man shifted, casting his dark eyes down to the earth as he took a knee and bowed his head. “It would be an honor to be accepted into your pack.”
My teeth ground with the urge to tell him to go fuck himself. To look at what they’d done! Forced or not.
I didn’t even realize I was shaking until a steadying hand curled around
my shoulder, lending me his support. “Breathe, baby. It’s over.”
I latched on to Clay, squeezing his hand as I fought for a full breath through the damnable flutter in my chest. “Not yet. I won’t put my family in danger again. I won’t let anyone hurt them. We’ve already lost too man…”
I choked on a sob, clearing my throat and forcing my spine erect to stop myself from being overcome.
Be strong, Allie.
The girl who first spoke knelt with the older man, and as we watched, the rest of them followed. Some shifted to kneel on human knees over the blood-soaked soil. Others remained in their wolf forms, putting their bellies to the earth in a show of submission.
My own pack followed, awaiting orders.
One thing was absolutely certain, I would not be letting anyone walk away from this field today. Last time I allowed shifters to leave instead of bow as they were meant to, two of them returned to betray me. If I’d never let Sam or Forrest go, Devin may not have had the intel or the resources to do what he did.
This may never have happened.
I searched the gathering, thinking there may be one possible way that didn’t end in the complete decimation of Devin’s pack.
“Piper!” I called out, worry creasing my brow when I didn’t find her.
“Has anyone seen Piper?”
“Here,” Trey called, and I rushed back across the field, my mates at my sides.
Trey and Todd muscled a large gray wolf off of a smaller, dark coated one.
Piper lay unmoving save for the slight rise and fall of her chest.
“Hey.” I pried back her eyelid, checking for dilation. “Piper?”
“I don’t think she’s fatally injured,” Todd said, the voice of reason in the maelstrom in my head.
Jared snatched me back as Piper came to, nearly taking my damn ear off as her eyes widened in panic and she scrambled to her feet, body trembling.
I held my hands up to her. “Hey, it’s okay.”
“It’s okay...” I repeated a second time, making sure she understood from the movement of my lips.
Shifted Scars: A Wolves of Forest Grove Novel Page 29
