by Jade Royal
“Now stay down,” Craig growled as he punched Niles in the face.
“Lets go!” he ordered the rest of the pack. Niles could do nothing but watch from the ground as Dell’s pack charged into the open metal door and into the caves that was supposed to be the protective home of the she-wolves.
“Hush!” Kyra snapped to the chatting she-wolves. No one had been paying attention, but Kyra’s hearing picked up on fast moving footsteps coming into the cave. When she looked, Niles was no longer standing amongst them.
“What?” Zander asked. But he got his answer soon enough. Dell’s pack entered the cave; menacing looks on their faces. Their claws were drawn, already coated with blood. Kyra stepped in front of Bliss and Rita.
You two need to run. Now, Kyra ordered them.
We all need to run! Rita exclaimed.
I’m not the pregnant one. We have to protect the pups. Someone needs to fight. So run! Kyra didn’t have to tell them again. Holding each other’s hands, Rita and Bliss took off through the tunnels away from the sure fight.
The moment Rita and Bliss took off, Dell’s wolves ran forward on the attack. Zander, Kyra, Selena, and Mira charged forward as well, meeting the pack claw for claw. In that moment, everything Jaxson had taught her was very much real. It wasn’t training, and it wasn’t just playing around. Dell’s wolves didn’t look to be interested in anything but killing. Deflecting blows and using counterweight to get one over on the wolves was what she was consumed with. But she heard the thud of Selena being thrown across the cave and smacking into the wall. Then Mira was slashed across the face with claws and she went down, falling limply. The two wolves who’d bested Mira and Selena ran through the tunnels in the direction Bliss, and Rita had run off to. It was three of Dell’s wolves against Kyra and Zander.
Kyra looked at Zander who was sweating profusely as he fought off the two wolves. But he was going down. Kyra herself could barely keep up with the wolf she was fighting. He was battling her down to the ground, grabbing onto her shoulder with his wolf teeth and bringing her down. Pain thumped through her body as he shook his head trying to rip her shoulder apart.
A wolf can only do to you what Maverick did if you let them, Kyra. I’m going to teach you that you don’t have to let a man touch you any way they want to.
Those strong words Jaxson had spoken to her at the start of her training played over and over in her head. Yes, she was scarred emotionally because of Maverick’s attack. But Jaxson had given her tools to overcome that scarring. With his confidence, she knew that she could take on any wolf she wanted to. The look he always gave her made her feel empowered. That's the look she was seeing in her mind. The last thing she wanted to do was let him down after all his hard work. Plus, her pack needed her.
Letting out a fierce growl, Kyra contorted her body; shifting quickly. Her fast shift took her attacker off guard. He unlatched from her shoulder. Kyra slipped from under him and pounced onto his pack. She shifted midair again, returning to human form. Now on top of his back, Kyra used the strength of her animal and twisted his neck. He fell limply to the ground. Just to make sure he was completely dead, Kyra tore his head from his body completely.
Another thud sounded. Zander was down. His face was coated with blood, and his chest and stomach were jagged with claw marks. Kyra leaped onto one of the wolves attacking Zander. He turned and caught her in a bear hug. Despite him squeezing the air out of her lungs; Kyra gritted her teeth and clawed at his face. She went directly for his eyes; not stopping until one of them popped from the socket and rolled to the floor. He screamed in pain and dropped her from the bear hug. Kyra kicked him at the temple making him fall flat on his back.
Knowing she had to use all her strength, she jumped high into the air and stomped with both feet on his throat. Bones cracked, and his trachea crushed under her feet. His body stilled under her, but Kyra still heard his heartbeat. Bending over, she drew her claws along his throat and down his chest. She forced her sharp weapons into his chest cavity until she felt them pierce his heart. She squeezed; puncturing his major organ and twisting it around in his chest until it stopped beating.
“Bitch!” Kyra was yanked back by her hair from the wolf who was too busy trying to kill Zander to realize that his packmates were dead. At first, Kyra used to panic at her hair being pulled. But she channeled Jaxson’s energy and stayed calmed. Inhaling, she kept her composure as he yanked her around trying to break her neck by whisking her around by her hair. Kyra placed her hands on top of his hands to steady her head and kicked back, knocking him straight in the nuts. She twisted his wrist and yanked his fingers from her hair before she could turn around.
She kept his wrist in her hand and twisted it along with his arm. She jumped in the air as human but when she landed; she was a wolf; falling on top of his back. She reared back and with her teeth bit down across his neck; closing her jaws and shaking her head to intensify the bite until his head rolled away from his body. Satisfied, Kyra shifted back to her human form. At the moment she didn’t care about helping Selena, Zander or Mira. What she did know was that two of Dell’s wolves had run after her pregnant sister wolves. She knew she was well and capable enough to kill them just like she’d done to the rest of the pack. As she went through the tunnels walking with purpose, she grabbed a t-shirt from the stack of spare clothes at the mouth of the tunnels before she was running fiercely to rescue her sisters.
Bliss gritted her teeth in pain as her pup began kicking her again. He was probably sensing her anxiety, and he too became anxious. Bliss clung onto Rita’s hand as they ran through the tunnels. Bliss didn’t want to leave Kyra to face a pack by herself but protecting the pups was the ultimate goal.
“Are you alright?” Rita asked her as they hurried through the tunnels to get back around the cave so they could exit.
“Pup is kicking, but I’m fine. You?”
“I’m good. Jayce and Kellan should feel something is wrong. They’ll be back soon enough we’ve gotta tough it out long enough.” They continued running and exited the tunnels in front of the cave.
“I don’t know if our pregnancy hormones can be masked, but we can try,” Rita said going to the waterfall and sticking herself under it. Bliss did the same, making sure she was soaked before she followed Rita away from the cave. They ran through the woods; attempting to be as silent as possible.
Huffing and puffing, the two wolves dodged into a large bush to hide. Rita quickly caked dirt all over her body to continue to mask her scent. Bliss followed along.
“Someone’s coming,” Rita whispered. They held onto each other and just hoped they wouldn’t be discovered.
“Come out, come out wherever you are!”
Kyra heard the teasing voice of Dell’s wolves. She didn’t know if they were aware she was right behind them, but she didn’t care. She had no plan of attack or anything. She was just going for it and making sure she struck first. Running hard but light on her feet; she rushed up behind one of the wolves. She did a baseball slide with her claws out, slashing at his Achilles heel. He went down immediately, shouting in pain. With that wolf down, for the time being, she hopped up quickly and went after the second wolf. He was bending over a bush and rifling through it. Rita’s scream pierced the night. A renewed energy whooshed through Kyra seeing Rita be yanked by her hair out of the bush. He drew his claws and aimed it for her stomach. Kyra howled and thrust herself forward with speed she didn’t think she had to reach Rita in time before the wolf attacked her.
***
Kellan was leading the charge through the woods to get back to their mates. They’d left Hera, Bryce, and Dell chained up in the basement of the lounge before they’d taken back to the woods to hurry to their mates. Kellan didn’t know what was going on, but he felt Bliss’s fear like nothing else he’d ever felt before. She was frightful. Not only was he feeling Bliss’s stress; he felt the pain of each member of the pack. Everyone was hurt, and it killed him that he wasn’t there to protect them like he was
supposed to be. But they ran hard in human form; the trees a blur as they ran. Gemma was clutching onto Tristan’s back, unable to keep up with them, so Tristan resorted to carrying her.
The sound of Rita’s scream echoed through the woods. Jayce pulled up short, stopping so he could identify where her scream was coming from.
“Not my fucking mate,” he growled as he ran in the direction of her scream. They reached a small clearing where Kellan could see Bliss hiding in a bush, and Rita scooting back on her ass as Kyra was fighting viciously with Dell’s wolf. Jaxson forced himself not to rush to help Kyra as she fought. He stopped and looked at her. She was fighting just as he’d taught her, and her agility was amazing. She didn’t need anyone to help her. She was doing fine on her own, and that’s why all the male wolves were standing there in awe watching her fight.
Jayce rushed to Rita and scooped her up in his arms and took Bliss’s hand to lead her away from the fight. Bringing them over to where the other wolves stood, Gemma hopped off Tristan’s back and huddled with the she-wolves watching Kyra fight.
“Help her!” Bliss exclaimed. Kellan didn’t think Kyra needed help. If she did, he would have intervened immediately. But she shifted midair and landed on top of the man’s chest. Her speedy shift was too quick for the wolf to process, so he was stuck in his human form with a wolf on his chest. She held his throat with her strong paws and locked her mouth around his face, tearing at his head until his body went still, and his face was nothing but a mangled mess.
Satisfied that he was dead, Kyra shifted back to her human form. She looked at her pack, her eyes going directly to Jaxson. She smiled at him, his look of awe making her blush.
“Nice of yall to-” The sound of a gun cut off her next words. Jaxson watched as purple smoke rose from her back and through her chest. She gave Jaxson a horrified look before crumbling to the ground. Jaxson rushed towards her, catching her before she fell. Kellan charged the direction of the sound of the bullet. He caught another one of Dell’s wolves with the weapon. Kellan dove his claws through the chest of the wolf, killing him without a second thought. But even so, it was too late. Kyra had already been shot.
SELENA! Kellan blared into her mind. But he felt residual pain from their link. She was probably still hurt herself. Kellan rushed back to Jaxson who was holding Kyra in his arms. Kellan touched her and tried to feed her some of his healing energy through his alpha bond with her. But it wasn’t enough. He could steadily feel her essence dimming.
“I’ll get a fire going,” Tristan stated.
“Fuck a fire,” Jaxson growled. He stood with Kyra in his arms and took off towards the cave. Everyone followed him as he made the mad dash.
“Don’t you dare die on me Kyra,” he whispered in her ear. Jaxson hurried through the cave and into the main area. He found Mira sitting on the floor just outside the dining area, holding her face. Jaxson dropped Kyra in front of Mira.
“You need to save her,” Jaxson told her.
“Right now. She’s fucking dying. Save her.” Mira looked into his honey colored eyes and couldn’t help but get stuck. This gorgeous man who was supposed to be falling for her was begging her to save the life of another woman. Mira didn’t want to do it. She wanted Kyra dead. Maybe then she’d have no competition. Jaxson could be hers.
“MIRA!” Jaxson shouted, shaking her.
“Do something!” But Mira did nothing. She looked down at Kyra, dumbfounded.
Selena scrambled over to Kyra’s motionless body. She pushed Mira out of the way and put a glowing hand on Kyra’s forehead to start healing her. With her other hand; she flipped out her claws and seared through Kyra’s chest. Opening Kyra up, Selena pushed her hand into Kyra’s chest and came out with the slowly dissolving wolfsbane bullet. Selena tossed it to the ground not even wanting to hold it. Now that it was out of her chest; Kyra would have been able to start healing herself with Selena’s guidance. Selena focused her power into healing Kyra. Jaxson breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Kyra’s chest knitting back together and closing up. When she was healed, however, her eyes remained closed.
“I led her to a healing sleep,” Selena informed him.
“After all the fighting she did; that’s the fastest way to restore herself completely.” Jaxson nodded and ran his fingers through her pillow soft curls. He looked at Mira and growled at her; angry she hadn’t helped not one bit.
“What’s your problem?” Selena asked Mira. “I thought you were a healer.”
“I have some abilities,” Mira replied.
“So then what the fuck happened?” Selena didn’t even want to hear her answer. She just waved Mira off and looked back at Kyra.
“Let’s get her to her room,” Selena said. Jaxson wasted no time scooping Kyra up gently. Mira watched how he handled her. It was almost as if she lost the war with Kyra and Jaxson was hers, but little did they know that Mira wasn’t done fighting yet. She wanted Jaxson: and she was going to have him.
Chapter Four
Dell winced as he felt every one of his wolves die. Here he was, chained to the basement in front of desecrated human bodies; their stench sickening his sensitive sense of smell. Dell thought that his wolves would have killed every single one of the Phoenix pack she-wolves; including the pregnant mates. But instead, Dell felt himself weakening at the loss of his pack. An alpha was always strong, but having pack members and a mate continued to make an alpha strong. Now; Dell was weakened to a point where he didn’t even feel his alpha vibes anymore.
“ I wanna know what the fuck you two were thinking in betraying the plan we had?” Bryce gritted; his words laced with pain.
“I had to do what I could to ensure I survived. If not Kellan would have killed me on the spot,” Dell said.
“Same here,” Hera replied.
“While you were down here getting your fucking kicks off, we were facing hard decisions.”
“Whatever,” Bryce snapped.
“Doesn’t even matter. Look at where we at now.” The three of them fell silent for a moment. But they were all thinking the same thing. If something didn’t happen, then they were all gonna be fucked. In spite of their plans; they had still fallen. To think the pack wasn’t done with them yet. Dell didn’t know what to make of his future. He had no pack. He was an omega. Omegas never survived.
***
Kellan looked around the home of his pack. The bodies of Dell’s pack were ravaged as they lay in a mangled mess around the cave. Honestly, Kellan was in shock. He thought he was going to come here and find that it was his pack that was killed, but it was the exact opposite. Kellan looked towards his pack. Tristan had taken Gemma to their room to get her cleaned up and continue consoling her after her tough experience. Jaxson had just come out from Kyra’s room where he put her to lay down to finish her healing sleep.
“What happened?” Kellan asked no one in particular.
“First we were just sitting around waiting for you guys to return. I went to confront my pack. They attacked me and came in the cave,” Niles spoke up.
“Kyra immediately told me and Bliss to run and then the fight started,” Rita added.
“She was incredible,” Zander said next.
“We put up a good fight but at one point, me, Mira, and Selena we went down.” Kellan’s eyes widened.
“You mean to tell me Kyra killed all the wolves? All five of them?” Everyone nodded.
“When we all went down, she powered through. It was like she was invincible or something. I thought I was going to die, but then she pulled the wolf off me and fucked his ass up. I just…I’ve never seen a she-wolf that lethal before.”
“She’s not just an ordinary she-wolf,” Jaxson spoke up.
“When it comes to training; she’ll take the beating of a lifetime and still walk out of the room,” Zander exclaimed.
“I’ll be keeled over on my ass trying to get my sense back, and she’s just prancing away.” Jaxson couldn’t help but smile. Kyra always pranced out of training
no matter how hurt she was.
“She saved us all,” Bliss said, rubbing her stomach. Kellan understood that she was talking about their pup as well. Jayce held Rita close.
“I don’t even think a thank you is good enough for what happened. To think she nearly died on us after all the heroics she did,” Jayce said.
“No, a thank you isn’t enough,” Kellan agreed. Who would have thought that the bright-eyed wolf who was charismatic and made friends with everyone would become this downright lethal wolf, learning to fight the way she did. She was more than valuable.
Mira rolled her eyes and blew air out of her mouth. All they were talking about was Kyra, this and Kyra that. So what, she killed a couple people. Okay so fine, she was a real good fighter, and Mira couldn’t ever compete with her. In fact, Mira thought Kyra was an amazing wolf. She was funny and down to earth and held good conversation. The only thing that was wrong was the fact that Kyra wanted Jaxson. Of all the wolves she could have, why did she have to want the wolf that Mira did? Why did Mira have to find ways to get Jaxson to keep to herself?
“So, what happened with Dell?” Mira asked, readily changing the subject. Kellan simply shrugged.
“Chained up in the basement of the lounge where Gemma was being kept,” he replied nonchalantly. Both Mira and Niles looked at each other. They knew Dell would end up on the bad side of things.
“It was Dell’s pack that attacked both Tristan and Gemma,” Niles spoke up.
“They didn’t do it on their own,” Kellan said.
“They were ordered to do it. Just like I’m guessing they were ordered to attack here.”
“What the hell has been going on?” Bliss asked. Kellan turned and looked at his mate. He took both her hands and pulled her in front of him. Her belly had grown immensely as the birth of their pup was nearing.
