Evan’s howl came a moment after, his warning seconds before a horde of wolves shot from the trees. Zackary acted on instinct, his teeth biting flesh, blood filling his mouth, hot and metallic, and as Zackary and his friends battled to protect their home, he knew he was fighting what he’d become if he lost control of his wolf for good.
They were his worst nightmare brought to life. Inhuman, barbaric, creatures lost in the throes of bloodlust. They attacked with never-ending hunger, claws, and teeth, snarls and growls, again and again until he and his friends could no longer hold the line. The beasts plowed through into their home, straight for the building which housed his sister.
Disorder followed screams and children’s wails. Zackary fought with all he had, taking down anyone in his path as those in the unfinished schoolhouse scattered. Catching sight of Eva and Mathew, Zackary followed in pursuit.
“Zac!”
Cooper's yell altered Zackary’s path, and he barreled forward toward his friend being stalked by two wolves. Cooper shifted as the wolves leaped, and Zackary reached them at the same time. They tumbled a mass of fur and claws, each snarling and slashing until they all clambered back to their feet.
The fight was nothing civil—blood splattered, organs spilled from bodies—and by the time Zackary walked away with Cooper, Eva was nothing but a scent on the wind.
Forcing his body to shift, Zackary gritted his teeth as his wolf grappled to regain control.
“Thanks, dude. Jesus, those bastards are scary fuckers,” Copper muttered, slapping him on the back.
Screams broke the quiet.
“My sister,” Zackary gasped.
Hurtling through the trees, the moon their only light, Zackary followed instincts he barely understood as he raced toward River Run. Cooper followed at his heels, and as Eva’s screams rang into the night, his wolf ripped through his skin, fur coating his body as his bones cracked and morphed, becoming those of a wolf.
Eva was curled over on the ground, her blood rich in the air. Howling his fury, Zackary leaped at the attacking wolf, giving all control to the animal at his core. He became as deadly as the attacker, as lost to the wolf.
“Zac, enough!” Cooper yelled. “He’s dead. He’s dead.”
But the words couldn’t reach him through the wall of red rage. The boy was lost, curled up in the corner of his mind.
“Zackary.” Cooper approached, palms up, body lax. “Eva’s hurt.”
Eva….
Zackary screamed. He kicked, he yelled, and the boy broke free, gasping into his human body and collapsing to his knees.
“Sis.” Scrambling over, Zackary took her in. A gash traveled the length of her back, and slashes tore through her calf. “Oh God, Eva.” She began crying, the sound a wail. “Ev?”
Turning his sister over, Zackary gasped as Cassady’s baby was revealed.
“Oh shit,” Cooper swore. “Where are Cass and Evan?”
Taking the baby from his sister’s unconscious arms, he climbed to his feet and passed her to Cooper. “I’ve no idea, but right now, our main priority is Eva.”
“Zaccy?”
Lifting Eva into his arms, Zackary started for Jackson’s house. “It’s all right, Matty. We’re coming. Stay there.”
“Jesus, bro. This isn’t good,” Cooper muttered.
Entering the River Run alpha’s home, they found it empty except for Mathew, but Zackary couldn’t think of the other’s who’d been inside the school building and his other friends. His sister was bleeding, her human body far more fragile than his new one. Laying her on the sofa, he went in search of bandages, rifling through cupboards and pulling open drawers.
“Eva,” Mathew whimpered.
“She’s going to be fine,” Zackary called to the little boy. Please, I need you to be fine. “Coop, stand watch through the window. Look out for the others.”
At last finding supplies, he raced back to his sister and began wrapping her wounds, starting with the leg first. Eva whimpered as he did, but never fully came conscious, and as he tore her sweater from her back and packed the bleeding wound with gauze, she let out a soft cry, John’s name leaving her lips.
Swallowing the bile burning his throat, Zackary willed himself to be stronger than he felt. His hands trembled as he touched his sister’s ruined flesh, his breath becoming lodged in his lungs, and as Eva whimpered for John once again, he too wished for his alpha’s second’s grounding presence.
Stay with me, Eva, Zackary silently begged. Please, I can’t lose you too.
Chapter 51
Katalina
Pain was all she was. Physical and mental, it tore at her heart and her senses until she was one giant pulsing wound. Katalina didn’t register each new cut, each fresh drop of blood, even as it ran like rivers over her skin, falling to the floor like the steady drip of a tap.
Raven reveled in her torment, danced her knife between her fingers like she was playing the best kind of game, but Katalina’s focus wasn’t on her torturer but the family that had crashed into the barn for her rescue and found themselves inside Castor's deadly trap.
The noise was deafening. The pack of wolves Castor had turned growled and snarled as they fought with a crazed hunger. The rapid-fire of bullets rained down, echoing through the barn, each one like a blade to her heart. She watched them fall one by one, watched their blood coat the earth, and as each cry of pain met her ears, Katalina’s resolve cracked a little more.
Tears ran down her face as her mind grew foggy, and Katalina began to wish for death. For the agony to end. She was coming apart at the seams, fracturing from within. Anna’s words swirled around her head, far worse than the damage being inflicted on her body.
Death comes. It beats its war drum, thirsty for blood. Yours will spill before this is done, crimson across the snow. For he fears you. He wants you, and when you fall, so shall those you love.
She was their destruction. Their end. And the consequences of the day would haunt her forever, even into the afterlife.
“You are nothing but a sheep in wolf’s clothing. My father thinks you’re dangerous, but look at you... a frail, breakable human. Your blood bleeds red just like mine. There is nothing special about you. You've led them to slaughter. You're their weakness, not their strength.”
Raven’s words sank into Katalina’s soul, shattering the last of her sanity.
Remember who you are.... Remember where you come from. You’re their weakness, not their strength….. When you fall, so shall those you love.
Katalina had never claimed to be strong. To be anything more than who she was. A wolf with a human heart. Every choice she’d ever made was in the hope of a future. It had been about more than making the world fit her. She’d wanted them all to fit. To all be free.
Raven was right. She wasn't their strength; they were hers.
Your strength is your origin….
And it hit her like electricity through her blood. She'd never been human; she’d always been who she was, no matter the world she’d lived in. A shifter. A wolf. Her heart was her own.
“You are nothing!” Raven laughed with glee, her eyes alight with the same sadistic hunger as her father.
But she wasn’t nothing. She never had been.
“I am the daughter of Jackson and Winter. I am the River Run heir, and my heart is powered by the love of an alpha.”
Power surged through her, more than she'd ever felt before. Heady and addictive, it raced through her veins, charged her muscles. She was the link. The bridge that joined two powerful packs together and, in her blood, ran the strength of two packs combined.
She wasn't their weakness; she was their soul, and they’d follow her into hell itself.
Screaming with rage, the restraints holding her hostage broke under her new strength. Drawing power from Jackson and Bass, it flowed into her as she prowled toward Raven, her claws slipping free, a vengeful howl on her lips.
“It’s time you learned how dangerous I am. You've threatened my fam
ily, spilled blood of those I love, and now I’m going to make you pay.”
Her snarl vibrated off the walls, joined by the vengeful howls of her pack. Katalina belonged to all of them, and she’d be the weapon that set them free.
Chapter 52
Bass
The force of her call punched into the center of his chest, knocking the air from his lungs. Bass lashed out at the approaching enemy even as the mating bond between Katalina and himself flared to brilliant life. She drew energy from him, and he instinctively reached out for his enforcers, taking power from them too as his dwindled to nothing.
Turning on a gasp, Bass watched Katalina tear herself free on a scream. She seemed to glow with the energy she was taking in. Her eyes like shining stars, her hair rippled on an unearthly breeze, and when she stalked toward Raven, it was with an expression he’d never before seen.
She wasn’t the Katalina he knew, but so much more. Bloated on power, his mate moved with a swiftness that shocked him. Katalina attacked without mercy, without hesitation. She was an avenging angel, delivering justice and fighting with an ability that rivaled even his own.
Chapter 53
Jackson
The alpha wolf collapsed where he fought, his men moving around him as a shield. The daughter he’d sacrificed so much for, would sacrifice everything for, drained the life from him, and he gave it willingly. Would do so until there was nothing left.
The first wave fell away quickly, and as Katalina’s snarl vibrated through his bones, Jackson found the strength to struggle to his feet. Across the barn, Katalina’s near-white hair shined with the power she’d taken in as the air around her seemed to crackle. And as she delivered devastation to their enemy, the men around him found a new lease of life.
Hope was not lost. The enemy wouldn’t win.
For Katalina was their heart, and with her, they’d beat into eternity.
Chapter 54
Cage
Anna had whispered the devastating prophecy into his ear before he’d left for war. And still, he’d believed they’d somehow find a way through the battle and defeat Castor for good. He’d learned the day he’d mated with Anna that some things were stronger than fate itself, and he’d be damned if he’d be a puppet in the powers that be’s master plan.
Slumped against the barn wall, the cold snow beneath him seeping into his bones, Cage shot at anyone who approached him, listening to the cries of the dying coming from inside of the barn. Life seeped from his chest as the minutes ticked by, darkness creeping into the crevices of his mind, and as an explosion of power erupted out of the battle, followed by the song of those he loved, Cage let a howl of his own into the sky, joining the melody.
His breath rattled in his chest as the sound fell away, the link between himself and Anna pulling tight, and as Cage began to fear his destiny was coming to an end, the beams of two headlights blinded him. Karen called out, flickering hope’s flame back to life before he gave into the numbness calling his name, and fell into the arms of his mate who always waited inside his mind.
Chapter 55
John
Backed into a corner, John fought beside his alpha, with Nico on Bass’s other side. He was coated in gore. It was impossible to tell which blood belonged to him or the enemy he’d laid to waste. His energy wavered, his hold on his human mind becoming increasingly harder to maintain, and as another wave of Castor’s mindless beasts hit them, John gave in to the wolf at his core.
He’d known from a young age that he was different from those in his pack. Wilder, less human, more beast, and he’d danced a fine line ever since. Over the years, he’d learned when to let his wolf out and when the beast needed to be tamed, but today, as death breathed down his neck, John let go of all his control and bounded toward the gnashing teeth of his enemy.
Blood ran hot through his mouth as he tore open necks and spilled guts from his opponents’ bellies. His humanity became but a faint whisper until he was all but lost, as savage as Castor’s wolves. He bit and swiped with a relentless force, his only thought to kill. He knew he should pull back, knew he’d fallen too far, but the enemy was everywhere, leaving no room to think.
Bass called his name, warned him to pull back. “John!” Bass slammed him to the ground, gripped his jaw. “Shift back.”
But it wasn’t his alpha’s order that freed him from the prison of his own mind; it was the scream of the woman he loved reaching out for a bond that would connect them for life. Eva filled his senses, rushed through his blood, sweet and warm, but as the mating bond snapped into place, so did the knowledge of his mate’s injuries.
Eyes snapping open, John gripped his alpha. “Bass, our home.” The connection between Eva and himself flickered and faded, and John forced his own lifeforce into his mate as his eyes grew heavy.
“Evaline!”
“John, talk to me,” Bass demanded, the strength of his alpha’s command shaking off his drowsiness.
“Eva’s hurt,” John whispered. “Our home is under attack.”
But even the all-consuming need to get to his mate couldn’t keep John conscious, and as Eva’s life gave out, John fed her his own. He’d hold her to the living for as long as he could, and if death claimed her, then it would take him too.
Chapter 56
Katalina
Raven was good, but she was no match for Katalina drunk on power. It zapped through her veins like lightning as Katalina lunged for Raven. The woman couldn’t avoid her grasp.
Claw’s digging into Raven’s skin, blood bloomed as Katalina squeezed the life from her, crushing her throat. Raven thrashed and kicked, her fingers gripping uselessly as she tried to dislodge Katalina’s hold.
“If only your father would have listened, all of this could have been avoided. So much bloodshed for nothing, and now you will be added to that list.”
Fear filled Raven’s gaze, and just before Katalina took her life, she got a glimpse of the Raven below the mask. Of a wolf as fragile and human as she was.
Letting Raven slump to the ground, Katalina turned toward Castor’s screams as he realized his daughter was dead. Their gazes met across the mass of chaos, time seeming to pause as they took each other in.
“I told you I’d never bend,” she called, her tone vibrating with power. A smile pulled at her lips, almost as wicked as Castor’s daughter’s had been. “Well, what are you waiting for, Castor? I think it’s time we finished this.”
Charging for her, the sea of wolves and humans parted, and as Castor unchained the lock to her prison, Katalina met Bass’s dark eyes. There was no need to speak aloud. Bass was inside of her—his energy, his gift of strength—and he knew as much as she did that this was her fate to face alone.
She’d been the spark that set the tides of change, and she’d be the blade that ended it for good. She’d never wanted to be feared or to hold this amount of power, yet it had happened. And the only way to protect the packs was to make sure no one ever dared touch her family again. She’d become a myth, a tale of legend, the shield of fear protecting all she loved.
Castor shifted on a snarl, flying across the cage he’d created as Katalina’s stage. Dancing to her right, Katalina twisted with grace, her body nimble and quick as her leg curled up and struck, sending Castor flying into the steel bars of her prison.
Recovering, Castor eyed her with bloody intent, and with one final smile, Katalina gave in to the wolf at her core. Snow-white fur and ice-blue eyes, Katalina howled her rage as she tackled Castor to the floor. They toppled over a clash of claws and teeth, hitting each other with the fury of their primal natures. Their fight was nothing graceful. It was violent and primitive—a dance of their darkest, most inhuman natures. And as Castor’s blood filled her mouth, his flesh tearing between her teeth, Katalina savored the taste of death on her tongue, drew so much power into her body she became glutted with it, until it was all she was, and leaping from the cage, Katalina carried on her rampage, killing anyone in her path.
Ca
stor’s army of wolves scattered as she knocked them down like toys and when the silence of death settled heavily in the air, those who were left standing gazed at Katalina with a mixture of fear and awe.
Darkest crimson stained her fur, dripped from her muzzle as she heaved, standing triumphant over the dead.
“Katalina?” Bass murmured, approaching with caution. Watching as he took step after careful step, Katalina fought within her own mind. He’s afraid of me.
There was a part of her drunk on power, craving it to the point she’d drain the souls from her mate and father to have it. It was a potent and terrifying reality.
No one should have such control over others. It was a gift that had saved Dark Shadow and River Run, yet could destroy them in the next breath.
“Hey,” Bass demanded. “Don’t give up on me now, my Winter Wolf.”
Bass….
Shifting was both excruciating and releasing. Her body rippled and morphed, skin settling over her on a sigh of relief.
“Kat?” Bass whispered.
She smiled, reached for him, but as the connection feeding her—Bass and Jackson’s power ceased to exist—all Katalina had endured came flooding back.
Her spine went rigid, the gasp leaving her full of her agony, and then her knees crumpled, her body a broken shell. Arms of warmth and love surrounded her, but nothing could erase her pain, and as the darkness pulled her into its infinite depths, she went. Its peace a welcome caress.
Chapter 57
Bass
He’d always found battling had a certain poetry to it. Each move played out in slow motion within his mind, all thought and emotion dropping away until he was art in its simplest form. Pure rage, a creature of vengeance—the sharpest of blades whistling through the air. It was the aftermath that was chaotic, hurtling at dizzying speeds, full of fear and horror. And as Bass caught Katalina in his arms, he found himself consumed with it.
Wolf Queen (A New Dawn Novel Book 6) Page 26
