29. Chapter 29

Chapter 29

‘Isaacs! Come out, come out, wherever you are,' I said in a sing-song voice. ‘Don't cower behind the walls, sweetie. There's nothing to be afraid of!' Isaacs was an alpha male; nothing was more likely to get him out from the safety of Nina than to suggest he was weak and afraid.

I heard his shout of rage and moments later Nina's front door flew off its hinges as he kicked it down from the inside. So freaking predictable – not that I was complaining.

‘You know there's a handle, right?' I called. ‘You grasp it and push it down. I know it's hard – maybe we can try together later.' I shot him a patronising wink to rile him even further.

Isaacs bared his teeth at me as he strode out. ‘Bitch!' he spat.

My heart sank. As I'd feared, there on his head was Terrance; the six-foot four-inch brute had the Crown of Torr nestled among his black curls. I wasn't familiar enough with werewolf lore to know if that made him the King or not but the bastard wasn't going to wear it for long enough for it to matter. His would be the shortest reign in history.

I studied the man who was striding towards me. If it wasn't for the cruel tilt to his mouth, he would have been considered handsome – if you didn't know about the multitude of deaths that could be laid at his door. Isaacs believed in a hierarchy based on strength and fear. The wolves around him were all male; it was rumoured that the women in his pack were chained to their beds and used only for breeding.

After I'd finished with Isaacs, I was going to his pack lands and I was going to raze them to the ground. After I'd freed all of the women.

My mouth twisted into an answering sneer. Isaacs met my gaze and hatred rolled off him in waves. ‘I have your crown now, bitch,' he smirked. ‘It was always destined for my head. It is only a matter of time before I make the seat of power name me king.'

Ahh, so Nina had to proclaim it. I had my title – for the moment.

Still, I knew he was wrong and I had a fucking prophecy to prove it. I was going to survive the coming encounter because the prophecy said that I was going to destroy The Order. I'd killed Geneve, but if she were to be believed, she'd been only one letter of the alphabet. Maybe it was enough, like the Librarian had said – maybe she had been the head of the snake – but just in case, I was going to make it my life's work to hunt down the rest of the snake and smash it to smithereens.

And I was going to start with this asshole Isaacs.

Don't pipe him, Esme entreated. I need to know if we can beat him.

We can, I promised. I didn't want to pipe him either, I wanted to win this fair and square. Though he was a male, and bigger and possibly faster, I was certain that Esme and I could defeat him. Now was the time to put our money where our mouth was.

Why would you eat money? Esme muttered.

The moment Isaacs stepped onto the field the air seemed to thicken with tension. His eyes glowed with malevolence and I sensed Terrance's presence swirling alongside him, agitated but bound to the crown. It's okay , I wanted to say to him. We'll be reunited soon.

Next to Isaacs, was Thomas Eliott. Apparently I'd spurned him right into the arms of my enemy. Wonderful. He met my gaze with a glower of his own. I met his stare with my own, and I smirked a little when he looked away first. I was the boss, and he knew it.

Next to a red-faced Elliott, Isaacs was throwing and catching the orb like it was nothing more than a tennis ball. Prick. Xander had died for that! I could feel Esme's hunger for the fight, her desire to rip into Isaacs and make him regret every step he'd taken against us, and I found myself agreeing with her bloodthirsty sentiments.

More of Isaacs' pack emerged from Nina, each one a hulking beast, but they faced a fierce army and I almost pitied them. The dark seraph flanked me, their shadowy wings twitching with anticipation. Maxwell and Alyssa stood at the ready, too, and Grandy hadn't finished bringing in reinforcements. I watched as Nonna and Nonno stepped out of the shadows, flames dancing on their hands. Next to us, Bastion whumped to the ground with earth-shaking force and the wolves behind Isaacs instinctively stepped back. Bastion remained in griffin form, deadly eyes flashing in anticipation of the fight.

‘Stand down,' I ordered the Merseyside Pack. ‘Stand down and you will live. Fight, and we will not hesitate to kill you all.'

Some of the wolves exchanged hesitant glances but most of them pressed forward eagerly. They had been trained and moulded to want nothing more than death. How many of these wolves had cut their teeth in the Black Tourneys, killing innocents at their alpha's say-so?

Isaacs wasted no time. ‘Kill the bitch!' he roared at his wolves. He was still in human form and the flames started to lick at his skin, a gentle shimmer at first but intensifying fast. The fire elemental's magic was ancient and wild, and for a moment I felt its heat calling to me in an acknowledgement of kinship.

But I was no mere fire elemental; I was a piper and a werewolf, and I had been made Other by Glimmer itself. In a dog-eat-dog realm, I was the biggest bitch of them all. I was the Queen of the Werewolves and this was my territory.

‘You're not fit to wear that crown, Isaacs,' I shouted, my voice carrying on the wind. ‘Give it back to me and maybe I'll let you live.'

No, we won't, Esme growled.

I laughed . No, we won't. That's why I said maybe.

Sneaky , she said approvingly.

‘The crown was made for me – not a woman. You're only fit to warm my bed,' Isaacs sneered, his voice crackling with power.

Without warning, he hurled a ball of fire towards me. Esme surged forward within me and I let her take front and centre as we shifted onto four feet. The flames barely warmed our fur as we dodged the lumbering fireball.

We can do this all day, she said smugly.

The longer we mess about, the more wolves die, Esme. Let's end this.

His wolves deserve to die. They have killed many other wolves.

Even so, ours do not deserve to die!

On that we agreed. Meanwhile, Isaacs' pack charged. The dark seraph leapt into the fray, their wings slicing through the air, their hands and heads shifting into snarling wolf form. They tore into Isaacs' wolves, and the sound of flesh ripping and bones snapping filled the battlefield. My birth family took that as their cue and unleashed their fire magic. Waves of flame crashed into the enemy, scorching the ground beneath their feet.

But Isaacs was more dangerous than I'd anticipated. He wielded Terrance's magic like a blade, throwing flames and searing heat with every movement. I lunged at him, fangs bared, but he was too fast. He dodged my attack and struck out with a burst of fire that sent me skidding backwards across the dirt to avoid it.

He's mine! Esme howled her fury.

We charged again, this time in perfect harmony. Esme's reflexes were sharp and instinctive and we dodged the flames easily. I felt her joy as our claws raked across Isaacs' chest and drew blood, but he'd already stepped back and the wound was depressingly shallow.

Coward! Fight me like a wolf! Esme snarled at him.

He snarled back, teeth bared. He put down the orb, clearly not wanting to risk losing it during his shift. I guessed he didn't know that Terrance could keep his clothes if he asked nicely. Then again, I was hoping that Terrance wasn't truly on his side even if he did appear to be. I would wager that he was moving his fire as slowly as he dared.

The orb that I'd spent ages trying to find – that Xander had died for – rolled a little way and landed in a muddy puddle with an indignant splash.

I'd rescue it in a moment – but first: Isaacs. He was in his wolf form now and we raced towards each other, clashing in a storm of fur and teeth. We growled as we bit and ripped into each other with abandon.

Esme was quicker, more agile, leaping this way and that. She was in her element as Isaacs lumbered around, his larger form so much slower than us. She darted in and out so quickly that he struggled to react in time. He did get a few wicked bites in, though, and our side was burning and dripping blood .

We broke apart, panting. I stood over the orb and several drops of my blood mingled with the muddy water and swirled around it. As I watched, the blood shot towards the orb like it had been called to it, then the orb seemed to soak it up and turned a ruddy, red colour.

What the hell?

The wind howled around us. Focused as I was on the orb's shenanigans, I didn't notice that Isaacs had shifted back to human and was throwing a fireball right at me. He was naked, and I wondered if a lot of his deep-seated issues with women stemmed from the fact that his flaccid dick was smaller and thinner than my little finger. And his nudity suggested that Terrance wasn't truly on his side.

With the wind behind the fireball, it flew at me. We leapt out of the way just in time and the flames rolled over the orb instead. Fuck! If the orb was destroyed after all we'd been through to get it…

The flames died, leaving the orb in their wake – but now it was glowing. It had woken up! The muddy puddle was a mixture of earth and water, the howling wind was air, and then the flames had rolled over it – fire. I gave a mental head thunk. It had taken all four elements to wake the orb. All the clues had been in the story of Lochlan; he had also used all of the elements. Son of a bitch .

Isaacs shifted back to wolf form and was starting to stalk towards me when a bright blue pulse shot out from the orb and hit all of the wolves in the immediate vicinity – including him.

And inside of me, something stirred.