Chapter 10

Ten

They dared come into my pack.

They dared attack my people in the dead of night, thinking we would not expect it.

Ann alpha wolf always knows when enemies are close by, sniffing around their pack.

I knew—I was waiting for the bastards.

It is true, perhaps, that a part of me did not expect the fae king to attack so quickly. But I have discussed the plan repeatedly with Elias and the prince. We knew his father was always going to come for us eventually. That he would test our boundaries was just a matter of time. I’d only hoped Elias’ army would have arrived before then but now we’re fresh out of time.

According to Daphne’s scouts, the fae king attacked every other pack to find out where they were weakest. They have easily taken down all of the smaller packs, and their survivors have been flooding our doors for weeks. If I was in the king”s position, I would do exactly what he’s doing now: attack the strongest enemy in the middle of the night.

Because if we fall, so do all of the wolves. So does the world.

He might be a bastard, but he’s a smart one, I’ll give him that.

I glance at his son, a fae I never in a million years thought I’d work with let alone tolerate in my pack. But the fucker is growing on me. Especially considering how much my mate seems to adore this prick. Like it or not, the gods have brought us together, and I believe in my soul it is for this moment.

To change the world.

Rune nods to me before taking to the skies with his army of fae flying after him. They almost look like a giant raven in the sky as they crash into the opposing fae, who try to fly over our walls, but they are not getting far. Any that fall to the ground, my wolves rip to pieces. I smile as I watch them scream and beg for mercy. Nothing quite beats it.

We can’t hold them off forever though, and it won’t be long before they breach the gates. I can see it cracking in the distance. I send a message to my beta, making sure she is sounding all the alarms in the pack, and order her to come back and fight at my side once the evacuation process has begun. My wolf prowls in my chest, demanding to be let out so he can taste fae blood. I can barely control him. Fuck, I no longer want to. He deserves this, and every enemy beyond my pack gates deserves what’s coming to them.

“Wolves,” I shout, loud enough to stop them in our tracks. “That wall is going to break and when it does, they are going to find out exactly why they should never have fucked with us.” Howls echo far and wide, repeating endlessly until it’s almost like a drum—the drums of war. “When you fight, think of your families and your homes. Think of your alpha and alpha female. Fight for us. For freedom and peace, for a world we will build from the ashes of this war!” More howls, and I crave to shift to howl alongside them. “The fae king has ruled for too long and we have lived in fear of them for longer still, keeping to our own borders. The gods have sent us a half fae alpha female, an omega, my mate, and I believe they are showing us how to change.” Pride swells within me at the mention of Verena. “They are telling us that we can be at one with each other. One pack. One race.” I point the tip of my axe towards the gates. “But they are not our people. They are our enemies, and until their king is dead, we do not stop. So, let’s show these bastards what a wolf army can do!”

The cheers, growls and claps echo louder than the sound of the wall smashing to pieces. The fae aren’t quite through yet but it won’t be much longer. A few minutes, perhaps. I face our enemy with the half-wolf army to my left, and the prince’s fae army to my right up in the skies. This is by far the strangest army I’ve ever witnessed. Such an unusual mixture of people that don’t exactly get along, but in this moment we are united. I can feel it in my veins, in the air around us. We look to the wall. The stone gives way under the onslaught, crumbling into a cloud of dust. Blood pounds in my veins as adrenaline courses through my body. Now there is nothing for me to do but what I do best.

Fight.

For a second, I let my eyes trace back to the tower in the distance, where I know my beautiful mate is waiting. She would be awake now, hearing the bang of the magic that smashed the gates and brought all the wards down. My wolf aches to be at her side, but she can’t be here. I would instinctively rally to her side, but right now, my men need me to rally to theirs.

I send a silent prayer to the star and moon gods that she stays in the depths of the pack to help the people evacuate and doesn’t come to the front lines. Elias is with her. He won’t let her come. I hope not. Our mate is as stubborn as she is strong-willed, but there are things in this war that she will not want to see. The brutality I will endure tonight might haunt me for years to come. I don’t want any of it haunting her dreams. My mate has been haunted enough.

I pull my second axes off my waist clips, and smile. My wolf wants to take over, but not yet. First, I’m going to chop some heads off, and then I’m going to eat them with my wolf precisely in that order. I swing the axes around in my hands as I walk forward and onto the grass verge by the wall. Beyond its crumbling ruins, the fae yell and cheer in their triumph.

Won’t be for long, I smirk to myself. They are going to be screaming soon.

“Lazuri,” Elias says, nodding to me as he suddenly appears at my side in his wolf form.

I nod back. “Elias. Ready for some fun?”

He growls a yes. Even though he’s not my mate, I have an awareness of him now, now we are mated to Verena. It’s like he’s there in the back of my mind, connected to my conscience. He’s like a brother to me now—a true one. A bond only the gods can explain. But it’s a bond I now welcome. I never thought I’d say that about Elias.

When I first met the prick, I thought he had claimed Verena against her will and was trapping her. Fuck, I was ready to tear his pack to shreds. But I was wrong. I knew when he fell to his knees on the balcony, after she was taken away from us, that he would do anything for her; even let her go, if that”s what she wanted. And there is nothing more brutal, more painful than letting go of your fated mate.

Gods damn it, I’m really starting to like the motherfucker.

Elias might have a terrible sense of dress code, and a weird obsession with rules and relegation, but now he is roughing it up here in my pack, I have a new respect for him. It suits him, being here at my side, ready to fight to defend our people.

Our mate.

“Is Verena safe?” He nudges my shoulder with his nose, his chest rumbling. “Good. Now let’s kill these motherfuckers and get back to her.”

He howls once, just as the final part of the wall caved in. The fae flood through the gates and into my pack like a wave crashing in from the sea. They devour everything in their path, destroying anything their magic touches. Their spears and staffs hold the bulk of their magic, as Rune explained at the briefing, but only for weaker fae since they require an object to channel their magic. Higher up, powerful fae are able to channel magic on their own like Rune.

I charge into the thick of the battle, seeking out the fae without any weapon. Elias and my wolves follow behind, tearing through fae alongside me. That the army I spent years building and training after my father, and his father before him, will be the reason my pack doesn’t fall, fills me with intense pride. Be with me, my family. Be with me as we take this world with teeth and claws. I will not let them destroy our people. My mate is worth every second of this, and I will show no mercy to those who threaten our pack.

I picture Verena in my mind, allowing her to fuel the blood in my veins. I was obsessed with her from the second I first spotted her in Elias’ pack, in that pretty dress I wanted to rip off her body with my teeth. Fuck, I wanted her. Needed her. The obsession only grew with every second I spent at her side, and I want a thousand more years of her.

Now I am fighting for that time.

Time with my mate. Time to love her, to give her the peace and love that she deserves. My mate hasn’t known a single day of safety and comfort. I have vowed to the gods themselves that before I die, I will make sure she has had years of it.

And I plan on being there for every fucking moment.

I blink, pulling myself back into my pack. If I keep thinking about Verena, I’m going to end up running across my pack and dragging her somewhere safe. Verena is no weak female, and I am well aware that her safety is of utmost priority. But the need to protect her is still fierce within me. I need to distract myself.

I need blood.

I swing my left axe, cracking it into a male’s skull. I use my other axe to dislodge it from the bone, and at the same time swing my arms to cleave fae’s head clean off their shoulders. My mate and my pack are well protected; they know the drill when it comes to evacuating. But the fact that these fae bastards are keeping me from them fuels my rage, and I cut a path through them, leaving only pieces of them behind. They’ll pay. They’ll all pay. But first I am going to hunt their king.

I follow his scent through the chaos. Elias fights at my side. He lunges over me, taking on half a dozen fae and mauling them to pieces. Several more fae join and I step in, offering my help. By help, I just cut the fae up like I’m about to roast them on a spit. Their blood covers me as I snap their staffs over my knee and hack into their bodies. That’s the thing with these fae. They rely too much on these props to aid them in battle. By the time they’ve done their spell, my wolves are already on top of them, chewing their heads off.

Elias gets to his feet and shakes the blood off his coat. Three more fae come straight at me, sensing my threat with their staffs raised high above them like glowing stars. Two of them, I leave without their heads with one swing of my axes. The third one drains of colour when I kick the heads aside and face him. He reaches for the sword on his hip, but by the time he pulls it out I’m already grabbing his neck. Snarling, I snap it with my bare hands, watching the life immediately fade from his body. I pick up my axes from the others and it becomes like a well-rehearsed dance as I move through the fae army. Slam, cut, rip, again and again, until there is so much fae blood covering me that I can’t tell if I’m even a wolf anymore. When my axes are slipping out of my hands from all the blood, I let my wolf take over with complete free rein.

If the fae thought I was barbaric, they’re about to shit their pants because it’s nothing compared to my wolf.

My wolf is far more dangerous, and bloodthirsty. His protective instincts over his mate flood to the forefront of his mind as he tears through enemy after enemy. Elias is still with me, and above, I spot Rune shooting powerful magic across the clouds. We all know that with every fae we destroy, we are one step closer to evacuating our people to safety. We’re almost there, but I can feel my own wolves dying through my bond to the pack. Not just dying suffering.

I promised to protect them, and right now I’m failing. No matter how many fae I kill, there are ten more to replace them. The pack is soon flooded with fae, many of them escaping the walls of wolves after killing their way through. There are too many.

Too many fae. Too many of my fucking wolves being killed.

Fae continue to fall from the skies, Rune destroying them one by one. I don’t dare look up at him for more than a second, as every second a dozen more fae surround me again and again. The half-breeds are doing better, the magic washing off their shiny, glittery crystal white coats even with blood coating them too. I spot Elias in the distance after I take down three fae, surrounded by at least twelve more. He’s injured and just as outnumbered.

I run straight to him to help him without a second thought. I jump on three of them, ignoring the sharp pain in my thigh as several blades slice through my skin, and rip two of the heads off—one with my claw, one with my teeth. Elias is on the other two, his coat just as thickly covered in blood as mine. There are many cuts and wounds over him, freely bleeding, but he doesn’t stop.

We work as a team again, two alpha wolves that would never have worked together before, tearing apart the army in front of us. But then a fae unlike those around me steps in the way, his body shrouded in black mist. He lifts a hand and dark tendrils of magic snake through his fingers, crackling with power. Then with a flick of his wrist, he releases a blast of magic that slams into my side and sends me spiralling into the air.

I slide through the mud, through the bodies of my fallen wolves, and land beside Elias. We both howl in agony as our wolves are engulfed by the magic. It sears through my body as if engulfing me in flames. The world spins around me when I left my head to glare up at the fae slowly approaching. He is different from those I have battled before. Stronger. Twin blades of black crystal appear in his hand as his magic crackles around him, brimming with dark, powerful magic. He must be a commander, a leading general perhaps. I growl in warning, blood dripping from my teeth, and somehow manage to force my wolf to his feet, my paws shaking as they dig into the blood-soaked ground. Elias stands with me and snaps his jaw in warning.

The fae only laughs. “Two alphas cornered. How rare! Where is that bitch mate of yours?”

This fae is fucking dead. I snap my jaw at him, baring my teeth. Elias does the same and we adjust our postures, getting ready to pounce on the fucker.

“My daughter is safe.” Verena’s father steps in the middle of us. “Where’s your king? Has he decided not to join us, General?”

“The king is busy.” The general”s dark, amethyst eyes flicker to the city and then back again. “But don’t worry, traitor. You’ll be seeing him again soon.”

Something pulls in my stomach. Dread—no, fear. If the king isn’t here, then where the fuck is he?

Verena’s father hollowly laughs. “You are the fifth command general I have taken down in the last decade, but I do enjoy it. You lot are never boring.”

The fae unleash their powers. Black fury magic collides against white, mixing together like shadows and light, both trying to devour each other. Burning crystals shatter and fill the air as he slams into the general. The general is faster—crueller. He slams a sword through his chest before he even hits the ground. They land together, just as we reach their side, but it’s too late. Verena’s father is dead. The general claws out from under his impaled body. Elias beats me to it and lunges on top of him, devouring the bastard in seconds. His agonising screams are not nearly satisfying enough for the damage he’s just done.

I look down at Verena’s father. Rune lands next to us, his shoulders dropping when he sees Verena’s father. He’s covered in blood too, gripping a pair of fae wings in his hands. He shoves them aside and leans over Verena’s father. He carefully pulls him off the sword and lays his body on the ground, slowly closing his eyes.

“She’s going to be devastated,” he says.

The gods let us hear a bone-chilling scream as a sharp pain spread over my chest, stabbing me in the heart. Verena is in trouble.