All You Can Do

RORY

When I return to my body, the sounds of battle are raging around me. I’m disoriented, confused—who’s fighting? How did they get here? How long was I gone?

I force my eyes open. They feel oddly heavy, my body slow to respond. A side effect of Nemesis’s possession, probably. I haven’t been able to use my body for almost a day.

It’s a struggle, but I sit up, blinking to force my eyes to focus, to take in what’s happening around me. Wolves are battling, the familiar mix of snarls and human shouts filling the tiny space.

Over by one of the walls, Mia and Freya are still in Nemesis thrall, eyes glazed over, completely unaware of the fighting. They’re being guarded, it seems, two wolves flanking them like statues.

The way they’re sitting, the leanness of their bodies, they must be some of the wolves Nemesis has possessed. No one can get close enough to rescue my friends with them there.

All around me, pack warriors are battling rogues. Some of the rogues are in human form, some are wolves, some have the empty stare of the possessed, others seem clear-eyed.

I’m shocked to see free-minded rogues fighting for Nemesis. I thought they understood the danger, that they were on our side. Did they really hate the packs so much they’d side with someone like her?

One thing is sure: no matter how many warriors push back, they just keep coming. Maybe it’s just the cramped quarters, but they feel endless. I can hear fighting outside, too.

Somehow, someone must have realized what was wrong. Someone came to rescue us. I look around for Chaos, for Everett—surely he’s here somewhere?

Before I can find him, someone scoops me up in their arms and I struggle until I recognize the voice. “Welcome back, Luna. Let’s get you out of here.” Lucius has me. Where is he taking me?

I put my hands on his shoulders and push. I don’t budge him, but it does get his attention. “Wait, no, I need to find Everett. I need to talk to him.”

Lucius shifts his grip on me so it’s more secure, like he thinks I might try to kick out of his arms. It makes me want to try. “Rory, you’re pregnant. I’ve got to get you out of here.”

Fuck. He and Ace know. And he’s got a point—shouldn’t I get out of here, for the sake of the baby? It feels wrong for me to flee the battlefield. This is my last showdown with Nemesis.

I feel certain that my place is here, but I don’t know if I can convince Lucius of it. He’s not above overriding his Luna, or even his Alpha, if he thinks they’re wrong. Maybe I can sneak back later.

For now, I have to tell someone. “There’s a necklace—” Lucius gives a grunt of pain before I can finish, falling to his knees. I land hard on the floor and scramble up as fast as I can.

There’s a knife sticking out of his back. I yank it out, biting down on my nausea, and press my hands to the wound. My life force responds to my call and knits the muscle back together.

I’m thrilled to be healing again. For a moment, I’d been afraid Nemesis might have somehow locked it away, but it came easily. It feels great to be moving around myself, doing what I want to do.

“Thanks, Rory,” Lucius says, stretching as the healing finishes. He’s fine, except for the tear in his shirt. I’m sure he’s planning to grab me up again, but before he can, a rogue leaps at him.

He’s forced to take the fight, and in the process gets drawn away from me. He’s lost his own knife, instead deflecting the rogue’s strikes with the thick bracers on his wrists.

No one seems to really be paying attention to me. Nemesis’s rogues are hyper-focused on the pack warriors, which means they don’t have time to notice a non-combatant.

That means, as long as I keep my head down, I can move around through the fighting, looking for Everett and getting more of a sense of what’s changed since I died.

I trip over nothing and fall hard, my face inches from a corpse. Thankfully, no one I recognize. Damn. One problem with being back in control of my body—my clumsiness curse is back in full force.

That just means I need to be even more careful. As I creep my way around the edges of the fighting—trying to avoid Ace and Lucius, since they might try to take me away—I start to see a pattern.

One of our warriors—Seth, I think—kills one of the possessed rogues, driving a knife into her ribs. The second she breathes her last, the black mist rises from her body and pours into Seth.

I watch him go rigid, twitching just like Teresa had, before opening blank eyes and turning on his comrades. He shifts, a dangerous wolf that our warriors won’t see coming. This is terrible.

Every time one of the possessed is killed, the shard just jumps into a new body, and it takes our people just as often as the rogues. We can’t tell our enemies from our allies anymore.

I have to hurry. I have to find Everett so we can find the necklace and end this, before any more people get hurt or die. I never thought that my packmates would be forced to turn on each other.

This is so much worse than anything I imagined, everything is happening too fast, I might not be able to do this in time. I stumble, stand back up. I can’t think like that. I can’t give up.

I spot the people responsible for this, tucked in a corner. Xander is being guarded by a few of Nemesis’s thralls. Next to him, a shimmering outline of the Goddess is slowly gaining clarity.

I can see her white dress, her long black hair and most of all her cruel yellow eyes. She’s begun the ritual, and is already returning to this plane. She’s just waiting for her side to win.

And they will win, because every time one of hers dies, another just pops up in its place. She doesn’t care who her shards possess, just that she has enough sacrifices.

Eventually, everyone left will bear a piece of her soul, and she can complete her resurrection. It’s impossible for us to beat her. Unless we can get the necklace—that we have no idea how to find.

As I search for Everett, I pass my packmates, bleeding and in pain. I know there isn’t time, but I stop anyway, healing them as quickly as I can. It’s tiring, but I have to. I can’t just ignore them.

~It’s just more bodies for Nemesis,~ part of me thinks, cynical and burned out from everything I’ve been through in the last week, in the last two years, my whole life, really.

~At least they won’t die~, I counter, trying not to wonder if some of them would prefer death to being a tool used against their loved ones. I know what it’s like, and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.

Still, I can’t regret it. I drive out the blood pooling in Delilah’s lungs, coax the tissue back to health, and she sits up, shocked to be alive. Her mate and children won’t be burying her today.

“Thank you, Luna,” she says once she catches her breath, regaining her feet. She offers me a hand up, and I take it, letting her help me stand. I’m a little dizzy and I don’t want to fall again.

I tell her the same thing I’ve told everyone I’ve healed, smiling at her as best I can. I’m not at my Luna best right now. “No thanks needed. Our warriors are being possessed, too. Tell the others.”

She nods seriously, jumping back into the battle. Somehow, it feels like there are just as many people in here as when I first woke up, though bodies also litter the floor.

I don’t look at those too closely. After this is over, we can count the dead. For now, I need to hold onto my resolve and my focus, and seeing my fallen packmates will make that impossible.

I know she’ll do as I asked; they’ll all spread the word. I’m just not sure if it will help. The trap Nemesis has us in is terribly efficient, almost foolproof. If we can just get that necklace…

A space clears in the fighting and my breath catches. There, not two yards away, is Everett. He’s putting a rogue down, holding back his strike just enough so he loses consciousness instead of dying.

Everett spots me at the same time as I spot him, and we rush toward each other, heedless of everything else going on. I fall, skin my knees, and bounce back up. I don’t care, not right now.

I crash into him in the clumsiest hug ever, and somehow, despite everything, I feel a little better having his arms around me. He holds me tight and desperate, and I can feel how worried he’s been.

He peppers my face with kisses before ending on my lips, kissing me like he wants to taste that I’m all right. “My little mate, I’m so sorry it took me too long to realize what was going on.”

I’m glad he’s sorry, but I don’t want to hold it over him, and even if I did, now isn’t the moment. “It’s fine, you figured it out. I’m just glad you knew it wasn’t me.”

“Well, you didn’t spill juice all over me. That clued me in.” He touches my face, my stomach, tenderly. “But how are you? How’s the baby? We need to get you somewhere safe, where’s Lucius?”

I grab his wrist, stopping him from running off, annoyed that he’s trying to get rid of me. Save me from Alpha instincts! How many times do we have to have this fight? “We don’t have time for that.”

He scowls at me, brows furrowed, tugging his wrist gently out of my grasp. “What do you mean? You can’t seriously want to stay here; you’re pregnant, you need to get checked over.”

Does he think I don’t know I’m pregnant? If one more man explains that to me, I swear… “Everett, the baby is fine, listen to me! I know how to beat Nemesis, but we can’t do it without—”

“Without this?” He pulls something from his pocket and shows it to me. My jaw drops open. Somehow, some way, he’s got Professor Xander’s necklace. We have what we need. We can end this, now!

I stare at it, then at him, half worried that it’ll somehow vanish. “How did you know?” I’m thrilled, but also deeply confused. Really, nothing is going like I thought it would.

He grins at me, a little shy, pleased to have made me happy. “I saw the book you left open in the library. Lucius just found it today. But I don’t know how to make it do what we need it to do.”

I smile back. It feels bloodthirsty. I’m going to use their own magic against him. I’m going to kill Nemesis, and it’s going to feel amazing. “Don’t worry, I can handle that part.”

He doesn’t like it, I can tell, but he shoves aside his need to keep me safe. His blue eyes shine with trust, and my heart swells with love. “All right, Aurora. I’m with you.”

Everett gives me the necklace. I can hardly believe I’m holding it in my hand, that my mate somehow knew exactly what I needed from him without being told.

Luck really is on our side. I said a quick prayer of thanks to whatever gods and goddesses had helped to make that happen.

Nemesis’s laugh sounds, clear and cold. I whip around. She’s almost completely solid now, only a little hazy around the edges.

Mia and Freya are on the ground, eyes closed, unmoving. The possessed wolves are dropping like flies. We’re too late. She’s done it. She’s won.

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