The Attack

LORELAI

Brax disappeared into the water, and as much as he had tried to reassure me that it would be okay, something felt off.

I put it down to my fear of it.

But the second he was in that water, I knew it was more than that.

His pain became mine instantly.

I screamed, doubling over and clutching my body as it burned.

Like my skin was being peeled off. I couldn’t breathe; I couldn’t open my eyes, or they burned too.

“Lorelai!” Derik’s voice was strong in the link. “What happened?” he grunted.

“We’re at the lake; something’s wrong with it.”

“Get back to the city,” Kai ordered.

“I can’t! Brax is in the water!” I screamed, not caring that my body felt like it was turning inside out. I just needed to get Brax out of the water.

I pulled out my shadows and magic, edging closer to the lip of the lake. My shadows hissed when they touched the water, and I stopped.

“We’ll be there in a—Fuck!” Kai roared. Then I heard the howling in the distance. I winced; I knew that howl.

The city was under attack. More vamps.

“Vamps. They’re attacking the patrols on the other side of the city!” Kai roared, and I could hear him running.

“I’ll get to Lorelai!” Derik growled, his voice panting as he ran.

“More vamps, Alphas! There’s another group attacking in the north; they’re trying to jump the wall. We’re pressing them back, but this isn’t a small group,” another wolf said. I was getting better at distinguishing them. It sounded like Anetta’s mate from the council.

“Go, take care of the vamps. I’ll get Brax, then be there to help,” I said, then shut down the link before they could argue. They had to be Alphas right now, and they wouldn’t be if they thought I was in trouble. But I wasn’t. Brax was.

I dipped my hand in the water, preparing to go get him, but it burned me too. I hissed and brought my hand back.

With the link gone, I could open my eyes without taking on Brax’s pain, which helped me think.

I eyed the lake, testing to see if my shadows would go in. They hissed and curled back into me. That was a no, then.

I ran around to where I could see Brax thrashing in the water, the top of the lake undisturbed as it held him down there. I wasn’t sure how well he could hold his breath, but I was guessing it was significantly different when being tortured.

So, before I could question whether it would work, I launched my magic from me.

I sent it straight into the water to him. My magic parted the water easily, fighting it back from trying to harm it and reaching him in seconds.

I yanked him out of the water with my magic. As soon as he broke the surface, he coughed and sputtered, wrenching in breaths.

I ran to him as my magic placed him on the grass next to me. I went to hold him, but he rolled away, coughing as he tried to sit up.

“No, just stay still. I need to make sure you’re okay,” I urged, but he shook his head, hacking up more water.

“Don’t. Not until I’m dry.” He coughed and stumbled to his clothes. He grabbed his shirt and dried himself over with it.

As soon as he was dry, I ran to him, embracing him tightly. He teetered on his feet, but I held him up. Tears I didn’t know I was holding in escaped as I closed my eyes, holding him.

His hair dripped burning water onto my cheek, but I didn’t care.

“Are you okay?” I asked. He nodded, holding me silently.

“What happened? I thought the water was magic?” I asked.

He frowned at it, his eyes sad as he knelt down to it.

“I don’t know, but I’ll figure it out. This water is sacred. To mess with it? The vamps are playing dirtier than I thought,” he said, then used the shirt to dry his hair.

I looked at the water, then sucked in a breath. “Brax. Isn’t this water the source for the entire realm?” I asked.

He cursed, then nodded.

“We need to get back to the city and warn the wolves not to use it until we can figure out what happened to it,” he said.

“We need to get back and do more than that.” I shuddered, stripping off my clothes ready to shift.

“What are you talking about?” he demanded.

“The city is under attack. The vampires, they’re trying to find a weakness in the walls,” I said and opened the link again.

Chaos broke through it. Kai and Derik were barking orders at the wolves. Vampire scent was everywhere. The sound of laughter was replaced with screams. Brax winced, narrowing his eyes on the city, the howls coming from it still filling the dark night.

He shook his body out, then did the stance he made every time before he shifted.

Except nothing happened.

I frowned. “I assumed we were going to shift and get there quicker. Would you rather go in human form?” I asked.

He growled angrily before turning and punching the nearest tree. I jumped and stepped back.

“I can’t fucking shift,” he snapped, and my eyes widened.

“Oh,” I said, shrugging. “So I shift and run with you on my back for a change.”

He looked horrified.

“Absolutely not,” he bit out.

“Braxton, my mates, our pack, and our city are currently being threatened. I have this extreme need to protect all of that. If you get all sexist on me about being the one on my back, I will leave you here,” I warned, sensing his argument before he could make it.

He scowled, muttering something about degradation under his breath.

I ignored it and shifted.

He put his clothes on, then grabbed mine and climbed on my back. He was heavy, but my strong legs didn’t buckle.

I was a smaller wolf than them, but in human form, he was an easy weight to carry.

I didn’t give him a chance to grumble again. I ran as fast as I could toward the city.

I wasn’t scared of the vamps; I wasn’t scared for myself. I was scared because my mates were there without me. Zale and Enzi didn’t have any shadows protecting them.

I barged into the city, feral and ready to kill some vamps. I ran Brax to the mansion first.

“Until you can shift, stay with the twins. Please, I need to know they have shadows there with them,” I asked. He looked like he wanted to argue, but there was a scream from one of the she-wolves in the pack link.

I looked over my shoulder at the noise, but the chaos wasn’t near the mansion.

Brax nodded, then ran up the stairs, going inside, his shadows already finding the twins.

I ran toward the fighting.

It was a larger group than normal, and I ran to Kai, who was baiting a vamp to attack him. I didn’t give it a chance, coming up behind it and ripping his head from his shoulders with my teeth.

The vamp’s body dropped, and Kai smirked at me. His wolfy grin never left when he was getting to fight the vamps.

As much as I enjoyed a good vamp death, I wasn’t as used to fighting as a wolf, and the taste of tangy blood in my mouth wasn’t my favorite.

“I’m going to shift back so I can use my magic easier. Where’s Derik?” I asked, tearing through another vamp as Kai took his few out.

“The other side, another lot of vamps there,” Kai said.

I frowned at that and shifted back. It was easier and faster than before, with adrenaline running fast through my veins.

I turned around, looking at the carnage that was leaking into the city. I hated it. I didn’t want to bury any more wolves. I didn’t want to say goodbye.

The city was lit by flame torches, and the cobblestone was cracking under werewolves and vampires as they fought.

It wasn’t right.

This was our city; they had no right to take it, any of it.

My magic flared inside me, my hands burning with the need to wield it.

So I did.

Every vampire I saw, I took out. The wolves took out the stragglers. I used my magic like a whip, the cord wrapping around their throats. As soon as I yanked, their heads separated from their bodies.

The vampires’ ash floated everywhere, blowing away on a rough wind.

“Bye little fuckers. That’s what you get for trying to take from us.”

I glared at the vamps trying to get over the city wall, then shoved a wall of magic up on top of it. The vampires rebounded off it.

I smirked, then went to Kai, who was nudging a wolf up, its coat ripped through.

“Get the injured to the infirmary. I’ll keep that wall up and go help Derik,” I said, then ran off through the dimly lit streets.

The pack that could still fight followed me.

Derik’s side was—a massacre. Derik was still fighting, but the others? They were not. They were on the ground, their human forms shaking.

I snarled at that and threw my magic out in a wave of power so brutal it knocked every vamp to its feet.

The vamps, with all their dead, wraith-like bodies, lifeless eyes, and awful B.O., crashed into the city wall. I pinned them there with my magic and my glare.

I nodded to the wolves on the ground. “Help them to the infirmary,” I said to the others, then faced the vamps, with Derik coming to stand next to me.

“Tell Silas if he wants to take over the city or the wolves, then he should do it himself. I’m sick of the vampire ash polluting our city,” I snarled, and the vamp in the middle of the five-person group I had pinned chuckled. I made him choke on that.

He sputtered, then eyed me. “We’re sick of you wolf trash polluting our realm,” he hissed back.

I killed him.

There was no point in going back and forth when that was the way Silas had programmed their brains.

I took out the rest, my magic glowing and strong, before I looked around the top of the city wall.

The vampires could get over it. That was not comforting.

Derik swooped me up then, holding me close and tight.

“You’re getting pretty good with that magic of yours,” he mumbled against me. I nodded.

But it wasn’t good enough. I still knew it was going to take everything I had, everything the pack had, to get past Silas.

He wasn’t coming at us full strength. He was playing the long game, weakening us more and more, bit by bit. Each attack wasn’t just physical; it was an attack on our dwindling morale.

His tactics were working, but I was determined not to let it stop me from fighting back every time.

I held Derik tighter and embraced his warmth before stepping back.

I sighed and eyed the blood on the stone. “We should go check on the injured wolves,” I said, then went to step forward. A wave of dizziness hit me, and I stumbled into him.

Derik caught me, holding me up, and looked into my face, his eyes filled with concern.

“Beautiful?” he asked. I shook him off and plastered a smile on my face.

“It uses a lot more energy to use that much magic now. I’m still getting used to it,” I said.

He pulled me against him, and we walked to the hospital that was busier than I had ever seen it.

I walked up the steps with Derik, eyeing all the wolves leaving, nodding in respect.

They were healed, but they looked pissed. And defeated.

Silas kept coming, and every time he did, he beat us. I pushed him back with magic, but I knew the feeling in the pack, and they were annoyed that I had to use magic, that the wolves couldn’t beat him on their own.

With the exhaustion in my body, I was starting to get annoyed at the same thing.

My magic still pulsed along the top of the city wall, and I knew it was pushing it, but I didn’t like that there were still accessible points.

So, as we walked, I spread the border around the wall, making sure no vamp was making it over anytime soon.

It was a strained effort, but I could get accustomed to it. At least until I needed the magic for something else.

Derik held my hand as we went through the hospital, checking on the wolves. Kai was in there, laughing with the pack as they laughed about what had happened and the way the vamps had been killed.

It was nice to see, but it didn’t reach their eyes.

I leaned over and kissed Kai’s cheek, interrupting him. He grinned up at me.

“Little Luna. Saving our asses again, hmm? You going to leave any vamps for us next time?” he teased. I shrugged.

“I’ll think about it.” I smiled, then kissed him again as he reached for my face.

We were interrupted when Anetta came running into the room.

“Alphas. Luna. You need to come see this,” she said, her face filled with fear. We didn’t hesitate, going after her as she led us down the halls.

We followed her into a room like the one we had just been in, but this one had no laughter. Instead, it was filled with groaning, panting werewolves.

And not the good kind.

They were all pale, all sweating. One bent over the side of his cot and emptied his stomach into the pail that was there.

“They came here just before the attack happened. They’ve been getting sicker ever since. We’ve tried everything to make them better, but nothing is working.” She grimaced, going over to the first cot bed and dabbing a cold cloth over the she-wolf’s face.

She let out a pained cry and turned away. Water droplets slid down her cheek; she mumbled something under her short breath, trembling.

And that’s when it clicked.

I surged forward, knocking the wet cloth from Anetta’s hands. It landed with a splat on the floor.

“Luna!” Anetta frowned, looking at me.

I nodded to it. “Don’t use the water,” I said quickly. “The lake has been poisoned.”