The City

LORELAI

It was just like Beenie had said: vampires everywhere, climbing over the walls, blurring everywhere, attacking harshly.

They weren’t holding back or waiting idly for their turn to get fucked up, as it had seemed in the humans’ villages. They were baring their teeth and going straight for the wolves, especially their necks.

Derik was yelling orders in the link, the strain in his voice hard to hear. But he was with the twins and couldn’t fight. My heart raced at the idea of the twins being without shadows there, without me there to protect them.

I jumped from Kai’s back and ran through the gates of the city. There were no wolves to greet me; they were all engaged in fast fights with vampires, gnashing teeth and hissing tongues going at each other as they pulled and grabbed at each other.

I shoved through them all, using my magic to clear a path.

~“I’m coming to you, D,”~ I said in the link.

~“The twins are safe, beautiful.”~

I appreciated the reassurance, but it didn’t help calm my nerves. Last time a vampire had gotten close to my children, they had taken one. I didn’t trust Silas not to try the same shit. They were winter born and held more power than I had at their age.

If he got his hands on them, they would become his ultimate weapon.

My vision flashed in my mind, and I shuddered. I wasn’t letting that be their fate, Zale or Enzi.

Nikolai was already fighting, tearing through vampires, finally getting the revenge he’d been begging for. They had attacked, and he could finally peel through them all. He was having fun doing it, too.

I glanced over at him, smirking at the grin he wore around his blood-covered mouth.

Brax was throwing bombs at the vamps, grinning when they landed and burned through the vampires attacking his pack.

~“Payback’s a bitch,”~ he laughed in the link.

I smiled, then ran toward the mansion, avoiding the breaking city around me. Vampires and wolves collided with stone and each other, sending debris flying. My shadows and magic blocked everything from getting to me.

The humans were on their way for backup and would bring their arsenal, so I knew we had a chance. But only if we could get to Silas.

He was here somewhere; I could feel it in my bones. He was watching, waiting for the perfect time. As soon as we showed a weakness, he would exploit it.

I was going to make sure he regretted that decision, even if it took my last breath to do it.

The thought took me to a dark place before I remembered the reason I couldn’t go there.

My unborn baby.

My hand went to my stomach as I climbed the steps to the mansion. I couldn’t take my last breath while I was living for someone else. Which meant I had no choice but to make sure Silas took his.

I took the mansion steps two at a time, then burst into the nursery. Derik was there, holding a fussing Zale as he watched out of the closed window, his eyes narrowed on the city below.

He was still barking orders at the pack, watching everywhere they needed to be. He was good at it, but I knew he wanted to be down there.

So I sent him.

“Go, Derik. Protect the pack. I’ll wait for the twins,” I said.

Derik looked back at me and grimaced. “I can’t leave you alone. Not while this is going on,” he said.

I shook my head. “I can handle this. And I’m not alone. I have my shadows, my magic. And the twins. We’ll protect each other. But your job is to make sure I don’t have to. Go, help the pack,” I urged.

Derik took another look out the window as the pack growled and howled. The vampires had been holding back before, finding our weaknesses. They had learned how we fought, what we did as a unit.

They had learned everything they needed to be a real threat. It was terrifying, but I knew I could do more from here, where the twins were safe.

And if I was right, then Silas was going to come looking for us. I would be ready for him.

“If Silas does, then I need to be here,” Derik growled.

I picked up Enzi and held her close. Even she knew something wasn’t right; her shadows, which had a gold glitter to them, were leaking out of her tiny body.

“And if he shows up, I’ll tell you. Until then, the pack needs their Alphas. All three of them. What kind of luna would I be if I let them die for me?”

“A mated one,” Derik bit back.

I shook my head with a small smile. “I’ve got this. I’ll watch from the window and use my magic and shadows to help where I can.”

Derik looked like he was about to argue when my arm burned. Red leaked through my white tunic, and I growled, looking down at the stain. “Kai,” I said as his pain became mine.

~“They’re spreading through the city!”~ Brax warned.

~“Lucky fucker lost his fangs for that bite. You okay, Little Luna?”~ Kai asked.

~“I’m good, just be careful,”~ I pleaded, then looked at Derik. “Go help them. Don’t let the vampires get further into the city.”

“I won’t,” Derik finally gave in, then kissed me. He put Zale into the crib with a kiss on his forehead. He moved to Enzi and gave her one too. “Stay safe and don’t overuse your magic,” he warned.

“I know. I’ll be in the link,” I promised.

Derik took off toward the fight. He shifted as soon as he was out of the mansion and ran faster than I had ever seen him run. I put Enzi in the crib with Zale and wrapped them in my shadows, then went to the window Derik had been looking out.

I pushed it open and eyed every detail from where I was.

The vampires were moving through the city. There were just too many of them. They were climbing the walls still, pouring in every direction. They were going for every wolf they could, but they were edging closer to the mansion, and I knew that was their goal.

Power attracted greed, and my children had it. More than me. More than this realm had seen. It had absorbed the witches’ magic without even trying. Which meant Silas wanted them.

He couldn’t fucking have them.

I wanted to throw my magic up and stop the vamps from getting in, but I knew I couldn’t. Not when Silas was this close. I needed all my magic.

After the spell and the extraction of the wolfsbane at the lake, I was already pushing it. And I had no idea what exertion I could use without hurting the baby. Cain said that was most likely why I had passed out at the lake.

My body was telling me not to take any more from the baby.

Which was still a hard concept to grasp. I held my stomach again, feeling the telling flutter in there. Wolves birthed quicker than humans; I knew that, but it was still strange to think that I was carrying again. If I listened really hard, I was sure I could hear the heartbeat. Or perhaps that was hope.

Either way, I held onto it and let it fuel the need in me to protect the ones I loved. They were my family, and Silas did not get to take them from me. I watched with narrowed eyes at every wolf I could, intervening only when it was life and death. There were a lot of ~almosts~.

They drew on my magic already to stay shifted, and normally that didn’t matter, but I felt it now. It was a weariness in me that I normally didn’t have. But I stayed strong, feeding them what I could while still keeping a reserve.

It was hard not to do more, to stand back and watch while the vampires tried to tear down everything. They succeeded half the time, and it was infuriating.

But the wolves were strong, and they had been training, fighting together for long enough to hold the invaders back. I watched in awe as their powerful beasts took over, fighting in cohesion together.

The pack link was steady, holding strong as the Alphas told their pack where to go, what to do, and when to pull back while still watching everyone’s back. They were true Alphas tonight, and I finally got to see what that meant.

It meant they were leaders. They saw everything, were everything, and looked after every wolf no matter what. It was all-inclusive, moving as a team, as a family. I felt that swell inside me as they fought so damn well.

The vampires were still too many, and the calls were close, but the wolves didn’t care. They were savages, using their base instincts to methodically take down every threat.

And then the humans arrived, and everything shifted. The dynamic changed, but not for the worse. Instead, there was camaraderie.

My mom was on Galen, throwing her potions and powders as he roared and stomped on the vamps that got too close.

Ryleigh was right there too. She went straight to Derik’s flank, fighting close to him, protecting his back as Vaughn had hers. I smiled, and my eyes went to Brax. He was on the other side.

He was meant to have a team of rogues with him. I frowned and looked beyond the city. The rogues should be on their way, and once they got there, we would have more of a chance. The numbers would even out.

The pack just had to survive until then.

But as I looked around, my proud face started falling.

The vampires were different. They had stopped going for the mansion, stopped destroying, stopped going for the wolves. They wanted the humans.

“The bloodlust,” I whispered.

The vampires changed into monsters. Not regal-looking creatures with lithe bodies and waif-like movements. No, they were vicious. They moved faster, their eyes red. They tore at everything with their teeth.

They screeched so loud, my ears rang as they tried to get to the humans. The wolves moved to protect them, but a bloodlust-infected vampire was strong. Stronger than a wolf.

Fear prickled along my skin, raising the hair on the back of my neck. My stomach dropped, my heart clenching. I sucked in a breath, my eyes blurring with tears as the first human died.

“No!” I screamed, but my voice didn’t carry in the still night. And it was too late.

The human’s blood went everywhere, and the vampires’ switch was flipped.

They were inconsolable raging messes that my wolves could barely hold back.

My eyes were wide, my throat clogged as the tears fell. How could we win? Our numbers were low, our strength fading, our morale shifting. All leading to the inevitable death of humans.

They couldn’t be here.

“Send the humans back!” I screamed in the link. I sobbed as the vampires tore at Galen, trying to get to my mom. Mom sliced at them, throwing her weapons, but they were running low.

My magic tingled at my fingertips, and I gritted my teeth, trying to rationalize against using it.

“Don’t. We can handle this,” Derik grunted, sinking his teeth into another vampire and throwing him away. The vampire snarled and hissed, then came running back, bleeding out. Derik ripped him apart, making sure he didn’t try again.

“What if you can’t?” I cried, looking at the reality with my own eyes. Could they not see it? Or was he just saying what he thought I needed to hear?

Because the odds were shit. And I had the power literally at my fingertips.

“Save it for Silas,” Brax said, wrapping his shadows around a vamp and squeezing it into ash.

I knew he was right. Silas hadn’t appeared yet, but I knew he was there. He was watching the same bullshit war as I was. He was watching the wolves lose.

I couldn’t just watch though.

“Little Luna,” Kai warned. He knew what I was going to do. He knew I had no other choice.

All of them knew I was terrible at listening too.

I let go of my magic. It burst out of me, pouring like a waterfall down to the city and flooding it with purple. I let out a sigh of relief as the pressure inside me broke.

My magic had needed to help too. It wanted revenge for the whole kidnapping thing as much as I did. Maybe that was the problem though. It was feeding off what I felt. I tried not to, but I couldn’t help it.

My magic rushed and suffocated every damn vampire it came across. They dropped one by one, and I grinned.

The wolves were going to be okay. So were the humans. My family was safe.

I swayed, falling against the wall. I blinked hard as my head swam.

Fuck.

I yanked my magic back to me. It sulked about it, the bitterness still in it, but it came back to me, retreating just as fast as it had come out.

It snapped back into me, and I leaned against the wall, breathing hard as nausea swirled inside me. Sweat dampened my skin, and I held my knees. I took long, slow breaths, trying to stop the disorientation.

I had only just got my head back from its threatening blackout when my shadows hissed. They squirmed and writhed around the twins. I ran over, and the twins were wide-eyed. Their shadows were leaking too.

My skin tingled as his scent hit me.

A damp earth smell with a poison tang to it.

Silas.

I sucked in a breath, wrapping my shadows tighter around the twins. My eyes scanned the room, locking on the door as it slowly swung open.

My heart raced so fucking fast, I stepped in front of the twins’ crib, narrowing my eyes on the door.

Silas came into the room, his steps slow and calculated. He wore a smug grin, his eyes red and beady.

“Well, well, well. What do we have here?”