No Turning Back

There was a massive flow of huge warriors coming in. These didn’t have the fearful, frail look that the other males lingering around camp did.

These were huge, muscled, well-trained-looking beasts.

It dawned on me that they were likely part of the core Roamers Pack. These looked much more like the bulky Roamers alpha.

“There’s too many,” Huntley said nervously. “I didn’t know there were that many strong males. They weren’t here earlier.”

“They’re returning from somewhere,” Victor said flatly, grimacing.

“We’re not turning back.” Our alpha joined us.

Beyond our alpha, there were other crouched silhouettes.

“Take the big shack,” Alpha told us. “We’ll handle the rest.”

There was an explosion of movement. Nearly the whole Borders Pack was creeping down the hillside behind us while we fought the Roamers guards.

Relief soared through me.

The Roamers warriors rounded and saw the Borders infesting their camp.

Huntley’s scouting hadn’t accounted for a hunting party.

They gave a battle cry and charged toward us. One shouted, “Kill them!”

Battle ensued.

The door to the hut we faced was thrown open.

Now was our chance.

I looked back and saw the Borders viciously attacking.

Our alpha seemed to face two directions at once. He slashed one way with a short sword before rounding and doing the same on the other side. He ducked their blades and cut through legs.

Behind him was Sabar, wielding a giant wooden weapon that he brought down on the Roamers the same way Laura had shown me to hit the metal pins in my hut.

The rousing enemy wolves shook their heads blearily from their doorways. Their senses dulled from recent slumber.

Before anyone could get near me and my mates, our Alpha and Laura were there. A blur of motion moving wildly.

They were both armed and experts with their blades.

I was impressed. I hadn’t known that about Laura.

~Was he teaching her, like my mates had taught me? ~

Nearly every night while food cooked, they’d taught me how to move and duck, and when to plunge my dagger forward.

~Did he do that for her?~

I readied my dagger and rushed the Roamers alpha’s huts. Flanked by my mates.

As I got there, I managed to sink my blade into his stomach before he could react. But before I could do anything more, I was caught by my hair and hauled back outside into the chaos of battle.

My mates kept fighting the Roamers alpha. Though he was expertly turning sideways and avoiding their blades, ducking their punches and generally tossing their weapons away from him with great skill.

I reached back and clawed the hand fisting my hair. But I could hardly get any grip.

“What have we here?” A Roamers warrior rasped from behind me. His breath stank of rot.

Teeth sunk deep into my shoulder. I cried out, clutching at my shoulder. His teeth were still embedded in my skin.

Hot blood seeped over my hand and saturated my clothes. It called up the dizzying visions and coppery scent of it on that floor so long ago.

I shoved that image from my mind, refusing to succumb to it now. I focused on trying to get free.

He shook his head roughly and ripped out a chunk of flesh.

I yipped in pain and pressed my palm against it to try and stem the bleeding. I was on my toes to keep my scalp from being torn free.

My mates had realized I wasn’t next to them and rounded on this male, weapons drawn.

“Slit her throat!” the Roamers’ alpha ordered him.

Fear exploded like a building fire behind my eyes.

“No!”

“Drop your weapons!” my attacker declared. “Or I kill your she-wolf.”

“No, you won’t!” a woman’s voice announced from behind him. She jammed her blade between his ribs and up into his heart.

He made a gurgling sound.

I felt the hot splash of blood down my side.

I gasped and lifted my hands in shock. But the blood wasn’t mine.

I was freed.

But my head bloomed with pain and my vision blurred. I turned and saw it was Laura that had just put the male down.

More Roamers appeared and my mates charged them.

Laura shouted for me to duck. Another dagger swiped where I’d been standing.

I managed to dodge it by crouching. I rolled from this new threat’s reach.

These Roamers were formidable.

Another male rushed us, and I swiped my dagger a couple times and took him down before he could fully reach us.

Our alpha put his back to mine. Laura fell into place beside him.

“So, what are we doing now?” I asked them.

“This is a powerful camp.” He looked around. “The best way to dismantle it is to bring down their alpha.”

My mates were as much wild fury as our alpha and Laura. Together, we were unstoppable. Blood splattered and splashed. I managed to keep it together, fighting the flashes of red vision.

~Not right now,~ I told the haunting memories.

I felt the surge of my wolf beneath my skin and knew she was with me.

We fought our way to the Roamers alpha’s shack. More enemy warriors descended upon us.

When Laura and I pushed open the door of the shack, the Roamers alpha was waiting inside. The moment we stepped in to look around, he quietly stepped from behind the door and pushed it closed. A barricade fell down across the door.

My heart fell with it. The chaos of battle raged just beyond that door.

“I smelled you coming.” His eyes were hooded. His scarred face showed his interest. “You have the most delicious scent. Perhaps I should leave my musk on you.”

I gritted my teeth in disgust. Nauseous at the mere thought that another male would dare touch me.

~I belong to my mates. No male touches me!~

Laura stood quietly behind me. Her hands flexing around her blade.

He rose, leaning on the fireplace as he eyed Laura. The height and breadth of this beast was nightmarish. As the fire danced, it illuminated over the giant scar slashing down his face. A stark reminder of my past.

I could immediately recall him ordering the slaughter of my brothers. Telling me that I’d be his. I felt my body shudder and took several slow breaths.

~Be strong.~ I summoned my wolf to steady those weaknesses in my human form. ~Fill them in. Keep me strong.~

I felt her shifting and I felt myself focusing. The blurs around my vision lifted away.

“You threatened to claim me.”

“I can see now, you won’t be so easily swayed. Which means I’ll have to kill you. A shame, truly.”

“A favor. I’d take that over you.”

He chuckled. “Careful. Fear can make wolves do incredible things.”

“Like joining your pack?”

He laughed. “Like ~anything, fly.”

It was an odd feeling to stare into the eyes of someone you knew truly wanted you dead. Someone who’d kill you the first chance you got.

It felt like staring gray death in the eyes.

There was a screeching howl far in the distance and the alpha’s head popped up. His brows lowered. The first sign of alarm crossing his face.

“What?” I asked triumphantly, carefully edging closer.

“Sounded like someone I know,” the scarred alpha said.

~Martha. ~

“It should. It’s your mate. My pack has her.”

His face flashed with anger.

~Good. Now you know some of my pain. ~

“Do you think you’ll hear it?”

“What?” he snapped impatiently.

“When they kill her? Will you smell it?”

His eyes narrowed. “Do it, and I’ll rip your playful little mates apart.”

~Playful?~

“You were watching us at the river all those days.”

“I could smell you.” He sniffed in my direction. “Your sex.”

My anxiousness was creating a rise of anxiety beyond the hut.

~My mates can feel my unease.~

I could almost sense the heartbeat of each of them. Nearly hear their breaths in my ears as they worried if I was okay.

“I’m going to rip you apart, little she-wolf.”