Chapter 17

Freya’s pov

The world had shrunken to two points of pure terror: the rough bark of the tree grinding into my back and the sight of my daughter, dangling over leaping flames.

All I could do was watch in silence as I prayed for the moon goddess to help me in any way she could.

One of them, their leader I think, whose face was shadowed by the darkness looked at me with a smile which had me shuddering in place.

“You look really good for someone about to be used by four wolves. We don’t like sharing so we’re taking out your daughter so you can be in heat and be with us. Hope that works for you.”

I was disgusted by their ways and it hurt me with his hands being on my neck, digging into me with each breath I took.

"Please,” I begged, the word wrenched in a jagged tear from my throat. “Please, she’s just a child. Take me. Do whatever you want to me. Just let her go.”

The man holding me laughed in a low and brutal way, his breath sour with that night's meal. “Quiet down, girl,” he said. “Your turn’ll come soon enough. We just need to make sure you’re desperate enough for us to use you. Have you ever been used by four wolves before? I’m sure you’ve fantasized about it before.”

“Please just let me go with my daughter.”

The brute holding Zara gave a cruel grin and swung her slightly over the hungry fire.

That’s when the air changed.

It wasn’t the lack of sound at first that made me know something was wrong. It was something else that I couldn’t put my finger on.

A growl emanated from the forest by my left as I turned with everyone.

And there he was. Zac.

He stood right on the edge of the clearing. Just out of the reach of the fire. But he wasn’t just standing there. He was… I don’t know, vibrating? His eyes weren't normal brown eyes, they were filled with rags and I could see them glowing yellow. They were looking straight at me, then over to Zara, who dangled above the flames.

I saw his face. I saw the exact moment something in him just… broke. It wasn’t anger. It was something older, darker. Something primal.

He didn’t roar. He didn’t scream. The change happened in a second, in a sound of tearing clothing and shifting bone that was over before you could suck breath. One second he was a man, the next he was… more.

His wolf form was massive, larger than any other I’d seen. Eight feet if he was an inch, a solid wall of muscle and jet-black fur. Power poured from him, thick and heavy enough to taste.

“Zac,” I muttered and to be honest I was so happy he was here. I was safe… or not.

He didn’t wait.

He moved like lightning. A black blur, and he was on the first rogue, the one who’d been laughing at me. There was no fight. There was just… an impact.

A terrible, wet, tearing sound. And then that one was just… gone. In pieces. Scattered all over the ground like nothing had happened.

I almost threw up at the thought of what I had seen. That image would forever be burned in my head.

The second rogue barely had time to shift his own claws before Zac turned to him. It happened so fast. A massive paw, claws like blades, swiped through the air and slammed into him until there was a sickening crunch, almost like when a melon smashed on stone and the second man dropped, his head broken into pieces with his brain sloshed onto the ground.

The third, the one holding my Zara, gaped in shock. He fumbled, almost dropping her, his brain apparently fried between fight and flight.

He made the totally shitty decision of shaking Zara like a rag while extending her over the flames as a shield.

“Back off! I’ll drop her! I swear I will!”

I watched Zac tilt his large wolf head to the side and then he just… disappeared.

I blinked. The Rogue blinked too, the one holding Zara.

We looked around as we couldn’t track zac. He was using his wolf speed.

“Where are you?!” The rogue yelled into the air as a shadow fell over the rogue from behind as Zac appeared out of thin air right there.

The rogue turned as Zac’s jaw closed down on him with a swift sure bite. There was no way the rogue would have escaped those jaws as his body went limp under those jaws.

And Zara, my baby, tumbled free to the ground.

Before she could hit the ground, Zac caught her with ease and held her in his arms. Slowly, he dropped her to the cool grass several feet away from the fire.

The last rogue, the one holding me pinned, saw it all. His fingers on my throat closed, choking off my breath, and for an instant there was nothing between my vision but shreds of blackness.

He then used me as a shield to put between him and a closing in zac.

"Stay where you are!" His voice came out as thin as paper now, filled with terror. "I’ll kill her! I swear it! I‘ll snap her neck if you take another step!"

We were both looking at Zac, at the monstrous, beautiful wolf who now towered over my still form. He turned those glowing golden eyes toward us. They had no pity. No love to give. Only a cold and terrible threat.

The man behind me trembled. “I said, don’t move!”

We were looking right at him. Right into his eyes.

And then he was gone.

Just… vanished from our sight.

There was a blank space between us as I wondered what would happen when I felt it. A warm, wet spray across the side of my face and neck.

I screamed as I stayed in place for a while before hearing a thud.

Slowly, I turned to see the headless body of the last rogue slumped at the base of the tree. And standing beside it was Zac.

Not the wolf.

Zac. Naked. Covered in blood that wasn’t his own. Steam rose from his skin into the freezing night air.

He stared at me while panting hard as if he had run a marathon.

I was covered in blood. I could smell it. Taste it on my skin.I thought i might be sick.

Zac took a step toward me.

I cowered as he placed his hands to my shoulders. “Are you okay?”