Allison P.O.V. The wait for Bane and his band of misfits seems to take forever, but truly we only wait a couple moments longer before they penetrate the border and we get mindlinks from our warriors about their advancement. Blake squeezed my hand, looking into my eyes. For a moment everything else disappears and it’s only him and I out here. ‘I love you Allie! Stay alive and kick some ass.’ I grin, raising an eyebrow. ‘I love you too, Blake! You stay alive as well, or I will have to come hunting for your soul in Selene’s world, and I’m not sure she would be happy about that.’ His laughter in my mind is raw and hoarse. ‘Athena needs both her parents. Stay with us.’ I continue more softly, watching as the light in his eyes soften with my voice and my plea. ‘I would never leave you without a fight.’ He replies, bending down and capturing me in a whirlwind of a kiss. Someone claps, and we break apart. I look to the side to see Bane standing stark naked in front of his army, his eyes g
Blake P.O.V. The chaos of the battlefield is total. Dawn moved the group she was supposed to in the trap we laid for them. I stayed and engaged the main group and Bane, kept him distracted so Dawn could get away. Shadow moves seamlessly through the enemy and allies, killing all who dares try to defy him and helping all who are outnumbered by the rogues. Bane’s wolf keeps back, watching and delegating I guess. The blackness was supposed to render us confused and blinded, and the fact that we are not is giving the chaos another dimension. Bane’s wolf snarls as one of my warriors is in front of him, growling and challenging him to fight. I urge Shadow to go to the young wolf. Mindlinks are a total chaos as well, and I’m not sure the young man will heed me in time, although I am his Alpha he might be too engrossed in the battle and the bloodrush to recognize my command before it’s too late.Shadow sprints towards the scene with Bane’s wolf and our warrior. They are still just snarling a
Talia P.O.V. That was a close call on Tristan. Luckily we reached him in time before his soul left his body, otherwise there would have been nothing we could do. Tabatha and I teleport to our next destination. We bound ourselves to the others before the battle started without them knowing, which is why we knew he had been severely hurt, and we felt it when his heart stopped like it was in ourselves. “That was a close call, Tal.” My sister says, looking around for enemies in our proximity. I nod gloomily, knowing we won’t be this lucky all night. We can’t be everywhere, and Tristan needed the both of us. He was just very fortunate that we were together and could reach him. “I know. We need to form a plan.” Tabatha gives me a grim grin. “So, you’re saying teleporting all around the area to defend our friends and family isn’t much of a plan?” She asks, blocking a rogue, sending him flying away from Alpha Pete’s wolf. He looks around, sees us and nods once before he is back in another
Tabatha P.O.V. I didn’t like the idea of splitting up with Talia, but she was right; we would cover more ground this way. I know our family is spread out through the battle as I can feel their dark auras pulsing in different directions, but the thought of her going into that training ground alone. The aftermath of the blast held so much dark power, it must be a trap. I shake it off mentally. Talia will know it’s a trap and prepare accordingly. She always was the smartest of the two of us. I’m more like a punch first, ask later kinda girl. It took a lot of fucking balls on our part to leave our family behind in the first place, and now we are going to protect our peace with everything we have! I swore to Talia that no matter what happens, I will fight on. The gloom tries to settle into my heart, but I push it away. We’re not going to die today. Not her, not me. “Warrior, DUCK!” I yell at one of our allies. He throws himself to the ground, and I blast the enemy with an energy ball, m
Tabatha P.O.V.“Can you get in touch with your Alpha, Damien?” I ask, trying to think fast. We need to move, and we need everyone to understand the severity of the situation. “Of course. You want him here?” I shake my head, we’ll need to be somewhere else, somewhere safer. A place where we can regroup. I sigh. There is nowhere safer than here at the moment. The battle has completely died down here because of the blast and the vast numbers of dead still on the ground. I close my eyes, feeling for Talia ‘s aura as well as Ophelia’s and Ethan’s; they are not in our vicinity. Someone is. Someone who I don’t recognize immediately. I frown, but right now I just need to focus on this task. I handle this person if they make a move. I make sure to put a passive tracking spell on him, so I know where he is at all times. I know it’s a he, but something is off and familiar at the same time. This is going to drive me crazy. “Yeah, I actually think it is as good as anywhere. If he can get some of
Allie P.O.V.“Wakey wakey little bitch.” A whiny female voice says in my ear, while nails dig into my throat. I’m tied to a chair, and the female is nauseatingly close to me, her perfume almost making me gag. I recognize her voice immediately and Dawn growls in my head, but I chose to not let it show as I slowly ‘wake up’. Apparently it’s too slow for her, because she lets me go, only to douse me with cold water. I blink the water out of my eyes, lifting my head to see Lucy’s smug face smirking at me. “Well, well. How the tables have turned, huh.” She says victoriously, but I ignore the obvious jab. I instead search the room with my eyes and find a still unconscious Athale opposite me, also tied to a chair. Dammit. So they got her too. Something hits me like a ton of bricks. Tristan came. He came to help us. He must have been close to the blast, but not close enough to be affected by it. He found us in the forest. They killed him. Tristan died trying to protect Athale and me from bein
Talia P.O.V. “Come on, babe, we need to bring her to your parents. We’re not getting answers out of her.” Ethan says with irritation lacing his voice. They have kept out of the trap they set for me, knowing they seal themselves in here with me, on my terms, if they did. The first thing I did when they let up on the electric shocks a little, was search the little snare they had laid out. It was way out of both their leagues, and I decided my mother or father must be the ones who set it up. They made sure only the person who is directly inside the pattern in the ground is trapped, and his or her active powers do not work on those outside. Searching and understanding the concept of the trap is a passive magic, so it worked quite fine. It also told me they had to render me unconscious or put dampening cuffs on me to move me. “NO! I finally have her where I have wanted her for decades. Centuries. Helpless. She is mine!” Ophelia screams at Ethan, who takes a step back from my sister's ou
Bane P.O.V.I finally had her where I wanted her. She was here and she couldn’t do a single thing to me. I was going to enjoy breaking her little by little, seeing the light that shined so brilliant in her eyes now dim with every blow and stab. I had planned meticulously for her capture. For my victory. And then someone from the outside had to fucking ruin everything. I was allowed to be there when they captured Annabel and that witch bitch, but I could not touch her, could not be near her. I wanted to taunt her; see her face when she realized I was winning, but no. They put them in a room with a guard, and told that fucktard of a guard to not let me in. I was livid. The only good thing to come out of this was Lucy. She came to us when we came for Annabel, and she joined our forces. At least she could be a distraction amidst my anger. And she was more than willing to play my little games. She told me everything she knows about her former pack, her former Alpha and made me promise to
Talia P.O.V.Everyone is pointing at us. Tabatha discreetly grabs my hand, her other hand locking around a golden chain pendant. The Coven Mother’s will have a similar one, sending their magical stored power into and sharing it with us, so we can draw on it when the fight goes down. I can feel the power vibrating in the air between the lineup. This is it. The passing of small blows and blasts were just the beginning. A test to see which side would lose its patience first. Of course it would be Caitlyn. She never had any patience with any of us when we were children either. Flashback “You are not putting in all of your strength, Talia.” Mother says, looking at me with her dark disappointed eyes. My little sister is lying on the ground crying from what I actually did throw at her, so I don’t understand why it matters. “She doesn’t like to hurt anyone, mother.” Tabatha interrupts, stepping in front of me as usual. She is always nearby, ready to jump in and protect me if she feels it n
Allie P.O.V.‘Dawn, we need to make sure they are following us back to the pack!’ I tell my wolf as we are running at full speed with Shadow at our side. Everyone else is behind us, Elliott’s wolf, Thor, on our six, watching our back.‘They are following us, don’t worry!’ Dawn replies as a growl rips through the air. We both know that growl from the day we first shifted. It belongs to Bane’s wolf and he is close to our trail. We need to go faster. I mindlink Elliott telling him to split up and take some warriors with him, he breaks left away from us at the next turn, taking half of the people they summoned with him. ‘Neptune, where are you?’ I include Blake in the mindlink to our Delta, mostly so Neptune knows we are both okay. ‘With Tabatha and her mate at the packhouse. We are getting innocents out of here before everything goes to hell when you all come back.’ Neptune answers. ‘If I might say so, Alpha Allie.’ He adds, probably thinking he offended me. ‘Good! Can one of you make
Tabatha P.O.V. “You always were a big disappointment to your parents, Tabatha. And now we find you whoring yourself out to wolves and other disgusting lowlives. No wonder your mother is distraught and grieving.” My aunt taunts, while smirking at the wolves by my side. I asked both Neptune and Damien to shift back into their wolf forms so no one saw who they were in human form. “You do know the bitch you are calling my mother, so not the woman who carried me and Talia and birthed us, right?” I ask, rolling my eyes. I am just keeping a shield in front of myself and the wolves for now. My aunt is a talker, not a fighter. She’ll run for the hills the moment she even thinks she has to fight me, and I need to save on my magic. A shield draws almost nothing from me, besides, Damien allowed me to draw some strength from him through our matebond. Although we haven't mated and marked each other, our matebond is strong and will only get stronger as time goes on. “Of course she did.” Aunt spit
Blake P.O.V.It was supposed to be easy. It was supposed to be over before it really got started. But now here we are hunting for Allie and Athale, Tristan is in the hospital recuperating from his temperate stay in the world of the unalived and we are nowhere near the end of the battle. Shadow is going crazy in the search for his mate, knowing she is properly with that insane bastard to Bane all the while we are looking for her. We promised to protect her, and we screwed up! I should never have agreed to this plan. ‘It’s too late for what if’s. We just need to find her in time and make sure she never leaves our side ever again!’ Shadow grumbles. I have to agree with my grumpy wolf. We are never letting our little mate out of our sight again after tonight! We’ve been searching for some time when the air ripples in front of us. Thor immediately puts himself between the ripple and Shadow, trying to protect us. Shadow snorts, but I shush him, proud of Thor and Elliott. They are acting l
Talia P.O.V. “So we’re all in agreement?” The wolves nod and I smile. After I teleported us via my focus on Blake, we landed right in front of him and Elliott’s wolves. They were taken very off guard, and I was lucky they recognized me in time to not attack out right. I hadn’t really thought this through - I just knew I needed to get to them fast and this was the fastest way I knew how to get to them. Ethan and Ophelia, strongly encouraged by the snapping teeth and growls of the two huge wolves and the fact that they can’t use their magics because of the cuffs, showed us the way to their base of operations. Of course they would choose the old Marigold packhouse. The irony of that location was something Bane and my parents could not pass up even if they wanted to. I put a strong illusion on the cuffs on Ophelia and Ethan so only they and I could see them, making sure my parents would think they had truly taken me hostage. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. I was going to be a hoot
Bane P.O.V.I finally had her where I wanted her. She was here and she couldn’t do a single thing to me. I was going to enjoy breaking her little by little, seeing the light that shined so brilliant in her eyes now dim with every blow and stab. I had planned meticulously for her capture. For my victory. And then someone from the outside had to fucking ruin everything. I was allowed to be there when they captured Annabel and that witch bitch, but I could not touch her, could not be near her. I wanted to taunt her; see her face when she realized I was winning, but no. They put them in a room with a guard, and told that fucktard of a guard to not let me in. I was livid. The only good thing to come out of this was Lucy. She came to us when we came for Annabel, and she joined our forces. At least she could be a distraction amidst my anger. And she was more than willing to play my little games. She told me everything she knows about her former pack, her former Alpha and made me promise to
Talia P.O.V. “Come on, babe, we need to bring her to your parents. We’re not getting answers out of her.” Ethan says with irritation lacing his voice. They have kept out of the trap they set for me, knowing they seal themselves in here with me, on my terms, if they did. The first thing I did when they let up on the electric shocks a little, was search the little snare they had laid out. It was way out of both their leagues, and I decided my mother or father must be the ones who set it up. They made sure only the person who is directly inside the pattern in the ground is trapped, and his or her active powers do not work on those outside. Searching and understanding the concept of the trap is a passive magic, so it worked quite fine. It also told me they had to render me unconscious or put dampening cuffs on me to move me. “NO! I finally have her where I have wanted her for decades. Centuries. Helpless. She is mine!” Ophelia screams at Ethan, who takes a step back from my sister's ou
Allie P.O.V.“Wakey wakey little bitch.” A whiny female voice says in my ear, while nails dig into my throat. I’m tied to a chair, and the female is nauseatingly close to me, her perfume almost making me gag. I recognize her voice immediately and Dawn growls in my head, but I chose to not let it show as I slowly ‘wake up’. Apparently it’s too slow for her, because she lets me go, only to douse me with cold water. I blink the water out of my eyes, lifting my head to see Lucy’s smug face smirking at me. “Well, well. How the tables have turned, huh.” She says victoriously, but I ignore the obvious jab. I instead search the room with my eyes and find a still unconscious Athale opposite me, also tied to a chair. Dammit. So they got her too. Something hits me like a ton of bricks. Tristan came. He came to help us. He must have been close to the blast, but not close enough to be affected by it. He found us in the forest. They killed him. Tristan died trying to protect Athale and me from bein
Tabatha P.O.V.“Can you get in touch with your Alpha, Damien?” I ask, trying to think fast. We need to move, and we need everyone to understand the severity of the situation. “Of course. You want him here?” I shake my head, we’ll need to be somewhere else, somewhere safer. A place where we can regroup. I sigh. There is nowhere safer than here at the moment. The battle has completely died down here because of the blast and the vast numbers of dead still on the ground. I close my eyes, feeling for Talia ‘s aura as well as Ophelia’s and Ethan’s; they are not in our vicinity. Someone is. Someone who I don’t recognize immediately. I frown, but right now I just need to focus on this task. I handle this person if they make a move. I make sure to put a passive tracking spell on him, so I know where he is at all times. I know it’s a he, but something is off and familiar at the same time. This is going to drive me crazy. “Yeah, I actually think it is as good as anywhere. If he can get some of