Adams frantic roars echoed loudly in the yard as she sagged in his arms, his wolf howling in despair and fury as her blood ran hot over his hands.
"Healer!" Adam's roar tore through the yard again as two magick users ran from the hall they had been feasting at only minutes earlier, and dropped beside him, already pulling their knives to cut cloth away, their voices raised in indecipherable spellwork.
Their hands pressed to Ann's wound, trying to stop the flow but her blood was steadily soaking their sleeves, and their faces were becoming paler by the second.
"She's losing too much…"
"Save her," Adam snarled, his voice lethal. "You'll save her or you'll die trying."
They carried her into the infirmary, guards slamming the doors shut as if steel could keep death out. Adam's wolf raged against it, wanting to tear the doors down and stay by her side but the alarm bells hammered, and the roar outside pulled him back, his wolf focusing solely on destroying the people that would dare to take his mate and pups from him.
In the dark of Ann's mind, Maeve paced anxiously.
"No, not like this. Not for us. Hold on, Ann. Hold on for them. For the pups."
The gates in the courtyard shook once, then twice and then broke apart completely.
Ely's horrors poured through unhindered, their flesh warped, bones bent at wrong angles, and mouths split too wide with teeth not meant for men. Their eyes were blind, but their heads turned as if sniffing the air.
The first wolves hit the horrors in the yard with everything they had. Claws ripped flesh that barely held together. Jaws tore into throats and didn't let go, even as teeth snapped down on their spines. Bodies slammed onto the stone hard enough to crack it and wolves ripped limbs loose, shaking and crunching them between their jaws until the bones split and splintered. Blood and black ichor sprayed across the yard, soaking fur and stone alike.
Adam shifted mid-stride, his wolf bursting free in a snap of bones and tearing skin, his massive paws cracking the ground under him. His chest heaved with fury, not fear, as his mate was bleeding out inside those walls. His pups were still inside her, and nothing that came through the gate would live to threaten them.
He threw back his head and roared first in words, his voice carrying over the chaos.
"For the Queen!"
And then, the words broke into a howl, raw and primal, his wolf ripping it from his chest.
The yard answered as one. Wolves howled, Lycans bellowed, magick users shouted with them until it shook the stones. One voice. One rage. One vow.
Then they charged.
Adam struck the first abomination head-on. His claws raked deep, opening its chest in four long gouges before his jaws locked on its neck. He tore until bone gave way, then ripped the head free and flung it aside. The next came from the left, a mass of arms and fangs. Adam hit it low, slammed it onto its back, and gutted it with one brutal rake of his claws. The thing screamed until his teeth closed on its face and silenced it.
Around him, wolves and Lycans fought like the damned. A wolf hung from an abomination's throat until it fell. A Lycan drove his fist straight through another's ribcage and pulled free its heart. Magick users incinerated teh corpses of the flesh constructs until there was nothing left that could be turned against them and lit the gaps in their lines with fire, holding lines just long enough for claws and teeth to finish the work. Every strike was savage, desperate, and a brutal fight for survival.
Inside the infirmary, healers pressed hard at Ann's side. The wound spread black lines across her skin, but the edges refused to close. Light flared from their hands, but dimmed just as fast.
Thalia bent over her, her voice raw.
"It's poisoned, it has to be. Dark magick runs through the cut…look, it's spreading."
The door slammed open and the Luna of Ethereum strode in, her wolf bright in her eyes.
"Take me," she said, already moving to the cot. "My wolf demands it. My strength, hers, both. Use them."
Thalia caught her wrist and pulled her in. Their hands joined over Ann's chest, light sparking between them. Power surged into Thalia, straining her arms as she forced her spellwork into the wound, even the bed rattled under the effort.
For a moment, Ann's pulse lifted but then, it slipped again.
"It's not enough," Thalia whispered.
Maeve prowled the dark of Ann's mind.
"Not her. Not them. You don't get to take her." She snarled as she wrapped herself around Ann's soul and the tiny sparks that flickering inside of her. "If there's no saving them without sacrifice, then take me instead to satisfy your hunger." she said, her voice dropping to almost a whisper as she begged the curse for mercy that she knew didn't exist.
Ann's pulse faltered and the healers froze.
Then, the door burst open again and Leopold stumbled inside, his eyes wild. He dropped to his knees at the side of Ann's bed and the grief he felt was etched clearly on his face.
"Tell me what to do." He begged Thalia unashamedly as tears streamed down his cheeks.
Thalia looked down at him, her face tight, knowing that there was only one answer to fix this.
"It's not just poison, your grace. It's a blood curse. It's meant to spread until it takes her life. I can try to draw it out and pass part of it into you. Your strength might give me enough to heal her. But it will most likely kill you."
Leopold's hands shook where they gripped the edge of her bed.
"But if it kills me, does the curse die with me?"
"Yes," Thalia said, firmly, "It's cast with the sole purpose of taking a life and will not stop until its goal is achieved.
"Then do it." Leopold answered firmly, "After what I've done to her...to her mother... this is my penance. If my life ends the curse and saves hers and my grandchildren, then that's what I'll give. What better legacy of my love for them can I leave behind."
Thalia hesitated, then nodded once.
"Then give it freely...she has to take it."
Leopold took Ann's hand in both of his, his grip trembling as he bent over her, his voice breaking as he spoke.
"I love you, Ann. I should have said it sooner. I give you everything that I have left…I love ..you…"
His body tensed as Thalia grimaced under the strain of moving the heart of the curse to Leopold and then, as his strength was pulled from him, his body sagged.
His head dropped against the cot, his hand still locked around hers.
The healers cried out as the light blazed between them and Ann's body arched once, then fell still. Her pulse hammered weakly, then slipped again.
Maeve's voice screamed frantically in the dark.
"Take it, Ann! Take what's yours and Live!"
And then silence.
Outside, the yard was carnage.
One horror came on four legs, its spine arched, and its extra limbs jutting like spears. Wolves swarmed it instantly, their claws shredding hide, but it threw them clear. Adam smashed into it from the side, his massive wolf digging and tearing at its side until it was split open and black ichor poured across the stones.
Another rose on six arms, each ending in blades fused to bone. A pack of Lycans hit it at once, their weight dragging it down. It screamed with a mouth that split across its chest before Adam tore it silent.
Handlers moved behind them, men marked with Ely's sigils. Their commands rattled the horrors, making wolves falter. A magick user broke the command with fire, burning the handler alive, the smell of charred flesh choking the air.
But more came.
Corrupted Lycans drove into the line, half-wolf, half-wrong, their eyes black pits. They tore into their kin without restraint. A Dark Moon wolf fell screaming, and a refugee Lycan broke the corrupted one's spine, then went back to the fight without pausing to take a breath.
Adam ripped an abomination's throat out, he crushed another's skull in his jaws. his claws opened a handler's chest, ribs splitting under the force in a vicious dance that left no room for a break. He hunted without pause, a force of pure rage tearing through the yard.
The fight dragged on towards dawn and finally, the last of Ely's creations were broken and incinerated, their handlers screaming retreat as their warped beasts fled into the trees.
Silence came slowly, broken only by the groans of the wounded. The palace walls stood scarred, the training yard now little more than a graveyard dotted with wolves bloodied but alive, lycans scarred but standing and magick users burned but breathing.
Adam shifted back, and stared at Ann's dried blood still on his arms, visible amongst the black ichor of the abominations. His hands shook, not from weakness but rage.
He looked at the survivors, all of them watching him for further orders as the nobles cowered in the shadows of the hall, silent now.
Adam's voice carried slearly over the yard.
"We march. No more waiting for them to come to us. No more walls. We carry this war to their gates."
The roar that answered shook the foundations of the palace itself.
Adam stood in the wreckage, Ann's blood still on his chest, and swore there would be no retreat.