I crawl backward, trembling in instant fear because I know this is a matter of fight or die, and I need to be stronger than I was ten minutes ago. He almost ended me so easily with one swipe that it’s pathetic.
Call myself Luna? I’m a complete failure.
I need to get my head together and outsmart him while my body tries to heal, give myself time to power up. I steady my breathing, willing all the energy I can muster up to save me from him, and homing in on the part of me I rarely have to use. It just means he has to get close for me to absorb what he has when I’m this low, to draw from his strength instead of my own, and it may be more useful than energy balls which seem to be failing me.
Colton’s fast, even by Lycan standards, and I get up in a dash to backward run in an attempt to coax him to me and almost get decapitated in the process as a new clawed paw tries to take my head off.
I don’t think so, bitch!!
Carmen’s sassy voice in the link rings through my head, that superior tone that I used to hate, but now I sort of love as she comes down over the top of me, seemingly from thin air, and drags it with her in a tumbling roll sideways. Taking the male down with a swoop and aggressive snatch at his head. I see Colton flashing towards me, visually targeting his prey, and that look of determined malice makes my blood run cold. I just need a second of his touch, brief contact, enough to feel his gifts surging, and then I’ll be able to deflect them. He pushes through the battling bodies between us, seemingly slowing and taking his time to savor the fact I’m no longer running and instead intent on letting him get to me. Heart pounding behind my ribcage like a war drum, and body trembling with both lack of blood and the icy swell of terror.
I turn my body so that if he catches me again with his claw, the injury will be less devastating and in a place that won’t make me bleed out in seconds. I tense and brace myself for the impact I know will come and close my eyes for a second to will up the internal energy to somehow do this. Sierra was right, the blood loss isn’t rectified, and I can barely pull myself around with efficiency, let alone take on a wolf like him.
I fall backward with a strangled cry of surprise as the expected full weight of my mate tears down on me like a savage. Taking me from behind in a rugby tackle and throwing us both out of the arc of the ditch where I was shielding. He seemed to have meant to plow through me so I would end up splattered to the floor under him, but his sheer size ends up being a softer cushion and dampener for me as a human, and his arms under my back take the full brunt of our fall. We sort of tuck and tumble as we scramble together, molded into one body as I hold on to protect myself.
I end up curled against his chest, clinging on for a moment with sheer desperation as we roll through the dirt and somehow collide with a huge rock sitting proud from the forest floor, which thuds us to a halt. His spine meets cold grey matter with a sickening thwack, and it’s enough to crumble the entire side away. Rendering him momentarily stunned as he grunts in pain from sheer impact. His arms splay out, releasing me from his cloying hold, and it’s all the time I need to feed from his strength, his speed. His fierce being drawn into me as I absorb everything I can with our physical meshing together. I can feel it, like the inhaling of smoke from the air, into my lungs and through my veins, only it’s Colton’s essence I seem to be drawing out.
I panic as my wolf self almost rips control from me with the intensity of his powers, riling her into action and eager to be free to protect me. I have to grapple with staying human with all I have inside, but with his matching strength, I soar suddenly with new life and find the power to jump to my feet as he does. I grab his wrist as he goes for me, twist it back, and deflect every swipe, punch, and thrust that reigns towards me with blink speed reaction, thwarting every move. Colton roars in anger at my newfound skill and somehow manages to leg swipe me with one of his huge paws as we both crash to the ground again. I tuck myself inwards to protect my abdomen, twisting away from him to avoid his weight on me again, but he catches me around the leg. His claws curled around my narrow limb rather than piercing me. I yank and pull, attempting to keep lashing at him while avoiding his razor-sharp weapons as we roll around in the dirt and collect debris and gravel as we maneuver into wrestle holds rather than blows.
I’m faster this way, and he gets angry as hell as I block the blows, hold off the attempts to bite and maim, and seem to hold my own for as long as I can successfully. It would be easier as a wolf. So much easier, but I’m aware the whole time of the two life forces I’m protecting in my body, and I’m careful with every duck, hit, and lurch to keep that part of me shielded beneath the metal panel and free from impact. Thanking God, the armor saves me from bumps and scrapes more than I thought it would. It may not withstand Lycan impaling, but the natural world is a little less able to penetrate it.
I hear the faint howls and the constant noises of battles around us and catch sight of Carmen still throwing around the brown wolf she saved me from, but Sierra is out of sight. She is probably fighting her own little war as we all aim to get through this alive. Even with our numbers, we’re barely keeping even with the strongest of our pack, and many are failing. They have more skill and speed, more battle experience; I already know so many of ours have passed at their hands.
A blood-curdling howl tears me from my focus, stunning my brain as a throbbing pain rips through my body and renders me completely useless. Clutching my head and ears and crying out in despair at the brutal invasion, it feels like my entire brain wants to self-implode. It’s Carmen, it has to be, and she’s using her weapon to fight back where I guess she, too, is struggling to stay in control. Giving the pack an instant head bashing and a few minutes of disorientation and bleeding eardrums.
I’m momentarily disabled from the shock attack and crumble to the ground with a gasp and shudder, hitting the floor like a sack of rubble. Only so does Colton, also unable to defend himself against her unique power, and we fall apart, groaning as ache from a wound we didn’t inflict on one another makes us crumble and moan. A new wave of warmth and pain spears through my central body as the sound ebbs away and my ears start ringing, but it’s nowhere near the intensity of this instant stabbing.
I can’t catch my breath with its appearance, and I splay my hands out to scramble across the dirt as I waiver with disorientation. I try to block out the pulsating boom of stunned hearing as I attempt to pull oxygen from around me. I battle to fill my lungs, choking, intensifying, and unable to breathe while a heavy weight, crushing my ribs and sudden tearing and slicing, reverberates through my upper body. It feels like Colton impaled me, but he’s still strewn nearby and suffering a similar fate, so it can’t be him.
Panic floods me that the inability to inhale is worse than Carmen’s head puncturing, and I don’t know what’s happening. I’m aware Colton is writhing mere feet beside me, clutching his ribs too, but my entire focus is on the slow suffocation as I grasp at my chest and claw at my throat to try and gain oxygen. Confused, inner chaos grows as I open my mouth wide, gulping, but yet get nothing. My eyes water profusely, open wide as I blink in terror, and that’s when I see it.
Sierra, at a distance of maybe twenty feet from me, across my field of vision. She’s impaled on long sharp claws at the core of her body, right at the point where mine is failing. She’s held in midair as she scrambles to fight back limply, unhook herself from a grey male’s torturous hold, and seems to be whimpering in agony. He stumbles to one knee, shaking his head as though trying to drown out and recover from the now quiet Carmen’s aftereffects, but he doesn’t release Sierra from his grip.
Carmen…. It’s Sierra!!! I shriek out in the link, moving to make to go to her but falling as my lack of air pushes me to instant black vision. I lift my chin weakly, focusing as best I can through the blur, more concerned for her at this moment and silent sob out in relief as a flying wolf hauls her out of the death hold she’s in. It drags her backward, yanking the claws from her lungs as they fall into the undergrowth, and almost instantly, my own inflate in response. Relief and oxygen swell inside my body, making me lightheaded, and I slump again as my lungs finally work.
Our life bond means her pain when close to death is my pain, and it seems to still link to Colton even if he is under a spell. He stops clutching and gasping in the same way I was, indicating he, too, has been released, and I know that means nothing good for me. I force myself to get up, on shaking limbs, slowly with determination to face him, knowing recovery of us both will be rapid as Sierra heals in the blink of an eye. I hold my ground, fixated on his huge body, as he rolls to his upright position with an easy move and locks soulless black eyes back on me. Without an ounce of hesitation, no delay, he comes at me again, full fury and ready for round two.
He moves like a steam train on rocket fuel. His claws splayed towards my shoulders, tackling me bodily once more even though I try to dodge with a jump. He flings me backward with the impact, but I roll onto my shoulder blades as I meet dirt and push my feet into his abdomen as we fall. I thrust him up hard, and over the top of me in a move he taught me, with a little effort and a huge amount of momentum. Letting go as he flies further into the woods with a crashing roar.
He spins on the ground as he collides, comes right back like a boomerang, and launches himself at my laid-down posture as I move. He misses me by a hair’s breadth, crashing onto my vacant spot and tumbling over like a clumsy oaf who’s too fueled with fury to control his reflexes. I dodge as he swiftly follows me with a claw swipe, and I manage to push his wrist away at the last second. I have to counteract his jaw coming in to take a bite at my face as he follows through and ends up thrusting my head down and sucker punching him in the belly with the flat of my palm. A sudden energy boost gives me an oomph, and he staggers back with the blow.
“Colton, are you really this stupid?” I spit at his face while he attempts to right his footing and gives me a second to breathe. “If I die, so do you. You utter Moron!” I thrust a knee into his groin with a crunch when he flies back into me, my confidence growing with the use of his strength on my side, knowing that even in wolf form, that’s still a sensitive area. There’s a grunt as knee bone flattens wolf bone; an instant as his body shudders and crumples a little, and I have to duck when he almost takes my head off for it in howling agony.