Page 187 of Ensnared by the Pack: The Complete Series (Destined Realms #3)
AUDREY
I eased my grip on my spear and released the breath I’d been holding when all the swordsmen passed out — Bishop having led our team down the street to the edge of the recess once we’d heard fighting. None of the swordsmen had managed to fire a lightning weapon, and save for being spotted before Whil could throw the potion, everything had gone according to plan.
And yet…
Something didn’t feel right.
The air was heavy with the ominous power that felt like it was slowly and steadily growing, and my stomach churned as the dark magic inside me pulsed.
I sucked in a deep breath, determined to ignore my aching belly and the chill settling in my bones.
Cyrus and Knox tied up the unconscious swordsmen, and Whil used her power to magically lock the lightning weapons, preventing anyone from using them, like all of the alliance leaders had agreed on.
Everyone was going to be safe.
Except the wildness inside me screamed that I needed to stay alert.
Something was going to happen. Something?—
The ominous power flared, stealing my breath, and the front wall of the building holding the grimalkins’ pens exploded.
Debris flew everywhere, and the snarling creatures raced out, half of them rushing into the swordsmen’s camp toward Cyrus and the others while the rest stampeded toward my group.
A skin-crawling wave of the grimalkins’ alpha power slammed into me along with their heavy foul stench, and the darkness inside me pounded faster. Red light flashed in the eyes of a large grimalkin and my pulse stalled.
The guys had said the grimalkin who’d recently attacked had been more aggressive and possibly smarter than those that had attacked before, and I’d never seen a grimalkin with red eyes.
Maybe I’d imagined it.
But the red flashed again in another grimalkin’s eyes, reminding me of the snake monsters Sterling had summoned when he couldn’t get me to walk into the rip between realms and kill myself.
And none of that mattered. I needed to harness the darkness inside me and control the monsters before they killed everyone I loved.
I rushed forward, not knowing if I could control the grimalkins in the swordsmen’s camp from where I stood. The last time I’d controlled them, they’d been five feet from me, and right now I was at least fifty feet away from Cyrus and the others.
“Audrey.” Bishop grabbed my wrist but I jerked free.
“I need to get closer.”
“Pretty sure you’re close enough,” Gower snapped as he swung his sword at a grimalkin’s head while two other wolves attacked the beast’s haunches.
I jerked my attention away from the grimalkins attacking in the swordsmen’s camp to the chaos all around me. Men and women from the backup fighters poured past us, joining the fight, while the medics hung back, waiting for a chance to get to the injured.
Grimalkins kept pouring from the building, and my pulse roared with fear, my breath too sharp and fast. I’d never seen so many of the beasts before, and while I knew Knox had reported that the merchants had over four dozen, it hadn’t occurred to me how overwhelming that would look.
Could I even control that many?
Someone screamed and Bishop wrenched me out of the way of a grimalkin’s claws.
I had to.
I mentally grasped at the darkness inside me, my stomach seizing with nausea, bile burning the back of my throat, and a ferocious rage bursting to life inside me along with my wildness.
Mine. This pack was mine. Bishop, Knox, and Cyrus were mine.
Mine mine mine.
Black smoke puffed from my mouth and burned across my tongue.
They were going to freeze and they were going to freeze now.
“Submit!” I screamed, releasing a skin-crawling wave of my own alpha power.
All the wolf shifters and gryphons stumbled as if I’d affected them, too, even when the gryphons shouldn’t have been able to sense my alpha power, and all of the grimalkins froze.
For a second everyone was staring at me, but instead of cringing away — like I knew I would later — I squared my shoulders and raised my chin, riding the ferocity of my alpha power.
The dark magic heaved against my control and I gritted my teeth.
“Don’t just stand there,” I snarled. “Kill them.”
Cyrus lunged at the grimalkin in front of him and tore his claws through its throat with a shocking spray of brilliant red blood. Next to him, Knox clamped his powerful jaws around another grimalkin’s neck, killing it, while Folmar tore into another.
Smoke burned out my nostrils and my stomach heaved.
Hold on and don’t puke. Please don’t puke.
My grip on the darkness wavered and the ominous power pounded against my senses, straining my control.
The fighters took out ten more grimalkins and I squeezed my eyes shut. I could do this. I was doing it. I just… needed… a little more?—
My darkness stuttered, suddenly weakening, and the magic slipped through my mental fingertips.
No. Please no.
A grimalkin roared and someone screamed. My eyes flew open to see the remaining grimalkins springing back into action.
Fuck fuck fuck.
I scrambled to regain control of the magic, but it kept stuttering, there and strong one minute, weak and thin the next.
“Alpha,” someone yelled.
I wrenched my gaze around, searching for which of my mates was in danger, just in time to see a grimalkin lunge toward me. I was the alpha they were yelling at.
Both Bishop and Gower were busy fending off other grimalkins, there wasn’t anywhere to run, and I couldn’t count on the dark magic to save me.
With a scream, I wrenched my spear up to stab it, even while desperately trying to seize control of it. But I couldn’t grasp the magic, and it heaved its head aside, sending my spear tip scraping against its tough hide.
Shit.
I jerked my spear toward it again as Bishop slammed all of his claws in the beast’s haunches and, with a strength I hadn’t thought possible even for a shifter, tossed the grimalkin away from me.
“Stay back,” he snarled at me, his eyes completely dark, his wolf controlling his body. Then he leaped toward the next closes grimalkin and swiped at it.
Ahead of him, Folmar screamed Whil’s name, her voice sliced through the chaos and I wrenched my attention to see her tearing into a grimalkin with her sharp beak and claws, defending Whil from the snarling creature, but there were more surrounding them.
With a roar, Deacon swooped in, grabbed Whil and threw her over his shoulder. He bolted toward me, dodging grimalkin claws and teeth, but one grimalkin was faster than him, raking its sharp claws through his shoulder.
He stumbled and the grimalkin’s back legs bunched, ready to pounce.
“No,” I screamed, the darkness inside me surging.
I threw out my hand as if that would stop them… and it did. All the grimalkins froze again.
Yes!
But before anyone could kill them, the ground beneath us exploded, and the horrible black flying snake monsters erupted from the earth. Their shark-like teeth snapped hungrily and their red eyes glowed with malevolent intent.
No, oh fuck no.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Bishop snarled as he killed the frozen grimalkin in front of him then lunged for another.
“Kill the grimalkins first,” Cyrus commanded over the yells and screams and hisses filling the air.
The anger inside me blazed hotter, and I tightened my grip on the darkness inside me, determined to keep the grimalkins from fighting.
We were not going to lose this fight. We had to kill all of the grimalkins, especially if they weren’t as natural as they were supposed to be.
Snakes swarmed around us, tearing bloody chunks out of men, wolves, and gryphons alike. Bishop yanked a snake off his biceps, its many teeth tearing through his flesh, before wrenching away a snake wrapped around Gower’s neck, strangling him.
The ominous force pounded stronger and stronger against my senses, making the darkness inside me surge, and half a dozen snakes closest to me dropped to the ground.
Fear, determination, and rage battled inside me. If the dark magic inside me came from Tzanagoth, and Sterling had summoned and controlled the snake monsters. I could too.
But the moment I thought that, the dark magic stuttered, weakening and slipping out of my grasp.
It was just like the last time I’d lost control of the grimalkins, but this time I could feel it being pulled away from me from within me.
Sterling.
It had to be Sterling. We were tethered together and Whil had said that tether was the source of my dark magic.
I didn’t know how or why he was involved with the merchants, maybe he’d noticed the battle and was just seizing the opportunity to hurt me, but I knew without a doubt he was responsible for the snake monsters. Even if we killed all of the grimalkins, he’d just keep sending more snakes after us until everyone I cared about was dead.
He had to be stopped, and the wildness roaring inside me along with my burning rage said I was the one who had to do it.