Page 36 of Heartless Wolf (Wolf Moon Rejected #1)
CHAPTER 36 - DASH
Follow the plan. Fight to the death. Save my mate. Destroy the enemy. With that in mind, I rode like the fucking wind to the Malice’s camp, breaking every speed limit and road rule in the book. Nothing else mattered but saving her.
My mate got dragged into this mess because of my selfishness and greed, and it was up to me to get her out. The witch would take me instead. I’d gladly burn in hell for eternity if Liv survived.
Clouds blanketed the sky as if darkness itself resided within Pack Malice’s territory. A storm beckoned by my furious, vengeful call. The storm wolf, bringer of chaos and destruction. Blackened vegetation devoid of foliage hinted at something sinister here, like the sun hadn’t touched these lands in a season. Gray soil stripped of grass left no feed for any animals or gardens. How the fuck had the Malices survived for a cycle without food?
My brother, Alaric, soared above, hawk wings splayed, drifting the blustery currents, his vigilant gaze split between me and my enemies. If things went to shit, he’d send the signal to the others to come for us.
Intel provided by Alaric indicated the witch held position with Liv by a campfire outside TJ’s cabin. High-ranking Malices flanked their Alpha and the bitch who bossed them around like she owned their balls, leaving us to wonder if she held their lives captive like she did mine.
Soldiers patrolled the length of Pack Malice borders, making it impossible to stage a siege without raising an alarm. My arrival signaled the first, and wolf howls went out to the next squad of patrols.
Three explosions at quarter-mile intervals welcomed the chaos and confusion of an ambush by my Jackal brothers, and the half-breed Lycan, who agreed to fight on our side. Victorious howls signaled the slaughter of runaway soldiers, permitting my brothers and ally deeper access to the territory. At least, that was the plan. In war, everything could go to shit in the space of a heartbeat. Regardless of the outcome, I was willing to die to let my mate live.
Alaric lowered from the sky, landing on a nearby branch sixty feet to the north and released a single shriek. My cue to continue as planned. Another lower warning cautioned of approaching soldiers.
Shadows emerged from the darkened woods. Sharp fangs glinted at me through the fog clinging to the ground. Betas. Ten of them. Enough to take me down to the ground and impede my forward movement if they attacked as a unit. Lazy, untrained soldiers like the Malices didn’t know how to get into formation and defend, filling me with confidence the odds rested in my favor if they launched at me. Hunched low, snarling and spitting, they let me pass, telling me they were just there for a show of strength and to allow me to go to their master.
With their attention on me, they didn’t sense Raze’s downwind approach, a nightmare in upright, two-legged Lycan form. He gave me a hundred-yard birth, protecting my back. Hell, I didn’t even smell him over the rotten garbage stench coating these lands. Knived claws slashed through their middles, along their spines, necks, and faces as they attacked as one. He kicked three betas into trees with satisfying crunches of bone that spelled cracked skulls, legs, and spines. Several betas wailed and limped away. The diversion allowed Raze and me to track deeper into Pack Malice.
Burned or smashed car shells decorated the landscape. Smashed glasses, windows, crumpled cans, and splintered wood littered the property. No place to raise little ones. These fucking pigs partied all the time and didn’t give a shit about respecting nature. Old Malice wasn’t as bad as his son, but they both needed a lesson in paying esteem to our goddess who demanded beauty, elegance, and softness, not this damn junkyard of death.
Lips curled into a sneer, I marched into the heart of my enemy’s camp, a limp in my step, doing my best to hide it. The reason for it would play out soon with the plan.
Shapes ducked behind cabins, alarmed wolves sheltering their young or families, silver eyes never betraying my path. Distraught, downtrodden faces peered at me, curious why a lone rival Alpha staggered into their home. Fuck. The kids were dirty and wore rags. Thin to the bone. Starving and neglected, and I hedged a bet, not because of their parents. Because of TJ Malice’s greed for power. My chest burned with the deal he clearly made with the witch for protection, sacrificing the lives and health of his own people.
Motherfucker.
For that betrayal, Pack Malice wouldn’t hesitate to overthrow their Umbra if they were strong enough to mount an assassination. I let that idea simmer in the back of my mind for now. First, save Liv. Second, figure out the rest.
Thunder rumbled overhead, and I chanced a peek at the heavens. Alaric circled high above, much higher. Ever watchful, ever protective. My eyes in the sky. Raze my second pair of eyes on the ground.
The ache in my leg threatened to burst, and I hissed, pushing myself harder and faster to TJ’s cabin.
Bursts of fire crackled at my arrival. The wolves of TJ and his men climbed from their reclined position at the feet of the witch, oh, so regal in her campfire chair. I mentally calculated my chances of taking them down and getting to Liv. Without the wound in my leg, or the witch to defend them and weaken me, I had decent chances of taking them down. Not without taking hits myself and probably limping worse out of here. I might stand better odds if Raze got closer, but the plan was not to intervene unless necessary.
My eyes darted from them to my mate. Ropes secured Liv’s drooped form to a scorched, dead tree. One wrong move, and the witch could call that fire onto the wood and set my mate aflame. My body clenched with caution at setting the witch off and destroying Liv in the process.
At my approach, Liv lifted a sluggish head, her bruised eyes meeting mine. Soot smeared her porcelain skin, and a single tear streaked a line of it down her cheek. Dark, sunken moons beneath her eyes and a new gauntness to her face hinted at the witch tasting her before my arrival. Fury and sorrow set my throat alight. I sent her a promise across our link that everything would be okay despite the futile and hopeless odds we faced. A male comforted his mate. Always.
The witch scoffed and waved a clawed hand. “I told you, you’re no good to me, pup.”
Age had caught up to her since we last met. Grey snowed her dull, coarse hair, thinning at her widow’s peak and crown. Grooves cut through her drooping cheeks and jowls. Thick, bumpy skin touched with a gloomy pallor stretched over her lean, frail body.
Gable mentioned she should have died centuries ago from cancer eating her from the insides, placing her real age at several hundred years old. Hopefully I could play this to my advantage. She didn’t appear to be getting what she needed from me and whoever else she drew power from.
“Then why leave me alive?” I growled at her, the promise of death dripping from my tongue.
Her gaze dropped to her burned, blistered palm. We both knew why she couldn’t kill me. Gable made sure of it.
I fisted the amulet beneath my shirt and removed my only source of protection. My saving grace to substitute myself for Liv.
“Take me.” I removed the amulet from around my neck and draped it over my palm, displaying it to the witch. “I’m unprotected now. Spare her. It’s me you want. Me you bargained with. Me you’re tied to. Let it end with me.”
The bitch laughed, a cruel, cold sound like ice cracking. “I own you both.” Her tongue flicked out like a snake tasting the air.
Cold darkness wrapped around my throat and choked me. This was her plan all along. She wanted all or nothing. Not just me. My mate. My pack. Fifty lives. That of Pack Malice too. How much power did she need to siphon to rid her body of illness? Rage scorched my spine at the thought of how many innocents throughout the centuries she bled of vitality to foster her own.
The greedy bitch slithered closer and raked a clawed finger down my cheek and my body wretched, resisting the urge to jerk back. “There’s no greater power than soulmates.” Her hand dropped to her stomach, the fetid stench giving away the location of cancer festering in her body. “I can finally heal this dastardly thing.”
The Malice mutts snickered behind her, lounging below her fucking camp chair throne, sharp teeth on display and eyes filled with the lust to destroy their prey.
I tried to get a leash on my anger and not let her see how much she affected me. Anger held no place here. Emotions curtailed the objective. Mantras drilled into me by Father.
“You’ve been working for the Malices all this time?” A thinly veiled distraction. Buy time. Distract her. Let my Jackal brothers and Raze take out as many Malice mutts as practical.
Blackened teeth smiled at me. “These hounds? They’re my security.”
She hid here to protect herself, probably from all the suckers like me whom she tricked. The Malice mutts lowered their heads, their wolves groaning in objection, hating belonging to her and being subject to her will. What did she hold over them?
The fourth explosion went off, a cabin on the outskirts of Pack Malice going up in flame. Shifters screamed and ran for cover. Another torched and blew apart, right on schedule. Disruption. Commotion. Draw TJ and his high-ranking men away. Leave the witch with no protection. They whined behind her, muscles quivering, eager to depart and investigate.
“Stay!” she barked.
Stupid bitch played right into my backup plan.
Revenge music commenced in my mind, accompanied by the sixth explosion Slade and my brothers set off in empty cabins to prevent casualties of innocents.
The Malice mutts paced uneasily behind the witch, losing patience, scratching at the ground, chomping at the bit to go and save their turf.
Realizing the danger on her heels, the witch commenced her feeding frenzy, bleeding me of strength and vigor. Pale brown clouds fled from my body and invaded hers. Liv whimpered as hers was stolen with mine.
Crusty witch lips peeled back into a smile. “Come to me.” Black eyes rolled back in her head, and she quaked with the hit of our combined power. Drunk on it, she released a long groan, addicted to the one thing that kept her alive.
Liv’s gaze and subsequent tears begged me to do something. Tear the bitch’s throat out. End her before she did us. We didn’t have much time before she aged us to a shell, and we passed into the stars with the Lunar goddess.
Exacting my Plan B, I punched my thigh, breaking the capsule sitting on my muscle that Aaliyah inoculated me with. Boronia deanei flower toxin leaked into me and pinched the artery, injecting into my bloodstream. My heart lurched as my shifter healing detected the lethal substance pumping through me, intent on shutting down my organs and system until I went into full body failure.
Unaware, the witch hummed for five beats, until her eyes flicked open, and her claws slammed on her throat, her mouth releasing strangled gasps.
Yeah, feed, bitch. Feed.
Age peeled back from her frame, revealing a haggard creature way past her expiration date. Thick, leathery skin desiccated, spotting brown, adopting a sickly gray hue. Cataracts clouded her eyes. Long, dark hair thickened into coarse, gray straw. Bones protruded from every limb as her skin thinned, frailty claiming every inch of her. The toxin worked. She sucked it from my body the way Castor predicted, poisoning herself.
I released my gun from the back of my jeans, index finger stroking the trigger.
“What did you do?” the witch gasped, withdrawing the last of the toxin from my system.
I stepped back from her grasp and unloaded a bullet into her brain.
The spell broke on the Malices, and they snarled and lunged for me. Gun primed, I took two of them out with shots to the heart. A third with a headshot. Precision shooting, thanks to my father preparing me for this inevitable day.
Raze came out of nowhere and mauled two retreating cowards. Fucking TJ took one look at the roaring Lycan and bolted like a cowardly bitch, barking for backup.
Vengeance thudded in my veins as I clipped him in the rear thigh and side with iron casing bullets. Another of Father’s preparations. Know thine enemy. Their weaknesses. Their strengths and faults.
The motherfucking pussy TJ scampered away limping and howling. Two soldiers came out of nowhere and boxed him between them, shielding his body. My heart kicked up with glee at getting one in the ass before they disappeared around a corner.
I had two choices. Pursue him and kill him. Or free my mate.
“I’ve got him, get your mate,” Raze growled, thudding after them.
Brutal howls in the distance told me Slade and my brothers closed in on us. Together with Raze, they’d take care of TJ and his officers and finish this business.
Armed with a knife from my boot, I cut Liv free, and she collapsed into my arms. “Moonlight?” I brushed hair from her dirty face. Pain clogged my throat, and I couldn’t get in a breath, desperate for her to take air to let me know she was fine. “Talk to me, Moonlight.”
She groaned and lolled her head. Pain scorched our bond. She was alive, but weak from the witch’s feeding frenzy. Nothing Aaliyah couldn’t fix when we met with her back at the clubhouse. Her four mates insisted she stay clear of the war zone, given her newly announced pregnancy.
My heart beat erratically as I cradled Liv’s head and kissed the top of it. “I’m sorry for dragging you into this, Moonlight.” Anguish burned my throat to dust. “Sorry you got hurt because of me. I’ll never do anything stupid like that again.”
Her feeble palm circled behind my neck for support, and she found the strength to look up at me. The darkness of her bruises made my dick shrink and my heart burn to do more than shoot TJ.
“She’s dead,” she rasped. “You’re mine now. We’re safe. That’s all that matters.”
Safe when the Malice threat was completely eliminated.
Fuck. I loved how this woman looked to the future instead of the past when it had held both our hearts captive. Grief and regret dropped away, giving way to relief and anticipation of our future together without restriction.
“Did they touch you?” I pressed my forehead lightly to hers, wary of her bruises, and terrified to breathe until she confirmed herself unscathed.
Liv cupped my jaw. “Not like that. She wouldn’t let them until she was done with me.”
Thank fuck. I would have lost my mind. Lost control and gone on a rampage.
The scrunch of her mouth said she needed medical attention for her nose and face and serious pain relief.
“Come on. Let me get you tended to.” I swept her off her feet into my arms and carried her away from harm.