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CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

ZURI

“You should stay here.” Stone walked beside me to the warrior wolves standing at the edge of our property. “I need to protect you, and if you go to battle, then … I would never forgive myself if something terrible happened to you.”

I had never once been in a battle of this caliber. My strength as a Moon Goddess against that of a wielder of dark magic? Who knew the outcome? The other magic wielders had shown me that even as a goddess, I wasn’t immortal. But still, I wasn’t backing down now.

After taking his chin in my hand, I stared up at him. “You’re not going anywhere without me. You’ve said it yourself that I am strong, so you’d better truly believe it. We will fight together, and we will defeat him.”

Honestly, I wasn’t sure where all this confidence was coming from—most of it was fake and so foreign to me—but I needed to be strong for this pack. If I showed weakness to them, then they’d lose faith in the Moon Goddess and in me.

“The wolves are prepared to run,” James said to us. “We’re ready whenever you are.”

While I expected Stone to glare down at me in anger because I wasn’t listening to his orders, he curled his lips into a small smile, seized my hips, and drew me toward him. “Goddess, I fucking love you.”

He sucked my bottom lip between his teeth and tugged on it, and pleasure rolled through my body. He groped me in his strong hands, then suddenly tensed as his fingers brushed against my stomach.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Nothing,” he said quickly. “It’s nothing at all.”

Though there was something.

“Stone, what is it?”

“There is a power inside you.” He rested his forehead against mine, his mind racing but so quickly that I couldn’t decipher any of the thoughts. “One that I don’t recognize yet, but one that is making you stronger.”

I tensed and stared up at him. “A power?”

When I had talked to the other Moon Goddesses, they had told me that getting pregnant and having a pup could make me stronger, that it could enhance some of my powers. If that was the case and I was really pregnant with Stone’s pup …

“We have to go now,” I said, refusing to think about it and refusing to give him any time to think about it either. If I did, he might force me to stay home. No way was that happening. Not when Stone was so vulnerable after killing his grandmother unwillingly.

Derrit would suffer for that. I would make sure of it.

I seized Stone’s hand. “We’re going.”

“To kill this fucker for good.” He intertwined his fingers with mine and nodded. “James! Contact Carve, Sina, and Xorgor. If Derrit wants to play with dark magic, then we will have the strongest in the kingdom against him. A warlock, a Paragon, and the king of demons.”

“I’m going to show you my strength,” I whispered to Stone while we marched through the forest toward the sounds of battle.

The scent of blood seeped into my nose. With that much blood, Derrit must’ve killed hundreds of wolves already just outside of Durnbone. If Olenna, Sina, and Maxine didn’t know about them yet, they would surely find out soon enough.

“You already have, mate ,” Stone said, his canines lengthening at the sounds of howls.

An unfamiliar power swelled inside me. “I’m just getting started.”

James, who had been a bit behind us, cleared his throat. “This time, we all come back alive. I refuse to bury another packmate.”

“We’ll all come out of this battle alive, James. We’re all stronger than we’ve ever been.” Stone squeezed my hand and glanced down at me, as if his words had a double meaning.

Had the other goddesses told him that I was stronger while pregnant? Did he know?

The closer we approached the battle, the faster we ran.

I didn’t want to wait any longer, and hearing the cries of wolves falling hurt my soul.

I was supposed to protect them, but I wasn’t sure if I could protect anyone.

I still didn’t know how to use my powers.

We hadn’t gotten that far in training yet.

But as we passed the last line of trees and stepped into the clearing, I stopped. Bodies of wolves littered the battlefield, so many that I could barely move forward without stepping on the corpse of a warrior wolf. The stench of blood burned my nose.

Slowly, I moved through the wolves, my lips quivering at just how many had died, just how many I hadn’t been able to protect. Stone pulled me forward, toward the battle that had moved deeper into the clearing.

“Derrit is up ahead,” Stone said through his canines. “I smell his stench.”

Our packmates had already shifted into their wolves and joined the fight, but Stone had stayed with me the entire time, walking through the field as my body seemingly collected the last of the energy from the corpses.

These wolves had stood no chance.

Energy swelled inside me. We walked further onto the battlefield, this time ready to fight.

I wanted Derrit’s blood on the ground, like he had done to so many of my wolves.

Yet canines gleamed as the wolves howled their last breaths.

Blood was splattered everywhere on the battlefield. I scanned the forest.

“Where the fuck is he?” I growled, my eyes darting from one direction to the next.

Derrit had always been a coward, never one to take on a fight head-on and always having to use other people’s bodies to do his dirty work.

He preferred to slink in the shadows, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. Take the form of friendly wolves in order to buy himself time and get closer to us. But not now. No. I fucking refused. He had crossed a line, and he would pay for it.

The trees rustled to my left, catching my attention. A lone wolf emerged from them, his fur matted with blood and his eyes narrowed in fury.

Derrit bared his teeth and shifted into his human form, spitting a wad of flesh toward us. “ Stoney , Zuri … you’ve finally arrived. I’ve been waiting for you.”