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CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

ZURI

With his pack gathered around him, baring their canines at us, Derrit stood across the forest and smirked at me. His eyes glimmered with a magic so dark, as if he had been waiting and preparing for this fight since the last time I had seen him , not in someone else’s body.

His black tattoos lifted off his body, and mists of blackness swirled around him. My heart raced in my chest, and I swallowed hard.

Had those tattoos been dark magic all along? Did he bring it everywhere that he went?

Screw it, I don’t have time to think.

I balled my hands into tight fists. My pack rested on my shoulders. And while I might’ve been part Moon Goddess now, who was supposed to be the protector of wolves, I didn’t know the first thing about fighting a man who wielded dark magic.

But I had to fight him if I wanted to save my pack.

“You think you can defeat me, Zuri?” he taunted, his eyes gleaming with malice. “Don’t let my brother fool you into thinking that you’re anything more than a rogue, a rut”—he chuckled—“a whore who would do anything to be accepted.”

A ferocious growl escaped my mate’s lips as he stepped forward, but I stayed by his side the entire time. Stone was still hurting from killing his grandma. I could feel his pain through our mate bond, so I couldn’t let Derrit corrupt him.

“Don’t feed his hatred,” I said to my mate through the mind link.

Sparks of power ignited my fingertips. I glanced down at them to see white light traveling up the length of my brown digits and then forming a ring of power in the center of my palms, the energy more powerful than I had ever felt before.

“If you turn her over to me, I vow not to attack you for the rest of eternity,” Derrit offered.

For a moment, my thoughts wavered at what the pack would choose for me. It was a decent offer, one that I wasn’t sure that Derrit could uphold, but nonetheless, if it was true, then they would all be saved.

“Fuck you,” Stone growled.

“We’re not handing anyone over to you,” James said.

The rest of the wolves in our pack followed suit and growled at Derrit. And I had never once felt more power, more happiness and joy, more protected than I had in that moment. They all were willing to risk their lives to save me, and I had to do the same for them.

Derrit growled, his eyes turning from a brown to a blazing black. The dark magic around him intensified, the air thick and heavy with impenetrable mist. We had to act quickly before he could launch an attack.

We had to be the predator. Not the prey.

So, I closed my eyes and focused on the power within me, drawing it out through my palms. The magic within me surged, and I opened my eyes to see my light blazing out from my hands and penetrating the mist.

With a loud snarl, Derrit charged toward me, his eyes blazing with fury.

I stood my ground, my body enveloped in a bright light.

As he neared me, I raised one of my hands, and another beam of light shot out, hitting Derrit square in the chest. The mist flickered out for a moment as he stumbled backward, crumbling in pain.

While I could’ve used more of my power, my wolf urged me to shift. Fur sprouted from my body, my nails extending into sharp claws, and a ferocious roar erupted from my throat, one that my body had never once made before.

The power of the moon flowed through me, making me faster, stronger, and even more agile than I had been in my entire life. I had trained nonstop in my old pack, all by myself, in order to feel accepted.

Who knew that I had been stronger than them all along?

“Go!” I screamed through the mind link to the pack. “Take cover.”

“We live together. We fight together. We die together,” Stone said through the mind link.

And then, like a symphony, the pack repeated it back to him. Back to me.

My heart raced in exhilaration, as I’d never felt so much … togetherness, and I bared my teeth at Derrit, readying to attack with Stone and an entire pack behind me who had vowed to fight by my side.

I honestly didn’t know the power Derrit was about to unlock or how strong he truly was. But I refused to back down from him now. I had a pack, a mate, and possibly a family to protect. Derrit would not take that away from me. I had hoped for this for decades before meeting Stone.

He unleashed a wave of dark energy toward me, the sound nearly busting my eardrums, but I swiftly dodged it. The magic grazed against my fur, searing it right off. I regained my balance and countered with a burst of my own lunar energy, the magic bright white.

Instead of dodging mine, he used his magic as a shield. When the forces collided, a shock wave rocked the entire forest. The trees around us shook violently, their leaves rustling, their branches cracking, and some even falling.

Derrit easily advanced toward me, using his magic to push me back. His dark magic grew stronger with every step he took, and I … I feared that I didn’t have any more to give. If he reached me, this would all be over.

I had to act before it was too late. Before we lost for good.

After a deep breath, I closed my eyes and focused my energy on the moon coursing through my veins.

I had never had the strength, the courage, or the mere need to survive as I had right now.

A bubble formed around me, like a protective shield that Derrit couldn’t penetrate, even his strongest dark magic.

Yet he snarled and continued to advance toward me, his face contorted into one of anger and his lips curled into the ugliest of snarls. The closer he approached, the harder it was for me to hold up the pieces of the shield, the strain beginning to take its toll on me. My magic weakened.

How much longer can I keep this up?

Once I scanned the forest, I caught a glimpse of Stone behind Derrit, killing Derrit’s second strongest wolf, which must’ve been his beta. Stone spit his throat out of his mouth, blood covering his fur, then turned toward Derrit.

Hopefully, I had enough left in me until Stone could save me.

Suddenly, a ring of fire blazed around the forest, engulfing the trees and locking all of us inside it. Beads of sweat dripped off my fur, the heat from the flames almost making standing in it unbearable. But it only seemed to make Stone stronger.

It had been days, maybe weeks, since he had told me, but Stone had mentioned that he had contracted with a demon so he could walk through fire, so he could survive through fire, and maybe even so his power was strengthened through fire.

This fight was far from over. It was just getting started now.

My mate was at his strongest, and he was ready to kill.