Page 66

Ivy

W e didn’t have much time to deal with the rain that pounded against us. With the cabin gone, we were left to the elements…

And our enemy.

Three creatures—one Fae male, a rabid wolf shifter, and an elemental mage—stood across from us.They wore gear like ours, but different. Perverted , like the magic they wielded. Like the magic Dante had corrupted.

Their gear was grey, lighter than our black clothing. But while ours was free of any emblems or decoration, theirs held an insignia on the breast, right over the heart. It wasn’t anything I recognised, the thread silver, too light to really make out, even with my heightened senses.

Magic crackled beneath my skin and exploded out of me without a thought. Lightning struck at the three, not giving them a chance to move or summon their own magic to fight back.

The Fae male flew backwards into one of the pools of water surrounding us. The wolf, somehow, held its ground. But the mage deflected the strike with one of his own.

Crap. Elemental that specialised in lightning.

“Fucking hell,” Elias muttered beside me. He shifted immediately, male replaced by large wolf. Terror spiked within me as he rushed towards the other wolf.

“I’ve got his back,” Maeve said as she ran to join him. My heart pounded as I watched the pair try to take down the wolf, but it was a lot bigger than my mate. Stronger, too.

A flash of light hurdled towards me. Before it could hit, shadows transported me from the place where the cabin once stood, across the pools to where we first appeared. The cave offered a small amount of shelter, but it put us close to the Fae male I’d knocked out.

Never thought I’d wish my magic had killed someone. It would have made this a whole lot easier.

The male rose from the water with rage burning in his silver eyes. “You bitch.”

“Coward,” I snapped back, summoning another bolt of lightning. “Let Nyx know I said hi.”

I had to wonder if he and the others knew that electricity and water didn’t mix.

At the very least, it might shock his heart enough to keep him down, because the others were having enough trouble with the remaining super-charged soldiers.

The wolf, rabid and strong, was trying to tear apart my other mates.

And the elemental mage could not only wield lightning, but he had power over air, too.

So, any time Hawk tried to lift into the air, the mage brought him right back down.

There were only three of them and eight of us. How the hell were we not putting them in the ground ?

I aimed my lightning at the water, rather than the male himself. He appeared to be from one of the Seelie Courts, though which one, I wasn’t sure. Summer, maybe, as he tried to use the water as a shield.

Even though he smirked like he had won some kind of game, it didn’t take long for my lightning to hit the pool he was in, for electricity to dance over the surface towards him.

The smirk turned to a look of shock but quickly shifted to fear as his eyes rolled into the back of his head and his body convulsed.

I’m surprised, wife, Damon whispered in my head. That was brutal. I never took you for someone who would so easily deal out death.

I glanced at him, lips pressed together. My stomach turned; when had I so easily become a killer? I quickly glanced in the direction of Orion. I couldn’t blame his calming presence in my mind directing me how to use my weapons now. It was all me.

They killed my mom. They could have killed my little sisters.

I’m not giving any of them a chance to come after my family again , I replied, storming away from him and leaving the Fae male floating in the pool.

I wasn’t even sure he was dead. Fae notoriously had fantastic healing abilities, so he could have just been knocked out.

But when I glanced back at the cave where Damon stood, the pool nearby turned red as his shadows receded.

Just to be certain, he said. Wouldn’t want him coming back .

I couldn’t tell if he’d done it so I wouldn’t feel guilty, or because there was a chance the male could come back. But either way, I was grateful.

I turned back to the main fight as the rabid wolf leapt at Hawk’s back. His wings were out, soaked by the rain but exposed to the claws of the beast .

I acted before any rational thought could stop me.

The shift swallowed me, cracking and breaking my bones before reforming them into something new—something different.

My wolf rose to the surface, protective instincts heightening, and before I knew it, I threw myself into the side of the larger beast.

Something cracked—either within me, or in the other wolf—as we tumbled to the hard ground. I rolled over him, still clumsy in this new body, as he climbed to his feet.

Fuck. It had to be twice my size, with much larger teeth. The paws alone were double the size of mine, and the claws…

The claws were capped in silver.

A growl ripped free from his chest, deep and long as he leaned back on his haunches. It took my own wolf a moment to realise he was challenging us.

The energy surrounding the wolf said Alpha , but I couldn’t tell if that was because of whatever bonus magic Dante had fed him, or if it was because the wolf had been an Alpha before. Even though human Ivy didn’t know anything about the whole pack dynamic, my wolf?

She wanted to fight.

And she was fully prepared to shove me back so she could tear his throat out.

My wolf drowned out the rest of the world as she rose to her paws. The rain finally lessened, though it continued to fall around us. The thundering beat of our heart and the laboured breath of the wolf across from us was all I could hear.

From the corner of my eye, I spied the dark brown fur of my mate. He prowled the circle, looking for a way to enter the fight, but he knew if he tried, the other wolf would go for my throat .

Based on the laboured breathing, I’d cracked one of his ribs. It wouldn’t take long to heal, though I didn’t know if Dante and his people had done anything to change the rate of healing in these creatures.

The wolf stamped his paw before leaping at me. Being smaller, I was able to sidestep him quickly and pounce for his throat, but he swung his large head, and I lost my balance.

A wind picked up around us, but I ignored it and focused on the other wolf as we circled one another. The rock beneath my paws was slick with rainwater, making it hard to manoeuvre. We were close to one of the walls of the cliff, a pool and waterfall not too far away.

I had to steer clear of that. If he got me in the water, then I knew I may not get out—good swimmer or not, he could drown me, and I had no idea how deep it was.

The wolf leapt at me again, this time one of its large paws knocking me to the ground. I hit the rocks hard and slid because of the rain, but it pushed me out of his reach. I hit the cliff wall with an oomph; it wasn’t hard enough to do damage, but I got the wind knocked out of me.

A flurry of wind and rain blurred my vision, cutting me off from the others.

Get up, Angel. Do not let him get on top of you , Elias said, his voice urgent in my head.

I shuddered to think what he might do if he did get on top of me.

But I pushed to my feet and shoved those thoughts aside. The other wolf pounced, but I managed to leap aside, letting him slam into the cliff behind me. The earth trembled beneath my feet at the impact, but it didn’t keep the beast down for long .

Debris from the cliff rained down on his wet fur, but he shook it all off: stone, leaves, and the impact of the hit.

The next growl turned into a roar—one filled with fury and something else that made me shiver. But when he launched himself at me this time, I didn’t have the time—or power—to react.

I hit the ground hard, with his large paws holding me down. I tried to push him off, but his jaw latched onto my shoulder, where Elias’s mate bite resided.

My wolf cried out in pain. Panic rushed through me as I used my paws to try and push the other wolf off.

My breath became heavy, the smell of my blood filling the air between us.

A whimper lodged in my throat; I couldn’t give in to him, but the pain grew to a fierce burning sensation the longer he held me.

He could have released me just as quickly, but he didn’t.

You are the Alpha, Ivy. Make him submit to you. Do not let him make you submit. Elias’s voice brought only a brief amount of comfort as I struggled beneath the heavy weight of the other wolf. Fuck. I dug my claws into him, wishing I could also access my magic, but I was trapped in this form.

Around me, a wind howled, blowing hard around me and the wolf. I heard my other mates trying to take the mage out, to stop him from trapping me with the rabid wolf.

But I was stronger than this. I knew it. They knew it.

I was the fucking Queen .

That’s it, Orion whispered . Remember that.

A growl rumbled from my chest, deeper than I’d ever mustered as I used all my strength to push the giant wolf off me.

His jaws tore free of my shoulder, where he had been pinning me to the ground.

With his teeth, he took flesh, but the burn of pain was only a dull ache as I kicked the beast off and rolled to my feet.

I couldn’t put much pressure on my front paw, but I didn’t need to as I held myself at full height. The other wolf might have been bigger. Might have been stronger physically. But it had turned rabid. And what had Professor Nimona said about power and strength?

It wasn’t just of the body. That wasn’t how Alphas led packs. It was strength of the mind, too.

The other wolf growled, deep in his chest. He moved like he was going to strike, but I stood my ground. It became instinct now. My wolf seized control and took a threatening step towards the enemy wolf.

This time, when the other wolf leapt at us, my wolf didn’t move. She held her ground, lowering onto her back haunches as the larger beast bared its throat and belly to us.