Chapter 77


    Angie


    I sped along the winding road at an rming pace, pressing my foot harder and harder on the gas as


    my anxiety heightened. My grandfather had said they wereing from the far side of fielke territory so


    that was where I was headed.


    Fae knew to meet me there along with Gideon and a few other shifters. I would get there before them,


    considering she would have to round everyone ups first. We had to be ready, all of the iron armor was


    There was always the possibility that this was a decoy attack, and so until proven otherwise, our army


    would wait for the signal while Far and I scoped out the area


    I swung my car to the side and parked in the road, climbing out and testing the air. No unusual scents


    could be caught in the wind, but then again they could be masking their scent. I looked around for Far


    and the others but none of them seemed to have arrived yet.


    Plucking up the courage I took off jogging across the open field to my left. Any shifter hiding in the trees


    beyond would see theing from a mile away but my backup wasing and we didn’t love time to


    dawdle around.


    I was almost at the tree line when I picked up my grandfather’s scent. A momentter he stepped out


    from the woods to meet me. 1 jogged up to him confused. What are you doing here?”


    He didn’t answer me and merely looked at me with a pained expression on his wizened face.


    It was only after I picked up another famr scent that it clicked in my head. A disgusting, putrid scent


    that sent goosebumps pr ickling over my skin. My eyes widened in shock and I stared at my


    grandfather in disbelief. “How could


    your


    Before he could answer me, Johan stepped out behind him, his rippling form was massive and he


    towered over my grandfather who seemed to be battling with himself internally,


    “I’m sorry,” the old man said gravely. There was no other way, the Bielke is done for Ang.”


    I had thought he had changed his mind. He had been quiet and distant since Ignatius had taken over


    the Bielke, but I had thought that would be the end of it. It seemed my grandfather had chosen to be a


    traitor to the end.


    “You’re a coward,” I growled as Johan pushed him aside and shed me a malicious grin. “You’re a


    traitor to your people”


    Johan stalked towards me slowly, he knew I had nowhere to run. There was to cover in the open field


    and he was much much faster than me. I had no choice but to fight and hope that the others showed


    up before I got my neck snapped.


    I grimaced when I remembered the res that I had left in the car. Green for small threats, red for war. I


    wondered if I would be able to make it to the car in time to send the red re zing into the sky to war


    everyone. I soubted I would make it very far at all.


    My skin bristled as I prepared to fight, itching to shift and run in the other direction instead.


    “Don’t fight, Angie,” my grandfather eximed. “If you juste quietly they’ll let us all leave. Your


    mother and brother are waiting for us


    A pang of fierce pain shot through my chest when he mentioned the rest of my family. They were done


    for, we all were


    “Do you really believe he’s just going to let us go?” I growled at the old man, taking a few steps back as


    Johan continues his daw, menacing approach. “They’re going to kill us the second we’re not useful to


    them anymore”


    “Your right on the money there Johan answered me humself and, waliout warning used on the spot and


    lopped my grandfather I ad off with our swipe of his wed hand


    her’s buddy doppel to the door this head rolled twice and then


    came to a halt, empty eyes staring up at the sky and a mouth still open on an unspoken word.


    “Апужду”


    Johan shook the blood from his nes and turned back to eye me


    “I do believe thest time we met I promised to tear you apart.”


    I forced down my fear that bubbled up from my stomach and held back my tears. There was no time for


    anguish. I was face to face with a monster and Johan seemed eager to kill


    I squared my shoulders and braced myself for an attack, lengthening my ws and shing my teeth.


    C0ntent ? 2024 (N/?)velDrama.Org.


    “You can try.” I hissed as he toyed with me, sp ooking to the left and then the right in an attempt to


    scare me. “But I’m not going down without a fight”


    “Well, someb*dy’s brave, he taunted me and brought a bloodied w to his lips to taste. “Not the best,


    I’ll admit I’m sure your blood tastes inuch sweeter.


    “Why did you hire me out here in the first ce?” I growled at him and jumped away when he swiped


    his ws at me.


    Johanughed at my unease. “Quick reaction time there, a secondter and I would have torn a hole in


    your stomach and strewn your insides all over the ce.”


    “You’re insane, Johan”


    “To you, maybe.” He feigned another anack andughed even harder when I flinched and took another


    cautious step back. But everything is going exactly ording to n. Do you think I don’t know that


    Ignatius isn’t here at the moment? Your pack is vulnerable. Dorothy is vulnerable.”


    “What exactly is the n then I took another cautious step back. If I could distract him for long enough,


    hold him off from attacking and keep him talking until Fae arrived, I might stand a chance.


    “Simple,” he stated nonchntly. “You’re supposed to be prowling that big mansion on the cliffs. I’m


    assuming that’s where Dorothy is hiding yes? But now, you’re all the way out here, and she’s all alone.”


    Acry of horror escaped me when ten more Tally shifters emerged from the woods. I realized that Johan


    himself had no intention of fighting me. It was like he said, all he wanted was to draw me away. So that


    he could go for his real target. Dorothy, who was all alone in her home andpletely unaware of the


    approaching danger,


    -Ignatius-


    I had no choice but to prepare myself for a fight. Moirah was dead serious and she stood up straight


    with her ws at the realy.


    Looking at her I felt my heart breaking, shattering at my feet as I prepared to kill my own mother. It


    would be easy, it


    wouldn’t take much.


    I had forgotten however about the circle of puppet shifters that sat around the fires just outside. Moirah


    let out a sharp inhale and her eyes zed over with a white sheen. She twitched a little as I stared,


    caught off guard and confused at what she was doing


    Only then did I feel the sharp ws dagging into my back as I was wrenched out of the tent and thrown


    to the crowd. immediately swarmed by the corpses that had sprung to life on Moirah’smand.


    I failed and thrashed on my back as the puppets wed at me, sharp teethtching onto my limbs as


    they attempted to tear


    With a deafening roar, I shifted into wolf form and for howded as he rolled to his feet, locking jaws


    around one of the corpses and throwing them into the fur. The b*dy thrashed and writhed as ck


    smoke billowed up from the pyre beforeying still and tautdding in the mes.


    One by one, we opped and tore through the bodies that reached for in. Our attempted to pluck out our


    eyes


    eyes while another


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    locked its arms around nur grck with inhuman strength and attempted to squeeze the life out of us.


    Tor was blinded by rage, and I was overwhelmed by the thousands of emotions that coursed through


    me. My mother was trying to kill me. The thought stuck in my throat like a shard of ss that was


    impossible to swallow without tearing me to pes


    Why? How did things go so very wrong for us, for my family? How did my parents be the people


    they were. How did it all


    With another roar of fury, I tore myself away from the grasping hands and mowed down the assants


    with my teeth. One by one they went down, only to get right bark up again like my bites had no real


    effect on them.


    Which of course they didn’t. These beings felt no pain, had no soul. They would keep going until they


    fell apart. With that in mind, I decided on a new n and let the herd follow me to the fire pit. Once I


    had positioned myself in front of the mes, 1er theme at me. Hatched my jaws on them as they


    clumped around me and threw as many as I could into the fire.


    A scream of frustration came from Mairah who stood at the entrance of the tent as she watched her


    puppets burn. After the final b*dy had been cast into the mes and iled about until ity still, I turned


    my attention back to my mother thered in the stale blood of the corpses and stuking with anger. I


    prepared tounch myself at her


    Her eyes cleared of their white haze and widened as she watched ane run straight at her with my teeth


    bared. Before I could reach her, however, another shifter burst from the trees and blocked my path. A


    as my father.


    Elliot growled for me to stand dower and turned to face Moral himself. His voice was in my head just


    like I assumed it rang in hers.”So this is where you’ve been hiding all these years, dearly beloved”


    For a moment, Moirals booked stricken and a link of genuine fear crossed her face. She look so


    terrified at that moment that a part of me wanted to get between her and my father, to protect her from


    the life she had left behind so long ago


    But after a moment, her face hardened and the regarded Elliot coldly, standing her ground and baring


    her own fangs.


    “You have a lot of nerve showing up here, Elliot, she hissed her words and they dripped with pure


    venom. “But maybe it’s for the best. Maybe it’s fate. I have been granted the opportunity to take you


    down myself


    I watched with confliction as my mother and father circled one another. Moirah looked poised and


    elegant, Elliot looked ready to kill


    Ever so gracefully, my mother began to shift, her slender gray well form taking shape as she red at


    my father.


    “You had a lot of nerve leaving the way you did.” Elliot’s words were equally venomous. “You betrayed


    me Moirah. You betrayed your people.


    As he spoke, anger shaking his b*dy, I came to realize something about my father. Elliot masked his


    feelings with fury. expressed himself through terrorizing and brute force. I realized, at his words, that


    Elliot had been hurt 100.


    Moriah’s disappearance had haunted him for years. My father was wracked with guilt and shame that


    his pride would not let him: ept. He evaded responsibility for his own actions by fighting back.


    Despite his ramblings about how unnecessary a mate was to an Alpha, Elliot had needed Mairah, had


    loved her in his own twisted way, more than he would probably let himself admit.


    For the first time ever I saw my father for the broken, hopeless man that he was and it disgusted me. I


    saw my mother for who she was, too. And at that moment I understood why she was so cold towards


    me now, Why she always had been.


    It wasn’t that she hadn’t loved me at all. Resented me, maybe, but it was like she said; she chose to


    protect herself. She epted that she had failed as a mother and she eliminated the possibility of ever


    regretting her actions.


    My parents were broken people, who I feared at that point could not be saved. As they leaped at each


    other I held my breath, entranced by the generation that had failed me.


    For a moment there was silence, and then Elliot and Moirah crashed into one another and the clearing


    rang with the sounds


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    of a fierce battle.


    Elliot was so muchrger than Moirah’s small gray woll, but she held her own and darted and snapped


    around therge lumbering figure of the man she had married years ago.


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