Chapter 90
-Angic-
We were struggling out there in the forest. Even with ten of us and five of them, we were no match for
the Tally shifters who confronted us. In half wolf states, they climbed the trees effortlessly and attacked
from every direction.
Even with the iron armor, we were losing. They didn’t seem to care how much the metal burned their
skin. It kept them from biting down on any of us but it didn’t prevent them from harrelling straight into us
and knocking us down.
I heard an excruciatingly high-pitched howl as one of my soldiers was knocked clean into the air. He
flew backward and his spine collided with a nearby tree with a sickening cr ck. He crumpled to the
ground andy still, petrified in a state of paralysis. He would never make it out of here alive. He would
never see daylight again.
I looked around for Fae and finally managed to spot her. She was running through the treeline, followed
by arge shifter who was attempting to bring both of his giant fists down on her to crush her like an
ant.
She darted through the trees and doubled back, turning on the spot and catching the shifter by
surprise. He stumbled as he attempted to slow, unable to pull off the graceful change of direction that
Fae had taken.
She used that opportunity to snap her jaws closed over his furry heel and he went down with a loud
yelp. Another Bielke soldier ran up to assist her and buried an iron knife deep into the shifter’s chest
They were down to four which was definitely something but it still wouldn’t be enough. Even if we
managed to take down the remaining attackers, we were still down ten soldiers and the Tally severely
outnumbered us. I had no way of knowing what was happening out there in the open, but by the
sounds of it, it wasn’t good. We needed backup and we needed it fast
I was distracted momentarily when Ignatius spoke to me, startled on the spot where I face off another
Tally member with two more Bielke soldiers at my side. Ignatius reassured me that help was on the way
I wasn’t sure what four or five more members would do to help the battle but I was relieved to know that
he was alright Ignatius was back and his howl was audible for miles as he announced his arrival. The
howl distracted the Tally for a moment and we used that small window of opportunity to strike and take
down the shifter.
I was relieved to know that our Alpha was back. But his panicked question still rang in my head. “Angie,
where is Dorothy?”
“I don’t know.” I whispered as I sank my teeth into the neck of the downed Tally shifter and proceeded
to tear and rip until his head waspletely severed.
“I don’t know, I don’t know. I don’t know.
Suddenly, there were howls echoing all through the forest. Loud roars reached my ears as I tore at the
throat of the Tally shifter. The thud of nimble paws speeding through the woods had me raising my
head in n?n
It couldn’t have been Ignatius, there were too many of them and they were approaching quickly. I
looked over at Fae in a panic and she stared back at me with fear in her eyes. If it was more Tally
shifters, if it turned out their army was bigger than we had anticipated, then we were goners,
We would not be able to hold our own against that many new shifters. We were already struggling as it
was. It took at least three of us to down one of them and our numbers were dwindling drastically.
1 growled to my remaining members to stand strong. We had no choice but to face these new arrivals
head-on. I stared into the darkness beyond the trees as the bowls grew louder and louder.
My heart stopped for a momem when they finally came into view. Dozens of wolf shifters broke through
the trees andunched themselves at the remaining Tally shifters that we fought. They swarmed then
ripping and tearing until the Tally waspletely overwhelmed and forced to the ground as the wolves
is
Even more wolves sped past uspletely ignoring my team members and heading straight for the
open battlefield. Their howl were deafening in my ears and I could do nothing but stare in utter
bewilderment at the phenomenon that urred before my eye.
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I realized after a moment of watching the creatures darting in and out of the treeline that these were not
shifters at all These were wolves. No human soul resided inside their chests. They were primal,
insatiable animals that were governed by their own spirit alone..
And they were fighting for us. My incredulous expression deepened when Ignatius in his gray wolf form
approached me from the shadows. He was followed by shifters that I recognized from the team he had
left with days before. As well as a new woll who stuck close by his side as he shifted and greeted me.
“I told you we had backup”
“Ignatius” My relief made my knees weak and I shifted at a moment’s notice to wrap my arms around
him tightly. “Finally
Fae was at my side before I could blink, smiling at the others and squeezing my hand in hers. “How did
you even manage to pull that off?” she asked with wide eyes. “Those are wolves! Like, real actual
wolves!”
Ignatius motioned to the wolf who stood beside him. “As it turns out, to’s original pack are a bunch
of hippies. They spend most of their life in wolf form hanging out with the true wolf parks,”
to, the wolf in question, shifted top and nodded at us. His curly locks hung over deep green eyes as
he shrugged sheepishly. “I left a while back and moved to the city. But I guess their loyalty runs deep:
They called for the help of the true wolves and to the surprise of all of us, they obliged.”
I shook my head in wonder and looked around me. My remaining soldiers were healing their injuries
and examining those that had fallen. My new improved glimmer of hope was vanquished suddenly
when I remembered how this battle had started.
Far too seemed toe back down to earth with the heartbreaking realization and she looked at me
with tears in her eyes, “Gideon
We found him where he had been dropped to the floor after the Tally had lured us close enough. His
pale b*dy was cold to the touch and already his lips had ckened and taken on a wax look that made
me sick to my stomach.
His ssy eyes were wide open and his face was frozen in a state of shock as if death hade
suddenly and without warning. He had no time to think of goodbye, regrets, ar cherished memories. His
life was taken from him in the blink of an eye all for the sake of war.
Fae was kneeling beside me and she leaned over toy her head on Gideon’s cold, still chest.
Just like she had when we discovered Geranium in the forest by the mansion, Fac lifted a tear-streaked
face and put her head on my chest. I wrapped my arms around her as she sobbed.
This time, I couldn’t hold back the tears either. I couldn’t be strong for her. We had lost one of our
closest friends. It was like a part of me was missing, like they had taken a piece of my heart and the
hole that it left was a painful one.
Ignatius stood beside me and put aforting hand on my shoulder as I allowed hot tears to flow from
my eyes and drip from my chin into Far’s curly hair.
“We’lle back for him, Ignatius murmured. “I know I’ve asked too much of you already. But right now
I need you to fight.”
1 looked up at him. My b*dy wanted to rest. I wanted to lie down for years and never get up again. But
Ignatius was right. We had a war to win. We couldn’t let Gideon’s death be meaningless. He had died
protecting his people, and we had no choice but to do the same
Ignatius helped me up and I in turn lified Fae to her feet. With onest nce at the still b*dy of our
dear friend, we followed the others through the trees towards the battle that raged beyond
Dorothy
I fought the urge to shrink away from the hulking figure as Johan stepped into the pale moonlight. I
hadn’tnd eyes on hum siner that right at the vi when he begged me to take him back
11:02 Fri, Jan 26 G
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If it weren’t for his presence in my head, both somewhat familiar and so very alien at the same time, I
might not have even believed that it was the same man.
His wolf was twice the size of any shifter I had ever seen. Even from a few steps away, he towered
over me, a gargantuan form that reeked of death and decay. His fur was patchy in ces like his b*dy
had grown too quickly for his hair to amodate and patches of raw skin were visille on his bulky
shoulders.
Through that bare skin, I was able to see dark veins pulsing. Something cker than blood ran through
those veins. The same dark tendrils sn*ked around his neck, visible under the patchy fur.
His eyes were a putrid yellow color and lus pupils were small like any light at all was too bright to hear,
Johan’s teeth were stained and jagged, protruding from under his lips in every direction. Rows and
rows of needle-sharp teeth lined his jaw to the point where they snagged on the corners of his mouth.
He was a heinous mutation, a deformed mass of muscle and ck magic
When he was fully submerged in the glow of the full moon, Johan stood up on his hind legs. I could
hear the snap and crunch of his joints as he shifted. His limbs stretched and contorted as he stood on
two feet, pausing somewhere between man and wolf.
He swapped paws for fingers bat his long ws curled cruelly where his fingernails would have been.
Those ws alone could tear me to ribbons, reduce me to nothing but scraps of skin and chunks of
flesh if I wasn’t fast enough to avoid them.
When he stood up I was able to see the remnant of w marks scraped into his furry chest, no doubt
the work of Angie after she and Far had faced off against the beast back at the quarry. It was a
terrifying thought, knowing that this creature had been watching me from afar, stalking thend that I
called my home.
This monster had entered my house, my sanctuary. He had tried to haunt me down once before and
now I had offered myself up to him freely. Hisrge, malformed head almost brushed the taller
branches of the trees behind his as he looked down at me. I felt minute inparison, as harmless as
a flea against Johan’s horrifying physique.
Still, I held my ground. I felt the moon’s energy coursing through my own b*dy. I may not have had
Johan’s strength or stature, but I would be able to heal myself repeatedly, no matter what he threw at
me. If I could hold out for long enough, there was a slim chance of making it out alive.
I braced myself for an attack, crouching low to the ground and growling as deeply as I could. This only
seemed to amuse Johan and be narrowed his glowing eyes at me. His face twisted into some kind of
terrible smirk, the corners of his mouth stretching too wide on his elongated nav
“You ran away from me when I was kind enough to pay a visit to your home.” He didn’t speak the words
out loud. But rather they crawled into my mind, skirted around the inside of my skull as if centipedes
had somehow crept in through my ears.
It made me shiver and shake my head to clear the uncase that he left behind. “But now you hunt me
down in the woods. It’s been so long, don’t you think? How the both of us have changed
His voice took on a lilting air as he said that and I wondered just how far gone this de mented mutation
of my former mate was. How separated from reality had Johan grown since I had seen him?
He took on a condescending, chiding tone as he continued, “But you can’t just run away from me and
then demand my attention. Make up your mind little one.”
“Don’t call me that.” My voice was as cool as ice, stabbing into his skull and shutting him up. “This is
the end for you, Johan. I won’t let you hurt anyone else?
He kept up his heinous surering as he circled me slowly. I kept my eyes on him and his sharpened
ws, turning with him as he stalked on the edge of the treeline.
“Is that so?” He was mocking me, trying to get into my head and make me doubt myself. “I’m not the
reason for all of this bloodshed, my love. This is all on you.”
HI
11:02 Fri, Jan 26 G.
I wouldn’t let him distract me. The moment I faltered would be the moment I died. “I didn’t cause this
war. I didn’t even cause all of the trouble in your life. You chose this path, Johan. You can’t me
everything on me.”
My words seemed to genuinely irk him slightly. His sneer contorted into a ghastly grimace and he
red at me, flexing his wed hands and twitching slightly.
“You took everything from me,” he spoke out loud this time, his spitting voice was venomous and bitter,
spittle flew from his mouth, and foam flecked on his lips. “You were my mate, Dorothy. You were my
destiny. And you betrayed me.”
I fought to keep my voice calm. Perhaps if I could distract him for long enough I would be able to call
for help. Ignatius had to be close by. Although the thought of Ignatius facing up against this monster
was not something I wanted to imagine.
If Johan garnered this much hatred towards me there was no telling just how deep his resentment of
Ignatius ran. No, this was a fight that I had to handle myself. I already wamed Johan, I would not let
him hurt anyone else.
“I didn’t betray you, I whispered as I took on my own semi-shifted form. It was a difficult form to hold,
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but I needed the strength of my wolf as well as the freedom to use my arms. I needed to know that I
could reach for the iron de when the time was right.
I stood on shaky legs and forced my b*dy to be still. “You rejected me. I was ready to love you – I did
love you. You are the one who ruined what we had. Not me.”
No, n
Johan seemed more agitated now, grappling with his inner wolf as he struggled to contain himself. I got
the feeling he wasn’t used to having his glorious vengeance being called into question. Nob*dy had
bothered to tell him that he might just be
wrong
It seemed some part of him was aware of how ludicrous his ns were, but he hade too far to
question his actions now. “No, that’s where you’re wrong,” he hissed at me and came to a stop, leering
over me. I held my ground and faced him head- on, fully prepared to fight him at a moment’s notice.
“That’s where you’re wrong,” he continued, shaking his sha ggy head and knocking a fist against his sl
anted temple. “You chose him over me. You took my closest friend from me. You abandoned me when I
needed you. You were supposed to be mine!”
He was yelling now, a raging, hacking roar that pierced my eardrums and made me flinch. “You were
supposed to be my mate! You were supposed to wait for me. You were supposed to choose ine!”
He mmed a wed fist into the tree behind him and it left a sizable dent in the damp bark. The tree
shook and leaves. rained down over his head. He watched as they drified to the floor quietly,
captivated, it seemed, by the stillness of it all.
He turned to face me and I caught the smallest glimpse of the Johan that I used to know. Somewhere
in those evil eyes, there was a young boy begging to be loved. It was only there for a moment though,
and then it was gone again, reced by the same twisted sneer that made my stomach turn.
I felt my children moving restlessly in my stomach. They could sense my fear and they felt it too. I put a
hand to my stomach to ensure that they were still protected.
Johan watched this motion, his eyes gliding over the round bulge of my belly. His state was unsettling
and he watched me with his foaming maw hanging open slightly. A trickle of yellow spittle dripped from
his bottom lip and plopped to the Lloor.
“And now you’re carrying his children?” The quiet and collective tone in which he said it was even more
unnerving than his yelling had been. It struck me then that Johan had not been aware of my pregnancy.
How could he have been?
Only then, when he paused long enough to properly take a look at me had he noticed the size of my
stomach, the way I kept a protective hand over my belly at all times.
He seemed taken aback at first, but his entire b*dy rxed as he looked me up and down. A cruel
smile bent his lips and his voice was quiet and malicious when he spoke, “A pregnant Luna lost in the
forest without her mate.” He extended his ws and I took a small step back. “You couldn’t have made
it any easier for me Dorothy
11:02 Fri, Jan 26 G ·
My b*dy went cold as he began his slowly stalk towards me, flexing his knuckles and licking his
mangled lips as he stared down at me with hungry, predatorial eyes.
Just think of the look on Ignatius’ face when he finds your b*dy strewn about the forest. When he finds
his children ripped out of their mother before their time. Wouldn’t that be perfect, Dorothy? You’ve
made things so much easier,” he chirped his words at me like he was trying to coax an injured bird
closer.
His tone was euphoric at the realization that he had just discovered a new and exciting way to torment
Ignatius, his old friend
“Johan,” my voice stopped him in his tracks. It wasn’t harsh or cold or angry. It was gentle. I addressed
him as I had when we had first met when I was little more than a timid outsider and he was just a boy.
“Johan, I don’t want to hurt you. I never meant to hurt you. And neither did Ignatius.”
All the while I inched closer to him, reaching out to him with one hand. The other I reached down at my
side, ever so slowly sping my fingers around the iron de in its leather sheath.
Johan didn’t seem to notice. He stared down at me with a look of pained confliction on his mutted
face. I could sense his wolf raging against him, fighting the part of him that was desperate to just have
me hack.
Johan wanted to go back to the way things were, to before he had rejected me, before Ignatius had
there was only the continuous, infinite ticking of the clock as more and more of our present became our
past.
I finally understood that ominous ticking that seemed to haunt Johan to that very moment. It was his
true fear, the devastating reminder that there was no going back. There was no changing what was
done, or what was done to you. Johan couldn’t ept that. And so he had created his own monster in
the form of time itself.
I was inches away from him by then, the iron de firmly in my grip as I finally touched a gentle hand
to his chest. 1 swallowed the bile that rose in my throat when my finger came to contact with his marred
skin. He was hot to the touch. almost scalding and I bit my lip at the pain it caused me Johan gazed at
me, his grotesque face softening slightly at my hesitant touch
It was then that he noticed the knife in my hand. I watched his eyes slide to the side and widen at the
sight of it gripped in my list. There was no time to hesitate. I lifted it to the air and brought the de
down to be buried in his chest where his cold heart no longer beat.
Johan was quicker than me though, much quicker. With one sweep of his wed hand, he knocked the
knife from my gras It spun away into the trees as he roared in anger, the betrayal driving him to a
sudden frenzy
I looked up at him, just in time to see his heade down to meet mine, ramming into my forehead
with such force that stars exploded across my vision, and the world swayed under my feet. Thest
thing I saw before I hit the ground was Johan’s wild yellow eyes and his sharpened ws aiming for my
exposed stomach.
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