77- Blood and Vengeance
POV Lunara Grimwald:
“Because he knows you’re a bitch who slept with the Eldoria male. You’re no longer untouchable or pure. He doesn’t care about that. If he has to, he’ll hand you over to every damn male in the pack, just so he can get his hands on you.”
All the calm I’d felt vanished like smoke in the wind. The stench of death clung to the air. I didn’t think, didn’t hesitate. I threw one last glance at the transformed wolf, turned, and started running as fast as I could.
Nothing in this world would make me willingly accept the fate Alessio had planned for me.
I stepped on a sharp branch, slicing the sole of my foot. I kept running, even limping, hearing them close behind me. I dodged a tree. The heads appeared ahead, becoming more vivid with each step.
I was so close I could hear the sound of the lake and the night singing of those who laughed and drank in the village bars.
So close that the sweet taste of freedom brushed my tongue.
Then I was thrown to the ground, my back struck by large paws and long claws tearing through my skin. My face slammed against branches and leaves, a blinding pain shooting through my jaw, the taste of copper spreading across my tongue.
Pain rippled through me like lightning, leaving me dizzy.
And then, razor-sharp teeth sank beside my neck, piercing the skin that was now untouched—but once bore Edric’s mark.
The scream that tore from my throat was so loud, raw, and filled with the purest, most absolute despair that the males flinched, nearly yielding to their primal instinct to protect a vulnerable female.
My wolf twisted and writhed inside me, trying to shake the male’s fangs from our neck. It was wrong—completely wrong. He shouldn’t mark me. That right had been claimed by Edric.
“Let her go, damn it!” one of them shouted, dragging the male away. “The bastard will catch us if we don’t leave now!”
The beige wolf was gnawing on my calf, shredding flesh and muscle, hurting me on purpose. I was too dazed to notice who had marked me.
The first male who’d found me crouched beside me, licking his lips, tasting the blood that stained his dark brown skin. He was the bastard who’d dared to bite a mated she-wolf.
“You actually taste pretty good,” he said with a smile.
I felt no pain anymore, fully surrendered to the certainty that death was near. The only guilt I carried in my chest was not having had the chance to see my sister again—and for leaving Eldoria without an alpha.
I blinked slowly.
Closed my eyelids, and when I opened them again, the head of the male who’d marked me flew through the air, severed from his neck. Bones cracked, blood spattered far and wide, splashing me and everything around. The body collapsed, and I saw Edric right behind him—his eyes blazing gold, his face twisted in fury.
And for the first time in a very long while, I felt... relieved. I trusted him. But above all, I felt safe at his side—in a way I had never felt before. I also felt something else, stronger, warmer, deeper. Something still unnamed.
...
POV Edric Eldoria:
Her pain was coarse, as sour as a lemon. Fear had an acrid scent that left me dizzy.
I felt every wound—each claw tearing the skin from her back, the bite on her calf that shredded flesh and muscle down to the bone. But most of all, I felt the mark on her neck, left by that damned male who dared to claim the place that belonged to me.
I was in the middle of a meeting with Anton and Andrei when I felt it all, and that was the last thing I saw before losing control to my beast and running toward her. Because no matter where she was, I would always know her exact location.
My wolves wouldn’t come near us—not in the state I was in. They knew they ran the serious risk of being killed, even unintentionally. If my animal sensed the slightest threat against Lunara, it would slaughter anyone. Friend or not.
Our protective instincts screamed louder than reason, making me act like a true beast. Lunara was hurt. My mated companion was wounded. And that stirred every cell in my body.
The scent of her blood lingered in the air, swirling through the wind like a call meant only for me.
I tore a male’s head off with my bare hand, separating it from his body in a single movement. My claws had grown, my fangs had elongated, my veins stood out beneath my skin, and the hair across my body had thickened from the semi-transformation.
A growl thundered through me, so deep and piercing that it rattled the branches around me, as if nature itself responded to my threat.
I stared at Lunara lying on the ground. She blinked slowly, her breaths shallow, life slipping from her body bit by bit. I could feel her weakness, because it was becoming mine.
“Did you mark her?” I asked, my voice low and gravelly.
The scent of the male I had killed clung to her. My body faltered, swaying backward. Rage blinded me, and I couldn’t regain control. I had only one desire: death.
I turned my head toward the male who was staring at me with wide eyes, his face drained of color.
“He marked her,” he said, pointing toward his dead accomplice.
In the blink of an eye, I stood before him. I shoved my fingers into his mouth and leaned in, locking my gaze on his.
“I won’t kill you slowly only because my mate needs me,” I whispered, tilting my head as I studied him.
I gripped the lower part of his mouth with one hand and the upper part with the other, pulling them apart. The skin at the corners of his lips tore open, creating deep fissures along his cheeks. He screamed when his jaw dislocated, and screamed even louder when the bone cracked with a dull snap. His eyes rolled back, desperate, his body thrashing against my hold.
I increased the pressure, tearing his head in two. I left it hanging by the scalp and released him. He fell dead to the ground, blood streaming down his neck like a crimson waterfall.
A manic smile spread across my face.
I turned toward the transformed wolf. He growled at me, but there was a flicker of fear in his greenish eyes.
“What an honor to be the last to die, don’t you think?” I taunted.
He lunged, leaping toward me. I dodged and drove my hand beneath his furry body. My claws tore through his skin with ease. I broke several ribs and closed my hand around his pounding heart. The warm liquid enveloped my palm, bringing an oddly soothing sensation. I pulled my hand back, the heart still clenched in my fist. The beige wolf collapsed beside me, lifeless.
It had been far too easy to annihilate them—a fight that was anything but fair. The males of that cursed pack were weak and undeserving.
I opened my fingers and let the heart fall.