Chapter 152: Army At The Gates

Maddie Pov

I squeezed Calix’s hand and I looked at the dark line of trees. The glowing eyes did not stop coming. They kept moving out from the shadows until the grass was covered in wolves. They were not wearing the colors of any normal pack. They had a white slash painted across their shoulders. It was Simone’s mark.

"There are too many," Marcus said and he wiped a smear of blood from his nose.

"It does not matter how many there are," Calix said and he did not let go of my hand.

A woman stepped out to the front of the line. It was Simone. She was alive and her clothes were torn from the fire but she was laughing. She was holding both of her hands high in the air and her skin was glowing with a weird purple light. It looked like the power from the broken stones had gone straight into her veins. Her eyes were wide and she looked completely out of her mind.

"You thought you broke it," Simone screamed and she looked across the lawn at us. "You thought you won because the old man died. But the stones just gave their power to me. I have three packs behind me now.”

"You don't have anything but rogues, Simone," I said and I stepped forward.

"Rogues can kill an Alpha," Simone said.

She dropped her arms. The gesture was like a signal.

The horde of wolves let out one loud roar and then they launched themselves down the hill. The ground started to shake under my boots again. It felt like a small earthquake. They were running very fast and their teeth were bared.

I felt the white light inside my chest start to move. It was not a soft feeling anymore. It was hot and heavy and it filled my arms and legs until my skin felt tight. I looked at Calix. He was bleeding from his mouth and his right arm was bruised black from the beam but he was standing straight.

"Together?" I asked and I looked at his face.

"Together," Calix said and he gave me a short nod.

We started to run.

I did not think about the pain in my legs. I just let the shift happen while I was moving. My bones popped into place and the white fur grew out of my skin in a big rush. I looked to my side and I saw Calix shift too. He was the big black wolf again and his gold eyes were fixed on the front line of the enemy. We were running side by side and our shoulders were touching.

The enemy wave was fifty feet away. I could smell their bad breath and the sour sweat on their fur. I bunched my muscles up and I prepared to jump. I was going to use everything I had left to hit the first rogue wolf.

Then I felt a sharp sting in my right side.

It was a cold, deep pain. It went straight between my ribs and it felt like a piece of ice was sitting inside my chest. My back legs lost their strength instantly. My paws hit the dirt wrong and I tumbled forward into the grass. I skidded three feet through the dirt and I stopped.

I tried to stand up but my legs were shaking too much. I looked down at my side. There was a silver dagger sticking out of my fur. The white fur around the metal was already turning dark red from blood. The silver was burning my skin and it made my light feel small and weak.

I turned my head slowly. Someone was standing right behind me.

It was Lila.

She had a patch of dirt on her cheek and her clothes were wet from the creek. She was holding an empty leather sheath in her hand and her fingers were covered in my blood. She looked down at me and her eyes did not have any life in them at all. She looked like a ghost.

"I told you it was not over," Lila whispered and she stepped back into the shadows of the bushes.

I let out a wet whimper. I tried to use my front paws to pull myself toward Calix but the silver was working too fast. It felt like heavy lead was moving through my body. My vision started to go grey at the edges.

"Maddie!"

It was Calix's voice. It was a loud, terrified roar in my head.

I looked up. He had stopped his jump. He was standing five feet away from me and he was looking down at the knife in my side. His big wolf face was twisted into an expression of pure horror. He tried to turn around to come to me. He reached out one black paw toward my head.

But he was too late.

The first wave of rogue wolves hit him like a wall. A big grey wolf slammed into his shoulder and two more caught his back legs. Calix went down into the dirt under the weight of three animals. He was biting and scratching with everything he had but more wolves were jumping on top of the pile. They were a mass of grey and black fur and white teeth.

"Get off him," I tried to talk but no sound came out.

Simone walked down the hill slowly. She looked at me lying in the grass and she did not even use her knife. She just smiled.

"The White Wolf is down," Simone shouted and she raised her hand again. "Finish the rest of them."

The enemy wolves closed in around the pile where Calix was trapped. I could see his black tail for a second and then it disappeared under the horde. The noise of the growling and the tearing fur was very loud.

I stretched my hand out toward him. I had shifted back to my human form without even realizing it. I was cold and the grass felt rough against my face. The dark red blood was pooling under my hip.

I looked at Calix’s face one last time through the gap in the wolves. He was looking right at me. He was still fighting but his eyes were full of fear for me. He was screaming my name but the sound was getting further and further away.

The blackness came into the center of my eyes then. The orange light from the burning house went out. The sound of the pack screaming died down until it was completely quiet.

My head hit the dirt and I did not see anything else.