Everything turned to a frenzy. People were running in different directions, their scared screaming blending into the air. The once-elegant ballroom became an area of disarray as the crowd soared, crashing over tables, chairs, and each other in their desperate efforts to flee.
I tried to move with them, but the crush of bodies was overwhelming. Someone pushed me, causing me to stagger backward, and I shrieked. My stomach turned over when the strong, metallic smell of blood filled my airways.
More cries. They were coming from all sides, each one cutting like a sword through the commotion. I turned, desperate to find Terran, but the sea of panicked faces made it not possible.
"Terran!" I called, but the commotion drowned out my voice.
I fell to the ground with a hard, abrupt shove. As I attempted to support myself, pain shot up my arms as my palms scratched across the marble floor. I gasped and struggled to raise myself against the swarm of feet surrounding me as my hair fell over my face.
My breath stuck in my throat when I finally managed to look up.
Terran in his wolf form, his sleek black coat shining even in the low light, was there when I noticed him. He fought three invading wolves at once, his movements quick and deadly, a whirl of strength and accuracy.
He spun in midair, his claws sweeping across its flank as one pounced at him. Another wolf leaped at Terran's side after the first one yelled and dropped back. He confronted them directly, their bodies crashing into one growling mass of teeth and fur.
However, it was insufficient.
Unrelenting, the invaders circled him like animals encroaching on their victim. They were as quick as Terran. He snarled and shook it off with a violent snap of his jaws after one bit his leg. Where his teeth and claws had left their mark, blood matted his fur.
"Where are the others?" Panic twisting in my chest, I murmured. Where could he find the pack warriors to assist him?
A second wolf attacked, sinking its teeth into Terran's shoulder this time. I recoiled as though I had been bitten, and he howled in agony. I screamed and clutched at my temples as a piercing agony exploded in my head.
It seemed as though my spirit was bound to his, experiencing his suffering and distress. Fear took hold of me like a cold, relentless vice. He would die. Like all the people I've ever loved.
"No," I muttered, my vision blurred by tears. Not him. Don't him, please.
Something broke inside of me.
The world abruptly changed, and I had no idea what was going on. It seemed as though gravity itself had lifted me, making me feel light, nearly weightless. I opened my eyes and looked down at the ground. I was adrift.
I felt as though I was standing in the eye of a storm, the surrounding chaos suddenly muffled and far away. A weird, uncontrollable energy throbbed through my veins. I had no wolf, so it wasn't wolf power. It was something else, though.
I held up my hand as my voice echoed with a force that wasn't totally mine. "Stop!"
The intruders paused, staring at me with luminous eyes. However, they continued.
I didn't consider. I took action.
I only had to flick my wrist to raise them all into the air, their bodies hanging as though they were in the direction of unseen threads. The members of the pack froze in place as shock shook the room.
Despite their thrashing and growling, the invaders were helpless against the fury I had unleashed. I slammed them into the floor and walls with my fist once more, dispersing them like rag dolls. I continued despite their agonized moans filling the room.
They would cover the cost of putting us in danger, for causing harm to Terran.
Because you made me feel helpless.
I raised them once more, preparing to strike the last blow, but a voice pierced the mist.
The voice of Terran said, "Zephyrine!"
It pulled me back from the brink of something I didn't understand, like a lifeline. The energy left me as fast as it had arrived, and I turned to face him. Even though his movements were difficult, and his wolf form was injured, his blue eyes fixed me with a fierce purpose.
"Stop," he murmured quietly, his tone firm but unvarnished. "You're secure now. We're secure.
Like water sliding between my fingers, the power diminished. I fell to the ground because my body felt too heavy. The last thing I saw before my eyesight became fuzzy was Terran changing back into his human form and charging at me with his wounded body.
"Zephyrine!"
Then there was darkness.
* The chamber smelled like mildew, was damp, and was gloomy. One of the invaders, chained to a chilly metal chair, twitched, and the chains rattled softly. His body felt like it had been pulled through gravel, and his brain ached. The dim flicker of a lone lamp suspended from the ceiling caught his attention as he opened his eyes. The shifting shapes of the shadows as they danced across the walls were unsettling.
"You're awake," a quiet, measured voice with a sickening weight drew from the darkness.
Squinting, the invader attempted to see the figure entering the faint light. The hood of a dark cloak covered the tall man's face. The air felt too heavy to breathe in his presence, which was oppressive.
The invader croaked, his voice raspy with fatigue, "Who are you?"
The man answered in a cool but icy tone, "That's not the question you should be asking." "Before you respond to me, you should ask how much pain you're willing to go through."
The intruder stiffened, instincts slipping even though he was restrained. He tried to project the boldness he didn't feel by baring his fangs. "I will not reveal anything to you."
With purposeful, predatory moves, the man took a step closer. He was holding a tiny vial that contained a dark, greenish substance.
The man held it up to catch the light from the lantern and muttered, "Wolfbane." "You must be aware of what it does."
The trespasser's breath caught. He was aware. All the wolves did. Pure anguish, wolfbane was poisonous to their kind and burned like fire in their veins.
The man went on in an emotionless voice, "You can make this easy or agonizingly difficult." "What made you attack the pack this evening?"
The invader refused to respond, clenching his jaw.
The man let out a sigh that suggested disappointment. Suddenly, he opened the vial and put a few drips onto a piece of cloth. He moved in closer, pressing the cloth against the intruder's neck while firmly grasping his jaw with an unrelenting hold.
It had an instant impact.
The intruder's body erupted in excruciating, intolerable pain. He screamed, his muscles tensing up as though they were being eaten from within. His veins began to burn, creating a conflagration from which he was unable to escape.
The man repeated, in the same tone, "Why did you attack?"
The intruder's body shook as he strained for air. "I—I can't—"
The wolfbane made the pain worse as the fabric pressed closer to his skin.
"Why?" the man said again, his patience becoming thin, his voice now a hoarse growl.
As the intruder shook his head, tears ran down his cheeks, the agony pushing him over the line into insanity. At last, he cracked.
His voice was hardly more than a whisper when he gasped out, "The seer." "Our pack's seer informed us that there is an enemy in this area who could awaken with a force that could endanger the entire world."
The wolfbane fabric hovered just above the intruder's skin as the man's hand froze. “An enemy?”
Desperate for the suffering to end, the intruder nodded wildly. She warned that they would rise suddenly and that it would be too late if we did nothing. We were told to get rid of the threat before it got out of hand.
Under the hood, the man's black eyes were unreadable as he took a step back. "But you still failed."
Following the removal of the cloth, the invader breathed in short, shallow gasps of relief. He mumbled feebly, "We didn't know… didn't know what we were dealing with."
Finally, the man lowered his hood and knelt before him. A harsh, angular face with cold, calculating eyes and a sly grin was visible in the wavering light.
The blood of the intruder flowed cold. Now he recognized him.
"You…" he muttered, his expression turning horrified. "You are—"
The invader was caught by the throat as the man's hand sprang out. They threw away the wolfbane fabric; it was raw strength now.
"You've done your job," the man whispered softly as his hold tightened. His gasps for air faded, and the intruder's struggles became less intense.
Before oblivion engulfed him, the last thing he saw was the man's face, which had a chilling mixture of satisfaction and indifference on it.
The motionless body sagged forward. The man got up and brushed his hands away as though he were getting rid of a minor annoyance.
Another figure, shrouded in the same darkness, waited in the shadows as he turned. The man murmured in a whisper that sounded like thunder, "It has begun." "She's waking up."