Chapter 163 CHAPTER 163

Chapter 163 CHAPTER 163
"Cassie help! They're attacking me! There's so many of them!"
Her voice was filled with pain and fear that I knew all too well from being so close to death myself.

My body moved before my brain could catch up.

"Where are you?!" I screamed through the link, my thoughts in disarray.

"The road to town, I didn't make it to—" her voice cut off with a scream that made Red howl inside me.

"Jason! Caleb! Anyone near the southern road, Tiana is being attacked, get there now!" I commanded through the Pack link.

"Baby stay where you are, let us handle this!" Hunter's voice cut through the panic in my head.
I heard him pushing out of the Pack house, running ahead of me.

But I was already running.

"Cassie! I said stay back!"

I wasn't listening.
“There's no way in hell I'm doing that,” I snapped, “that's my best friend in danger and she needs me.”

"Stubborn woman," I heard him mutter before his link switched to coordinating the warriors.

I shifted mid-stride when I suddenly realized I'd been running in human form all this time, Red taking over with a fury that tore through my clothes and sent me flying forward on four legs. The trees blurred past me, branches whipping against my fur.

Soon, I was out of Pack territory and on the southern path.
I smelled them before I saw them.

That wrong scent. Not wolf, not human, something rotten in between. The same stench Hunter described from Blood Moon but stronger, thicker, multiplied a hundred times over.

“Kitten?” I heard Stephan's sleepy voice.

“Keep resting, we've got it, okay?” I quickly said before closing the link. I didn't need him tearing up his wound in a bid to help.

Hunter was already chewing at bones and was doing everything necessary.

When I broke through the tree line, my legs nearly gave out.

It wasn't five of those things as he'd mentioned in his report.

It was a hundred. Maybe more.

They swarmed the southern road like a plague, snapping and snarling with jaws that moved wrong, too wide, too many teeth. Some were on four legs, others lumbering on two like they couldn't decide what they were supposed to be.

Jason was already there with a squad, cutting through them, but for every one they killed, three more filled the gap. Caleb was fighting on the western side, blood pouring from a gash above his eye. A dozen of our warriors were locked in combat and losing ground. It was chaos.

And in the middle of it all, Tiana.

Her wolf was bloody and limping, dragging a torn hind leg, snapping at anything that came close but getting slower with every second. Three of the creatures were circling her, tightening the ring, and she had nowhere to go.

I fought my way towards her, Red tearing through anything in our path. But there were so many of them, their bodies pressing in from every direction, and the closer I got the more I could see how badly she was hurt.

One of the creatures lunged at Kit and he went down under its weight. Another latched onto Gabriel's arm and he roared in pain. All around me, warriors were unlucky, killing five, getting bit by one.

We were being overrun.

"There's too many of them!" someone screamed through the link.

"Hold the line!" Hunter barked back but even his voice carried an edge I'd never heard before.

I was twenty feet from Tiana when it happened.

One of the creatures broke through her defense, its jaw opening wide, wider than any wolf's mouth should go, and it lunged for her throat.

Time didn't slow down. That's a lie people tell. Everything happened at full speed and I knew, with absolute certainty, that I was too far away to stop it.

In that instant, something supposedly difficult and impossible happened.

The fingertip from this morning pressed back against mine, hard.

And this time, I didn't flinch.

Light erupted from my body.

It poured out of my skin like liquid fire, white and gold, and it moved without precision.
“Get away from there!” I screamed at a shocked Tiana, who was on the ground with her eyes shut, expecting death.

The creature inches from Tiana's throat disintegrated under the pressure. Its body came apart like wet paper, the wrongness in it burning away until there was nothing left but ash and rot.

The waves kept pouring out of me.

It hit the next creature and the next, tearing through them like they were made of nothing. They shrieked, sounds I never want to hear again, their bodies convulsing as the light burned away whatever dark magic held them together.

I was screaming through all of it, not words, just sound, raw and guttural. The power kept coming, pouring from a well I didn't know how deep it went, and I kept shouting at our men to get out of its way.

“I can't control it!” I screamed, scared I was hitting them too.

Our warriors scrambled back as the light spread, eyes wide, some shielding their faces.

Then it stopped.

“What…” I looked up to see scared eyes staring at me, my people who had taken refuge in the trees.

And I looked around, only to see the bodies of the animals desecrated while some ran off into the nearby forests.

I stood there panting, steam rising from my skin, my body vibrating with energy still humming through my veins.

The power didn't go back to sleep.

It stayed with me this time, still volatile but at least it saw that the danger was gone.

"Tiana?" I shifted back and ran to her. She'd shifted too, naked and bloody on the ground, her leg torn open, body shaking.

"I'm here, I've got you," I said, pulling her head into my lap. "Don't you dare close your eyes on me."

"They came out of nowhere," she whispered, tears mixing with blood. "Gosh, all this because I wanted that damn cereal.”

A broken laugh escaped me.

"I'm buying you a year's supply when this is over. You're never leaving this Pack without an escort again."

"Yes Luna," she smiled weakly before her eyes fluttered.

"No! Stay with me. CALY!" I screamed through the link. "Southern road, now! Tiana is down!"

"On my way Luna!"

Jason limped over, bleeding from his neck and shoulder. He looked at the road. Dozens of decayed bodies, ash still floating in the air, the stench of death hanging over everything.

"Luna... what did you do?"

"Now's not the time to figure out the type of freak you have as a Luna Jason, we have to take care of this mess."

Caleb arrived at my side, clutching his arm. "There are more in the trees. They pulled back but they didn't leave."

"How many?"

"At least fifty."

Hunter broke through the tree line in wolf form, massive and black, his eyes scanning the carnage before landing on me.

"I love your stubbornness,” he said in my mind, “just don't scare me like that again. You looked ready to jump off a cliff to save her.”

“I certainly would have.”

“I'm going to take some men and clear out the bushes. None of them are leaving here alive.”

“My strong man,” I smiled.

“Get her back to Pack grounds okay? Be safe.”


After debriefing Stephan who was now very much awake and stressed, he began speaking to the entire Pack.

"Zyrell knows where we are," he said, his voice steady despite the trembling in his hands. "This wasn't a test. This was a message. She can reach us whenever she wants."

“What do we do Alpha?”

“First of all, we must merge with Blood Moon. And training begins now. No more school or whatever is taking our time. We train, we eat, we sleep. If she comes at us again, we must be prepared. And don't worry about me, my wolf is awake now, by tomorrow morning, I will be as healed as possible. This war must be won regardless of the cost. We won't let her win!”

A roar erupted from the people but I didn't feel as confident as my mate did.

Zyrell has these weird things, her powers and the Council.

What do we have?