345- Alive
POV Viktor Averwyn:
I thought only of them as I hurled the two wolves away and turned back to Konrad, driving my claws into his back as he tried to rise. He seemed obsessed with reaching them, his glowing eyes burning with bluish fury. He screamed in pain as I tore chunks of flesh from him.
“The human!” he roared to the other two wolves approaching us.
They stopped and turned. Terror consumed me.
“Come on!” Adelina pulled Seraphine. “Run!”
I kicked a wolf trying to bring me down. Konrad staggered to his feet, and in a rage I drove my claws into his shoulder, yanking his arm with all my strength while shoving him aside.
He shrieked in agony as the arm tore free, blood spraying. He collapsed to his knees, delirious, out of his mind.
I ignored the wolf attacking me and ran, seeing only my daughter and Seraphine being chased by the other two.
Adelina fought one, her wolf emerging, while the other leapt onto the woman’s back and slammed her to the ground. Screams and snarls everywhere—a trembling spectacle of horror.
When I saw the bastard open his jaws to bite the redhead’s neck, I grabbed his hair and ripped him off her. Another jumped onto my back, slashing my ribs and chest—but I didn’t grab him then, barely caring about my pain.
I forced open the jaws of the one about to bite Seraphine—so hard they split, his mouth tearing to the ears, teeth and blood spilling. He dropped dead in front of me.
I grabbed the hands of the one on my back, trying to bite me. I roared, crushing his bones between my hands while howling. I hurled him away.
The woman turned on the ground, terrified, too shocked by the attack and the carnage. Alive.
Then I saw Adelina still fighting the other, and I took care of him.
She wasn’t badly hurt, just scratched. The third wolf came running and Konrad shouted again:
“The human!”
I turned, mad, without any rational thought. I threw one aside and ran toward the one going for Seraphine. She was getting up, unsteady, while my daughter told her to run. Everything happening at once.
I leapt onto the wolf and we rolled. That’s when I saw Konrad heading toward her, furious, one-armed, covered in blood. Staggering steps, but determined. Hatred on his face.
That’s when I knew who the real target was. He wasn’t trying to kill me. He needed—at all costs—to kill her.
I kicked the wolf slowing me down and rose, knowing who had to die first.
I flew in a leap as she screamed and fell back onto the ground. Growls from the other two, whimpers from the one with mangled legs.
“Run, Seraphine!”
Adelina shouted and turned toward the forest, desperate. She vanished into it.
The other didn’t move, watching as I reached Konrad just before he got to her. I knocked him down, kneeling over his stomach as he struck me with his remaining claw and I drove mine into his neck.
“Why the fuck? Why her?” I growled.
He snarled, trying to bite me. The other two wolves were close now. There was no time to talk, and my rage was bloodthirsty.
I pinned his body beneath me and thrust my arms upward. He was strong—but not like me. Not wounded like that.
I saw the panic in his eyes when he realized it was the end.
Then his head tore free from his neck—nerves, tendons, veins, and bone exposed. Blood spraying as his head rolled to the ground just as the other two wolves leapt onto me.
I fought, looking around in desperation.
Adelina had vanished toward Tharengard territory—Lucian’s land. Seraphine crawled backward, terrified.
She got up, dizzy, and ran. South—toward my territory. The vegetation hid her from view.
The wolf with shattered arms ran back toward Cyndrael, maybe to call reinforcements. And I finished off the other two.
I drove my claws into their necks and smashed their faces together so violently that one tore the other apart—teeth mixing, flesh and bone exploding.
They collapsed, choking. I ripped open one’s chest, plunged my hand into another’s ribs, tearing out his heart.
Then I rose, covered in blood and rage.
There was no time to think, no time to choose a direction.
In that moment of fury, my wolf ran south at full speed—after Seraphine.
I roared, delirious, desperate. Her scent closer, the fact that she was alive guiding me—that I had to get her out of there before more attacks came. It was a consuming, irrational need.
I saw her hair, her blind run through the darkness, sobbing.
She barely had time to look back when I wrapped my arm around her waist and threw her over my shoulder without stopping. She screamed, cried, and I cut through the forest instead of heading for the secret passages.
I avoided traps as I reached the base of my territory. I leapt, accelerated, following the most basic survival instinct.
Through the woods until I reached the main road and saw the gates of Averwyn—where I had killed Konrad’s wolves days before.
My armed guards behind the watch posts recognized me instantly and opened the gate. They asked questions, but I didn’t stop, still deeply transformed, holding my prey, shielding her with my body.
I ran uphill, and the main gate opened as well.
My heart pounded against my chest as I reached the center of the village, surrounded by walls, Seraphine safe and alive.
I dropped her beside the central tower and lifted my head, still ruled by volatile emotions, by my beast.
I howled furiously at the moon.