AZALEA

“This feels like a trap,” Maddox pointed out as we all looked toward the trees.

“It is,” Liam agreed, nodding. “But, he’s on our pack land, and I have some of our strongest warriors here. He probably expected Nethercote to capture me and kill Damien. He won’t be expecting us like this, and we should use it to our advantage.”

I hoped Liam was right. Warwick seemed to be one step ahead of us no matter what we did. I pushed around Liam to see no one emerging from the trees. The sun finished setting, and its pink and orange hues had given way to darkness. Warwick wasn’t coming to us; he was baiting us to come to him.

“He wants us to come find him,” I grumbled in annoyance. I didn’t want to trudge through the woods to find him. It probably meant he had something planned for us that we wouldn’t like.

“We have to try,” Damien said, rolling his shoulders like he was preparing himself.

“We’re going to have to go after him, and I’m sure there are still plenty of vampires out there,” Liam reasoned. “I don’t want to split up, but we’re going to have to.”

“Come and play, my puppies,” Warwick laughed menacingly from within the trees. It occurred to me that Warwick was speaking in all of our heads.

“What should we do?” I asked Liam. I had the watch, but I wasn’t expecting a game of cat and mouse. I worried that we were the mice.

“There is a lot of area to search. I want you to stay close to me. So, you and Azeron are with me. Damien, Missy, and Maddox will go together separately, and we can head in different directions. We can’t afford to pull more wolves from the packhouse; this could be a distraction meant for us to be lured away. I will not compromise the kids’ or other pack members’ safety by using our warriors to search,” Liam replied, his concern palpable. I chewed the inside of my cheek nervously as everyone nodded their understanding. “Damien, have you checked on Lily? If they have taken care of all the vampires around them, they could search as well.”Belongs to © n0velDrama.Org.

Damien closed his eyes, and when he opened them, he updated us, “Lily was with Quinn at the park near the pond. Michael got there, and they were fighting a large group of vampires who all crumbled suddenly; I bet they were all Nethercote’s little bastards. They’re going to search the park thoroughly and then head this way if they don’t find anything.”

“Good,” Liam noted, squeezing my hand. He looked down at me, his blue eyes shining with steeled determination. “Let’s go.”

We moved toward the trees closest to us. Liam looked like he was stalking his enemies; his shoulders were wide and slightly forward while his broad chest was puffed out. His gait was aggressive, and his footsteps were heavy. I swallowed nervously, squeezing his hand tightly. Azeron stayed barely a step behind us.

We stopped in front of the treeline, and Liam shouted, “Come out, Warwick!”

“Come and find me,” he taunted, his voice not giving us a direction to go in.

“Be careful,” Damien said in a low voice; I could feel the warning in his tone.

“We will,” I told him, feigning confidence as I touched my hand lightly to his shoulder. I felt my healing power almost pulling at me to be let out, so I allowed it. Damien’s minor injuries from his battle with Nethercote and his kin healed before my eyes. Surprisingly, I felt no fatigue as I pulled my hand away from him with my surprised look mirroring his.

“Wow,” Damien exclaimed, looking his body up and down. “You need to learn how to do this all the time. It’s great!”

“Maddox and Missy, come here,” I asked on a whim. I laid my hands on my daughter and her mate; I felt my power push into them and wash away cuts and bruises from their encounters. Liam watched with a mixture of pride and worry.

Missy smiled, “Thanks, Mom.”

“Of course, sweetheart,” I replied, kissing her gently on the forehead. I stepped back, and Liam grabbed my hand once again. With a reassuring squeeze, he looked ready to move.

I tried to remain calm, but we were met with no resistance as we moved further into the woods. I expected Warwick to appear at any time, making me anxious as we found nothing. We were all out here now, so what game was he playing? My stomach was still in knots thinking about him trying to get to the kids. I trusted our warriors to keep the packhouse safe, but Warwick was a Sire; I worried it might not be enough. I clutched Liam’s hand tighter, praying we didn’t get separated.

MADDOX

We searched in silence for fifteen minutes, heading further and further away from Alpha, Luna, and Azeron. Warwick’s voice stopped us all.

“Now that Nethercote and his kin are gone, it’s time for mine to come out to play!” With an orange-hued shimmer in the air all around us, vampires appeared from nowhere. “My witch was kind enough to lend me a hand with a few spells, like this one. My kin were able to stay out of your view, but that isn’t even the best part!”

Vampires surrounded us as Warwick was gleefully telling us there was more; this couldn’t be good. I heard heavy footsteps from something massive coming through the trees. The sound grew louder and louder until a massive vampire appeared. He was easily seven feet tall and built like a gorilla they’d shaved and trained to fight us.

“I thought I would introduce you to my special pet. He’s been fed nothing but witch’s b***d day and night for as long as I can remember. It has enhanced his abilities. This should keep you sufficiently busy as I deal with your Alpha. My other soldiers won’t need to interfere. They’ll stand sentinel as you attempt to keep your lives!”

“Here we go,” Damien muttered calmly under his breath.

“Alpha, are you hearing this?” I linked Liam.

“Yes, I did,” Liam responded. “Can you handle this? We can come find you.”

“No, we will take care of it. Stop Warwick and don’t worry about us,” I told him.

I looked over at Damien. He was ready; he gripped his axes so hard his knuckles were white. His size combined with his fury made him appear like a bull ready to demolish a china shop. Then I remembered my mate.

“You might want to let me and Damien handle this one,” I cautioned Missy quietly. This could be difficult for Damien and I to handle. The vampire in front of us was no joke.

“Okay,” she replied calmly. “If you think it would be better, then I will stand back.” I realized she was scared, and her fear was feeding my own through our bond. She stepped behind Damien and I as her fear was replaced with relief and unease.

The behemoth in front of us looked at Damien and me as we stepped forward together, and that’s when I noticed. The monster in front of us was smiling, and his eyes were glowing orange.

“Uh… that’s not good,” I told Damien.

“I don’t care what he is. Let’s just put him down,” he responded, his voice thick with b***d l**t.

“Let’s go,” I agreed.

The two of us stalked to our adversary, carefully searching for the best way to approach our attack. He didn’t give us that choice. Breaking into a lumbering sprint, he hurdled toward us. A huge hand swiped in front of my face as he lashed out, but I managed to duck away from it at the last moment. Not only was he enormous, but this vampire was also fast. He wasn’t as fast as us, but the gap in our speed wasn’t as large as I thought it would be. He punched out at Damien, who couldn’t move in time. A large fist crashed into Damien’s chest, throwing him back onto his a*s. Damien hit the ground, and I heard all of his breath exhale sharply from his lungs as he coughed b***d. I tried to give him a small window of recovery, so I lunged at our opponent. I threw a hard overhand right, but he didn’t even move. He smiled and watched my fist connect with his jaw. It felt like I’d punched concrete, except it didn’t break.

“Oh no,” I thought. “Should I tell Missy to run?”

“Let me out!” Tom demanded. I wasn’t sure that was a good idea. If the other vampires were training for fighting wolves, I could only imagine this one had as well. He was a different breed than anything we had seen yet. If he closed his arms around me, I wasn’t going to survive it.

“When it’s time,” I assured him, trying desperately to keep him from taking over.

“Now is the time!” he demanded. “We have to keep our mate safe!”

“I am,” I growled, pushing him back deeper into my mind. The vampire was watching us now with an amused look on his face.

“Damien, you good?” I asked.

A cough from behind me and the sounds of getting off the ground followed, “I will be when this b***h is dead.”

“I hit him pretty damn hard, and he’s still smiling. It didn’t phase him,” I warned him, still unsure of how to approach this.

“He won’t brush off my axes.”

Damien stepped forward to stand beside me again and then started throwing a succession of attacks with his axes at the vampire. The leech dodged most of his attacks, but Damien finally caught him with a chop down into his clavicle. B***d spurted, and the vampire looked down at his wound with curiosity. He narrowed his eyes at both of us like he’d now decided this wasn’t fun anymore, and he was going to actually take the fight seriously. I didn’t like that look. He started throwing a heavy barrage of punches at Damien, and the vampire tried to bite him anytime he got close enough. It rocked Damien back on his heels, and he didn’t have time to fight back. He was in survival mode. If I didn’t do something soon, Damien would be overwhelmed.

“I think we have to take the chance,” I told Tom. I was confident in my fighting ability, but I was pretty sure I needed my wolf’s teeth to cut into the vampire’s flesh to end this.

“Finally,” Tom growled, bursting to the surface.

I attacked the vampire’s legs, breaking his flow of attacks on Damien and giving him room to breathe. This started us working together in unison, and we alternated attacking between the vampire’s upper body and lower body, axes and wolf. The vampire looked like he was getting frustrated, but he was calm and calculating. Damien had succeeded in making a few superficial cuts, and I’d bitten the vampire a few times. It hadn’t phased him, though, and he kept fighting as if we caused him no pain. I couldn’t tell if he was incredibly tough or if he literally couldn’t feel our attacks.

I saw an opening and lunged for his legs as Damien was coming in to strike, but as my teeth were about to find purchase on his leg, he shifted his stance and grabbed me by the scruff. Holding me up like a shield, the vampire put me in between himself and Damien. I saw it happen in slow motion, including the look of horror on Damien’s face as he realized what he was about to do. I watched the axe arc past his ear, move forward, and bite into my flesh. By the time I felt it, I was on the ground, and one of my front legs was beside me. I could hear Missy screaming in the background, but I couldn’t decipher what she was saying. I felt warm, and my vision started to darken. The last thing I saw was the vampire holding Damien by the throat in the air.

LIAM

We heard what Warwick told the others, and it was taking everything I had not to go to them. Still, I knew that if I ended him, it would stop the threat to them entirely. We had to keep going. As we traveled deeper in the woods, it became quieter, more still. It was as if the animals of the forest knew what was happening and left. I pressed my senses to their limit, trying to smell, see, or hear any possible clue to Warwick’s plan. Gavin was pacing and on edge, waiting to be set free. He at least understood why he couldn’t be out yet, but he didn’t like it.

We broke into a clearing, and it felt like I walked into a brick wall. My grip on Azalea faltered. I looked, and there was nothing around. I reached out my hand, and an orange haze met wherever I touched. When I looked down, I realized why. There was an intricate magic rune activated beneath me.

I turned back to Azalea, but she wasn’t in the magical prison with me. It was keeping her out the same way it was keeping me in. Azeron’s head was on a swivel, looking everywhere, trying to find the threat.

“Finally,” Warwick said, coming into view from the other side of the clearing. “I think now we can get started.”

“Get behind me, Luna,” Azeron growled.

“Very noble, mutt, but it’s hopeless. It won’t save you or her,” Warwick taunted.

“I’m going to kill you,” I promised him, bringing my fist down on the wall separating us.

“You’ll try,” he laughed. “But first, you’re going to watch me kill this mate that you’re so attached to.”