Page 8 of Wolves in Love

Misti sidestepped another lunge and crouched down. She could feel her wounds stretch and reopen from her movements, but she couldn’t worry about that now. Not if she wanted to at least have a shot at her father.

The other werewolf was turning around, preparing to advance again. Misti held her ground. When the other werewolf jumped to try and land on Misti’s back, she darted under her, claw raised, tearing open her torso with her claws. The werewolf’s hind legs clipped the back of Misti’s head as the werewolf landed and collapsed.

She stalked over to the werewolf, who struggled to stand but fell again. Her stomach was wide open. She hadn’t long to live.

Please, the werewolf whimpered.

A slash across the throat and the werewolf’s suffering ended.

Misti swallowed hard. She had feared this would happen. Total chaos, destruction, mayhem… They never should have approached the Wild Shades. They had been fools to think they could stand up against the combined might of the Red Nightwalkers and Shadowed Stars. If she and Anders had died, who cared? But if all of the Wild Shades to be taken too, and all because they had promised them the mountain…

Anders. Where was he? She glanced around. The Wild Shades she could see were all wounded, most surrounded by two or three, if not more, enemies. But Anders was nowhere in sight.

Had Jed killed him? No. Anders was a furious fighter. He’d never go down. He’d taken on so many wolves at once before and survived. A single wolf wouldn’t be enough to take him down.

He killed Talon, a part of her said.

But that Wild Shade had fought you. Why? another part countered.

One Wild Shade doesn’t mean they’re all rogue.

That’s when she spied Anders. At the bottom of a pile of werewolves that included Jed and three Wild Shades. Even from across the way, she could tell that Anders was losing, and badly.

6

Anders’s back was breaking. Not literally, but it sure felt that way. At least three wolves were on top of him. When would he learn not to bite off more than he could chew?

But he wasn’t about to let Jed go after Misti. He recognized the stench of the werewolf he hated most of all as soon as Jed had arrived at the battle scene. After all, Misti had been engaged to the Red Nightwalker at one time. Although he hated his father so much that maybe his father topped the list. Talon had that distinction until Anders had killed him, and now he planned on killing the other two.

But Wild Shades had joined the fight just when he had started to gain the upper hand on Jed. He was really getting disgusted with the Wild Shades. Maybe they were all traitors, although from some of the howls they were shrieking at him, hardly audible above the din of the skirmishes around them, they were blaming him for the others that had fallen. Instead of fighting the real enemy, they had turned on him.

Better him than Misti, though.

He dug his claws into the soil and tried to force his way out from the bottom of the heap. It wasn’t easy, and the progress was slow until his claw scratched against a large stone. It wasn’t easy to pick it up with a were paw, so he changed it back to human, just his hand, and he grabbed it, twisting around onto his back as best he could. It left his neck vulnerable to a killing bite, but he refused to give them time for that. He smashed the rock against Jed’s temple. The wolf on top of Jed was snapping with his fangs, trying to shove Jed out of the way to reach Anders’s neck.

Winding up, Anders slammed the rock into the werewolf’s fangs. Two fangs chipped, and one fell out.

That werewolf whimpered, squirming, trying to break free. The tower collapsed, and Anders managed to wiggle his way free. At last. He could finally breathe again.

But his relief was short-lived. There were three Wild Shades after him, not two, although the one with the busted, bleeding mouth was leaving the scene. That still left three, as Jed, despite his broken skin at his temple, stalked toward him, leading the charge against Anders.

His back had to resemble Misti’s now, from the claw marks. Only one gash seemed to be long, and he could feel blood gush from it as he crouched, waiting for the onslaught.

To his surprise, a bundle of fur whizzed by. Misti. Growling and slashing, she was darting to his rescue.

As if he needed to be rescued.

He dashed forward, only one of his legs could hardly support his weight. The tower must have put so much pressure on his back he hadn’t realized the extent of the weight on his leg too.

The pain was excruciating, but it was probably better to feel something versus nothing. He limped along, and gradually, he could walk on it. By now, Jed was advancing toward him, while Misti was engaging the Wild Shades. Jed snarled, and Anders howled back. He wasn’t going to fall to the likes of him.

They met in a clash of fangs and claws. Jed at least seemed a little disoriented from the head wound, but his blows were still strong, and more hit their target than Anders would have liked. He got in as many as he took at least. That wolf was one tough son of a gun, Anders had to admit.

He backed up to avoid Jed’s snapping jaws and tripped over something smooth. A knife. Maybe a Wild Shade had dropped it, or one of the other pack members had lost it, but it was his now. As before, Anders shifted a paw to a hand and jabbed upward just as Jed’s teeth bit into his throat. He stabbed again and again, frantic, wanting Jed to die before he could rip open his throat.

For a moment, both lives hung in the balance.

Then, slowly, oh so slowly, Jed released his deathly vice grip on Anders’s throat and fell backward. His stab wounds were so numerous Anders couldn’t count them all, not that he would have wasted the time to.

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