Page 82 of Wild Wolf

Roary hesitated only a second before sprinting past Benjamin in a blur of movement, causing a wind that made Benjamin’s hair flutter. He glanced over his shoulder then back at me, cocking his head to one side. “He won’t get far.”

“He’s not your concern,” I growled, stepping to the side as I readied to face him. He took a step in the opposite direction, eyeing me up like a meal to be devoured, but I was no such thing.

“You promised those kids a real life, but all those years you were sending them to the butcher,” I hissed.

“And I made a pretty price out of them too,” he said with a grim sneer. “You think a bunch of dead runts gives me any less sleep at night?”

“No,” I said coldly. “Cowards like you couldn’t gain any true power in the world, so you sought to control and abuse kids who didn’t even have magic to fight back with. You think that makes you a big man? It makes you a fucking weakling.”

“How dare you,” he snarled. “I’m an Acrux, a Dragon, a-

“Cunt,” I finished for him then lunged, sending fire spiralling towards his face to blind him while circling around the back of him at speed, readying to snap his neck with my bare hands.

Before I got close, his Order form burst from his skin, his Dragon knocking me to the ground as bronze wings flexed above me and hellfire burst from his jaws.

I raced for cover inside the tower, hiding in an alcove as the heat of that almighty fire scored into the stairwell, racing up and away, but not finding its way to me in the shadows.

I waited for it to die back and Benjamin let out a roar of victory, clearly believing his fire had done the job for him already, but I wouldn’t be put down so easily.

I turned and threw my weight into the wall, sending bricks flying as I leapt from my hiding place and pouncing straight onto his back.

He roared in utter fury as I built a spear of flames in my hand and drove it toward his skull. He bucked and I was knocked onto my front, clinging to his scales as he beat his wings and took off into the sky, climbing vertically and making me hold on for my damn life.

CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN

Icouldn’t focus on the bellowing roars of the Dragon who had joined the fray, Benjamin Acrux’s fate was down to the stars and my men to decide. And in a way it was fitting too. Cain deserved his vengeance on the man who had stolen not only his childhood and innocence from him, but also profited on the suffering of the children who had been desperate enough to seek out the questionable care he offered them.

I hated to think of Cain and those other small Fae so in need of a home that they had been willing to endure the punishment and cruel ‘training’ of a monster in plain sight just to be able to survive. I hoped that Solaria no longer held places of poverty and desperation like the streets Cain had clawed his way through life on, and that those in need now found the safety and help they were due.

I gritted my teeth as the bronze Dragon bellowed a roar at my back, refusing to turn and look at the fight which was taking place far beneath me. Every moment I wasted was another where my men would be forced to fight on. We were up against a viper and that meant victory would only come once I had cut off its head. And Vard’s beheading was the first priority on my list.

My muscles trembled with fatigue as I dug my fingers into the brickwork again, sweat slicking my skin and rolling down my spine as I climbed ever higher. Above me the windows were winking in the moonlight, beckoning me closer with every foot I climbed.

I was so close. And if I was lucky then Vard would be right there, up at the top of the tower looking out over the world below as stronzos like him so often enjoyed. But if not, it didn’t matter. Once I was in, I would delve through every layer of that tower, scouring its innards and ending all of the sick bastardos I came across who were complicit in the fucked up devilry they were practicing within those walls.

Max had been right. No knowledge of this could be allowed to survive for another psychopath to pick up and continue. No scrap of information could be left once this was done. We would burn it all and end every piece of shit who was involved in its production.

I dug my fingers into the bricks again, my magic flaring, but as I pulled myself higher, a high-pitched shriek cut the air in two and I flinched, my head snapping around despite the promises I’d made myself to focus on nothing but my climb.

I sucked in a sharp breath as I spotted the huge doors at the base of the tower which had been torn clean off and from within the bowels of the building hunched shapes were moving out into the moonlight.

I froze, staring down in horror as I was transported back to the war, to the monstrous creatures which had joined that fight. Fae experimented on and tainted with dark and terrible magic, forged into monsters which were near impossible to kill, frighteningly intelligent and blessed with magical weaponry.

Monsters like the Belorian who Vard himself had created. Monsters like the thing he had twisted Gustard into. Monsters which had wings.

My heart leapt in alarm as a brutish beast launched from the depths of the tower, leathery wings snapping out and hurling it skyward. It was as big as Benjamin in his Dragon form, its face disconcertingly humanoid and eyes a piercing yellow as they locked on me.

I shook my head, trying to dislodge the notion that it was coming for me. I was invisible. I could feel the rush of the moon’s magic and knew that there was no way it could see me.

But the beast did not sway from its path, racing through the sky towards me, and I cursed as I watched its nostrils flare.

No, it couldn’t see me. It could smell me.

“Fuck,” I gasped, reaching upwards as I tore my gaze from the beast which was flying for me at such speed that it defied physics.

I wrenched myself skyward a heartbeat before it collided with the tower where I’d just been, bricks crumbling away to scatter to the ground far below and the entire structure vibrating so forcefully that I was almost knocked free of it.

The beast shrieked again as it kicked off of the stone tower and launched itself back out into the sky, its wings beating hard as it swung in a tight circle, nostrils flaring as it hunted for me once more.

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