Page 47 of Ascension of the Pack

I’d rescue it in a moment – but first: Isaacs. He was in his wolf form now and we raced towards each other, clashing in a storm of fur and teeth. We growled as we bit and ripped into each other with abandon.

Esme was quicker, more agile, leaping this way and that. She was in her element as Isaacs lumbered around, his larger form so much slower than us. She darted in and out so quickly that he struggled to react in time. He did get a few wicked bites in, though, and our side was burning and dripping blood.

We broke apart, panting. I stood over the orb and several drops of my blood mingled with the muddy water and swirled around it. As I watched, the blood shot towards the orb like it had been called to it, then the orb seemed to soak it up and turned a ruddy, red colour.

What the hell?

The wind howled around us. Focused as I was on the orb’s shenanigans, I didn’t notice that Isaacs had shifted back to human and was throwing a fireball right at me. He was naked, and I wondered if a lot of his deep-seated issues with women stemmed from the fact that his flaccid dick was smaller and thinner than my little finger. And his nudity suggested that Terrance wasn’t truly on his side.

With the wind behind the fireball, it flew at me. We leapt out of the way just in time and the flames rolled over the orb instead. Fuck! If the orb was destroyed after all we’d been through to get it…

The flames died, leaving the orb in their wake – but now it was glowing. It had woken up! The muddy puddle was a mixture of earth and water, the howling wind was air, and then the flames had rolled over it – fire. I gave a mental head thunk. It had taken all four elements to wake the orb. All the clues had been in the story of Lochlan; he had also used all of the elements. Son of a bitch.

Isaacs shifted back to wolf form and was starting to stalk towards me when a bright blue pulse shot out from the orb and hit all of the wolves in the immediate vicinity – including him.

And inside of me, something stirred.

Chapter 30

I reached out to the new feeling; it was like standing at a cliff’s edge on a windy day being buffeted by the air around me. My air magic was well and truly awake – and I doubted I was the only one with access to it. That blue magic had struck all of the wolves in the immediate area.

I wasted no time. I needed to use my air powers before Isaacs realised what was happening. Suddenly, the air was crackling with new energy; I could feel it coursing through the wolves around me and empowering them.Allof the wolves, including Isaacs’.

Then a sharp gust of wind whipped through the battlefield, far stronger than any of the gusts that had come before. Someone was already toying with the new power within them.

Damn it. Nowhiswolves have air magic too,Esme grumbled. We’d both hoped that we’d have a chance to useit before anyone else realised what was going on, but that was a pipedream.

The tides were shifting and not in our favour. The Merseyside wolves used their air powers cautiously at first but then they grew bolder, leaping higher and faster as they used the currents to propel their attacks. One of them lunged at Maxwell but Alyssa helpfully incinerated him before he could land a blow.

Ares was there and I hoped he’d left Ivy at the lean-to. He was rearing up and smashing down on the wolves around him, but one of them used its air powers to leap onto the unicorn’s vulnerable back. Ares reared up to try and shift it, but its claws were digging into him.

Before I could run to help him. Bastion swooped down, ripped the Merseyside wolf away and slashed his talons through it. Even weakened as he was by the witch’s curse, Bastion was still a formidable foe. He cut a swathe through the wolves, but there were so many. I’d had no idea Isaacs’ pack was so big – though it wouldn’t be after we’d finished with it.

Isaacs shifted to his human form and laughed triumphantly. ‘We’re going to kill you all,’ he taunted. ‘Even your pups.’

I snarled, feeling the heat of my magic roaring to life. Esme’s fury mirrored mine and her thoughts were like astorm. By tacit agreement, we shifted into human form, too: it was time to bring fire to the table.

Without Terrance’s help I was naked, but I didn’t give a flying fuck. ‘Like hell you will!’ I shot back.

Enough,she growled.Let’s show him who he’s dealing with.

A nearby wolf, seeing me as a tasty human morsel, pounded the ground towards me, eyes alight with malice. We shifted our hands into claws, but didn’t shift back into our wolf form; we needed to be human to call the fire. I intended to rain it down on Isaacs until he was nothing more than a crispy canapé.

The huge lupine brute was getting closer, dividing my attention between him and Isaacs as I focused on calling up the fire.

Around us, the clash of bodies and growls echoed through the trees, a deadly symphony of violence. I recognised another wolf that was running an intercept course: it was Tristan’s wolf, Arden. He faced off the snarling, jet-black beast from Isaacs’ ranks and its amber eyes glowed with malice as it circled, saliva dripping from its jaws.

Isaacs smirked and rocked back on his heels, waiting for what he clearly thought was the inevitable outcome. He wanted to demoralise us by making us watch Tristan andArden die. But although Arden might not have had the other wolf’s size, he had heart and purpose and he was fighting to protect his alpha.

I considered using my fire to help but the two wolves were moving so quickly that I was as likely to strike Arden as the Merseyside wolf.

The wolf lunged without warning, claws extended, teeth bared. Arden met the attack head-on and their bodies slammed together with a sickening thud that sent a shockwave through the clearing.

The black wolf’s teeth snapped at Arden’s throat but Arden twisted just in time, raking his claws across the enemy’s face and piercing his eye. Blood splattered across the ground as the black wolf howled with rage. Fuelled by pain, he lashed out and caught Arden’s shoulder in his jaws.

Arden gave a sharp yelp as teeth sank deep into his flesh. With a desperate twist, he wrenched himself free but the damage had been done: his left leg hung limp and blood was gushing from the wound. He staggered back then, despite his injury, charged again, aiming to sink his teeth into the enemy’s throat.

I started forward to help but found that I couldn’t reach them: something was in my way. I pounded against the invisible barrier but it did not give.

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