Page 55 of Moonlit Choosing Ritual

“No,” I said. “I want to be with you!” I noticed all our pack wolves were bristling with barely restrained fury. They seemed to be waiting for Talon’s signal to strike.

“This is no time to argue!” he growled at me. “Go, or else I will focus on protecting you instead of killing this bastard!”

From the corner of my eye, I saw Vandil coming out of his tent along with his warriors. He looked accusingly at Talon as if this was his plan. Before I had time to say anything, Kenzie dragged me away.

In the cold, eerie glow of the full moon, the forest fell deathly silent for a moment, even the wind ceasing its whispers. Then, with a guttural roar that shook the trees, both Alphas surged forward, and the packs clashed. Fangs gleamed and claws flashed in the moonlight as fur flew. The battle turned ferocious—growls, howls, and the sound of bodies crashing into one another filled the night.

The moon watched impassively from above, casting its pale, indifferent light over the chaos below, where instinct and rage ruled.

And I—I was shoved inside my tent with warriors surrounding me. How did we get here? Nothing made sense. Where was Jackie? Had she run away after leading Liam here? Was it her plan all along? Was Kirk involved in this? There were a thousand questions in my mind.

Suddenly, the fabric at the back of my tent screeched as someone sliced through it. Shocked, I picked up a knife on the table to attack, but when I saw Jackie, my shock was mingled with surprise. “Jackie?”

She placed her finger on her lips. “Come with me,” she said in a low voice.

“What? Fuck off!” I shouted. “You brought Kirk here!”

Her face looked pained. “No, I didn’t even tell him where I was going, and I’ve no idea how he found out about it. But this battle’s going to turn fierce. If you don’t come with me now, you’ll get killed. Liam’s not alone. There’s another Alpha with him, and Talon’s warriors are outnumbered.” She looked with panic toward the tear in the tent. “Vandil is waiting for us outside. He’ll take both of us because he wants us safe!”

“No, I won’t come with you!” I hissed. “You’re conning me!” Tears ran down my eyes thinking Talon would be killed. “I’d rather die with Talon.” Realization slammed into my chest. Talon was my mate. My. Mate. Mine. I would never leave him. Ever. Again.

“Please, Kimble,” Jackie pleaded. “I’m not deceiving you. You’ve saved me, and I want to save you. Because if Liam manages to get to you, he’ll capture you and torture you to torture Talon. Or the other way round.”

“Shut up!” I hissed. “I won’t—” Before I could speak further, someone grabbed me from behind.

A black bag was forced over my head, its pungent smell choking me. “Shh… Ylva…” Vandil’s cold voice reached my ears. “It’s time to go home.”

Home? I tried my best to struggle against darkness, against him, but my eyes fluttered closed. I lost all sense of time. I think I was hauled over a shoulder and carried out, but after that I don’t remember anything.

Chapter 30

Talon

Liam lunged at me, but my warriors stopped him before he could reach me. They tackled him, and I focused my attention on the other enemy wolves. This was always my strategy. It was stupid to fight another Alpha right from the get-go.

I had trained my warriors very well about how to deplete the energy of the enemy Alpha. And they were doing exactly that. In the meantime, I killed his warriors one by one with nothing but my claws and fangs. I shifted between my wolf and human form to take them accordingly.

Fighting my kind was an art I had acquired after years of practice. I was cold and calculated when it came to the annihilation of my enemy. I wasn’t stupid enough to underestimate Liam. If he had attacked me like this, he must have had numbers. And it showed. However, I wasn’t prepared for him having an ally in the form of Alpha Chuck of the Wildclaw pack.

My warriors gave me enough time to kill many of their warriors, but they kept on coming. Liam was coming fast toward me, but I had another agenda on my mind. Through the chaos of bodies and howls and gashes, I reached Alpha Chuck. His eyes widened in terror, but I didn’t give him time to act and lunged at him, shifting midair, aiming right at his throat. I took him to the ground with the flesh of his throat squelched between my fangs. He let out a blood-curdling scream, thrashing his limbs to claw me, but his life snuffed out a second later. All his pack warriors tucked their tails between their legs and ran to escape. My warriors pounced on them.

With my bloodied maw, I turned my head over my shoulder to look at my fucking cousin. He was the only one who dared tooppose me. The slimy bastard. I would make him pay tonight for what he had done to my mate and me.

In order to let him know I was coming, I tipped my head to the moon and let out a roar. When I looked back at him, he was glaring at me with his muscles bulging. He was panting, his chest rising and falling. Blood ran down from his sides as deep gashes decorated his body. Only his throat was left for me.

I moved stealthily on my paws, leaving blood in my wake. Reaching Liam wasn’t easy. His warriors clawed me at every damn place they could find. It wasn’t just blood. It was my blood, mixed with hate and the years of trauma I had undergone because of him and his father. Hatred for what he tried to do with my mate.

Liam was impatient to get to me, to kill me. And so was I. But there was a difference between how we approached our vengeance. With a roar, he lunged at me and shifted into his wolf, landing right before me.

I dipped my maw and snarled at him. We began circling, looking for weak points. His wolf was clearly tired, but so was I. Suddenly, he lunged at me. I waited for him to come near me and, with precision, I veered right. He landed on all fours and stumbled, and when I turned and bit into his flank, my fangs deeply pierced his flesh. He yelped, and I knew that he was terribly injured. I attacked his throat next. He thrashed his limbs at me, his claws gashing my stomach, but I sank my fangs into his throat and remained like that until he stopped thrashing against me. Until he… died.

As soon as Liam’s last breath faded, Kenzie gave a victory howl toward the moon. My warriors joined in as Liam’s ran for their lives.

But I didn’t stop there. With his throat in my fangs, I dragged his body to the tent where my mate was waiting for me. I wanted to drop his body as an offering to her. She was myeverything. My love, my life, and not just in this life, even when we entered the Fade. She had finally accepted that she loved me, and perhaps that was the best day of my life.

When I reached my tent, I saw my warriors lying on the ground, killed or groaning in pain. Confused, I entered and saw she wasn’t there. Shock warred with terror. Terror of losing her. I dropped Liam’s body and shifted.

The shock was immediate and visceral, like a punch to my chest that knocked the air from my lungs. One minute, I was looking forward to a beautiful future, and the next, I was staring at an empty space where she should have been, a rising sense of dread flooding my mind. My heart started racing, a cold sweat forming as my thoughts scrambled to catch up with what was happening.

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