Page 145 of Empowering the Wolf's Heart

My Reds and enforcers were lined according to rank just outside the edges of the last buildings that marked the borders of the tribe. Years of peace had made the tribe complacent that there were no defensive walls in place, and that may yet be our downfall.

“What are they waiting for?” Elder Vera asked, her eyes on the wide array of beings on the other side of the clearing merely two hundred or so feet from us.

“They wish to put fear into you before the battle begins. A fearful army is a battle won,” Shen said, his hood pulled up on his head and his eyes glowing golden in that darkness.

As badly as I hated admitting it, he was right. Worse than that admittance was the fear on my people’s faces. They knew the capabilities of these creatures. They knew what was in store. This was no empty threat.

We Reds were assassins not knights. We struck in the dead of night. We used time and predictability to our advantage. We attacked when a mage was depleted and under their curse. We killed when a werewolf was sick with wolfsbane.

We were no match for magic in a field where the opponent had every advantage.

“Surrender the puppy, Aurelia, and I will only kill you, your family, and the elders.” That voice sounded familiar. Then I saw her. Dressed in gold with a leaflet of glorious golden Ambrose flowers upon her brow, my grandmother stood in all her glory on the far side of the plain. “Or, should my people turn back to my ways, I will consider sparing you all.”

“You side with werewolves and black magic and spout lies. There is no surrender. Better to die knowing you did what was right than to live with the guilt of innocent blood,” Elder Vera said, clenching her longsword in her fist as her blue eyes flashed with determination.

If my eyes pricked with emotion, I said nothing. I only gave the woman a tiny smile and a nod.

“We have much to atone for, little princess, but we will stand by you as we do so. Or we will die trying,” Elder Pulma said.

The others beside us stood straighter at his words, as if they’d lit a fire beneath them.

“Speak, Little Red, let them hear your voice,” Shen encouraged. My heart shivered in my chest at how I knew him and felt him. All of him.

From the way any hint of smoke made him cringe because of how many bodies he’d burned when covered in blood to the way his heart sang in its freedom and laughed in the face of him havingchoices. His darkness broiled like an angry maw of shattered dreams, but instead of it becoming his greatest weakness, he used it as his greatest strength. He conquered that darkness with forgiveness and gave his pain a place to be, a place to find freedom. His darkness was not the darkness of an abyss, but the soft velvet of a night sky—a backdrop to help others find their place to shine. But when those stars were endangered, he was the raging blackness of the abyss, a terror to any who betrayed those he loved.

I turned back to the massive army four times the size of my own and every bit as skilled in war. Maybe moreso. “But… I don’t know what to say. I’m just a girl. Why should they listen?”

His eyes softened. “Do you not know? You are of light and strength, bringing forth change wherever you tread. It is not your Gift which makes you special, it isyouwho makes the Gift you wield precious.Youare the one who saved a unicorn-dragon,youare the one who freed a werewolf bound to his shame,youare the one who empowers the regular people to think outside of the fog of their knowledge and seek wisdom beyond what they have heard.Youchange lives not with your Gift, but with your kindness. Go, be the leader theyneed, and I will be there to support you when you come back, battle weary but victorious.”

He winked, his eyes bright and free and alive. I reached up through the shadows of his hood and touched his face. He leaned into my touch with a tiny purr rumbling in his chest. “Thank you. Come.”

He blinked open his eyes, raising a single brow. “Wha?—”

I didn’t let him finish. The mating mark sent a shiver up my spine, warming when my hand met his. I tugged him along.

I may be the matriarch of the Reds, but I was also mate to a stinkin’ Alpha werewolf and bond to a dratted dragon. It was time to be seen for who I was, regardless of what people thought of me.

If my people rejected me because of that, then so be it.

Ran?

You’ve finally decided, have you, Two-Legs?

Are you certain they’ll be ok?

You think silly two-legs will be the death of us after all we’ve survived?

This will open a bag we can’t reseal.

Sometimes you need to open things before they spoil.

A grin spread across my face. She was right.

Then come. Let us show them why they shouldn’t mess with our family.

A loud cry came from the woods. It was the cry of an eagle hungry for blood. It was the roar of a fierce and powerful lion staking a claim on their territory. It was the whoop of a sister coming to join her family, as at last I took my rightful place without fear of showing her and my mate off toeveryone.

The rogues across the way, who were straining against their bonds, were now watching the sky and whimpering in terror.

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