Page 158 of Empowering the Wolf's Heart

My heart cried even though my eyes could not.

I knew her name. I knew each and every one of their names. I’d grown up with them. I’d trained with them. They were good people. A bit disillusioned from what we’d been taught, but good people.

Graham. Sera. And so many more. Names that would be branded onto my soul for eternity.

Ran, Shen—I need you,I called out to my bonds.

Shen materialized at my side, grabbing an arrow from thin air an inch from my eye. I didn’t flinch. I didn’t know if my nervous system was just that shot or I was just bordering on psychotic.

“What can I do, my Luna?”

“Stop her from murdering my people,” I growled, pointing to Kingpin while another Red dropped from her blade and crumpled on the blood-drenched ground.

Shen bowed his head and then stabbed a mage who materialized behind him using some sort of speed or shadow magic. The mage collapsed as Shen turned, eyeing Kingpin who was harming the people she’d claimed to love.

“Best way?” he asked. The bond was a cold, calculated thing at that moment. As if he wouldn’t allow himself the luxury of emotions. For right then, he was Sicario Hood.

“Ran can take the flames, use her as cover and make my grandmother pay,” I said. “You’ll know when it’s time.”

Shen raised a single brow but nodded. “Do not get killed,” he said, his dark eyes filled with caution.

I grinned. “Me? Never.”

He huffed, but amusement flared over the bond along with a joyous affection that wanted to take me in his arms and squeeze me until I couldn’t breathe. It reminded me of when I see a furry baby animal and want to squeeze it. He found mecute…like some sort of furry rabbit or baby critter? “Hence why I am concerned.”

I am a lion who could kill you!I hissed at the bond.

Sure you can, princess,he whispered back, low and husky.

Ungracious, backward cur!I shouted.

He was gone the next moment, only a puff of air to signal his leaving. He dove into killing, trailing a pathway of blood behind him. Again. Until he made it to Kingpin.

With a single kick, he knocked her back and sent her spinning across the ground like a skipping stone on water. She left a divot of dirt five feet long when she slid to a stop.

That power. Shen looked back at me and grinned. And in his face, I saw darkness that made my soul tremble. Not with fear but anticipation.

He again drove her into the ground, keeping her occupied until she grew angry enough to send a swathe of crackling fire after him. He did his littlemoveagain and it barely missed singeing his arm.

Since Shen wasn’t on mage duty, my people and my magical creatures were taking the brunt of the dark mages power. “Hold, just a little longer, please,” I whispered to my people even though they couldn’t hear me.

Ran squashed a rogue under her foot and ripped its head off with her teeth.

I sensed her in a way I never could before. She longed to return to her people but didn’t wish to leave me. She needed to bask in a hoard for a while to completely regain her strength. This was her atlessthan full strength? I’d never want to beherenemy.

She snorted a laugh in my head.

Am I not terrifying enoughnow?came her innocent voice as she roared at Kingpin, taking a hit of flames to protect the injured Red at her feet.

Shen got the Red—was thatBrandt?—to safety and sliced the back of Kingpin’s ankles, severing the Achilles tendon and making her stumble. She turned with a snarl on her face, but Shen and the Red were gone. Before she chased another Red, Ran tossed her into a tree with a simple swipe of her claws.

“You ready?” I said to Fenbutt.

He gave a little woof, wagging his tail.

“Do it,” a voice said from behind me.

I turned to see Mom standing there, her eyes bright with tears as she watched her very mother kill, maim, and destroy her friends and family. Mom’s jaw was clenched in determination, and ire bounced behind her calm facade. Behind Mom were my siblings.

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