Page 23 of Reign of the Beast

Acres of land were charred beyond repair, lodges were going up in flames. Others were already burned to the ground. All I could hear was screaming, snarling and growling, as the battle raged on.

I’d already had my secondary enforcers lead an evacuation of the women and children.

But now my army was being decimated.

If it wasn’t bad enough worrying about the vamps with their speed, there were also traitorous wolves from hell knew where following whoever the fuck was leading the charge to take us out.

The worst, though, were the magic-wielders. We had no defense against them. They were the ones who’d set everything on fire. It was how it had happened so fast, why it had been impossible to stop.

“What do you want to do, Alpha?”

I watched more enemy soldiers coming in from the valley, making their way up to the mountain top where we were at.

So much destruction and devastation had already gone down.

I had to stop them from wiping out what was left. My top enforcers, the homes still standing.

But as I saw magic coming from the second wave of soldiers, I knew we needed help. The only way to fight magic was with fucking magic.

“Gotta call for help.”

I shoved my hand into my jacket pocket and pulled out something I’d kept close for months now, figuring I’d be needing it sooner or later with the way things were playing out everywhere because of Draco.

Rubbing my fingers over the raised letters of the strange card, I called out, “Subitis.”

I heard Tyson gasp as a green glow emanated from it.

A bright spark exploded, then died out a second later.

I stared at the card for another couple of beats.

When nothing else happened, I stuffed it back in my jacket. “Guess that was it.”

“I hope so. If that SOS didn’t go through we’re screwed,” Tyson said.

He’d been holding it together real well, especially because he always liked to be prepared for every eventuality, and this attack had come out of nothing. But now we had a second, I could see he was freaking, right on the edge.

I had to get him to focus. He needed a task.

I slapped his shoulder. “Get me word on the women and kids. Make sure they’re on the road to our safehouses.”

“On it, Alpha,” he said, snapping into action and speeding off to get it done.

I let loose a command in Wolf Tongue for the pack to come together. It sounded like a ferocious howl to outsiders.

Every pack member in the area stopped and eyed me.

And then, as I bounded over to the edge of the mountaintop, I felt the ground rumble beneath my feet, the thunder of the fifty members left standing following my command.

I looked over the mountainside, seeing the enemy’s second wave was just a klick out now. I cursed under my breath just as my wolves lined up either side of me, a row forming at my back too.

I spoke to them in Wolf Tongue as we all braced ourselves in an attack stance, reminding them that we didn’t cower in the face of any threat, that we’d fight to the last breath to defend our territory, our home, our people, our family. We’d show no mercy.

Roars sounded all around me.

And then silence fell.

An awful silence.

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