Page 35 of Luna Ascending

My jaw clamps shut on my wolf's howl of protest and I stiffly, purposefully, walk toward Tavey. He's only able to move painfully slowly. Fuck, he must be really badly hurt. He gives a low groan and his eyes flutter open. He tries to stutter a few words but I silence him with a glare. There's nothing he can tell me that'll change things now, and he'll need all his energy to heal.

Finally, the rest of the pack arrive – knowing my beta was in danger had spurred me to run much harder, much faster than anyone else. We all stand, looking at the bodies in dejected silence.

Full of gloom, we begin to move the young shifter's bodies. It's not until I heft the first one onto my shoulder that I realise the youngster is still alive. Most of them are still bloody alive.

Relief floods me – they're catatonic, frozen in place like blocks of ice, but they're damn well alive! I'll take that over a half dozen dead teenagers any day. I mind-link the pack house, sending for the doctor and stretchers immediately.

Something doesn't fit. I can't make sense of this. The Coven created a diversion at our facility so they could attack Tavey while he was essentially alone. If they were after Tavey, why leave him behind when he was still alive? Surely he's valuable to them. More importantly, how the hell did they know where he would be? Do we have a fucking spy?

I will hunt down any traitor in this pack and tear them limb from limb, agonisingly slowly. My wolf agrees with a snarl. He's distracting my train of thought though. He's taken leave of the little control he had, and is just yowling. It's fucking annoying.

Coming across Freya's scent after so long has pushed him over the edge - he keeps screaming at me that she belongs to us. He wants to take off after her, and I don't have time for inner wrestling. She's the enemy, and my pack need a cool head. I push my wolf forcefully to the back of my mind.

Pacing around the clearing, I'm completely unable to bring my thoughts to order. My father and Angus have to restrain me from taking off after the Coven. I want revenge.

As the adrenalin fades I realise my wolf wanted to follow Freya's scent to the East. The surviving Coven members' scents go West. My wolf perks up to gloat as the realisation smacks me in the face. They split up – why?

Before I can work it out, my father calls me over. The kids are beginning to come around. I look in astonishment at Tavey, who's also making a remarkable recovery – to the point he is having to be physically restrained.

Piecing things together from Tavey's snarling profanities I realise Liz has been kidnapped, and feel immediately guilty. She's one of us now, cougar or not, I should have realised her body wasn't here with the others.

The young shifters tumble over themselves trying to explain what happened.

“One of those sneaky fuckers cast a spell to paralyse us”

“Just not playing fair”

“Like stabbing someone in the back”

“Just then she appeared –shewas awesome!”

They describe excitedly how, just as one of the Coven cast a spell on them, a shifter arrived in human form. The spell rendered the teenagers completely immobile but their senses remained. It's fucking bad luck that they could only see in the direction they were facing when they fell, but still it makes them a better source of information that the raging, incoherent Tavey.

The youngsters, keen to redeem themselves in anyway, talk over each other.

“The shifter brought back up – a good witch – but she stayed hidden.”

“Are there good witches?!” another interjects

“That shifter was bad-ass! She fought them with her bare hands”

“Yeah, but the good witch helped...there were spells against the Coven!”

“Nah! No such thing as a good witch! One of them just has shite aim”

“Bollocks! You couldn't see properly... I could!”

They explain that the shifter didn't change to her wolf immediately, but tried to fight the Coven in human form, assisted by an invisible 'good' witch. They're a bit hazy about the exact details, contradicting each other repeatedly. They agree though, that things came to a head when Marciel arrived.

“The de Vaudou creep arrived – he had a screaming match with the shifter”

“Then IT happened”

“Yeah, that was freaky”

“The lightening, it all bunched up.”

“It struck the shifter, but she didn't seem to care. Total badass”

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