Page 94 of Mated Exile

Then he brushes up against me, senses my pain, andruns.Not away from the danger, but straight towards it. Towards me, and whatever the vampires are planning for him and the rest of the wolves. His howls of rage echo through the night air.

"Just a moment more," Demetri says, his glowing eyes narrowing. "Then it'll all be over."

I twist beneath his grip, which only digs his clawed fingers in deeper. Staring down at my middle, I watch as black writhes up his arm, from the spot where his fingers disappear into my flesh, all the way up his elbow, to his shoulder.

A moment later, the furry wolf stomach I'm staring at turns back into a human stomach as I'm forced to shift. The fingers remain, digging into my middle. Bastian lifts his muzzle from my throat and steps back, his head hanging low, eyes slack and bright red.

It's a mercy when my eyes slide closed and I nearly pass out.

But for only a moment. Because the earth shivers beneath me as dozens of werewolf paws hit the ground. A white blurry form goes streaking through the darkness and lands right on Ambrosia. Another, darker wolf attacks Marcellus. More go after the vamps in the darkness.

Demetri curses, his lips peeling back from fangs. I shudder as I feel my veins fill with more and more vampire venom. His fingers glow where they're buried in my flesh, blood pooling around them, black magic reaching up towards his neck.

Two silver eyes glow in the distance, just behind him. My heart leaps and twists at the sight of them. Finn doesn't give any warning before he leaps towards Demetri—only to be pummeled to the ground when Bastian whips around and rises to his master's defense.

The battle is tense but short. Bastian has done this dozens, if not hundreds, of times. He feints to the right, attacks to the left, and pushes Finn to the ground.

As the leggy brown wolf fights to a victory over the black one, Demetri says in a bored tone, "Bastian, kill him."

My heart leaps in fear and anger, fingers curling in the earth as I try to fight the pain, the venom, the black magic. But it's sunk into my body and trapped me within. The only part of me that can move separate from my physical self is my magic—and the only place for it to go is into the earth.

Bastian hesitates, his body jerking unnaturally as he fights the magic compelling him. That's the only chance I need, and I take it. Pouring the last of my strength into the earth, I grab onto the land beneath the wolves' feet and tear it asunder.

Instantly a crack opens up in the ground, at least ten feet deep. Both Finn and Bastian drop within it. I wince at the yelp I hear, followed by a snarl, but there's nothing else I can do if my gambit didn't work to save Finn.

The moment all my magic and strength is drained from me, Demetri's dark curse takes hold.

He smiles triumphantly and speaks four sibilant words that slide through my mind like smoke.

And suddenly everything I am, everything that'sme,is gone.

Leaving nothing but him inside my mind.

Along with a sudden swell of magic that turns my stomach and sickens me. Unlike the warmth of when I tap into the earth, or the strange rituals of the minor witch spells, this magic is cold and haunting. It chills my blood and makes my bones ache.

But it gives Demetri what he wants: the powers of a wolf-witch hybrid.

Including the ability to reach out towards every single pack member on this land—and turn their minds to his will.

Thirty-Nine

Lance

The vampire snarls and throws some strange, white powder in my muzzle. Holding my breath, I spin away, swiping at my muzzle and shaking it off. Then another vampire comes for me, this one out of the darkness, claws raking down my back. I swiftly twist and snap my jaws around his arm, tearing it off from the elbow. Leaping on him, I rake my claws across his throat and open him wide.

Blood gushes to the ground, the wound steaming in the air for a moment before he dies. There are more, though—so many more. I don't know how, but somehow they managed to hide from us in the woods, evading Delilah's magic and our land's protection as well.

Protection which, I'm realizing with increasing despair, is in tatters. Other than Delilah's effort with the creek, and the wall up around the Mating Circle, there's nothing protecting the pack territory from the vamps. It's almost as if an outside force has drained all our power for itself—something that seems impossible, because we never gave the pack over to John deLance or anyone else.

Blood rot alone can't explain the stillness in the air or the stale cold of the ground. The earth, wind, water, and even the trees themselves should be rising up to join us in our fight against the vamps. They never should've been able to get within our borders in the first place. But somehow they did, and the day before our Summit, when we'll finally regain our strength. As if they had an inside line to our pack's plans.

Attacking another vamp, then another, I make a clearing through their bodies and search for Delilah. There she is—but she isn't well. One of the bloodsucking cretins is holding her down on the ground, fingers digging into her, blood pouring out of the wound.

Behind her, Bastian's wolf leaps angrily onto Finn's, bringing him to the ground.

I surge forward in alarm. Therewasa traitor in our midst. It doesn't make sense—every instinct in me has insisted that Bastian was trustworthy, and those instincts aren't usually wrong. But he spent a decade with the vampires, and maybe in that time they did something to bend him to their will.

No matter. I'll take him down once I've saved Delilah. Colliding with a vampire in my path, I tear his leg apart with my teeth.

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