Page 113 of The Alpha Dire Wolf
I met his eyes. “Don’t let them get me, Linc. Please. Don’t let them get me. They want me. They want me.”
“I know,” he said, pulling me into him. “But they won’t get you. They can’t have you. I told you once. I will protect you. I meant it. You can be mad at me, you can hate me, but Sylvie, I willneverlet any of them hurt you. Ever. I won’t abandon you. I promise. Do you understand?”
I curled into a ball. “We have to go.”
“Go? Go where?”
Dawn’s first light appeared on the wall behind him, lighting his face and showing his surprise.
“Don’t you get it?” I whispered. “They’re coming for me.It’scoming for me. We have to get to the heart before it’s too late. We have to stop them.”
“It’s too late,” Lincoln said, attention now solely focused out the window. “They’re already here.”
The light on the wall behind him flickered like flame. It wasn’t dawn yet, I realized in horror.
The den was burning.
Chapter Forty-Three
Lincoln
“Stay here,” I ordered, dashing from the room faster than she could follow. There was no time to talk, no time for discussion.
My people needed me. The enemy had come tomyhome, to attackmyfamily, and I wasnotgoing to let that happen.
I was in wolf form before I left the front steps, looking up at the sky and letting loose with a long, soulful cry to the moon high above. I couldn’t see for the trees and the clouds of the storm, but her presence was there, and I drew upon it, drinking in the cold cool energy and confidence.
I was alpha. I was death.
Eyes burning, I stalked forward into the night to find my prey.
Elsewhere, the cry went up as my people awakened from slumber, alerted to the presence of danger by the howl of our people. Our pack.
The first shadow creature that crossed my path didn’t have time to react. Muscles twitched as it fell to the ground withouta head. I opened my jaws, letting the skull fall to the ground with a soft squelch as it hit blood-soaked grass. Then I was gone, flitting from shadow to shadow and leaving a trail of blood and death in my path.
Resistance was building. The far side of the den was under full attack, but doors were opening, and wolves were howling nonstop, announcing the murderous intent of my pack. Only destruction would be found here.
Shapes moved in the darkness with me now. We didn’t slink. We strode. Each paw reclaiming territory from those who thought they could attack us. Who thought they could harmus.
My group slammed into a thick knot of twisted, mutated forest creatures, many with extra limbs, some with double or triple the amount of eyes, and all of them sprouting growth that was anything but natural.
Fangs flashed and claws tore darkened flesh asunder in perfect silence. The creatures fell back, leaving half their number behind. In pieces. We pursued. There was no surrender. No mercy.
Only blood and death. This was our land. Our home. Howdarethey try to desecrate it with their filth?
We were a wave, building in strength of fur and fang, rushing forward, tearing apart resistance where we encountered it, driving back the enemy with ease. The shadows fell before us, routing on all fronts, and we drove them back with unceasing coldness in our every step. There was no squabbling now, no fractures. We were one people. One pack. A sea of giant forms in the night, charging at our sworn enemy.
Then they hit back.
Out from between two houses, a massive beast charged into our midst, tossing wolves left and right. I skidded to a halt,staring in a mix of anger and fear. If the thing I had fought in the heart of the forest was a young elk, this was its full-grown brother. Bigger than a moose, it towered above us, glaring balefully with violet, pupil-less eyes. Antlers lined with razor-sharp edges had split and cracked until they looked more like horns.
My people scattered, but not fast enough. They underestimated the speed of the thing. They hadn’t seen it like I had. The double-hinged jaw split open wide and the tongue lined with suckers flicked out, latching on to the flank of one wolf and ripping a huge strip free that it promptly swallowed.
One of my people recovered faster and darted in to rip at its hind legs. Standard tactical practice for dealing with larger prey.
No!I snapped, but it was too late.
Faster than should be possible for a creature of this size, the moose-monster donkey-kicked. The tawny-covered wolf seemed to freeze in midair as its momentum was stopped, and then it flew backward through the side of a house. I didn’t bother to look inside. I had seen what the hoof did to the skull of my pack member.
