Page 33 of Through Battle and Blades (The Wolf Queen 2)

Their shields locked tight together because I knew the wall of them was only as strong as the weakest link, and I waited behind it. The Reavers drew closer, lumbering now at a much slower place, but with it came an explosive power. I planted my feet into the earth, feeling like they took root there, never to be moved. My fingers tightened around the grips of my swords and I squared my shoulders. We were pack and we would hunt.

I saw Pepin’s point as soon as the bastards hit us. In wolf man form, the barricade was cut through like a hot knife through butter, and they slammed into our shields, a feral snarling mess. I jerked back as the first few appeared, their slavering jaws provoking that instinctive response. But if I was unprepared, my men were not. They stabbed into open jaws and skewered through eyes, leaving the bastards to fall back, only to be replaced by others of their numbers. But this was my fight as much as theirs, that golden light brightening as I stepped closer. Weyland yelped a warning at me, my sword went up and straight into the throat of one of them. The Reaver’s mouth vomited blood as I jerked it free and then stabbed into the next one.

“First kill, lass!” Gael shouted before dispatching his own. “Knew you had it in you.”

But while he might celebrate my victory, the others did not. They seemed to surge closer then, straining against the might of the Reavers pressing against their shields, putting everything they had into keeping the bastards back.

And me with it.

I needed to fight, to stab, to slice, my body trembling with that need. But they made no space to do this. They were clustered too close, their own strikes hampered by the way they clustered around me. I heard their grunts, saw their strain, but it was the first shout of pain that shifted things for me.

“Fuck!” Axe snarled as claws ripped a bloody swathe along his forearm. His axe went slamming into the neck of the Reaver, half tearing the beast’s head from his shoulder in response. But I didn’t watch the Reaver die. It was Axe’s blood, too red, too bright in the late afternoon sun that had my attention.

They were fighting like dervishes as I stepped closer, the golden light inside me transmuting now. A slow, steady beat throbbed in my ears, the light becoming a fire. My teeth ached as they became fangs, my fingers fought to hold onto my swords as they became claws. But one finger reached out, following the dizzying blur of Axe’s arm as he slashed and cut, the tip finding the furrows the Reaver had left, slipping through the blood. His eyes jerked down for a second, long enough for a Reaver to lunge at him, but he beat them back, watching me as my finger disappeared into my mouth.

Yess… A voice hissed in my head. Now we will come to understand each other. You’ve danced with my granddaughter, been coddled by my daughter, and now you’ll know me. Maiden and mother… she said with a snicker, her words coupled with the sound of fluttering raven feathers in my head.

Lady Death? I asked, but was that her title or mine?

I licked my lips, tasting blood, his blood in my mouth when I did so, that metallic tang unlocking something inside me. I threw my head back, a ridiculous thing to do on a battlefield. It revealed my weakest point to my enemy, but somehow I knew I would remain untouched. I let out a howl then, one that felt like it reverberated all the way through the valley and with it came answering howls.

They would not break our line, I thought. They would not win this day. That beat hot and true in my heart. My pack wanted to protect me, but they couldn’t, I knew that now. So I raised my swords, forced my mates to give me ground and stabbed and stabbed and stabbed.

The trouble is the Reavers felt just as certain. And that’s what this was, a battle of wills. The Reavers were determined to slay the innocent, we were just as determined they wouldn’t and for a time, I thought we had the upper hand. I skewered my sword through Reaver eyes, slashed throats and at claws tearing at my shield, but I did not waver, that golden light seeming to strengthen my arm.

But then I heard a scream that cut through it all.

I looked down the wall and saw a Reaver surge up and over a human’s shield, his jaws open before he snapped them around the man’s head and then tore it from his shoulders.

The light faltered when I saw the fountain of blood that followed, then flickered when the men next to him just stared, letting the shield wall break. This was no longer a battle, but now just open melee fighting.

“Fucking hell!” Dane snarled. “Protect Darcy!”

But if they did that, women and children would die. My eyes slid around, behind us, to the road that led up to the manor gates. We wouldn’t be safe in our outrage, coming in after an attack had happened and helping the victims back to Snowmere. If anyone died today, it would be entirely our fault.

“No, Darcy,” Pepin said, appearing in my field of vision, blood smeared across her face and as I stared, I saw a shadow of her wolfish mask. “You know what to do. You’re the queen. Act like it!”

I couldn’t understand the words, but the intent, it struck something inside me like a bell, the sound of it resonating outwards. I tossed aside my shield to the sounds of my men’s anguish and drew my other sword.

“Darcy!” Weyland said, daring a glance back at me, his eyes so wide and blue. “Don’t do it. Do not succumb. You won’t come back, love and—”

His lecture was truncated by a crushing blow heading his way from a Reaver that towered over him, the claws coming slashing through the air, ready to connect with his—

“NO!” I screamed, the sound of it echoing all through the valley.

Fur prickled across my skin, my mouth filled with coppery blood as my fangs snicked down. A high pitched groan was stifled in my chest as a fire flared to life inside me. My swords were tossed aside as muscles shifted, bones cracked and then there I was, just as I needed to be. I vaulted over Weyland’s shoulder, meeting the Reavers blow head on with my own. My fangs were like surgical knives, slicing through his arm, the offending limb falling helplessly to the ground, but I paid it little attention. I stood before my pack, arms out stretched, claws at the ready.

“You fucking bastards!” Axe shouted and then something happened. His shield was tossed away, something I’d been told explicitly not to do over and over, his axe and another he snatched from the ground in his hands.

“Brother!” Dane snapped, all of his alpha command in his voice. “Keep in control. Don’t let the frenzy get to you.”

But how could he not?

We couldn’t fight like men, not with an enemy like this. These beasts truly were the wargen that Granians cursed back in my homeland. They were savage animals and sometimes all you can do is meet that savagery blow for blow.

“Yes,” Selene rasped, appearing beside me. “You understand. You’re the queen, so lead us”

Frenzy was exactly what was happening, had to happen, I could see that now. Whatever they called battle fever, it tugged at my consciousness, sidelining everything extraneous and just focusing on this.

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