Page 84 of Heart Broken Mate

But there was no way we could beat fully turned werewolves. They were faster and stronger than us in all senses and could endure more pain and push themselves harder than we could. Soon, I could hear them closing in the gap between us, and the sound of their feet against the ground echoed in my ears. I knew it was a matter of time before we took the first attack. I looked at Luke again.

“Stick to the plan,” he yelled at me, and I nodded. I had no design to deviate from the plan. I had not come all this way, lost so much, and been through so much pain to give it away so easily now. This, for me now, was a do-or-die affair. There were no in-betweens. I pushed on, and just behind me, I heard the sound cut through the air and knew the first attack was here. I moved out of the way as the first wolf came at me. It missed me by a couple of inches and stopped in front of me. It was enormous in that deceptive way wolves usually were. I didn’t stop for it. I ran on and ran into it, keeping myself steady. I knocked it to the ground and then jumped over it, and continued running. I looked to my side, and Luke was still there. He nodded at me. That was just the first attack, and that wolf wasn’t done.

He was coming for me again.

We were about four miles from the valley.

The werewolf came at me again, but this time, he was followed by another, who went for Luke. The two of them were more ferocious, and their attack wasn’t deadly, so it was pretty obvious that they had orders not to kill us but detain us, and then TheTwins would torture the location of the stone out of us, but that wasn’t going to happen.

As the fully turned werewolf went for my back, wrapping its forelimbs around my neck, I fell to the ground and hit against the ground. The force of my fall hurt it, and I heard a bone break. Its grip on me faltered for a moment, and I seized it, kicking it out of the way and punching it in the groin, and before I stood up and continued my run, I attacked it with my claws but could barely get any lethal attack as its fur was protecting it. It came for me when it seemed to have recovered from the sudden turn of events, but I gripped down with my hand around its neck, choking it as much as I could. I looked up and saw the other werewolves making a charge at us. They were getting close and even in the dark, and with my eyes glowing, the large number of them put fear through me. They have to be around a thousand. There was no way we were going to fight through a thousand and survive. No way.

I tightened my grip on the wolf’s neck, and it struggled against me. I held it down and pressed down, putting so much strength into it until I heard a bone crack, then I let go and shifted away from it. Luke pulled me up, and we stood side by side for a while. There were no wolves close to us now, but they were gaining very fast.

“We have to keep going,” Luke said.

“There’s a lot of them. There’s too many of them.”

“I know. But we have to keep going. We can’t stop now, Hayley. Remember. Remember the goal.”

I remember the goal, but it was hard to keep up faith when you have this large number right behind you. I had becomeover-optimistic when it seemed the plan was going our way and hadn’t considered that The Twins might have a trick up their sleeve. This was their trick. To demoralize us, and I was helping them.

I turned around and faced Luke.

“Let’s go,” I said and held his hand. We started running. With our hands held tight, we drew strength from each other. We had exhausted some of our energy fighting the wolves that attacked us earlier, and now that we were on the run again, I thought we would tire out a bit, but the opposite was the case. We fired on, stronger than ever before. I could barely feel the pain in my heels that had started to grow earlier. I felt like I was floating as I pushed on. The wolves behind us didn’t matter anymore. All that mattered was the two of us, our hands joined, and the destination, which was now pulling closer to us.

We were just about three miles to the valley, and slowly it started to look possible, and once again, I was entertaining the idea that we would win the war. If things went all according to plan, there was no way for us to lose.

In the distance, I could see the start of the sunrise against the horizon. The golden yellow glow of the sun swam and swayed before us, and it was hard to imagine that we’d been at this for that long. It seemed that time just went zooming past us. The valley was becoming more visible, and we were getting close to the crucial part of the plan. To do that, we’ll have to let go of each other’s hands, and that worried me a bit. I didn’t want to do that.

“It’s time, Hayley,” Luke said, and I nodded at him. I realized that and forced myself to imagine the men behind us fighting the remained of the Tarloux army, the men with Bonne fighting theTarloux army at the leeway doing their part, and then there was me. This was my part of the plan, and I must execute it well. We were two miles from the valley now, and the stone awaited us on the other side. I wondered if The Twins who were somewhere behind us could sense it the same way I could sense it now. It felt like a beacon calling to me. I would answer it, but not just yet.

I let go of Luke’s hand, and suddenly, the two of us went in opposite directions, running alongside the deep trench that separated this part of the mountain from the other part, and for a moment, the men were confused and didn’t know who to follow. In that little moment of confusion, I put more distance between them and me. But soon, they split themselves in half again. One of the halves followed me, and the other went with Luke.

We’ve managed to break them up even further. Now, I was alone, and I had to focus. I ignored the force behind me and pulled together the strength that I could. It would soon be time.

I reached into my pocket and pulled out the vail of Bonne’s creation, taking a quick swig out of it before I continued running. The wolves behind me were closing in, but I didn’t care. I turned around again and started towards the valley, and I could see some of them flanking me, and they must know that I intended to jump.

I could feel the herbs in the vial slowly enhance my senses, and the sound of pads stamping against the floor increased about ten folds, but so also did my strength and I became filled with an adrenaline rush, running faster than I had before. That had been most of my battle so far—running, and it had its purpose, so I was doing it right.

The power flooded through me, and I didn’t care that the wolves were now at my heels. My concern was the approaching ditch, and as I got closer, I slowly reached into my being and started to turn. It was a deadly touch. The combination of Bonne’s vial and changing fully. It would enhance me to a level I have never experienced before. I felt my body shift and go from a werewolf into a full-bodied wolf. The way I perceived the environment shifted. The way I ran through it was different. And now I had not just the thought of a human I had that of wolves, and from my calculation, it was about time to jump.

I had the dexterity of a wolf too, and when I was just about half a foot from the ditch, I put pressure on my forelimbs and used it to push myself forward. Just about the same time, one of the wolves, coming at me from the side, made his jump, and it seemed like he was going to catch me halfway through the air. If that happens, we will both fall into the valley. If we didn’t die from the fall, there would be a lot of broken bones.

But I ignored him. I had made my calculation, and I didn’t want to be deterred from it. I have to make it to the other side and leave them behind, knowing they wouldn’t be able to get to me and the time it would take them to go around the valley to get to me, I’d be long gone. They’ll have the other option of returning to the battlefield, but that will take a long time too. I would have them in a dilemma. That was the plan. To break them with indecision.

The wolf coming at me missed me just by a couple of inches, and he tried to regain control of himself and turn midway in the air to fall against the side of the valley, but he was too late for that. He fell to his death instead.

I was midway through the air now, and for a moment, I thought I wasn’t going to make it. The other end of the valley seemed so far away, and when I jumped, it pushed itself away from me suddenly, and I thought I had made a mistake. I thought I had put enough pressure on my jump.

And I was right. I was falling mid-way through the air now. I was falling fast, and I was falling hard, but then, my forelimbs connected with a part of the wall of the valley, and I immediately put weight on it and used it to push myself up. I continued that way until I was at the top of the valley.

I stood there and turned around to consider the wolves on the other side. They looked lost, and if I could smile, then I would have. I turned away from them and started towards the other side of the woods now, heading for the location of the moon stone. I looked to the far end of the valley to see if I could make out Luke, but I couldn’t. I didn’t panic, though. He would make a better jump than I did. I was sure of that, and he would meet me at the location of the stone.

We were very close to victory now. So close that I could smell it in the air.

But there was something else I could suddenly smell in the air. It rushed me fast, and I moved back as though I had gotten slapped by it.

It was the same smell I perceived when Luke and I were faced with The Twins earlier. The smell of death itself. I turned around, and I was right.

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