Page 2 of Her Eternal Mate

“Tonight, all the fear that exists in this world falls in your share. Look at our numbers. Tonight, Griswold the Blood-Maddened will end this reign of wolves once and for all,” he said.

“Reign? What reign? This is about all the drugs you were smuggling, isn’t it?” Will asked.

“Correct. You wiped out merchandise worth millions. A loss this severe is not suffered passively. You must meet the consequences.”

“Very well, then,” Will said.

“And after I’m done with the wolves, I will lay siege to Fiddler’s Green and plunder the town dry. Tonight, there will not remain a single living soul in that festering dump of a town,” Griswold said.

“You will find your way barred. You shall not pass. You thought you came here for vengeance. You’ve come here for your doom,” I said. “Too long have we suffered under the shadow of fear cast by the vampires. For too long, they have controlled this town, its avenues, and its resources. You shall never harm a single soul in Fiddler’s Green again. If it’s a war you want, it’s a war you will have,” I said, turning around to head back to the pack.

“A war it is,” Griswold said and then howled in a shrill manner that raised all the hair on my arms. Behind me, I could hear the ground rumbling with the footsteps of stampeding vampires.

Will shifted into a wolf, staying at the center of the field, and met Griswold in battle. I headed back to the pack and addressed them all.

“The vampires think they can kill us and lay claim to our land. Let us show them how wrong they are!” I yelled. With my yell, all the werewolves cried their battle cries in unison and began shifting one by one. I waited for them to shift, then I shifted as well and led the charge on the vampires.

At the center of the field, Griswold clashed with Will, who was a force to be reckoned with in his feral form. The two lurched and pounced at each other, slashing, clawing, and tackling. Griswold was holding his own very well in the battle, blocking several of Will’s hits and inflicting some serious blows. But now that I was at the head of the charge, Griswold saw the werewolves approaching and backed away to the ranks of his vampires. Will joined us as we raced forward to meet the vampires head-on.

He is powerful,Will said.

It does not matter. He is fighting for hate. We are fighting for our family. No power is stronger than the bond of love,I said.

For a still moment, the vampires came at us, and we came at them, but none collided with each other. It was just the rain, the thunder, and the stampeding steps on the field.

And then chaos ensued as the werewolves clashed with the vampires. I was at the forefront with Will and Vince. We fell upon the vampires with our claws extended and our maws gaping. The first vampires fell under my blows and gave way for the werewolves to penetrate their defenses.

Wolves howled around me, vampires hissed, and the night contributed its fair share of a maddening din as the battle raged on. Will was once again engaged with Griswold, the two of them gripped in a fierce battle. I could see that Griswold was about to dominate Will, but at that ripe moment, Will re-emerged from under him and pinned him to the ground, tearing into his flesh. Griswold howled as Will tore into his torso, ripping apart his barbarian clothing and rending his skin.

Now that Will was upon him, Griswold did not seem intimidating at all. It was Will, with his domineering size and his feral posture, that seemed more fearsome. I focused my attention on the group of vampires who had suddenly surrounded me from all sides. I cast one more look around me to see what was happening before plunging into the fight myself. The werewolves were fewer in number, but they fought much more aggressively. And yet, despite that, vampires seemed to be coming out of the forest in an unending horde. For every vampire that fell, more took its place.

To level the playing field, I pounced upon the group that had surrounded me and brought them all down with one large swing of my claws. As my claws traveled their wide trajectory, they tore open the vampires, ripping out their entrails. There was so much blood on the battlefield, and the battle had only just begun. And to think that merely an hour ago, I was enjoying a good night’s sleep in the arms of my mate.

Just as I had suspected, more vampires took the place of the ones that had fallen, and now I found myself surrounded by fifteen vampires, all of whom thought they had me cornered. I was never one for monotony, so I decided to take them out in a different way. Instead of backing myself into a corner, I leaped on the nearest vampire and landed with my nimble feet on his shoulders. Then I bit down on his head and yanked it off as if it was nothing. From there, I pounced onto the next vampire, repeating the same routine till they were none left.

But this drew the attention of the rest of the vampires as they saw their brethren being beheaded by one lone wolf. Out came spears and their pistols on the battlefield, all of them pointed at me.

From atop my vantage point in the field, I could see that Will was still winning against Griswold, even though now five vampires were assisting Griswold. Vincent was charging into a group of vampires with ferocity. As for the rest of the wolves, this was their battlefield, a familiar ground where they had trained all their lives. They knew the lay of the land and were confident here more than they’d ever be anywhere else. It showed in their prowess in the battle as they overcame the vampires.

What had the vampires thought when they came here? That they’d find the wolves sleeping in their beds and silently assassinate them all? If so, they had severely underestimated the werewolves, and in doing so, they had affirmed their doom.

I spotted a group of five vampires who had gotten free from the main battle and were furtively heading to the undefended commune. The women and children were still in the commune.

I shot like a dart across the field and overcut the vampires in their steps, coming between them and the commune. I knelt and growled, preparing myself for a jumping attack, when these vampires took out assault rifles from under their clothes.

In just a split moment, I ducked to my right as gunfire unleashed around me. As the bullets landed on the wet ground, dirt loosened and flew everywhere. In that haze, I arced around the vampires and came up behind them, more furious than ever. They had intended to go into the commune with these guns and kill the unarmed women and children. I dug my claws deep into their bodies before they’d even had a chance to turn around. It felt satisfying when I felt their hearts come to a dreadful halt as my claws clenched them. Of the five, only one survived, and he lay on the floor on his back, his assault rifle aimed at me.

I shifted into my human form and approached him, my face aglow with rage.

“Go ahead. Pull the trigger, you coward,” I said, walking up to him.

Perhaps it was that he’d seen what I’d done to his friends, or perhaps it was that he was now the last one standing; the vampire was frozen with fear, his fingers barely able to hold the gun steady.

Before he could pull the trigger, I grabbed the rifle and pulled it free from his grip.

“Only the spineless attack innocent women and children who aren’t able to fend for themselves,” I said, pointing his gun at him. “But you will not find undefended women and children at the commune. Not while I still draw breath.”

And with that, I pulled the trigger and emptied the magazine into the vampire’s chest, relishing the feeling of the bullets meeting his body, rendering it lifeless.

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