Page 17 of Her Eternal Mate

“You have my ear. No matter how dubious this whole thing is, I’ll believe you.”

It just so happened that right at that moment, the west wall of the stable broke open as if it was made of cardboard. I didn’t understand how it happened. There was a ten-inch thick cement wall on the other side. Who could have gotten through?

And then, through the smoke and the rubble, a soldier stepped through, wearing the same armor as the one that the dead one was wearing. Except, this time around, there was something remarkably different. For one, this soldier moved like a maniac, as if he was out of control. Almost frenzied.

He cast one look at me, then at Maliha, who was bent over the corpse’s body, inspecting the computing terminal.

“What’s happening?” Maliha screamed, but it was too late. The soldier was upon her, attacking her. He threw her against the wall as he lifted the corpse of the soldier and slung it over his shoulder. Then he did the same with Maliha’s unconscious body.

I confirmed first to see that Maliha had indeed passed out, then immediately shifted into my wolf form and attacked the soldier. My first tackle struck him square in the chest, causing him to fall over. But as he fell, he delivered a strong kick to my face, causing me to become disoriented.

In response, I slashed at his face, taking his helmet off with my brute strength. And there it was, the difference between the soldier we had just killed and the soldier who faced me in battle right now: Every single vein on his face was pulsating so hard that it was about to erupt. His eyes were glowing a deep orange as if there was a fire burning behind them. His mouth was bleeding, and so were his eyes and ears. Instead of speaking, he snarled loudly, spitting blood everywhere.

If he was a man, it was a lifetime ago. Now, this soldier had been reduced to some frenzied being that was only capable of insanity. And yet, through all his erratic behavior, it seemed as if he was being controlled by someone or something.

Using his grenades against him was out of the question. There was Maliha in the blast radius. I tried to snag his gun away and dominate him by climbing on top of him and ripping his armor piece by piece with my teeth, but before I had gotten half the breastplate off, the soldier zapped me with his gun right in the face at point-blank range, throwing me in the air, lurching as the jolts stunned my entire body.

As I lay there stunned and helpless, I watched the soldier leave with Maliha and the corpse through the seven feet tall hole in the stable wall.

Before I passed out of sheer exhaustion and pain, I called out to Will.

They’re back! They have Maliha!

And then I knew no more.

Chapter 8

Will

The inside of the stable looked like the sight of a massacre. The amount of blood left at the scene looked exactly like that of mass murder. The building’s back wall had been torn so brutally from the other side that I couldn’t fathom who or what had done it. There were no signs of any tire tracks on the other side of the wall beyond the commune, which left only one plausible explanation as to the cause of this—one of those soldiers had done this. If so, they were far more powerful than we had previously imagined.

Secondly, it meant that the commune was no longer safe.

Alexis lay on her back in one corner of the stable, unconscious. There were no signs of Maliha anywhere.

Vince and a few of the pack members who had woken up because of the commotion came running behind and entered the stables.

“What could have possibly done this?” Vince gasped.

“There’s a new threat lurking out there,” I said while still tending to Alexis. I sat her up and held her body as she opened her eyes.

“Will!” Alexis said. “They have Maliha. The soldier came through the wall and took the dead body and Maliha with him! We have to save her, or I’ll never be able to forgive myself!”

“We’re going to save her,” I said. The moment she had called out to me, I had just stepped out of the commune to head to the resort. When she called me, I immediately turned on my heels and went back to see this horrendous sight. This had happened within the time span of a few minutes. It surprised me that something of this magnitude could happen within such a short time.

“This is on me. Not on you,” I added. “You were the one who didn’t want the soldier to be brought into the commune. This is not your fault. It’s my fault that the dead body was tracked by another soldier.”

“What are these soldiers, Will?” Vince asked confusedly.

“They are Blair’s people,” Alexis said as she stood up. “Maliha confirmed this before she was kidnapped. Put two and two together, and you’ll understand. Blair has created a task force of soldiers who are united in their purpose.”

“And what is that purpose?” Vince asked, although I could tell from his voice that he had already understood what Alexis meant.

“They intend to kill every last one of us,” Alexis said.

“Last night, we killed sixteen of them,” I said, putting things into perspective. “So it’s best not to lose any hope. They are not an undefeatable enemy.”

“How did you kill them, Will? Is there something that we should know?” Vince asked.

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