Page 14 of Sienna Rossi: Beyond Shattered Trust

“Let’s go then,” I answer, heading over to my assembled men. I’m hit by a blast of sleet, and I lift my mask to cover my face as I step out into the blizzard.

The weather’s worse today; it’s what we’ve been waiting for. We’ve been holding off until now, as it’s the perfect cover for the planned attack. “Alright, everyone, listen up. We stick to the plan; we are not taking hostages. Kill on sight and burn them to the ground!” I say, my voice carrying across the howling wind.

“Yes, Captain!”

I lead the battalion of thirty warriors into the blizzard, and we’ll be meeting up with two smaller squads once we close in on the Indomitable.

Today, under the cover of the weather, we’ll attack their outpost. It took time to find their location, but we managed it. Now, we just have to hope they don’t see us coming.

“Move. Move!” I thunder, the command ripping through the chaos just as a bomb detonates beside us. The explosion tears into the ground, sending snow and rock flying in all directions. I grab one of my warriors by the back of his shirt, hurling him aside a heartbeat before the blast consumes the space he had occupied moments earlier. My hand lifts instinctively, sending a powerful surge of power towards enemy lines.

Blood spills freely across the ground, colouring the snow dark red. It doesn’t bother me anymore, the coppery smell, the colour, the meaning; I’m used to it now. The more blood spilt here, the better.

Tonight, it’s the Indomitable who will paint the world with their blood, and it brings me great satisfaction.

They will pay for what they’ve done.

“Fall back!” one of the enemy shouts, desperation straining his voice. Those left alive try to retreat, but where will they run to out here? They are finished. Tonight, their men who are out on patrol will return to destruction. Tonight, there will be no survivors.

I drive my gauntlet into the ground, making it tremble as the sky cracks open; lightning flashes as it hits the ground, tearing through the earth in violent waves as ice fractures outwards. Wind and snow whip around me as power simmers through me, and my power destroys their barracks.

Screams can be heard from those within the fire before they disintegrate, leaving behind the ghostly echo of their voices lingering in the air.

I stand tall. “Now,” I say quietly, the word carrying more weight than any roar.

I remain where I stand, ignoring the way my shoulder throbs, poison still burning where a blade found its way into it earlier. My focus locks onto the final standing building; fire glows brightly as it licks up the destroyed buildings all around.

They’ve already lost.

Three.

Two.

One.

A deafening explosion rips through the air, flames swallowing steel and stone as the Indomitable’s building collapses in on itself, shockwaves splitting the snow and sending debris screaming into the darkness. Heat washes over us briefly as the fire surges to the sky.

“No!” the dying captain cries out, collapsing into human form as he stares at the inferno, horror hollowing his features. “You killed everyone! You killed her!” His arrogance from earlier, when we first arrived, is gone.

I approach him slowly, boots crunching through blood-stained snow, my expression indifferent to what’s unfolding around us.

I crouch before him. “You shouldn’t have chosen the wrong side,” I murmur coldly before I break his neck without hesitation and rip his heart from his chest.

The victory cry rises behind me as my battalion erupts, relief and triumph bleeding together as they take in the destruction left behind. I survey the battlefield, the dead bodies, the destruction of the grounds, and the silence that has begun to settle in now that the screams have faded away.

I feel no guilt or regret, simply satisfaction.

The hunters have become the hunted, and I relish it. I don’t know what that makes me, and I really don’t care.

“Gather our dead,” I command at last, turning my gaze to the darkened sky as snow begins to fall again, already trying to erase the evidence of what we’ve done. “We’re moving out.”

And as we turn away from the flames, I realise I feel nothing, almost… numb.

We return home a few hours later, carrying our wounded and dead on our backs. I’ve shifted, too, and I’m carrying one of our warriors who is in pretty bad shape. The poison in my own shoulder is aching, making my neck stiff. The healing has kicked in, but it’s far slower than it should be thanks to the poison. It’s not wolfsbane, as we carry an antidote for that, and I took it as a precaution, but it didn’t help.

We travel in silence. Even if victory was ours, my men are exhausted. Travelling to and from the location is tiring, and we’re not from the same packs, so mind-linking is out of the question, and we only shift to human form for breaks.

Darkness fell long ago, and the thrum of the dome is ever-present as we pass through the gates of our outpost. I’m instantly met by our men who take the wounded and dead from us. We’ve lost six men from my battalion, and five from the other two who joined us.