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Chapter 16
Meira
“Stop! Neither of you are the enemy.” My voice streams over the guttural growls, slicing through the thick air filled with Alpha testosterone and dominance.
I remain trapped between two opposing parties, arms stretched toward each to stand in their way of colliding into a bloody battle. Four monstrous white wolves from the northern regions snarl from my right and two men who own my heart on my left. Lucien and Bardhyl. Yet my pulse rages desperately in my veins. The moment we jumped over the fence, we encountered these damn northerners instead of darting around the corner to rescue Dušan. And time is running away from us.
Tick.
Tick.
Tick.
A growl spills from my throat. “Enough of this. We don’t have time to waste.”
Gunshots and screams sound in the distance. I flinch with each pop, my nerves like shattered glass.
Frantically, I scan the lofty fence farther in the distance to my left. When we’d climbed earlier we found no guards… but how long before they return?
And where the hell is Jae?
I want to scream and shake sense into all these males. Tremors wrack my body, every inch of me clenching.
The threatening growls from each party send out alarm bells in my head, a warning that I’ll just get crushed once they attack one another. Except there’re two against four, and I’ve seen the way these northerners fight in the woods. It’s terrifying, and I can’t bear to have my two wolves taken out. One on one, I have no doubt they’d be equal opponents, but this match is just unfair.
Agony hits me square in the chest when I think of the massacre this can lead to. Desperation clings to me.
“Jae!” I shout. “If you’re nearby, get your freaking butt out here now!” I figure if I have someone else at my back, it might help diffuse this situation quicker. I turn to the northern wolves. “Please, Nikos, stand down. These are my pack members and they won’t harm you.”
Bardhyl’s and Lucien’s threatening snarls fuel the tension, not helping my cause. But turning my back to the northerners is asking for peril. I may have spent most of my life hidden in the woods, but even I know to never look away from danger.
The scents of sweat and aggression taste sour on the back of my throat.
A sudden figure emerges from around the corner of the lofty fence.
I jerk my head in that direction, and my mind races, initially picturing a Shadow Monster, but it isn’t long before my eyes make sense of who’s joining us, sprinting across the open ground.
“Dušan,” I bellow, all the anguish and dread melting.He’s alive!The earlier darkness crowding around me softens. Exhilaration floods me as I realize that somehow he escaped Mad’s clutches before we got to him. Whatever is responsible for the miracle, I thank with every fiber of my being.
I grab on to him once he reaches my side. “How did you get free?” I keep looking over his shoulder, half-expecting Ash Wolves and the undead to come running after him.
“These wolves freed me,” he announces, his chin pointing to the northerners.
He steps in front of me and faces the biggest of the intruders, the one with the gray streak under his throat.
The wolf steps forward, his pack remaining ever vigilant in their attack poses, their heads low, fur bristled, ears flat against their heads. He’s large and is easily Dušan’s height. But my Alpha doesn’t back down. He stands tall, faces the enemy bravely.
My skin crawls. I clench my fists, and dread grips my heart when the first pricks of energy dance down my skin. With it comes the white wolves’ transformation.
Moments later, four men stand before Dušan. Muscular, tall, and unbelievably handsome. Nikos and his two men, then the Alpha Nikos must have exchanged me when we crossed paths during the trade.
Bardhyl and Lucien step up next to us, and I’m terrified we’re sitting targets here. “We should get out of here,” I whisper to Dušan.
Gunfire pops in the distance, and I jump in my skin.
“She’s right,” Dušan states, breaking the silence. “You barely knew me, but you saved me. But before we can discuss why, we need to move deeper into the woods—and quickly.”
No one protests against the suggestion, and we move with haste until we reach a denser part of the forest where I can no longer see the compound, where the shots being fired are faint now.
