Page 86 of Heart Broken Mate

I paid attention to his movement, and just like before, he moved to his left again, favoring it for the second time in the day. He came at me, his jaws opened and his fangs ready to dip into me. I moved back hastily, but I smashed against a tree behind me, and he pushed himself forward, barely having dropped to the ground, and he was on me again. I had to lift myself up the tree, but my claws didn’t do a good job of holding on. They held on strong enough for him to miss me, but I was falling to the ground soon enough, and he was right there waiting for me. Midair, I pushed away from him and landed on the ground just a couple of feet from him.

This was taking longer than I had planned, and I knew I had to put an end to it.

I let Viper come for me again, and just like before; he moved to the left again. His drugged mind, as focused as it was, was overfocused, and that would be his downfall. He kept going left. I let him charge at me fully this time and didn’t move out of the way until he was just a breath away from me. His jaws were opened, his eyes wild and wide in anticipation, and I could picture him doing a glory dance when all of this was over. But it never got to that. I moved out of the way just in time, and he didn’t have the grace to brake. He slammed right into the tree before him. When he stood up, he was in pain, and the top of his head was bleeding, but he barely noticed it. He was focused on me again.

When he came again, this time, I made the charge. I had the plan mapped out in my mind, which was clearer than his. I moved left just at the same time as him, which he kept doing to help with his movement in the air, and when he saw he wouldn’t be able to attack me that way, he tried to change it, but he couldn’t. It felt like he was stuck in gear, and I pushed my body into him, knocking him to the ground.

He was shocked, and the shock took a while to leave him. I took advantage of that, and I charged at him before he could recover and bit into his hind limb, dragging at its Achilles tendon until it snapped in my teeth. He howled out in pain and tried to stand up to face me again, but he couldn’t do that on four limbs. One of them was destroyed.

I knew I had him now. I could kill him now and be done with it, but to what end? I have a lot of death on me already and didn’t want to add Viper’s. With a final charge before he could make up his mind and attack me, I went for the diagonal forelimb and snatched at the Achilles tendon on that limb, too, rendering him useless. He fell to the ground, whimpering. I was done fighting him.

I turned around and started towards Luke, covering as much distance as I could. Before I got to him, I could sense something wrong had happened. I had been focused on the fight with Viper that I forgot to sense what Luke was feeling, and now that I could sense it, I was washed with fear and despair. That couldn’t have been what had happened. We were doomed if that happened.

Soon, I could see him a couple of feet from me, and he was standing there, the day’s sun rising and shining on him, and he was looking at something on the horizon. I joined him and looked at it too. It was The Twins. They had the stone and were looking down at the two of us.

We’d failed. We’d failed everyone.

Chapter forty-one (Hayley)

But this doesn’t end this way. That was what I promised Nellie. There was no way this ended this way. I looked at Luke, who was fuming just like me. We didn’t come all this way to be defeated and surrender to these two. It wasn’t going to happen.

“We would love to fight the two of you,” one of The Twins said. “But we have more important things to do and won’t get involved in squabbles.”

I wanted to reply, but a look at Luke told me that was pointless. They were trying to belittle us and make us think we wouldn’t be able to fight them. But we will. He moved closer to them, his steps decisive and the growl coming from him clear. They weren’t getting away without a fight.

The Twin holding the stone scoffed and walked back, placing the stone on the floor beside a tree. “I will be glad to put an end to you two vermin,” he said, and they both stood side by side. Even though they both looked old, their mere stance was powerful enough to strike fear into me. But I fed on the fear and went in first. At the end of this, I would either be alive or dead, so I wanted to make it count.

I went for the Twin directly in front of me, and all he did was step out of the way and swab at me like I was a fly. I flew in the air and got smacked against a tree, thankful I didn’t get any bones broken. I was up again, ready for another attack. At no point in this fight will I give up and get tired. At no point will I despair. I turned back at him and watched as the other hit Luke midair,too, sending him flying a couple of feet and smacking into the ground. They moved so fluidly that it was like they were one with the air. They moved into position and stood side by side as I dashed at them again, and there was no care in me that I would get it again. I just went at them, and just as I expected, one of them hit me in the chest, around the neck region, as I flew up, trying to get at him with my fangs. I fell to the ground, and pain wracked me. It was intense, but not intense enough to stop me from getting up again.

Luke was up also now, and he was beside me. We were getting our asses handed to us. We needed to put in some fight. Show them we have the royal blood in us too.

Then I realized the answer to the problem. We have the royal blood in us, something that the Tarloux lacks and which makes us inherently better than them. We shouldn’t be intimidated. They should be scared of us. I stepped forward, and this time, I let myself listen to the air around me, the trees, the soil, and even the birds hiding out in their nests. This was how to win. To be attentive. I went at them again and watched every move they made with intent. One of them stepped towards me, and he had his hand out trying to get me, but I was seeing everything as though time had been slowed down. I saw him move one step forward and use the other to keep himself rooted to the ground. They were strong, but not as strong as they made us believe. A large percentage of their strength was from their aura and the fear they could imbibe just by their mere ancient look. Just as I got to him, I dropped down, which was very easy for me to do since I was still in my wolf form, and I slid under him, going for his leg.

He realized what was happening just a moment too late, and I snatched at his Achilles’ tendon, trying to pull the same trick Ipulled on Viper. My teeth connected with it, but as I was about to pull it out, he snatched his leg out of the way and turned around, trying to get at me. I moved away from him and turned around to look at him. He was angry and hadn’t expected that. I gave him as much of a grin as I could muster. He shook his leg as blood started to flow out of it. I looked at myself, and Luke had the same idea.

It was now as if, just as The Twins were unidentifiable on their own, we had merged into one too, one thought, one person. This was how we would defeat them. We were made for this moment. We were fated to bring an end to them, and that was what we would do.

We stood side by side, two huge wolves before two states, and the smug look they had on them was gone. They could see if they didn’t take this seriously, they would lose. I had almost gotten one of them in the leg, and if I had, he would have been unable to walk. That would be one less twin for us to fight.

I braced myself as I knew they would make the next attack, and they did. They moved together, the one mirrored the other, and as they did, they moved the air with them, gathering up dust and dry leaves on the ground around them, like a force field before them. They stepped toward Luke and me. We responded by moving to them, too, ready to attack. I took the one to the left, and Luke took the one to the right. I lifted myself up to be able to fight at face level as them, making myself appear big. I went face-in first, my powerful jaws looking to grab at his head, but he had other plans. He wanted to punch me right in the neck. It was a heavy and solid punch; should it have made contact with me, I might have gone down with a broken neck. I moved down just in time to avoid getting punched. But I was up again, looking toget his neck, but he was ready too, moving his fluid self out of the way, and we both came out empty in that attack.

Now that I could see they were touchable and not undefeatable, I was always ready to make another attack, and I did. I moved at him, trying to get at his face again as that was the fastest way to get this over with, but he was fast in recovery and was out of the way again, leaving me empty. Luke was beside me again, and he couldn’t get an attack in either.

We needed the stone, I thought, and Luke agreed in my mind. It was the one chance we had at beating them. They were fast, and it seemed they would easily be able to defuse any attack we made at them. They will simply wait it out until we are tired and out of our wolf skin, and then they’ll kill us. We couldn’t let that happen. We needed to get to the stone as fast as possible, and I could see a path to it already. I looked at Luke, and the information was passed successfully. It would be a one-time try, and should we not get to it, we might as well have just signed a hastened death sentence.

We stood side by side and watched The Twins. The stone was behind them, and during the whole fight, they had made sure it remained behind them. They had put it there because they thought this fight would be over as soon as possible. I was happy that assertion had been put to shame and they were now facing us and fighting for their lives just as we were. I stepped forward first and growled at them. Luke stepped with me, growling too. They growled back, their eyes glowing, their fangs bared, and their claws ready to tear into our skins.

I went in first, and that disoriented them. They had expected the two of us to come at the same time as we did the last time because it leveled the playing field, but I wasn’t looking to levelthe field. I was looking to win. I moved closer to them again and suddenly charged. It was the fastest I had charged before, and I felt a big gust of energy rush through me. I pushed myself against the dirt, using my hind limbs as a crutch, and jumped as high as I could. Just as I expected, they both looked at me and realized I was going for the stone. One of them stepped back a couple of steps so that I would land before him.

I listened to Luke behind me. As soon as I made my jump, he made his jump too, and the second Twin, the one not with me, had to step back too to derail Luke’s charge at the stone. Now, they weren’t fighting us. They were protecting the stone, which made them slack and open for an attack. I landed before the first Twin and didn’t go for the stone as he had expected me to. I went for him instead, and I could see the blood on the back of his leg. He was the same one I attacked earlier and almost got his heel. I went for it again, and he was too slow to react. I charged at him, and at the same time, Luke moved toward the stone.

The second wolf went for Luke to stop him from getting to the stone, while the other focused on me to stop me from getting to his heel. In that split second, when he got worried about his heel and lost focus on the stone, I made my charge.

I shifted away from him mid-attack, passing beneath him and going for the stone. He realized much too late what I had just done, and the other wolf was busy with Luke, so he was left with the charge to get me. He came at me, but I was focused on the stone, which was just a couple of feet from me now, and I was charging at it with such a speed I felt the air go around me, and the leaves formed a sort of halo around me. When I got close enough, l leaped for the stone. I thought I was going to miss it, but I got it with my teeth and held it firm.

I moved away from the Twin who had come at me, and Luke squirmed away from the other, who was shocked, and soon we were standing side by side. I drop the stone in between us. Before they regained their focus, we activated it immediately. I bit myself hard in the limb until there was blood and then let it drop onto the stone. Luke did the same thing.

For a while, there was nothing. Just the bright morning sun, which was now shining with a strong intention, and The Twins stood in front of it, their vanquisher before them. They were yet to believe it.

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