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“You need to move faster,” Bron says, and as Doug pounds back toward us again, Bron sweeps me up and lifts me onto Doug’s back.
“Take her, Doug. I will hold them off and follow.”
Doug snorts, and his front paws claw at the forest floor before he takes off at a run.
The wind whips my hair as he bounds up the slope, weaving between the trees as the cries of pursuit follow in our wake.
“They are coming!”
“Who?” My words are lost amid the melee, and I don’t get a chance to ask again, for dark shapes emerge from the trees ahead.
Wolf shifters.
Doug skitters to a stop, standing protectively before Bron, snorting heavy breaths.
“They know Bron is with me.”
He must be communicating with them, for they charge past, hurtling down the slope.
I look back over my shoulder to see the two sides clash.
Vicious snarls permeate the air as they swarm the orcs.
“They saw Winter and her warrior passing through a portal. The fairy child was with them, they say. We are to keep moving. Tell Bron.”
I relay the message, seeing the wariness in Bron, but he nods and we continue at a slower pace. As we move from the battle, I see other escapees: weary former bondservants, the beta shifters.
By unspoken consensus, we come to a stop, forming a rag-tag cluster where they collapse to the floor. Among them, women and even children, some crying, some stony-faced.
Doug bends his knee, and I slip from his shoulder to the ground. My chin is bloody where I fell, my hands and knees scraped, but miraculously, I am whole.
“Jasmine!”
I turn at the call, seeing Penny climbing up the slope, Bard at her side.
I throw my arms around them both, babbling away about Winter and Melody escaping.
“I’m so glad,” Penny says.
“But, Bard, why are you not using your stick?”
He smiles and twirls it in one hand. “It was always more than a walking stick, and I was never as weak as I pretended,” he says, with a wink.
His eyes shift behind me to focus on something over my shoulder and a sudden hush comes over the group.
I turn to find a huge black wolf approaching, a gray and russet wolf flanking him.
He nudges forward until he stands beside Doug, and they stare at one another for many moments before the wolf suddenly shifts.
The air shimmers, and where the wolf stood, is a huge, dark-haired man.
“I am Ashe,” he says, his eyes settling over those gathered. “The leader of this party and the representative of the Oberon Pack, whose lands you are now on.”
I swallow and step up beside Doug. “We seek sanctuary… if such a thing is possible.”
“It is,” Ashe says. He is naked. I find the energy to blush, though he does not seem to mind his state of undress. “Many among you have scattered, but we shall endeavor to round up all that we can and bring you all to our den. The orcs have retreated for now. Once you are safe, we shall return to punish them again, but for now, we will guide you to our pack home. The little ones and those injured may ride on our backs. Our den is large, and there are unused chambers that will serve you while you recover. We should arrive by nightfall.” His lips tug up in a humorless smile. “I would say you would be welcome, but I am not the pack leader, and I cannot speak on Travis’s behalf. But we do not kill women, children, or innocent men. At the very least, it will be a place where you can recuperate and decide what to do next.”
“We are grateful,” I say.
