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“I love the way you creatures react. So animalistic. When I was younger, I had a pup with the same lively attitude. Always so defiant.” He looked back at me, a gleam in his yellow eyes. “She was an excellent guard dog after she had been broken and trained. Maybe I won’t kill you.”
I couldn’t hold myself back anymore; my paws were digging into the ground as I rushed at him. Pain ricocheted through my body, his claws digging into my side. I felt the warm wetness soak into my coat. He was faster than me. A hacking sound came from my mouth, blood spurting to the ground as I fell to my belly.
The vampire laughed from behind me again, but I didn’t turn to look at him. My body screamed at the pain, my mind fighting with me to look at the wound. I didn’t need to look, though. I knew he had cut me deep, the kind of wound that didn’t heal fast. It was far deeper than any other werewolf could cut into me.
“What?” he cackled. “Was that all you had? Some werewolf king you are! The last one I killed was still standing after that. He even managed to claw my gut pretty good.”
I felt the strength in my body slipping from me. The pain was throbbing through my entire body now. How could anyone be able to move from this wound? The vampire had to be lying.
“Nyte!” the scream echoed in my head. Paige’s terrified voice sobered me immediately. “Don’t give up! You can do this!”
I lifted my head, turning to try and find her, but only seeing the dark aura surrounding us in our private battlefield. It took me a minute to realize that she was yelling at my mind. The mate bond was stronger now that we were within range of one another.
“You have everything you need to beat him,” she assured me. “Trust me.”
There it was again. The reminder of Liberty’s warning to me. Trust in my mate. I had to trust that she could handle her fight, but I also had to trust that she knew the outcome of this battle. She had sworn to me that we would both walk away from it…that this wouldn’t be our end.
Howls rang out beyond the aura—the first sound of my pack since the miasma had blocked them out. I looked over my shoulder to see the surprised look on the vampire’s face. He dropped that look when he noticed me looking, plastering his amused grin back in place once more.
“They can’t get in. They can’t help you,” he said.
I pushed myself back to my feet, growling at the pain on my side. I forced myself to shift again, the action helping to quicken the healing of the wound, although the process was far more painful than it would have been without the damage.
Standing at my full height, I looked back at the vampire, smirking at him. “I don’t need their help to kill you. I have everything I need to do it right here.” I shifted my fingers into claws, gesturing for the vampire to come and get it. I would fight him in this position and trust my mate’s vision of us walking out of here together. Unlike me, she had never lied to me. So, if she said I could do this, then I could fucking do it.
I charged at the ancient vampire as he ran at me, a glint of fear as he looked at my form. I realized he wanted to fight the wolf—the wolf or the man. He would have fought me in either form; however, I wasn’t either now. I was both—a single being fighting as one. The revelation shot through me with a newfound confidence in myself, jumping over the vampire’s head and landing behind him. My clawed hands sliced down his back, peeling away skin and clothes in a single blow. Blood poured down his back, pooling at his feet.
A vicious scream erupted from the vampire's lips, spinning with his claws to swipe at me, but I was faster than him in this form. I dodge him easily, his movement in slow motion before my eyes. He couldn’t hide the pure fear in his expression now. I understood the true strength of the werewolf king now. The bigger size and faster movements in wolf form was only something in the werewolf pack. It was how the others could recognize the strength and authority I held, but my true strength came from the combined power of both my forms.
Unlike other werewolves, I was faster in my partial shift. I was stronger, too. If this vampire’s claim of killing werewolf kings in the past was valid, it was due to the lack of knowledge to be passed down from king to king. The truth behind the true strength of the werewolf king. To embrace the human and the beast as one. Judging by the panicked look on the ancient one’s face, he also knew the truth.
I twisted my body away from another of his blows, a laugh ripping from my lips as his eyes watched in horror at my speed as I moved past him in a blur to his eyes. My claws dug into his side, ripping useless organs from his body and tossing them away. Although he didn’t need the organs left behind from his time as a human, the loss of blood and pain would still affect him just the same.
I spun my heels, clawing into his other side as he reacted to the chunk of flesh stolen from his body. I had found my tempo in this fight now. I was tearing the vampire limb from limb before he could even react. A crazed laugh bubbled from within me as he fell to his knees, clutching his wounds. I stopped moving, standing before him and looking down at the bloodied mess around him. He snarled at me, his yellowed eyes devoid of the human they had held only a moment ago.
“It’s over now,” I told him.
“You really think that killing me will put an end to this?” He spat blood at my feet, giving me a cruel smile as he looked back up at me. “You think I’m the only Ancient out there looking to return to the old ways? We are just waking up, boy. You can’t fight us all.”
I smirked back at him, squatting down to eye level. “You think I’m the only one willing to fight? I may be the only werewolf king known right now, but this is a new world your kind is awakening to.” I held my arms wide as if to gesture to the wonder of our world. “Witches and werewolves are coming together. Do you think you were so smart to find yourself a single witch? We have covens on our side. Entire cities of witches are willing to fight with us. So, this isn’t the end?” I laughed. “Bring it on.”
I slashed my arm back, my claws severing the vampire lord’s head from his body. His haze faded away, revealing the battlefield to me once again. Lesser vampires turned to the drop of the aura, their eyes bulging when they saw me stepping forward, their lord already nothing but dust in the wind.
Chapter twenty-seven
Paige
Madi carried me down into the battle, my hands gripping her fur as she rushed between clashing vampires and werewolves. Thompson followed close beside us, blocking any vampire who attempted to rush at us. I didn’t pay them much attention, counting on my Betas to watch out for me as I followed the pull of the dark magic.
“Take me to the waterfall!” I yelled out to Madi, pointing to the running water at the center of the cave.
She didn’t hesitate to follow my directions, turning her body and kicking up loose rocks as her paws pounded into the ground. Only when a vampire rammed into her other side did she falter, my body flying through the air off of hers. Thompson caught me in midair, landing hard on his side with me safely against him. I pushed off of the large brown wolf, pointing to Madi as several vampires surrounded her.
“Help her!” I commanded, putting all the authority I could muster into my voice. “I’ve got this! You watch her back.”
He let out a growl of protest, the sound falling on deaf ears as Madi let out a painful howl, a vampire biting into her neck.
“Go!” I yelled, zapping him with magic to punctuate my command.
