“Ifrit!” Theo roared, and a dozen wolves filled the clearing in a second. I pushed Cassie behind me.
“Cassie, I need you to be brave, all right?” Bryce was already running towards us. “I need you to go behind that tree with the knot right there, and I need you to stay hidden. Things might sound and look scary, but we’re all here, protecting you. Alright?”
“Alright,” she whimpered, her eyes on the wolves snarling around us.
“Go,” I urged her gently, pushing her towards the tree. Right as she ducked out of sight, Bryce came up to my side.
“Let me fight with you,” she said, her eyes blazing with anger. “I’ve spent too long fearing my wolf, rendering myself helpless. Let me… let me be part of this tonight. For her.”
I gazed at Bryce before sense was knocked into me, and I nodded sharply. As one, we both shifted, and I was almost knocked to the floor by how strong my wolf roared for the she-wolf who transformed at my side. God, how could I have forgotten how strong she looked, all sleek, gray fur streaked with black, and her eyes so humanly Bryce that it hurt.
Bryce as a look back at our daughter before she met my eyes.
Then she launched herself right at an ifrit, teeth snapping, unleashing seven years of fear.
But it wasn’t enough. I could see that. More ifrit poured from the shadows of the night, some sparking flames, others wounding with their fire. The howls of my pack filled the air, the snapping of jaws, and the roar of the fight. All of it terrified me: the thought of it not being enough to save Cassie and Bryce.
Side by side, Bryce and I descended on a group of ifrit, dismembering limbs and hands, forcing them further back. When she launched ahead to another ifrit, I noticed how she sidled up alongside Theo, who had an ifrit pinned. Theo’s canines bared at her for a moment, but Bryce only snarled back before she bit into the ifrit, the shriek of it dissolving into shadow and embers.
More flames went up. I tried to keep my eye on where the ifrit kept coming from, but the darkness cloaked them too well. One wolf dropped to the floor, his fur catching fire. Everything glowed a sickly green.
One-horned ifrit dragged a wolf along the floor before it launched him over its head, tossing his body to the ground. The wolf got back up with a snarl, but my heart still pounded. I was connected to them all, could taste Cassie’s fear through our bond.
But when that fear sharpened, as more wolves and ifrits clashed, paws swiping, jaws clenching down on horns and muscle, I searched that knotted tree for my daughter.
I couldn’t see her.
Not until a scream tore through the din of the fight, and I whirled, finding the source. An ifrit threw up a blaze of green fire, the flames joining the others that had been started. But through the blaze, I saw my daughter’s pale face. I could barely think, barely stop myself, as I sprinted across the clearing for them.
“Help!” Cassie screamed, kicking at the ifrit. It had been smart to grab her, distract the pack, distract me, and snatch her away. My paws pounded the ground right as I skidded to a stop before that flickering wall of green fire.
I would have to jump into it to save her. I could snatch her from the ifrit, out of harm’s way. But it would mean sacrificing myself. My stomach lurched. The ifrit had the thing most important to me. For seven years, I had thought that person was Bryce—that nothing would ever come above how much I wanted her in my life. Not until I’d found out Cassie was mine.
I had sworn to keep her safe.
How could I not sacrifice myself to ensure that happened? To make sure that she and Bryce got away from here, got to safety, even if it meant I would not be a part of that.
I howled, my pain and fury echoing in the noise.
And then I crouched low, preparing myself for the searing pain of the demon fire.
Right as that first streak of pain lanced through me, a powerful blast shook the clearing, and I was knocked out of the air in a moment, landing heavily on my side. I rolled, on my feet in a moment, right as rain began to pour down. It stormed—a sudden sheet of rainfall and lightning, all of it casting the flames to embers in seconds. Including the wall separating me from my daughter.
The ifrit screeched, all of them retreating, rendered powerless by the unrelenting storm. I was distantly aware of Bryce thundering over to us, but all I could see was my crumpled daughter, lying on the ground, her arm outstretched to both Bryce and me.
A mark glowed on her palms, and I noticed how, despite everything else being soaked, she was bone dry. Her eyes were closed, her face deathly white—and then it hit me: my daughter had defeated the ifrit.
Chapter 23 - Bryce
I hadn’t stopped pacing for the last twelve hours—not since the ceremony had ended in the ifrit attack, and since I had seen Mason preparing to launch through ifrit fire to save our daughter.
As soon as I’d seen him go low to the floor, preparing his leap, it had hit me. He had once sacrificed me—and, unknowingly, Cassie—to have this life. This picture-perfect alpha he thought himself to be. And last night, he had been ready to sacrifice that life for Cassie. To ensure her safety.
Mason had really been ready to sacrifice himself, and I couldn’t handle thinking about it without breaking down into more tears.
“Brett says you’re going to wear a path in his den,” Mason murmured now, pulling on my wrist gently.
“I can’t stay still,” I muttered, looking down at my daughter on a pallet tucked beneath blankets. Her face still hadn’t gotten its color back, not yet. I took in the purple hue of her eyelids and her blank palms. Last night, I had seen the glow of her skin after the explosion had scattered the ifrit, and the rainstorm had soaked the woods.
