Sonny hesitated and then sighed. “Look, we really are trying to protect you by not over-sharing, but I can tell you that, thanks to Connery’s input, we think we found a way to shut this entire mess down without risking any lives, human or shifter.”
Obviously, that could only be good news, but I was still frustratingly in the dark.
“How am I going to know if I need to start evacuating the students?”
“Pete is wearing a Bluetooth com. As soon as we’re in position, he will find you to be sure that you’re in the loop,” Sonny assured me. “We really do have this covered.” He nodded to where Colby was addressing the troops prepared to stand in defense of dozens of Omegas they didn’t even know, to defend the future of my dream. “They’re ready for us.”
“Every battle won,” Kade intoned, his voice deep with a strength that was usually hidden by his joking manner. “Not on this hill!”
Standing shoulder to shoulder with my brothers-in-arms, tears pricked my eyes and my heart swelled as I joined in the familiar battle cry. “We’re not dying; not here, not now!”
I took one step forward and clenched my fist, bringing it to my chest over my heart. “For the glory of honor!”
The shifters before me echoed the words back and we ended by raising our faces to the moon, voices layering over voices in a howl that echoed far through the valley in a song that had struck fear into the hearts of our enemies for centuries.
Pete silently appeared beside me as the soldiers began to break off, fading into the inky darkness in ones and twos, leaving us alone with nothing to do but wait.
Julian
I tried to fall back asleep after Chuck snuck out of bed for whatever commando business they had planned, but there was a strange uneasiness in the air that I couldn’t shake off. I could hear the rumble of voices outside the building, but even my abnormally sharp ears couldn’t quite pick up enough to make individual words out.
Giving in to my innate nosiness, I shifted and slipped out my usual window. Sticking to the side of the building, I made my way through the shadows to find the group of men in fatigues standing about, one with short, curly hair had his right arm in a sling. I studied them curiously until one caught sight of me and with a gesture brought me to the attention of the rest.
“Julian!” the one with the injured arm called my name, trotting and kneeling in front of me. “I wanted to thank you for earlier,” he said warmly, slowly stretching one hand toward me, allowing me plenty of time to avoid being touched before resting it on my shoulder. “Despite you saving my life, we haven’t actually met,” he said with a laugh. “My name is Tiko.”
I chuffed an amused response and lowered my head, hoping he’d accept it as a gesture of friendship.
A sharp whistle came from the tree line and Tiko pulled his hand back, his bad arm seeming to throw his balance of as he rose awkwardly to his feet. “Duty calls. Can we meet up for a drink later?”
I nodded in agreement and Tiko flashed a bright smile before returning to his spot in the line that had started moving. I watched until the last set of fatigues had blended into the darkness before continuing on my path around the building, surprised when nothing really seemed out of place. The grounds were mostly empty with werewolves stationed in the usual places throughout the compound, some alone and others who were supervising larger areas in groups of three or four. Whatever excitement Chuck had been expecting either wasn’t centered on the grounds proper or hadn’t begun yet. Considering the trek to the edge of the Hunter camp earlier in the day, I suspected it was the former.
Leaving the shadow of the building, I crossed the open space between the dormitories and the woods, stopping short when several of the werewolves called out, greeting me by name. For someone who was used to blending in nearly perfectly, it was strange feeling like everyone noticed me.
When I got to the spot in the woods where the rabbits had been working earlier, the complete silence around me assured me that I’d been right to head this way. Void of the gentle calls of night birds and rustling of nocturnal animals, the night was stifling with the scent of both shifters and humans strong and fluid in the air, indicating that members of both groups were moving about in the darkness. Why, I didn’t know, but I doubted it was anything positive.
Inching my way closer to the camp, I caught another scent, one that made my blood run cold. It was ancient, dangerous, almost reptilian. An unknown threat that had my hindbrain fighting for control, urging me to choose flight over fight to escape the unseen danger. But even as my two halves waged an inner battle, there was something that was also slightly familiar about it, which didn’t make any sense. Almost as if I’d been exposed to it before without knowing.
As I stood frozen in the darkness, the night suddenly exploded in noise and light, brightly colored smoke billowed from the center of the camp where I knew the weapons shed had stood. The first explosion was followed by a second, and then a third, each coming from a different part of the camp.
Humans of all ages and genders raced from the woods into the camp, the weapons in their hands making it clear that they had been up to nefarious purposes when they stumbled to a stop at the sight of their camp in flames.
“We’re under attack!” a man bellowed.
Creeping forward to see through the underbrush, I thought I recognized him as the old man with the crazy hair and the bone-handled knife, the one who had seemed giddy about the thought of skinning the shifters he’d referred to as mutts. My theory was confirmed when he screeched again.
“The varmints gotta be here! Release those fucking hounds! I will have those pelts!”
I knew I could outrun a hound or two, but an entire pack? There was no chance – that was exactly why hounds had been used in fox hunts for centuries. Horrified, I began searching for a hiding place, but when the gate was opened, the slavering, baying hounds blasted in every direction with seemingly no rhyme or reason.
Their noses were up and their eyes were wild, but they loped around in circles, as if the smokey air was so saturated with scent that they couldn’t even choose a direction, much less pinpoint a trail, and dog after dog raced right past me without even slowing.
In a scene that was straight out of an apocalypse disaster film, the humans were racing after the hounds, waving weapons at unseen attackers and screaming commands that the dogs didn’t even register while in the background, their camp burned with unnatural flames of green, purple, and gold flickering up into the predawn darkness.
Another explosion rang out, this one from inside the forest that lay between the Omega Destiny, International compound and the Hunters’ camp, sending even more Hunters fleeing from the cover of the trees and into the melee. Shaking free of the terror that had me frozen in place, I began to back up, trying to escape the nightmarish scene unfolding in front of me. I didn’t realize that the thick gunpowder filling the air had overpowered the ancient reptilian scent until I escaped the smoke and found myself enveloped in a cold, murky cloud that chilled my very bones.
Something moved in the corner of my eye and a loud hissing broke through the cacophony of shouting and screams from the humans. Turning my head ever so slightly, a monstrous snake-like creature with blood red eyes was staring directly at me as a thin, forked tongue flickered closer. My hindbrain won the fight or flight debate, I turned and ran as fast as I could, leaving the entire horrific scene behind me. I was so overcome with terror that I missed the huge, gaping hole and crashed to the bottom of the pit, trapped in the darkness and unable to move.
Staring up into the bizarre red eyes and gasping for air, I realized I was probably going to die alone in this godforsaken pit and Chuck would think I had left him, after all. When the massive serpent’s diamond-shaped head began to slide down toward me, my mind surrendered and the silence pulled me under.
