A pulse of power cut off whatever she’d been about to say. I was certain this was what it felt like when you were near a nuclear blast. The powerful surge took my breath away. The sounds of battle died away as all the combatants noticed it.
“Well… shit,” Sinthy muttered.
A deafening roar filled the pack lands. It reverberated into every inch of the battlefield, and I thought I noticed the earth beneath me shake. It was an alpha’s roar, but like none I’d ever heard before. I was an alpha, and even I trembled at the power of it.
Having regained some of my strength, I rose up on my hands and knees and saw her. I wobbled to my feet and gazed at Maddy as she stalked forward. All around me, shifters and humans alike gawked at her.
She wasn’t a werewolf. No, she was the biggest damned wolf I’d ever seen. Her shoulders stood taller than a horse. Her head was nearly as large as a grizzly bear’s. Pools of blood seemed to have replaced her eyes, they were so red. Bright, razor-sharp teeth glinted in the sun as she panted. They looked like knives sticking out of her jaws.
Viola took a hesitant step backward. “My God,” she whispered. Then she pointed at Maddy and screamed, “Kill the beast! Kill her!”
The humans didn’t react. None of them attacked. Fear had paralyzed the crowd. Weapons slid from several of their grasps, clattering to the ground.
“Run.”
The guttural voice traced an icy finger down my spine. I turned to see Maddy stalking toward us, and as she opened her maw, saliva dripped from the massive fangs, and the voice again erupted from her throat, though the wolf lips and tongue didn’t move.
“Run.” That single syllable sounded ferocious and terrifying.
The sound was deep and almost seemed to come from within my own head rather than through my ears. It frightened me. My mouth hung open as I watched Maddy walk ever closer to the group of fighters. The fiery eyes did nothing to alleviate my fears.
“Any human who wants to live should run. Now.”
A rustle of shouts and screams erupted from the group of human fighters as they took in this gigantic, talking, blood-eyed monster wolf walking toward them. At least half of Viola’s army tucked tail and sprinted back to the gates and woods, scattering like the wind.
“Cowards,” Viola screeched at their backs as they ran. Not a single one looked back.
The remaining humans must have been either incredibly brave or terribly stupid. It was the latter.
They screamed in rage and rushed toward Maddy. The shifters were all like me, rooted to the ground beneath their feet from the shock of seeing her in her true form. I wanted to run to her aid, to attack the ones running at her, but I seemed to be stuck.
It turned out she didn’t need my help.
The first group ran at her, and she lashed out with a massive front paw—damn near as big as the lid of a trashcan—and slammed it into three men, sending them rolling across the ground in a bone-crunching tumble. More rushed at her, but Maddy swatted them away like annoying insects.
Then the gunfire erupted again. I flinched, finally pulled from my stupor as bullets slammed into Maddy’s hide. The shots didn’t seem to penetrate her, but that didn’t quench the fire that erupted in my heart. The sight of my mate and my unborn child being shot at sent me into a rage I’d never experienced. I leaped forward, shifting in mid-air, and barreled into the midst of the shooters. I snapped and bit at them, my teeth ripping at flesh, tearing fingers, ears, and appendages free from bodies.
Once the three men who’d shot at her had been taken care of, Maddy’s huge wolf head nuzzled against me. I spun in place and pressed my nose into her side, smelling her, listening. I could still hear our baby’s heartbeat. Strong and steady. I looked into the scarlet orbs that were her eyes, and… somehow… I could see my mate inside them. More powerful than any shifter I’d ever met. Stronger and more dominant than anything in history—maybe not even Edemas himself had been this strong.
More shots erupted, and I watched as five slugs slammed into Maddy’s side, but the bullets simply fell to the ground, warped and broken. Maddy was unhurt. After a final nuzzle against my mate, she and I both leaped into battle. The other shifters, seeing the tides had turned, joined us. The battle became more of a brawl than anything else—a desperate scrabble by the humans to try and do anything against us. They were unsuccessful. Whatever that vial had done to Maddy, she looked damn near indestructible. She waded into gunfire, shielding me and the others with her body. Her gigantic fangs tore at arms, legs, and necks.
Even through the bloodbath, I heard Viola screaming at the humans to keep fighting.
“Burn her!” she howled. “Burn her like we burned her filthy ancestor.”
She wheeled around, looking for help, but her bodyguard had fled. I spotted Maxwell running to my house, to his siblings. Viola was alone, but that still didn’t seem to deter her. As I walked toward her, she looked more angry than scared—defiant to the end. The humans were backing away, finally realizing that fighting was pointless with Maddy on our side. They crumpled to their knees, fatigue, heartbreak, and defeat clear in each of their expressions. The dumbasses had really thought they were saving the world. I pitied them for being so easily misled.
Viola snarled at them, her nose wrinkled in disgust. Her perfectly manicured nails twisted into claws as she screamed at them. “Get up. Damn you, get up. The fate of the world rests on us. Fight, for God’s sake!”
She looked maniacal. Her hair was disheveled, hanging in tangled strands across her eyes, she’d lost a shoe in the scuffle, and she seemed on the edge of a breakdown. I shifted back to my human form and strode toward her.
“It’s over, Viola,” I said.
She leveled a glare at me. Anything resembling sanity had vanished from her eyes. Whatever thread had been holding her mind together must have snapped when she realized she was going to lose.
“Fuck them. I’ll end this myself.” Viola sneered as she raised her gun.
The barrel lifted straight toward me, angled to aim right between my eyes. The bitch was going to shoot me. Probably in some hope that it would give her the victory she wanted. Maddy, however, was having none of that. A howl that nearly split my eardrums burst from her throat as she raced into the field of fireand rushed Viola. Viola’s hand trembled as she turned the gun from me and pointed right at Maddy’s head. Her finger twitched on the trigger as she fired, but that bullet, too, fell away, leaving Maddy uninjured.
