The others have already gathered there, the sub-alphas calling out commands to the soldiers while the betas appeal to the residents to stay indoors.
“Willow!” Rissa races toward us, her face streaked with tears.
“What happened?” Willow whelps. “How was he taken?”
“Demons. The stench is all over the room.”
Frowning because it doesn't make any sense that demons could have come through the traps and protective spells cast by the witches, I turn to the sub-alphas as they come jogging toward us. Brooks throws me a rifle, our gear already prepped for the hunt. But this feels like preparing for war.
“Brief me,” I say in an authoritative tone, my logical mind already working out a strategy to find the main luna and Emile.
“Aurora woke up from a frightening vision and went to check on Emile in his bedroom, but he wasn't there,” Dawson informs me. “It was definitely demons. Their stench is strong in Emile's room, and they left a gaping hole in the wall.”
“How?”
“It doesn't make sense,” Brooks says, panicked. “The demons aren't supposed to breach the traps or spells.”
“It sounds like they're getting smarter.” I turn and frown when I can't hear Elias anymore. “Where's Elias?”
“I'm here!” Elias calls out, his eyes filled with agony.
“Elias!”
The group rushes over to the main Alpha of Snehvolk just as he drops to his knees in defeat.
“I—I couldn't keep him safe!” he roars with the pain strangling his throat, staring at his palms defeatedly. “He's gone! My son is gone!”
The women find Aurora emerging from the woods, drained, eyes lifeless though they're filled with tears, dragging her feet forward. They huddle around her just as she collapses to her knees, and I crouch on the ground beside my friend, my brother, trying to console him, but he shrugs my hand away. His body trembles with rage that can be felt in the air, his hands curled into tight fists on his thighs.
My heart aches for the main alpha, sensing his pain, his suffering, his hopelessness, because that's how I felt earlier tonight. Except that he has every right to feel this way and more now, and we need to do something.
“We need to findEmile!” I yell out, and we're all preparing to shift into our wolf forms when Connor, Dawson's beta, sends an alarming, panicked cry through the mind link.
“Breach! South perimeter!”
I’m already running, my heart pounding as my brothers race on my heels. The protective barrier that had been cast to keep the demons out crackles with violet light across the forest line, flaring and sputtering as if something enormous presses against it from the other side.
Then it shatters.
The force ripples through the ground, a pulse that knocks me back a step. Sparks rain down like fireflies dying midair as the seal spell is broken. Through the haze of flickering light, I see dark, smoke-bodied shapes emerging, eyes burning ember-red.
Demons. Dozens of them.
And not the ones we've fought before in the woods.
These are organized.
Coordinated.
Thisiswar.
“Hold the line!” I bark out an order to the soldiers closest to the border line, shifting mid-sprint as I throw myself forward, my bones snapping and fur tearing through my skin as I land on four paws.
The other alphas follow suit, our wolves thundering side by side into the clearing. Behind us, Willow, Rissa, and Yvonne are running with us, Aurora pushing forward behind them, their voices belting plans on how to tackle this fight.
I charge forward as the swarm of demons attacks the first line of defense, racing forward into the line of fire, my fellow alphas with me.
When the first demon lunges toward me, I meet it midair, my jaws closing around its neck. The creature dissolves, but it reforms seconds later, its horrendous laughter low and echoing through the trees.
