I froze. Sisters?
Savannah sighed deeply. “Look, I know it’s my fault we got off on the wrong foot. And I apologize for that. I’d have to be blind not to see how much Valens loves you and how much happier he is with you. You’ve chosen him too, and I… I’d likea chance to start over with you if you can find it in your heart to give me a second chance. It’s no excuse at all, but when you showed up out of the blue, it turned our whole lives upside down. It’s been just him and me for so long, it felt like you were taking my last family member away from me. And I see now that isn’t the case. The family just grew, and I’d like you to be part of it. If you’re willing, and I’m shutting up now.” She mimed zipping her lips, and I chuckled.
“Thank you. I accept your apology, and yes. I would love nothing more than to be part of the family. I don’t know how much he’s told you, but I don’t have a family of my own, at least not until this pack.”
“He told me enough. Which makes it even shittier that I pushed you away.”
I shrugged. “You’re a good sister. I appreciate that you wanted to protect him.”
She nodded, a relieved smile replacing her earlier tense expression. “Thanks. You’re going to make a good sister.”
I watched as she wandered off, and a moment later, Valens appeared at my side. “Everything okay?”
“Better than okay. She apologized and asked me to be her sister.”
“Well, hot damn. I should buy a lottery ticket.”
I rolled my eyes. “I think it’s time to go suit up. You ready?”
He turned, pulling me in closer until our hips met, and I rested my hands on his chest. “I don’t know if any of us are truly ready. But as long as we’re side by side, I think we can face anything.”
Valens leaned in and kissed me, and the crowd around us faded away. I threaded my hands in his hair, pulling him closer as our tongues tangled, a hot flush of desire lighting me up from the inside out. Someone wolf-whistled, and I pulled back, a little embarrassed that I’d let myself get so carried away in a crowd.
Valens, though? He was grinning from ear to ear as he traced my lower lip with his thumb.
He was a man in love, and it was a beautiful sight to see.
We took our positions on the field as the moon began to climb in the night sky. Pack Blackwater was front and center, Kane and Brielle together at the front. Leigh was the only one not accounted for, due to her advanced pregnancy, and Gael stood alone next to his sister. Leigh was in the bunker beneath the castle with the rest of the wolves who couldn’t fight, for various reasons. I’d asked her to watch out for Bence, just in case. If anything happened to his grandfather… his grandmother would die too. I didn’t want him to be afraid, and it made me feel better to know Leigh would protect him until we could.
But tonight there were no pretty speeches to the gathered warriors, no enthralling tales. Just a horde of wolves, ready and willing to fight to the death. The energy was palpable as the crisp breeze carried the scents of pine and crushed grass to my nose. Many were already in fur, probably more than half of the assembled army.
Valens and I were both fully dressed, multiple weapons strapped to our bodies.
I carried my new double-bladed staff, my bo staff strapped to my back, a pistol for emergencies with magic bullets Valens had found, and at least six knives strapped in various sheaths, two of which were magically augmented.
I was a walking armory, and he had no less weaponry than I had. We were as prepared as we could possibly be, and a strange state of calm had descended over me. It happened inbattle. I glanced Galyna’s way, where she stood directly in front of Brielle, who had shifted to her white wolf.
I began to hum under my breath, the battle song of the maidens. I wasn’t a maiden anymore, I was a mate. But damn if the song didn’t do something to me. It settled me and revved me up at the same time.
Galyna heard it and added her voice to mine, then Dakota, and then the other maidens from the enclave spread around our group as everyone joined in one by one, the ancient melody rolling off our tongues, a macabre offering to the Moon Goddess herself.
As the song neared its end, I raised my staff high overhead, swaying into the crescendo as one small piece of the greater whole, feeling the invisible connections of pack and mate and family between us all, a giant unseen web.
And as we fell quiet, the edge of the moon began to turn red. The entire army held its breath as the moon slowly turned to blood before our eyes, darkness deepened and settled over us like a blanket. My wolf was on high alert, her vision sharpening mine to help me see without the moonlight. It was chilling, even in the twenty-first century, to watch the moon hide her face.
Some primal part of me wanted to hide until she shone brightly again, and things were back as they should be. We were safe under the Goddess’s loving gaze… but this? This was no warm mother smiling down at us. She was angry, and she was violent.
The blood moon was halfway when I caught the first scent ofotheron the breeze. Three-quarters when we could hear them, a rustling and the dampened sound of footsteps through the trees across the clearing.
Finally, when the moon reached its bloody zenith and the darkness was a velvet cocoon around our shoulders, they stepped onto the field. It was far enough that without my wolf’ssight, I wouldn’t have been able to see anything, let alone the details. She leapt to my summons, eager to sink her teeth into our enemies.
ODL uniforms adorned everyone in the front line, and I breathed a small sigh of relief. We’d battled them before, with much worse odds, and beaten them. But as more and more lines of attackers marched out of the forest, I started to catch the others mixed in. Pixies and vampires, not in uniforms. There were also lesser fae and several war bands of trolls. Hired help or just willing to grind their axes against wolves, I couldn’t say.
The front lines seemed to blanch when they caught sight of us, some of them pausing as if they wanted to turn tail and run.
Good.Run away and run far, for the wolves are hungry tonight.
But the soldiers behind them marched inexorably forward, pressing them toward the pack’s hungry maw.
