By the time they got her into the vehicle and had begun working on her cuffs, we began to sense and smell the other wolves. The lookouts started to move to warn us as the line of wolves appeared, standing just down the road from us. They seemed to be twenty strong, as if the entire pack waited for us. My group didn’t have nearly the same numbers, but we would fight anyway.
“Shut the door,” I barked. “If, no when, she wakes up she doesn’t need to see this.”
“Zeke will stay with her,” Nira gave her orders to the vampire who’d carried Chloe to the SUV, as she’d announced it to the others. “That way she will have a vampire to guard her, a supernatural in human form, if she wakes up. Plus, he can give her something to put her back to sleep until we can get back to the safe house. We have our own rags laced with drugs that put one quickly and harmlessly to sleep. We need them at times to save panicking humans that we need to quietly escape with. And, if anything happens, if anyone comes to the SUV, Zeke will be more than able to protect her. Actually, Zeke, just drive away if you need to. Don’t fight. Just save her. We have enough vehicles for the rest of us to squeeze into if need be. Chloe comes first, though I know I don’t have to tell you that.”
“No, but I know that Christina needs to hear it. Go, get them. End this shit. We’ve all had enough. Chloe is safe with me,” he said, giving me another wink.
Zeke, a tall slim vampire with a boyish grin had climbed into the back with Chloe even as Nira had been explaining herself.
I thought with a momentary grin that Chloe would like him, find him very attractive if she had met him in a bar. He was just her type, tall, dark and handsome. Dead. Yes. But she wouldn’t know that. At least she had that hunk to wake up to, I heard my friend’s voice echo from another time in my ear. Once Zeke had shut the door with him and Chloe safely inside, I turned then to look at the situation we had before us. The two groups just stood there in a stalemate, a little too reminiscent of the cabin. No one moved a muscle. The true werewolves couldn’t be waiting patiently for us to get Chloe to safety, so I didn’t understand what they were waiting for. Pure intimidation, I guessed, a flexing of their muscles by showing how many of them there were compared to us.
The other Royals began to transform into werewolves while the vampires kept their stance, ready for battle, ready to protect if they attacked at just that moment of transformation. Some of them had already crept out into the shadows to flank the pack since they were faster, more agile than the wolves. Almost immediately, as the vampires started to disappear into the darkness, the leader from the cabin that had inspected Daniel’s body started to charge forward. I recognized him from his markings. Even in the dark, out a step ahead of the pack, the ring of white lined with black, like a collar of fur, stood out, making him distinct.
Revenge showed in his eyes, directed only on me as he closed the distance between us. Something in me began to unravel, to snap, even as I prepared to turn into a wolf myself. The power of the transformation, the magic in me that grew to be consumed, amplified, grew to a degree never achieved before. A surge of energy shot through me. I felt electric, invincible, and ready to end this, no matter what it took. With each leap he took, the gravel under his large paws kicking up clouds of dust, the details of the world around me grew more distinct.
Something had changed. Even with my still human ears, I could hear his breath, his heart beat. The dust around them all grew clearer, like more distinct particles, every atom visible as a speck of glitter. Even the storm, still brewing in the clouds, I felt. The humidity became rain on my body, sizzling on my hot skin. The lightning not yet struck made every piece of hair stand on end.
As the world around me became crystal clear, my thoughts cleared as well. My whole person became more stable, more ready, unlike I’d ever felt before. Calm. Brave. Stable. Ready. Able. I’d never been all of those things, and yet, at this moment, as my magic coursed through me in an almost violent tempest, it made me a better woman, a stronger wolf. Invincible.
Chapter Ten
Daniel’s successor turned his gait at the last minute, and went right for Lex. My instinct to help him out was detoured by another wolf coming straight for me. Still in human form, along with Lex, we jumped up into the air, sidestepping the approaching wolves, as our magic buzzed around us, made us the balls of light and energy that transformed us into our wolves in seconds. This move alone angered the true werewolves, like throwing the ease of our transformation in their faces. After being a witness to their transformations before, the way their bodies jerked about, more seized, their skin ripping apart as fur appeared, I more than got that.