Winter
“So sweet,” I say to little Marie as I hold her in my arms at the pack house. Marie’s blonde hair is the same colour as Anna’s but everything else is from her father. Anna is sat next to me, watching as I hold little Marie’s hand. Her tiny fingers squeezing my thumb as hard as she can.
“Do you want children?” Anna randomly asks. I look up at her, thinking on her words. Anna has her dressing gown on and she looks so tired.
“I don’t know, maybe?” I say and she nods.
“I never wanted children, not in this world. It was Fergus who wanted a child.” She says quietly.
“Anna,” I say and she shakes her head.
“I couldn’t imagine my life without her now. She is the image of Fergus,” She says, looking at her daughter with love. I couldn’t imagine bringing up a child after losing their father; it must be so hard.
“She is,” I say. I stare at the door when I hear something, something loud and then the ground starts shaking.
“Jaxson just sent out a message using the bond. There are demons attacking,” Anna says. I pass her Marie carefully as she rushes to me. The fear in her eyes is clear and she holds Marie close.
“Go upstairs and hide,” I tell her. She steps away from me when I start glowing, not in fear but shock. I don’t think she has seen me do this before.
“You’re coming, too,” she says. The earth shakes harder, making me sway a little. Anna leans on the wall to stay standing. Something is really wrong.
“No. I can’t and as queen I’m telling you to go upstairs and hide. Please,” I say and she nods finally. I run towards the door and outside. The wolves are running in one direction, so it’s easy to follow them using my increased speed.
When I break into a clearing of broken trees, Jaxson is right in the middle, looking every bit the powerful king with his green glowing crown on his head. He’s glowing green as he holds a sword in his hand and he swings it down onto the neck of a man. The man’s head rolls off and he disappears into a dark blue dust. Jaxson’s eyes meet mine across all the wolves fighting with the men. I see his eyebrows crease together with worry but two more of those men jump in front of him and he has to fight. The ground is still lightly shaking and a hand goes around my throat. I try to pull the hand away as I manage to turn to see who is holding me. The demon man has glowing blue eyes that remind me of me when I glow blue. The man is grey and his face is covered in blue veins, giving him a scary look. There is no emotion on his face, not happiness or fear, just blank. The hand is burning hot, enough to leave a mark and I feel for my own power as he tightens his grip and lifts me of the ground. I start glowing just before my power sends the man at my back flying in the air. He isn’t the only one that goes flying as well, so do lots of wolves and all the demon men they were fighting.
Whoops.
The wolves use it to their advantage and rip the heads off of the men on the ground. I fall to my knees when the ground shakes harder than before. I look up to see Jaxson, his sword in the ground at his feet, and his hand glowing green as he holds the handle. Hell, his whole body is glowing a bright green. I can’t stand up as I watch the earth spilt open from his sword, causing a massive crack that spreads towards the herd of demon men running towards him. They don’t even notice as they fall into the hole, no screams or anything leaves their mouths as they fall. The wolves make quick work of killing the last of the demons and Jaxson closes the hole he created. When the shaking stops, I walk over to Jaxson. He’s still staring at the place where the hole was and he’s still glowing. I put my hand over his on the sword and he seems to snap out of wherever he had been.
“Eight,” he says to me. I frown, not understanding until I hear a cry and then the pain-filled screams. I turn to see Angela holding a brown wolf to her chest, Katy is behind her and crying silently.
“We lost eight,” I say and Jaxson nods. I watch as he walks over to Angela and places his hand on her shoulder. He speaks quietly to her and I walk over to Katy. She lets me hug her and we stay quiet for a long time.
“I need to redo the ward, they shouldn’t have been able to break through,” Atti says and I didn’t even realise he was here. His eyes meet mine but he only nods. I forgot he was coming to take me back to his house for a movie night today. I’ve been at the pack for a few days and I spent a few days with Wyatt at the castle, too. The castle is improving slowly, Wyatt thinks that one quarter of the six hundred bedrooms are finally done. It’s a big job and there is only so much they can do in a short amount of time. The kitchens and bathrooms are done, which is a big improvement. Wyatt showed me the ten buildings outside of the castle. He thinks they used to be where the humans lived because they have about ten rooms in each of them and their own kitchens.
“No, we are moving.” Jaxson’s says suddenly, snapping me out of my thoughts.
“What J?” Atti asks.
“The castle has the best ward. They just walked through our ward like it was nothing and started killing. They could attack us at any time here,” Jaxson says.
“The castle is safer.” Atti agrees. The wolves standing around us start speaking quietly.
“What do you think?” Jaxson asks me. I glance around at the wolves; most are covered in blood and blue dust. I see two men covering a black wolf with a large coat.
“It’s smart for us all to be together,” I say quietly. There are several wolves around us and I blink when I see Harris push them out the way. He comes over and drops to his knees in front of his mother and the dead wolf.
“No,” he says and places his hand on the wolf’s back.
“Harris,” I say gently as Jaxson stands. He moves next to Atti.
“Go and get Dabriel. We have many that need healing,” Jaxson tells Atti and he nods, he disappears a second later.
“I couldn’t get here in time; they attacked near the other cabins but not as many. The weapons don’t work on them, you could stab them and they just carried on. We had to cut the heads off and I couldn’t leave them,” Harris mumbles.
“No one expected you to, my boy,” Roger, one of Angela's mates, says coming out the trees with three other men following closely. They all fall to their knees around Angela and place a hand on the wolf. All her mates together to mourn the one they lost.
“We move tonight after we bury our lost wolves. We are at war,” Jaxson shouts, his voice vibrating around the trees. They seem to carry his message along with the fear that follows his words.
We are at war.