AllFreeNovel
Share Us
7
The battle waslong and hard and drawn out, and Misti, who had wanted this so badly, just wanted it to end. So many werewolves had fallen, the dead from both sides. So this is the price of freedom. Death for someone else.
The thought made her spite.
For the most part, the Wild Shades were proving to be decent, even strong and capable, warriors, but there were just as many if not more Shadowed Stars, and she felt as if they would never be safe again.
She had just dispatched another werewolf when she saw a new one entered the fray. He was huge, monstrous, and…
Horace. A Red Nightwalker, not a Shadowed Stars.
Baring her teeth, Misti leaped over a few battling wolves to reach Horace. It wasn’t until she ducked under his paw that she realized what his presence meant.
Both Red Nightwalkers and Shadowed Stars were fighting them.
Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no.
Horace was fat, even in wolf form. His swings were hard and harsh but slow. She jumped and darted out of the way then raced toward him to nip at his hind legs, his ear, his side. He tried to swat at her, but she moved too quickly. She had no real quarrel with the werewolf—other than his trying to rip her head off.
More Red Nightwalkers emerged by the time she finished off Horace. His neck had been too thick for her to suffocate him, so she had to bite it instead. Blood spattered still from the wound as he lay motionless on the ground. The new Red Nightwalkers quickly found targets. Far too many of the Wild Shades were fighting off numerous werewolves, and bodies of members from all three packs littered the ground.
Carnage. This will be a bloodbath. Nothing will be able to save us.
But she was no courage, and she did not fear death. Live or die, she would continue to fight. For freedom. For the chance to live her life away free from her father’s influence. For love even.
She felled another wolf then two more. How many she had killed in total she didn’t know. Blood dripped from her fur as she lunged at yet another werewolf. Her injuries weren’t serious, and she pushed through the pain, biting, kicking, clawing, scratching. All that mattered was survival.
But then delusions came. A claw streaked against her cheek, but she could almost swear it was Anders’s hands caressing her face. A howl from a werewolf sounded like the sigh Anders gave when he released inside of her. The pressure of a werewolf on her back was his body wrapping around hers, holding her close.
The exertion of battling for so long against so many foes was wearing on her, there was no other explanation. How could she think of Anders now? How could she want him? But she knew the answer. It wasn’t only about survival after all. Her will to live only hardened her desire for carnal pleasure, as if sex could solve her problems. Battle lust, some called it, the desire to affirm one’s life with sex after a near-death experience.
Dimly, through the whimpers and wailing of the dying, the howls and grunts and growls of the fighters, the clashing of fangs and claws, she could hear something. A voice. Screaming the same word over and over again.
Retreat.
Retreat? Fall back? But so many werewolves were descending on them. How could they possibly get away?
But still, Kastner called for his werewolves. A few listened and were slain from behind. Misti and the nearest Wild Shades formed a line, snarling and beating back their foes, forcing them in front of them, back away, retreating. It took everything in Misti to continue with the retreat. All she wanted to do was to continue the fight, to press forward, to return to the mountain and reclaim it… but Kastner had the right of it. They needed to regroup.
Slowly, painstaking, killing as their foes made necessary, Misti and her Wild Shades continued their backward retreat, careful to step onto and not trip over the dead and wounded werewolves in their path. They soon joined up with others until enough space formed between them and the other two packs that they could turn around and race away.
The sheer amount of bodies they had left behind was staggering. Even so, she knew the Red Nightwalkers had many more they could send against them, and likely the Shadowed Stars as well.
Kastner marched them, now in human form, in a different direction, and she soon realized they were making a wide arching route around the battle. A few times, Wild Shades had to halt to take care of a werewolf or two, but the attacks grew fewer and farther apart.
Eventually, he halted them. The wounded had herded into the center, the healthier ones neighboring them, the strongest yet on guard duty surrounding them.
Talon sent out a few in every direction to keep a lookout for any werewolves.
By the time everything was settled, Misti felt a bone-weary achiness all over her body, but she refused to sleep.
Her husband approached her. Only now did she realize she was naked. Her provisions she had left behind along with her knife. No clothes, no food… Had any of the Wild Shades remembered to grab their bags? She doubted it.
Pretending she did not see him, she stepped behind a tree.
“Misti,” he called.
She peeked around it. “Talon.”
He halted awkwardly, not far from her, back enough to give her privacy. He was also naked, but her gaze did not wander from his face. “Are you hurt?”
“I will be fine.”
“Good.” He released a breath. “I wish I could have been fighting by your side, but everything was so chaotic and—”
Misti left the tree behind and walked up to him. His eyes widened as she pressed her lips to his. For a moment, she allowed herself to be lost…
Only to realize when she opened her eyes and saw her husband that in her heart and mind, she had been kissing Anders.
