Ashes To Ashes (Wolf Guard Book 2) (11 page)

Monster.

The wolf rumbled within, taking offense at the word. I couldn’t reply - I was unsure myself whether I’d meant the creatures piling through the gate or the Alpha at my side.

Ty turned to Conall in sheer horror, "what the fuck are they?"

The Irishman grimaced and watched as they fell over each other like a swarm of ants, running and climbing over bodies trampled by the weight of the mob. "Technically? They're wolves. Yer crazy enough, yer take a human, drain the blood and replace in wit' wolf. Dat's what yer get, some sort of awful concoction of both. It's not allowed fer obvious reasons but doan't look like Duncan cares."

Conall's eyes flashed black and I followed his stare to the man sitting gleefully on top of the ten foot wall, legs swinging as they hung down as if he had not a care in the world. A large smile stretching across his face and laughing as he watched his macabre creations stumble over each other.

"Where would he get the wolf blood to do this?" There were easily eighty or so disfigured wolves pouring through the entrance, a sickness settled deep in my stomach.

Conall's voice became emotionless but I easily sensed the fury that boiled within. "From wolves, pirate. Ain't no other way tae get it. Some packs be missin' their friends right about now."

My veins became ice, a numbness that freezes on seeing true depravity. I turned to Ty,"see what you can do."

He nodded and stepped forward, walking slowly to join the line of females that barricaded the way through to the house. They were in the gate but they'd not get to the children hidden within.

Conall's lips twitched into a vicious smile. "Right behind yer, pretty boy."

Ty stretched his arm over his head and aimed a middle finger back at the Irishman. He chuckled and stared at me for a moment before flicking eyes to Lane and back. "He didn't want tae lie, take it as something tae start wit'. Soon as he realized this mornin', he wanted tae tell yer. It's a problem of his - sometimes he's a bit too honest."

He took a step and started after Ty, a clamoring cacophony of growls piercing the air surrounding us. He looked back with that feral smile again, "looks like yer might get your wish, pirate. It's a good day tae die."

He looked overly happy about that - the moron. I turned to those amber eyes and winced when I found him staring at me silently, an odd expression of sadness and excitement on his wolf's face. I sighed as I started stripping my clothes off, turning slightly so he'd only catch a glimpse of my rear.

He wouldn't be dying just yet - not unless I said so.

Chapter 15

What wonderful villains they made.

Each one a true example of all that was a propensity for violence and all that bled red rage as feral darkness. Hunch-backed and riddled with contorted muscles, limbs so out of place it looked painfully wrong. Every heaving, disjointed step seemed agony to a body not made for fluid motion, and yet, on-wards they moved. It was less a purposeful run towards the females blocking their path and more an obsession of movement, as if what was left of their minds would not allow them to move in any other direction. The clumps of hair that dotted around their scarred flesh was ratted and damp from saliva dripping out of horrifying jaws, teeth as large as a fully grown male wolf, but the bone that held them not fused quite right in the huge, snapping muzzle. Their eyes a stormy fire, a fury without reason and normal mental function. I assume the process of creating wolf from human destroyed what rationality and cognitive thought had previously existed. They seemed nothing more than instinctive monsters that craved blood and violence.

The claws hung like burnt and filed bone, twisted and protruding viciously from gnarled fingers, reminiscent of Hell's collector of souls. So much so that they became faceless demons as I watched. Dripping bile and seeping malice even as they roared in hacking coughs of mutant calls.

I sat in a throne, gilded in precious metal, that control room to steer the animal that took over my form. Her eyes flashed hunger at the poisonous animals crawling through the entrance, so fixated on each lumbering rodent that her veins burned with the need to chase. The smell of blood rolled quickly through her nose, an enticing scent that drowned out sound and chaos, a pleasure that stole the hunters focus. Her gaze flicked to the man on the wall, a fleshy package that held her contempt, a human form that was weaker for his arrogance. He should have changed to his wolf - bought those claws out to play, she was even now studying which parts of him would break beneath her teeth.

She was smaller than the average wolf, a four legged animal that shrank under the height of all the towering wolves surrounding her. She turned to look at the wolf beside her, an amber eyed giant that grunted and sniffed at her fur, she barely reached his thighs as he nudged her side with a soft touch. She bared her teeth at the contact, flashing anger as the heat from his skin melded with her soft, black fur. She disliked her mate at the moment, knowledge of his actions battered at the bond that connected them. A simmering bubble that broke her concentration and poured accelerant onto that vindictive nature females had in abundance. He'd feel her anger and bury his head in the sand to escape it, no male could match the seething fury of a single female and her merciless revenge. And beneath that layer of malice, hidden deep under thick blankets of masking fury, there stilled the pure reason for her ire - disappointment in the male she needed. Hurt from his obvious resentment towards the parts that made her. A frozen plane arched around her heart, cracked from gentle taps that stemmed from his odd personality, a little bit of give in the ice he'd melted with his unusual words and broken sentences. Refrozen by his heavy hand and past atrocities. Wants and needs collided within her body, nature's pull and common sense warred for balance. It would be so easy to give in and forget, allow the connection to overrule and consume, perhaps even be content with the troubled man she'd been given. But who wanted to settle for content? We wanted burning, ferocious fire that tortured the animal with agony of need and licked the human's skin with flames of blazing, blue craving. Explosions of longing and a deep, consuming pureness that made us both feel as essential as the air we breathed. No, we didn't want contentment.

She caught a glance of Ty at the front line, standing tall and strong in human form, roaring his disgust at the broken figures creeping ever closer. He'd keep them at bay with a word, have them clutching at their throats for precious air while the females picked them off one by one. My beast trusted the empath with a hint a of wolf, a man whose strength lay in those icy blue eyes. She'd stalk behind him and crouch low to the ground, leap at the disfigured creatures that scurried over each other and fought to break free from their twisted kin, sink teeth and claws into unnatural necks that begged her to end their torment. A gracious death to those that should never have been created.

She was smaller no doubt, but she had more vicious predator and more swift destruction inside her than a hundred of these creatures. I listened to her thoughts of promise, pure animal arrogance and pride that made me smile from my prominent position. She was a beast with a one track mind of late - to plow through the obstacles that seemed forever in her way. I understood her frustrations, it had become so overwhelmingly soul destroying that even the animal had lost all interest. We needed a change of pace and perhaps this looming battle would give her that boost she so desperately needed. No animosity towards her nature, no hatred for her very existence, no failure at every turn but simple and honest pitting of one beast against another to determine the winner, regressing to the basic instinct that commanded all creatures - that of survival of the fittest.

I turned her full attention to the creatures bringing war to the gate, Ty already had a few writhing on the ground trying to drag in breaths when all they could feel was suffocation. The females, though untrained, were useful enough to pick off the creatures on the ground, digging their claws into ragged flesh and dragging the gasping beasts away from the mob and into clusters of pack wolves, four of them ripping apart each creation at a time. Conall stood in front of the line of wolves, changed into a huge beast of eight feet and solidly packed with muscle. Massive black thighs that bunched with restrained violence as he lent forward and roared in the face of the closest mutt, a claw punched forward and sank into the mutants skull, blood and brain matter burst from the back of its head as Conall retracted his hand and the body slumped to the ground in instant death. My wolf grinned slightly, opening her jaw wide and a little bit manically in appreciation of his efforts. The tall wolf by her side grumbled, seemingly affronted, and leapt forward to join the fray, perhaps wanting to present his own kills to my wolf and take her attention from Conall's animal.

A beat of a heart and silence descended. Only the wind whispered hauntingly through the forest outside the wall, scattering leaves over rough terrain and sending bales of wasted foliage to dance behind the mutant wolves like a barrier to their escape. The creatures heaved breaths like their lungs failed to fully expand, glowing rusted eyes fixated on the pack that barred their entry, the blood of their brothers thickening the air with copper fervor. The redhead on the wall stood to his full height, a gaping mouth of laughter as he watched the Alpha stand side by side with Conall, the only two full male wolves who stood between the pack and these rabid beasts. A good foot of height separated the men from the women, bulk that proved a man's muscle grew heavier than females. They were obviously built bigger and more solidly than both the pack and the creatures in front, but they were two against eighty more and I was worryingly aware that this could annihilate the wolf pack that had stood for hundreds of years.

A shout from the wall hailed the Alpha’s attention, light brogue and amusement laced a heavier accent on his words. "Ya give, brathair?"

Lane roared in response, arms spread wide and chest bowed until his anger was unmistakable to all.

Duncan laughed once more, a sickening sound I shivered to, his willingness to decimate so many seemed an easy choice to this man and I wondered at the life that had led him to this moment, what agony could possibly have tormented to end up here - with such culling an acceptable choice.

Lane had a response of his own. One large clawed hand snapped to the nearest mutant, clasping around its throat and dragging it forward. It snarled and clashed its teeth at the arm that pulled but failed to break free from that iron grip. Claws dug easily into scarred flesh and blood dripped quickly down the Alpha's skin. He rumbled at the creature hanging limply from his hand, his distaste evident as he flashed pure, white teeth, before taking its head in his other overly sized fist and pulling swiftly to separate head from body. Crimson spurted wide in strong arcs of stolen blood, another wolf's life stained the floor red, washing the dirt with the essence used to create such a monster. The body dropped to the ground as it seemed to wilt into itself, all muscles relaxed in death as they'd not been able to in life. The head hung, still dripping blood in the Alpha's hand, the jaw of the creature wide in a death locked, pain filled gasp. Lane focused on the redhead on the wall who watched his display with a frown covering his previous smile. The Alpha roared once more, gripped the head firmly in his black claws before swinging his arm and releasing it in a well aimed toss toward Duncan, the severed stump landing in a splat against the redhead’s chest, a large spot of blackened blood marking the landing.

All eyes turned to Lane. His wolf heaving breaths as though he'd run a thousand miles, hands clenched tightly until claws pierced his rough palms and pools of blood dripped slowly to join what already spilled on the uneven mud.

Ty's voice whispered from his rank among the females. "Did you just throw a severed head at him?" He got no response from the growling Alpha.

Duncan stared down at his shirt, confusion marring his expression before his eyes snapped back to Lane and his features twisted in anger. "That was unnecessary."

Lane chuffed heaving breaths, little rumbles escaping as his arm shot out once more and another creature was pulled from the mob of writhing bodies. Duncan threw back his head, that anger exploding in a roar as his wolf lent him it's voice and called to the mob of rabid animals to attack.

I sat watching the first wave, ten or so creatures springing forward and rushing the two males who stood in protection of the entire pack. I allowed the first attack, the focus on those brave creatures that thought they would overpower wolves born with the nature to brawl, born to hunt the weak and the infirm, born to protect what's theirs. And this is how we triumph, nature's stormy wrath against man's sick experiment.

My wolf focused on the crowd behind the fighting wolves, ignoring the Alpha that ripped limbs from contorted bodies and left them wiggling on the ground in confused agony. We ignored the sounds of the pack wolves calling to each other, closed off the redhead on the wall that plagued the animal with thoughts of malicious destruction, even blocked out the sight of Ty and those icy blue eyes turned on each creature that dared to attempt a break through the line.

Fear.

They'd all feel it. A paralyzing fear that ensured limbs would fail to move and chests would burn with the need to breathe yet struggle to inhale over a pounding heart and rushing blood that felt like ice forcing it's way through veins.

Terror would replace unintelligible fury, a panic that created mistakes. And that heaving mob of twisted beasts would fall to false despair under my golden gaze that promised only imminent death.