Chapter 79
Chapter 79
-Angie-
Johan’s laugh was piercing and cruel. “You thought you were distracting me, didn’t you?”
The other shifters approached with the same menacing slow gait that Johan used. All of them were
inhumanly large. Their muscles rippled under their skin and their teeth glinted as they growled.
“As much as I would love to take you down myself,” Johan said gleefully. “I have other business to
attend to. A certain redhead is long overdue for a friendly visit
I had to warn Dorothy. I had to do something. Fae and the others were still nowhere to be seen and
nob*dy was the Tally’s plans.
syet aware of
“Where are the rest of your troops?” I didn’t expect him to answer me but Johan seemed to have
written me off as a dead girl and was more than happy to gloat
“Over on the South waiting for the go-ahead to strike,” he grinned evilly and his sunken eyes betrayed
his pride. “We outnumber your people ten to one.”
Johan nodded to the other shifters who began to surround me. Their jaws were slathering with foam
and they paused their transformation between human and wolf.
They towered over me, growling and bristling in anticipation, giant wolven creatures with a lust for
blood. The stench overpowering and I swallowed my need to gag and splutter as it filled my nostrils.
I had no other option. I turned on my heel and bolted in the direction of my car, praying to the moon
goddess, and else watched over the wolves of the world, that I would make it there in time.
-Ignatius-
1 couldn’t fathom it. My mind was unable to make the connection, to believe that my own mother would
stab me in the back. My mouth moved but no words came out. I took a step towards her and Moirah
lifted her red hand to strike again.
Before she could swipe her claws across my chest, Elliot was upon her once again. Their wolves burst
forth, only this time, the gray wolf was almost the same size as my father’s,
Their movements were rough and aggressive. Moirah fought like a wild animal, unhinged and insanely
powerful. Elliot was faltering, as impossible as it was to comprehend
They tumbled closer to the flames of the fire pit and Moirali locked ragged teeth on Elliot’s back leg,
lifting him into the air and throwing him towards the flames. Instead of landing directly into the fire,
Elliot’s wolf form tumbled into the dry wood. that stood beside it.
The logs were rolled into the fire and the flames began to spread licking across the clearing with fiery
fingers and setting the entire area oblaze.
I dropped to my knees in a daze as the world around me turned red and orange. I clutched at my back
where Moirah’s claws had gouged into my skin.
“Dorothy”
1 didn’t need to think about it. I reached for her from that distance, calling to her for what felt like the
final time as the flames inched ever closer.
The heat caused sweat to break out on my skin and the billowing flames made it impossible to breathe
I coughed and wheezed, unable to catch myself as I fell forward on the ground.
“Dorothy
11:01′ Fri, Jan 26
And suddenly she was there..
“Ignatius?” she sounded frantic, afraid. She didn’t give a moment to think. “Ignatius, they’re here.”
My vision was failing me, I drifted in and out of fuzzy consciousness as my mother and father fought. I
stared at their blurry figures with my face pressed into the dirt. Two dark silhouettes against the
billowing red flames.
“L. Who?”
“The Tally army.” Her fear was palpable on my tongue. “Johan, They’re here.”
Suddenly her words became clear to me and my eyes flew open again “How many of them? How?”
I pushed myself up and onto my knees and stumbled backward as more trees around me began to
catch fire. My mate was in danger. And I had made her a promise. I promised I would come back alive.
I promised I would protect her. I had to keep that promise. I would not let myself burn alongside my
parents.
“Too many,” was all she said in response, until, “I love you.”
“Don’t say it like you’re saying goodbye.” I got to my feet. “This isn’t over yet. Wait for me.”
A guttural Ifowl had me glancing away from where I was stumbling through the flames. Just in time to
watch Elliot force Mairah into the fire. She writhed, howling in furious agony. My father backed away as
Moirah pulled herself from the fire. her für still ablaze as she rolled about to tame the flames.
Her wolf form failed her and Moirah shifted back, still scrambling towards my father with a scream of Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.
age. Her whi was blackened and burnt and her eyes were wild. My mother was fueled by a rage
unleashed as she clawed and slashed. father who had shifted back as well.
With one final, agonizing wail, Moirah leaped at my father and Elliot lifted an iron blade from where he
must have discarded it before.
hair
Iny
He didn’t even need to thrust it. Moirah was impaled on the blade’s edge, unable to pause her attack
before it was too late. She stared at the knife in her chest like she couldn’t comprehend what had
happened.
From where I stood, I could see her lips moving as she spoke to my father but her words were lost to
the roar of the flames and the cra ckling of the underbrush as it burned.
I couldn’t bear to watch any longer and I turned to hurry through the trees and outrun the fire, stumbling
as I went.
Moirah’s voice in my head was faint as I disappeared through the smoke, “I really did try to love you
Pain shot through my back as I pulled my way through the trees leaning on the gnarled trunks for
support as my b*dy struggled to heal the deep wound. A stronger pain cut through my heart like a knife.
I closed my mind off from the world and made my way through the flames
Right when I felt I would pass out from the smog that clogged my lungs and made me choke, I heard a
rustling in the woods. Unable to put up much of a fight in my condition, I crouched down against the
bark of a tree and hoped that I would be overlooked. However, a familiar voice called from the woods
and I scrambled to my feet, looking around me in every direction.
“Plaro!”
I tried to call back but the smoke in my lungs set off a painful coughing fit and I fought to stay on my
feet, fully aware that I was being suffocated where I stood. All around me, the forest was flush with
creatures rushing to escape the fire. I assumed. no more Tally shifters had shown up when the flames
began because they too feared the power of fire in the forest.
All of a sudden, Plato stood before me, a bundled-up t-shirt held over his mouth and nose. His face lit
up when he saw me but turned to our of concern when he saw the state 1 was in. Behind him, the rest
of my crew arrived except for two young trackers who had accompanied us
“There you are!“
24
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Carly shouldered Plato aside and handed me another rag to hold over my face. The two of them
propped my arms over their shoulders and escorted me through the burning woods. The going was
rough and we tripped a few times but finally, the edge of the forest could be seen in front of us and the
blinding rays of the setting sun blazed through the trees.
+5.
We broke free of the tree line and tumbled to the ground, gasping for air and staring up at the purple
sky that bore the first spattering of twin kling stars.
“Wow” Plato huffed beside me. “I thought we lost you there for a moment. What the f u ck happened in
there?”
“Dorothy!” 1 exclaimed and attempted to roll to my feet. “The Tally split in two! Their army is on Bielke
territory right now! I doubled over as my sharp movements tore the freslily healed scar on my back
open again.
I got to my knees shakily. “We have to get back there.”“
“I know.” Carly climbed to her feet and offered me a hand up. “We fought the shifters that Plato led our
way. One of them fessed up, said we’d already lost. Apparently, Johan and his army set out in secret
early this morning. Must have been right before we found the camp.
“We need to move!”
The thought of Dorothy all alone as the Tally closed in, as Johan hunted her down, was terrifying. I had
lost too much today, I would not lose the one good thing that came out of such terrible circumstances. I
would not lose my mate. I promised I would protect her.
Flickers of memories flitted through my head in quick succession. A fallen tree, a storm. Claire’s empty
eyes, blonde hair wet with blood, and the pouring rain. I would not break my promise again.
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