Rejected Mate and Following Fate - Awakening Book novel Chapter 98

I zoom past trees, skim over fallen logs and under overhanging debris, aware I’m slower once more and I tire faster, but I fight on anyway. I need to see this through and be there to lead my people home when victory is ours. I owe them so much and from what I can see as all remaining wolves head hard towards the mountain in one wave, our numbers vast. We didn’t seem to lose many to fighting our brothers. In fact, as I skim the faces around me, I can’t feel the sense of loss that I did earlier, and I wonder if it was merely their pain and not death.

Not one single wolf death. We did what we set out to do. Break the spell without any losses.

Carmen mind links me, seemingly understanding why I’m looking around as we run and I blanche, my heart rising in delirious happiness because I truly thought there would be an aftermath of grief and despair when the turned found out they killed some of our own. That our victory would also be the start of mourning the losses. Instead, we just need to make sure it’s the same outcome at the mountain now.

It looms up over my head like a foreboding shadow, making me aware I have never ventured this far, or come this close to this beast of a grey rock. The stench and vibrations of vampires overpowers me as I get right to the overhang where we always suspected the entrance was. I can feel them, in their droves. Moving, fighting, hissing in the depths of their caverns, and as my pack start to single file into the narrow tunnel entrance which has been ripped open wide by wolves in their fury to get inside, I push my way past and make a dash to get in ahead of the next wave.

Carmen’s stuck to my side, as my personal bodyguard, my mind and focus on following my mate’s scent. Like a bright shining path in the dark, I can feel him close, smell where he’s been and tremble with the force of his aggression exuding through the air as he fights for his pack within the mountain. I can sense Cesar, the sub pack and Meadow too, all within these walls and doing what they do best.

Seeing it’s their Luna among them, some move and get out of my way, still unsure why I’m in human form, but they don’t ask. They follow at speed, flanking me like an army, knowing this is where they’re needed for sure.

The inner coven den is almost pitch black once I get away from the open entrance and my night vision takes a moment to kick in. I can still smell Colton in the air, even though the stench of blood and sweat and those rabid creatures overpowers my senses and use it as my guide as I feel my way along damp cold walls. I stumble on badly scraped, and uneven, gritty floors, cursing under my breath that my footing is useless as a human. Carmen slides beside me to offer support and I cling onto her fur instead and use her as a walking aid.

It’s been dug out carelessly, and makeshift, like they never really intended this to be more than a temporary lair. There’s no home comforts or hints of human living, just a damp and cold cave. Like wild animals sheltering in the darkness and not creatures capable of civilization, like we are.

My eyes adjust, bringing the surrounding shapes into view and blood curling screams further up the incline, coming down cut off tunnels on either side of me fill me with dread. It’s one thing to fight them out there in the open, see them coming, and have the space around you to anticipate their attack, but another entirely to be in here, claustrophobic with poor vision and opportunity for every tunnel to be a pounce point. This is a labyrinth of cold stone and damp. Even with night vision and extreme senses, it’s still a terrifying place to try and navigate and the noises echoing around confuse the mind to where battles are ensuing.

I move fast and follow the screams that are loudest, ignoring my own pounding heartbeat and shaking limbs. Sensing Colton, sensing Meadow in the air, and surprisingly I feel Sierra behind me almost as soon as I step into a wider area of open rock that cuts off in front of me into an almost cliff like drop.

Alora, I’m with you. I’m sorry I couldn’t get back to you.

She’s panting like she’s been running hard and I’m guessing after she got free of wherever she was she came bounding back to find me and then got lost in the chaos of the broken spell. She probably heard the help cry and knew I would come this way before picking up my scent again.

Stay close to me. I won’t leave you again.

I nod, needing no explanations as I know she wouldn’t have left me had she been able to control it. I saw what the battlefield was like, how chaotic it was and how badly we were struggling against them. How easy it was to separate us and lose one another. I’m hoping she sees it, feels that I’m okay and now she’s here, I’m fine.

Sierra presses to my other side, so her and Carmen flank me fully, my hands skimming the fur and feeling a sense of security, despite my vulnerable state as human. At least I have my gifts back, even if they are powering on less than fifty percent of my abilities because of my babies. It’s better than nothing. And now I also have my femmes, and my small entourage of pack wolves going to meet our most ruthless ahead of us. Nothing can happen to me this time. I know that I need to stay safe and that now Colton is here, I won’t be in the danger I was before. I can relinquish the reigns and let my mate be everything I know he can be.

We shuffle along left, the narrow walkway away from the sheer drop and find the winding way down where all hell seems to be breaking loose. This mountain is almost hollow right in the center and all tunnels and walkways seem to wind into this one walking space which twists down to the depths below. The echoes and cries I heard all over, they are concentrated inside this cavern and flowing out in all directions.

The battle below is vicious and loud, and the flying fury of fur and pale creatures makes for an almost stormy sea like movement across the depths. I can’t see who is who, but my attention is drawn up as something flies past me and crashes into the overhanging rocky ceiling above before plummeting back down in speed. It’s scares the shit out of me, my heart lurching to my throat and the three of us jump back against those behind us and inhale swiftly in perfect sync. Freezing as we stare at whatever that was and eyeing it warily.

“What the hell?” I recoil in horror as another makes a break for it and for the first time ever, I see, some of the vampires have wings. Like huge, oversized leathery bat wings and my jaw drops open.

“Why the hell have we never seen this before, and what in the actual…….” My mind turns blank and I blink, trying to adjust to this sight and believe what I’m seeing.

They’re trying to get out, escape, but the suns up….. They don’t seem to care that getting out will be death. They know they’re losing and they’re frantic to die any other way than by our claws.

It’s a wolf coming up towards me, meting us on our path. A familiar voice of one of our experienced sub pack sentinels, one of our warriors. One of the fog enchanted, as he follows up after another flying creature and happened to come upon us gawping upwards. He bows to me, makes it clear he’s not staying, and then proceeds past me at speed to take off towards the ceiling to catch any that go up. His smile and enjoyment at finally getting to rip these creatures apart gives me shivers, but I know most of our warriors have been waiting for this day. Ever since we moved into the shadow of these beings and had to watch our every move. Our fiercest have longed to invade this place and eliminate the threat. Even Colton, but his need to see our people safe always overrode the urge to scourge the mountain clean.

We should break through up there, let the light in. Change the game.

Carmen cuts into my shocked thoughts and grabs my hand gently with her mouth, hauling me back instead of down to follow the sentinel. It takes me a second to catch up with what she said but it’s a smart idea and I follow at speed, not caring if she just once again decided for me. Turning on our heel to trace out the steps moving skywards and Sierra and some of our pack follow me. The rest head down to help with the fight.

“Up there.” I point to the way the narrow walkway cuts off at the other side, to one going up into rock and gesture we should get as high as we can if we’re going to break some kind of vent to let the sun fry these freaks. From this angle, with all of them down below, we can kill so many with such a simple act and help our fighters below. They may be winning, but this mountain is full of these creatures and this may take hours yet to defeat them all. I know Colton, he’s come into their lair and he won’t leave until every last one is dead. He’s had too long staying away and keeping us safe, now is his opportunity to rid this place for a while and he’ll take it.

Carmen grabs two wolves on the passing, both strong sentinels from our pack, pushing them with me. Seeing as they are heading up anyway in chase of more flapping creatures and they see me and obey.

“Come with us.” I command, knowing they recognize me right away and get instant head bows as they do. I lead the way at speed as we climb higher and look for weak points with thinner rock formations around us. Look for ways to break to the outside…. Thinner patches, crevices. Tiny cracks or even tunnels formed by nature which are small. There has to be areas we can break through… I mean strength is our gift and our claws were built for this. A wolf can rip through most terrain and our ability to do it with ease and speed is incomparable to most in nature.

I point out a patch where the rocks indent away from us, and slight cracks of faint light seem to permeate on areas almost undetectable if you were not looking for them, and know we found it. A weak point where the hollow is close to the outer edge and with some effort, we can dig through. It would cast light across the center of the hollow catching all the creatures flying upwards, and hopefully flood below with enough light to help.

Even though I can’t use any of my wolf gifts, Carmen takes the lead and starts digging, scraping and hauling rubble out of a nearby crack as she turns and gets to work. Other wolves piling in see what we are doing and immediately understanding the plan, so help.

It’s not unlike the forest, being up here. The sounds travelling and making my skin goosebump, my inner angst grow. When we were in throws of violence, eerie screams, and chaotic noises. Thuds, thumps, cries… ripping, screeching, smashing. The scent of blood filling the air of both Lychan and Vampire, but I know both species have healing abilities, and this isn’t going to be as quick as taking down a small patrol out there in the woods. There are dozens of them in here. Maybe even hundreds.

“Alora…. Move.” The familiar voice of the witch comes at me from far behind, shocking me into a moment of disbelief and I spin to see her striding this way. A bright white light in her hand as her mode of seeing where she’s going once again, and she smiles at our attempts at clawing through solid stone.

“If you want it done right… you do it yourself. When will you wolves learn, the witch is always a better option.” She smiles, that arrogant demeanor on show but I can’t fault her for it. Afterall, she broke the spell and my respect for her abilities have grown by a thousand-fold. My wolves look to me and with a nod I make them clear the way and they all turn back and flank me instead.

She throws me a smug twitch of her lips and tosses her light at the wall in front of us with a simple flick of her wrist. Absolutely no effort and for a moment, I wonder what a small glow of nothing can really do for a huge expanse of mountain wall. I expected something a bit more dramatic and with a lot more vavoom. For someone so powerful, this was like tossing a match into the sea.

It’s a boom of light, like a large lightbulb shorting out and we are hit with pitch darkness once more, without very much of an explosion at all. I stand looking rather deflated as my eyes adjust and wonder what that even was, expecting more.

The air that whips around me catches my breath so suddenly, I’m startled for a moment. An after effect, like a storm in a teacup brewing and there’s a pause of inhale. Almost like a silent stillness for a second, and I realize as something grows in the air around us, I should never doubt this witch. A growing groan, an uneasy sense of atmosphere tingling around us as if I’m suddenly feeling gravity changing direction and it stirs up my instincts to be afraid.

A weird noise of shifting earth, the mountain shudders and groans again and then the full side rips out away from us with the release, like a silent blast as though a giant person grabbed a handful of rock and ripped it out. The full front before me crumbles outwards and collapses down the outside with a crescendo of noise that can be heard for miles around and echoes back on us. Birds in the distance from our newly acquired view scatter from trees for miles of endless forest canopy and animals scurry in panic. The rubble bounces down until it meets forest and rips down trees in it’s wake.

Daylight floods the space around us so that we blink to adjust, filling the cracks and the crevices and gleaming bright, illuminating all below.

“You couldn’t have done that already and saved half a battle?” Carmen asks drily, cocking an eyebrow at the witch as two equally cold and sassy women lock eyes. A tingle of energy zapping through the air.

“I was a wee bit busy, killing witches, my pet. Do you want to add a wolf to the death toll?” Leyanne snaps right back with a salacious smile, and I wave my hands at them in a ‘shhh’ motion to calm the brewing hostility. My eyes now locked on the fruits of her labor.

It’s with this new light I look down to see the clear way to go and realize how high we are and how narrow those walkways are. In the dark it was not so terrifyingly steep, because we couldn’t see how far a fall it would be. In light it’s a deep and crazy long hollow that stretches beyond the imagination, yet the dazzle still makes it all the way down from this impressive hole that is still crumbling wider from the witch’s magic and tearing down the side to let more in.

The screams and burning smell of flesh, catching fire, soon fill the air with clogging thick smoke that makes us choke, and gasp, and pull back, as winged creatures crash from wall to wall in a bid to escape. Their panic is their demise, writhing in burning agony with scolding light, they fly right up into the fullest part of it and combust like a puff of dust right before our eyes. It becomes chaos and confusion, and we all pin ourselves back against the walls as the hollow fills with frantic wings and shield our faces form explosive dust particles.

I’ve never seen them die this way and the howls below as many perish instantly send the ones shaded or shrouded in shadow reeling into tunnels to escape. Only more wolves await them, in every nook, due to our sheer numbers present as the entire pack have filtered in now, and their death is imminent.