“What the hell are they doing here?” Duke barked. “Fi, you led them right to us!”
Fio looked back and forth between the White Fang and Iron Claw. “They weren’t following me! I made sure of it!” she shouted furiously. Grass sprouted around Duke’s feet, shooting up to his knees.
My mother took advantage of the distraction to run for her car. She leaped in and took off with a screech of tires. I’m not sure where she could go because she’d need help to get back to the human realm, but she’d broken my heart and I hoped I’d never see her again.
“Aurora, it was you! You back-stabbing bitch!”Duke shouted.
His sister glared at him, the fire in her eyes intensifying. The grass around his knees started smoking and he cursed and leapt back. “I didn’t do a thing!” she snapped.
Royal grabbed me by the arm and started dragging me toward a van while the other Iron Claw members, except for Aurora, shifted instantly.
The White Fang members shifted too. As Royal pulled me, I went limp, sagging to the ground, and he lost his grip on me. When he lunged at me, I shifted faster than I’d ever thought possible and bit his hand.
“Fuck!” he screamed, and seconds later, he was a wolf.
Moments later, a river of wolves flowed from the woods, running to take their place with the Iron Claw. There were about thirty White Fang and maybe seventy or eighty wolves against them. Valley Prowlers. I was sure of it.
I was surrounded by the Iron Claw and their allies, and I couldn’t make my way through them to get to my pack.
My pack.
I’d started this…and I would die fighting our enemies to make up for it.
“Stop this, everybody, or I will set you on fire!” Aurora shouted.
Fi held up her hands, and tree roots shot up from the ground, reaching for Aurora. Aurora set them on fire.
“Daphne!”Aurora said as a tree branch shot toward her and she gestured at it, engulfed in flames. “Stay by my side. I can’t let my brothers have your power. They’ll destroy us all.”
I hesitated at Aurora’s words. Could I trust her? The White Fang were valiant against the numbers, but I saw Max skid across the ground from a particularly nasty tackle, and he would have been done for if Killian hadn’t intercepted the Valley Prowler, who tried to go in for the kill.
Howls rang through the air as the two packs slammed against each other. Vines shot down from trees, wrapping around White Fang wolves and tightening. Panic thundered through my veins.
We started moving back, and when several wolves tried to stop me, Aurora set their fur on fire, sending them running and screaming and careening into other wolves. I took advantage of the moment to run away from her at full speed and made my way through them to the White Fang pack.
I ran up to a giant wolf that I recognized by scent as Max. He glared at the Iron Claw. Several of them erupted into giant fireballs, screaming in pain. I’d enhanced his pyromancy and the chef was cooking them; now I was using my powers for good.
Killian dashed forward, leapt at Royal, and tore his throat out in a horrific spray of blood. I staggered back, gagging.My half brother. Dead.
Ryan knelt by two gasping, bleeding wolves, put his paws on them, and I ran over to kneel next to him. They healed up almost instantly, staggered to their feet, and rushed back into the fray.
A solitary car rumbled down the road toward us. Killian’s grandfather climbed out, his face pale.
Oh no. He wasn’t up for a fight! I ran over to him and shifted back into human form. Shouts, screams, howls, the smell of blood…
“Don’t do it! Liam, stay back!” I cried out.
He kept walking toward the fight. It was an old man on his death march.
I hurried alongside him. He stopped and swung to face me. “You. You helped me heal,” he growled. “You’re the reason Ryan’s healing has been so much stronger. I know what you are now. You’re a channeler. I can draw from your strength and give power to the pack.”
We stumbled through the underbrush to the side of the road. He grabbed me by the arm—and immediately, I felt it.
He was pulling power from me. More and more magic flowed up through the earth and through him. The ground thrummed underneath my feet.
I felt dizzy. High. Hysterical.
Was I killing him?