A/N: Trigger Warning for violence and gore
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Deafening explosions assaulted the alpha's sensitive ears as he emerged from the forest. Night turned to day. The southern horizon was ablaze. Thick columns of smoke billowed into the lit sky, yet the witches did not stop their relentless barrage even as they destroyed their city.
Give them hell, Celine!
No longer restrained by thick trees, the night breeze danced to a strange rhythm around Ethan, ruffling his hair in every direction. Its sinister whispers filled his head and crawled down his spine, raising his hackles. All around him, his warriors squinted and crouched low. Then, they turned their heads aside as if fighting off an unseen pressure.
Ethan's chest rumbled with a low snarl, and he bared his fangs.
His primal self roused up to fight the intruder. It wrapped him in a deadly calm, barely hiding the yearning, bloodthirsty haze churning within him. The alpha's menacing aura oozed off of him in waves.
Grrr! Ethan's growl deepened, joined by his mate's threatening hiss.
The malevolent spirit riding the air fled in the face of their challenge. And instantly, the howling winds died down.
"That's how they kidnapped the Gray Oaks wolves without a fight," Jan murmured. "By imitating an alpha's presence."
Raw, primal rage roiled under Ethan's blanket of false calm and echoed in the wolves around him. Rough grunts and growls highlighted their anger as the treachery sank in.
"Yip! Yip!' Waller's sharp whine-like bark urged his troops on.
One by one, squads of fourteen wolves began the charge toward the north side of the Solaris temple.
The tall white tower at the edge of the estate drew them like a homing beacon. Higher than a building with fifty floors, it stood tall among four low rectangular buildings radiating outwards like the spokes of a wheel. Red terracotta clay tiles topped their whitewashed walls. Mounted on the tower's roof was a large dark brazier burning the same lethal fire, raining death on Celine's vampires.
The charging warriors sped into a brisk canter as two bright green-hued orbs simultaneously shot up from the tower. The witches halved the size of their fireballs now that they had to face multiple targets.
The green orbs sailed through the air in a long, graceful arc, heading in different directions: one to the south, the other to the east, where Gray Oaks battalions gathered.
Eric! Ethan's heart clenched.
Fear spiked through him, threatening to shatter the shroud holding back his bloodlust. A growl rumbled in his throat, and he lengthened his stride.
"We need to fall back, Alpha."
Boom! Boom! Ethan barely heard Bannerman's warning over the deafening blasts. Fire erupted in the east, adding to the sirens and growing chaos of a city under attack.
Powerful muscles launched him over a low white fence into a golf course in a single bound. The lush, neatly manicured lawn in the dead of winter spoke of the coven's wealth, but that hardly registered as the alpha's sharp claws churned up thick tufts of grass.
Mere acres of soft, rolling hills dotted with artificially created lakes and artfully designed sand dunes separated Ethan from the witches. His red wolf eyes could see a few of them now, standing in a circle on the glassless lookout with hands lifted high above their heads. Green flames channeled from their fingers into the mounted brazier.
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Blooded Mate
Fantasy[[MATURE CONTENT]] Pack, family, mate. Loyalty, respect, honor. These are the words that form the foundation of the wolf society. At six years old, Ethan had to choose between his Alpha title and his survival on the night of his father's death. As a...
