“Enough talking…” she hissed.
Max watched the two women face each other, one old and frail, the other a powerful, naked goddess driven by revenge. He hadn’t seen Sabine in months, having felt too guilty and too miserable to visit her in her luxurious cell underneath the Schloss. What he had done was wrong. Running away from reality, avoiding the truth, postponing a final decision… And it all led to this. He was the only one to blame, the only one who had put everyone he loved in danger. He stepped next to Christine, his tall, muscular frame towering over her.
“Sabine, what exactly do you think you’re doing?” he asked. His voice was calm, deep, and determined. “What do you think you’re accomplishing?”
The she-wolf straightened her back, her gaze suddenly lost in his bright green eyes. They glowed eerily in the moonlight, and the weak wind blew strands of his black hair over his forehead. He was as gorgeous as ever, that soft beard highlighting his jaw perfectly, the white shirt hugging his chest and abs in all the right places. Oh, how much she had enjoyed his body when they had been together. It was all gone now. All of it. Just like that, in a blink of an eye, for reasons she couldn’t quite comprehend. All she ever wanted was to make him happy, give him everything he wanted. Now, he didn’t belong to her anymore. Her heart clenched in pain, and tears welled up in her eyes. She blinked them away.
“I haven’t seen you in such a long time,” she said. “You stopped visiting. Every morning, when I got out of bed, I hoped that would be the day you’d come down to see me. Just to talk and sit with me for an hour. You never did.”
Max swallowed heavily. He had nothing to say. He could have told her how much it had hurt him to banish her like that, but what would have been the point?
Sabine waited for an answer that never came. She smiled, disappointment and betrayal shining in her eyes.
“You know what? If I am to be honest with you, I have no clue about what the fuck I’m doing.”
She relaxed her muscles, preparing for the impending transformation. She had no intention of letting this pointless conversation go on for any longer. She turned right and took a couple of steps in front of the wolves and foxes lined up behind her. They all tensed, ready to attack at their Alpha’s first sign. She could hear her pack mates’ thoughts, and she knew she could count on them. The dragon had killed three of her wolves and two fox-shifters, which had only made them angrier and more eager to fight. As mighty and deadly as they were, dragons could be killed too. She couldn’t know what the werefoxes were thinking, as their species didn’t possess the gift of telepathy, but she trusted them. Their three-tailed Inari was somewhere among them, and she knew he was devoted to her. To her and her alone. He would never betray her like Max did, toss her away when he got bored. Her fox-shifter would follow her in death if it came to that.
“But there’s one thing I do know,” she continued. “You don’t deserve to be happy. No one in your wretched clan deserves it.” She looked over Max’s head. “None of you has ever stood up for me!”
“You killed innocent people!” shouted Jocelyn.
“And you would have hurt many more,” added Karl.
Sabine looked at him, her intense gaze taking in his rough features and heavy body, then she started laughing maniacally. “You’re the one to talk, Karl. You murdered my family! You tore them apart when they had done nothing to you. You turned my little brother into a mass of flesh and blood.”
Snap.
Max flinched at the sound of Sabine’s bones breaking and molding into a different shape. He reached for the buttons of his shirt.
“They were farmers, Karl. They were just trying to make it through the war without starving to death after the dragon-shifters had burned almost all their crops. Then you came with your Dark Wolves and pillaged what was left of that small, godforsaken village.”
Snap.
Max pushed Christine away. “Go back inside. Find Avelyn and make sure she stays there no matter what happens here.”
“She’s safe,” said the old she-wolf. “Viggo will never let her come out. I’m not going anywhere.”
Snap.
“We never did anything to you!” Sabine fell on all fours, her body already covered in black fur. She shouted her last words before her jaw started elongating, taking the form of a wolf’s snout. “You will pay for everything you took from me!”
What happened next was complete chaos. Max’s three packs turned in a matter of seconds and lunged forward, meeting the enemy halfway. Cries, growls, and whimpers filled the night air. Heavy bodies crashed against each other, fangs snapped, trying to latch onto the other’s throat, and soon the ground was stained in blood. The werefoxes, with their lithe, elegant bodies moved faster than the werewolves, administering strategic blows, then retreating before the wolves even realized what hit them.
Max and Sabine faced each other, two huge black werewolves who were moving in a circle, trying to decide who would strike first. Max had no intention of hurting Sabine, so when she lunged at him, he blocked her without even trying to bite. All he wanted was to keep her as far as possible from the school and Avelyn. She attacked again and growled in frustration seeing she wasn’t getting a real fight. Max’s body was slightly bigger and heavier than hers, which meant she had no chance of knocking him down. When she caught his shoulder unprotected, she bit him fiercely, enjoying the grunt of pain he gave.
Karl had already taken out two werewolves and a fox, and he was working his way through a large group of attackers who had banded together to put him down. He had no qualms about ripping off huge chunks of flesh and fur, digging his fangs into soft throats, and throwing his dead preys to the side. His Beta, Matt, had his back, making sure no one took him by surprise.
Jocelyn and Ryan were guarding the gate. When a werewolf or a werefox tried to lure them away, they never took the bait. Val and Rosanna were right by their side.
Kevin, Max’s Beta, had left his Alpha to deal with Sabine while he took on the three-tailed Inari. The fox-shifter was tall and strong. Kevin kept an eye on his three tails, even though he h
ad no idea what he would do if the fox did some weird trick and started shooting bolts of electricity. What had Avelyn said about the foxes? That few of them knew how to use their tails to create lightning. He hoped with all his heart this Inari was not one of those few.
Max was slowly losing ground. He was bleeding from so many places, that he was sure he would soon feel dizzy because of the blood loss. He couldn’t have that, but he couldn’t hurt the she-wolf either. He pushed her away, growled at her, stared deep into her eyes, urging her to stop. She attacked again, with all her might, this time her fangs digging dangerously close to his jugular vein. Max struggled to break free, used his shoulder to knock her off him, then bit the side of her face lightly. He could have aimed for her left eye, but decided against it. This wasn’t going anywhere. He tried to put some distance between them. A fox-shifter pounced on him, but Max turned around on time, caught the shifter’s throat, and let his fangs taste flesh and pumping blood. He pinned the fox to the ground and held it there until it stopped struggling. He hoped this display of cruelty would make Sabine reconsider her next attack, but he was wrong. She lunged with all her force, angrier than ever. Max knew that if he didn’t start fighting back, she would soon stomp him to the ground and go for Avelyn. He saw her run towards him and jump, and he braced himself for the impact. It never came. A smaller, gray werewolf had jumped between them and was now rolling in the blood soaked grass with the huge she-wolf. It was Christine. For a moment, it seemed like she had the upper hand, but then Sabine pinned her down. Max wanted to break them apart when a rogue wolf blocked his path. Next thing he knew, he was driven away from the two she-wolves, and the only thing he could focus on was hitting his attackers as hard as he could and staying alive.
Neither the Crescents, nor the Moon Children or the Dark Wolves had time to take a break and look around them. If they had, they would have seen they were losing ground.
***