An expulsion of breath through Grath’s nostrils, right in front of Damien. Only as Damien was already lunging forward did it occur to him that the breath had been oddly loud considering that Grath was trying to be stealthy. He was right—Grath had been baiting him—but it was too late. Grath dodged Damien’s lunge and raked his claws from the top of Damien’s front leg all the way to the back one. Julia cried out. Even through the adrenaline, the pain forced a strangled howl from Damien’s chest. He heard drops of blood spatter on the floor.
Half-crazed with pain and rage, Damien lashed out at the spot where he thought Grath was, but the wolf wasn’t there.
“Behind you!” Julia screamed.
Damien was halfway through his turn when Grath’s jaws locked onto his haunch, the teeth piercing deep into the muscle. Damien tried to torque his body around to bite Grath but he couldn’t quite reach. Grath wrenched his head back and forth, tearing at his leg with a mouthful of Damien’s flesh. Julia screamed again, her cry ringing through the cavern. Damien thrashed but Grath’s bite was too deep.
At long last Damien’s back foot touched Grath’s front leg and Damien clawed at the leg as hard as he could. Grath yelped and finally released Damien.
Damien’s haunch gave out and he collapsed into a growing pool of blood. This. This was it. He couldn’t save Jordan, or Julia, or his babies. He couldn’t save his pack. It was over.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Julia
He couldn’t die. Julia’s babies had been taken from her mere minutes ago, and Jordan an hour before that. Surely the universe would not take Damien as well. Surely the universe could not be that cruel.
Though screams and sobs built up inside her as Damien fought, she held them in for his sake, so that he could hear. Thank God the spectators were also silent. Julia was surprised at how subdued they were. A few of them did wear malicious grins, but many more of them looked like they had something sour on their tongues.
As Grath slinked around Damien, tapping his claws on the floor tauntingly, Julia considered calling to Damien to tell him which direction Grath was in. But Grath might twist this to his own advantage. Julia hugged herself, imagining the worst possibilities. Grath would go straight for Damien’s throat to end the fight. Better to let Damien focus on his senses, and let Grath be overconfident. The longer Grath drew it out, the more chances Damien would have.
Suddenly Grath lunged, swiping a paw across Damien’s flank, springing back before Damien could bite him. Fear clutched at Julia’s lungs. She didn’t want to watch but couldn’t look away.
Someone came up beside her from behind. Julia barely noticed…until a child’s voice whispered, “Don’t say anything.”
The werewitch. Julia recoiled.
The witch grabbed her wrist and hissed into her ear.
“I’m going to help you.”
Julia didn’t process these words. She wanted to grab the witch’s throat in both hands and squeeze for all she was worth. She wasn’t scared—the only thing left that they could take from her was her life, and Julia didn’t care about that, not anymore.
Julia yanked her wrist out of the witch’s grasp but stopped moving at her next whispered words.
“Your babies are alive.”
The breath in Julia’s lungs vanished.
Had she heard that correctly? Your babies are alive. Yes, yes, that’s what she’d said, her babies were alive.
The witch was probably just lying in order to achieve some diabolical end…but if there was even the remotest possibility…
“There’s no time to explain,” the witch said. She put a hand on Julia’s back, a hand that radiated an unnatural but pleasant heat, and slowly slid the hand up Julia’s spine while her fingers did a strange, spasmodic tap-dance. For all Julia knew, the witch was putting some torturous spell on her…but if…if…
The witch’s fingers splayed over the back of Julia’s head, and suddenly the heat emanating from the witch’s hand burst into Julia’s skull and poured through her body—
Julia gasped. It was the gasp of a drowning soul breaking the surface.
The twins’ little hearts pulsed inside her, strongly as ever.
Her babies were alive. Julia couldn’t even begin to fathom it, but she was absolutely sure of what she felt. They were alive, alive!
No sooner had she felt this gush of joy than Grath raked his claws across Damien’s flank. Julia cried out a choked stream. Rivulets of blood fell from Damien’s belly.
“Focus all of your energy on your connection with him,” the werewitch whispered urgently.
“Behind you!” Julia screamed, but it was too late—Grath clenched his teeth down on Damien’s haunch and hung on as Damien thrashed.
“Focus!” the witch hissed. “It’s his last chance! Look at him! Focus on him!”
Julia didn’t understand how their connection could help him in this moment. Her mind was a whirlwind. But she had to try. There was nothing else she could do.
Damien collapsed. Grath’s mouth was a dripping scarlet grin.
Julia locked her eyes on her mate and poured her soul out to him to strengthen the connection that she had found again with the werewitch’s strange hex. Damien, she thought. My love. My mate. Damien.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Damien
Damien was still sprawled on the ground, pain throbbing throughout his body. His strength was literally leaking out of him. If Grath landed one more good strike, even if it didn’t kill him right away, Damien didn’t think he’d have the strength to continue fighting back.
It was time for him to make his final effort.
“Get up,” Grath snarled.
Damien didn’t even try. He allowed a whine to come out of him, one he didn’t have to fake.
He was hoping Grath would get fed up with his pitifulness and end it—try to end it. When Grath came to rip his throat out, Damien would make his final lunge, hopefully catching Grath off guard. One blind shot at Grath’s jugular. He’d have to get the timing and the aim perfect. His chances were infinitesimal, but it was the only chance he had.
“Get up, you weakling!” Grath barked.
Damien.
Julia?
The connection to Julia flickered to life within the cavern, and he thought that perhaps it was like it had been with Jordan, with the connection growing strong just before death.
My love.
He felt her love for him. He felt her fear for him. And he felt her…hope? Yes, it was hope, hope for him, dwarfed by the fear but still a genuine, glowing beam of hope. How could she not be hopeless when she saw him like this?
It happened so fluidly that at first he assumed it was coming from his own imagination. But no—he was seeing what Julia was seeing. It was the same thing that had happened when they were making love. He could see himself, lying on his side, his fur tattered, a dark pool spreading out from under him. He looked more limp and broken than he ever could have imagined himself. He saw Grath stalking back and forth impatiently, a hulking, jet black beast with eyes that glinted orange in the dimness. Blood matted the fur around his jaws and stained his yellowing fangs.
“You shameful coward, GET UP!” Grath roared.
And Damien did. He didn’t know how long this vicarious vision would hold—he had to use it now. The mangled muscle in his haunch spasmed and the leg half-buckled but he kept his balance. His every movement twisted and widened the gashes all over his body. He ignored the pain.
He started limping toward Grath, but not straight at him, a little to Grath’s left. Grath stayed stock still except that his lips curled back in a grin. Damien got within a few yards of him and still Grath didn’t move. He was completely confident that Damien couldn’t hurt him, and amused that Damien could be so close to him and have no idea where he was.
But Damien saw exactly where he was, and exactly where he had to strike.
Forward. Up.
Kill.
Damien lunged. Grath barely had time to blink before Damien’s jaws clamped down on his throat.
Instantly the vision vanished, but the dark curtain that swept across his vision didn’t matter now. Grath flailed his paws, thrashed so violently that Damien was jerked bodily back and forth, but Damien kept his jaws locked as tightly as he could. Hot, rusty-tasting blood poured into his mouth and sprayed against his face. It took all his strength and willpower to hold on.
At long last, the gushing blood subsided and Grath’s struggles dwindled to feeble twitching. Then stillness.
Damien dropped the dead weight from his jaws. Grath’s corpse slumped against the floor with a wet slap.
“Damien!” Julia cried, her voice bursting with joy. He heard her running toward him. He was blind again but their connection pulsed as vibrantly as ever.
There was no other sound in the cavern. The pack was shocked into silence.
Damien shifted back into human form just as Julia came up to him and pressed her hands tenderly, fearfully, to his wounds. Damien put an arm around her shoulders, mostly to embrace her but also to make sure he didn’t collapse. His wounds were bad, but he could tell they weren’t fatal.
Jordan will fix it, he thought for an instant, before remembered grief flooded his body. He clenched his jaw.
Now was not the time for grieving. He needed to address the pack immediately, to take control before anything unexpected could happen.
“If any of you want to leave, do it now,” he said loudly. “Take nothing with you. Leave the territory and never come back. If we find you in the territory after tomorrow morning, we will kill you without mercy. If any of you want to stay, you’re more than welcome to join my pack, but you will obey my rules. Things will be different—a lot different—but I have no desire to run you out of your homes. As long as you agree to abide by my terms.”
He turned to Julia, feeling her joy and sorrow mixed together.
“I’m sorry,” he said, pressing a kiss to her forehead. “Our children…”
“They’re alive!” Julia said. “The babies are alive!”
“Wha—how?” Damien was speechless.
“I don’t know. The werewitch...”
Her words trailed off, and Damien sensed the great power of the witch coming near.
“You didn’t kill them?” he asked. He pressed his hand against Julia’s belly. “They’re safe?”
“I gave Grath what he wanted,” the witch said, her voice childlike, almost singsong. “He wanted a fight. So much fighting. Now there will be peace until the alpha’s child is grown. You will let me stay in your territory?” she asked. An undercurrent of humor flowed through her words, as though this was all a game to her.
“Of course,” Damien said.
“Good,” the witch said. Damien heard the other shifters make way as she left the cavern.
“Wait,” Damien called out. “How did you make me see?”
“I did nothing,” the witch said. “It’s only the connection. Love works strangely, and it is impossible to force. Grow your love, grow your connection, and miracles can happen.” Before Damien could reply, the witch was gone in a rustle of fabric and wind.