IN FULL COLOUR - Dark Fantasy

Axel

Unable to stop in time, I smashed into the hard iron feeling it kiss my temple, bones groaning and a loud crack screaming in my ears.

The pain did not register. All I could see was Gabrielle sprinting towards me, eyes wide and pup cradled protectively in her arms. Molly was a few feet behind her, as well as two other she-wolves I didn’t know.

Behind them, angry high fae dressed in pale gold armour charged.

Gabrielle locked eyes with me and did not look away again. Her feet moved swiftly and unfaltering underneath her, her breathing remained steady, and her chin held high. A true Luna.

The frightened pup clung to her with his tiny hands, crying, but determination sparkled in Gabby’s eyes. Not for her own survival, but for that of the little one in her arms.

I hollered over my shoulder again for the gate to be unlocked, Locke near frantic, pacing and cursing beside me. His magic was useless with the barrier of iron separating us from the enemy.

As the women neared the gate, multiple pairs of arms were already outstretched through the gaps in the iron, awaiting their touch or readying to haul the tiny pups through the spaces in between the thick metallic bars. Beast to my left was roaring in agony, his arms awaiting his mate and his vicious canines gleaming in the pale glow of the Willow’s dancing light.

How could this have happened?

Everything had been planned out so perfectly.

And yet now, “GET THIS FUCKING GATE OPEN RIGHT NOW!”

My voice boomed, echoing off rock and iron.

Gabrielle used her shoulder to take the brunt of the impact as she slammed into the iron in between my outstretched arms, which I wrapped around her instantly. A wolf warrior ducked under my shoulder hauling the tiny pup from her arms and pulling him through a gap in the iron.

My frantic eyes searched her terrified caramel orbs flecked with gold. Her face, her lips, I searched every inch of her, “how?” A frustrated sob broke from my lips.

She shook her head, crying, her hands coming up to cup my face. We had mere seconds. She kissed me, deep and hungry, conveying all that she felt for me through that one desperate touch.

Heavy boots thudded and my eyes shot behind her, my lips still on hers, as a large, snarling male slammed into her back, twisting her hair two times around his gloved fist and jerking her head back, ripping her lips from mine, but my claws were already pierced through skin and flesh as I ripped something pink and wet from his gut.

I wasn’t sure what it was, but as my hand went in, I closed my clawed fingers around something fleshy and pulled. The male’s eyes bulged, and he slumped to the ground, his hand still entangled in Gabrielle’s hair, painfully dragging her down with him.

I caught his wrist trying to ease some of her pain as the next body tried to pull her from me. To my left, Beast roared, snarled and ripped into flesh. Blood sprayed. Chaos erupted all around us. Yelling, howling, and sobbing. We fought through the gate, trying to keep our women in our arms.

In the back of the cave, Willows darkened as a murky blackness swept past, the high fae warriors parting for a dark-haired, incredibly young male stalking through.

His power rumbled and scraped against stone as he grinned at us. Lethal and wicked. Death in a human form. Blackness seeped from him like liquid pooling beneath his feet. He couldn’t be older than eighteen.

Across his face, a dark band covered his eyes, blackness gathered underneath skin, making his bright blue eyes stand out against the utter darkness of it.

Another black band ran down the right side of his face, starting from his hairline and crossing over his eye, down his cheek, jaw and disappearing beneath the collar of his pale golden armour.

Those unnerving blue eyes glimmered as he beheld us, bloodied and glaring, protecting our mate’s through the iron bars. Pure evil tugged his lips into a chilling smile.

“So much love,” he purred. His voice sounding smooth and wicked. “How about a trade?”

His gaze met with mine and I pulled Gabrielle closer to my chest, baring my teeth.

“A girl for a prince,” his devilish eyes darted to Locke, and he looked him over, dragging his eyes sinfully slow down the length of Locke’s body. The latter answering with a growl and tightening his fingers around the hilt of his glowing silver sword.

The young male didn’t look fazed at all. He turned his amused expression back to us and flicked his wrist. “Take them.”

Fae warriors sprang forward, clawing at the women, trying to rip them from our arms, swords flashing and fists flying. Gabrielle clung to me, her salty tears running down my arms and soaking the bars between us. I tried to fight them off around her, but they were too many and too strong. Beside me, Jarryd tried to help, but it was no use.

“They are going to take her,” he said, “mark her!”

Something inside of me cracked. They were going to take her.

He was right though, I haven’t marked her yet, without which, I would have no idea what she was going through, where she was or be able to communicate with her.

I couldn’t reach her neck and they were pulling her away, so in a final, desperate act, I sank my teeth into her wrist, pushing my claim down upon her flesh. The claim of a mate. My mark. The seal which made her mine. The final step in completing the bond between us, mending our souls together as one and opening the mind-link between us.

There was no time to savour the moment, the feeling of her essence pushing into me as she was ripped away, blood dribbling from her wrist and staining my teeth red.

To my left, Molly slashed one of the fae warriors across the face with her sharp claws and the enraged male reacted by slicing a dagger diagonally over her cheek. Blood was bubbling out of the harsh gash and running through her fingers as she slammed her hands over the gaping wound.

Beast lost it, shifted instantly and snapped his teeth, biting onto the bars of iron in pure frustration and agony.

“Like I said, a girl for every prince you hand over,” the young male said, bored and slightly turning.

I flashed him a hateful smile of my own, covered in the blood of my newly claimed mate, as I snarled, “I will meet you soon, don’t plan on getting any sleep tonight.” It was a threat. A promise of certain death.

The young man looked my mate up and down and replied, “oh, I wasn’t planning on sleeping at all.”

The roaring in my mind stilled at the way he purred his words. What he had insinuated.