THE AWAKENING

Tieran and Cassandra surveyed the scene, growling in warning to anyone from Ulster’s clan that if they dared challenge either,
they would die like their Alpha, gurgling on their life’s blood.
A scattering of yips and howls filtered through the moonlight as the battered remnants of Ulster’s clan melted into the forest,
running for their lives.
Within minutes all that remained were the dead, injured, or exhausted Clan Barrachius. Victory was bittersweet.
Tieran padded over to a fallen wolf and nudged the large body with his muzzle. A whine of sadness followed. Cassandra felt
Tieran’s pain as he checked the bodies littering the forest floor. Blood stained the pine needle carpet and filled the air with the
scent of death.
With an anguished howl, Tieran changed from beast to man until he stood before the scene smeared in blood, both his own and
others, and Cassandra followed suit.
“How many?” she asked quietly.
“Ten,” he answered, looking to the large wolves licking their wounds. “We must get them back to the compound or else that
number will increase.”
“Are they able to run?”
“Doubtful and it is too far to walk in our human form.” Tieran’s grim expression told of his worry for his clan mates. He would not
leave them behind. Cassandra could see his dilemma and knew what she had to do.
“I will go get help.”
“No, I will not chance that one of Ulster’s band will wait for this exact opportunity to retaliate for their fallen Alpha. I will send
someone else.”
“Who?” Cassandra asked, exasperated by Tieran’s stubbornness. “Besides, it’s my fault that they are injured in the first place.
Let me do this. I want to help.”
“I will not risk your safety,” Tieran disagreed, dismissing her as he walked away to discuss the situation with one of his clan
mates who wasn’t as badly injured as the others.

Cassandra’s temper spiked at being relegated to the helpless female role when she was clearly the exact opposite. Cassandra
growled low in her throat and Tieran’s head whipped around in surprise at her open defiance.
“For your own safety, I would suggest you stop underestimating me,” Cassandra warned before transforming back into her wolf
form.
The pain was fleeting as she settled into her familiar animal skin before Tieran could stop her.
She bounded away from him and the clearing, easily putting distance between her and the others.
She followed the scent lodged in her nose of the compound and she went unerringingly along a dizzying path, her padded feet
eating up the miles as if they were mere yards.
She burst into the compound grounds and went straight for the sentries guarding the entrance. Her chest heaved from the
exertion but she managed to transform into her human form to gasp the words, “We were attacked. Tieran needs help.”
She projected the image of the clearing into their brains and their startled eyes told her that she’d succeeded in not only freaking
them out, but also of communicating the location of their fallen clan mates.
Exhaustion from the run and the fight left her without the energy to explain further and simply limped, naked, bruised and bloody
into the house to go straight to her room to collapse.
But immediate rest was not in the cards.
A woman that made her hackles rise and a growl pop from her chest, though she’d never seen the woman before in her life,
waylaid her on the way.
“You,” the woman breathed with sharp disappointment, the sound of that single word laced liberally with hatred and dismay.
Her dark hair cascaded over her shoulders in a waterfall of beauty that would’ve made a supermodel jealous and it certainly
didn’t make Cassandra feel like a pageant queen but even as her dark eyes glittered like jewels at midnight, her heart burned
with jealous heat.
Cassandra sucked in a tight breath as understanding washed over her. “You weren’t supposed to come back,” the woman said
tightly in a low, private voice meant only for Cassandra to hear.
“Serra,” Cassandra said. “What are you doing here?”