(Book 3) – Chapter 37
“Ryder..Ryder, do you hear me?” Jared yelled in my ear and shook my arm.
“NO!! The kids!” I stood up almost causing Jared to fall when he didn’t let go of my arm in time.
My mates ran up to me checking me up and down. “Kids? Our kids? What’s wrong with them?”
“No time, that is what she said.” I moved toward Asher so I could start remarking them.
He stopped me from grabbing his shoulder. He looked bit worried and angry. “Explain, please. I am about ready to lose it.”
“I met my mother. She warned me..” My link went crazy and I had to stop talking to focus on each one to even hear what was being said.
‘QUEEN RYDER! THEY HAVE MORE WARRIORS WITH THEM THAN WE SAW. WE NEED REENFORMENTS!’ Several warriors linked over and over.
‘I will send as many as I can. Take out the witches first! They play dirty without getting injured. Make it hurt.’ They liked my answer from the feel of their emotions.
“RYDER, Tell us what is going on!” Blake yelled ignoring all the eyes on us.
I turned toward the crowd and grabbed the microphone, “The warriors need back up. I need everyone who is able and willing to fight to follow the warriors we have here. Nick added more people to his attack.The rest of you go to the safe room. HURRY!”
“We have to go. Link us about our kids!” Knox stated before turning to leave.
“WAIT YOU CANT GO UNTIL I MARK YOU.” I yelled as i started to feel a deep panic in my soul.
“We don’t have time. We will do it after!” Kane argued following his twin.
Blue shoved forward and used her Alpha voice. “STOP. NOT ONE OF MY MATES WILL LEAVE UNTIL THEY ARE MARKED AND CONNECTED. IT IS LIFE OR DEATH.”
Oh, s**t. I haven’t used my alpha voice on them like that before. I felt so much guilt but I knew it had to be done. Blue was in the right which normally would make her smug but our mind was too busy with worry.
‘Can you try to link anyone?’ I asked her. ‘Ill remark the guys and you see who we can reach?’ She nodded.
“Why would you do that? What bad thing will happen?” Edgar questioned me but I didn’t reply.
“I am going in the original order and when I am done the link should hit you. After that you can head out to help. I was warned that if I didn’t mark all of you one of you would die.” I told them before grabbing Asher’s shirt and moving it to the side. The sight of my claiming bite sent thrills through me but no time to enjoy it right now.
“Our kids?” Koda asked quietly.
“Blue is trying to link someone closer to our pack or someone who can help. There is going to be or already is an attack on our pack. The point is to get our twins and Alistair’s daughter. I don’t know how they will be able to get through everyone protecting them.” I whined, keeping my eyes away from my mates. I knew I was failing as a mother and mate. I couldn’t take seeing it in their eyes.
“We have to get back. If we shift we can…” Andrew started in but I shook my heady. “Why the f**k not? You have any better ideas?”
“My mother said..”
“Your mother said nothing of f*****g use to us.” Blake growled looking at me with disappointment and rage. “Our kids are in trouble and you are worried about marking us.”
“QUIT f*****g THINKING THE WORST OF HER ALL THE TIME. SHE ALREADY HAD ONE TALK WITH ANDREW. I SURE AS f**k HOPE YOU ARE NEXT. YOU DON’T DESERVE HER.” Koda lost his s**t. He walked right up to Blake and I could see the spit flying onto his face.
“GET OUT OF MY FACE! YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT WE HAVE BEEN…” Blake
“STOP. I have to hurry. I wish we could get there and save them. They won’t be hurt but we will have to get them back. I am doing all I can to remain calm. We have to beat Nick, or something will happen to them.” I am done with the conversation.
Asher nods his head and I bite him. My body tenses before my teeth are all the way in. I feel pleasure all over my body making me want to continue in the bed room but I fight it. I pull my teeth out and lick over the wound to help heal it. I don’t wait to see if the bond takes before I am stepping toward Andrew. I wait for him to nod before I pull his collar down.
“f**k that s**t hurts.” Asher found the closest seat and took it.
“Hurry, Baby. We need to rip apart Nick and head to our kids.” Andrew pleaded with me. At least he wasn’t blaming me or trying to make me do s**t his way.
I bit him quickly so I wouldn’t want to jump his bones. When I went to Blake he just kept quiet which was a step up in my opinion. I did bite him harder making him wince. It made me feel a bit better.
I finished everyone and when the links finally clicked we headed to help out. ‘Blue, Anything?’ She shook her head No. I noticed she had tears and I could feel how she thought she was a worthy Wolf or Mother.
‘Quit it. We have this. Lets go kill some traitors and make sure to cause extra pain so our mind will be clear when we head home to finish off anyone who helped take our kids.’ She smirked and called me B***d thirsty.
As soon as we saw the battle I shifted and let Blue take over. She was the better fighter and I needed to keep my focus on the links so I could help where needed. I looked around for Nick hoping we could catch him sooner rather than later. I want to rip him limb from limb and watch him bleed out.
‘We need a few of them alive to question but that doesn’t mean they can’t be injured.’ I sent out the link with an alpha tone to everyone. Some of them were probably thinking they got themselves the bloody queen and right now it was true.
‘I make no promises other than I will be killing Nick.’ Blake growled cutting down a vampire that had been headed my way. It only took a second before Blake was up and running beside me again.
‘No way, man! I call dibs on that traitor. Ryder already got to take out Richard which I had called dibs on before,’ Andrew whined as he broke off from us to help one of our wolves from being taken out by two vampires.
‘How about we just say who ever gets to him first?!’ Asher demanded as he stayed matching my strides.
‘Go help the others. We will be fine. Keep an eye out for any of them who might break off and try something to take over.’ I ordered the guys as Blue zeroed in on a wolf protecting two kids who apparently didn’t make it to the safe zone in time.
I could feel Koda staying with me but couldn’t focus on that now. Blue rammed into one of the witches who was mid spell standing a few feet away. I heard Koda take down the vampire. The witch didn’t stay down long and instantly went into a spell when she stood up.
“Run and take the kids to the safe room.” I yelled to the wolf who hurried the kids onto their back and ran back toward the castle.
The spell hit and my legs buckled but I didn’t let myself fall. Blue was unable to attack which the witch took as her winning. She smiled before walking toward us. Bad idea, i***t. I pulled on my magic and pushed it into the ground fast and hard. The tree limbs grew fast and sharp going through her body before she could start another spell. She died seconds later but enough time to know a simple wolf I was not.
‘I’ve spotted Nick. I am working my way to him.’ Blake linked with a bit too much glee in his voice. His b***d l**t leaked through the link. Please don’t let it cloud his ability to win.
‘Andrew, make sure you have his back. I don’t care who kills him but I need you both safe and sound.’ I pleaded. He agreed and started searching for Blake.
I ran back toward the battle, leaping into the air and taking down a vampire. Blue ripped his head off hard enough it went straight toward the fighting and bounced off someone else’s head. Blue snickered but pushed forward to take out the next traitor.
As we waded in to fight, we kept our eyes out for our mates. Mom told me one of them would die if I didn’t mark them all but she didn’t say if we prevented it entirely or just from death. Add the warning to the fact that most of my mates were bull headed and cocky so they ran in blind, I had half a mind to put them in the safe room with the kids and let me finish this up. I didn’t think they would appreciate it so I just kept my focus on winning and keeping them in eye sight.
Blake and Andrew had disappeared past the front of the fight. Asher and Edgar were in front of me and had noticed me fighting near them so they were trying to move closer to Koda and I. Knox and Kane were helping their father fight off several witches who looked like they had turned so dark there was no coming back. I could feel malicious, death and destruction coming off them. I am glad they had a few of our witches on their side helping with spells from the sideline.
‘I have a witch down over here. She said her name is Mel…’ A guard linked me.
‘Mel? Where are you? How bad?’ I dove under a wolf and clawed his stomach open. ‘Is a wolf named Alistair with her?’
‘Doctor is on his way. She passed out after giving her name and mentioning to link you. She is very white in color and her breathing is off. I am staying until the doctor gets her out of here. I can see you. I am to the left of you by a tree that looks like a Y at the top.’
s**t. ‘Alistair, where are you?’ I swerved to the right missing a spell by an inch. Dang, these witches.
‘Mel…can’…’ He was stuttering from the pain. I could feel it in the bond.
‘I need Edgar to take a few guards to where Melissa is and to find Alistair. He is in terrible pain and needs help. FIND THEM!’ I sent over the link to everyone. I didn’t have time to pick a chose each one to replay the message.
Blue took out two witches and we were headed toward two vampires holding down a small wolf who looked like they just turned 18. They noticed us and let the wolf drop. They smiled at us with b***d dripping down their fangs. Gross. It was a second later they were on us. One attacked our middle and the other went for our throat. We tossed our body to the side swinging them along with us. An arm was all we saw so we went for it and ripped it off. The one vampire holding onto our throat let go with a yelp. The one around our middle squeezed harder. We couldn’t turn our head to get ahold of him.
‘What do we do, Ryder?’ Blue was becoming winded.
I looked around and saw several trees clumped together. We would barely fit through there. ‘If we ran hard enough we could knock him off.’ She agreed and ran at full speed. I promised her the next time we would use our magic. We could only use so much before making us even weaker and Nick was still alive.
He was ripped out but left scratches down our sides. We turned and ran back at him decapitating him before finding the other one being taken out by the wolf they had cornered before. Good for them.
A pain ripped through our body causing us to fall on our sides. Blue started yelping and whining. I could barely think through the fog of the pain. ‘What is it Blue?’
‘One of our mates is hurt..badly…got to save them..’ She passed out and we shifted back.
I sat up on my knees and roared through it all. Now all I felt was rage consuming me. Time to end this s**t even if I am too weak in the end. No one f*****g hurts our mates.
‘Ryder…Blake…he’ Andrews words were hollow and desperate.
‘He IS NOT DEAD. I AM ENDING THIS NOW. WHO EVER DID IT, KILL THEM!’
I made it to a standing position but barely. My knees wobbled almost hitting each other. I saw a group of bad guys in front of me aiming to hit a couple wolved from behind. Why do they always try to sneak up on them? Its is a cowards way out and I was done.
I pulled on my magic and closed my eyes. I focused on the heartbeat and the b***d rushing through everyone. I could see the outlines and feel of the aura of every person. The ones that had a black tar like substance in their b***d. This was freaking awesome. If I wasn’t about to kill some bad guys I would be jumping for joy right now for learning how to use my powers even more.
I shoved my powers forward and jerked their b***d out of their bodies. I wasn’t taking any chances or extra time so it was immediate. I ran forward used the earth to take down the enemy letting the good guys finish them off faster. We were winning and I planned to keep it this way. It took a few minutes of dodging and weaving but I made it to the front. Andrew was fighting with Nick and Blake was on the ground, unmoving. A witch was trying to hide from view and was spouting out a spell. There was a dead deer and a dead body beside her making her magic even more powerful. She was getting ready to kill Andrew but needed more power worked up. She was not going to get that chance.