The Nameless Luna – Book Three: For Her, He Falls

There is no beauty in war. It is not a dance like in epic poems; there’s no heroic music, no melody in this noise, no harmony between the howling and screaming.
There’s clamoring and clashing on the other side of the gate while our archers rain down arrows on the first of Viktor’s forces to storm the bridge. I lose all sense of time, suspended in horror inside the gate while Mark, Amara, and Helena lead a charge outside meant to thin out the first wave of attackers.
I am in limbo, waiting for their signal, and I know I will never be prepared for what’s on the other side, but the waiting… waiting is almost worse.
There are makeshift barricades and traps set up throughout the fortress, and I stand beside Tristan in the castle bailey. Around us, there are nightwalkers and Rovers already in their wolf form. They are a formidable sight, their fur bristling as they tense their muscles in anticipation of the coming battle.
Some snarl and growl, impatient as their brothers and sisters lead the first charge outside, while red eyes glint with equal intensity and unease.
The sun has started to rise, but the mist and clouds are thick enough that the nightwalkers are safe. For now.
Through the mindlink, I get flashes from Nico darting through the shadows, watching and reporting as the first phase of the battle unfolds.
Viktor’s army is a force to be reckoned with, their numbers even greater than I could have anticipated. The only way we’ll make it out of this alive is if we’re smart and stick to the plan, forcing them to spread out and aim for those in charge.
We’ll never outnumber or outlast them, but we can cut off the head of the snake.
There are five packs, including the Banes, and though they all follow Viktor, I expect many wolves will abandon the fight if their Alphas fall. After all, they may have formed an alliance under Viktor’s command out of a shared fear of the vampires, but wolves look after their own. If we can get just two packs to surrender… maybe we stand a chance.
‘Talk to me, Nico,’ Tristan says, his voice shockingly calm as it echoes in my mind.
Before the scout can reply, a different voice pierces our thoughts through the mindlink, half-howl and half-scream.
Amara.
My mate clenches his jaw, his muscles rippling as his wolf threatens to burst out, but he holds it back even as I shiver at the sound.
‘Second battalion, hold your ground. We wait for the signal,’ Tristan commands through gritted teeth.
‘I’ve got eyes on two of the Alphas so far. No sign of Viktor and the others. But it’s a bloodbath out here,’ Nico’s voice is frantic, his thoughts jumbled and breathless. ‘There’s too damn many, boss, and three of them have Amara.’
‘I’m fine,’ Amara hisses, but her thoughts are distant and muffled like she’s too weak to speak clearly through the link. ‘Once they get through the gate, it will be chaos. Be smart about this. Wait until we’ve identified the Alphas, and-‘
Her message is cut off by an anguished howl on the other side of the gate. I don’t know how badly she’s hurt or if she’ll survive this, but hearing that calm, wise woman scream like that makes my insides churn.
They need backup. Now.
‘Mark, what’s your position?’ Tristan asks, his eyes darting as if he could see the different possibilities playing out.
There’s a pause where the only sound is the cacophony of death and violence on the other side of the gate.
‘Still standing. We can buy you some more time, but…’ The Beta’s voice cracks, his thoughts flooded with emotion. ‘Amara is down. I can’t get to her… Tristan…’
Mark won’t defy his Alpha, even for his mate.
This is what it means to be king; to choose between jeopardizing a battle or saving the ones you love.
But I am no king.
Whatever Tristan decides, I know the choice will eat him alive. So I bear the burden and make it for him, Goddess forgive me.
I close my eyes and signal my father.
‘Do it now.’
The order ripples across the nightwalker’s forces, and there’s a flutter of leather and cracking bones as dozens of the vampires waiting along the wall drop their crossbows and transform into a swarm of bats. The others on the bridge do the same, shifting in a storm of black wings as their screeching fills the air, drowning out the sound of the heavy gate opening to allow our injured to retreat.
Then the world falls into mayhem.
Our forces charge forward under cover of leathery wings and shadow, and I glimpse the carnage as it trickles in through the open gates.
The Banes’ army leap and lunge at the Rovers and nightwalkers alike, their claws tearing into flesh and bone. A misty dawn continues to break over the fortress, casting an ethereal light over the battlefield.
Then my mate turns to me with understanding in his eyes.
‘I’m not sorry. Not for any of it,’ Tristan tells me, and it’s a miracle I can hear him over the roaring conflict consuming our surroundings. ‘Whatever happens, love… don’t be sorry.’
All I can do is nod before his wolf tears out of him, and I echo his transformation. We shift as one, like a single soul in two bodies, one of golden brown fur and the other of silvery white.
Then we join the fight.
The air is thick with snarls, screams, hisses, and howls. Beside me, my mate is a blur of fur and muscle, claws slicing through the air. I am his mirror, echoing his movements as instinct takes over and my jaws clamp down on enemy limbs.
Existence fades into a nightmare of death and desperation.
All these lives… all this fear and hate… I lose all sense of everything except for two things: the feel of Tristan fighting by my side and the certainty that I will make Viktor pay for this if it’s the last thing I do.
‘There are two Alphas on the bridge and one that’s already through the gate,’ Nico says, his message urgent but less pained than before.
I want to ask him if Mark made it to Amara. I want to ask him if my friend is still alive. But there’s no time, and knowing it won’t make a difference. Not while the fight is still unfolding in all directions.
We have to move fast.
‘Describe them to me.’
Most of the nightwalkers have shifted back into their corporeal forms, but the few still swarming above us will help keep track of the Alphas. Once we’re indoors, phase three relies on the army branching out enough to isolate the targets. The winding stone corridors will confuse and scatter the enemy, but it will also make it harder to identify and locate a single wolf.
‘For starters, they’re freaking huge,’ Nico reports. ‘One’s a grey wolf with a scar along his snout and a streak of black fur down his back. He’s on the western side of the bridge, and he’s got a Beta fighting by his side. The other’s coat is grey and brown with white along his chin and chest. He’s got narrow eyes and broad shoulders, and he’s moving toward the gate with an entire entourage. He’ll be through in minutes.’
‘I’m going after him,’ Mark snaps suddenly, and there’s nothing but rage and determination in his voice.
‘Perfect. The skinny vampire girl is going for the scarred one. She’s covered in blood, and none of it is hers.’
Helena. Thank the gods.
That’s two down, three to go.
‘And the one inside?’ I press, yelping as a wolf sinks her fangs into my leg while I’m momentarily distracted. Tristan is on her in seconds, and I don’t linger to watch him tear her apart as Nico replies.
‘Greyish coat speckled with beige. He’s got pointy ears with white on the ends. I watched him kill six of ours before I lost track of him toward the entrance of the keep.’
I can’t see him. Not Nico, Mark and Amara, Helena, Marco, nor any of the Alphas. Wolves and nightwalkers fall in the fight around me, friends and foes littering the ground in a twisted mess. Still, I pass on the information to my father, hoping to concentrate our efforts.
But the Banes are gaining too much ground, pushing us back toward the castle. Streaks of sunlight pierce some of the mist like scattered spears through the clouds, forcing the nightwalkers to retreat further as morning continues to advance against us.
That’s when I sense him.
The fight is trickling into the keep, but I feel him the moment he sets foot on the bridge, and I have to bite back the intuitive flash of fear that’s been beaten into my bones.
‘The guest of honor has arrived,’ my father’s voice murmurs in the back of my head a moment later. ‘Let’s invite him in and finish this once and for all.’
I turn to my mate, and I know Tristan sees it in my eyes even before I speak the words into his mind.
‘Viktor is here.’
Blood drips down Tristan’s muzzle; my own white fur is streaked with unspeakable stains.
But still, we do not yield.