“You ever wonder what your life would be like if the one thing that changed everything didn’t happen?” Kat asks.
“Every day, I always wonder about the what-ifs. What if I didn’t convince my family to go to Flower Meadows? But you know what? It happened, I survived it, and I got my life back. A better one and I realize what happened was on them, not me. What they did was on them, and nothing I could have or should have done would change it. Sometimes fate has a funny way of showing us how much one can endure, but once you endure it, you realize nothing will break you except yourself. You will realize that Kat, one day you will wake up, and the weight on your shoulders won’t feel so heavy, it won’t feel consuming, and you will realize you can carry it because you carried a weight so much heavier before and you are stronger because of it.” I tell her as I hop up from my seat.
“Come on, I will make more coffee. Mateo is alright with the kids, and we can steal Andrei’s Monte Carlo biscuits. He has hidden in the back of the pantry.” I wink at her.
“I love Monte Carlo’s,” Kat says with a groan.
“Yeah, Casen brought them over this morning to replace the ones he stole last night,” I chuckle while walking out to the kitchen. Kat follows me, and I flick the kettle on.
“Thank you,” Kat says, and I nod to her.
“You can always talk to me,” I tell her, grabbing some mugs down.
Kat grabs the milk from the fridge and hands it to me. We are in the middle of making coffee when nausea rolls over me, making my heart race and beat frantically in my chest. Sweat coats my forehead, and my hands tremble.
“Sage?” Kat calls my name.
“Get the kids,” I shriek, fighting down the urge to throw up as I tear off out of the house.
Rushing out of the house, I see rogues running from every direction. My scream is loud and bounces off the trees and through the mind link as I scream for Andrei.
I look for Jonah and the kids spotting them both in the tree. Mateo’s gray wolf fends off rogues as they come out of nowhere and everywhere. Our pack runs from the houses and treeline, trying to help Mateo as Eziah cries under the tree where he sits.
Shifting, I jump into the fray, racing toward where the kids are.
“Get the kids to the packhouse and lock it down,” I rush through the mind link as Sierra sinks her teeth into a brown blotchy-colored wolf.
Kat races toward Eziah but is tackled at the last second, her wolf skidding across the ground when it sinks its teeth into her neck, forcing her to shift back.
Her naked body is tossed, and Mateo’s wolf whimpers. But he is the only thing standing in the way of the wolves getting to his son as I try to get to his position. Sierra kills a wolf as our warriors take them down, but there are so many. They come out of nowhere and seem to have no end as they keep zipping out of the trees toward us.
Being jumped from behind, I am shoved forward, face planting the ground. Sierra turns quickly, snapping at anything that comes into reach when Kat barges into me. She kicks another wolf in the head as it tries to get me from my blind spot.
Her entire body is saturated in blood, and her neck is bleeding profusely as she continues fighting, trying to get to her son and the boys. Three wolves suddenly jump Mateo, and he kills one quickly before the other two pounce on him and knock him down. One of them rips into his flank viciously. Sierra charges toward them, and she tackles one off the top of him, tearing it into its neck.
Looking up into a tree, Jonah and Kyan are perched on a branch, both looking petrified. I see Kat get to the tree and Sierra bites and claws at anything that attacks us when I hear Kat tell the boys to jump.
Unfortunately, I don’t have time to see if she needs help as teeth sink into my tail, ripping me back, claws dig deep into my ribs, and scratches down my hip.
“Andrei!” I scream through the link, needing them to get here before we all end up dead.
We are outnumbered five to one easily, and they just don’t stop coming. Then out of the corner of my eye, I see Jonah jump into Kat’s arms and Kyan run toward the packhouse, to safety.
I am running towards them when Kat starts to scream.
“No, no, no, not now,” she screams, making me look at her.
She has Eziah in her arms when she suddenly vanishes in thin air. I don’t have time to think much of it when I’m hit from the side. Gunfire rings out before I hear someone scream, “Grenades!”
Katya
The moment I grab Eziah, I race toward the packhouse to lock them in the house until help arrives. I get three steps when I feel a jolt. Pain ravages me as I’m forced to stop. “No, no, no, not now,” I scream.
My surroundings blur and shake, and I’m sucked into the vortex of teleporting to Seline’s realm. I barely catch myself, still mid-run when I’m forced here.
I try to teleport back but can’t. Eziah quiets down, looking around, and I look for Seline to tell her to send me back, but I find her collapsed body next to the fountain of life.
“Seline!” I shriek, rushing over to her. I roll her onto her back, and she mumbles incoherently. Her eyes are white, and I shake her. Her eyes shake and flicker from white to gold.
I place Eziah down next to her, standing up and running my hands through the water, trying to find something to fix her and get back to my world.
I watch the scenes in my world. Andrei, Ezra, and Dominic are back helping, and my father rushes toward Sage. The entire scene is bloody chaos and destruction. I turn, looking down at Seline and kneel next to her. I clutch her arms to heal her, to rouse her conscious enough to help me. Eziah sobs and climbs up on her, his eyes glowing.
“That’s it, bubba, help Momma,” I tell him as tears stream down my face.
I’m torn. I need to help Seline, but I need to get back to the real world and not this one. Seline suddenly gasps, her eyes refocuses, but the golden hue surrounding her is gone. She looks almost human.