The car is twenty meters away from the house as we step out. Mateo is fighting a gray wolf while in his human form. Wolves are fighting, blood and fur are everywhere. Mangled screams and whimpers fill the air, along with the stench of blood.
The rear door is open on the car, so I know Mateo must have opened it.
“Straight to the car and get in and duck down,” I tell the boys. They nod, their little faces full of fear, and I clutch Marabella to my chest.
“One, two, three,” I tell them, ripping Jonah to me as I take off running for the car.
Growls and snarls break out everywhere around us. Jonah screams behind me. His hand letting mine go, and I turn, looking over my shoulder to see a ginger-colored wolf running straight at me.
Its body collides with mine, and I can’t do anything but tuck and roll as I try to shield Marabella.
Jonah and Kyan start screaming. Marabella’s head is clutched in my hands, her body tucked to my chest as the wolf tears into my back. All I can do is curl into a ball, using my arms and legs to shield her.
My scream rings out as my back and arms get ripped to shreds, the wolf mauls me until I hear it grunt.
“Go!” Mateo yells, and I push myself off the ground, sprinting towards the car.
I stagger and land on the door frame of the car. A wolf is tearing into my leg, and Marabella is screaming in my arms. I try to kick it off as its teeth sink into my thigh, and I look over my shoulder to see Kyan and Jonah being chased into the house by a wolf.
Mateo is fighting the wolf that mauled me. Using the arm holding Marabella, I place her in her car seat and I kick my legs, trying to get the wolf off me as I shut the door, hoping she doesn’t fall out of her seat.
“They ran back inside!” Mateo screams as another bomb goes off.
Turning, I see Dominic fighting three wolves, still in his human form, his suit is torn to shreds, but he moves quickly, smashing them with his magic, then moving on to the next.
I punch the wolf when it pivots, sinking its teeth into my arm, and punch it again only for it to knock me over. It lands on top of me and I wrap my arms around its neck, my legs around its torso, pulling up and squeezing as hard as I can.
It makes a choked whimpering noise, but I don’t let go. Its back legs thrash, cutting mine apart, and Derrick runs toward the house just as its neck snaps in my arms. Tossing it off, I run toward the house again, Mateo on my heels.
We race toward the boys trapped inside with the wolf. Their screams are blood-curdling as we approach. Just as I step over the threshold next to Derrick, Mateo reaches it at the same moment as me.
Heat rushes over me from inside the house. The smell of gas reaches my nose simultaneously. I’m thrown backward. The house explodes. I gasp – Jonah and Kyan are inside. My skin melts off me from the sheer intensity of the heat, and I scream before I feel nothing and see nothing. Only oblivion as my body smashes into the ground.
Katya
People are dead on the ground everywhere as I drop back into the middle of a war zone. Trained rogue fighters are attacking, and Andrei’s pack is equally efficient but lacking the numbers.
I recognize Dominic’s men instantly by their sheer size and effectiveness. They don’t flinch and fight like they have been training for this day all their lives.
Turning around, watching the carnage, I notice Mateo; he is running toward the packhouse, and it is like time slows down when I hear Andrei scream for Sage, who is also running in the same direction toward the packhouse ahead of him, Mateo not far behind her. So much is going on. It is hard to keep track of as I turn to see Andrei screaming and running straight towards me, and I gasp.
This is the vision, I am reliving it. Deja-vu washes over me in real time, and I duck as a rogue jumps toward me. Dominic punches it out of my way and I clutch Eziah to my chest. The ground vibrates, and heat makes the air warmer as the packhouse explodes.
Covering my ears, I’m not expecting the blast and I’m tossed backward into the dirt, Eziah is still out cold but on my chest. Sitting up, my heart thumps against my ribs. Bodies are scattered everywhere. Dazed, I peer around.
Andrei is clutching Sage in his hands as everyone rushes toward the burning destruction of the packhouse, digging through the debris, and that’s when I notice Mateo lying dead close to Andrei.
Ezra frantically tries to revive his charred and burned body. My stomach twists, peering around, praying this is a figment of my imagination, only I know it is real, genuine. Hearing a growl behind me, I turn to see him.
His figure is imposing as he claps his hands. He laughs maniacally and rubs his hands together. A black mist spreads across his body. His shirt has been torn off in the fray, revealing tattoos that shimmer and ripple and swirl across his skin, making me see they aren’t tattoos but the markings of his magic.
An army of shifting wolves stands behind him. Their menacing growls roar through the air. Donnie and Maddox have taken over Ezra and Andrei in their grief.
Dominic smiles cruelly and raises his hands in the air. His eyes pitch black, and the rogues back up, the fear on their faces is clear. Goosebumps rise on my arms. The darkness takes over Dominic and ripples over his men, firing them up as they growl and snarl, hackled up, and wanting blood.
The wolves behind him growl and snap their jaws. Dominic drops his arms and rolls his hands around, making a black sphere of his magic with them.
The menacing look of red eyes chills me to the bone as I stare at his men, their bodies transform and grow larger. Dark mist envelopes his hands and spreads over the wolves behind him, turning them into rabid beasts with blood-red eyes.
“Kill them all,” he says, and the wolves charge toward me, where I’m standing watching all this play out.
I scream, seeing Donnie and Maddox running into the fray. They rip into the rogues, tearing them limb from limb while Dominic’s eyes focus, and I watch him use his powers like some dark angel out for revenge.