Rejected Mate and Following Fate

Chapter 95: Dawn

The cold wind from the mountain moves in across my skin and bites down at me, causing me to shiver despite wolves never really feeling the cold. My heart pounding, my nerves taut and my head in chaos as I stand on the boundary and stare into the darkness awaiting the sun to start to show hints of rising. The eerie silence despite rows and rows of assembled wolves unnerves me and Leyanne and Meadow to my right, Carmen and Sierra to my left, stand solidly still, waiting, we’re all just waiting.

Tension high, the stillness is painful and the quiet is deafening. I’ve never been more scared in my life and it’s not just because we are on the dawn of the first war battle of my life. Asif that wasn’t bad enough. It’s that our enemy are our loved ones and death blows will be dealt today to forever change everything in our world. No matter what side wins, we all lose the ones we care about most.

The plan is set…. We all know our place, our role, what to do, and we wait for the second before sun break before we run, right for that mountain as fast as we can. We are betting on timing, using the moments between dark and light to cover as much terrain as we can.

The witch is slower so she’s to be carried by Meadow on her back, to get her to the mountain in the same speed we can. Sierra and Carmen with me, to distract the wolves and keep them down here with us. I’m stronger and so are they, so it makes sense for them to be my focus… for Colton to be my focus. I was born to match him in every way and only I can be the one to hold my own against his strength and skill as a warrior. He would kill anyone else and go after Meadow and the witch in the blink of an eye.

Leyanne and Meadow, they and some of the stronger of the pack that we have so little of, their aim is the mountain and getting inside no matter what we encounter out here. They have their order to keep going, leave us behind to battle. To face off vampires while Leyanne finds the witch’s and takes care of the spell wherever it may be coming from. We tried for an even split, but we know the wolves will be the harder battle and ended dup with a seventy thirty uneven decision. Wolves are the problem, not what waits beyond. Our wolves. Our warriors… our sub pack, our family, our mates.

My heart is racing, I can taste the fear and tension all around me as they all wait. My heart in my throat, my body cold and frozen in growing anticipation and fear. My head so bound up in the what if’s I have had to stop myself thinking at all. My emotions clogged by the many so I can’t escape emotion swirling around me like an eternal drain on my energy.

The masses are dressed in old loose clothing that will be shredded when they turn, save one wolf… me. I have to stay human, so I wore something Sierra made me take from the grimoire library. It’s armor of sorts; silver, gleaming and more like a chain mail skirt over leather pants, but my abdomen is sheathed in a metal fitted bodice, held together at the back by chain and lace and a crisscross of binding. It belonged to a warrior witch ancestor and luckily, she wasn’t that much bigger than me.

It doesn’t offer much protection against wolves claws but given I don’t plan on letting any claws get that close, it made Sierra feel better giving me something to protect my body. In case I’m thrown, I fall, or I’m hit in some way, when we all know that my belly is the place I need to shield the most. My most precious gifts are contained therein. I know Sierra intends to stay close, as does Carmen but in the heat of battle that might not pan out. It will be chaos, and we will need to fight hard and long to draw out the distraction for Leyanne. I’m prepared to be separated from them, because I know it will be inevitable.

The suns coming, be ready, turn.

Meadow’s mind link to the entire pack sees a tremor erupt as bodies shred clothing and skin turns to fur all around me. My anxiety growing as human faces disappear and my pack arm themselves for what’s about to come. Growling, snarling, pushing themselves to be ready as the glow of amber eyes lights the duskiness in front of their faces. Carmen and Sierra hold off beside me, waiting….

“This is it…. No turning back now.” Carmen whispers my way, one last focused lock of her eye son mine, one tight squeeze of my hand as she nods her eyes and shows her respect. I feel her intent, her promise to shield me, before letting go and turning too, so I’m faced with softer orange eyes on a fawn

wolf and she gracefully swoops to all fours to shield me from one side. Carmen made a vow to stick to me like glue, and somewhere deep down, I know it’s what she will do as long as she can.

“Stay between us at all times…. Never stray. Use us as your protection.” Sierra squeezes my other hand in hers, and dissolves before me into sleek black and grey fur. Much like Colton in a way, only smaller, with light patches, and yet her eyes are blue. As femmes, they are beautiful, both of them and that familiar show of almost feline, sexy, brown wolf, nudging Leyanne to climb on her back informs me Meds has changed too. I’m now the only other human apart form the witch and she casts me a look across the huge heads of our furry friends. Her eyes meeting mine as she nods in a regal way, somehow wishing me luck for the fight ahead.

Leyanne gracefully hops onto the large back of Meadow, using her magic to help her with the unreal height. She moves astride, like she’s sitting on a magnificent horse and tangles her hands in the thick fur at the back of Meadows neck. Making sure she gets a tight grip, because what’s coming is sure to knock the wind out of her. Hyper speed can injure humans, so I know this witch will have done something to make sure she can endure it.

“Focus on the task. Leave the rest to me. Your boy will be back in your arms before you know it, Princess… or is that Luna? I guess either works now.” She throws me that Scottish brogue and a confident smile, the cheeky oozing with her words. Knowing fine well in all his she is in no danger whatsoever. I can see it in her complete lack of care about what’s happening.

She’s immortal, powerful, and this is just a walk in the park for her. No matter the outcome today, she will live, unscathed and probably be telling this story in thousands of years to come. I envy her right now. For that lack of fear, that certainty of her own existence… her confidence comes from the fact she has no natural predators in the world, and nothing can physically kill her.

Luna, it’s time… give the order. Meadow’s mind link for me alone causes a sudden lurch of my stomach and I clench my fists to counteract the sweep of cold terror as I nod. Outwardly calm and in control for

my people, yet inside, I’m shaking. I lift my hand high in the air to attract all eyes while I link to the pack, being sure to feel all minds as one and one word is all I need. In mind link it’s clear and bold, whereas my own voice would have never been able to utter it at all.

Move

It happens so fast. The sweep of hyper speed, flying fur, and like a tide we pass the rune border in unison. Each of us protected from the fog by something Leyanne did and we enter and fill our lungs with its sour greenish heaviness, adjusting to the gloom so we can see ahead. I’m startled at the fact I can taste it, feel it invading my lungs like a dense smoke from a burning fire, yet it smells and tastes like a damp early dawn on the mountain as winter turns. Rotting plants and leaves giving it that earthiness while it slows down my breathing as I labor to push through it. It’s cloying.

It took her all night to find a way to be sure that turning wouldn’t remove any kind of protection and she did… seems the base of a foot is the one place on a wolf you can put a magical symbol and it stays. Who knew. Even in turning where we shed all human things, our feet keep enchanted paint.

Every single wolf who showed up here an hour ago was tended to, marked, and she recited incantations over all present to protect us from the fog. She called them double measures, just to be sure.

We don’t know if it will work as we are exposed for a longer length of time, but given she’s the one who made the rune spell I don’t predict it going wrong. As we leach out into the mist and run forward, I don’t see anything that says it’s not working among those who have raced ahead. Still moving fast, with their eyes on the prize, and I can feel the pulsing link of my pack staying connected to me while moving as one powerful body.

This is how a pack is meant to be. The body, the heart, and the fist, working in unison…. Even if we are only half of that.

The forest is dark and eerie and unearthly silent due to the early hour and the still rising dawn. All the wildlife is hiding, and the quiet swarm of fast wolves moving through like whispers on the wind are all I can hear in the air. A whizzing, fleeting flurry as I too, on foot, have to keep up in human form.

It’s the calm before the storm and it’s too late to turn back and rethink this. We’re making distance, heading for the mountain in the far view and nothing is going to sway us from our path. We’re easily two hundred, combined, more than I ever dreamed would come out here.

My pack never deserted me in the final hour, and I could have wept when they showed up strong in number and ready to die for this. Jasper is wrong about the Santos… if he could see them as I do now, he would know his enemy resides at the mountain and his numbers are few. These Santos they would never turn on their own, kill off a bloodline and imprison their Luna… they’re nothing like him and were oppressed by his rule for far too long. Colton didn’t just stand up against all the wrong, he freed a people and gave them back their will to be what they once were. A proud pack, one worthy of so much more.

We make it miles in a flash, covering the distance as we race against the sun and know that this close to the rise, the vampires would already have retreated to the darkness. It’s only a matter of time before the wolves come out to meet us as and we need to get as far as we can until that moment.

I run until I feel like my chest is going to explode with the effort, my limbs aching, burning too, as fatigue is quick to follow me and I internally curse that the effects on my body are more severe than even I thought they would be. Only a month back, I ran farther than this with Colton, around the perimeter and without even a twinge of tiredness or pain. Now my body fails me, and this is more effort than even the first time I ever trained with the sub back at the valley, so long ago.

My breath becomes labored and my run slows enough that I spot the two wolves flanking me drop back and glance at one another, worry evident in their demeanor. I know they realize I’m slowing, and I can

feel their hesitation. I have to be faster; I have to get ahead of the pack and lead. I need to show them I’m here.

Get on me.

Carmen commands in that tone that’s uniquely her, breaking into my chaotic thoughts, running into my side so I’m flipped over her without a choice and have to grab her fur to pull myself on properly. Straddling her the way Meadow’s being rode by Leyanne ahead of us and yet Carmen barely breaks her momentum.

I shouldn’t be doing it like this

I mind link her back privately, ashamed of my own lack of worth at something this basic, but silence is all I get as she ignores my protest. Stubborn to the core, for once though, I’m glad she’s the way she is.

We speed up, and within seconds she overtakes everyone who was before us and catches up to Meadow, sliding up, side by side, to carry their riders up front and proud. She knows the pack need to see us there to focus and not lose faith when we hit the first wave of our own. A sense of urgency cloaking us, and the tension somehow increases the farther we get. The sun breaks over the distant horizon and the fog starts thinning as we move from the border, so seeing becomes easier, right until the moment we spot them.

Like a black wave of ants coming out of pores of broken wood. In the distance a sea of fast-moving terror comes our way at speed, like inky black spill on the sea. Our own wolves realize they are being met almost halfway to the mountain and are on the aggressive defensive and coming like bats out of hell, snarls and howls echoing around us in a blood curling way.

Faster… close the gap, don’t let them get far

I link and push the pack onwards, knowing I’m asking them to run harder, to ignore their own fear, when they’re probably already at full pelt. I need to make sure we get closer than this, but they’re coming at us sooner than I thought they would.

Like seas thrashing, storm fronts meeting; it only takes seconds before the wall of them, and the wall of us, crashes into one another in a dramatic collision. Meadow leaps over the coming forms with impressive skill and height, flying overhead at the unsuspecting wolves who are too busy looking forward. She carries on, as we planned, trying to pull her section of the pack onward as the ones staying with me round on the concentration of the wolves meeting us dead on. The aim is to keep them here, distract them, so none follow Meadow’s small group but that’s not as easy as it seemed.

Claws clash, teeth rip, and bodies collide all around, as wolf meets wolf, and a full-on vicious battle erupts all around me. Noises drowning out everything else. The gnashing of teeth, ripping of skin, howling, growling, cries, and chaos.

We’re not running any further because this wall of fierce and fury has stopped us dead and we have met the ground where some of us may forever lay. I leap off Carmen and wade into the fold, mind blank when instinct takes over and adrenalin drowns the last ounce of doubt away. Throwing wolves back, left, right, and center, as I’m surrounded by violence.

It’s a frenzy, a mix of friend and foe and hard to pick out who’s with us and who’s not. Every time a wolf comes at me, teeth bared flying in a leap to take me down I use my power to throw them back, swipe them aside and try not to hurt them. It’s too fast to figure out who they are and I’m sure radar is one who comes at me twice, only to be hurled thirty feet back as I lash out throwing them away. His is the upper hand that I have and why I was so sure I could handle this. My powers mean I can keep everyone around me far enough away without having to physically battle. My babies will be protected in the bubble of my vampire gifts.

My ears and eyes are tuned into the others around me, watching out for them intent on safeguarding. Anytime I spot one of the pack losing the advantage I extend my energy and save them for a moment, shielding them and pushing them to a clearing alone. Giving them space to regroup, heal their wounds, and fly back to fight. Our numbers are an advantage and as I lose sight of Meadow and her group, we are surrounded by feral forms, intent on taking us down.

Carmen rolls into me from behind, almost wiping my legs out from under me because I was so focused on the ahead that it startles me and realize how stupid I was for that’s second. She yanks me down, hauling my body under her brutally as a large tree; trunk, roots, foliage and all, flies past my head from the rear. It misses me by mere inches and I blanche and gawp in the direction of one very large, very angry, black alpha, ripping out another to take down the human in his sights. It seems he spotted me giving my wolves an advantage and I riled his fury to become his target.

Colton.

I gasp in the mind link and am met with that wall of silent closed door to our mate link, even still. My heart thudding through my ribcage and I can’t formulate the thoughts about how I feel.

Throwing trees? Really….. he’s throwing fucking trees?!?! Do you think he finally sussed that out after we got the truck home safely? Asshole!

Carmen snaps, her temper flaring and her glare aimed at him with deathly intent. She pushes me down as another flies over head, but with a wrist flick, I send it spiraling sideways away from the group of feuding animals behind me. It seems he also doesn’t care about mangling the ones fighting on his side, so consumed with the need to destroy us.

Sierra leaps over us and goes straight for the throat of an approaching wolf, appearing so suddenly from behind me that I didn’t even know she was still close. She takes it down with her in a bite, collido9ng body to body with a massive thud, and rolls around, grappling with it fiercely so that I almost

cry out in terror. I yank them apart with my energy directed between them as precisely as I can and throw it back, so sure this time the returning grey is Radar. I can’t be sure without his telltale scar over his normally white eye because the black is shielding it like this, and his fur is so matted and unkempt from forest dwelling that it covers what might be on his face. I can’t believe Radar would fight Sierra in this way, try to hurt her, but then Colton just threw half a forest at me.

It’s like Colton senses something is up with us staying put and fighting our ground, and as I pull myself to my feet to take him face on, he stops and turns and looks towards the mountain where Leyanne and Meadow headed. A glimpse at me again as if watching for a response, or reassuring his suspicion, and an almost smile like snarl. He turns, howling into the air, signaling his pack and takes off after them. He goes off in hot pursuit and I react instinctively.

No! Shit…. He’s going after the witch. I have to stop him. Colton will kill whoever gets in his way.

I abandon my post, pull myself away from carmen and high tail it after him, finding my feet and fire once more and making good ground in his wake. Carmen and Sierra follow, hot on my heels as I leap a fallen log into a clearing and realize my mistake right away. that I fell for his trap like a complete idiot.

He’s waiting for me over the first mound, and as I fly through the sky, I’m caught with a clawed swipe that thrusts my momentum downward and I’m powerless to avoid it. His nails piercing my thigh in excruciating agony as I’m dragged out of the air, and into a violent roll as he drags me through the undergrowth with the weight of my body crashing against his. My delicate human frame against hot hard wolf, his fur smothering me and claws flailing around to get a proper hold on me. I’m too small like this and he misses me completely with those long bulky arms.

I’m winded with the fall, and we roll apart as we collide with forest floor and rake through bushes and debris. The intense burning puncture wound of my leg causes me to stifle a cry as it’s opened further on impact and I try to jump up to face him before he regains his own posture and comes again. My

powers don’t fail me, and without getting to turn around in time I manage to sense his lunge and throw him over the top in one easy maneuver.

Colton’s huge form is tossed up and over me in a magnificent show of power, my hands throbbing with the effort as my energy expands and blows him into a rolling fall. Thrusting him some thirty feet in front of us so he crashes face first into standing trees and I flinch and shrivel at what I just did to my mate. My two femmes clear the log between us and land nearby to shield me once more by flanking me at both sides. Panting from the chase and I realize how far we came with what just happened.

Your leg, you’re bleeding

Sierra’s words ring in my head, pulling my aching heart from the sight of him, back to my physical pain and I try and ignore the hot warm mess rolling down inside and outside my clothes. The pain making me wince as I try to carry on. We don’t have time to stop and deal with it, he won’t stay stunned for more than seconds.

Colton isn’t down for long and he turns and comes right back at me with the speed of a blink. Angrier than before and I extend my hands to throw him back, pulling everything I have in me to make sure he travels three times as far with my next blow, only …… nothing happens.

Hands out, energy building inside of me, yet it fails to release and instead feels like it deflates and fizzles away, like a puncture balloon, before it even reaches my wrists. I have to plunge sideways to dodge his furious attack, my two femmes scattering too as Carmen tries to push me away from him with one paw and I roll into the undergrowth.

Carmen pounces on him from behind, but she’s no match to his strength, his skill, or his speed, and he catches her by the base of her neck and bodily slams her to the ground, over rock, so a crack vibrates through the air around me and she howls in sheer agony. Sierra latches onto his arm in desperation,

aiming to protect Carmen, sinking her teeth in while trying to encompass him in blue glow and I have no idea what she’s doing.

Whatever it was, it fails, and Colton throws her off effortlessly. Like tossing away a rag, roaring aggressively so the trees around us shudder and I try to pull myself back together and get back in the fight.

I try to breathe though crushed lungs, breathless and sweating. I try to center my frantic thoughts, figure out what just happened to my powers.

You’re other gift….. absorb, deflect…. You can do it. Use the wolf in you, those gifts might be stronger still.

Sierra’s words filter in; a moment of hope rising inside of me that she might be right, and I still have ability to take him. I still have that untapped resource in my arsenal as my hybrid side fails me. I recoil as he turns this way, ignoring the blood loss and weeping pain from my leg as he comes right at me once more, still intent on getting me it seems. Knowing that to absorb, I have to take from him by getting close enough to do so. I have to let him get near.

I muster enough of my dwindling energy to stop him short, but I can feel it failing even as I grasp at it and tug it into my palms. There’s no building of it, no ball or orb and I feel like I’m grasping at air and nothing materializes like it should. I feel like I’ve gone back to that time in the woods when I didn’t know how to pull it to me or control it, but this is all wrong. My powers are failing me, and I don’t understand how or why or……. What the hell the fates are doing to me.

It’s faster than I thought. The witch said they would weaken in time, not completely die the second I need them, so this can’t be the babies. I can’t have come out here to be a deadweight of useless and stand in the face of mate so he can strike me down. This isn’t the god damn plan.

I stumble backwards as both femmes tag him, sensing something is wrong with me. One each side, teeth to throat, both bravely surging in and latch on. Trying to help me by dragging him down between them and give me time and space to move away. I have no other option but to turn and run as I fail to muster anything at all, so I make a move, but weariness and dizziness start to kick my ass and panic floods my body with the knowledge that I’m completely powerless. It’s like being human. I don’t know what’s happening to me. I try to mind link them and even that seems impossible as I’m met with darkness, and I wonder if the fog has started to affect me too.

I need to recover my power first, before I turn back on him, because I’m literally useless and practically pointless in this state. I stumble, and trip, and roll into a ditch, my hand instantly damp with the way I fold into myself and end up in a bedraggled heap. It causes me to look down to see why I’m so wet and it dawns on me why my gift is failing.

The pain in my leg is nothing compared to reality of the injury I can see through torn fabric and torn skin. Judging by the amount of blood seeping through my clothes, staining the ground even where I just laned, I’m literally bleeding to death… fast. My skin is pale, my hands are trembling as icy coldness sweeps through and I panic as I look out, hoping Sierra is close enough to help me. My inner wolf is restless and scraping inside my head, trying to turn me and I have to fight myself to remain as I am. Her inner need to heal me, my survival instinct suddenly ferocious now I realize the depth of my injury, yet I hold it still. If I turn, they die, so I can’t sacrifice them, even if I’m this close to death. I calm my breathing, focus all I have left and put all my energy into one little mind link.

Sierra…I need to be healed. I’m dying.

I call to her, but the chaos of wolves rolling around and the addition of more to what I left, makes it hard to tell who is who, and Colton is seems to be surrounded by multiple grey wolves hauling him down. It’s no longer one against two like it was a second again, but many on top of their own Alpha, subduing him.

I blink as I realize the pack of wolves swarming him and coming to our aid, taking down their own to protect the Luna, are the land dwellers and our most peaceful. They heard Carmen’s cry to shield me and they did what a pack is meant to do. Protect the heart! I want to cry with the swelling it causes inside my chest.

I’m here, I’m here.

Sierra startles me from behind as she lands in the ditch beside me and instantly turns to naked human, pulling my leg to her and gasping at the crimson clothing that tells her all she needs to know. Her hands shake, her face pales, and she takes a moment to collect herself before instinct kicks in.

“Jesus Christ, Lorey. You would be dead in a few more minutes, maybe even seconds. This is why you should never have come. This is too dangerous, he’s too strong for you this way.” She yanks my thigh into her abdomen, her hand glowing blue as soon as she touches me and places her warm palm flat on my leg where his claws made multiple incisions. It’s only now I see he got my femoral artery with a nick, and it’s that wound that’s literally killing me. My powers were fading because I was losing all the blood I possess. Vampire and wolf alike, so neither was prevailing.

The gentle healing power works quickly, and I watch in fascination as skin closes up like reversing in time and my pain begins to dimmish. Sierra may have been losing her gifts these past months, but she heals me with speed as though she has re-found her abilities.

“I wasn’t careful enough… I lost focus…. I won’t make that mistake again.” I tremble the words out as my body heals fully, relieved as my internal low temperature starts to warm and the invading darkness of my vision begins to retreat. Sierra grimaces at me though, not looking as relieved as I am.

“The blood loss takes longer; we need to stay low while I recover all you lost. You are not going to be stronger until then.” Her words fade out fast as three wolves come trundling through the undergrowth, swiping us out of our hole accidently, and sending us both flying across the ground in shock as I try to

regain equilibrium. We were run over and thrown apart by our own side, such is the chaos of what’s happening around us. Sierra turns and flies to me with a leap, transforming back to wolf, and shoves me over into another ditch with her nose before rounding on a suddenly invading brown Lychan as it leaps at us.

Pressed into a hollow that caught my body snugly, still weak, but slowly regaining my energy, all I can hear are howls, wails, and ripping of wolves on wolf. The stench of their blood in the air catches in my nostrils, and the cries of distance battles as we try to control our own kind without killing them. My heart shatters as the pain of my pack filters through, and the loss of many rips up through my stomach and into my soul. I can feel their life essence leave as it happens, and as mother to all, their passing breaks my heart.

I take a deep breath, organizing my thoughts and push down the emotion the best I can, because I know it will only hinder me. A tug in instinct pulls me mind left, sensing Colton through the dark and misery… somehow, I can feel him coming closer, and I know he’s looking for me. For some reason I’m the target he wants.

I don’t know if it’s because I stick out as a human and the alpha wants to be the one to take it down, or if somehow our bond is the reason, I’m the one he wants to kill most. A craving in love to be together, is like an urge in hatred to rip me apart. Maybe on some level, as the leader of his side, he senses that I am the leader of mine, and maybe it’s only instinct that pushes him to be the victor. To take down a Queen when he seems to know he’s King of the opposing side.

I peek out and see him sniffing the air where he stands, looking for my scent in the many, and I gasp and recoil back, holding my breath as my heart rate increases. Suddenly afraid, because I know like this, I am no match and until my strength recovers, then my gifts are all but gone. I frantically panic and push myself into the snug of this space, looking to find something as a weapon while concealing myself. My body trembling and reminding me that I was never worthy to lead this fight, I was too stupid to realize it when I had the chance to stay back.

He’s pushing debris and rocks aside, searching for me, ignoring the ongoing battle between Carmen, Sierra, our pack and his wolves, between him and I. Covering the space between us, yet his focus goes beyond them and through. He seems uninterested in the fight and as I zone out the world, the noise, and the chaos, I lock onto that imposing figure turning my way as he seems to find what he’s looking for.

He catches the scent of my blood; I see it in his changing expression, the sudden pause, his growing taller as he latches on, and my skin goosebumps all over. My body freezing, as my gut tells me I have nowhere to run and I know deep down he has found me. From where he’s standing, from a drop of my red fluid I must have left in my trail, he’s locked onto me now and knows exactly what to follow. He stops to inhale, like savoring the moment and a snarl of pure menace crosses his face, increasing the sheer terror on mine. He’s a predator who knows he’s onto a win, before looking up and spotting me easily and I swear as his eyes lock onto mine, he smiles, and licks his teeth in an almost excited gesture.

Shit….