Aura?! She heard Nick’s voice shouting in her mind from a distance, and heard the sound of his paws as he jumped up onto the flattened remains of her front porch.
She went up closer to the wall that he was just outside, surprised to hear his voice. What did that mean? Was Ziem…no. Only a short time had passed. He couldn’t be. Nick?
Ziem’s in the middle of the Stoneborn. I came as soon as I saw him. Who else is in there with you?
No one. Just me and my pups in here. What’s going on? What happened?
Orlando’s been captured. They made it look like Mitch did it to start a fight, but it was Sedovin and Osvald that started the fighting. There’s thousands of them…there’s thousands of us…It was all crashing down around his head, and he couldn’t stop it. He wasn’t strong enough to protect his people.
She felt sick as soon as she heard that Orlando had been taken, and Nick’s pain and panic was enough to make her feel dizzy with pain as well. It ran through the metal that surrounded them, and all the sudden she was overwhelmed with pain and worry about three different men at once. Let me out of here, Nick. I have to help. Please.
No. His answer was final, the command of an Alpha and of a much stronger man than she had once known. He had become a different person in the last few months. They all had. And just his ‘no’ was proof of that. You’re safe. The Fireborn are on their way, as are the Oceanborn. The Forestborn have regrouped and have completely sealed the boundaries. There’s no escape for the traitors. It’s just a matter of time.
I’m sealed in a cage, Nick. All it would take would be one Stoneborn to turn this into a tin can and crush me, or one Earthborn to have the ground below swallow this thing whole. Let me out! She probably should have given his ‘no’ the proper respect an Alpha commanded, but when it came to life and death, she honestly didn’t give a damn.
If any Stoneborn or Earthborn so much as looks at this house the wrong way, I’ll tear their throat out with my teeth.
You know me. You know that I’m capable of taking dozens of them down by myself. Let me out, Nick. I’m not weak. I can help!
Aura, that’s enough. He was trying to speak as the Alpha of her pack, but there was too much history between them for it to be pure authority ringing in his voice. Please. Stay inside. This will be over soon. I’m not going anywhere.
She let out a loud growl that rang through her house and then she laid down on the floor and rested her face on her paws. I must have pissed off the wrong God somewhere for all three of you to be in danger.
He had some comebacks to that statement that he didn’t allow her to hear in his thoughts, but finally he sat down on her porch and watched the ground shake, his eyes watchful for any wolves approaching, reaching out to anyone in range of his mind’s voice to answer and give him some idea of what was going on. But no one answered. Zara…he whispered at last, knowing that if anyone would be able to hear him, she would. But still, there was no answer.
XIII
It had been only hours since all-out war had broken out in the Ironborn compound, and Zara was hiding in a small brush area that was right on the bank of the river. After staying there and shivering in fear at the echoes of death still clanging in the distance, she finally heard someone coming. She didn’t look, too afraid that it wouldn’t be Coren, though she desperately hoped it was.
It was a Forestborn scout, dressed in clothing that camouflaged him against the world around them, and as he caught sight of her, the bushes around her clamped in on her arms and legs to hold her in place. A moment’s examination showed her that he was one of those that had beaten her within an inch of her life a few months before, and it was obvious from the way his smile showed his teeth that he remembered her as well. “When will you learn to fear the woods?”
She shook her head violently but she didn’t scream, since the connection between them was like a refreshing gulp of water compared to the massacre going on inside the gates. “Don’t hurt me.”
“Say please.” He stepped up to her and knelt down with one foot in the stream and the other on the grass. “I love it when a whore says please.”
As he reached out towards her, though, Zara could see the stream swell its bank a little, and fingers of water reached up to grasp the Forestborn around the arms and neck. They didn’t restrain him, they were too weak to do that, but they did make him panic and fall to the side to get them off him. As he fell to the grassy shore of the stream, the water came out of its bed and fell over him in a wave. As soon as it splashed up onto his face, he started sputtering and coughing violently, his hands going to his throat as he choked on the water that he couldn’t get out of his windpipe.
Zara broke her way out of the brush and
