Rumble

After Gavrill left, Alistair pushed himself off of the stone slab that he was partially on and walked towards me. Grabbing me, he spun me and pulled me against his naked front.

I struggled for the briefest of moments before Alistair moved my hair aside and kissed my mark, sending sparks through me as his canines extended.

"You need to stop being difficult and running from me Noir because one day, I will simply claim you whether you want me to or not," Alistair whispered.

In a fluid motion, Alistair jerked me up so I was now wrapped around his waist and without warning, sank his fangs into the nape of my neck, remarking me.

The marking this time was different, it wasn't painful or obligation. It was raw and euphoric.

Throwing my head back, Alistair didn't move and when I moaned, he growled, sending a wave of further pleasure through my body.

Then I felt it.

Emotions.

The very thing that made him, well, him.

Happiness, pride, excitement, relief, love, lust, anger, sorrow, fear, anxiety.

There is no light without darkness. The trick is to balance them so the bad doesn't seem so terrible and you can truly appreciate the good.

That is exactly how Alistair's emotions were balanced as I felt them all.

When he retracted his fangs, I wanted to fall back in bliss from the celestial high I was feeling but a cough doused that high almost immediately.

Setting me back into the water we both looked in the direction the sound came from before Alistair's growl ripped through the air.

Calder.

Alistair shifted and put me behind him as he stared at Calder.

"Well, isn't this fascinating," Calder chuckled causing me to shiver against Alistair's back.

Gods, his voice is like claws running down metal.

"You take the bitch claiming she is yours and yet," he laughs waving his in front of him towards us, "here you are, out in the open with her exposed."

I felt Alistair shake at Calder's words.

"He is just trying to get a rise out of you," I mindlinked Alistair.

Poking my head from behind him, I looked up at Calder and glared.

"What do you want now," I spat before moving to stand in front Alistair.

Calder's eyes flickered at my approach, an ill-omened smile creeping across his face.

"There you are," Calder piped, jumping down from the fallen log.

Alistair growled, squeezing my shoulder to an uncomfortable level as he pressed himself closer to me.

"Easy boy," Calder said brusquely then whistled.

Immediately, an arrow shot over my head and buried itself in the wet dirt of the river bank behind us.

"What the fuck," I questioned as another whistle drew our attention back to Calder who just smiled and pointed over his shoulder to the forest's canopy.

Looking in the direction of where he was pointing, at least a dozen archers were scattered throughout tree branches, with bow strings drawn and arrows pointing directly at us.

Underneath them on the ground and approaching Calder was the same amount of wolves.

What the hell is going on?

"You see, while you two were in your licentious stupor, you failed to sense any of us. Your unexecuted mating display was extremely pleasant though," Calder said.

"You know this could be taken," Alistair piped in, waving towards the archers and wolves, "as a declaration of war, correct? So what is the MEANING of THIS now?"

Calder took a step forward and pointed in my direction.

"I want her. I have unfinished business with her and you," Calder shot a look at Alistair, "have made it extremely difficult."

"You're fucking crazy, Calder," I shouted, stepping away from Alistair.

Now standing a few feet from Calder, I growled.

"You know I don't let punishments go unfulfilled, Noir.", Calder chuckled.

"You're obsessing over something that is no longer yours to obsess wit—," I didn't get to finish as Calder lunged forward and grabbed my neck, picking my naked body almost fully out of the water.

Alistair immediately shifted into Hael before Calder's grip tightened.

"You so much as make a move," he began as he brought a clawed hand to my chest, "I will rip out her heart and you will be pelted with silver coated arrows."

Looking over my shoulder, I saw Hael lowering stance as he growled and snapped his massive jaws in Calder's direction.

Tightening his grip on my neck, Calder leaned forward and licked my face.

"You will be coming wit—," Calder didn't finish as he was knocked to the side by a massive black wolf with a woman on his... back?

I was jerked down with Calder but was released, almost drowning while I gasped for air as I was immersed from under the water.

When I breached the water's surface, the black wolf that showed himself when Alister first showed his lycan was now growling in Calder's face as a woman jumped off his back and stared at the forest's canopy with glowing hands.

Looking up, I saw she had each of the archers paralyzed behind a faded cyan light before their bows dropped, leaving behind only an arrow in their hands.

Shaking, the archers raised their arms and placed the arrowheads to their chest and with the snap of her fingers, plunged the sharp ends into their hearts.

I just stared wide eyed at the scene before Calder jumped up, swatting the black wolf away like a fly. When he jerked me up again, the smell of blood hit my nose as bodies fell from the treetops.

The forest was absolutely silent with the exception of the wind, blowing softly forcing the leaves to dance to it's free beat.

Looking at Calder, his eyes burned behind light brown hues as he brought his face to mine, cutting off more of my air.

"That's enough," was all I heard before I smiled at Calder as I let my body shift in his grasp.

Now towering over him, Faelen snarled and snatched the man by his shoulder and tossed him to our right.

The moment she did and Calder's body skipped across the ground, Hael and the black wolf collided with the wolves Calder brought.

I watched them for a split second before Faelen tilted her head back and howled.

It was as loud as thunder, like the fury of the Odin himself exploded. It echoed around us, spreading out into the forest, hailing the promise of sheer deliverance to the scene ahead.

Faelen snapped her head in Calder's direction when he moved. She dropped down to all fours and took slow deliberate steps towards him, large talon-like claws sinking to the soft earth below with each step.

"Oh ho ho," Calder shot up, both arms in the air like he was celebrating something.

"Look at you! I knew there was something about you," Calder laughed, rolling his shoulders as Faelen lowered her head, a saliva filled growl escaping her.

"Now I want you even more. You could be a formidable weapon against any that oppose me. I simply want you alive for that reason alone," Calder chirped, another laugh escaping him.

Yelps, barks, bones breaking, flesh ripping, along with other sounds I couldn't quite decipher reverberated around us as we got closer to Calder before our earlier howl was returned.

Faelen immediately shot her head to the right and looked at the opposite side of the river as 3 wolves emerged followed by a handful of others and two lycans that I recognized as Beta Nebo and Eskil.

Quickly looking among the others, I noticed Rayshon, Snowball and Kiba. Nodding to the group, I turned my attention back to Calder as the group made their way across the creek and joined the fray.

"Why are they here," I heard Calder ask him himself before turning his attention back to us.

Faelen shook her head again as she stopped a few feet in front of Calder.

"Well, I see there is no way to get you back to Moon Rock without at least fighting you, is there," Calder knowingly questioned.

When Faelen shook her head again, Calder smiled and took a few steps back.

"Then let's rumble," he happily shouted before shifting into his wolf.

There were rules for sparring; a shield to block magic, a sword to parry close quarter combat, even fighting without weapons held limitations.

Here there were no rules, just raw power that could erupt at any given moment.

I don't know who moved first but Calder and Faelen collided halfway.

A clawed paw missed Faelen's face but her's didn't. Calder's wolf shook his head as blood splattered the ground before he lunged again, taking Faelen by surprise causing both to tumble towards the water's edge.

Stumbling apart for a brief second, we circled each other before clashing once more.

Faelen grabbed the wolf's muzzle hard with one hand as she lashed out again, catching him by the neck with her free hand.

For a brief moment, the wolf's sorrel eyes widened before he managed to tilt his head back and slam it into Faelen's snout, stunning her for a moment.

Faelen whined for a second forcing me to be whisked into control.

For a moment, there was stillness on both sides. If hatred was visible, the air would have been scarlet.

Then, suddenly, Calder's wolf crashed into me with an overwhelming force. The wolf pawed and snapped at me as if he meant to crush me into the very earth we rolled on and I did the same before kicking him off of me.

I didn't just want Calder dead, I wanted him smashed, obliterated, nothing left to bury.

I lashed out at the wolf again. He tried to dodge the swing from my claws but I struck his side and he tumbled into the dirt. Crouching, I jumped on the wolf before he could recover, jaws snapping inches from his face with a force that would have carried away an ear or shredded the cheek, if they had met.

The wolf's clawed foot scraped down my side, kicking me off before he stood as his head moved side to side to assess the world.

Standing, I growled before a body slammed into mine causing me to fall into Calder. Then before I could fully recover, the mutt was airborne in a haze then snapped like a twig.

Looking around quickly, I saw the magic woman as she nodded in my direction then went back to help the others.

Jumping up and away from Calder's wolf, I spun and faced him before two more bodies slammed into mine, the sounds of snarls and snapping adding to the fray.

I snapped one wolf's neck easily and dropped its lifeless body to the ground and I turned on the other, swatting it aside. I chuckled when it's spine snapped as it hit a tree before directing my attention back to Calder.

Meeting my gaze, his nascent growl filled the forest, speaking straight to my own primal centre. Despite the ambient temperature, I felt cold, all blood diverted to core organs. That's when the adrenaline I felt hit even harder but before I could lunge at him again, a lycan collided with Calder's massive wolf, sending him into the creek.

Looking to my left, I saw Hael, his pointed ears flat against his head as he snapped in Calder's direction.

Eskil, Nebo and Snowball approached from behind, followed by a naked Cuyler, the black wolf, the woman with magic hands, Kiba and the other wolves.

Calder emerged from the water and crawled to the damp ground before standing, holding his side.

Looking behind us, he noticed his pack members were no more and grinned.

He is truly fucking psychotic.

The rest of us morphed back into our natural forms as Calder chuckled.

"That was wonderful," he shouted happily, throwing his free hand into the air before looking at Alistair.

"I'm going to fuck up everything you love in a big, big way."

With that, he shifted again and ran towards the border leaving us with a mound of dead.

Kiba - Triaa's Wolf