The demon ca at dawn which was just rude because I’d gotten maybe three hours of sleep and waking up to alarm bells and ergency pack links was not how I wanted to start the day that might kill us all.
Forty-three demon-spawn. Not twenty-three like last ti. Forty-three.
The number kept bouncing around my skull while I ran toward the eastern clearing where two hundred alliance fighters were already mobilizing into defensive positions we’d drilled for exactly this scenario, except drilling and actually doing were completely different things and my brain was stuck on forty-three which was almost double what we’d faced before.
Through the bonds I felt all four alphas already in position—Kael coordinating wolves, Riven managing the mind-link network, Draven liaising with vampires, Thorne prowling the periter in wolf form looking for weak points—and their combined battle focus helped even though it didn’t stop my hands from shaking.
Not hands shaking. My hands were doing that thing where they wouldn’t cooperate with basic motor functions and I had to physically force my fingers to curl around the knife soone had shoved at even though we all knew I’d be useless with a blade when my real weapon was volatile hybrid magic I barely controlled.
"Positions!" Kael’s voice cut across the clearing and every wolf snapped to attention because Alpha King wasn’t just a title, it was a command your bones answered.
The demon-spawn hit our outer periter and the sounds started—snarls and screams and that wet tearing noise that ant claws were finding flesh—and I had to swallow three tis before my throat would work enough to breathe properly.
Forty-three. We’d barely survived twenty-three and now there were forty-three and the math wasn’t mathing and we were going to die.
"Selene." Morgana appeared at my elbow. "Channel the alliance bond. Now."
Right. Alliance bond. Two hundred connections I could pull from instead of just four.
I closed my eyes and reached for the binding we’d sealed three days ago, felt it flare bright and eager in response, and when I pulled power through it the hybrid magic ca faster and stronger than anything I’d managed in training.
Shadows pooled around my feet thick enough to touch and I pushed them outward in a wave that crashed into the nearest cluster of demon-spawn and sent five of them flying backward.
Five down. Thirty-eight left.
The demon itself appeared at the tree line and okay yeah it had definitely been consuming things to heal because it looked stronger than before, bigger, more solid, and when it smiled at with too many teeth my spine went cold in ways that had nothing to do with temperature.
"Hybrid Queen." Its voice was gravel and broken glass and nails on chalkboard all at once. "You’re stronger. Good. This will be more satisfying."
More satisfying. Great. The demon wanted a challenge. Love that for .
Through the alliance bond I felt fighters going down—three wolves, two vampires, one witch—and the weight of their deaths hit like physical blows because the binding ant I was connected to all of them now.
Six casualties in under two minutes.
We were going to lose. We were—no, wait, I was catastrophizing again and this was not the ti for spiraling so I needed to focus and channel and not think about how many people were dying while I stood here frozen like a malfunctioning robot.
I reached for the rage that was always easiest to access—rage at the demon for existing, at myself for not being stronger, at the prophecy for forcing into this—and pushed it into the hybrid magic with every ounce of intent I had.
The explosion was fire and ice and shadow all at once, spreading outward in a wave that caught twelve demon-spawn and turned them to ash.
Twelve down. Twenty-six left.
But the power drain was imdiate and intense and my knees did that wobbling thing where they forgot how to knee, and if Thorne hadn’t appeared in human form to catch I would have face-planted right there in front of everyone.
"Too much too fast." His voice was rough. Concerned.
"I know, I just—" I didn’t finish because another wave hit and more fighters went down and the demon was moving toward the center of our formation where I stood like bait we’d planned for except actually being bait was significantly more terrifying than discussing it in strategy etings.
Kael appeared in wolf form and threw himself at the demon with the kind of reckless bravery that was going to get him killed and through our bond I felt his absolute conviction that protecting was worth dying for.
"No!" The word tore out of but he wasn’t listening because of course he wasn’t, and when the demon’s claws caught him across the ribs I felt the pain spike through our connection sharp enough to make scream.
He went down. Actually down. Blood spreading across his fur too fast and his breathing going shallow and through the bond I felt him slipping.
Not slipping. Kael was dying and I was standing here useless while the demon smiled like it had planned this all along.
The rage ca back triple strength—white-hot and vicious and absolutely beyond my control—and I didn’t even try to channel it properly, just grabbed every ounce of power the alliance bond would give and pushed it at the demon in a wave that wasn’t fire or ice or shadow but all three plus sothing darker that tasted like pure destruction.
The demon scread.
Actually scread. High and agonized and so satisfying I almost didn’t notice that I was also screaming and bleeding from my nose and my vision was tunneling to pinpoints.
But the demon was hurt. Really hurt. Stumbling backward while its remaining spawn tried to cover its retreat.
"Fall back!" Marcus’s voice cut across the clearing. "Demon’s retreating! Hold positions!"
Hold positions. Right. We’d survived. Again. Barely.
Except Kael was still down and bleeding and through our bond I felt him fading and that was—I couldn’t—
I was on my knees beside him before my brain registered moving, and when I pressed my hands to the wounds blood soaked through my fingers hot and wrong.
"Don’t you dare." The words ca out broken. "Don’t you dare die on ."
Through the bond he pushed love mixed with apology mixed with fading consciousness, and my chest cracked open because this couldn’t be happening, not Kael, not the Alpha King who’d believed in before I believed in myself.
"Healers!" Thorne’s voice was hoarse. Desperate. "Now!"
They ca running and I had to let them push aside so they could work, and I just knelt there in blood that was Kael’s and watched them try to save him while my brain scread that this was my fault.
I should have been faster. Stronger. Better.
I should have stopped the demon before it got to him.
I should have—
"He’s stabilizing." One of the healers looked up. "But it’s close. We need to get him to dical."
Close. Stabilizing. Not dead. Not yet.
Through the bond I felt him fighting to stay conscious and I pushed everything I had at him—love and fury and please don’t leave —and felt him respond with determination that was pure Kael.
They loaded him onto a stretcher and started moving toward the pack house, and I followed because leaving him wasn’t an option even though I should probably stay and help with the injured and dying scattered across the clearing.
Fifty-three casualties this ti. The number ca through the alliance bond clear and devastating.
Fifty-three fighters who’d trusted to keep them alive.
And Kael who might still die because I hadn’t been fast enough.
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