Alex’s wine glass fell from his limp fingers to the parquet floor. The fine crystal shattered into a hundred pieces as he stumbled backward and fell to join it. For a moment, everyone was frozen in disbelief, then instincts and training kicked in.
Richard immediately dove to his left to cover Marcy as Carl leaped to his right to cover Kiera. Kyle tried to do the same with Becca but he missed as she stood to race to her father’s side. That’s weird. Kyle thought. I’ve never seen her move that fast before.
Years of training and reflexes propelled Carl to the still frozen woman and flung his back out to shield her. More gunshots ripped through the room followed by more breaking glass, china, and booted feet on the floor. A woman’s grunt of agony tore out but Carl couldn’t place it in the confusion. Suddenly, a blaze of red hot agony tore through his back. He grunted and, using the last of his momentum, body-slammed Kiera to the ground, her head impacting against the thick oak of the dining room table and knocking her unconscious. He hoped she was ok but a concussion was infinitely better than a bullet. He felt more fire spread throughout his shoulder but he didn’t care. He was able to get Kiera to cover before the darkness overtook him. His last thought was that Marcy had also gotten to safety.
As the gunfire continued, the dining room became a grisly nightmare. Kyle went down with three quickly growing red stains on his back. Richard shoved Marcy under the thick oak table while feeling bullet after bullet impacting his skin. He had seen Carl go down and he’d be damned before Marcy suffered the same fate. His nerves were on fire but no normal lead bullet could stop a werewolf. Slow it down, sure. Fire enough and it would even knock it unconscious. But kill one? No. Only silver could do that and these bastards thought they were the wolves in the room. It’s time to show them just how wrong they were.
Richard slowly stood up, his clothing a mess of blood-stained tatters, and turned to face their attackers. The gunfire from the five men suddenly stopped as their magazines ran dry. Richard couldn’t see their faces through the thick masks and combat gear they wore, but he could smell their fear at the sight of a seemingly elderly man with enough bullet holes in him that it would be a closed-casket funeral standing nonchalantly before them. Then the holes started closing. Richard inhaled their fear deeply. It was such a delicious, sweet scent.
A brief flash of movement caught his eye as he saw Kyle struggle to rise but collapse back to the floor. These bastards had not only killed a friend and good man but had tried to kill all the family he had left. There was only one punishment for their sins. Any consequences about revealing himself could go straight to hell as far as he was concerned. Then again, there won’t be any survivors to worry about telling tales, right old man?
***
Alpha Team couldn’t believe it. They had fired over a hundred rounds into this old man but he was still standing! How? How the hell could he be anything other than chunks of meat spread on the walls? It wasn’t possible unless…
***
With a howl of rage, Richard Ford, Alpha of Derrick’s Falls pack, transformed into his hybrid. Standing before five shocked and quickly becoming more terrified men, an eight-foot-tall mountain of silver fur and death growled. His amber eyes reflected the glow of the small candles on the mantle that had somehow survived the assault unscathed. A long, wide tongue lapped against its muzzle, drool dripped down inch-and-a-half fangs.
Alpha Four never even had time to scream. In a blur of silver light, Richard picked him up by his vest and savagely tore out his throat with his free hand. A fountain of blood and gore sprayed over his muzzle. He hefted the lifeless body higher, blood draining to the floor below. He then casually threw the limp corpse against a wall as it slid crumpled into a corner. He held his claws, gore dripping off them in front of the men as he licked the blood from his muzzle. Then, a soft inhuman rumble came from a mouth that was never designed for human speech. “You fuckers interrupted my dinner. I appreciate your willingness to substitute for the main course.” As he slowly began to move forward, the predator stalking his prey, Alpha Leader screamed into his headset. “There’s a damn Were here! Bravo Team move in! Now! Damn it, now!”
Five assault rifles emptied their magazines through the living room’s window as their owners stormed forward. Bullet impacts continued assaulting Richard as the distraction gave Alpha Team time to reload. Nine M4s began chattering their chorus.
***
Ugh, what happened. Why does my back feel like it got hit by a train?
Kyle heard a light chuckle. Easy enough to explain hotshot. A voice disturbingly similar to his own but slightly deeper and gruffer answered. You got shot. A lot.
Huh? Who said that?
That’s a pretty good question since you haven’t spoken to me for almost eight years. A guy could develop abandonment issues because of that you know.
What? I don’t understand.
Ok. We really don’t have a lot of time here to play twenty questions right now. Deep down, you know who I am even if this vacancy you call a brain doesn’t. Right now Pops is being shot by enough firepower to tear a car apart. The voice turned soft and somber. Also, I’m sorry but it looks like Alex’s dead. And…
And what? Kyle panically asked.
The mysterious voice answered in a rough growl, one part unmitigated rage and the other a deep sorrow.
I’m pretty sure Becca’s gone too.
Raw fury boiled through Kyle’s blood. What the hell are you talking about?! What happened to her! Answer me damn you!
What had only been a void to Kyle suddenly lit up with a movie-theater-sized screen that was replaying Alex’s toast.
Ok. This is way too weird.
Says the kid who occasionally howls at the moon and dreams of running down deer. Alex heard the voice snicker. This is your mind doing this so shut the hell up and pay attention! We don’t have much time.
As Kyle kept watching, he saw Alex’s body fall as his yellow polo shirt turned orange then crimson. He saw his missed grab for Becca. He still couldn’t believe she could move that fast. It was like she was part wolf or cheetah. A moment later, the image began to shake and shudder like those action movies that zoomed too close to the action. That’s the part where you got shot by the way. The camera tilted to the floor as it filled the screen, shrunk a little size, then grew even larger. Yeah, your nose is broken too. You just can’t feel it because of your back. Funny thing about pain. You only feel the worst of it. The view then showed mostly the parquet floor and a little bit of the wall. But there, in the corner of his peripheral vision, Kyle saw her. Becca was curled up in a ball, a pool of scarlet spreading underneath her. A very large pool. Too large.
BECCCAA!!!! Kyle screamed into the void. I’ve gotta do something! I have to help her!
You, hotshot? The voice replied derisively. What are you going to do? Swing a hammer at them? Drain their sink? These fuckers mean business. So if you want to save the woman we love, then you will listen to me right the fuck now.
What are you talking about?! Kyle ranted. I don’t even know who you are! Why can’t I even see you?!
Kyle heard a deep sigh that echoed through the darkness. I really don’t even know how to respond to that. Just how dense are you? Fine. I still can’t believe I even have to do this but desperate times and all that.
Kyle felt himself shift to his right where a large spotlight from overhead suddenly beamed down a cone of brilliant light. Centered in it, he saw the largest copper-and-bronze-furred wolf he had ever seen. Its amber eyes glowed in the light. Though hunched on all fours, Kyle could see its muscles bunched and tight, waiting to spring toward him as steaming drool poured from his muzzle.
Actually, hotshot, I am serious. As deadly serious as I have ever been. The wolf lowered his head to meet Kyle’s eye line. Look, we both want to save Becca and Pops and make these fuckers pay. But the only way to do that is that I have to be in the driver’s seat to do it. You’re fine at building furniture but this is way above your pay grade. You have to let me out, otherwise, everyone is going to die. Pops is holding his own but even us wolves can’t survive if they’ve got any heavy artillery. One of us was paying attention at those meetings!
Kyle turned his head to the left, the image of Becca and that spreading pool replaying over and over again, forever burning itself into his mind. Slowly, he turned back to face the wolf. His wolf.
Do it.
The wolf lept straight at him.
***
Elsewhere on the property, a third fire team and one dark-haired man in a three-piece suit observed the battle. When it came to this particular mission, his mistress wouldn’t have entrusted it to anyone less. Those fools inside were merely cannon fodder and only thought they were in charge. They didn’t even know about the third team and second helicopter. He was the one who would be responsible for ensuring his mistress’ success and bringing her prizes to her.
“Wait here.,” a velvety bass voice rumbled. “Once I return, we will head for the extraction zone.”
He strode forward to the broken window, in as much a hurry as if he was merely on a Sunday walk in a park.
***
Kyle softly groaned. Not even Richard could hear it over the gunfire. Then his body twitched once, then a few more times. Slowly, he began to rise. As he did so, his muscles began stretching and growing. What remained of his clothes started to tear into shreds of fabric as they couldn’t contain the rapidly expanding body. Bronze and copper fur began covering his tanned skin, his finger and toenails elongated into inch-long razor talons as his mouth became full of incisors. He then stood up on the front halves of his feet, the heel and ankle bent inward.
He turned his amber eyes over to the unmoving body of the woman he loved. He could smell her blood mixing with the vanilla perfume he had bought her a week ago. Well, Kyle had but right now, he didn’t care. His mate was hurt, badly. His heart clenched at the very real possibility of her death, and there would be hell to pay. He arched his back, claws spread wide and howled his pain to the heavens and any deities who cared to listen.
The attackers suddenly realized that they now had two Wolves to deal with. Pops had managed to take out another soldier but the survivors had found cover and were slowing him down as his body was focused on repairing the damage continuously being inflicted on it. Kyle didn’t care about the damage to the house. He planned on adding to it. Kyle the human could always fix what Kyle the wolf broke. He ran straight through a bullethole-filled wall to get at the two attackers taking shelter next to it.
He emerged from the broken sheetrock behind the two frightened men and tore into the closest. There was no plan, no fluidity of motion or grace. Just a frenzy of sweeping claws, teeth, and sprays of blood. The man screamed in agony until Kyle bent down and snapped his jaws on the man’s head. He twisted and the head detached from the body. Kyle opened his jaws and let the head go flying with the built-up momentum. He then turned his attention to the other soldier. With a furious slash, Kyle disemboweled him. As the dying man struggled desperately to hold his own guts in, Kyle searched for his next victim. Grinning, he found it.
***
The well-dressed man walked into the living room. The two Wolves were too busy dealing with the fodder to pay him any attention. He casually strode into the remains of the dining room. He wasn’t worried about the mongrels. They were as far beneath him as ant to a star. Once, he had ensured his targets were dead, he’d deal with them himself. A shame really. I rather liked this suit. Giovanni did such nice work. Truly a masterpiece. He approached Becca’s curled-up form. The sheer blood loss should have ended her. No one could survive that. But, I am a professional after all. He knelt down, grimacing as the woman’s blood began to soak into the silken fibers. He pressed his fingers against her neck, fully expecting nothing. His blue eyes widened in shock as he felt a pulse. He kept his fingers pressed to her vein. He had to make sure. Yes. It was extremely faint but it was there. That’s impossible. Unless...he never finished his thought as another howl erupted from the far end of the table, and a crimson form began to slowly rise. No. It can’t be! Realizing that he was now out of time, he picked up the girl’s body and ran out of the house as fast as he could. If either Richard or Kyle had seen him, all they’d have seen was a navy-colored blur, even to their enhanced eyes.
***
What happened? Why is my head pounding so hard? Kiera felt herself in a daze. Wait. Alex? ALEX! Kiera struggled to move but something heavy lay on top of her. As she struggled to get free, she saw Carl’s limp head in her periphery. She immediately surmised what must have happened. Wait, where’s Marcy? She was able to shift Carl’s dead weight enough that she could see Marcy hiding under the dining table. She was sobbing and trembling but she appeared unhurt. I’m truly sorry Carl but I have got to move! Grunting, she put all the effort she could into her back muscles and managed to roll out from under the heavy-set man. She then crawled to the front of the table to reach her fallen husband.
I’ve got to stop the bleeding. I have to! Alex, hang on! She frantically reached out and grabbed the first piece of cloth she felt. She managed to reach one of the cloth napkins that had fallen and smashed it against Alex’s chest. Goddess, please! I can’t lose him. Not like this! Not like this! Come on, Baby! Please. Please don’t go! Where’s Becca? She should be here! She knows more about this than I ever could. I can’t help him like I used to! In her panicked state, Kiera whipped her head around. She saw a stranger kneeling over something she didn’t recognize. Just who is that and I don’t remember anything in that corner. Then, it finally hit her. BECCA! Wait, she wasn’t wearing a red dress was she? WAS SHE?! Her entire world then collapsed around her as a scent reached her nose.
Becca! No...no…NOOOOOO!
Kiera felt herself falling into a void as razor-sharp fragments of the truth cut into her. She thought she had experienced pain before but this, this was something so very different. She was entirely lost. She wanted to join her family. She no longer had any reason to live. Then she heard the gunfire. Slowly her grief-stricken mind latched onto a passing thought and held onto it like a drowning man to a life vest. She did have a reason to live. A very good one. But she couldn’t do anything about it. Not anymore. Not because of what she had chosen so many years ago.
Please, Goddess. Please grant me this favor. Please let me do what must be done! Silence only answered in return.
Tears streamed down Kiera’s face. The liquid splashed on Alex’s chest, mixing with his blood. Why? Why can’t I do anything? WHY??!!!
Suddenly, without warning, Kiera felt something break. Something long buried and almost forgotten slowly began to wake. The barest ember started to flicker. Then, it began to grow and growl. Kiera felt the warmth, something she thought extinct. She smiled and embraced the flame.
A roar of pain and anguish that hadn’t been heard on this planet for countless millennia erupted from the dining room. It froze both defenders and attackers alike. Even Richard and Kyle trembled before the power that had suddenly manifested itself mere yards away. Everyone was paralyzed. All they could do was watch in disbelief as something straight out of Tolkien and Dante’s worst nightmares slowly rose from her husband’s body, turned to face them, and she was pissed.
A seven-foot-tall feminine form stood there. Her head was crowned by twin curling horns that rose like a pair of matching lances. Slim muscle covered her entire naked and ridged crimson body. Powerful arms and legs ended with claws that seemed sharp enough to slice the very molecules of the air around them. Her face was a mixture of human and reptilian features. Her sea-green eyes blazed with a star’s wrath. A long, thick serpentine tail flicked wildly behind her like a bullwhip gone mad, the spines on it flicking like snake fangs. But, as stunning as this creature was, all of this wasn’t what grabbed the onlooker’s attention.
Sprouting from the creature’s back were bat-like wings that must have easily spanned fifteen feet or more as the tips of each reached the adjacent walls and started to curl on the edges.
As the flames from a dozen small fires that had been ignited by stray shots bathed her in their light, she looked like a demon that came straight from a depth of Hell not even Lucifer would visit. For these men, these creatures who had the sheer insolence to hurt her family, he would would have been much more gentle.
She didn’t appear to move, even to werewolf eyes. One moment she was in the dining room standing in front of Alex’s prone body, a heartbeat later, and she was next to a soldier. Without the slightest sound of exertion, she threw him through the broken window. She moved through the whole room, appearing to blink in and out of existence, and tossed all four survivors into the front yard like discarded toys. Terrified beyond belief, they huddled together like frightened children.
“You dared to attack my home,” a voice the temperature of the void whispered. She strode to the broken window as her feet crunched over the broken glass and gore in the room. Her voice rose slightly. “You dared to attack me?” In an instant, she was outside, her wings quickly wrapping themselves around her like a royal cloak and train. “You dared to attack my husband?” Smoke blacker than the coldest depths of space began streaming from her nostrils. She strode forward, the men before her were openly weeping and begging for forgiveness and mercy. “You dared to attack my daughter,” she cried out into the night, the moonlight itself seeming to have dimmed in fear of that cry. The entire world seemed to pause at that moment, afraid to anger this goddess further. Her voice returned to that frozen whisper. “Then burn.”
Her wings opened once more to their full-width, blocking the moon and stars from the men’s view. The demon before them began to inhale. She held her breath for a moment that seemed to stretch into eternity. Then, she exhaled. A scarlet-colored flame that hadn’t been seen on Earth for eons answered its mistress’ call. It engulfed and consumed the soldiers. Yet, they did not die. A quick death was too merciful for what they had done. Instead, the flame both destroyed and healed the men simultaneously. Their clothes and equipment melted to their flesh only to be covered by the rapidly regrowing flesh and fusing together. They screamed in torment until their throats were raw and bloody. Richard and Kyle stood at the broken window, both horrified and pleased at the scene.
Finally, after a few minutes of this, the demon finally let the flame consume the men in a final blinding burst of light. When the two werewolves were able to see clearly again, all that remained of their attackers was a glowing crater of melted glass and rock.
Both men expected that they would soon suffer the same fate from the mad demon before them. As the beast turned to face them, they readied themselves for one last stand.
The creature lowered her wings and wrapped them around herself once more and nodded at the two, a small smirk on her lips. “Thank you, my friends, for your aid. Now you need to get everyone to the hospital. Quickly. I’d help but I’m a little tired right now.” With that, Kiera Allison Daniels, High Regent of the Red Dragons, Princess of the Draconic Empire, Mistress of the Stars, First and Last of the Line of Drakos, collapsed to the soft grass.
