Setting Boundaries (The Boundaries Series Book 2)

by Eva Harper

  Rush held my right hand tightly, dragging me behind him.

  “I’m going to get you to the bunker, you and Emily before we leave,” he panted.

  “Rush, there’s no time,” I pleaded.

  “Yes, there is,” he promised, glancing back at me. “The humans are only at the border, we’ve got time.”

  Outside the packhouse was chaotic; wolves, half of them shifted, running in different directions. We were almost run down on our way to the bunker, which was about a five-minute walk from the packhouse and underground.

  Women and men with young children were bringing them into the bunker, handing them down to the guards stationed there. They kissed their heads, handed them over, shifted, and ran to the front lines.

  Rush stopped abruptly and grabbed my face between his hands. “You will be safe here,” He kissed my forehead firmly. “I will come and get you later, just please stay here and stay safe.”

  “Rush, please,” I said brokenly, not ready to let him go. It was too soon.

  “I know.” He smiled, though it didn’t reach his eyes. “Take Emily and go into the bunker, you’ll be okay.”

  I glanced at Emily, who was in Casey’s embrace, whimpering, and shaking. I paused and stepped away from Rush. Emily continued to shake and cry despite Casey’s best efforts to comfort her.

  “Wait,” I raised my hand and pressed it to Emily’s forehead. It was hot to the touch, and her muscles quivered under the skin. “She’s trying to shift.”

  Her eyes flashed open wide. “No, I’m not.”

  “Your body wants you to shift,” I told her, looking up to Casey. “She can’t go in the bunker; she’ll shift down there, and she could hurt someone or herself.”

  “You have to get in the bunker,” Rush shouted, looking back to the rows and rows of wolf shifters ready for battle.

  “Rush, she can’t.” I shook my head sadly. “I can’t either.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I can’t leave her up here to shift alone.” Rush growled at my words and began pacing. “We will stay behind the guards and Warriors, the humans won’t reach us, but there’s nothing else we can do, Rush.”

  “Yes, there is,” he grunted. “You can go into the bunker.”

  “I can’t leave her.” I stepped away from Emily and touched Rush’s arm. “She didn’t leave me. I won’t leave her.”

  His chest quacked, and he fought the urge to shift. Rush took four deep breaths and grabbed my hand again. Casey picked Emily up into his arms and followed. He delivered us at the edge of the packhouse where the snipers and lookouts were.

  “You will stay right here,” he ordered. “You won’t move unless I tell you to, no matter what. These snipers are a last resort.”

  “Okay.” I nodded, grabbing him. I wanted him to kiss me, but he didn’t bend. “Rush.”

  “No,” he breathed, stepping away. “I’m not saying goodbye.”

  “Rush, please.” My eyes watered.

  “No, I’m not saying goodbye, this isn’t goodbye.” He shook his head. “Not yet, not now.”

  Emily started shaking and crying in Casey’s arms. He gently laid her on the ground next to me.

  “Luna, can’t you help her?” There was desperation in his voice, I couldn’t look at him.

  “I can speed up the process. I can’t stop it,” I told him, still staring at Rush. The wolves behind him were positioned and waiting for orders. “You have to go now.”

  “I know,” Rush said, looking over me once again.

  I opened my mouth, but before I could say anything, Rush and Casey turned and shifted. They disappeared for a moment in the mass of wolves, but they appeared again in front of the pack. Rush howled loudly, a raw, loose growl that startled everything in the woods. As he lifted his head up, the pack joined him, howling into the open air.

  In the distance, just behind the tree line, a quiet stampede of human feet crunched through the dry woods. It hadn’t rained in weeks, most of the grass was dead and dry dirt was left in its place.

  The packhouse was surrounded by about three thousand feet of open land before the trees started to gather. I could smell them, the closer they got. I breathed in sweat, fowl piss and stink, the bitter taste of arrogance, and a slight twinge of silver, not enough to kill all of us.

  Silver bullets were rare, in demand, and difficult to make. Unlike humans, our skin was more difficult to pierce when we were shifted, and it took a lot of trauma to deter us. The bullets had to be large, they had to splinter on impact, and they needed to have enough silver in them to reach both our hearts and brains within a brief period of time.

  They had already used a handful of silver bullets to kill the guards on the border weeks ago, and they had probably used a small amount to practice.

  It made me stiff, wondering what they were planning to do if they didn’t expect to shoot at us.

  Emily whimpered, and it brought me out of my trance. I placed my hands gently on her shoulders, trying to pull out instinct to shift. She cried loudly, and I had to slam my hand over her mouth to stifle her.

  “Shh,” I quieted her. “Emily, you have to be quiet. I’m so sorry.”

  Her tears wettened my hand, and it made it slippery against her sweaty, grief-stricken face. I brushed her hair back and shushed her again, trying to calm her. I had never quickened a shift; I had read about it in a book Cherry had given me, but I never had the opportunity to practice.

  I tightened my grip on her mouth as I placed my other hand on her chest, just below her clavicle. I closed my eyes and focused on her shift, desperately trying to grasp at anything that could help her.

  Somewhere inside her, or myself, I felt a pull. I tried to hold onto it and pull out her instincts to shift. She began shaking under me, and her crying stopped.

  The first bone snapped. She bit into my hand roughly, and I let go at the harsh contact. Her voice broke the taught, tense air, screaming loudly. I slammed my hand back over her mouth, cutting her lip against her teeth in the process.

  Immediately, Casey was running through the pack, rushing to Emily’s side.

  “I can’t leave her, Luna,” he said softly.

  I nodded and again tried to pull her shift from her. Her bones snapped quicker the second time, a continuous pain that accelerated more as the seconds passed. Her skin took on a pale hue before dark, nearly black fur began pushing its way through her skin.

  I took my hands off her and swatted Casey’s hands away as she shifted, collapsing over in a small heap of claws and limbs and teeth.

  She whimpered as she tried to lift her head, prompting Casey to start running his hands over her, head to bottom. I leaned back, taking a few deep breaths to steady myself and running my hand soothingly over my bump.

  I could feel the baby’s heartbeat quicken a touch as if they were just as scared as we were.

  “You’ve got to get her out of here,” I spat at Casey, my hands shaking as they tried to caress the small child inside me.

  “It’s too late,” he growled back, lifting Emily’s wobbling head into his hands.

  “They’re nearly here,” Rush mind-linked me. “Is Emily okay?”

  “She’s shifted, but we can’t get her out of here.”

  “Just stay with her, Casey is staying with her as well.”

  “We need him, Rush.” I glanced over at Casey.

  “If it was you, no one could make me leave you.”

  “Will you be okay?”

  “I’ve got Jonah and over thirty thousand other wolves ready to tear those bastards heads off.” I could hear the excitement in his voice. “I’ll be fine.”

  The crunching feet became closer, and I could feel the pack’s adrenaline thriving in the mild breeze. They were coming. Nothing was stopping them.

  Over the eager wolves, I saw Rush’s fur raise on his neck, and he took a fighting stance. The pack lurched into battle mode, hind legs ready to pounce, jowls eager for the taste of the bitter, arrogant, blood moving
towards us.

  The first thing that emerged from the forest were six humans, three to the left, three to the right. They were pointing heavy guns at the pack, but they didn’t fire. After the six humans, a guttural animal sound rustled the trees.

  Four wolves chained in silver and stabbed with cattle prods fought against the eight humans holding the chains that were situated around their necks. The wolves were dripping with saliva; their bright green eyes betrayed them. They were rogues.

  Harrison and his remaining nephew sauntered behind them, hands lazily wrapped around the silver chains of the rogues. Harrison wore a deep smirk, barely visible behind his thick, peppered beard. Behind them, thousands of humans were marching. Some carried guns, some carried knives and spears, many of them carried household items, chainsaws, and hatchets.

  We were outnumbered, but they didn’t realize they weren’t fighting wild wolves. We were evolved, faster, stronger, able to withstand more. The only thing that would stop us were the silver bullets, but that would mean they would have to be able to aim amidst the pandemonium.

  I calmed, and nearly smiled as Rush mind-linked me, “Piece of cake, little wolf.”

  Then they launched.

  Fight of the Valkyries

  The first kill was always the worst. The crunch of bones, the soft tear into the flesh, the sound of air rushing from their lungs; it always came as a shock. The only thing that was more shocking than the killing itself was the quiet prattling the bodies made, patterned in such a way it sounded like a song.

  That acoustic thumping, the rawness of it, was horrifyingly romantic.

  The song played in my head, watching the wolves plow into the humans with such strength, it became the cello. The sound of metal unsheathing and clanking against each other became cymbals and chimes, it added a whimsical element to the melody.

  Casey whimpered my name, pulling me from my trance. “Luna,” he said again.

  I bent down next to Emily and placed my hand against her cheek.

  “She’s okay,” I told him pointedly, smiling gently to ease his worries.

  “She’s not moving,” he barked.

  “She’s exhausted.” I nodded my head towards her deep brown muzzle. “She will be okay.”

  Casey whimpered again, not moving from Emily’s side. I turned my head, and though the battlefield was still clouded with wolves that hadn’t advanced, I could see through the small holes in the front.

  Casey and Rush had strategically placed Warriors on either side of our borders, farther back than the humans. Those wolves had circled around the back of Harrison’s army, herding them forward towards us.

  As quickly as a smile appeared on my face, it was taken away as one of our Warriors, Cyprian, was shot through the head with a silver bullet. He had stilled for a moment too long while attacking one of the humans, and it allowed one of them to aim.

  It was a clean shot, he died without any pain, but the ache flooded through the pack’s bond. Rush growled and leaped forward, tearing through the chest of a human fighter. His teeth lodged deep into the human’s chest and, with one dreadful crunch, severed the man in two.

  My stomach lurched, and I put my hand over my mouth to keep myself from throwing up what I had in me.

  The wolves that hadn’t shifted were positioned behind us with tranquilizer guns and rifles, aiming and ready for the order to shoot. It was difficult to organize the type of shots they would need with the number of wolves running around the area.

  Off to the side, Harrison opened his mouth, his bear-like muzzle drooping slightly, lazily as he spoke. No one could hear what he said. Whether it was to his own men or to ours, the words were lost behind the scraping sound of claws digging into the dry soil.

  The rogue wolves that were kept in chains were released swiftly and shot in the hind side, propelling them away from the humans. They tore through the ground; clumps of dirt and grass flew up behind them as they barreled into a group of wolves.

  The rogues were merciless and bit into any part of our pack they could. Tranq-darts were fired into the rogue wolves once a clearing was made around them, and they collapsed on the ground like dead logs.

  The human’s numbers were dwindling fast, although our pack was not left unharmed. There were few casualties but many sustained menial injuries.

  My hands itched at the urge to heal them.

  “Rush told you to stay here,” Casey nearly yelled as I stood up.

  “I haven’t moved,” I reminded him in a deep voice. My eyes shot to his in a glare, and he returned the look arrogantly.

  “How is Emily?” Rush’s gruff tone inquired.

  “Worry about what you’re doing,” I ordered. “We’re fine.”

  “I’ll always worry about you,” he teased, and then our link was cut.

  The same pitiful, beautiful song played in my mind as I rubbed Emily’s fur, trying to get her to wake up.

  “I should take her inside,” Casey murmured.

  “And if they set the house on fire?” I prompted. He didn’t appreciate my input and growled. “I’m trying to look out for her.”

  “And I’m not?”

  “You’re the reason she’s like this,” I seethed, leaning forward towards him.

  “I know that!” he screamed. “But that was my mistake, and I will make up for it, in time. Right now, we both want the same thing.”

  “What I want is my family to be okay.” I roughly stood up and stepped away from Casey.

  “Emily is my family now,” he spat.

  I glared but didn’t respond. The shooters in front of us quietly took out the humans in open areas. We had the advantage of being stationary while the humans tried to fire as they moved. Each time they attempted to set up an area for their shooters, our wolves took them out.

  Up in the trees, the humans climbed to gain vantage points. It took Jonah three motions to bounce off one tree, to the next, and as he jumped to the third tree, he grabbed the human’s head in his jaws and forcibly brought him to the ground.

  Emily stirred in Casey’s arms, who quietly calmed her. I was distracted as he taught her to shift back and covered her with his shirt.

  Rush was fighting off three humans with small weapons, but before he could kill any of them, more humans started attacking him. They knew the Alpha wolves were the largest, and Rush’s wolf shadowed any of the others on the battlefield.

  I chocked as one of them climbed onto his back and drove a metal instrument in his side. I must’ve taken a step forward because the Warrior to my right placed his arm in front of me, and held me back.

  “Luna, he will be fine,” he told me, moving in front of me. My arms reached up and gripped the hair on either side of my head; I pulled at the roots as I turned around.

  I stopped moving when I saw the bunker door peel open a few hundred yards away. From the ground, Cordelia and Hollis marched up. They were supposed to be kept safe if something happened to Rush and me.

  Hollis shifted immediately and grabbed one of the humans with a gun. Before the human could retaliate, Cordelia came behind him and slit his throat with her elongated claws. She picked up the gun from the ground and trailed behind Hollis, who cleared a path for her.

  She shot the few humans she could as they made their way across the field towards their son. Rush had bucked the human off and stopped the others from attacking him, but it was only a matter of time before someone with a gun pushed their way into the circle.

  Hollis bent down, and with a running start, Cordelia hopped on his back.

  That was the sight that made nearly everyone freeze. Cordelia like a Valkyrie riding in on the back of her mate, firing that gun into a group of humans. The humans ran out of the line of fire, though Cordelia fired at any human she saw. Hollis’s wolf was as big in height as Rush’s, though time had thinned his muscles.

  Rush had managed to escape the group of humans as Hollis and Cordelia rounded him, and with a vengeance, Rush lifted his head and howled.

  C
asey picked Emily up in his arms and shuffled her further behind our Warriors with guns. He kissed her head and jumped over the divide. He shifted in the air, shredding his clothes, and diving into a group of humans latched onto one of our wolves. My eyes were darting in every direction, unable to concentrate on one clear thing.

  This battle was not meant to last long, it was a guerrilla attack, and though most of the humans were killed or taken prisoner, those who remained were well-armed and angry.

  Harrison and the five or six men with him began walking towards our group of Warriors. The Warrior who had stopped me from leaving was struck with a silver bullet, and he fell onto the small wall in front of us. His gun clanged on the ground next to my feet.

  The other Warriors took aim but stopped when they noticed the human Warriors had taken hostages. They stalked closer to us, Harrison’s eyes were only focused on Emily.

  I grabbed the gun from the ground and pointed it into the group of humans, knowing it was only a tranquilizer gun and snarled.

  “That gun looks a bit big for you,” Harrison’s lip curled back as he spoke. “Do you even know how to use that thing?”

  “Can’t really be that hard, can it?” I raised the gun and placed the butt on my shoulder.

  “Just step aside and let me take my daughter with us,” he bargained. “This fight is pretty much over.”

  “You think I trust you that much? Emily’s not going anywhere with people who beat her.”

  “Her name is Hazel,” Harrison snarled.

  “Yeah, well, lots changed in the past few weeks.”

  “I don’t want to hurt that baby of yours, but I will if I can’t get to mine,” Harrison threatened, still smirking.

  “She’s not your baby anymore.” Casey jumped back over the divide in his human form and propped Emily up, who was fighting to stand.

  “Don’t touch her!” Harrison screamed.

  An awful smirk appeared on Casey’s face as he helped Emily stand. “We’ve done a lot more than touching.”