Atticus shifted uncomfortably, he was running out of words and ways to stall these men. Death was becoming more imminent as each second ticked past.
The Poachers didn’t say anything again, not until Atticus spoke.
“What is better than catching an Alpha and winning the game?”
“Killing your daughter right in front of your own eyes. Destroying the Alpha before we cut off his head.”
Dominic was almost ready right then to pounce on these men and kill as many as he could, no one was going to talk to Atticus that way. But before he could, one of the men with the largest knife on the outer ring shifted just enough and he could see Olivia.
His girl.
And she was being held hostage by a man that was as large as Dominic. But his stomach sank when he saw that the man had a knife too and its sharp blade was pressed against the soft flesh of her throat. He held her so tightly that a bead of blood was dripping down her neck.
She was looking around frantically when her eyes locked on Dominic’s. Even in the shadows she had been able to find him. He didn’t know what to do or how to save her, but somehow she was able to get inside his mind.
“Follow my lead,” she seemed to say.
So, Dominic continued to stay in the shadows, ready to follow her into battle.
Chapter Twenty
Olivia
The man that had grabbed her had been rough with her on the porch, clearly not caring how hard he squeezed or how much she was going to bruise from his intense grasp. That was the point after all, wasn’t it? To hurt her? To cause her harm?
While every muscle in her body wished that she could fight him off, but she was no match for a poacher who was used to dealing with fighting wolves, the strength of a non-shifting girl was hardly any match.
Where was Dominic? She knew he’d be able to fight this man off with almost no effort, but Dominic wasn’t there. Maybe if she could have screamed or run then he’d been able to know she was in danger, but that wasn’t possible.
He dragged her off the porch while her legs kicked and flailed with all the effort she could put in. The poacher didn’t even seem to notice. There were few times that she felt being a shifter would make her life better, but being dragged off a porch in the middle of the night without the strength to fight back would have been one of those times. How easy would it have been to shift and fight this man off if she had any wolf inside of her?
“I’ve got her,” the man hissed into the night.
Olivia was frantically trying to adjust her eyes to be able to see into the dark, but panic was causing her mind to whirl too fast. Had anyone else been captured? Was Atticus ok?
Her feet made long tracks in the mud as she tried to dig her heels in but he was relentless. Dragging her towards her father’s house, she was terrified of what she might see when she got there. These poachers were horrible humans that excited themselves over the killing of shifter packs and there was a real fear that snaked through her that these men weren’t going to stop until they got what they wanted.
What was it that Atticus had said when she’d been eavesdropping?
They wanted the Alpha, which was part of the game. So did that mean he was already killed, or that he was going to be?
From outside the cabin, the men called to Atticus, trying to bait him to come outside. Olivia wanted to call to him, to tell him to stay where he was and not come out, but the men held her so tightly, squeezing everything from her and preventing her ability to scream. The knife at her throat pressed hard and one wrong move and the monster would be able to slice right through her.
When they called to him, drawing him out of the safety of the cabin, she realized quickly why she had been grabbed first.
They were using her as the bait.
Had they done that to Dominic too? Had they baited him outside only to capture and kill him?
She didn’t want to think of that possibility, although at the moment it felt like it was all too much of an option.
Stoically, her father stepped out from his cabin, a steady calm over taking his whole demeanor. For a moment she watched him, almost forgetting what was happening. It was so rare that she was ever able to watch her father act as an Alpha anymore. He was always just her father that babied her and drove her somewhat insane sometimes. But he stood outside on that porch, not letting the shake of his hands or the weakness of his body his older age was causing show.
Instead, all of that stayed hidden and she saw the strong Alpha that ran her pack.
Atticus stayed calm, though they had his only daughter, but even with him there she knew he was no match for the men surrounding her. He wasn’t the fighter that she needed, not in that moment.
Suddenly her body felt the heat that she was accustomed to feeling, the heat that told her that Dominic was nearby. Her eyes searched through the crowd of men that had gathered, those that were surrounding her with knives.
Then she saw him, his wolf hunched down low, ready to pounce. But he had to wait, he couldn’t take the whole group on his own. Not without at least one of them all being a casualty. At least not without a distraction.
Her eyes met his in the night and she pleaded with him to wait, she had to think.
He did catch her eyes and pulled himself deeper into the shadows.
What would she do, what could she do?
She needed to get out of this man’s grasp and throw him and everyone else off balance. Balance… maybe that was it. It would be risky, with the knife to her throat, but if she were able to stumble the right way maybe she could back him out toward the edge of the circle. But if she got him there then Dominic would have to attack and attack fast.
Olivia started to shift her feet, the poacher being distracted by the conversation taking place. She let her knees go a little weak to cause a stumble and the poacher had to back up in order to catch the dead-weight of her body. She glanced toward Dominic, it was working, and she was getting this man closer to him.
In another attempt to get him closer to the edge, she slid her foot behind him causing the poacher to stumble and she’d made it to the edge of the circle. Her heart began to race as she knew she’d done all she could.
Their leader turned toward the two of them tripping over each other and it was just enough of a distraction that she watched as Atticus shifted right in front of her eyes and she felt a hard jerk from behind as Dominic attacked.
Chapter Twenty-One
Dominic
He had to admit, Olivia was a clever and brave. With a knife pressing into her throat and dangerous men surrounding her, she found a way to not only distract the poachers but also get Dominic in a better attack position. Every time she caused them to stumble, Dominic’s heart lurched forward in fear that the knife was going to end her, but she managed to do it all with enough grace that he didn’t even place another cut on her throat.
When the lead poacher turned around to find the commotion, it gave Atticus the chance to shift and Dominic wasn’t going to wait another second.
He knocked out the man’s legs and out of the corer of his eyes saw Olivia go flying as he let her go. Fiercely he swiped at the poacher, clawing at him, ripping into his flesh. This man was going to be lucky if he came out of it alive; he was the one who was holding Olivia hostage, he’d held the knife to her throat, and Dominic was ready to kill him. But as he pummeled the man on the ground, another jumped at Dominic’s back.
Out of the corner of his eyes he saw Olivia running and he hoped she was getting back to his cabin and locking the door to ensure her safety, but he was certain that she was too stubborn just to run away. But he couldn’t turn to see where she was going, he had too many men to fight off.
Atticus was fighting hard but the old Alpha couldn’t do nearly the damage that Dominic could do. And the poachers seemed to know that it was Dominic that was the threat. The game may have been to capture and kill the Alpha, but they weren’t going to be able to do anything unless the destroyed Dominic first.
Man after man jumped him, wielded their knives, sometimes striking him but often missing him. Thankfully, though, even when they did catch him with a knife or a good punch, Dominic barely felt it at all. His adrenaline was coursing through him and he was sure that he could handle anything that those men could do. There was no chance he was going to lose the fight, not when it came to protecting his pack. But most importantly, protecting Olivia. He’d let her get captured and nearly killed once, he wasn’t going to let anything happen again.
Suddenly there was even more commotion from the circle and Dominic didn’t need to look to know what Olivia had done. Once she’d gotten free she’d gone to the other cabins and rounded up the rest of the pack. The fight had become poachers versus an entire pack of angry shifters.
As far as anyone knew, there wasn’t a pack who had wholly survived. It hadn’t even seemed like those packs had even had much of a chance at a fair fight. But this pack had a chance. They lived on the outskirts of the kingdom for a reason. At one point they were all fighters, intense, strong, and wild. They may have been getting on in age, but it was clear from the snarls that were coming out of the shifters and the screams from the men, that the pack was winning.
Dominic flung one man off his back and heard the body land with a hard thud. That man would be off of him for a while, he knew, and moved on to the next who had just ran full force into his rib cage. The hit knocked Dominic off balance and the world toppled over and landed on his side. It didn’t hurt but the scene before him did.
Being pulled up on to the porch, the body looking lifeless was Atticus. Olivia was talking to him, murmuring comforting words.
“Please, Daddy, you’ve got to be ok. Stay with me ok? I’m going to get you cleaned up. Please, Daddy.”
Dominic felt his heart shatter, not only for Atticus and what he feared was the Alpha’s death. But he’d never heard Olivia so vulnerable, not even calling him Atticus but ‘Daddy’ instead. He wanted to go to her and comfort her. He wanted to know that Atticus was ok.
But while he was distracted, the leader of the ring came at Dominic on the ground and was able to get the knife to slice between Dominic’s ribs.
He let out a howl that ripped through the night.
Suddenly Dominic felt a monster come out of him, just like the fight with his brother. Blinded by rage Dominic flipped the poacher onto his back and clawed at him, ripping clothes and skin, blood seeping into the earth below them. He didn’t know if it was his own or the poachers, but it didn’t matter.
Everything about his life spun through his mind. Being the lesser twin and therefor the lesser prince, not being named the next king, the fight with his brother, seeing Olivia with the knife at her beautiful throat, and now Atticus possibly dead a mere few feet from him.
This was his life and it had never turned out the way he wanted. It wasn’t fair. And this poacher was going to take all the pounding he could handle.
It wasn’t until one of the shifter came over to Dominic, and put a hand on his shoulder. Dominic stopped for a moment and looked around him.
The poachers were gone and the shifters had mostly gone back to their human form. They were ragged, out of breath and many were bleeding. The poachers had abandoned their leader who Dominic saw was severely injured but still alive. He looked down at the man, his eyes wide with fright.
“If any of you ever touch a pack again, I will personally come and kill you all. Do you understand?” he growled.
The man underneath him nodded wildly, words of pleading burbling out of him. For good measure Dominic gave him one last swipe against the man’s chest before letting him up off the ground. As fast as his injured body could take him, the final poacher hobbled out into the night.
Exhausted, yet exhilarated that they had won, Dominic looked around again and saw that all of his pack was intact. Everyone except Atticus, who was still lying motionless on the floor of the porch.
Olivia was laying with Atticus’ head in her lap and she was still pleading with the Alpha to be ok. Out of respect, most of the pack stayed on the ground while the closest neighbors ran for supplies to stop the bleeding.
Everyone but Dominic who made his way up to the porch, still to riled up to shift back to human form. Instead, he lay on the porch next to Olivia like a faithful dog.
“Please Dominic, do something,” she begged him
Dominic knew he would do anything in the world for Olivia. He would have died trying to save her if he had to. But he watched Atticus on the wooden porch floor and saw there was still a little breath left inside of the Alpha. Though it was shallow, it was there.
He nodded to the pack below and they followed Dominic’s lead, hoisting the man in their arms and taking him inside. His wolf was calming and he as he changed back to being Dominic, he quickly threw on his clothes from his pack and followed them inside.
Atticus hadn’t yet had the strength the make the change back so they carried his wolf inside and set him in his own bed, pulling the blanket around him. When Dominic walked into the man’s room, his pack was gathered, his daughter at his side, all prepared to say goodbye to their Alpha.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Olivia
The moment that the poacher let go of Olivia she knew she had to go get help. If she could have stayed and been of any use to Dominic and Atticus she would have done anything she could. But those men were too strong and ready for a fight. Without being able to shift and fight with them, there was nothing she could do except get help.
Cabin to cabin she ran as fast as she could, pounding on the doors, though so many of them were empty, gone to help other packs. The exhausted ones that were left she woke with her incessant pounding. She didn’t need to even say a word to them as they came flying out of their cabins, their wolves springing into action at the wild sight of her face. She was terrified, not just for herself but of what may be happening to Atticus and Dominic while they tried to stand their ground on their own. There was only the two of them to protect the pack.
After the first few cabins, the commotion became so loud that the other shifters emerged without her loud knocking. When she saw that everyone was coming, the wolves were racing to the ring in front of Atticus’ cabin, she raced back as fast as her feet could take her. If only she could do something, if only she could fight!
By the time she got back to the pack and the poachers, there was such chaos that it took her a moment to find everyone. Dominic was larger than the rest of the pack and he held such a presence that her eyes traveled right to him. He didn’t know she was there but she watched as man after man attempted to attack him, only to be thrown off of his golden fur and attacked by a back-up wolf. She hated to watch him fight but was instantly impressed by his skills. She could see why he took such care to keep himself restrained from his fighting but it was clear why he’d been sent to the protector’s pack.
Seeing that Dominic was safe, she continued to search the fray to find Atticus. But try as she might, she couldn’t locate him. Sickness turned in her stomach as she knew what that might mean. If he wasn’t up on his feet fighting, that could very well mean he was down on the ground hurting. Or worse.
On instinct, Olivia dropped to the ground, searching between the scrambles of feet and the bodies that kept hitting the ground during the fight. One of the poachers stood from the ground to rejoin the fight and it was then that she saw him. Atticus was lying on the ground, not moving. From where Olivia was, she couldn’t even tell if he was still breathing.
“Atticus!” she screamed.
No one even turned toward her, the shouts and growling were far too loud for anyone to hear her.
Without thinking she ran straight into the mess and dropped to her father. Tears were pouring out of her as she pleaded words she didn’t even understand as they dripped form her lips. He couldn’t be dead, he had to be ok.
She put her palm on his chest and continued to beg and cry, urging him to be breathing. She just needed to feel the
tiniest movement from him, anything at all to tell her he was still alive. Though she saw the blood that had seeped out and coated his fur, she didn’t let her mind realize it. She just kept her palm there, aware that at any moment a poacher could kill her in an instant, yet also aware that until the very end she was not going to leave Atticus.
Then at least, a breath. It was small, almost imperceptible—but it was there.
Frantically, Olivia knew she had to get her father out of the fight. With every ounce of strength she had, she lifted the front of his body and began to drag him up the porch. Step after step, Olivia exerted all of her energy, sweat now mixing with her still falling tears.
This time when she pleaded with him, there was more hope inside of her. Atticus was still with her, he was still there, and he was fighting his own fight.
A sudden sharp slice went into Olivia’s ribs and she fell backwards from her father’s side. She looked down at the pain, certain that she was going to see that a poacher had finally realized that she was there, but there was no wound. Confused she looked back up at the fight and saw it was not her but Dominic who had been struck with a knife.
Terrified she froze in place as she watched the wolf she knew she was destined for lay on the ground. She couldn’t lose both of them in one night, could she? Life wouldn’t be that cruel would it?
But then she saw a scene that she’d never forget. The wild rage that tore through Dominic was visible as he clawed and beat the poacher.
The men watched the danger and the fury from Dominic and ran screaming back into the woods, hiding in the night. But Dominic didn’t stop. Not until Ernest tapped his shoulder, reminding him gently that shifters were not allowed to kill a human.
Dominic reluctantly stood, blood covering him, and let the man weakly disappear into the night. It didn’t matter to her if that man lived or died, but she was certain their pack wouldn’t be bothered again. Not when Dominic was there to protect them.
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