When War made to turn, Tallius implored, “For Nora!”
Bristling, War glanced at his Beta, and Tallius begged, “You ain’t gonna be shit to her dead! Think, War!”
Tallius was right. He was always right, so War took a few minutes to catch his breath and to allow his pack to catch up. Eyeing the terrain, his ears were erect as he strained to listen. The land was hilly and dotted with sparse trees. It was more open than War’s own territory and would make a sneak attack damn near impossible. He didn’t care though. He was done sneaking into battle. No, tonight he’d storm right up to Castamere’s front door and kick that fucker in.
A loud boom filled the air and had War and his wolves tensing. Legs sprawled and ready for battle, War’s wolf eyes narrowed on where the sound had come from just as a brilliant blue light lit up the dreary sky. Several of his men pulled up in trucks and parked behind the line of wolves that waited behind War. Most of his wolves shifted and went for the supplies in the truck. He’d pushed them hard, and they needed food and water. Someone tried to hand War a bottle of water, but his animal wasn’t giving up his skin yet. He was too concerned with what looked like the top of a giant clear dome showing through the treetops.
Tallius knelt beside War and set a bowl on the ground before filling it with water. Eyes on the dome, he hissed, “What the fuck is that?”
Eyes up, War lapped at the water, and once his wolf was satisfied, War pushed a shift. It was painful and hard to do because his animal was still on the hunt, but he needed to show his men that he was in control.
Rolling his head on his shoulders, a final ripple blasted over his skin and regenerated his clothing.
“I need volunteers to go up ahead.”
Rylin, Rysik, and Matese stepped forward. War gave Matese a surprised snort, but jerked his head toward the tree line up ahead. “See what you can see, and don’t fucking die.”
The men shifted and then raced off.
Turning, War marched to the nearest truck and jerked the door open. Tallius followed and watched as War rifled through the truck. “I need a phone.”
Tallius pointed at the glovebox and asked, “Who the fuck you calling, man? We’re all here.”
“No one.” War punched in a text and then climbed out of the truck and dropped the phone on the seat with a, “Wait here. Be ready.”
He was stalking toward the tree line when Rylin pushed through the pack ties, “War, you’re gonna wanna see this. Bring the pack.”
Turning, War waved the pack forward.
They were cautious and moved through the trees as silent as creeping death. It’s what they were. The Imperials would pay for what they’d done. Taking Nora was the biggest mistake Castamere could have ever made.
Chapter 21
Nora was equally parts relieved and terrified. She’d been hauled up out of Castamere’s dungeon and dragged through the halls out of his compound. The Imperial pack was in a frenzy and worked in a blur of activity. She’d picked up some of the excited and worried chatter, but the only four words that stuck were, “The WG are here.”
WG? War? She wanted to cry at the knowledge, but forced herself to stay expressionless.
Out in front of the Imperial compound, she was shoved forward. Head up, she stumbled to catch herself, shocked at what she saw. There was a giant dome of some sort covering the Imperial compound. It was huge and . . . impossible! Where had it come from? How had it gotten here?
The wolves handling her, drug her toward where Castamere, Othello, and another shifter were deep in conversation.
“There she is,” Castamere crowed. He had red lines down his face where he was still healing from their battle. Nora was still healing too. She’d come out of their fight worse than he had, but she’d never show it.
Shooting Othello a panicked look, Castamere asked, “You’re sure it’ll hold?” He eyed the dome, and Nora knew he was talking about it.
“It’ll hold,” Othello assured confidently. “It’s diamond glass. Impenetrable unless the WG has a rocket launcher we don’t know about.”
Someone yelled, “They’re coming!”
With a sinister grin, Castamere’s hand shot out. He hit Nora hard, and because she hadn’t expected it, she nearly fell. Already bruised lips throbbing, she tasted blood as she straightened and glared at Castamere.
Shaking her head slowly, she sucked her bottom lip into her mouth and then spat blood at his feet before calmly saying, “You’re only making things worse for yourself.”
“We’ll see who it’s worse for.” Castamere grabbed her neck with one hand and yanked her forward.
She considered tying into him again, but that thought died when figures stepped out of the trees and approached the dome.
War!
Just seeing him had her knees going weak. He felt like relief, like a little break in storm clouds where the sun shone down. He was her tiny shoot of green forcing its way up through the concrete, her towering pine providing shelter from a downpour. He was her safety, her home, hers!
War stalked up to within yards of the glass. Tallius and enforcers beside him, his back behind him, he looked like a god of war. Eyes narrowing on him, he seemed different. He was the same War she knew, just . . . different. His eerie yellow eyes were flashing a bright gold, and his scent . . . She realized distractedly that she could smell him even through the thick glass separating them. His scent had every hair on her body standing on end because he no longer reeked of her forest. He was riled up and highly pissed off. It took Nora a minute to place the scents pouring off of him, and when she did, her heart gave a start. War smelled violent and possessive. He wanted to fight, and he wanted to fuck. The need to kill his enemies and claim her was so potent that it was dizzying and beautiful.
***
Seeing Nora had War’s wolf snapping at the surface. She stood between Castamere and that fucking vampire that had taken her. Castamere’s Beta, Craven, backed up to join the ranks of wolves lined up several yards behind Castamere. War gave them the briefest ounce of his attention before his eyes locked on Nora. She looked so tiny. Her cheek was swollen with a dark bruise, and her lips were cracked and bleeding, but it was her eyes that held him. They were filled with a fury that bolstered War. A pissed off she-wolf was a good thing right now. Her anger would keep her thinking straight; it’d keep her head in the game. Eyes lowering down her frame, they landed on her fisted hands. Her knuckles were scuffed and bleeding in several places. Eyes lifting back to hers, he let his approval show.
Fierce little Alpha She. She hadn’t been taken without a fight.
Eyes on Nora, they jerked to Castamere when he gritted from between gnashed teeth, “It hurts when someone takes what’s yours, doesn’t it?”
War didn’t respond because he hadn’t taken shit from Castamere . . . yet! Glaring at the fuck, War envisioned the seventy ways he was going to rip him limb from limb.
Eyes locked on War’s, Nora bit out from between her cracked and bleeding lips, “I’m not his.”
War knew Castamere tightened his hold on the back of Nora’s neck by the way her shoulders hunched. A pained expression flashed across her features before she could mask it.
“The fuck you’re not!” Castamere ranted. Glancing at War, he laughed maniacally. “Look how fast he came running for you.” His eyes sliced back to Nora and he leaned closer, brushing his nose against her hair. “If there was ever a doubt in that pretty little head,” he hissed, “put it to rest. Because him standing here now tells me all I need to know about the nature of your relationship.”
He looked back to War, and the crazed look in his eyes had War tensing.
“You need to bury that doubt.” Castamere was speaking to Nora but kept his eyes on War. “Just like I’m gonna bury my dick deep inside you for your precious War to watch.”
Stalking forward, War jerked out of Tallius’s and Matese’s hands as they reached for him. Snarling, his words were barely intelligible as his wolf polluted his voice. “Touch he
r and you fucking die!”
Castamere split his lips in a toothy grin, as his brows shot up. His hand on the back of Nora’s neck forced her to the ground. She whimpered and reached back to claw at his hand while Castamere taunted. “She’s mine now, and I’ll do with the bitch as I please.”
And that was it, the final fucking straw! It wasn’t Castamere’s taunt either, or even the fucking gall of him daring to lay hands on Nora. No, it was the blood on her lips, the swelling in her cheek, and the pained sound she made as she was forced to her knees. Castamere’s fate was already cemented, but that sound she just made unleashed something inside War that he’d never experienced before.
Stalking forward, War’s determined pace turned into a jog and then a full-on run. Behind him, War could hear his pack following. The air rippled around him as wolves exploded from his men, and all the while, War’s eyes were on Castamere. The fuck was grinning like a maniac. He looked confident in his belief that War couldn’t get to him. Stupid fuck!
A few steps from the glass shield, War pushed with his back leg and launched himself up off the ground. Arm pulled back, fist tight, he came down hard and used all his might to superman punch the barrier separating him from Castamere. Fist slamming into the glass, War left it there and pushed hard even as he felt the slide of his knuckles that were now slickened with his blood.
Like the punk he was, Castamere flinched and jerked back, but then quickly recovered and replaced his smile. “Take her.”
The vampire stepped forward and replaced Castamere’s hold on the back of Nora’s neck. Castamere’s eyes were locked on War’s as he stepped forward and pressed his lips to the glass. Bloody fist still pressed into the glass, War reared back and head-butted the glass hard right where Castamere was kissing it. Castamere stumbled backward and fell onto his ass.
War could feel blood sliding down the bridge of his nose. He didn’t give a fuck.
Castamere scrambled backward, and War watched as the Alpha was helped to his feet by his vampire friend, who smirked at War while keeping one hand holding Nora. Jamming a finger at him, Castamere rushed the glass and slapped a hand on it over his head as he screeched, “You can’t get in! And she can’t get out. I’m fucking keeping her! So leeeeeave! Or—” some of the madness left Castamere’s expression “—stay and watch me defile what once was yours as you had planned to do to me and my domain.”
War and Castamere were nose-to-nose with nothing separating them but Castamere’s impenetrable glass. War’s shoulders rose and fell with each labored breath. He knew that right now his eyes were blown out with his wolf tensed and waiting just beneath the surface. Those eyes were locked on Castamere’s as they glared at each other. There was a slight wobble to Castamere’s lips when they tried to lift into another one of his sinister grins. He didn’t pull it off. Good. Because now he paid!
Eyes finally leaving Castamere’s, War’s gaze slid to his fist where it was still pressed hard into the glass. Blood dripped down from his white knuckles. Eyes on his fist, he waited.
Curiosity getting the better of him, Castamere looked at what had earned War’s attention. The second Cas’s eyes were where War wanted them, his lips peeled back to flash wicked incisors as he pulled his hand back from the glass.
At first, he knew Castamere didn’t see it, so he waited. The timing had to be perfect.
Sensing the anticipation in him, the wolves behind War started growling, snapping, and lunging at the glass before a few threw their heads back and started howling. They wanted war, but nowhere near as much as he wanted to give it to them.
On the other side of the glass, Castamere’s Imperials didn’t look so confident. They were backing up, looking from War and his Gods to Castamere and back. And then it happened. War watched Castamere give just the slightest squint, and then the Imperial Alpha’s expression blanked as his mouth fell open.
“Now!” War snarled.
Just as Castamere’s eyes snapped up from the fissuring crack that War had punched into the thick glass, Reign suddenly appeared at War’s side. He grabbed War, and then they both disappeared, but not before Reign saw Castamere pale and stumble back.
Now he got it. Castamere’s plan had been to keep Nora inside. He’d concentrated so hard on his own vampire’s abilities and what he could do with them, that he had forgotten one thing: Reign! War had a vampire ally too, and War gave zero fucks about diving headlong into hell.
In a blink, War and Reign appeared on the other side of the glass, inside the dome.
Castamere was stumbling backward faster and faster. Behind him, his men were uncertain and followed his lead, putting distance between themselves and War. It was the smartest thing they’d done, because right now War’s wolves were taking turns pummeling the crack in the glass, and from the sound of it, the dome was going to give at any second.
Reign disappeared with a surge of power, and then he reappeared a few feet away, his clawed hand sticking through the chest of Castamere’s vampire.
Castamere looked wide-eyed from his friend to War. Hands shooting up in a placating gesture, he stammered. “W-w-we can talk. This wasn’t what you th—” He made to shift, but his wolf didn’t get a chance to rip free when he was attacked from behind by a pissed-off she-wolf.
War watched with potent pride as Nora’s she-wolf ripped into the Imperial Alpha. Watching her go to war was so fucking satisfying that it had War’s wolf lunging for the surface. War let his wolf take his skin, and then he was joining his Alpha She. While he wanted to rip Castamere limb from limb, while he wanted to gift Nora the stupid fuck’s head, it felt imperative that he let her have her part in this. She deserved it.
Castamere finally shifted into wolf form, but it wasn’t enough, not against War and his queen. Holding Cas down, War let Nora rip him up. Jaws full of meat and fur, War’s wolf had his eyes locked on Castamere’s pack, daring them to make a move. And they did. The sound of shattering glass behind War had the Imperials making a break for it, but they’d trapped themselves inside the dome, and the hole in the glass behind him was the only way in or out.
Fucking cowards!
In his eyes, there wasn’t a redeeming quality in a single one of these wolves. They’d let their Alpha hurt a female and attempt to use her to negotiate. Weak!
He opened up the ties to his pack, his Alpha command crackling with authority as he lashed, “Take no prisoners!”
None of the Imperials would survive the day, not after what they’d done.
Feeling Castamere’s body go lax, War felt the last beat of the Alpha’s heart as he lifted his eyes. Nora stood over Castamere’s dead wolf. Lip peeled back in a vicious snarl, blood dripped from her jaws.
Be humble, but let motherfuckers know! That’s my queen.
Her eyes flashed bright gold with the adrenaline of battle. They lifted to War’s where some of the heat left them. Chest heaving, her snarl slipped and her wolf staggered.
Fuck!
Releasing Castamere’s limp wolf, War shifted in a flash and caught Nora’s wolf just before it slumped to the ground. Tallius’s and Matese’s wolves stood close, backs to War and Nora as they protected their Alpha.
Looking to them and then the battle raging inside the fractured dome, War snarled, “Finish this!”
Tallius and Matese shot off at a dead run and tore into the battle. Turning, War carried Nora out of the dome and walked determinedly back to the Fortress.
Chapter 22
Nora woke slowly. Coming to a reluctant consciousness, she instantly regretted it. Damn, she was sore! She felt like she’d run from Montana to Timbuktu. Groaning, she tried to stretch but stopped with a gasp when all of her muscles threatened to seize. Everything came flooding back at once. Being taken, Castamere, his abuse, War and the WG coming for her.
Forcing her eyes open, she lifted her hands and held them in front of her face. Her battered knuckles were healed. Touching her lip and her cheek, she was surprised to find that they felt fine. Her wolf had healed he
r! Eyes darting to the room, she instantly recognized War’s chamber. She was home! Relief flooded her and had her relaxing back into the bed with a grateful sigh.
Movement at the window caught her attention. Eyes landing on War’s broad back, Nora watched him slowly turn and face her. Dim light filtered in around him, and she couldn’t tell if it was dusk or dawn. It didn’t matter. What did was the grim expression on War’s handsome face. Worry slithered through her and had her ignoring her whining muscles to shove to a sitting position.
“Did everyone come home?”
War frowned but dipped his head in a nod.
“No one’s hurt?” she asked, trying to discover the source of his clear displeasure.
Wordlessly, he shook his head.
“Then what?” she demanded. “What’s wrong?”
Taking a step toward her, War angled his head. “You . . . you said home.”
Confused, it took Nora a moment to catch up to what he was saying. “Yeah, well . . . I meant you—your,” she clarified, tossing a hand at him. “Your home. Did everyone make it safely back to your home?”
“Everyone’s alive and well,” he answered in a gruff tone.
“Then what’s wrong?”
Frowning hard, his eyes never left hers as he said, “I’m sorry I didn’t believe you.”
As the fear washed from her, she slumped back against the pillows and propped a hand on her forehead as she let her eyes close. “Is that it? Jesus,” she breathed. Eyes snapping open, she shot him a dark look. “I thought someone died!”
“Someone could have.”
“Of course someone could have,” she bit out. “You went to war. That happens.”
“Not my men, Nora. You! You could have died!”
With a snort she let her shoulders relax. “I didn’t.”
“No thanks to me!”
Looking at him, she realized how upset he really was. Tone softening, she offered, “It’s okay, War. I’m fine. I’m hom—here,” she amended quickly. “I’m here. I’m safe.”
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