by A. K. Koonce
Sometimes our life isn’t what we make it, but what others choose to make it.
Like my mother.
And like the gods who cast this beautiful warrior of a man into the bowels of Hell.
Perhaps we’re the same.
Hours fall away like that without a hint at the time. No sun dares to cross the bleeding red sky. It never fades lighter or darker. It simply burns us harder with each passing second that fades away into the nothingness of the desert.
“The bridge will be just up the bend here,” Torben says suddenly.
I glance up at the unending sloshing of the river. It’s straight as a beam. The length of it carries out into the distance like an artist’s study on perspective.
My nose scrunches with a painful reminder of the burn against my flesh as I look from the unbending river to the man at my side.
“Bend?” I ask, and my throat stings from the hoarseness of my voice.
He glances down at me. His attention alone reminds me of the press of his lips against mine.
Heat rushes to my already warm face as I look away.
“The bend.” He waves a big hand in front of him as if it’s obvious.
I look up at the fiery stream once more.
It’s literally as straight as Mary’s not-so-secret dating profile on wolves seeking wolves dot com. Not even a hint of a curious drifting slant, I’m telling you.
“Squint your eyes,” Torben commands.
Painful lines crinkle around my eyes as I search out this nonexistent bend in the riverside.
Nothing. Not even a rock along the bank can be seen to curve the trail of flaming water.
“Use your other sight,” Torben encourages, and it slowly sinks in.
“You mean my wolf’s?” My eyebrows lift as I meet his gaze.
He nods.
My eyes narrow.
“How would you know how to use my other sight?” My head tilts and he swiftly looks away into the vast nothingness. “What are you, Torben?” I ask quietly.
“A warrior. Powerful enough to lead many ventures into many realms, and most importantly, powerful enough see the bend up ahead. And to tell you to mind your pretty fucking business.” His jaw clenches, and he doesn’t even look my way as he strides ahead with even faster steps.
He leaves me, but also stays close. The space he clings to between him and me is very obvious.
He’s an asshole. Clearly. But he’s an attentive asshole.
So that’s something.
I shake my head at his bitter temperament and exhale the heavy sigh that’s clouding my lungs. My attention lifts to the fiery point in the distance where the red river kisses the crimson sky. My wolf hums to life within me, warming me to impossible temperatures as magic flares like a single sparkler at the center of my chest.
My eyes focus and unfocus. Then, a shift in sight comes together, heightening my vision, my hearing, my sense of smell, and all my senses.
And there it is. The river sways up ahead, drifting hard to the right where it rushes down faster and faster to an abrupt edge.
“A firefall.” A surprised breath of air escapes in a gasp.
Torben stops in his tracks with a wave of dust billowing around his hard warrior’s body. The corner of his lip twitches as his eyes shine brightly into mine.
“Just past the bend,” he adds to my statement.
I smile like I finally passed the shifter exam on the third try.
Pride blooms in my chest but the encouraging smile doesn’t linger on his hardened features.
“Keep moving,” he grumbles.
All the achievement in me rips away.
And I keep fucking moving.
My dawdling steps pick up the pace when that damn bend finally leads the four of us to the right. I even pass Torben in my excitement to see the bridge that leads us to the entrance of Hell.
“Slow down, princess,” he hisses.
“Slow down?” I turn to look back at the three men watching me with big, awestruck attention. “You’ve done nothing but bark at me to speed up this entire time!”
“Keep your voice down!” Torben warns on a hushed growl.
Latham’s brow lowers, and I’ve never seen him so serious before.
Then he’s running, his steps blaze over the ground with fire catching at his feet. Aric rushes forward as well, his eyes suddenly burning brighter than the sky light. Torben’s arm flexes as his fist lifts high, and I know he’s about to use the magic deep inside himself.
I just don’t understand why.
My boots stagger, and I come to full stop.
“Okay,” I whisper. “I’ll slow down. Calm your god complex already.” I lift my hands to placate the warrior and the two men who are now passing him in a blur of hellfire.
My heart pounds as a growl shakes through my chest. My wolf snorts with aggression. I can’t breathe. Something bad is near. I can feel it.
Sense it.
I look up toward Latham, but the beautiful, tormented man is no longer there. A wolf of flaming hellfire rips from his flesh. It lands on four giant paws that eat up the dry land, its claws slashing into the ground with every running step it takes. A vengeful growl parts its mouth with sparking fire roaring up its throat.
Fenrir.
Chapter Nineteen
The Guardians of Hell
Rhys
My wolf doesn’t question life. She doesn’t pause or consider the outcome.
She just fucking reacts.
She wreaks chaotic magic through my veins as her strength alone sends a shriek of pain tearing from my lips. Her snapping teeth come first. A cracking of bone and a sizzling of magic is all I remember before my body is her own. She consumes me, snarling and snapping her jaws as she turns and races in perfect rhythm with the hellhound now at my side. Bright starry eyes peer over at me for a single second, burning more brightly than the flaming fur of his fenrir, and then we’re attacking.
A beast of a man towers above us. He’s four times Torben’s size, a literal fucking giant. His bulky arm is as big as a tree and grasps a flaming branch like a weapon that arcs downward, aiming to smash us into the ashy dirt beneath my paws. I jump over his strike lithely, my wolf not only strong but graceful. Fire singes my tail, but my wolf is already taking aim. Sharp teeth rip into thick flesh. My jaws sink harder into the giant’s leg.
The putrid taste of his black blood fills my mouth, but I don’t yield.
Loki’s mewl is low and vicious as he races up and slashes at the beast with ferociously sharp claws. No longer my little ball of grey fur, his hellcat form is huge and glowing with the fires of Hell as he attacks, trying to protect me by eradicating the threat.
A blur of fire rushes past us, climbing higher, and then Latham’s fenrir catches the meaty wrist of our attacker. Growls and roars shake through the air, but it’s the abrupt earthquake below that sends me flailing to the ground with a hard kick from the giant’s bare foot.
Dirt billows around me as I hit the ground hard.
“No pass!” the enormous man booms.
Spitting fire laps up from the cracked soil. Torben stands several yards away, and once more he raises his powerful fist. It comes down like a lash of lightning, fire blazing out like an explosion of glass shattering on concrete. The warrior’s eyes blaze just as hot, searing with magic as he assesses the giant with cruel violence in his gaze.
Sparking embers surround me. The rushing river is just behind the giant and the steel metal bridge can narrowly be seen between his trunk-like legs. The heat of hellish magic burns through the air. It’s all I see, all I smell, all I feel.
Until a thrashing wind suddenly pushes down on me. A scathing sound of total destruction roars through it all, and my wolf halts in her tracks at the beastly growl hissing down from the crimson skies.
A pure black dragon with glowing symbols and lines etching all across its lengthy torso rises up. Its wide wings and even the tip of its flaming tail soars over me. It swoops down
and the giant staggers, shaking the land when he crashes down on his ass with the force of an earthquake. The shadow of the creature alone envelops the giant, and it too looks up with wide, fearful eyes.
And that’s when I take my shot.
Dirt flicks into my narrowed eyes. Fire licks at my paws as I leap over the clawing flames reaching up from the shattered land. But not even the burn of a thousand embers would stop me now.
My claws sink deep before I shove off hard. The wind catches at my limbs as total weightlessness sinks in. A dragon’s talon crashes down atop the chest of the giant just as I extend my body and sink my canines into the leathery skin at the base of his neck. A strange magic warms deep inside of me and my growl emits deeper, a painful breath burning up my throat. Magic as scorching as the blaze of the sun stings from my tongue and sizzles across the giant’s throat and face.
We’ve pinned him.
I can taste his screams that linger like ash clinging to the air.
His arms flail above me, batting at the dragon’s massive talons slicing up his face. Hands fumble against the dirt.
And then flames fly overhead like a white flag meant to kill his enemies. The fiery branch the giant wields swipes down on Aric, and despite my wolf’s determination, I release my hold and watch my friend free-fall like a battered bird fumbling to the ground. I tumble down but land on readied feet. The dragon’s roar is enraged as it huffs out smoke and carefully restrained fire.
I move away, my paws treading backward from the giant as the dragon strides closer and closer with the flames of Hell held just at the back of his throat. The giant mumbles something as he kicks Latham’s hellhound off for the third time and flings Loki away like my enormous cat is a mere annoyance rather than a true threat.
Latham stands, morphing with ease into his human form. On waning steps he comes slowly forward, his blood pooling across this ashy ground. The giant beast rears back the fist that clutches the fiery branch, and stares Aric dead in the eye.
Then he throws it with the force of a hundred men.
It launches through the air like an arrow aimed perfectly at its target. It’s quicker than the wind, barely visible to the naked eye, and there’s not enough time for Aric to react.
A blaze of familiar fiery magic flickers in the air, and not a hound or even a beast catches the flaming branch.
Smoke wafts around Latham’s body as he appears from the ether. Using his impenetrable strength, he rips the branch from the air in a collision of cracking wood. He holds the enormous branch in one hand, his gaze unflinching as he looks the monstrous giant in the eye.
Latham’s fingers tighten, his knuckles turn white, and the wood splinters in his fist as he cracks it into two solid pieces. The broken branch lands with a loud thud upon impact as Latham drops the weapon like it’s a puny stick to be forgotten.
“My club!” The giant’s face twists in anger. A war scream booms across the dry lands in sound waves full of agony. Thunderous magic shakes all around me at the sound of his rage. The trembling power raises the hackles of my fur. It sways the godly splintered cracks of fiery ground.
Pain strikes deep into my sensitive ears and my wolf whines as she lowers her head in an attempt to protect herself. It seeps into her so deeply, prickling fear strikes at the hidden well of her magic, weakening her. It’s something I’ve never felt from the reckless wolf in my entire life.
She has always been the strong one.
Always.
Anger soars through me, and I shift in the blink of an eye. The heated air is a caress against my bare skin that mimics the warmth I blanket over my wolf, locking her safely away in the center of my chest, shielding that sweet bond I have with my protective wolf who has saved me time and time again in my life.
It’s my turn to save her.
A slick trickle slips down my ear and along my neck, but the noise of the giant is nothing more than a stabbing numbness that sinks all the way through my skull.
The others look like my wolf felt.
Loki screeches with a pain filled cry as the hellcat scrambles back. Latham is curled on the ground with his hands tightly over his ears. The fierce dragon has it’s flaming tail curled around his friend, but the misery on the creature’s face is clear as it roars and flinches with each new wave of magical pain that’s sent out to them.
And Torben. Torben is crawling on his knees. Blood covers his neck and chest, but he relentlessly crawls through the flames to the monster attacking us with little effort.
With all my waning strength, I run.
My feet rush over the quaking ground. In a blur of speed, I run past the giant, leap over the lines dividing the ground, and skid to a stop right in front of the two shifters who need me most right now.
My heart soars, and with a sweep of my hand, I pick up the one thing that seems important to our attacker.
That fucking broken stick.
“Hey!” I scream. “Hey, ogre!” I shake the battered, fiery branch at him.
The shaking stops.
“Me giant!” he roars in correction, though I can barely make out his words over the ringing in my ears.
“Yeah?” I walk casually across the dry land. Everything is numb, and even my balance feels off without the sound of the rushing fire in the swift moving river as I stride closer to it. The tips of my toes stop just an inch from the edge of the cliff, just near the descent of licking flames and molten fire.
I look up at the confusion in the giant’s eyes. My hands lift high, and his gaze follows that motion.
“Go fetch, ogre.” And then I release his beloved branch over the fiery falls.
That painful roar of magic rips from his lips once more, and I fall to my knees with the slicing pain bleeding from my ears. Urgent footfalls shake the ground even stronger. My hands fumble against the dirt as I’m swayed toward the edge of the cliff.
The giant leaps right over me. His shadow is the last I see of him as he chases after his precious weapon. His slicing screams carry on though, crashing waves of magic all through the hot air.
The land shakes from the sounds of his misery. The ground splits open even more. There is no up or down. Everything teeters.
The last thing I see is a widening flash of blue eyes.
And then I fall too.
Chapter Twenty
A Hard Night
Rhys
Hot wind rips at my hair. The world is a haze of many shades of red, but I can’t open my eyes to any of it. My senses are numb and battered. My body isn’t much better.
I tense all over.
And wait for impact.
The slamming collision comes from above instead. A man drops from the sky and strong arms wrap all around me. My lashes lift just slightly, and Torben’s bloodied face is the first thing I see. His beard whips in the wind just as much as his long hair. His gaze never once looks my way.
He’s entirely focused on what lies below.
Something I nearly forgot. Until it jars into us. My head knocks against his as his boots hit the ground with a cloud of dust and dirt washing up over us. It clings to his hair and settles against my flesh as he straightens from his superhero landing.
His deep green eyes shift over my face. He traces my wide eyes, the curve of my cheek, and finally my lips. An inch of space separates me from the Viking of a man. The ripples of his muscles show beneath a drenched and dirty shirt.
He truly is a hero. He never once gave up, even after it was too late for me.
And now he’s saved me twice… Three times… Wow, I really should mumble a thank you now and then, I guess.
Something about that thought quivers inside of me and I lean into him even more, our breaths meeting just before our lips.
But our lips never touch.
Because his mouth opens with a stream of words….
That I can’t hear.
“What?” I ask as loudly as I can, but my own voice sounds far off in the distance.
His lips move once mo
re without sound.
“What?”
He flinches at the apparent sound of my words, so I try again.
“I can’t hear you!”
He shakes his head hard and drops me to the ground, my feet stumbling slightly. His now free hands shove through his messy blond locks.
Fuck. I can make out that word. I watch his lips intently to try to understand more.
Fuck—fuck—fucking woman.
“Excuse me!” My hands hit my nude hips and his attention follows the motion, making me suddenly aware of how very naked I am right now. Again.
Doesn’t matter.
“Don’t curse me. I’m right here. You’re being rude!” I glare at the man who just rescued me.
He turns on me with a deadly stare like a total caveman about to drag me off to be claimed.
I don’t know why my hips shift at the idea of that.
It’s just his stature. He’s big in that natural way that makes you want to climb him. Makes you want to see how small he can make you feel as he pins you beneath him. Makes you want to lower yourself over him and find out if every inch of him is just as proportionate…
“I said this fucking woman is going to get me in trouble!” he roars, and his gravelly growl suddenly sinks in.
My mouth falls open, and I listen intently.
The sound of a beautiful hellacious waterfall can be heard. If I close my eyes, I can imagine it to be just that instead of falling flames of fire.
In the distance, I hear the thudding footsteps of the retreating giant as he disappears from sight, cradling his precious broken branch.
My hearing is healed.
The part of me that’s never really been mine but my wolf’s is now one. I’m her and she is me. We share the same healing magic. The same emotions. The same beautiful soul.
Dampness stings my eyes as I look up at Torben with a sudden smile.
“I’m a wolf,” I say through the excited, tender emotions filling me.
Narrowed eyes look at me like I’m fucking crazy.