.Chapter 20-1
Simone
Claim
The pack of five beasts crashed into the town square not a second after the guard finished
shouting his alert. These were bigger than usual, more vicious, with that same hairless, deformed
appearance that made my skin crawl. Behind them, a group of enforcers were already running,
before they could do any real damage to the buildings or civilians.
“Everyone who can fight, with me!” my father bellowed, his alpha voice carrying across the square as people scattered to safety or grabbed weapons.
My parents came running from the building behind me, shifting into their wolves mid-stride as they joined the fray. I wanted to help, but I had a different job now.
“Simone, the infirmary!” Saul called out, already heading toward his clinic.
I ran after him, my heart pounding as we grabbed multiple first aid kits and set up our emergency station. The attacks had started the day I came back a month ago, so we’d developed a routine by now. If anyone got scratched or bitten by these magically poisoned creatures, they left the fight immediately and came to us for treatment.
I took care of neutralizing the poison and Saul patched them up quickly so they could return to the fight. It had been like this since the first battle, where one of our enforcers had fought too long with a claw scratch on his leg. By the time the beast was dead and he was finally brought to the infirmary, it had almost been too late to save him. A few more seconds and he would have died.
So this new rhythm worked, even if it meant I couldn’t be on the front lines where I wanted to be.
“Marcus, get over here!” I shouted as I saw one of our younger fighters clutching his arm while still trying to engage a beast in his human form. “Now!”
He reluctantly disengaged and ran over, his arm bleeding from three parallel gashes. I could
already smell the magic poison seeping from the wounds.
“This is going to sting,” I warned him, placing my hands over the cuts and letting my energy flow into them.
The magical poison fought slightly against my power, but after a month of practice, I’d gotten much better at this. The toxic magic dissolved under my touch, and Marcus’s wolf healing immediately kicked in to stop the bleeding.
“Thanks, Si,” he said, flexing his arm as Saul finished bandaging him up. “I’m going back in.”
“Be more careful this time,” I called after him as he shifted and leaped back into the battle.
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Chapter 20-1
Claim
The fight lasted longer than usual. Each time they attacked, the beasts seemed more coordinated,
more intelligent than the previous attacks. It was as if each fight worked to improve them, as
some sort of wicked test. And finally, when three of them finally went down, the remaining two
turned around and tried to run.
That’s when I saw it. A glint of metal embedded in the side of the last beast. A sword hilt,
protruding from what looked like a non-fatal wound in its flank.
My heart stopped as recognition hit me. My body started running on its own, chasing the creature
before my brain could process what I was doing.
“Simone!” my mother yelled behind me as she shifted back, but I couldn’t stop. I knew they were
following me, I could hear their footsteps pounding after mine, but I couldn’t speak right now.
Couldn’t explain why I was suddenly chasing a wounded beast away from the safety of the pack.
The creature was already injured and battered, stumbling as it tried to flee up the mountainside. I
shifted into my wolf and used the uneven ground to my advantage, leaping from rock to rock until I
could jump on its back.
I bit down hard on its neck, the crunching of bones and the sudden flow of disgusting blood in my
mouth making me gag. The creature collapsed beneath me, finally dead, but the taste of its poisoned blood sent my already sensitive stomach into rebellion.
I shifted back to human form and immediately vomited all over the corpse, my whole body
trembling with revulsion and adrenaline. My mother appeared beside me instantly, wrapping a
blanket around my naked, shaking form.
Comments
LUCK DRAW >
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