close-fitted dress that falls halfway down her thighs. They are blue as midnight, her favorite color, and in her hand she grips her short dagger, the one Mother gifted her before she was sent to the Balor Wolves.
The bear rises on hind legs once more, growling its threat, promising to rip us apart.
Hel smirks my way, and I almost crumble at seeing her… Gods, I’ve missed my sister so much.
“You being a pussy, Brother?”
This isn’t right… she can’t be in the fucking Poisonous Woods. Yet my grasp tightens around my knife.
The bear suddenly barrels toward my sister, and terror slams into me.
I hurl myself toward them. “Watch out,” I yell, rushing toward her madly, dropping my blade, and my wolf tears out of me, shredding my clothes, my skin.
Air rushes in, doing nothing to put out the angry flames flooding my insides.
I don’t stop… never stop. I lost my sister once for being too gutless to save her, to stand up to the enemy wolves. But no fucking way will that happen again.
14
Nikos
“Bear,” I shout, my eyes never leaving the black monstrosity that emerges out of the woods. Yellow eyes find me, a growl rolling from the newcomer’s huge chest. I’m recoiling from the animal that seems set on making me its prey.
“Fuck! Crius, Stone!”
I swipe a look over my shoulder when no one responds, but they aren’t even remotely near me. Stone’s across the clearing doing fuck knows what, while Crius is darting in and out of the woods, ducking and rolling about like a lunatic. He’s finally lost his mind. I knew he would one day, but why now of all damn times?
Of course no one comes when I ask for help. It’s the story of my life, isn’t it?
Fuck every single one of them. I didn’t need them when my family sold me out, and I sure as hell don’t need them now. Instead, I lower my gaze on the approaching bear, his fur black as a raven’s feathers. There’s nothing normal about him, with his flaming eyes and the dark fog trailing behind him. It coils around his legs like somehow I’m in a terrible dream.
Head back, it roars, the sound piercing my ears, and fuck me but that sounds pretty real to me.
Grabbing my blades from my boots, one in each hand, I’m ready to skin this fucker. It’s not my first time dancing with these giant furballs.
I lift my head and stare into the promised death of the animal’s face, waiting for it to make a move, to lunge.
Seconds tick past.
Then it suddenly bursts forward.
The ground shudders, my sights set on the beast. I try to swallow the lump in my throat.
My brother’s words come to me at this moment. Let the enemy think they’ve won until the very last second. Then you strike.
My heart lurches to my throat. Every inch of me is thundering with the adrenaline of battle, responding to the hunger in this animal’s eyes. It wants my blood, and I’ll finish him off.
The creature lunges, mouth gaping with razor-sharp teeth, extended claws reaching for me.
I throw myself sideways, the animal lurching after me, but momentum makes him slow and clumsy. I pitch my attack directly at the animal’s side and thrust my knife upward into the softer hide of the underbelly, the blade sinking into flesh.
An ear-splitting growl comes from the bear’s mouth as it swings around, sweeping a paw the size of my head. I duck and hurl myself toward its chest.
Watch the mouth, always watch it, my brother’s voice sings in my ears.
In haste, I thrust the blade upward as the creature bends down, mouth gaping.
My knife pierces him under the chin and goes straight through. Abandoning the weapon, I dart out of striking range and whip back around.
Heart pounding, I expect to find it collapsed on the ground. Instead, its snarl blazes like thunder, the blade under its chin doing nothing.
What the fuck?
That’s when I realize there’s no blood coming from this beast. Not a single drop, and reality catches up to me that I’m dealing with magic, with something that’s maybe already dead.
How the hell am I meant to eliminate that?
“Narah,” I bellow, but when I glance back, she’s nowhere in sight. Hell!
Fear crawls up my spine as the animal prepares to attack again, showing no sign of slowing down.
I turn my head, scanning the ground for the others. Ragnar is the closest, edging into the shadowy woods, his attention on something inside the forest.
“Ragnar,” I