My Personal Hell, D. Richardson [ebook reader browser txt] 📗

didn’t bother with subtly, instead pulled his head back from her neck and slicing his throat. She stopped screaming as soon as I appeared above her, even with the blood that splashed down onto her stomach.

The brutality was like nothing I had ever seen. Everywhere I looked death had taken up residence. The land would never been the same again. I offered her a hand just as Keira grabbed her other one. We hauled her to her feet and then returned to the fight, our backs to each other.

Two more minutes passed when the sound of the battle started to fade. After my last opponent dropped I looked for another, but our area was clear. I turned looking for the remainder of the fight. The guys had managed to corral the remaining rogues into the center, completely surrounding them.

There would be no mercy, no chance to surrender. They came out here to kill us, enslave the females, steal the children, and take our homes. They were already dead, they just didn’t know it. I paused to take a breath when a pain exploded in the pit of my stomach. This wasn’t an injury, something was wrong.

“Are you okay?” Chris asked, grabbing my shoulder to keep me from falling. I shook my head.

“The girls,” I breathed, something went wrong at the house, they were in some serious trouble. The pain eased just enough for me to stand straight and take a deep breath. “Drake!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. He turned to look at me, blood covered his face and his arms. He met my eyes and I could see the panic starting to form.

“Go, take your men, we’ll finish up here and join you!” Stephan yelled, we didn’t waste any time. Drake’s men split from the group and took off towards the house. I was already running.

Panic started to build in my chest, my breathing was ragged and I just kept pushing my legs to go faster. When I felt like I was ready to explode I launched forward, pushing to shift in mid air, and I hit the ground on all fours. I put on another burst of speed closing the distance as fast as my body could carry me.

I heard the screaming before I saw the bodies. The back yard was littered with them with barely a foot of space to separate them. Arrows stuck out of most of them, though there were several with blade wounds joining them. There was a small group of females fighting right in front of the back porch.

The fourth wave must have gotten here before we were done with our end of the fighting. A young female, no older than twenty was screaming, caught in the grasp of a large rogue. Her feet dangled a few inches off the ground as he lifted her by the throat. He lifted a knife, intent on stabbing her in the face.

I watched in slow motion as his hand came down, and I hit him in the side. She hit the ground just as we did, his throat caught in jaws. It took a surprisingly little amount of pressure to snap it. When he was motionless I looked back at the female. She sat just a couple of feet away, then reached over and grabbed the machete she had been using, he must have snuck up on her. When she was on her feet, she nodded at me.

“Okay, I’m okay, some of them made it inside.” I didn’t wait for her. Spinning and rushing up the stairs I knocked into any male I came within reach of, knocking them off balance so the females would have the advantage.

When I made it inside chaos enveloped me. I didn’t hesitate as I witnessed several females fighting to defend their own and their comrades lives. I took it one male at a time. Ripping into their legs or sides, until I was sure the females could finish them off.

I could hear fighting all the way through the house, and when I made it to the hallway I looked up to see three females using the stairway to funnel the males in close together. But then my blood froze.

Tom stood just before the basement door, Kadi was behind that door, huddled in the cooler with the rest of the small children. Sandra, Alex’s mate, and Lori sat huddled on the ground in front of him. Sandra was injured, her leg bleeding badly, keeping her from standing. Lori crouched over her doing her best to shield the bulk of the injured woman. She held a sword in her right hand, glaring up at him. Glaring at him while he held a gun aimed at her head.

Time slowed as I rushed forward. Guns were seen as the most cowardly weapon a wolf could use, which was why none of us had one. It shouldn’t have surprised me that he would have brought a gun to a knife fight.

But I saw his eyes narrow as he squeezed the trigger. My shoulder hit Sandra, shoving both of them out of the way with my momentum. I felt the bullet lodge in my chest and hit the door as the force of the shot pushed me back. I lay there, barely able to breath when he walked up to me.

His eyes looked feverish, insane as he stared down at me. I felt my body shift back to my human form, unable to maintain the energy it took to stay on all fours. I locked his eyes with mine, and he smiled as he pulled the trigger again. Once, twice, before a deep ember colored wolf latched her jaws around his wrist.

He dropped the gun as he was dragged off his feet. I watched with a strange detachment as she ripped into his stomach with her claws, and then tore his throat out with her teeth. I turned my head, trying to see what else was happening. Though my hearing cut out, I watched all of it in silence.

The first girl I had met on the porch was laying barely ten feet inside the back door. A pool of blood laid under her and she stared back at me, motionless. One of the girls on the stairs had fallen, a knife hilt sticking out of her stomach, her eyes closed as she cried.

All around me females were falling, not all of them able to get back up. I felt tears start to trace my cheeks as I lay there, unable to help them. Their pain and desperation as they fought to save their home cut me deeper than any blade, made me hurt more than any bullet.

At once my hearing returned, just in time to catch male voices. Voices that I knew. The cavalry had come. Drake, Dalton, Bastion, Asher, Alex, all of them came running inside. I smiled, they were here, they would save the rest. Then Sandra blocked my view. Lori crouched next to her, tears dripping onto my exposed flesh.

She was using some kind of material to try to stop my bleeding. I wanted to tell her to stop crying, that it was okay. She was so brave, willing to give her life to keep Tom from reaching the children. And kind, the number of times that she had stitched me up, never once complaining. She was worth saving, and I regretted none of my actions.

“Sandra!” I heard Alex’s voice coming closer.

“Alex! I’m here, we’re here, you have to help, we can’t stop the bleeding!” she yelled back, he reached us seconds later, staring down at me, horror filling his eyes. “She saved us, knocked us out of the way of the bullet, but he kept shooting her,” she was sobbing now.

“No!” Sadler slid to a stop next to me. Pain twisting his face as he looked down at me, his hands hovering over my body as though he didn’t know what to do. “You should have waited for me! Why didn’t you wait for me?” he sobbed, finally grabbing my hand as Alex took up Sandra’s old spot. A soft glow started to surround him as I stared. I wanted to tell him that he was beautiful, but my voice wouldn’t work.

 

 

 

Drake

 

 

 

I stood and stared as Ailith laid there, slowly bleeding out. Every moment I had ever spent in her presence played through my head.

Seeing her for the first time in Van’s kitchen. Her hidden emotions leaving nothing but mystery. The quiet resignation as she handed me their coveted paperwork. Her bleeding all over the kitchen floor. The betrayal in her eyes as she left to go up to her room, knowing that she would be locked inside.

Her calm demeanor as she sentenced a pedophile to the same fate that he had visited on others. Her stubbornness to keep working even though we would have gladly bought her anything she wanted. Laughing with her friends on my living room floor. Dancing on stage in her effort to save my pack, again.

The quiet guilt that lingered in her eyes after killing that first rogue. The sadness that radiated from her after sending her closest friends away. The anger that lit her eyes while she fought for her chance to right her own wrongs. Seeing her among the flowers when she finally opened up to me.

Kissing my cheek after I had accidentally called her my daughter. The pride she had when she managed to negotiate with an opposing alpha. The glances I had gotten while she was slicing through her enemies, so graceful she might have been dancing again.

Her tenacity, skill, strength, passion, grace, kindness, all of it was bleeding out onto my hallway floor.

“No, no, no, don’t go, you have to stay,” Sadler moaned, her hand cradled against his chest as he leaned over her. Tears flowed freely down his face, washing the blood away. He touched her hair, smoothing it from her face.

Becca appeared next to me and shifted. Blood coated her torso, blocking any nudity from view. She looked down at Ailith and grief took over her features. After a moment, she turned into me, sobbing into my shoulder. I wrapped my arms around her shoulders allowing my own silent tears to flow freely.

Keira, Christine, Jen, Camilla, Dalton, Macon, Nevin, Bastion, all of them were crying for this one girl. One girl that had managed to mean so much to all of us in just barely over a year’s time.

Ailith reached up wiping at the tears that only flowed faster down Sadler’s face. Blood smeared across his cheek from her touch. He turned his face into her hand, holding it to his cheek.

“You promised! You have to stay with me. I love you.” She gave him a sad smile, then her eyes started to drift closed. Her hand fell from his cheek and he started to openly sob.

Then Jackson appeared out of nowhere. A large defibrillator landed next to him as he moved Sadler out of the way. Two more men pushed Alex, Sandra, and Lori to the side, evening her body out on the floor so she wasn’t against the door anymore. The three men started to clean her wounds and check her vitals.

“Not yet, Princess, you still have an obligation to fulfill,” Jackson muttered, pulling the paddles free of the machine.

He shocked her once and her body jumped. Her back arching for a long painful second before she hit the floor again. The second man checked her pulse, and shook his head. They shocked her again, he checked her pulse, shook his head. Her back arched up off the floor a third time. He checked her pulse…