Kendra could have sworn that her heart stopped when she heard the scouts sound the Signalling Bells.
The Curers were stationed outside the Gates!
Her first thought was getting the pups to the basement like she and the others had discussed, and so she had dashed to the nursery like someone possessed, all the while remembering how Leray and Killian had expressed their uncertainty on the Curers’ day of attack.
It turned out that they had been right after all.
They were fortunate that they had at least managed to get everything in order before they had been attacked, and when Kendra saw the Alpha’s daughter exit the nursery, a temporarily look of relief on her face, she realised how true that was,
They had been really lucky.
But she was in for some bad news.
“It’s not looking good, Kendra.” Aiyisha said, looking every bit prepared for battle, her entire body covered in steel armour save for her head. She looked so much like a powerful force to be reckoned with, and Kendra knew that it was every bit the truth. They had sparred for a little bit, and truly, she was a formidable opponent. “They’re trying to breach the walls. The Centuria are doing their best to keep them from doing so, but it seems they have some supernatural backing of sorts, for fire isn’t doing a thing to any of them.”
Fuck.
Her legs started heading out even before she realised it, perhaps an unconscious move on her part to see things for herself. She felt the easy move of her limbs, and a funny thought crossed her mind in that moment,
Had she been in a gown, she would not have been able to move as fast as she was currently doing.
Kendra recognized that feeling very well, her brain was trying to get her to focus on something else, something light and funny as opposed to the seriousness of their situation.
Although she was not as heavily armoured as her friend, being only in fighting leathers with selective armour alone, she did have the advantage of weapons, the visible ones on her person alone looking quite intimidating. Aiyisha was willing to bet her last penny that she had an alarming amount hidden on her as well.
As they walked out to the plains of Desolation, a land that had gotten its name for how untillable it was, stretching right across the town’s main borders, where their troops were currently stationing themselves in readiness of the breaking in of the Curers, Kendra felt her mind briefly flick to her mate.
No.
She could not do this now, she could not allow herself to be distracted, and so she quickly shut off the thoughts, praying to whoever cared to listen to keep him safe.
The two she wolves joined Sanjit and Leray on the frontlines, their faces etched in seriousness. To think Sanjit had initially suggested that they join the nursing She-wolves and their pups in the basement. The nerve. All it had taken was a pair of smouldering looks and he had reasonably kept mute.
“Your father just came by to inspect the troops, Aiyisha…” Leray informed her in a whisper, as he made gestures to some of his men in the high towers, silently issuing a command of sorts, “He seemed very impressed, as though somehow he thought we would be doomed with Devin absent.” He shot her a smirk, “Think we have finally managed to warm the old man’s heart?”
Aiyisha scoffed as she mounted her horse, “We wish.”
The troops, which had a while ago been alive with conversation and laughter, eerily became silent as they eyed their Alpha’s only child who was now practically their general,
And a woman nonetheless.
Some people looked at her with pride, others with scorn, but it did not really matter, for whether they liked it or not, for the duration of the battle, they were under her command and had to do anything she ordered them to as she saw fit.
Aiyisha von Sterling took a step forward on her horse, her head raised high, her blue eyes shining with love and pride for her people as she held onto the reins, “Brothers and sisters,” She started, her voice raised just right so everyone could hear, not that she had to shout that much anyway, seeing as all of them had perfect hearing and then some, “War is here. It may have been sudden, and we may still feel like we have not done much— like we have not prepared enough, but I can assure you that we have. We are more than ready, brothers and sisters… our pups, our wives, our families are counting on us today to keep them safe.” She said, her voice filled with so much passion, with so much power that Kendra could not help but feel proud. “We have not done anything to the humans to deserve this,” She continued, “And yet they attack us today for who we are… for being nothing but ourselves. And so today, if war is what they want, war is what they will get. Let us rain the fury of our anger and our frustrations atop their heads and have them running back to where they came from with their tails tucked between their legs in defeat.”
A loud roar shot up through the horde, as they came alive at her words, hope shining in their eyes as they hollered their acceptance for her— as they bellowed their acceptance for the role they had been given, the sound so loud, so truly frightening that Kendra hoped that it was sending chills down the spines of the Curers standing outside the gates. They may be immune to fire alright, but there were still lots of ways they could get to them for sure, and she sure as hell was looking forward to it.
The troops had been grouped into four, the foot soldiers who consisted of swordsmen and spearmen, the cavalry, and then finally, the partial and fully shifted wolf unit. From the way the turned wolves joined their human counterparts and howled their support, it was very much obvious that they had been affected by the fighting fever as well.
Soldiers from the high towers continued to shoot arrows and fire from canons and trebuchets, even as the soldiers on ground continued their war chant.
At one point, the strong, formerly impenetrable huge gate shook violently, causing the war chant to falter for a bit, but it just as quickly picked up again.
At Aiyisha’s command, the troops changed formation again and neared the border gates, charging right towards the red-robed, bald-headed men as soon as the gate fell and the started trickling in.
“Surrender, Dnakle… and you will be spared.” Army General Alaric Macintyre boomed loudly even through the chaos, but Aiyisha was quick to reject his offer, “We will fight till death to defend our homes,” She said proudly.
“So be it then.” Came the blonde haired man’s reply.
For two hours, the battle raged on… a bloody gory sight as wolf attacked man, and man clashed with wolf, as red robed men fell to the ground by the minute, not without equally inflicting damage on the steel armoured soldiers.
And then Alaric Macintyre saw Kendra.
Her waist length hair was bound tightly in a bun, her fighting leathers fitting rather tightly, accentuating all of her curves and edges. There was this excited gleam in her— were her eyes blue? He remembered them to be brown— but she seemed to take so much pleasure in bringing down his men. And gods, he’d be damned if he did not admit that her viciousness was mesmerising to watch.
They could have been so good together.
His heart ached as he remembered all of her lies and betrayal, the pain making him dismount his horse even before he could realise it.
It was not too late, maybe they still had a shot.
He almost met with the sharp blade of her titanium sword, but he easily ducked, his presence causing her some element of surprise if her widened eyes were any indication.
“Kendra.” He nodded in greeting, but she did not say a word in response, only staring at him, as though she somehow could not believe that he was standing before her in that very moment.
But it was really him.
And the horror of him addressing her by her name had Kendra realising that he knew who she was, knew that all that time she had been in his camp, she had been lying to him.
She definitely did not know what to say to that, and so she got right to doing what she knew how to do best.
Fight.
It was almost as though he had been anticipating that she’d go down that path, and to be honest he wanted to feel her close to him, and so he humoured her a bit, engaging her in the sword fight she wanted. All around them, the battle raged on, but they were both completely oblivious, almost as though they were stuck in a world of their own as they fought.
“It’s not too late, Kendra,” He said as he deflected her attack to his chest, trying an attack of his own just to keep her occupied, “You can still drop everything and agree to be my blessing… this is not your fight after all, but if you so much wish it, I could spare your friends for your sake,”
“I’d rather die than be with you, Alaric,” She spat venomously, her eyes shining with so much hate… hate that made everything clear to him,
He was wasting his time.
Dropping his sword, he raised his arms to the skies, his pupils vanishing, leaving only whites behind. Kendra was very much confused at first, but before she could realise what has happening, it was already too late.
She could feel him in her head, and she found that she was frozen and unable to do anything against it.
Alaric grabbed her by the throat, squeezing hard, a wicked smirk forming on his lips at the pained look on her face, “Oh Kendra,” He murmured softly, “It seems you have forgotten just how powerful I am.” He tsked in disappointment, “You just lost your chance to live the finest life you could have ever dreamed of, fiery one... and believe me when I tell you it’s such a shame, for you would not have lacked for anything. And with both of our powers combined, can you imagine that? Gods, we would have been... unstoppable. We could have had the whole world at our feet... but you reject me with so much scorn.” He drew a dagger from its sheath, a beautiful piece with a gold and silver encrusted hilt and an even sharper blade made of silver, and absentmindedly traced it down her right arm as he murmured so softly that she almost missed it, “And now you’re going to die... such a waste.”
The female Beta felt so weak that all she could manage was watch as the sharp blade caressed her skin, light enough not to cause any real damage, little tendrils of smoke and the horrid smell of burning flesh hitting her nose as her body protested the presence of silver… and yet, even looking alone was proving difficult. She couldn’t move, she couldn’t speak... it was almost as though she was paralysed.
Perhaps, that was exactly what had been done to her.
The General brought the sharp blade to her heart, right under her ample breast, but before he could finish what he had started, a sharp pain seized him by the head, causing him to let go of the dagger— and his concentration it seemed, for Kendra was suddenly in control of all her faculties again as she watched the dagger clatter to the ground in what seemed to be slow motion. That was all it took for the female beta to get right into action, lunging long and wide to retrieve the dagger with a forward roll. Not that it had mattered anyway, for it seemed that whatever had clutched onto the General’s mind was still very much at work, because he wouldn’t stop crying out in pain as he knelt there on the ground, hands clutching his temples so hard that she thought he was going to drill holes in his head.
This is it… we can kill him, right here and now.
Kendra’s wolf thought gleefully as she held on to the dagger with both hands, her chest heaving at just how narrowly she had managed to escape death.
To be honest, Kendra one hundred percent agreed with her wolf… but for some reason, she could not bring herself to do it. There was just something about striking a helpless man— even if said man had tried to kill her a few seconds ago— that did not feel right.
But she fucking needed to get rid of those feelings,
For someone was going to have to do it if this battle was going to end, because from the look of things, Alaric Macintyre was not going to stop until he had burnt Dnakle to the ground. And so she tried to steel herself and try again, but she heard it in her head,
A woman’s voice.
Morgana’s.
“Let me deal with him, child,”
It was then she saw the Silver witch, standing quite a distance away, but walking towards them, a look of concentration etched on her beautiful, youthful countenance even as she muttered some words under her breath, her fingers dancing along to the tune of her mouth even as she focused them on the blond haired human.
If Kendra had thought the General distressed before, she was quick to change her mind,
For this time, he was distressed.
The female Beta looked on in sickly fascination as the once powerful General thrashed and turned and rolled on the ground, screaming and screaming until he literally burst into flames.