The Delta's Daughter Chapter 101

LAMIA

By the time I had made it back down, I hurled myself into the thick of the fight. Our men had met the crawlers head on and our gamma teams had pushed through to engage the rogue shifters.

There seemed to be more bear shifters than wolves or cats. Usually the majority were wolves.

“Hunji!” I yelled out as I neared his position.

He threw a sword to me and I began advancing on the monsters. It was not my blade, but it would do the job.

“Nice of you to join us, your highness” How Hunji could joke in a time like this I had no idea. I gave him a displeased look over my shoulder.

To my left, a few feet away, I saw Travis cutting down crawler after crawler. The alpha and beta teams were using their shields to protect themselves from gashes or bites, while still being able to wield their weapons.

*Josiah, report!* I linked him; he was in charge of the gamma teams.

*Not good my queen, we have more incoming!* His worried words reached me.

*How many?* I asked him, stabbing a crawler, then twisting to slash another.

*Too many, I can’t count but at a guess, 100 or more rogues* Josiah related.

100 more rogues. Where did Orion get his numbers from? And after finding out how he ‘made’ the crawlers, I couldn’t even think where those people had come from.

“Lamia, they are coming for you!” Hunji yelled to me as he moved closer to where I stood.

I took pause for a millisecond to gauge our surroundings. He was right, the crawlers that got past our line seemed to be making a straight path in my direction. I felt Hunji closer to me, our backs almost touching and Travis moved in front in a bid to block the crawlers from getting to me. But his efforts were wasted, they were coming at us from all angles.

There seemed to be more pouring from the trees and out from the cover of the forest. There were too many. I needed my swords. I had left them in my room, not realizing I would need them.

*Alpha, I’m losing men* Josiah’s rushed voice rang through my head again.

*Hold the line Josiah, hold the line!* I called out.

We were being overrun, and despite my speed and strength, it wasn’t enough. Not alone. I began to doubt myself and I feared for my warriors as I watched crawlers pile onto a she-wolf from our beta team, tearing at her flesh. Her screams were drowned out by the other shrieks and howls that were filling the stagnant air around us. Each second the scent of blood became stronger.

I whipped my sword around, staying back to back with Hunji. We cut down Crawler after Crawler, swinging our blades like mad men in a frenzy. They were never ending.

Just when I was trying to figure out how to save my warriors and losing hope, a familiar scent hit my nose and his voice filled my head.

*Looks like we arrived just in time* He smirked through the link.

*Rhett!!!* I wanted to fist bump the air *How can you mind-link?* amongst all this carnage that was what I asked him.

*No idea, but I brought back up* I could hear the strain in his voice and past the rogues and crawlers I could see Rhett and his team coming up behind and joining the fight.

The small smile that I had, faded as I realized, it still wasn’t enough. We were still out numbered.

They just kept coming. No! We will fight to the death. I would not give up hope. I would not let my kingdom fall to these monsters.

But my courage and my strength were not enough. If I had my swords, I could channel Inanna’s power better.

“Stay with me Lamia, we are fighting for our people!” I heard Travis. But they just kept coming for me. Stay focused, I chided myself.

‘ Mate will help us’ Inanna whispered.

‘Mate is gone, he left us’ I told her. ‘He left us to die, he does not want us’ I felt her sorrow at my words and I understood.

He had drained me, and then left me. My heart was broken and this was affecting my fight, whether I wanted to admit it or not. Both my wolf and I were feeling the dejection and it had caused our will to dwindle. Our light was not shinning.

I felt a rumble beneath my feet, then the tantalizing smell of black rum and vanilla filled my nostrils.

And there he was.

My king.

His fur glistened under the moonlight beams that broke through the trees, illuminating his larger-than-life beast.

 Arcas.

The thunderous beat of his humongous paws, pounded through the ground, feeling the mighty beat of the beast, as it sent a shiver from your feet and up to your spine. His imposing figure, charging towards the battle.

His roar was powerful, hurtling his way through the crawlers and rogues, demolishing whatever stood in his path, the forest shifted. Trees bent, and the night stilled, as the echo of his roar washed in a wave through the battlefield. Paving his way to me.

I passed a look at Hunji. I didn't know if he was here to save me or kill me? And neither did Hunji.

I shivered at either of those thoughts, and a little fear rose up when I thought of the latter. I stood my ground, fighting off the crawlers and rogues that were trying to get to me. Hunji by my side, working together, I prayed to the goddess that Mathias had come to his senses, or at least didn’t want me dead.

I could see Travis to my left, in front, holding his own, but there were sooo many.

They just kept coming, but I hadn’t been hurt yet. The Crawlers were attacking but they weren’t trying to bite or attack a main artery.

Arcas' eyes shone platinum, luminescent like the moon. They were trained on me, not even breaking from me when he tore through the enemy.

The crawlers began to shrink back from their blitz and when Arcas was 15 feet from me, not slowing down, I braced myself for a whole new fight against my mate.

He shifted in one fluid motion, his long legs closing the distance with speed and before I could react he had me in his arms, his lips smashing into mine as I froze in shock.

I pushed him away scowling and giving him a look full of warning. He was not forgiven. His eyes softened and shame flickered across his perfect face. He shook his head at me.

*I have some trust to earn, I know, but I am here* He kissed my forehead then turned towards the dwindling battle, his naked ass strutting as he went.

‘Ours’ Inanna hummed, happy that her mate had come to save us.

“Ours” I repeated, still stunned while I watched him get right back to bulldozing through the enemy, chasing them away from me, for me.

He came back... for me.

“They breached the castle!” Travis called angrily. Shit. They must have used the tunnels, but I thought we had those covered.

Suddenly there was a long-drawn out roar, it was powerful but nowhere close to as dominant as Arcas’.

The crawlers turned tail, scurrying back into the shadows as quietly as when they came, the rogues began to retreat and the fighting began to die down.

Across the river of blood and bodies stood a man, tall and broad with hair almost white, his pale violet eyes enhanced by the soft glow of the moon and the rolling wave of the green light that spread across the vast night sky.

Finnegan.

In his arms he held a small body, a child. The child’s arms were wrapped around his neck. Finnegan leaned in close to the child’s head and whispered something. The child nodded and turned her own head, eyes searching until they found mine.

“Petra!” I cried out in anguish. They had Petra.

I let out a menacing growl and made to move forward. Mathias caught my arm, halting me in place. “Let her go! She is just a child, she has no gain in this war!” I demanded. My heart breaking for the little girl who had already endured so much at the hands of these heartless bastards.

I could feel the anger rolling off Mathias through the bond as he stood facing his brother, a murderous look on his face, whereas Finnegan’s otherwise stoic expression gave nothing away, but a closer look at his eyes told a different story. I saw regret and mercy as he looked at me.

Behind him stood rogue bears and wolves, cross bows aimed at me, ready to fire.

*Stand down* I commanded through the pack link to our army as I took in the chaotic carnage that surrounded us.

“I have a message from Orion; bring the chosen one to Riocht by the next full moon, hand her over and no harm will come to the child.” The violet-eyed monster said.

“Orion is a coward. Where is he? Too afraid to face me?” Mathias retorted. Finnegan shook his head and with speed disappeared into the cover of night.

As if time stopped, I heard Travis growl, then watched him leap forward, shifting into his large brown wolf, just after growling out the name “Oliver”.

“Travis no!” I screamed the command when I realized he had seen Oliver and his companion Jack.

It was too late, the rogue's arrows pierced through his wolf’s fur, whistling from the speed and velocity that they travelled and descending upon him in a cluster. Travis’ wolf fell to the ground, slumped into a ball. His wolf automatically shifting back to his human form.

I ran to him, throwing myself on my knees by his side, visions of Zane’s death wracking through my head. He was still breathing, but barely. All eleven arrows had missed his heart, but all eleven arrows were silver and tainted with poison.

“Don’t you fucking die on me Travis Wertz, don’t you fucking die,” I scolded him as I lifted his body and began pulling the arrows through and out of him.

*****

We were lucky, we only lost 30 men, but twice as many were severely injured, some with lost limbs. It could have been more, but the teams we split them into and the formation we had worked on gave us a chance and with a little fine tuning we could be better.

I just wished the combat uniforms we were having manufactured would hurry up. If we could kit out our army with the same type of suit that I had, there would have been a lot less injured and fewer deaths.

I sat by Travis’ bed. I refused to leave his side.

I couldn’t have been any happier and relived that Mathias had returned. Returned for me, but that didn’t excuse his previous behavior and, as much as I love him, and knew that it wasn’t him, that there was something seriously wrong. I wasn’t up for that discussion.

Orion’s lackey, Finnegan, had taken Petra. They were going to hold this poor girl and unless I gave in to their demand of spilling my blood for Orion, just so he could take the throne as the king of shifters, I didn’t know what they would do to her.

Fear is not something that usually registers with me, at least not for myself, but lately that was an emotion I had been becoming very accustomed to.

So many things to fear, and I didn’t know how to deal with it, how to process it and move past it. I wanted to fix everything, each problem just as important and critical as the next, but which one do I start with?

I didn’t know how to fix this, short of killing Orion and Oliver and Finnegan and all the rest of those mother fuckers.

Once we had people settled down and they had moved back to their homes, coming out of the shelters and warriors were either receiving care or helping to clean up. I took a breath.

Ria came to meet me in the hospital and handed me a slip of paper. “How is he?” her blue-green eyes worried as she hesitated to meet my gaze.

“Not good, to be honest” I admitted, finding it hard to swallow the reality that Travis could very well die tonight.

“I’m sorry…” Ria began, her words trailing off, then giving me a hug, and then pulling back. “Rhett and Hunji have things covered Lam’s, stay with him” she said. I hummed in response. I had planned on it.

I looked down at the paper reading the report. It was the analysis on the rum I had asked for. As expected, traces of nightshade were found in its contents, but there was something else they found too: Pyilquois.

I furrowed my brows. Pyilquois was an herb from a rare flower, not even grown on this continent. If taken, it acts like a hallucinogenic, altering your state of mind.