The Delta's Daughter Chapter 356

MIKE

Brett and I race out the front door of the pack house, Tobias is still outside where other warriors are running toward the tree line.

I begin to shift yelling at Tobias "You hear that?"

He shouts back and I watch him begin to shift into his larger-than-life beast. My wolf's paws hit the ground just as Tobias' beast forms and he lets out an almighty roar. With Brett on one side and Tobias on the other, we rushed toward where the warriors who were under attack were stationed.

Duke pushes hard and fast, his ears perked listening for unseen intruders. If they took out the warriors at the border they could easily be moving inwards toward the center of the pack.

We reach the edge of the border and we halt in our tracks, the scent hitting our noses first. The snow-covered ground is stained with blood, wolf and human body parts are scattered and strewn around the area, resembling a scene from a horror movie.

I shift back to my human form, unfortunately, I wasn't wearing a uniform, and icy air rolled over me making my skin ripple against the coldness. Our wolves don't feel the cold like we do in skin form. And even if a werewolf does run warmer, we are still chilled to the bone in these temps.

I hit the com in my ear, "Lyric keep an eye out for movement. Report if you see anything unusual. Including birds." I tell her thinking of Tobias's words earlier regarding the raven.

"Copy that Beta." She replies, the sound of her voice warming me up if only for a moment.

Brett shifts next, "Fuck. What in goddess name did this?" He's just as horrified as the rest of us, as a handful of warriors look around the bloody scene around us.

"This ain't no shifter." Tobias says, "Aint no fucking wild either."

Duke perks up in my mind 'We have company.' He warns me, his aura pushing through as his ears begin to form listening intently. I hear nothing but the hairs on the back of my neck begin to prickle. Duke pushes through more, on the verge of shifting, scenting the air.

There's no scent except the smell of copper from the copious amounts of blood that have soaked into the powered white ground. But he's picked up on something.

'What do you sense Duke?'

He paces in my head, uneasy and alert. 'I don't know, I don't hear it, I don't smell it. But it's there. Somewhere.'

I look at Tobias who has shifted back to his skin form, "You got anything with that massive nose of yours?" I tilt my head still listening while watching Tobias scent the air.

Bears are notorious for having the best sense of smell. They make the finest trackers. "I'm not sure," He gives me a skeptical look. "My beast keeps picking up on a familiar scent," He shakes his head "Other than that we got nothing. It's as if whatever was here just vanished."

No sooner had he stopped speaking than the sound of a feral growl, one that vibrated and made my body shudder in fear, was heard.

The warriors all stood to full height, those that were still in wolf form began to growl back at the noise, their fur standing on end. But no one knew where it was coming from. The foreign growl increased and others began to accompany it until the forest rumbled with a sound that promised death.

I could make out at least a dozen different growls that seemed to be coming from thin air.

"Fan out." Alpha Brett ordered and the warriors began to spread out creating a large circle. Ready to defend themselves.

It was the wrong move.

Faster than the naked eye could see, something darts out from the trees, snatching a warrior and dragging him away. His blood-curdling screams could be heard for a few moments until he went silent and you heard his bones snapping under the chomp of something large.

"Fuck." Tobias said, eyes wide on where the warrior disappeared from.

"Back up!" Alpha Brett began to draw the men back and into a tighter circle.

At that moment the icy air shifted and a cold dense fog began to consume the area around us. Like smoke billowing from a fire. Yet there was no warmth in the eerie smog that consumed the forest.

The growls from the unknown became louder, more menacing. The growls turned to harsh barks that put the fear of the gods into us.

"Stay alert!" I warned the warriors and as the words left my lips something moved from the trees, darting towards the circle of men, snatching bodies as quick as a flash of lightning.

Screams, breaking bones, and tearing flesh accompanied the demonic growls and unholy barking of creatures sounded out through the thickening of the chilled fog.

Tobias shifted into his beast of a bear, his thick dark fur a stark contrast to our white and grey surroundings that were quickly being replaced by crimson coloring as blood splattered and gushed.

Duke pushes to the forefront urging me to shift also. I comply and quickly find us on four paws rather than two feet. *I can't respond through the coms, what do you see Lyri?* I mentally connect to Lyric just as a hulking shadow emerges from the trees, red eyes peer at me and teeth as big as a Dire wolf gnash with saliva. Snaping as the demonic creature crouches, readying itself to pounce on me.

*Nothing! I see nothing Beta.* Lyric panics on the other end of our mental connection. *What's happening Beta? I have no visual!*

I can't respond because the beast of an animal is barreling towards me. I'm momentarily in shock, and dare I say, rendered motionless with fear.

What the fuck are these things? They look like altered Wilds yet the beast is as large as Lamia's wolf. No fur, their skin a sickly grey color with horns on their head and smaller spiked horns on the back of their neck and tips of a split tail. The veins running through their body are visible and black, like vines trailing over stone. The eyes - are blood red and saliva drips from their jowls hitting the snow and sizzling on impact.

These are no animals I have ever seen, it's as if they came straight from the underworld. Released by Aodh himself.

Even with the elite warriors, Golden Circle didn't stand a chance against these creatures.

I'm jostled from my daze when I hear Lyric's voice in my mind again. *I'm on my way!*

NO! I think as the beast pounces, flying through the air toward me. Duke leaps and we clash. Teeth and claws digging into each other's flesh.

It burns. Each scratch and graze of the beast's teeth burn my wolf's fur and flesh. Duke is no slouch nor is he small but we feel dwarfed by these things.

The beast flings me to the ground and stands over me with wide open jaws, ready to execute its kill shot when Duke spots his vulnerability. Quickly his claws come up, slicing through the soft flesh under its neck where no horns have formed. The beast begins to bay, backing away from Duke.

Duke clambers to all four feet and charges the injured beast, sliding on his paws, and coming up under the thing. His teeth sink into the grey flesh and with one shake of his head, rips the throat out and the beast tumbles to the floor.

I turn in time to see Tobias' beast rip the hind leg off one of the demonic dogs, roaring out his victory.

The fight goes on and I can see we are losing. Warriors are being ripped limb from limb, their wolf forms strewn across the forest ground. Then, as if silently commanded, the beasts begin to shrink back. They still growl at us in warning but they walk backward until they have created some distance.

The fog begins to thin out, and through the misty grey that surrounds us, the dark shadow of a great creature begins to emerge. As the creature nears, we stand in shocked silence waiting for whatever it is to further emerge.

"Holy shit!" Tobias gasps. "This shit ain't real. Say we're tripping man."

I can't say anything. But I shift back to my skin form just as affected by the scene in front of us unfolding as every other shifter here that's still alive.

A man sits on the back of one of these humungous demonic dogs. He stops beside his creatures and they gather to his sides like a dog would to his owner. Or slaves to a master.

Dark eyes circled with red look directly at me, the man tilts his head and licks his blood-red lips. His skin is dark but textured like tree bark. His hair is long and braided yet he doesn't look much older than me.

I know who he is, the familiar shape of his eyes, the coloring of his skin, and the sharp line of his jaw. He resembles Kolby Crimson.

"Senko." I hiss toward the man who observes me with keen eyes.

"I will make you this offer once Beta." His lips tilt into a wicked smirk. "You have twenty-four hours to deliver the boy and my breeder to me. Or…" He looks around at the massacre that litters the ground at our feet. "Or, I take your mate's life. Maybe claim her as mine."

I leave my expression blank. I have no idea what he means by his breeder or my mate. Lyric is safe inside the pack house. Unless… No, I would have felt it through the bond if something happened to her. She would have mind linked me.

Duke begins to snarl in my head and pushes forward. My canines elongate and claws begin to form. Fur erupts over my skin and Duke makes his presence known. I know my eyes are now dark with the mark of the queen's knight.

"Interesting." The Shadow Witch, Senko proclaims. His beady eyes trained on me with fascination as I slowly begin to shift.

"We do not respond to threats!" Duke snarls back through me.

"I don't make threats." Senko lets out a short and abrupt whistle. His beasts fan out snarling at the remaining warriors who stand ready to fight and defend the pack.

Another figure emerges from the smog, a male and I can just make out the person he holds against him is female.

Duke's nose twitches and the faint scent he spent months wrapped up in, hits him. He whines as the familiar head of chestnut hair becomes recognizable. But we both knew who it was immediately. Her scent was weak, overridden by a decaying smell. Something nasty and old.

"Jonda!" I cry out as Duke readies himself to fight for her. She looks pale and unemotional. She doesn't react to us calling her name. "What have you done to her?" I growl out.

"Twenty-four hours Beta, or you lose your mate. Give me what's mine and I will return yours." I step forward. I will fight for Jonda, I will die for her. Even if she is no longer mine.

The man holding her drags Jonda back into the cover of the fog and the Shadow Witch turns on his beast.

I roar and begin to charge toward them, I can't let them leave with Jonda. I can't let them get away. Another sharp whistle fills the air and the beasts begin to attack again. But this time the shadows seem to move with them, creeping out from the forest and guiding the beasts to rip and tear at the warriors.

Quickly shifting Duke throws himself into the fight in a bid to rescue Jonda. Duke latches onto another of the unholy creatures, his teeth sinking into the forested skin, tasting the demonic dog's blood that's vile and pungent.

Screams once again fill the air, as the shadows consume those remaining and the beasts begin to back off. Duke takes chase after the Shadow Witch and after Jonda. But with only a few steps forward I involuntarily shift back, falling to my knees. A burning sensation rips through my body and I hear myself screaming at the feel of flames licking at my body from the inside out. Like molten lava disintegrating my bones.

"Mike! Mike!" I hear Tobias but his voice sounds so far away.

"What happened? What's wrong with him?" Lyric, her voice is like the finest symphony. Pleasing and comforting. For a brief moment, relief passes through me that Lyric is safe but the burning continues to consume me. It just needs to stop.

I worry about Jonda, she didn't look like herself, she looked removed unbothered, detached. Then my concern switches to Lyric, He can not have her. She is mine.

"Don't touch him Lyric!" I hear Tobias warn my mate.

The hot inferno pushes out like a big ball of flame then it feels like I explode all at once. My body and soul expand out then with a rush, a force so powerful I'm pulled back together. I open my eyes except my surroundings are shrouded in darkness.

*****

At first, I thought I had died. When I sunk into the darkness laying on the ground with the vision of Jonda being hauled away by the strange man and the notion that Lyric was okay, I let the cold and dark take me.

A light flickered in the darkness, soft and blue. Becoming brighter as each moment passed until the darkness was consumed by the brilliance of blue light. The searing sensation of burning from the inside out didn't subside until the light became blinding and in one whoosh of breath, seemed to explode.

The light faded from existence, taking with it the inferno of heat inside me. Leaving me once more in the cold and dark.

"Human." The voice was clearly my wolf's; but the sound wasn't coming from my head, it surrounded me in the dark.

"Duke?" I replied turning in every direction trying to find him, confusion settling over me.

I see him, his mass of dark brown fur, almost unrecognizable against the blackness. He draws nearer, bringing with him light. "Are we dead?" I ask him still confused thinking this was the crossing between the planes of existence.

"I don't think so." He replies sounding just as displaced as I feel. I can hear him clearly yet his muzzle doesn't move.

"Why are we here? Where are we?" If I'm not dead I figure I must be stuck in my own existence. In my own head.

"I think we are in the in-between," Duke says as if he has been here before.

The darkness begins to fade and under my feet, I feel the soft telltale sign of grass growing between my toes, tickling my heels.

"Astaroth. Leave us." A beautiful voice fills the void and my wolf turns, walking into the fading darkness and disappearing. In his place stands a woman with long white hair, skin as dark as a starless night, and eyes like the cosmos, lavender with speckles of silver. Ethereal, beautiful, and god-like is the only way I can describe her.

"Odiea?" I whisper with shock. I know who she is only because of how Lamia and Kellen have described her. I don't second guess myself, I know this like I know my own body. I feel it. "What did you call my wolf?"

She sighs and comes forward until she stands in front of me. Her boney hands folded in front of her. She tilts her head to the side. "That is a conversation you must have with your wolf. Astaroth was never meant to be. He was sent as a last effort by the moon goddess, to free her from the god of the underworld. His name is not important, he was sent as a protector. As you are a protector, so is he. Both of you sent to protect the chosen one and more importantly what she carries."

"I don't understand." I scrunch my face up and furrow my brows, taking a moment to think. I know Odeia speaks in riddles. Both Kellen and Lamia have told me this. They also feel she has lied or at least twisted the truth.

"The chosen one gave you a gift Beta. The day she bit you and gave you her blood, she mapped out your future role in her fate. Astaroth was never meant to have a mate. You were never meant to have a mate." The goddess-like female looks at me with pity but then offers me a smile, bright and contradictive to the way she had just been regarding me. "Lamia changed that." She says looking me up and down, the same corny smile still tilting up her lips.

"Explain," I ask with curiosity. Still trying to wrap my head around what she had already said.

"I have said enough. But chose wisely as neither female really belonged to you. You have been given a gift and somehow fated a mate." For a moment I swear she looked confused by her own words, but I couldn't be sure. "Lamia changed your destiny and the night you were blessed with the power of a Knight, you became something more. Something dangerous and something Senko needs. You are the light Michael Pike."

The figure began to fade until there were only wisps of her essence that lingered. "It's the light that saved you. And it's the light that will save you again." Her voice echoes into the void.

"Mike." The harmonic voice of Lyric pulled me out of the void. And I felt the sparks between us, felt the touch of her hand dance across my skin and I knew I couldn't reject her. I would never reject her. I understood she was a gift, one that I was never meant to have. She was precious and somehow we were both part of this game the gods were playing and the game was aimed at Lamia. It always had been.

Now though, Lyrics' son was part of this fucked up game and I wouldn't let anyone hurt him. He was part of Lamia and was part of Lyric. I promised to protect him and I would.

"Lyric I thought he had hurt you," I say coming too.

I feel her. I smell her. Without opening my eyes I reach out and pull her over me, finding her mouth and covering it with my lips. "Mine," I growl out in reverence.

The Shadow Witch gave us twenty-four hours.

The boy and Lyric for Jonda. I wasn't about to lose any of them if I could help it.