Chapter 48: The Fray and What Came of It

Lucinda

"I'm done with you and yours, Tyler Payton," I finished.

That was it. I was done trying. If they couldn't accept me then I was leaving. My throat hurt a lot and I couldn't tell why. Something was making it extremely difficult to breathe.

I could smell the guilt and regret on him but I didn't acknowledge it. He had given me false hopes. He had made me feel wanted, needed, when I was actually still considered a spy.

Just because I was seen speaking to a shifter was I therefore on their side? At that time I didn't even know Donovan was a shifter!

The door was blasted off, splinters flying everywhere. Tyler was suddenly behind me, facing the shifters with a growl. I hid the little girl behind me, laying her quickly on the floor of the cave.

By the time I turned back, Tyler had already shifted into his colossal black wolf. I also decided to shift.

Sharp pains ate at all my bones as I let Veli do her thing. At first, she had just taken over when she sensed danger and actually shifted when he threatened the child. Now, we shifted because we wanted to. It was painful, but it was nice to be in wolf form. The wolf feels more agile and free, everything smells stronger and the vision is much sharper. The ground feels nice too.

Tyler wasn't kidding when he said he would fight single handedly. He pounced on the nearest one, a foxlike little thing, and bit into its haunches as it tried to flee. Another one, some kind of monkey, jumped on his back and bit with sharp canines. Zio turned and ripped it off his back, pinning it under him and tearing out its throat.

I wasn't expecting it to have black blood.

One of them attacked in its almost human form with a huge rock. Without thinking, I leapt clean over him, colliding with it. I bit into an arm and my maw was instantly full of scales. I was suddenly faced with a pair of long fangs dripping with venom. I jumped off before it could strike and was faced with the one that began it all, the bird.

I saw Zio circling with a mongoose.

The momentary distraction was enough for Donovan to land a hard blow on my ear. I was sent rolling. The little fox thing landed on my back and bit into my back paw. I yelped and grabbed it. My jaws crushed its skull.

"Lucy-nda!"

The first link I had ever received echoed in my mind, warning me of Donovan. I braced myself just in time. He kicked my jaw, closing it forcefully on my tongue so that my own blood filled my mouth. Thoroughly angry, I bit into his foot and yanked. He fell on his back, screaming when I yanked his leg out of socket. I jumped on him and dragged my claws across his face, making sure to dig out an eye.

Something landed on me. I didn't see what it was before Tyler's wolf dragged it off me and tore it apart. I clawed Donovan's face one more time and bit into his neck. I didn't stop until I heard his spinal cord snap.

When I raised my head, I realized I should have killed the bird shifter much faster. It was now too late to react to the long knife which was aimed at my neck by the cobra shifter.

A heavy weight tumbled over my head and black fur marred my vision. I looked again and saw Zio decapitate the snake shifter.

My eyes swiped the clearing. All the shifters were dead. There was black blood everywhere.

Zio lay down.

I looked at the wolf, and I was all smiley inside. "We did it," I linked to him happily.

His green eyes suddenly locked with mine.

MATE!! MATE!! He's our mate!! Veli screamed.

That's when I saw the red blood.

Gushing out of his belly.

I saw the way his wolfie face was pinched in pain. The way he was struggling to breathe.

With one gallant effort, he shifted back into his human form. The gash looked even worse on his chest and abdomen. His eyes closed.

I jumped onto him, leaning down to sniff his face as I linked madly.

"Tyler? TYLER! Please be okay, please be okay! Say something! Anything, please! Come on Tyler you can't just die on me, please say something!"

The eyes opened weakly, back to their ice blue color. He smiled through the trickle of maroon blood from his mouth.

"Mate," he whispered weakly. "I—" he gasped for air, "I really did love you..." He hiccupped. "My Lucy..." His eyes shut again and he went limp under me.

"Tyler!" I wailed. "Please don't leave me, Tyler, please, I love you!!"

"You should have thought of that before conspiring with shifters!" a voice yelled.

I turned. Several wolves in human form filed in, one with a gun raised at me. I didn't even flinch. My mind was still swirling with the discovery of my mate and the fact that he was not breathing below me. The gun was aimed at my flank and fired; I didn't care. Instead of the pain I expected from a bullet, all I felt was a small prick of a dart.

I felt myself being shoved to the side; I didn't care. I saw the angry or disgusted or disappointed looks; I didn't care. I saw Lexi weeping on her knees beside her brother; I didn't care. I felt my body quickly getting paralyzed; I didn't care.

The world dimmed around me. I didn't care.

I just didn't care. Not anymore.