Page 81 of Renegade Kings
Ryder shifted, shaking out his shaggy brown hair before his wolf joined the others in the line. I wanted to join them. I wanted to stand and defend my mate, but the human part of me just couldn’t let her go.
Not yet.
Not until she opened her eyes again.
Looking up, I saw a glimpse of golden metal through the trees. The Endless were here. But then I saw something else. Something that stood out amongst all that gold, dressed in black, a flash of dark hair accompanying it.
“Damon?” The whisper that came from me had the ears twitching on Dean’s wolf. He stepped forward before glancing back at Alyssa and whimpering.
He wouldn’t leave her either. Not when she was vulnerable like this.
The ground rumbled, and at first I thought it was from the oncoming onslaught of the soldiers that could never be stopped. The soldiers that held an entire realm at the mercy of a madman. But the brush of magic that gathered beneath my kneeling form couldn’t be coming from them. And as the power built, and the ground quaked, a glimmer of hope came alive inside me.
A crack rent through the air, making me clutch my unconscious mate closer to my chest. The need to run surged through me again, and just as I thought I was getting close to giving in, the tree closest to me moved.
Roots whipped up into the air as the giant trunk lifted and moved in front of us, settling in front of the line my brothers had formed. As the other trees tore free of the ground, we watched in awe. How was this even possible?
The Endless finally broke through from the shadows. The ring of swords being drawn filled the air, but they were met with a moving wall of trees, all preparing to take up a defensive position in front of us.
At first, it seemed like they’d make a run for it. Charge our meagre group while they still had the opportunity, and for a moment, I could have sworn I saw them take a step forward as if that was exactly what they intended.
But Alyssa wasn’t done yet. In fact, she’d only just begun. And before The Endless could move, tree branches tore through the air, piercing through the golden armour like it was nothing but paper, and ripped the soldiers from the ground.
The only sound that rang through the air was the thump of wood meeting metal and the soldiers were silently torn away, none of them uttering a single sound. It was the eeriest thing I’d ever seen, and yet a smile touched my lips.
Maybe we could survive this after all.
The sound of approaching feet broke through my senses and I sagged in relief when Fizzle landed on the ground beside me.
“There’s too many for us to face. Alyssa is doing something with the magic out here. She’s… I don’t fucking know! She’s taken control of the trees,” I rushed out.
Fizzle actually looked impressed, and I knew when I told Alyssa about this later, she’d never believe it. There may have even been a smile for a second there.
“Protect the queen!” Rhidian barked from behind me. “Reinforce the line. Nothing gets past you.”
I wanted to trust him. He’d once been one of Alyssa’s only friends. That had to mean something.
I tried to put myself in his shoes. The countless years of watching everything you loved being torn apart and destroyed, the helplessness of knowing you weren’t enough to make a difference. What would I have done in his place? Deep down, I knew it was exactly the same. There was only so much a person could take before it broke them. Before they latched onto any hope they could find, even if the reality of what needed to be done was too horrible to face.
“Can I trust you to keep her safe?” I asked, already knowing the answer but needing to see his face when he did.
The outrage comforted the lion inside me because there was something we needed to do and we couldn’t be in two places at once. My place was at her side, but this was an opportunity I might never get again, and I’d be damned if I was going to miss it. I knew Alyssa would encourage me to do it, and yet the thought of leaving her made me think I didn’t deserve her in the first place.
She was my mate. She was supposed to come first.
Looking up, I saw The Endless moving back a step as they waited for their orders of what to do next. Their ranks had thinned. The gaps were showing. If he was out there, this could be my only chance to reach him.
I couldn’t let Damon slip through my fingers again.
We’d come all this way. Faced impossible odds. Hell, I’d changed the very fabric of my being just to have a chance to save my brother.
“I will protect her with my life, and every person here would swear the same.” The conviction in Rhidian’s voice was enough, and the lion surged to the surface, forcing me through a painless shift.
His roar echoed through the trees as we stepped back, glancing down at our mate and how Fizzle moved to her side. His wings flared as he prepared to fight if necessary.
“I got her out of here once. I can do it again,” Fizzle told me. “Go! Do what needs to be done.”
He couldn’t possibly know what we had in mind, unless they’d seen a glimpse of the man out there amongst the trees. But it had been so quick, just a flash of darkness, that even I didn’t know if it was just my mind playing tricks on me.