The Last Spirit Wolf (Elena Norwood)

-Vera-

I grunt, exerting all the force I can on the spear to keep the lycan's teeth away from me.

Think Vera, think.

I start looking all around me for something, anything, I can use to get rid of this lycan before it gets rid of *me*.

Something clinks to my side and I turn; Eva who is fighting off two attackers, has kicked a knife over to me to try and help me, but in order to reach for it, I have to let go of the spear.

I have no choice. I let go of the spear quickly while simultaneously moving my head to the side. The lycan was pushing with such force that it crashes its snout onto the floor, only centimeters away from my face. Before it can register what happened, I reach for the knife and insert it straight into its neck, severing its jugular. Blood flows freely from his neck onto the floor and my entire face. Once it's dead, I use whatever strength I have left to crawl from underneath it. It's no easy feat considering how huge lycans are compared to humans.

When I'm out, I wipe the blood and grime from my eyes and take a long look around. The soldiers are still pouring in, and as much as we are killing them, our numbers are also diminishing.

I spot Eli and Noah at a distance fighting off humans and lycans. Noah locks eyes with mine, quickly disposing of his attacker to come running towards me. He crouches next to me and sniffs me. "I'm alright. The blood isn't mine."

As if not believing me, he uses his large tongue to lap at my entire face, cleaning me in the most disgusting way possible. His lycan is grimacing as he spits out the blood he cleaned off of me. I grab his chin by his fur to focus his attention on me.

"We are running out of time, we have to find Alistair and that witch. Did you notice their eyes? I'm sure they're under some type of spell. If we kill the witch, this all ends."

Noah nods and turns into his human form; he's incredibly dirty... and naked.

"Eli's mole came through. Alistair is hiding in the forest like the coward he is along with the witch."

"Are they alone?"

"They have a few soldiers with them, we have to take some of our men."

I nod and he turns back into his lycan form, signaling for ten men to follow us.

When they have gathered around us, we head into one of the tunnel's Elden showed me previously. This leads us directly to the woods, but away from where Alistair's soldiers are gathered. I open the fake wall to the entrance of the tunnel and turn back to them,

"Your lycans won't fit through so you should..."

They promptly turn to their human form and I have to avert my gaze because, just like wolves, lycans have no problem being naked.

We quickly move through the tunnels as I guide them to the exit. Once we get there, Noah puts his hand on my shoulder,

"Let me go first, just in case."

I don't argue and he squeezes past me and pushes on the door, carefully.

Once he's out, he signals for the rest of us to follow him; there is no one around.

"Vera, you're up," he says and I nod.

I take a deep breath and crouch down to the ground, placing my hand on the soil. I can sense all of the lycans with us watching me curiously, but I push the feeling aside and focus on my breathing. After about three minutes. I know exactly where we have to go.

I get up and close my eyes, taking a few more long, deep breaths. When I open my eyes again, my sight is in tunnel vision and without notice, I start running in the direction of Alistair and the witch; the ringing in my ear getting louder and louder. The lycans behind me don't have time to question what is happening, they just follow Noah who is following closely behind me. Once we get close enough, I stop.

"They still can't see us but surely they're aware of our presence by now. They have twenty men total. I suggest we separate and attack from different directions."

Noah nods and signals for the warriors to disperse. Before we continue walking, he changes to his human form once again and grabs my hands.

"Vera, if anything goes wrong..."Published by Nôv'elD/rama.Org.

"Noah, please, we talked about this."

"No," he continues, "if anything goes wrong, if you at some point become outnumbered and I'm in no condition to back you up, you run, you hear me?"

I gulp. The reality of the moment setting in.

I nod at him and he kisses me; it's a long and tender kiss, but it's over much too quickly. When I open my eyes again, he's already switched back to his lycan form.

We begin walking the several meters that lie between Alistair and us, becoming visible to them in only a few minutes.

When we step into the clearing, Alistiar is standing in the middle of his soldiers, arms crossed, with a woman to his side; the witch.

She seems to be in a trance, not even noticing our approach. Her hands are extended out and her head is looking up, chanting something softly. She's holding onto some artifacts and I immediately know that's my target. If I can get close enough to break her out of her trance and destroy her artifacts, her spell will be interrupted and the soldiers will be broken out of the trance they're in.

Alistair notices us and smirks, feeling all too confident since he can only see the two of us.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't the usurper and his slut," he says.

Noah growls next to me, his teeth showing aggressively.

"You said you wanted an audience, so here we are," I say, stopping a safe distance away from them.

"The time for audiences is over, wolf whore, we will soon overtake the castle and I will have your *mate* executed in front of all of his supporters, like I initially intended to. And you, well, you and I have some unfinished business," he says.

The mere thought of having his hands on me makes me nauseous, and I can see he's getting a rise out of Noah, but two can play this game.

"Please, save yourself the humiliation, Alistair. Face it, all of these *soldiers are here because she's controlling them." I gesture to the witch, "you are not respected by a single one of them... shit. they probably don't even like you. That's why you need a *woman* to do your dirty work. You' re just a leech."

He scoffs,

"It's only a matter of time, Vera. It will all be over soon and I will take my rightful place on the throne again, and I will have *you* chained to my bed. You'll be my little pet slut."

"You think these are only my thoughts. *King*? Everyone in the castle flocked to Noah when you disappeared like the *coward* you are. Hell, even your father did."

He blanches. I hit a nerve.

"Oh yeah, he told us everything about you, how even as a kid you were a disappointment of a son. He never even thought you were good enough to be beta, or anything else. You have always just been a spiteful, cowardly, little prick; and you simply never outgrew that phase. And you called yourself *King*?"

I laugh, irking him even more.

"Deal with it, Alistair. Nobody wants you here. Not even your own father. You might as well just turn around and leave, maybe the rogues will take you."

In the blink of an eye, he's changed into his lycan form and is charging towards me at full speed. The soldiers around him do the same and Noah steps in front of me, snarling at the incoming attackers.

Then, all of the warriors that were hiding come out to back up Noah, who has already killed the first soldier than came close the quickest.

The battle has begun.

I sneak around the smashing bodies carefully, inching closer to the witch so I can kill her and be done with this. I even manage to take a lycan down on my way to her.

When I leave most of the fighting lycans behind. I sprint towards the witch, my eyes solely focused on her neck. If I can only get close enough to sever her head with my spear, this will all be over. Or so I hoped.

Just when I'm a few feet away from her, her head snaps forward unpexectedly, opening her eyes and looking directly into mine. A chill runs down my spine.

Then, something snags me from my side, tossing me in the air and into one of the trees and I hit it with a big, painful crunch.