“I am Prince Jacen of the Vale.” He stood tall and proud, his tone conveying all the confidence of royalty. “My companion and I have done nothing to warrant this ambush. Let us pass.”
The wolf snarled again, and then she shifted into human form. She was beautiful—tall, with bright red hair that flowed down to her waist. She wore a tight fitting, black body suit—it appeared that the suit shifted with her. I assumed it was created with magic. A necklace dangled from her neck, with a charm that resembled some sort of plant.
All of the other wolves remained in their animal form.
“That girl is no vampire,” the redhead said calmly. “She’s a human.”
“Did you not see her running with me?” Jacen smirked, looking every bit an arrogant prince. “No human could run at that speed.”
“She has ingested vampire blood. Most likely your blood,” she said, and then she turned to me. “Did you not recognize me in my wolf form? I would think that night all those months ago would be one you would never forget…”
“You were the wolf who attacked me.” I stood straighter, readying for trouble. “When I tried to escape the Vale.”
“My name is Valerie, and I am the leader of this pack.” She stuck her nose haughtily in the air. “When I attacked you all those months ago, I was perfectly within my rights. You were a human blood slave who’d crossed the boundary of the Vale. And I know enough about the ways of the vampires of the Vale to know that no blood slave of theirs has ever been approved to become a vampire. Queen Laila would never allow it.”
“There are exceptions to every rule,” Jacen said steadily. He still sounded confident, but he took a step closer to me, ready to protect me.
My stomach surged into my throat—hopefully it wouldn’t come to a fight. I had no doubts that Jacen was a fantastic fighter, but two of us against this entire pack? The odds were not in our favor. Especially since my best skill was running—not fighting. And I knew better than to think that a bit of vampire blood would suddenly transform me into a trained warrior.
“True.” Valerie held his gaze. “But a wolf’s sense of smell is over ten times better than a vampire’s. Vampires may not be able to smell the difference between a vampire and a human who has ingested vampire blood, but we can. Now—tell me. Why has a vampire prince given a human a taste of his blood and brought her out of the Vale?”
“The reason is irrelevant.” Jacen glared at her and flashed his fangs. “We have an alliance. So unless you intend to go against a prince of the Vale—and therefore go against the entire kingdom—you will let us pass. Now.”
“The alliance is less and less relevant to us as of late,” she said with a wave of her hand. “Centuries ago, vampires stole a piece of our land—the area you now call the Vale. The treaty stated that to avoid a war between the species, we would keep the Vale safe from intruders as long as the vampires let us live in peace and didn’t expand further into our territory. At the time, we were outnumbered and had no choice but to agree. If we hadn’t agreed, we would have been slaughtered. However, we’re growing in numbers faster than you can imagine. And you’ve transformed the land you stole from us into a kingdom far more bountiful than we could have ever imagined.”
“Queen Laila created the kingdom of the Vale from the ground up,” Jacen said. “It never would have become what it is now if it had been left in your hands.”
“Maybe not.” Valerie shrugged. “But while the vampires of the Vale may have forgotten who that land originally belonged to, I assure you, we have not.”
“What are you saying?” Jacen bristled. “You’re going to fight for it back?”
“You’re free to make any assumptions you want.” She smiled sweetly. “Not that it matters… since once we’re finished with you, there will be nothing left for anyone to find.”
Jacen
I held an arm out in front of Annika, protecting her. If only I’d known that wolves could smell when a human had ingested vampire blood… I tried to think of what else I could have done, but came up blank. An older vampire would have known. But I had truly thought this plan would work. I thought I was saving Annika.
Turned out I was only bringing her from being hunted by vampires to being hunted by wolves.
There had to be a way out of this mess. It was well known that the wolves protected themselves against our compulsion with wormwood, which was apparent by the wormwood charm around Valerie’s neck. And the strength of wolves matched that of vampires, so with eight of them against the two of us, fighting would be too risky. Especially because my training was limited to what I’d learned this past year, and Annika had no training at all.
I glanced around the woods, sizing up my surroundings to figure out my next move.
Then Valerie shifted back into wolf form.
Before she had a chance to pounce, I grabbed Annika’s arm and jumped. Annika must have had a similar idea, because the two of us landed firmly on a branch of a tree at least ten feet from the ground.
Valerie landed face first in the snow.
She stood up and shook the snow off her fur, and the other wolves paced around the base of the tree. All of them growled up at us.
“I thought you said the wolves wouldn’t attack us,” Annika said through gritted teeth.
I just ripped a branch off the tree, aimed it down at one of the wolves, and threw.
It impaled the wolf straight through its back, pinning it to the ground. Blood splattered in the snow underneath of it. The wolf dropped its head and went still.
“One down,” I growled, snapping another branch off the tree. “Seven to go.”
I aimed this one at Valerie, but she rolled out of the way, the branch missing her by a few inches.
Annika snapped another branch off the tree, preparing to aim.
“We have a limited number of branches here before we’ll have to jump to the next tree and start again,” I warned her. “How’s your aim?”
“Let’s see.” She propelled the branch down, getting one of the other wolves—a gray one—in his shoulder.
The wolf whimpered, blood dripping onto the snow, but the blow wasn’t fatal.
“Nice.” I nodded, impressed that she’d managed to hit a wolf at all. “Where’d you learn how to aim like that?”
“Darts.” She shrugged. “We play a lot at the Tavern.”
Valerie grabbed the branch out of the gray wolf’s side with her teeth, and the bleeding slowed.
The wolf took a few heavy breaths, and then it stood on its hind legs, balancing its front paws on tree trunk and growling.
Annika’s face fell. “The wolf’s healing,” she realized.
“You need to get them in the heart,” I told her. “That shot would have killed a regular wolf—it would have bled out—but these are shifters. They have healing abilities similar to vampires.”
The gray wolf was being reckless—standing that way exposed its chest.
In a flash, I broke off another branch and threw it down, impaling the wolf straight through its heart.
It fell backward, the thrust of the throw shooting it to the ground. The wolf landed on its back. Its eyes were blank, and the branch stuck up toward the sky.
One of the other wolves—a snowy white one—let out a long howl and ran toward the gray wolf, poking him with her nose. She howled again and again, the pain-filled cries echoing through the forest.
I could only guess that the fallen wolf had been her mate.
“We didn’t come here to fight,” I yelled down to them, loud enough to be heard over the howls. “No one else has to die today. Just let us pass.”
Valerie shifted back into human form and sped over to the corpse of the gray wolf, yanking the branch out of its chest. “You’ve killed two of my pack.” She snarled. “And you’re going to pay.” She pulled her arm back, red hair flying in the wind as she heaved the branch up toward Annika.