With her eyes wide, Madalynn shouted, “Attack!” with her human voice as she shifted into her wolf, leaping into the air to lead the charge from behind us, her shout morphing into a howl.
Behar’s troops were trained to follow Madalynn’s commands as well, so even though Ethan was still on top of Behar, when she gave the order, the line in front of us moved forward as well.
At that mont, many of the children were trapped between the lines of wolves led by Behar because they’d been in the process of moving between them.
Now, they were ripe for the picking.
The battle was upon us, but we were not prepared for it– we had tried to prevent it from happening. We were greatly outnumbered, and we had innocent children to protect. My mind went to Rowan. I saw Georgia, preparing to keep him safe the best she could, but as skillful as she was, Georgia couldn’t even shift yet.
It wouldn’t be enough.
Ethan and Behar were fighting again, and even though Behar had wounds in his neck, he’d gotten a breather while Madalynn and I were having our discussion. In the split second of the child’s cry, his wolf was able to push Ethan off of him.
Ethan wasn’t injured at all, and his strength didn’t falter as he and Behar clashed again, their claws and fangs ripping at one another. I wanted to help, but I felt so hopeless, standing there, watching all of the chaos unfolding around .
Looking around, I saw won and children screaming and cowering. I saw warriors being double- and triple-tead because we were so greatly outnumbered.
One group of Madalynn’s wolves were charging toward the center of the last group of citizens, and there were about twenty infants and children among them!
“No—!!!” I scread.
I couldn’t let this happen! I had to do sothing to stop these innocent lives from being taken! I had to do sothing to protect them! There must be a way!!
On the ground, I saw pools of blood and tufts of fur and it was as if my heart was bleeding.
I prayed to the Moon Goddess. And never in my life was I longing so much for power and strength. I needed to be stronger. I needed the power. I needed help!!
Please...help . I’d pay any price!
With my eyes on the full moon hanging above , I implored the Moon Goddess, “Give your strength! Give your power!” Ancient words ca to , either from a text I’d read or passed down through my ancestry, and I began to chant, “Pre Luna Goddesta, dao mi li muscula, dao mi li energista!”
Over and over again, my tongue ran through the words like I was born to speak them.
‘Your Majesty, stop!!!’ Cerina’s desperate cry echoed in my head through the mindlink.
‘Rosalie! Rosalie!!’ I heard Ethan’s voice in my head, sothing I’d never experienced before.
Why were we linked? Was it because of the ritual? However, it didn’t matter...
A flash of light blinded , and I found myself closing my eyes to preserve my sight as others around yelped in surprise. The ground beneath my feet began to shake as if a mighty earthquake were unfolding, and then... I felt a rush of energy overtake my body.
My hands began to tingle, my legs began to shake, and within , I could feel my blood begin to stir within my veins, as if my body were a pot at the tipping point, about to boil.
My hair flew out around my head, and in my peripheral vision, I could see it... gleaming and glowing in the light of the moon.
White as freshly fallen snow....
I felt compelled to leap into the air to shift, and as my feet left the ground, paws erged. My body went through the usual cracking and popping of taking on my wolf form.
But this... this was different.
I didn’t see two tiny front paws like I always did before.
My paws were massive....
In front of , I saw Ethan’s wolf hanging in the air a mont, too. We were joined now, so when I began to levitate, so did he.
But when I ca back down, and my feet hit the ground, my view was still as if I were floating up in the clouds.
I was massive!
Not the normal sense of massive, but my wolf was ten tis, or even twenty tis bigger than any average wolf!
My wolf mouth broke into a nacing grin as I glowered down at Behar. His wolf stared up at , shaking with fear.
The Moon Goddess had given her power, and now, as a giant wolf, I would find a way to free my people before one more drop of blood was spilled.
Looking down at the wolves around , I couldn’t help but notice most of them looked to be no bigger than large mice.
I avoided stepping on any of my own people....
As for my enemies, they would simply have to be careful not to find themselves beneath my giant paws.
My first priority was to make a path for my people to run to safety.
As I concentrated on the situation in front of , Ethan, who was looking at with wonder in his eyes, led the asly fighting power we had to the back of our line, taking on Madalynn and her rogues who had attacked just before the Moon Goddess had given her power.
Despite my unimaginable size and strength, Madalynn and Behar’s forces did not seem to be slowing. They continued to fight on, though I did see apprehensive looks in the eyes of many of their so-called warriors.
They couldn’t fight , and they knew it. Their teeth would be like pins sticking into my flesh. It would do nothing.
I swiped the enemies aside with ease to clear the path for my people. The enemy soldiers and rogues were brushed eighty to a hundred feet away with a flick of my front left paw. I watched them tumble through the forest like an army of toy soldiers pushed away by a child who no longer wanted to play. However, so of them stubbornly returned and were smashed into smithereens beneath my feet.
I continued to set my left paw down and did the sa on the right, knocking the attacking wolves into trees and bushes as I made the path for my people to get through as clear as possible.
With a relieved smile, I watched my people run through the forest, headed for a clear path on the other side that would take them to the palace. From this vantage point, I could clearly see that they were going to make it. Whenever one of Behar’s wolves got up to attack again, I simply knocked the warrior backward, giving my citizens the opportunity to run freely.
Once I saw that my people were on their way to safety, I returned my attention to the battle behind .
Ethan and his warriors were doing a good job of keeping Madalynn at bay, even though they were greatly outnumbered. For a few monts, I found myself staring at Ethan’s wolf as he attacked five of Madalynn’s warriors, all on his own.
Amazent washed over as I saw him easily take down the five male brutes. He picked them up with his teeth and tossed them around like they were rag dolls, chomping into their necks and leaving them bleeding out on the forest floor.
However, I couldn’t take ti to appreciate his impressive moves. I didn’t know how much longer I could continue to channel the Moon Goddess’s energy. I was starting to feel light-headed, and my body was beginning to feel a bit fuzzy, like I was disconnected from my own physical existence.
I forced myself to recover from my mont of awe and I turned my attention to Madalynn’s forces as well, knowing I needed to give Ethan and our warriors a chance to get away.
I used my front paws the sa way I had against Behar’s army, pushing the tiny rogues aside, launching them as deep into the forest as possible. A few of them slamd into tree trunks, and I watched as they wriggled and slid down, not getting up again as their bones were crushed from my blow.
I didn’t like killing, but if that was what was necessary to hold off Madalynn’s forces, so be it. I saw that all of my forces were able to move beyond the periter I had established, including Ethan and his n.
However, soon I realized that Behar’s army gave up the fleeing citizens and ca back to us. Even with my giant wolf, it started to get difficult to clear the path. We were outnumbered hundreds of tis, and the biggest problem was that I knew I couldn’t maintain the size of my giant wolf now.
I needed to get Ethan and the rest of the group out of there!
I gathered more of my strength and tried to run faster, but there were just too many enemies and I wasn’t able to clear out the path fast enough as my wolf was getting smaller.
And unfortunately, I wasn’t the only one who noticed my wolf’s shrinking.
Madalynn was now with Behar, watching from far away as I shifted back to human form. “She is shrinking! Slow her down and get her!”
I couldn’t let her get to Ethan... I could do it...!
However, my head was spinning, and it was harder and harder to maintain my wolf. I glanced over at Ethan, who was next to , and wondered whether he and I would die together.
Maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing after all. Just that I’d miss Rowan so much...
“Ooohooo—!”
Howls echoed in the distance and I looked up to see a large number of troops coming over a hill. My eyes scanned the advancing troops, and I saw a familiar-looking wolf at the lead.
I could feel my sight blurred.
Soren!
Our troops had arrived! We were saved!!
A wave of gratitude washed over . I was so thankful to see that we were about to have reinforcents. Madalynn had not given up yet, and even though she was keeping her distance from , she was still trying to rally her troops.
All I needed to do was hold her off until Soren arrived!
I didn’t know where I had gotten the strength, but I pushed myself to my extre to move forward and create a narrow path so that Soren’s reinforcent could get to us sooner.
Ethan stayed with .
As soon as I saw the lead detail of my army reaching the clearing where we were situated, I let the exhaustion that had been threatening from all sides co crashing down over .
I didn’t even have the strength to stand up anymore. Before I fell down, I caught a glimpse that Soren had Madalynn and Behar on the run now.
I knew they would be back and that we hadn’t destroyed their armies. But for now, we were safe, and I was so thankful to the Moon Goddess for her assistance and rcy.
I watched as my forces from the palace continued to run after Madalynn and Behar’s retreating packs.
I felt myself growing weaker and weaker. My eyes closed, and I drifted down to the ground in much the sa way I had floated up to begin with.
A mont later, I found myself lying on the ground, blinking up at a star-filled sky. I closed my eyes again, too tired to move.
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