IN FULL COLOUR - Dark Fantasy
Chapter 52

Gabrielle

Axel’s warm thumb rubbed lazy comforting circles over the scarring of my skin, the second symbol burned into me as a reminder that I had already used up two of my sacred wishes.

“And this one?”

“This one, is,” I bit my lip and contemplated where to begin with the story. How should I explain it to him and how much should I say? Axel’s eyes darted to my mouth, more specifically to the corner of my bottom lip I still held between my teeth. Golden flecks instantly formed in his powder-blue irises.

“My gift,” I managed to answer, but he was already on top of me, attacking me with his mouth, his tongue and his very skilled hands. Wild, raw desire exploded from somewhere inside of him and without even considering putting up a fight, I gave in, wrapping my legs around him and surrendering myself to his mercy.

We made love again, uncaring whether there was someone else in the house or that we were in the middle of a serious conversation. All I could think of was him and from the fire burning in his eyes, I knew he felt the same, about me.

This time, it was different. In the bright light of day, I could see more of him, and he could see more of me. His body was sculpted like something out of a book. Muscle after muscle bulked and curved around his large frame. They moved and shifted with ease as we manoeuvred ourselves around each other.

My toes curled when he panted so close to my ear, I could feel his breath hitching and tickling my skin. He was warm against me, strong and smelled like home.

I knew we had to go back to Dire Mountain some time or another, but I wished we could have stayed there forever. Pretend to be just Gabby and Axe, nothing more. Locked in our little bubble and pressed so close together, it would have to take an incredible force to ever pull us away from each other.

But, like all things good, it ended. Too abruptly and too dreadfully.

I felt him stiffen against me as my eyes glazed over and the pack-link’s message came through. “EVERYONE BACK TO THE PACKHOUSE! NOW! RUN!”

It was my father’s voice. He sounded frantic. Very unlike him. Unlike Alpha Blake.

The hair in the back of my neck raised at the sound, and I practically shoved Axel off me. His eyes were as wide as saucers as I grabbed my crumpled dress off the floor yelling, “we need to get back to the packhouse! Somethings wrong!”

He didn’t ask questions. Swiftly pulling his boxer shorts on in less than a second, we were out the door, running as fast as we could to the cave passage.

“THIS IS NOT A DRILL! EVERYONE INSIDE NOW!”

I cursed under my breath and pushed harder, faster.

“Hurry!” I yelled as we entered the long rocky passage. It felt like we were running for hours. Like the cave had suddenly stretched into a never-ending maze.

Axel kept pace with me, even though he had no idea what was going on. He couldn’t hear the pack-links because he wasn’t connected to our pack.

“SQUADRON G1 AND G2, GATHER AT THE SOUTH-EASTERN BORDER! SQUADRON H1 ASSEMBLE AT THE MAIN BUILDING! SQUADRON H2, FIRE POINTS, HOME BASE!...”

The orders kept on coming in. Some were from my father, others from Dorian and John, all of them sounded agitated. Distressed.

“Which squadron are you leading!?” I yelled as we neared the seemingly endless passage.

“G1!” He yelled back, eyes bright and alert.

“South-eastern border!”

Axel merely nodded and kept running. He was a warrior. He didn’t need long sentences, explanations. He only needed the facts. Short and sweet, no fussing.

“DIRE MOUNTAIN IS UNDER LOCKDOWN! I REPEAT, DIRE MOUNTAIN IS UNDER LOCKDOWN!”

Shit.

As we sprinted into our village, chaos erupted. Wolves of all ages were running around, scrambling to get indoors, barricade the women and children into safety areas and warriors sprinting to their posts while securing weapons or armour onto their bodies.

I grabbed a warrior’s arm as he ran past me, almost throwing him completely off-balance, but Axel was there right beside me and steadied the man back onto his feet in one swift move.

“What is happening!?”

The warrior’s eyes were huge. Wild. He couldn’t seem to replace the correct words to say, so he just pointed to the south with a shaky hand and scrambled off.

Jarryd came sprinting past, handing out military plated vests as he went. One look at Axel in his boxer shorts, had him grinning, whistling low and throwing a vest at him. “Let’s go,” he simply said.

Axel glanced at me one last time and the two of them disappeared around the nearest building.

Axel

I didn’t know what was going on, but I assumed it was some sort of an attack. Strapping the heavy vest into place, I kept close to Jarryd as we made our way to the south-eastern border, up a very steep hill.

As soon as we got to the top, I marched to the front of the men, taking up a place on Alpha Blake’s left. John stood to his right with a phone pressed to his ear and Dorian moved around behind us, getting the troops sorted out.

“Alpha, we just received word that Feral Grove was attacked, vampires,” John barked, still pressing the phone to his ear, “sounds like the Alpha’s son and heir is fatally injured. They are loading him onto the back of a truck as we speak.”

Alpha Blake’s jaw twitched, and his eyes glazed over, no doubt mind-linking his warriors at home base, ordering them to keep his family safe at any cost.

When his eyes cleared up again, his gaze snapped to the south-eastern horizon and narrowed. I followed his line of sight and then I saw what the warrior from earlier couldn’t put into words.

The harsh mountain ranges of Dire Mountain’s southern border disappeared into a thick stretch of forest veering to the east, where it expanded into even more dense, uninhabited vegetation.

We stood on top of one of the lower peaks, but high enough to have a decent view of the forest which stretched out for miles in front of us, touching the toes of the mountains. And there, in the distance, an unmistakable blackness seeped through the trees, devouring everything in its path, eerily creeping closer to our borders. Our home.

Birds of all sorts exploded out of the dense greenery, fleeing into the clear skies, trying to get away from whatever evil was lurking. Screeches and howling could be heard echoing through the undergrowth, animals came bursting out from all sides, running in every which direction. Paws, hooves, patter. It was a noisy, unorchestrated commotion.

Until it went quiet.

So so quiet.

The blackened air filling the forest was unmistakably moving towards us and it seemed to spread out and grow larger as it grew near.

My heart was pounding, my wolf uneasy.

The men had horrified expressions on their faces. Their brows already glistening with a layer of sweat.

“Get Locke over here right now!” Alpha Blake ordered and John stepped to the side with a nod, lifting the phone to his ear again.

A cold sinister presence slithered through the forest, with deadly stealth, filling every inch of it with its blackness.

It was unsettling to watch.

Unworldly.

The foreboding feeling at the pit of my stomach clawed relentlessly at my insides, whispering the words run, run, over and over again. Yet, I stayed, eyes fixed on the horizon, on the promise of death that crawled towards us inch by inch.