The Wild Moon by Riley Storm

Chapter Forty-Nine

I howled in instant agony as the full force of my Soulbond slammed back into me with incomprehensible savagery.

Scratching, clawing at my face, I tried to deal with the brutal wake-up call as I rolled on the ground screaming while my head tried to tear itself in half.

GO TO HIM. He is yours. You are his.

The message repeated itself over and over again. Some part of me knew I had to ignore it, I had to shove it aside, there was a very good reason for it, but I’d forgotten what it was. The only thing I wanted now was to be with him. To find Johnathan. Only he could set me free from this pain.

My wolf was trying to tear herself free of my control, and as we fought, my body changed back and forth repeatedly, hair growing and shrinking all over me, and I’m sure other things did too.

“Danielle Wetter! Get up!” a voice boomed.

The Alpha call slammed into me like a hurricane, momentarily pushing back the thundering call of my Soulbond as it sought complete control over me. I gasped. That brief reprieve nearly enough to make me cry. Never had I experienced sensations like this in my life. It was too much. I couldn’t handle it. No one could.

“Better,” the voice grunted, the command in it calmer. “Now get over here, ugh, and help me.”

I looked up to see Vir battling the warrior that had come through the barrier with us. He was still dressed as the Champion, but something about him was…different.

The fire, I realized abruptly. His fire had gone out. The horns were gone as well. The rest of him was still there, but not the fire. And he seemed…diminished. The warrior was pressing him back, and the golden spear still spun but without the whirring scream it’d had before.

He was slower and without his fire. And the warrior was winning.

All at once, I had something to focus on. If I didn’t help Vir, the warrior would dispatch him and then me before I could even get to Johnathan. So, I had to help him. It was the only way, I told myself.

Struggling to my feet, naked and in pain, my front and back carved up from the onyx-black blade the warriors wielded, I searched the tunnel for something, anything, that might help me.

I couldn’t find a thing. All I had was myself.

“Guess it’ll have to be enough,” I said, and without thinking about what I was going to do, I flung myself on the warrior’s back.

It was a good thing I didn’t take the time to think it over because what was left of my sanity would have screamed at me for doing something so absolutely stupid. I was way out of the warrior’s league, even when healed. What was I thinking by trying to overpower it in my current state?

My attack caught the creature completely unaware, however, and it stumbled. I was tall and willowy, and most people didn’t think that could amount to much. But when you’re nearly six feet tall yourself, small or not, you’ve still got a certain amount of mass to throw around.

I threw mine hard, locking my arms around what I hoped was its neck and hauling back tightly, using my legs to grab onto its waist like some sort of spider monkey. My shrieks filled the tunnel while I wailed on its head with my fists and elbows, trying desperately to crack its tough skeleton.

The creature reached back with one hand to pull me off, but I batted its arms aside and continued my fight. Vir pressed forward, ensuring it had to focus on him with its weapon.

I found some openings in the darkness that was its body and immediately shoved my fingers in them, scratching, clawing, and driving them as deep as I could. The creature’s roar must have burst an eardrum, it was so loud, but I didn’t stop to check. I held on for dear life.

Then we were falling. I landed on top.

“Off!” Vir commanded, and I was rolling away before I had fully processed what he’d said.

The golden spear plunged through the creature’s back, and at last, it lay still.

Gasping for air, I stayed hunched over. Closer to Vir, I was able to remain in control, the agony in my head reduced to migraine level but staying just shy of debilitating. I didn’t know how much longer I could go on like this, but for now, I had the energy to keep fighting.

“They watch us,” Vir said.

I looked up, then followed his gaze to the barrier. Warriors stood on the other side, shrouded in darkness but clearly staring in our direction.

“Let them,” I said, chest heaving as I tried to come down from the post-fight high. “They can’t harm us here. Not now.”

“Perhaps,” Vir said, turning to face me.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered, the lack of flames evident. “I didn’t mean to pull you through with me. I don’t even know how I did it. I just sort of did. Then you were here, too, and now you…you’re not on fire.”

“Yes,” Vir said. “The barrier seems to have robbed me of my godhood.”

“Oh, no,” I whispered.

“It’s okay,” he said. “This was how it used to be. Back when the path between Earth and the Direen was open and traversable. To bring my full powers to Earth…that would be very bad indeed. Earth is the realm of mortals. Gods do not belong here. Not in full.”

“You’re still strong, though,” I said. “And still…beastly.”

“It would seem not all my powers are gone,” Vir agreed. As he spoke, he changed, the fearsome visage of the Champion fading, replaced with human-Vir.

He shrunk as he did, though my eyes never really noticed it happening. One moment he was nine, ten feet tall—I didn’t have a measuring stick handy—the next he only towered over me by half a foot or so.

Seeing him this way, watching him now, had an unexpected side effect. The heavy beating of drums in my head was kept at bay. It wasn’t gone, it would never go away, but I didn’t need to roll around on the floor and claw my face anymore.

It was like the effect of being around Aaron but stronger. Perhaps a true Alpha dulled the call of the Soulbond somehow? I didn’t know.

“I don’t suppose you were left with the powers of clothing,” I muttered, once more naked in front of him.

I almost covered up, but it hardly seemed to matter. This man, this god, had seen more of my titties than anyone, even my ex. What was some more at this point?

“Sorry.” Vir shook his head, then stopped suddenly, his face lighting up. “But wait. I have an idea.”

All at once, he was giant again. I yelped and backed away, the sudden transition catching me by surprise.

“Careful with that! You’ll hurt someone.”

“No, I won’t,” Vir rumbled, reaching down.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

He tore off a strip of his gray sweat pants and handed it to me. Then he tore a longer part off the other side and tossed it to me. When he shrunk back to human size, I was ready this time, though I was still holding the two pieces of clothing.

“There you go,” he said. “Put them on.”

“On?” I asked, looking at them.

“Tube top and skirt,” he said. “Best I can do on short notice.”

“You have got to be–fine,” I said, doing as he suggested.

Shockingly, they fit. Not well, and any abrupt movement was likely to send the top down to my waist, and I didn’t have underwear on, but it would work for the moment. In times like this, there was little room to be picky.

“Okay, come on,” I said. “Let’s get out of here before Johnathan or his friends notice I’m back—”

With my mind shifting gears and considering escape, I finally had the time to look around. We were in a cavern. Not a tunnel.

“Vir,” I said slowly.

“Yes?”

“Where are we?” I asked calmly as the drumming in my head grew stronger once more. “This isn’t where I went through.”

“Another exit,” Vir asked. “What’s wrong?”

By now, I was holding my head, the pain threatening to make me delirious.

“My Soulbond,” I hissed as it stabbed deep into my skull. “I’ve denied it too long. I feel like I’m being torn in two, Vir. Part of me is pulling me to him.”

I lifted a hand to point, not that it mattered.

“A part of you?” Vir said. “Not all of you?”

“No,” I whispered, eyes closed as I tried not to scream. “Another part of me is guiding me that way.”

I pointed off to one side, a hundred or so degree angle away from Johnathan. “But that one doesn’t hurt. It just…pulls at me. If that makes any sense.”

Vir stared in the direction I’d pointed. “Yes,” he said quietly. “It does.”

“What is wrong with me?” I whimpered.

“I’m not sure,” Vir said, his gaze traveling to me, watching me curiously.

“Great.” I stood up, the room spinning slightly from the pain in my skull. “We should get going then. Before they find us. If I can feel him now, then Johnathan will be coming for me, and I won’t be of much use to you against him or his little gang. Maybe if we build enough of a lead, we can catch up to my guide. Together, we could probably hold Johnathan off long enough to get out of here.”

“Your guide?” Vir asked.

I shrugged. “Yeah. I hired a guy and his team to lead me out here. To follow my dad’s journal. He was looking for Shuldar, you know. Had been for years. He’s the reason I’m here. He went missing.”

I was babbling now, talking about anything I could think of to try and distract myself.

“Who is your guide?”

“You’d like him,” I said with a laugh. “Tall, stubborn, and annoyingly mysterious, kinda like you. Calls himself Aaron Greiss. I dunno who he is. Tall, really pale, blue eyes way lighter than yours. Almost unnaturally so.”

Vir’s lips twitched. “I’ll be damned,” he rumbled. “Blond hair? Sharp facial features, smooth sweeping cheekbones? Walks like a predator? Exudes sex?”

My jaw dropped open. “You know him?”

Vir shrugged. “We should go find him. Come on. I’ll lead the way.”

“Better hurry,” I said, shoving aside the million questions I had.

“Why?”

“Because,” I said tightly as we crossed the cavern and entered the tunnel. I blinked as my eyes adjusted to the pitch black of the tunnel. “My head is hurting worse. He’s nearby, and he won’t be alone.”

Up ahead, Vir grunted.

“Vir?” I called, rushing forward as I heard something hit the ground. “Vir, are you okay?”

I nearly tripped and fell over something. I reached down, my eyes adjusting at the same time, and I realized it was Vir. He had a huge bump on his forehead.

“He’s quite close by,” a menacing voice said from behind me. “But I’m closer. Time’s up, little wolf. My patience with you is at an end.”

Then, something struck me in the back of the head.