Feral Wolf by Caroline Peckham

Sin bellowed with the effort of maintaining his air shield as the enormous worms slammed into it from every side, the rows of ringed teeth chomping wildly with the desire to swallow us.

I had to fight a flinch every time his magic shuddered and it was a battle to keep concentrating on my own power as I followed the narrow trail Plunger had carved through the soil, widening it so that we could all run along behind him.

“Holy fuck,” Ethan gasped and I glanced around just as a worm blasted its way into the tunnel behind us, swallowing one of The Watchers whole as his screams of agony filled the air.

I blinked at the place where he’d just been, watching the worm’s stumpy body as it slithered away and finding Gustard standing beyond it as it disappeared.

He grinned at me and I snarled at him in return as one of his men shielded him with air magic of his own. I should have known we weren’t done with that motherfucker yet.

Ethan threw a shield of ice up between us to stop them from following and Roary leant his strength to it too, blocking their path.

“We need to move,” Roary urged and I nodded, turning back to the tunnel Plunger had created and running on as I continued to widen it for our group.

“I’m not letting Gustard escape this place,” I said firmly as I ran on.

“Not a single psychopath will make it out of here,” Cain agreed in a low growl, his gaze shifting to Sin and making my instincts prickle. But if he seriously thought he was going to follow us to the surface and try to block Sin from coming with us then he was insane.

Roary gave me a look of solidarity and I knew he had my back on this. None of us were going to be left behind, and if that meant I had to use force to stop Cain from trying to restrain Sin then I would. I just hoped it wouldn’t come to that in the end and that the plan we’d come up with would work.

Plunger’s tunnel kept climbing, shifting sharply left and right to avoid the explosives buried in the ground as the worms continued to burst from the soil and slam into Sin’s shield.

“Hurry up, buttercup, or Ethan’s gonna have to start sucking me off to top me up,” Sin grunted.

“We’re almost at the surface,” I gasped, running on, clambering upwards as the tunnel became steeper and steeper and I used my magic to carve steps beneath our feet to help with the climb.

I could feel the difference in the soil surrounding us now, the looseness of it this close to the surface, the moisture in it, freedom so fucking close that we could almost touch it.

With a furious snarl, I threw my arms out before us and an explosion of dirt tore up and away from us to reveal the dark sky overhead and the enormous Storm Dragon who was soaring through the clouds there too.

My heart lightened and I raced up and out of the ground, a howl tearing from my lips in greeting as Dante roared a reply and lightning crackled around him.

The others all charged out around me and we turned towards the distant fence, breaking into a sprint as we set our gaze on it and the promise of freedom beyond it.

“A morte e ritorno!” I bellowed, urging them all on with me and they roared it back at me in reply, fuelling my limbs as I charged towards the fence.

Another explosion of soil behind us made me whirl around as I spotted Gustard and a whole horde of the fucking Watchers emerging from the soil too.

“Go!” Cain barked at me as I bared my teeth at the unFae bastardo who was hijacking our escape plan. “I won’t let any of those fuckers escape.”

My heart wrenched as he shot away from me, slamming into the group of Watchers and using his Vampire speed to fight them while they yelled and tried to escape, but I couldn’t wait for him. He’d made up his mind. He wasn’t coming with me and I could only hope that one day he’d come to Mount Lupa and I’d see him again.

A tear slipped down my cheek as I turned my back on the guard who had stolen a slice of my heart and I howled again, rallying our group as we took off towards the fence and thunder rumbled in the sky overhead.

“Follow my hiney to avoid the mines!” Plunger yelled from just ahead of us, shaking his wrinkly Mole ass at us as he began to dart left and right, taking some zig zagging route across the open ground which made no sense to me at all.

But just as I started to make my own path across the plane, a tremendous explosion knocked me to my knees and one of Gustard’s men was splattered into a million pieces as a land mine took him out.

“Follow Plunger!” I roared, realising that he was using his gifts to sense the mines in the ground and taking off after his gross butt as fast as I could run.

Esme bounded along at my side, her tits bouncing wildly as she clutched them against her chest and I flicked my fingers to build her a bra out of leaves as I took pity on her.

“Thank you, Alpha!” she gasped, running faster now that her boobs were secure.

Ethan howled loudly and Sin threw his air shield up at our backs as The Watchers realised what we were doing and took chase too.

Gustard was riding on the back of a Moose Shifter as he tore across the ground behind us and I cursed as I realised they’d gotten their hands on some of the guards’ Order suppressant antidote too.

“Left!” Plunger shrieked, jerking in the direction he’d indicated and causing us all to stumble as we followed right behind him.

My inner Wolf was pacing beneath my skin, begging to be set free but I wanted to have control over my magic, so I kept going on two legs, screaming encouragement at the others to keep up.

All around us land mines kept exploding and I used my earth magic to shake the ground at our backs and set more off in Gustard’s path.

Worms leapt from the ground at random, swallowing any Fae unlucky enough to find themselves in their path and I heard Hastings scream as one narrowly avoided him. He was running along with all of us, clearly wanting to escape the worms and Gustard just as much as the rest of us and I took pity on him, yanking him closer to us with one of my vines so that he could be protected within our group.

“We won’t hurt you,” I promised him as he looked around at us and we all continued to run. “We just want to be free.”

“Me too,” he gasped as he ran. “Free of this hell forever.”

Pudding was falling behind, his lumbering stride consistent but slow while he waved the rest of us on like he didn’t have a care in the fucking world and people weren’t being exploded or devoured by tooth worms all around him. I couldn’t risk our group by waiting for him, so I could only hope he would be alright as we sprinted on.

“Right! Follow my authori-tai, it is my method!” Plunger called and we fucking did because I didn’t want to be splattered into a thousand pieces across this damn field.

The fence was getting closer and Dante swooped beneath the clouds beyond it, roaring his encouragement at us to run faster while Leon waved at us from his back with his golden hair billowing in the wind. Wait, is that RJ and Luca in his lap??

Dante couldn’t land on this side of the fence with all the mines here, so we had to get to him. And by the stars we would or we’d die trying because there was no way in hell I’d ever be a prisoner again.