Free Web NovelChapter 42: Chapter 41: THE IMPOSSIBLE FIGHT II
FRIDAY, 2:00 PM THIRTY-TWO HOURS SINCE SEPARATION
Eve’s temperature hit 106.1.
Dr. Thorne packed her entire body in ice, desperately trying to bring it down. The medically induced coma had reduced some of the stress, but Eve’s body was still fighting itself, still holding back a transformation that needed to happen.
"She’s still fighting it," Dr. Thorne said in disbelief. "Even unconscious, even in a coma, she’s still fighting the transformation."
"Can a person do that?" Mrs. Blackwood asked. "Fight something unconsciously?"
"They shouldn’t be able to," Dr. Thorne said. "The subconscious doesn’t have that kind of control. But she’s not just any person. The bond...the soul bond...it’s so strong that even unconscious, she’s holding onto them. Waiting for them."
"Will she make it?" Mrs. Blackwood asked.
Dr. Thorne looked at the failing body in the bed. At the marks that now covered every inch of skin except for a tiny patch on Eve’s left palm....the last unmarked spot. Once that mark appeared, the spell would shatter whether Eve was ready or not.
"I don’t know," Dr. Thorne admitted. "But I do know she’s the strongest person I’ve ever seen. And if sheer willpower can keep someone alive, she has a chance."
Eight more hours.
Eight more hours until the brothers could get home.
Eve just had to survive eight more hours.
Please let her survive eight more hours.
*********
FRIDAY, 10:15 AM - NORTHERN TERRITORY TWENTY-EIGHT HOURS SINCE SEPARATION
Damian ended the call and stood motionless for exactly three seconds.
Then he turned to his brothers with an expression of such cold, focused rage that even Damon took a step back.
"We’re out of time," Damian said, his voice deadly calm. "Eve is dying. We have twelve hours to end this and get home."
"The children are in a fortified position," Silas said, pulling up the tactical map on his tablet. "Konstantin has them in the main lodge with at least twenty guards. The building is defensible, surrounded by his wolves....."
"I don’t care," Damian interrupted. "We’re not doing this carefully. We’re not playing by challenge rules. We’re going in fast, hard, and brutal. We save those children in the next six hours or Eve dies while we’re fucking around with pack politics."
"That’s a declaration of war," Marcus, their beta, said carefully. "If you break challenge protocol, other packs will see it as...."
"I. Don’t. Care." Damian’s eyes flashed gold. "Let them see it however they want. Let them think we’re monsters. Let them fear us. I don’t give a fuck about politics or protocol right now. I care about getting home to our mate before she dies."
Damon’s grin was sharp and vicious. "Finally. I’ve been wanting to drop the pretense of civility anyway. What’s the plan?"
"We divide into three strike teams," Damian said, already moving toward their vehicles. "I take the front entrance with ten warriors. Damon, you take the back with eight. Silas, you position snipers on the ridge with the remaining five. We hit them simultaneously from all angles."
"Konstantin will cry foul," Silas pointed out.
"Konstantin can cry all he wants while we’re ripping out his throat," Damian said coldly. "He wanted a challenge? He’s getting one. Just not the civilized kind he was expecting."
They loaded weapons with efficient, deadly precision. Silver bullets....lethal to werewolves. Wolfsbane grenades....would incapacitate but not kill, useful for crowd control. And traditional blades....because sometimes the old ways were most satisfying.
"The children," Marcus said. "We need to make sure they’re not caught in the crossfire."
"That’s your job," Damian told him. "The moment we breach, you take four wolves and extract those children. Get them out of the building and away from the fighting. Everyone else is focused on neutralizing Konstantin’s forces."
"What about Konstantin himself?" Damon asked, checking his weapons with anticipation.
"Mine," Damian said flatly. "He challenged me specifically. He threatened our pack. He created this situation that’s killing our mate. I’m ending him personally."
"How brutal are we talking?" Silas asked, his analytical mind already calculating acceptable casualties.
"As brutal as necessary," Damian said. "I don’t want to kill unnecessarily....we’re not monsters. But anyone who stands between us and those children, anyone who tries to stop us from getting home to Eve.....they’re going down. Hard."
The three brothers looked at each other, and in that moment, they were perfectly aligned. All the dominance struggles, all the careful balance of power between them...it all fell away in the face of their single, united purpose.
Save the children. Get home to Eve.
Everything else was irrelevant.
"Let’s go hunting," Damon said, his eyes gleaming with predatory anticipation.
FRIDAY, 11:00 AM - ASSAULT ON THE LODGE
The attack came without warning.
Konstantin’s guards never saw it coming. One moment they were patrolling the perimeter, confident in their defensive position. The next, silver bullets were taking them down with surgical precision.
Silas’s snipers were devastatingly effective. Each shot carefully placed to incapacitate without killing...through shoulders, legs, anywhere that would drop a wolf without ending their life.
"Alpha Damian is giving mercy," Silas said into his comm, his voice cold. "But mercy has limits. Any guard who continues fighting after being wounded will receive a kill shot. Their choice."
Most chose to stay down.
Damian hit the front entrance like a battering ram. Literally....he simply shifted mid-run, his massive black wolf form crashing through the heavy wooden doors with enough force to splinter them off their hinges.
The guards inside had seconds to react. Most didn’t make it.
Damian’s wolf was a force of nature....twelve hundred pounds of muscle, fur, and rage. He tore through Konstantin’s inner circle with terrifying efficiency. Not killing...not yet...but savaging them badly enough that they couldn’t fight back.
"Children are located," Marcus’s voice came through the comms. "Second floor, east wing. Moving to extract now."
"Copy that," Damian responded, his voice distorted by the partial shift. "Damon, status?"
"Back entrance secured," Damon reported, the sound of fighting clear in the background. "Twelve guards down. None dead, but they’ll be pissing blood for a week. Moving to secure the second floor."
"Silas?"
"Perimeter is locked down. No one is getting in or out. Konstantin is trapped on the third floor with his remaining guards. Approximately eight wolves, all armed."
"I’m coming for him," Damian said.
He bounded up the stairs, his wolf form rippling with barely contained violence. Guards tried to stop him....they fell before his claws and teeth. Still alive, but broken.
Konstantin waited in what had probably been a conference room. Eight of his best warriors surrounded him, all shifted, all ready to defend their alpha.
Damian shifted back to human form....naked, covered in blood that wasn’t his, his eyes blazing with gold fire.
"You wanted a challenge," Damian said, his voice deadly quiet. "Here I am. Just me and you, Konstantin. Your warriors stand down, and we settle this alpha to alpha. Or they fight, and I kill every single one of them before I get to you. Your choice."
"You broke protocol," Konstantin snarled. "You attacked without proper...."
"My mate is dying," Damian interrupted, his voice dropping to a growl that made even Konstantin’s guards flinch. "You created a situation that forced me to choose between my pack and my mate. You held children hostage. You thought you could manipulate me. So yes, I broke your fucking protocol. And now you’re going to pay for it."
Konstantin’s guards looked at each other uncertainly. They’d signed up to serve their alpha, but facing a mate-bonded alpha wolf whose female was dying? That was a level of dangerous they weren’t prepared for.
"Stand down," one of the guards said to Konstantin. "This is your fight. We didn’t sign up for a suicide mission."
"Cowards," Konstantin spat. freewebnøvel.com
"Survivors," the guard corrected, backing away. "Fight him yourself. We’re out."
Konstantin’s remaining guards retreated, leaving their alpha alone to face Damian.
"Just you and me then," Konstantin said, shifting into his wolf form—a large gray wolf, impressive by normal standards.
But Damian’s black wolf was easily twice his size, and motivated by something far more powerful than pride or territory.
He was motivated by love. By desperation. By the need to get home to his dying mate.
And that made him unstoppable.
The fight was brutal and short.
Konstantin fought well....he was an alpha for a reason, strong and skilled and vicious. But Damian was fighting for something more important than dominance. He was fighting for Eve’s life.
Every second spent here was a second Eve was dying. Every moment wasted was a moment he wasn’t by her side.
So Damian ended it with devastating efficiency.
He didn’t kill Konstantin....though it took inhuman restraint not to. Instead, he left him broken and bloodied on the floor, his throat intact but his pride shattered.
"Your territory is forfeit," Damian said, shifting back to human form and standing over Konstantin’s wolf. "Your pack is absorbed into mine. Your wolves can swear loyalty or leave....their choice. But you? You’re banished. If I ever see you again, if you ever threaten what’s mine again, I will kill you. Slowly. Painfully. In ways that will make tonight’s mercy look generous."
He turned and walked away, leaving Konstantin alive but utterly defeated.
"Status?" he barked into the comms.
"All children recovered and safe," Marcus reported. "Some minor injuries, but nothing serious. Medical team is checking them over now."
"Pack members?"
"Forty-three pack members freed. Three injured, none critically. They’re being transported to the medical facility."
"Casualties on our side?"
"None," Silas reported. "We have wounded, but everyone’s alive."
"Good." Damian grabbed clothes from one of his fallen guards, dressing quickly. "Pack everything. We’re leaving in ten minutes. No delays. No celebrations. We get on the road and we drive straight through until we get home."
"It’s a ten-hour drive," Damon pointed out. "Maybe we should rest..."
"We rest when Eve is safe," Damian snapped. "Not before. I’ll drive first. You and Silas can sleep in shifts. But we’re leaving now."
