The beast and the blessed novel by Ashley Breanne novel Chapter 95

Ninety-Five: Natalie

Natalie's P.O.V.

Killian was already standing in his Lycan form. His back was to me as he scanned the area.

A few of our pack members screamed and yelped in pain as they tossed their bodies into the dirt, trying their hardest to extinguish the fire. It was short lasting, but I knew they would have some serious injuries for a while.

I couldn’t feel Killian in our bond. He had shut himself off but stayed close to me as I jumped to my feet and waited. The heat from the flames warmed my chilled fur, and I shuddered.

I had trained to fight but had no idea what to do when we couldn't see our enemies.

'They are still in the mountains. That was a warning shot.' A gravelly, deep unfamiliar voice stated, and I turned to look as Tobias stepped closer.

Thomas and George were on my other side, and I knew the sound of their voices. It hadn't been either of them.

It was Tobias.

The smell of burnt fur made my nose wrinkle, and I glanced around Killian as the last of the injured hobbled their way back toward the healers. Only one body remained limp on the dirt with smoke coming from them, and a group of humans sprinted through the crowd with a stretcher to grab him.

The pack was alert, all on their feet, shifting every few seconds as they waited for their orders. But they remained silent.

I examined the area for the first time since waking and found that the sun had barely started rising. The glow of light on the treetops would work to our advantage. Vampires were fine in the sunlight as long as they had fed. Even if they didn't, they could still be in the sun. They would just burn quickly from the vitamin deficiency their diet caused.

From a distance, yelling could be heard, sending a shiver down my spine.

The echoing war cry coming from several hundreds of bodies was something I would hear when I closed my eyes years from now.

'Move in!' Killian ordered low and deadly. I expected everyone to sprint through the trees to find our enemy. Instead, we marched together at a steady pace forward. I stayed just behind Killian as he stalked toward our enemies, looking every bit like the predator he was.

The others of his kind were up on two feet as their hulking beasts pressed in to surround their king. The animalistic sounds coming from them were lower than before. Still, for the first time, I finally understood what they were saying.

They were demanding blood. It excited them that they would spill it within the next few minutes.

''Aurora!” A voice called out as the man from last night sprinted toward me. "Are you alright?"

Killian let out a warning growl, and the man dropped his head in submission before moving to stand on the other side of Tobias.

He marched forward when I didn't acknowledge him but continued to spare me glances. It wasn't lost on me that several other werewolves moved with him to provide yet another wall of guards around me.

It was proof... proof that I didn’t need nor want right now that the stranger with the same color hair and eyes as me knew my mother. He knew her white fur and cared for her. He wanted to protect her. He had no idea who I was or what my relation to her was.

I refused to look his way, focusing on the more important task at hand as we reached a large clearing at the base of the mountain. It wouldn't be able to house both armies. There would still be fighting within the trees, but it provided us with an opening large enough to see the wall of angry vampires on the other side.

There had to have been hundreds that had been hiding all these years, breeding and turning more into their kind until they had created the thousands that now stood before us.

’Talia!" Killian roared, but I felt the slightest falter in his voice when not one but two women stepped forward and into the clearing.

I would have recognized her anywhere, but the crown decorated with blood -red rubies took my breath away. They had to have dug up Killian's father to get the crown, and seeing it sitting on Lillian's head made me nauseous.

The woman next to her was a tall yet paunchy woman with pin-straight blonde hair and a glare that could kill on its own. She had to be Talia.