Moon Touched (Zodiac Wolves: The Lost Pack #1)(19)
Even Dad was forced to freeze, and that gave Dixon just enough time to shift into a giant red wolf and leap forward. With a snarl, he ripped my father's throat out with his fangs. Blood sprayed, landing on me, and I let out the scream I’d been holding back for far too long. It happened so fast, Dad didn't even have time to shift or use his crab armor.
Then Dixon tore apart my father in front of me.
Chapter Eight
All I heard was screaming. It was the only thing I could do as I watched in helpless horror as the Leo pack converged on my father's body and tore him to pieces.
I wasn't the only one screaming though. As I scrambled back, trying to get as far away from the blood and sinew, Jackie rushed forward, screaming and snarling at the death of her mate. It was too late though—Dad was gone, and she was taken next. I tore my gaze away as the Leos descended on her, my terror quickly turning to a desperate need to escape and survive. The Leo alpha's roar was finally wearing off, or maybe it was the shock of the rejection, but I could finally move again.
As I struggled to my feet, the world around me turned to chaos. Everyone was running, screaming, and shifting. The Sun Witches were gone, and both the Leo and Cancer packs were fighting in the middle of the clearing where we'd just had the mating ritual. I couldn't understand how things had turned so fast, or how I went from getting a mate to being an orphan in seconds. All I knew was I had to find Wesley and get the fuck out of here.
Aries, Scorpio, and Taurus pack members joined the fray, slaughtering members of the Cancer pack all around me under the command of the Leos. Where were our Cancer allies? They'd abandoned us the second they'd smelled trouble, showing just how little the packs cared for loyalty or honor. Now my pack—no, former pack—was outnumbered and being picked off one by one. While I wasn’t overly fond of anyone in Cancer except my brother, that didn’t mean I wanted to see them dead.
I yelled Wesley's name, trying to find him in the battle. I couldn't see him among the Cancer pack shifters falling left and right. I narrowly dodged an Aries wolf using their ram charge on a shifter who used to babysit me. The Cancer wolf fell to the ground, whimpering pitifully. I stuttered to a halt in front of her, trying to see if I could help somehow, and her dark eyes rolled up at me. They pleaded with me, though I wasn't sure if they were telling me to help—or to run.
The Aries shifter turned his gaze on me, snarling, and I quickly ducked out of the way as another one joined him. They pounced on the wolf I'd tried to help, and all I could do was turn and run before they got me too. I tripped over a dead wolf, nearly falling, but somehow managed to stay on my feet as tears streamed down my face. Other wolves were trying to flee too, but the Leos were taking them all down. They didn't want any Cancer shifters escaping the massacre.
The Ophiuchus pack didn't even need to start a war. We’d done it ourselves.
Where were the Sun Witches during all of this? The Convergence was supposed to be neutral territory and fighting wasn't allowed, but they weren’t protecting us or doing anything to try to stop this madness. They had betrayed us, just as much as the other packs had.
"Wesley!" I screamed, trying to crane my neck above the fighters. I scanned the crowd for his familiar face, praying and hoping that he had somehow escaped the initial violence. I hadn’t seen him go down, but that didn’t mean anything. It had all happened so fast, I could have missed it.
Then I saw him.
“Wesley!” I yelled again, charging toward him. I had no clue how I made it through that many frenzied shifters without getting a scratch on me, but somehow I reached his side. He looked half-crazed, blood splattered across half of his face—our father’s blood. His hands had turned to claws, but otherwise, he was still in human form, barking out orders to the Cancer shifters fighting around him.
"Ayla!" He let out a relieved sigh, though his face remained grim. "You have to get out of here!"
“I’m not leaving you,” I said, drawing up whatever remained of my strength. “You’re all I have left.”
As I said the words, movement caught at the corner of my eye, drawing my attention toward some approaching shifters. Scorpio wolves, extremely deadly with their pack's signature poison claws and tails. I wouldn’t stand a chance against them without Cancer armor.
Wesley shoved me behind him as the Scorpios moved to surround us. "Go! I'll be right behind you!"
I stumbled back, then turned and ran, narrowly avoiding the slash of a Scorpio's poison claws. I thought Wesley was right at my heels, but when I glanced behind me, I saw him fighting the shifters, holding them at bay so I could escape. My chest tightened and a ragged cry escaped me as half a dozen Scorpio shifters converged on him at once, burying him under a sea of fur and fangs. I let out another broken scream as he fell beneath them, snarling all the way down.
"No!" I tried to rush forward to save him, even though it would probably mean my death too.
Suddenly pain exploded in my side, and I dropped to my knees, keeling over and landing hard in the dirt. I gasped in a breath and looked up to find Jordan standing over me, a snarl on his face. He’d punched me directly in the stomach, using his shifter strength and my own forward momentum to make it even worse.
“I can’t kill you,” he said, sneering down at me. “But I'm going to really enjoy making you suffer.”