The Legend of the Werewolf (32 page)

Westley and Chris.

Thank. God.

They landed in positions that left them
ready to pounce, teeth bared in a snarl at the man behind
her.

She turned. Like her, Hadrian had been
blown off his feet. He struggled with his tangled robes that
wouldn't allow him to rise as his wide eyes stared at the fearsome
wolf.

Westley looked into her eyes, turmoil and
relief rolling off of him at the sight of her.

Are you alright?

She jumped to her feet, not caring how
they got there as long as they were there. "Never better. Get
me—"

She stopped. Mike ran through the fiery
doors and surveyed the scene before finally spotting
her.

Their eyes met. Anne's heart pulled as she
sensed the same relief rolling off him that she felt on Westley,
only on such a higher intensity. It pulsed from all the way across
the hall.

She sniffed, eyes stinging.

Behind him, his younger brother, Bud,
appeared. Features awed as he looked around, oblivious to his
brother’s stares.

So, he was the reason the castle shook.
The kid nearly brought the whole place down.

Behind them, the whole of the dark
forest was ablaze, glowing and hot.

Chris's fire. It left no space
available to cast a decent shadow.

Even if it did, the shadows outside were
probably serfs working the land, not knights meant to protect the
castle.

Still, that didn't explain how they got
to the Shadow World.

"Wow," Mike's eyes travelled up and down
her shimmering gown, a lazy smile tugging at his lips. "You
look—"

"Say another word and I kill you," she
warned.

He grinned. "But you look
good."

She’d been forced into the dress and ogled
by an old pervert, Mike’s compliment shouldn’t have made her
blush.

Don't worry Annie, we'll get
you some descent clothes when we're finished with this guy.
Westley and Chris
resumed their animalistic charge against the still struggling
Hadrian.

Anne's eyes widened as huge as the
moonstone as they whirred past her.

They didn't know that Hadrian wasn’t
limited to his power in the Shadow World.

"Stop!"

Hadrian righted his cloak and flung it out
of his face. He stood, as much fire in his eyes as there was in
Chris's mouth, and raised his palms.

Like a unit, Chris and Westley leapt
into the air for a running attack. A blast of black cackling energy
erupted from Hadrian’s hands and rocketed into their
chests.

It threw them backwards, twisting them
in the air, and then down. Neither got back up.

"No!" Anne screamed and ran for them.
She fell to her knees, cradling Westley's wolf head in her lap. His
eyes did not open.

She looked up, ready to transform so
she could kill the man standing above her.

Hadrian was no longer entirely fixed on
her, his red eyes would not leave the spot where Mike
stood.

They stared each other down. Mike's
knees were bent as though he were getting ready to
spring.

"You," Hadrian seethed, raising his hand
to ready another blast. "I never thought I would see the day when
you would come back here. All the better for me!"

SEVENTEEN

Hadrian's yellow blast flew from his
palm like a jet, sweeping down the stone, tunnel-like halls with
enough force to knock down the tapestries and animal
heads.

It fired towards Mike.
It would kill
him!

Anne launched to her feet to take the hit.
Vaguely, she heard Mike scream at her but she ignored
it.

The yellow fireball closed in on her.
Anne was ready to take it, but it split in two, separated, and flew
around her head. One for Mike and one now for Bud.

Neither of them moved to jump out of
its path, both planted their feet and glared at the things that
would fry them.

Anne shrieked, about to watch the man
she loved die. "Stop!"

Bud raised his hand in the same fashion
Hadrian had raised his. The yellow blasts stopped inches before
touching the flesh of either himself or his older
brother.

They looked like mini suns hovering
just beyond Bud’s palm.

Air escaped Anne's throat like a deflating
balloon, leaving her with a head rush as she sank to her
knees.

Of course! Bud's telekinesis. Nothing
Hadrian sent at them could touch them.

Bud flung his hand as though swatting
at a fly, sending the killer blasts back to their
creator.

Anne didn’t move as they soared over
her head like twin phoenix birds.

Hadrian ducked out of the way, slamming
himself into the stone wall before the balls could hit. They flew
on, mindless, and crashed into the wall at the far end of the hall
in an explosion of rocks and dust, clouding them in a blanket of
dirt.

"Impossible!" Hadrian roared when the dust
settled. Ugly blue veins popped out his neck and traveled up his
purple face. He stormed towards them. "I'll turn you into
shadows!"

Anne grabbed his flailing robes as he
walked by. He stopped and half turned to look at her, clenched his
fingers in the fabric of his cloak and yanked it back. "This will
only take a moment, my love."

His eyes on her, he couldn’t see the
wolf and dragon wobbly getting back to their four legs.

"You're right. It will," she said as
Westley and Chris ran and jumped.

Hadrian turned as they tackled him,
their bodies crushing him to the ground and pinning his arms
down.

Hadrian struggled and shrieked. First, in
blind panic, kicking his legs and flailing his head.

When no teeth removed his head from his
shoulders, he stopped. Rage took over. "Remove yourself from me,
you filthy beast!"

Despite how they were both in their
other forms, Hadrian's comment seemed to be solely directed towards
Westley.

Filthy beast?
He asked, plucking a
heavy paw down on Hadrian's chest while pulling his lips back so
that the warlock could see the points of his incisors.

Hadrian fell silent, his breath coming
out in ragged gasps as the wolf opened his mouth and lowered his
muzzle.

Hadrian closed his eyes, as though
waiting for the killer bite from the animal he both created and
feared.

Instead of biting his head off,
Westley's giant tongue took one sloppy lap of his face.

Hadrian resumed his struggling
and shrieking, his body insanely bending and bucking. "Disgusting
animal! Filthy half-breed!
I'll destroy you all!
"

Both the dragon and the wolf let out
snorts of laughter.

Anne couldn't help it either, it was
funny.

Mike knelt down in front of her. The
amused grin disappeared, replaced with trembling lips and a
pounding heart.

She opened her arms and he swept in to
hold her. He pulled her tight to his chest, crushed her while
pressing kisses to her neck and shoulders. His muscled arms made
her feel small and safe.

Strong emotions surged from him so
powerfully that she couldn’t just feel them, she could smell
them.

Relief, fear, joy…love.

He loved her.

"I was so worried about you," he
choked.

Anne sniffed. Despite the brave front she
put on for Hadrian, a nagging worry picked at her insides during
the short hours of her stay that she would never escape.
Eventually, Hadrian would have raped her. With all his shadow
creatures around, there would have be nothing she could do about
it.

But he came for her. Mike came back. He
didn’t leave.

And, he loved her. It wasn’t
just about lust. He
loved
her.

“
I’ll get you out of here. I
promise, I’ll take you home.”

At the mention of home, she pulled away to
see his eyes. "Is Bill alright? Is anyone else injured?"

"Bill is fine," Mike assured her, his
rough fingers threading her hair. "Westley decided to take on being
pack master until something else could be figured out."

"Don't touch her! I'll destroy you and
you will stay dead this time!"

A low growl erupted from Westley's throat.
His jaws opened and lunged, this time intending to kill.

"Stop!" Anne and Mike screamed in
unison.

Westley's teeth framed Hadrian's face.
Hadrian's chest halted its up and down movements, his eyes wide as
he stared at the inside of Westley's mouth, terrified.

Westley's pulled back lips revealed
pointed teeth that pricked Hadrian's cheeks, blood trickled. His
yellow eyes shone on Anne and Mike questioningly, though he did not
pull his teeth away.

Mike stared down at Anne with that same
question on his face. "I’m surprised you care. He just killed your
pack master."

A fresh growl rippled through
Westley's throat.
Yes. He did.

She shook her head, not willing to look at
the anger and feel the hurt radiating from her best friend as she
attempted to deny him the chance to avenge his dead
father.

"I—I feel sorry for him," she
said.

"What?" Mike asked.

What?
Westley demanded.

Though dragons and werewolves couldn't
talk telepathically to each other, when Chris approached and nudged
his furry shoulder, Anne got the feeling they were communicating
somehow.

A telepathic bond could be shared between
humans and werewolves. Could it also be done with
dragons?

Westley ignored it and kept his teeth
on his prisoner.

“
I feel sorry for him,” Anne said
again.

The explanation seemed to be enough for
Mike. "Incapacitate him but don't kill him."

Westley growled again, the arched claws
of his paws lengthened where they pinned Hadrian, readying for a
kill.

Anne felt Mike's anger spike. "You draw
one more drop of blood and I'll arrest you, too. As of now, he's an
unarmed prisoner."

Westley growled a third time, his eyes
flashing from her to Mike, and back again.

Chris sat on his haunches, red-forked tail
waving lazily as he waited for Westley to make his
decision.

Anne blinked and just about missed it.
Westley released his frustration with a howl, angled his head and
clamped his jaws into Hadrian’s robes.

The warlock screamed as Westley yanked
the man into the air and hurled him at the stone wall with so much
strength he might as well have been throwing a bean bag.

Hadrian hit and promptly crumpled to the
floor. He stumbled to his knees, struggling to lift his
hands.

Then his body stiffened like a brick
and fell over again. This time it stayed down.

Confusion took over. "What?" Anne
looked over, saw the concentration on Bud's face and knew that he
was responsible for Hadrian's containment.

Westley snorted in disgust, lifted
himself to his hind legs and transformed back into a
man.

Chris followed suit. Since he was the
only one of the two who could change while still keeping his
clothes intact, he removed his long jacket and handed it to Westley
so he’d have something to wear.

Westley donned the jacket and stormed
pastsed Mike. "He better spend the rest of his existence in a
hole," he snarled, walking towards the burning forest as though he
weren't moving straight into an inferno.

Chris picked up Hadrian and slung the
man over his shoulder. It looked more like he carried a two by four
with how stiff the warlock was. He followed his lover without
saying a word.

The three watched them go. Anne sensed
Hadrian's steaming rage, hissing as it boiled helplessly, along
with his yearning for her as he was taken away.

Bud was the first to break the silence.
"Uh, what was that about?"

Mike took Anne's hand and threaded his
fingers through hers. "I'll explain later. We need to get out of
here so you can take this place down."

Anne remembered the shaking. She looked
at Bud. "Can you actually destroy this place?"

He shrugged. "I tried earlier, just to
see if I could before Mike reminded me you were here. Seemed easy
enough."

"Plus, it should distract the shadows as
we leave. That fire outside won't burn strong enough forever," Mike
finished.

“
They won’t all attack us,
anyway,” Anne states. “Some of the shadows are just servants.
They’re all part of the castle. He did this to them.”

Mike’s eyes widened. “What?”

“Yeah, he turned them all into these
things just like he turned my grandpa into a werewolf.”