Chapter 118
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I dropped to my knees, grabbed a dagger from my thigh sheath, and yanked the corpse’s head clean off with a growl that wasn’t entirely human. Magic pulsed under my skin, moon and earth, both answering me. Willing me forward.
I set the disgusting thing upright in the dirt, the eyes still open, mouth slack.
Then I closed my eyes and called. “Moon Mother. I need you.”
And she came. A breeze danced across the battlefield, silver and cool, laced with the scent of night jasmine and stormlight. My power surged. My eyes flew open as I felt her press into my soul like a kiss on the forehead.
“I hear you, my daughter.”
“Let’s send them a message,” I whispered. “Loud and clear.”
The goddess laughed. The sound echoed through the trees like bells made of thunder. I conjured parchment and wrote with a flick of my finger…
Try again, bitch.
Nice and clear.
I stabbed the note through the vampire’s skull with my dagger, driving it deep between its rotting eyes until the hilt buried in flesh. Then I stood, lifted the head high above me, and felt the ancient words fill my lungs like I’d known them for centuries.
“Gun tillidh thu beò.”
(You will not return alive.)
Light burst from the mark over my heart, and the head exploded into silver dust, vanishing into the night. Silence. Complete, stunned, horrified silence. Hundreds of wolves. Thousands of shifters. An army of Marines. Mages. Witches.
Every single person stared at me like I had grown tentacles or some shit. I dusted my hands on my thighs and turned to the stunned crowd. “Message sent,” I said, casually cracking my neck. “Let’s see if the bastards can read.”
Lachlan stared at me like I’d lit the fucking stars. Ashrian smirked. “Remind me never to piss you off.” Bram growled approvingly. “My kind of woman.” Daxon just grinned like the feral bastard he was and said, “That’s my girl.”
The Moon Goddess didn’t just answer. She roared through me. It took two days to scour every goddamn inch of our land.
The wolves ran until their paws bled. The lions paced and snarled through the brush like golden ghosts. The bears turned over every boulder and tree stump with claws like fucking crowbars. And when they finally came back…muddy, exhausted, but certain…we knew.
The land was clear.
For now.
Alpha Draven gave the order and the border reinforcements began. But me? I didn’t leave that shit to chance. Not this time.
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11:07 Mon, Oct 6
Chapter 118
No more slipping through cracks.
I stood barefoot at the outermost edge of the territory, the grass cool beneath my toes, fingers laced with Lachlan’s on one side and Bram’s thick, calloused palm on the other. Daxon and Ashrian flanked my back, their power humming beneath my skin like a second
heartbeat.
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I reached for the moon. I reached for the earth. And they answered. My body arched as power tore through me, ancient and electric and god breathed. The mark over my heart blazed emerald. My eyes went silver. The air cracked and bent around me as the spell rolled off my tongue like honey and wildfire.
The earth shuddered.
The trees listened.
The wind howled its approval.
All along the borders, glowing runes carved themselves into stone and bark, woven with light and shadow, moon and moss. Traps, beautiful and fucking lethal, anchored into the soil. Vampires wouldn’t step foot in our lands again without meeting the full wrath of two goddesses and one very pissed off hybrid bitch.
I collapsed when it was done. Ash caught me. Of course he did. “Fuck, that was hot,” he whispered as he brushed hair from my face.
“I feel like I just bench pressed a mountain,” I muttered.
“You basically did,” Lachlan said with a grin.
We returned to the keep that night with the borders locked so tight not even a breeze would sneak through without permission.
And then the real work began.
The beast shifters broke ground on their temple to the Sun God, whose name still felt like fire and thunder every time I thought it. Halrik and Nira oversaw it with reverence, and Bram stayed glued to my side, a protective wall of heat and muscle and bear energy that made everyone else walk a little wider around me. Not that I minded.
The witches started construction on their homes beside the forest. Magic whipped through the air like wind chimes and wildfire, laughter and chants rising as homes bloomed from the soil like flowers. The temple to the Earth Goddess went up next, cloaked in ivy and woven sunlight.
The Moon Temple would follow. I could feel Her waiting.
The Marines? Shit, they were a force of their own. Training like their lives depended on it, because they absolutely did. Sparring with wolves. Learning spell defense from witches. Firing enchanted rounds into target dummies that screamed like banshees. Half of them already had wolf mates, and it was causing chaos and babies. The Gods had jokes.
I walked among them all like I belonged to everyone and no one. A soldier nodded at me with reverence. A little witch girl handed me a glowing seed.A lioness bumped her head against my leg and purred. This war was far from over…but this? This was hope,
Living, breathing, ass kicking, temple building, gun wielding hope. My people finally had hope.
And I would fight to the death to protect it.
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11:07 Mon, Oct 6
Hunted Hybrid Aegis War Saga 1
Chapter 119
