The Last Werewolf Read online

  I dropped backwards, letting my legs and body slide underneath their fire and between the two warlocks. They turned to follow me with their fire, but ended up facing each other and turning the flames back in the others face.

  I didn’t wait to see how much damage they’d inflicted on each other. I ran straight to the carriage and threw the door open. A blur of black bounced from the carriage and onto me, flattening me to the ground. “It’s me! It’s Lily!” I yelled in fear.

  Irving put his muzzle against my hair and inhaled before stepping back off of me. He changed forms and helped me stand up. “I’m sorry. I thought it might be a trick by them.”

  I avoided looking at his naked body and looked back at the two bodies in the middle of the road. “We should hurry. I don’t think they killed each other.”

  Irving’s eyes glowed with vengeance, “Why don’t you head back the way we came and I’ll be sure they can’t follow us.”

  I understood his underlying meaning, but I shook my head. “I won’t leave you.”

  The vengeance left his eyes to be replaced by a fire I didn’t recognize. He reached out and rested his hand on my cheek. “I would have it no other way, but I don’t think you should witness what I am about to do.”

  I leaned into his hand and inhaled his scent. “I’ll plug my ears and turn away,” I whispered.

  He moved forward and pressed his body against mine, pinning me against the side of the carriage in a crushing hug. “I owe you my life.”

  I blushed and whispered, “I’d settle for a kiss.”

  He smiled and chastely kissed my lips, pulling away far too soon for my liking. “That will have to do until we are completely out of danger and somewhere I can fully repay my debt.”

  I watched him walk away with strange butterflies in my stomach. I followed him at a distance and when he started drawing a symbol, I turned around and plugged my ears. Plugging didn’t help though because whatever he was doing to them made their screams loud enough for me to hear and feel. The screaming continued for a few minutes and then an eerie quiet settled around us.

  I took my fingers out of my ears and walked back to the carriage. I found Irving’s clothes on the floor and folded them into a pile to give back to him. I turned around and ran into his chest, the clothes falling to the ground and a squeal escaping my lips. He laughed softly and picked up the clothes. “I’m sorry. I’d assumed you’d heard me.”

  I swallowed and straightened my shoulders as I tried to regain some of my composure. Irving put his clothes on and then enveloped me in a warm hug. “Thank you for coming for me.”

  I relaxed in his hold and then wrapped my arms around his back. “You’re welcome.”

  “Now isn’t this touching?” said a rough male voice.

  Irving and I spun around to find five warlocks in the road facing us. Irving pushed me behind him and growled. “What do you want?”

  The man smiled. “The same thing I’ve always wanted. Your undying loyalty.”

  “You know that’ll never happen.”

  “Well, then I’ll settle for your undying imprisonment,” the man said, his smile turning into a sneer.

  The four other men started to move forward, but Irving raised his hand to trace a symbol and they all stopped, obviously scared of him. A twig snapped to my right. I spun around, sword slashing and cut a man in two. The warlocks gasped at my quick reflexes and the head man glared at me. “What have you there, Irving? A new pet?”

  New pet?

  “Leave her out of this.”

  “She involved herself by killing your brother.”

  I looked at Irving in shock. “Your brother?!”

  He shrugged. “I didn’t like him much anyways. His death doesn’t affect me.”

  “But…he was your brother?” I said softly, unable to understand why he was being so cold about me having just killed his kin.

  “No, he was not my brother, he was the son of the bastard who raped my adopted mother,” Irving answered quietly.

  “He was a better man than you!” the head man yelled.

  “Aw, I see I’ve struck a nerve.” Irving said smiling happily.

  “I should have never let you be born! Or mated with that mutt!” the man yelled.

  Irving shrugged. “Your fault, father.”

  I gasped. His father? This horrible man was his father? No wonder he was hiding in that small town.

  The man started tracing a pattern and instinct took over. I ran around Irving and decapitating two of the men before they could finish their attacks and ran at the last two with as much speed as I could. The first man dodged my strike, so I decided instead to incapacitate him as only a warlock would think worse than death, I cut off his hands. The man screamed in pain and agony and dropped to the ground.

  The fourth warlock shot at me with fire, burning my right upper arm. I yelled in pain and jabbed at him with my sword. He blocked the hit with metal wrist gauntlets. So much for cutting off his hands. He punched at me nearly hitting me in the face. I leaned backwards and then shoved my sword into his gut with a speed only werewolves had.

  I removed my sword and wiped it clean, as I surveyed the area. Only Irving’s father was left and he and Irving were battling it out. Unfortunately, Irving wasn’t winning. His father tossed him backwards, a victorious smile on his lips. “You know you can’t beat me. I’m stronger than you! Besides, do you really think the she-wolf will want you once she finds out that you’re only half wolf?!”

  I ran forward and embedded my sword in his back. “I already know and you should remember to keep your back guarded.”

  I pulled the sword from him and watched as he turned around and looked at all of his dead warlocks. “No. Impossible.”

  Irving stood up slowly and limped towards me. “You should have learned long ago that wolves stick together, father. Never think that one wolf won’t aid another in a time of need, especially the last two werewolves on the planet.”

  I rushed to Irving’s side and put my arm around his waist for support. He smiled down at me and then glared at his dying father. “I wish you could have seen the light, but you were too blind with visions of grandeur. Now, I’ll resurrect the werewolves and bring back our race, mixed with the warlock’s blood you’ve given me, and make us undefeatable. You’ve just ensured that werewolves will never be easily hunted again. Thank you.”

  His father croaked in horror once before falling to the ground.

  Irving closed his eyes and exhaled. “May your turbulent soul finally find rest in the afterlife.” Irving exhaled and looked into my eyes. “Are you hurt, Lily?”

  I shook my head. “No, but you are. We should change and get as far from here as we can so you can heal in peace.”

  Irving smiled. “Peace. That was something I had not thought would be possible for me.” He laid his hand against my cheek and whispered, “I’m sorry I lied to you. I never meant to hurt you, or get you hurt.”

  I rubbed my face against his hand and whined happily. “I forgive you.”

  Irving pulled me against him and kissed my lips fiercely, igniting a fire within me that I thought had died. After Aiden was murdered, I thought that I wouldn’t ever be able to love again, not even friendly love, but with Irving kissing me and our enemies dead at our feet, I knew I could.

  “I won’t ever leave you again,” he said breathlessly when we finally separated.

  I inhaled deeply at his neck and then kissed the tip of his nose. “Even if you left, I would track you.”

  He inhaled from my neck and whispered, “And I would track you to the ends of the earth and back.”

  I smiled, but in the distance, I heard the shouting of men and the thundering of horse hooves.

  Irving kissed my lips again and then smiled. “Time to see if they’re as good at tracking us.”

  I laughed and shed my human skin for my wolf fur, bounding after him in his wolf form. Despite being chased by people who would sooner kill us than talk to us, I was happy. An
d together we would rebuild the werewolves no matter how long it took or how hard the road ahead of us was.

  My name is Lily and I’m the second to last werewolf. For now.

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