Profound Devotion

Chapter 5

July 18th
Monaia

I threw the bedroom door hard enough for it to bounce off the wall, but I didn't care. My sole focus was finding Atticus and, judging by the wide-open entrance to the house, he was already out helping his people.

Another intimidating growl shook the leaves on the trees, but the source was still hidden through the crowd of fearful people that barrelled their way to safety.

One of the females that was near my age stopped to grip my shoulders, her sapphire blue eyes wide and flashing between me and the danger over her shoulder.

"Monaia, we have to get out of here." Syrene insisted, pushing me toward our safe house near the centre of our territory, but I yanked myself away when I caught a glance of my brother's dusty blonde hair.

She stopped and watched me try to weave through the crowd. "What are you doing?" I grunted when someone's elbow collided with my side, knocking all the air out of my lungs.

"I have to get to my brother." Knowing him, he was going to get himself killed if he wasn't willing to defend himself.

I managed to catch a glimpse of Raian's hunched figure limping near the edge of the chaos, one of his hands pressed against his bandaged side while the other went from tree to tree as extra support.

My body was being jostled around, and I ducked under a child that was being whisked away by their mother and dodged another that had tripped over a jarring root.

When I finally made it through to the other side, however, I found my feet glued to the ground and a breath trapped in my lungs.

A wolf—probably the largest I'd ever seen—stood in a broad-legged stance, its grey fur rustling in the breeze. Its mouth hung open to show off a set of sharp, murderous fangs that were snapping in the face of my brother.

Atticus held his hands out front of his body in surrender, trying to wave a white flag and calm the murderous beast that had charged so easily into his territory.

The wolf lowered his head to meet his eyes, another fierce roar rumbling through the Earth beneath my feet as he kicked up the dirt with his enormous paws and readied himself for an attack.

"Cassius!" Raian called out, his breathing ragged as he gave the wolf his best smile.

The wolf, Cassius, closed his jaw and scanned his marred body. The misshapen state he was in only seemed to fuel more of his anger as it morphed into a pure, exotic rage.

Raian frantically shook his head at the shift of the air around him, stepping within his warpath that was aimed straight for my brother.

"They were only helping me. I was attacked, and they only helped bandage me up."

His excuses seemed to fall on deaf ears. Instead of backing down and taking Raian's words at face value, he readied back into his stance and locked his hunter green eyes on Atticus who had yet to shift into his own wolf and defend himself.

I needed to get to them before anyone else was hurt. With an idiocy that I was sure to regret later, I urged my legs faster with my eyes trained on the Lycan that kicked off from the pressed grass, lunging forward into an attack.

Atticus landed in a heap in front of the tree line as Cassius' large head pummeled into his chest. Atticus grunted and stumbled back onto his feet, rubbing his fingers over his bruised skin. He seemed to lose control of his Alpha wolf, shifting mid-step into his tan wolf that was now prepared to protect himself from the present threat.

This wasn't good, and I was struggling to reach them fast enough as the Lycan prepped for another attack—this one sure to cause some damage as his jowls snapped threateningly in my brother's direction.