Midnight Shadows

Chapter 0.2

*** Chapter 28 of King of Beasts

They were everywhere. Biting into his hind legs, clawing at his shoulder, one going for his jugular. The smell was overwhelming, nearly making him delirious, make him just as mad as the beasts he was fighting.

Fur was clenched in his jaws, sharp eyes were sharper than ever. He was completely and utterly the beast, nothing more, nothing less. Instinct ruled every motion, every thought, so that the only thing that made sense was that his mate was getting dragged across the clearing by a set of sharp jagged teeth, and he was going to kill the beast doing it to her.

Pain wasn't a factor. Not now. Later? Yes, he'd definitely feel it later, every bite and scratch and broken bone, feel it heal itself back together. But now, pain was a hindrance, and the beast had no time for any hindrances. When he was brought down to the ground, for just a moment of course, it was from the lack of strength in his back leg where a gnarled looking rogue had bit into his leg.

One grabbed onto his shoulder, trying to bring him down completely but the fool was dead in the next moment. Stupid for trying to take his mate. Stupid for trying to kill the king. Just . . . stupid.

Bodies piled around him like a morbid meadow, a savage display of the evidence towards the mighty power held within the king of beasts.

Unfortunately, though, reality will show that no matter the strength, one beast will find it near impossible to take down dozens of others on his own.

He couldn't shake the rogue on his back leg. Couldn't dodge the rogue leaping through the air, knocking him in the side. He stumbled, caught his footing, refused to fall—then claws swiped his side and blood fell in the aftermath and he was falling to the side anyways, unable to stop it.

He caught sight of Charlotte while he laid on his side. Saw her rear her free leg back and smash it right onto the forehead of the beast holding her. He heard the yelp, would have grinned, would have gone over there and picked her up and kissed her right then if he wasn't bleeding out onto the forest floor with what seemed like a sea of rogues threatening to tear him apart.

She caught his eye though, and he saw how very little was left of his Charlotte. How mad those green eyes were. She saw him though, Charlotte saw Gabe, and for a brief moment those green eyes lit up to a brilliant level and she was screaming his name, screaming for him, as she clambered over tree roots. "Gabe!" she cried. "Gabriel!"

He swiped at a rogue going for his throat, struggled to his feet, felt teeth sink into the back of his neck and drag him back down.

"GABE!" her voice was wretchedly horrified, scared. The king of beasts was snarling, drowning in the river of growls and swiping claws around him. Teeth in his flank. Another swipe at his already injured side. He was going down. He'd killed thirteen beasts in two minutes and forty seconds. The other dozen or so were about to kill him, quite brutally, in half that time.

Then they'd take Charlotte. Then they'd kill her too.

He saw red, saw her hair reflected in the moon and let it burn like a furious fire behind his eyes. Red. Blood, Charlotte's hair, the rising sun she always adored watching. Red like burning embers scorching his skin, turning his mind blank.

The beast at his hind leg was swept away suddenly, the pressure of teeth leaving followed by a pathetic whimper. Recognition carried on the wind as a howl sounded, as four more growls filled the clearing and the beast biting his flank was ripped away the same time the one on his back was.

Odin had arrived, and he'd brought the three wolves Gabe demanded to follow his search for Jason.

The rest was easy. Not even a competition.

The rogues suddenly seemed scarcer, those capable running into the shadows, while those not capable died right then. It was finished quickly, leaving a graveyard in its wake. The king of beasts struggled to his feet, legs shaking. No weight could be placed on his back leg, and it felt like if he sneezed his kidney might just fall out of his side, but he was on his feet, and he was stumbling towards Charlotte.

"You came." She gasped, sobbed, moving to her own feet. She sagged against a tree, losing strength in her body and her injured left foot. "I didn't think—I thought you were gone. Gabe, god, stop moving, you're going to kill yourself—"

Stop moving? Stop moving towards her, leaning against that oak and bleeding? Stop advancing towards the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen, even with her skin covered in grime and blood and her shirt ripped, hair a burning mess?

He's never stop moving towards her, never let her get away.

He shifted in a haze of brutal agony a few step from her, and when he was on his feet, injuries painfully aware on his naked skin, he grabbed Charlotte and tugged her against his chest before she could protest. A hand tangled in her hair, the other wrapped around her shoulders. He panted, exhausted, in pain, but the feeling of her against him rivaled all else.

She was perfection, and she was in his arms once more.

"I'm so sorry." He breathed heavily against the top of her head. Her hands splayed over his chest, fingers curling in on themselves. "I'm so sorry Charlotte."

"It's okay." She nodded her head against him, and he felt hot tears scorch his chest. "You're here. I—I feel sane, I can think. I haven't been able to for days. I thought you weren't coming."

He clenched his eyes shut, a different pain decimating the space in his chest. "I'll always come for you Charlotte. I promise, always."

"I know." She placed a soft, delicate kiss to the center of his chest, lifted her head so their eyes could meet. Her hand splayed over the space she'd just touched her lips to and she nodded her head, as if affirming something to herself. "It's me and you, right? Me and you. We can take on the world, I know it."

He smiled, a smile so brilliant it hurt her eyes to stare upon him. He was perfect.

So perfect he held onto her the next second when her eyes flashed and the man before her she didn't recognize. When she found herself in the arms of a stranger, where moments ago she'd been surrounded by ravenous beasts, and all she could do was scream, and scream, and scream, and no matter how much she hit against his chest, threatened the man for her release, he held on tight.

She'd said it was Charlotte and Gabe against the world. He'd make sure he never let her go, make sure she was around to face this brutally messed up world with him.