"Get on the floor." Willow's voice was guttural and deadly calm, the cold tone in which she used nothing like I'd ever heard from her before.

Helda's fingers wrapped around the butt of her gun and lifted it to aim at the warrior, but Willow easily shot it out of her hands, making it clatter to the tiled floor noisily.

I heard Yanneek move to go and lift the weapon whilst I continued to stare, mouth agape at Willow. I was still in shock at her being unharmed and, clearly, alive.

I'd seen her get shot by Helda multiple times, but here she stood. The skin around her neck was smooth and blemish free. There were no wounds and no blood.

"How are you alive?" Helda's voice cracked as she stared towards the female lycan. Her blue wide eyes kept moving up and down Willow's body in disbelief.

"Get on the floor!" Willow roared, her voice bouncing off the glass walls. Helda sunk to her knees immediately, head lowered and eyes casted down to the floor. Willow stepped forward, keeping the gun aimed at her as she lowered slightly and took out the instrument from Helda's pocket.

"Close your mouth." Willow grumbled to me, never taking her eyes away from Helda, and tossed the instrument over. I barely caught it, and when I did, I could feel my skin crawling from the painful memories that surfaced.

A noise of a dull thud had everyone turning to watch as a Wildeland warrior and an enemy fought, bodies hitting the glass repeatedly until it began to crack.

"We should probably go somewhere a bit safer." Yanneek muttered, but Willow finally lifted her gaze away from the trembling woman remaining on her knees on the floor to stare at me, voice low as she asked,

"What shall I do with her?"

I didn't look to the woman who began sniffling, her breathing becoming harsher and louder with each passing second.

Instead, I observed the cold expression on Willow's face, the anger brewing in her eyes and what I saw to be barely controlled restraint as she stood before the woman who'd been so close to murdering her. Who I thought had murdered her.

Desire to kill was in Willow's primal gaze, but she wouldn't act out on doing so if I told her not to.

I finally looked at Helda. I'd thought of her as a friend, and it still smarted to be betrayed. However, she'd made her true self known. She'd almost murdered Willow, had planned to kill me after the money was exchanged, and had lacked any remorse when she'd said this. I knew she had taken part in making the cake that almost killed me, and yet, here she knelt, pleading with unspoken words and trembling lips that I spare her life.

"Tick tock." Yanneek hissed, taking the instrument from me and breaking it in half. He had Helda's gun and hopefully would be able to defend himself if needed once we left the room. My fingers gripped around the hilt of my dagger when I nodded at Willow, whose eyebrows pinched together in confusion before settling when I said,

"Do what you want." I told Willow quietly, stepping around Helda's kneeling body, seeing Jeremiah coming to stand in the doorway, eyes darting around those in the room. I stopped when I was by Willow's side and murmured, "Do what you desire."

I barely caught sight of her cruel grin before Jeremiah took my arm, hauling me out and pressing me against a wall when fighting bodies swept by. Yanneek left the room as well, and I could hear the sounds of a struggle coming from where I'd been kept, winced when I heard Helda's shriek of absolute pain.

My head turned, eyes staying on both Willow and Helda as I saw the way the female lycan lifted Helda off of her feet, keeping her pressed against the glass.

Diagust churned my stomach when I saw the way Willow used her free hand, and claws, to pierce under Helda's chin, sliding them up through her mouth and nose.

Helda's body had stopped struggling by then, but her wide eyes remained on Willow's before she continued to push her claws roughly through the entirety of her face, blood cascading down Willow's hand.

I only looked away when Willow began to pull her claws towards her, tugging on skin and bones. When I eventually heard the sound of a body toppling to the floor, I knew Helda was dead. Willow joined us minutes later, and Yanneek began to pull me forward, to my frustration, towards where the intensity of the battle was occurring.

"Not that way!" Jeremiah snapped at the clearly flustered Yanneek, taking my arm and beginning to guide us elsewhere. I caught sight of Hannes again as I was forcibly moved.

He was tackling several Alberrechians and persons from the Corozal army at once, and my heart seemed to leap to my throat with each gunshot or punch directed towards him.

I didn't want to take the chance of distracting him, so I allowed both Willow and Jeremiah to urge me forward. We stepped over countless lifeless bodies; some of them being lycans whilst the majority were Corozal and Alberrechian people.

My boots slipped in someone's blood, and I steadied myself. However, abruptly, a small crowd of Alberrechians came towards us, and I jerked backwards to avoid being hit, stumbling into a room.

A metal door slid closed immediately, seperating myself from the outside, and I turned, confused, to see Quinn standing by a computer. The area in which we stood held several devices that were similar to the ones in which I'd seen outside of the room I'd been in; many screens were mounted on the walls and showed the fights occurring inside the building.

My fingers tightened around my dagger, and I scarcely avoided Quinn when she leapt at me, evidently enraged, tears streaming down her hollow cheeks. Her army was losing the battle, and she was clearly keen on taking out her frustrations on me.

Air whizzed past my head as she punched and missed, and I stepped backwards several times, swinging my body left and right, avoiding each punch thrown my way. She had no weapon on her, which gave her a disadvantage.

However, she was a skilled commander and fighter, and just as she saw me get ready to use the dagger, she surprised me by kicking her heavy steel-tipped boot into the middle of my chest, hard.

I wheezed out a breath, the pain that erupted from my chest startlingly agonizing. My feet shook as I became distracted from that ache, and Quinn took the chance to elbow my head around the still swollen area.

I cursed loudly, ears ringing as my grip fumbled around the hilt of the dagger before tightening. With gritted teeth I swerved away, raking the tip of the blade across Quinn's arm as I slipped by when she advanced. The painful throbbing from my chest and head seemed to grow with each shaky step I took, and I could feel beads of sweat trickling down the nape of my neck.

The metal door behind us suddenly shook, and both Quinn and I looked at it. A small glass window at the top of the door allowed me to see a brief glimpse of Hannes' face and the blazing of his honey-colored eyes before he pummelled the door once again, making it tremble.

I scrambled forward before Quinn could utter a word or make any moves towards me, taking her distraction as an opportunity to attack. The blade sank into her shoulder and her wail erupted in the small room. As I still held the dagger, Quinn managed to wrestle me off of her, and I landed hard on my back.

My breath was knocked out of me, and for several seconds, I stared unblinkingly up at the ceiling, noticing that the dagger I once held had slipped out of my hand as I'd fallen. I could hear the poundings from the metal door become more frantic, and could feel Hannes' desperation and anger soar through the bond.

The sight of Quinn's dark boot heading towards my face made me snap out of whatever strange state I'd been in, and I rolled, hearing her foot collide on the ground, where I'd been resting my head milliseconds ago. I scrambled backwards on my hands and climbed to my feet when my back brushed against a wall.

My eyes widened when I saw that Quinn now held my dagger in her hand, and I caught her wrist before she could plunge it into my face.

She was strong, but desperation to live made me fight against her force, my fingers tightly gripping her wrist as I used my strength to keep the blade away. Quinn's green watery eyes pierced mine, and I could see a vein throbbing near her forehead, and saw the wild look in her gaze as she pushed against my hold.

The door shuddered behind us again, and it only took that momentary noise to startle Quinn and allow her attention to slip away from me. I hit her foot with one of my own, throwing her off balanced and she began to fall, as did I, both of us still tightly holding the hilt of the dagger.

I successfully managed to turn the blade onto her, and it sunk into her heart just as we fell on the cold floor. I heaved out a choked breath, my fingers shoving the hilt and effectively moving the blade deeper into Quinn as I caught my breath, straightening up over her.

With sweat now dotting my back, I moved from above her and watched the life slowly drained from her body. Her lips were slightly parted and her eyes were staring at nothing; they were blank and empty. Lifeless.

The door finally collapsed, and I heard the sounds of Hannes entering the room, but I didn't peel my gaze away from Quinn and the dagger still embedded deeply in her. Blood dripped from her chest when I eventually leaned over and yanked the dagger out.

"We have to leave." Willow's voice came from the entrance of the room, and I, at first, barely noticed Hannes helping me to my feet as the earth shook.

My eyes turned to look upon his face and I saw the relief in his eyes as he watched me. I felt his fingers sweep across the swollen area on my head. The tension in his expression strengthened before he gave a stiff nod to Willow.

His fingers held my arm in an almost painful grip as we exited quickly. I could hear yells coming from somewhere in the building, but all that I saw before me were dead bodies.

I looked at Hannes in confusion, but he glanced to Elijah who seemed to have suddenly appeared from thin air and came to his side. He was panting, and blood trickling down the side of his head.

"Several bombs have already gone off. The last one is going to explode in less than five minutes."

My eyes widened at Elijah's words, and I made a small sound of protest when Hannes' grip on my arm tightened painfully.

He released me immediately, sending me an apologetic look before threading his fingers with my own, our fast paces turning into a run. I released him when we came to a closed door where several Wildeland warriors, and Yanneek, stood by, apparently waiting for us.

The outside air was warm against my face as we left the building, our footsteps echoing loudly as we raced towards jeeps, most holding lycans already. Jeremiah and Willow jogged to another jeep, which I saw Lilith in as well.

Hannes guided me to another particular jeep, his hand pressed against my lower back and urging me forward. The doors seemed to slam close simultaneously after Yanneek and Elijah joined us in the vehicle, and I jerked back in the seat when Elijah, who chose to drive, reversed the jeep.

The scenery swept by when Elijah turned the vehicle quickly, the wheels squealing against the road until he straightened the jeep and drove it in the opposite direction of where the building rested.

Several jeeps whizzed past and around us as Elijah drove, and my fingers curled under the seat I sat upon. Hannes' hand covered my own as he saw my confusion and worry, and his lips parted as he began to speak, but then a loud boom thundered through the air behind us.

I turned around in the seat, watching the way the exploded building now in the distance erupt into fiery flames, the dark smoke which followed soon after polluting the air.

*********

An ice pack was pressed against my head and a pack nurse rubbed salve against the still painful area in the middle of my chest. I winced as her fingers grazed the skin, and felt Hannes' lips press against my knuckles which he held, momentarily distracting me from the pain. The look of relief that I'd seen in his eyes earlier had yet to falter as he watched me now.

I could hear the voices of several warriors being tended to by other pack nurses in the building we were in. Some of them had been the ones who'd pulled me out of the lake, and who I'd thanked recently.

The Corozal army had been completely destroyed, however the same could not be said regarding the Alberrechians'. Although some of the army had been killed, Hannes had his suspicions that the commander still lived. ApparentlyThe Alberrechians have a very large army, and not all had been present.

"So all of the council members and commanders of Corozal have been killed?" Athena, who held the packet of ice against my head, asked. She'd insisted on doing so despite my initial protests, and had been talking to Hannes throughout the pack nurse rubbing my skin carefully.

"All but one." Hannes straightened in his chair as he answered his mother, never releasing my hand. His clothes were still stained with blood, and he looked disheveled and almost tired. I quietly thanked the nurse once she'd finished and using my free arm, began fixing my shirt. The nurse left minutes afterwards.

"Who?" I asked Hannes when I was finished straightening up my shirt, and had sat up on the plain, thin and white bed I rested upon. Hannes tersely responded,

"Eric. He's being held in my prison at the moment," Hannes' eyes narrowed, but he wasn't looking at me. "I have several questions for him."

version of it will be on Inkitt. I will still post some of it here however.

Don't forget, I will be writing SKYLAR soon after this book is completed, so you can look out for that. I hope you all have a wonderful day/night. 💕

Chapter 65, the final chapter of Lycans Of The Woods, is available on Inkitt for free! The link to read it is in my bio!