King of Beasts

Chapter 19

It looked like a bomb had dropped just outside of his town.

The beast was in full control, full power. Legs pushed past the lifeless rogue bodies, frozen with their beastly eyes open in wonder at whatever had taken place before them.

The beast could smell the power, the energy, lingering in the air like smoke, sticking to everything. The trees were flattened to the ground, ripped from their roots, branching out in a circle and tightening towards a center.

He could see them, a group of twenty or so of his warriors standing on shaken legs. They watched him approach, and as one they stepped back from the shaking form on the ground, fingers digging into the soil.

A whine passed the beasts lips as he saw red hair tangled and wind swept hiding her face. She pressed her cheek to the ground and shuddered, trembled, jolted.

He stopped at her side, breathing in deep. He smelled blood, saw the wound on her calf already half healed and knew there must be some on her palm too. His Charlotte had to have used a rune, there was no other explanation for the disaster around them, must have used her own blood once more.

He fell down to his stomach in front of her, and gently, as gently as a beast could manage, touched his nose to the exposed pale skin of her cheek.

Her eyes fluttered, green orbs unfocused on the scattered forest floor, before looking up to the beast kneeling before her. "Gabe?" she asked, voice just hardly below a whisper. He whined, rubbing his nose along the side of her face.

"You're in so much trouble." she breathed on a shaking breath, and tried to laugh, only to screw her eyes shut and grit her teeth. "I mean it."

Beside them, Odin turned back to a man, standing on two feet with his head bowed to his two rulers. "They had runes on them, sir." he announced when Charlotte seemed incapable of forming her own words. "It gave them power, an ability to work with one another and evade our boarders and warriors. She— she drew some runes on the trees beyond this perimeter. I think it took more than she told us it would from her."

Words drifted through his ears, couldn't seem to sick in his mind. His Charlotte was shaking like a leaf, desperately trying to gain hold of herself once more.

"I'd very much like you to turn back into a guy with two arm and two legs, please." she mumbled. She opened her eyes, lifted them to his brilliant blue ones. "I won't even complain that you're naked."

She doubted she would complain anyways, but knew now was not the time for jokes. It was natural to do as she asked already, and his human form came to life, quickly grabbing a hold of his mate and pulling her into his arms.

"What in the world were you thinking?" he asked, cradling her against his chest while he pressed his lips to her dirt covered temple.

"I was thinking that the king of these people was off running around my old town, and that we were outnumbered, and that an elder is trying to kill me, and I had no choice."

He grimaced at each item she ticked off, feeling his own self hatred grow by the second. "Well I can't quite yell at you anymore, can I?"

She hummed in agreement, trying to pull herself closer to him. "Can we go, please? I can feel their souls leaving, and it's quite disturbing."

Like a flash he was on his feet, carrying her in his arms like a bride. Her arms wound around his neck, hanging on. His bare feet crunched on the flattened sticks and grass, wound around the turned over roots and tree trunks.

"I'm so sorry I wasn't here."

"I'm almost glad you weren't." she sighed. He glanced down at her, more confused than anything. "You never would have let me even attempt what I did back there otherwise."