Changed Fate

Chapter Twenty-Six

The bay window crashed apart, shattering glass through the hallway. I wished that hallway was longer.

"Which one is he?" I asked Nikki as two more wolves jumped into the hallway, baring teeth as us as glass crashed around them.

"Not these."

She lifted her gun and shot expertly at the two wolves who ran at us.

A wolf darted between Nikki and I, barreling towards the intruders. I knew it was Abigail without anyone having to tell me.

Abigail hit the wolf jumping in the window so hard that they both fell out of the window, tussling as they fell.

Nikki went forward, to check out what was happening as I stepped back into the nursery.

Because I was new and untrained, I was a hindrance to the fight. I just had to stay with the children. I had to keep them safe.

I thanked everything I had when I walked back into the nursery to see the window open and a silent intruder coming in.

It was him, in human form, coming in to take my children while the rest were distracted.

"Bás a-" His hand over my mouth cut me off.

He ticked his tongue at me twice, unapprovingly. "None of that magic now, mama."

I had to do something against this old damn werewolf or he was going to take my kids.

I felt my wolf surface. Over my dead body he would take my kids.

I had to take what little I knew and use it to mutter those damn words. The spell was halfway out. A little more and I'd end him. And I would mean the words with all my soul.

In such close quarters, I knew my elbow was strongest. I brought it up and around his arm to hit him on the side of the head, jarring him and knocking us both to the ground.

I knew we had gotten Nikki's attention when she yelled my name.

"thagann-"

His fist came at my face quickly. All I was able to do was get out of the way slightly, so it was more of a graze, than a full on punch. But it still hurt, still dazed, still brought dark stars into my vision.

Having never been hit that way, I was stunned. I had no experience on how to react to that. I couldn't take a full on hit like that.

I heard the kids all start crying as the noise from the struggle had woken them up.

He got up quickly and started walking towards Ben.

I shot my foot at the back of his knee, knowing that was the weakest spot and there would be nothing he could do about it.

His quick fall meant that he pinned my leg in behind his knee, all his weight falling directly on me. He turned quickly on top of me, wrenching my leg, I knew he had hurt my leg in the process.

"You're putting up a good fight for no experience."

"dó." I wanted to spit the word at him.

The spell was absolutely terrifying.

The black smoke seeped through my shirt, engulfed the man, entering his eyes, ears, nose and mouth, suffocating him and killing him nearly instantly. Blood oozed out of his orifices when he fell lifeless and limp on top of me.

Nikki pulled him off of me in one good heave and threw his lifeless body into the hall.

"What the fuck was that?" She was clearly scared.

"That was Clare's spell."

Nikki's wide eyes looked at the body as the kids cried. "That's terrifying. Is it over?"

I nodded once and started getting up. "She said it was a one shot kind of thing."

Nikki quickly looked over the kids. "Good. He deserved it."

"I don't think he touched any of them, but can you help check?"

She helped me to my feet. I knew my knee was strained, but that would heal.

All the traffic came back into my head, making me wince.

Nikki looked out the window. "It sounds like they're all receding."

I sighed in relief. "Good. I only had one shot."

Nikki smiled over at me. "All these kids are fine. Good job mama."

I gave her a hug. "That sucked."

Nikki laughed. "So do your fighting skills. You need to start training ASAP."

I grabbed Ben, who was crying and held him tightly. I felt tears come to my eyes as I realized that they were almost taken, that I almost died.

The SUV came down the road much faster than was legal and didn't even have a chance to stop before two of the doors opened and the two Madill brothers got out of the SUV. Mikko came in through the window to the room while Philip came up the stairs like a normal person.

Mikko looked at the body, then went to it without saying a word. I could feel the waves of anger coming off of him and knew that his wolf was ascended with him. Mikko ensured that the body was dead before coming back into the room. By this time, Philip was there too.

Once happy that his crying kids were safe, he turned to me and kissed me fiercely.

"Where's Mike?" Nikki asked, mildly worried.

Mikko looked over at her with a smile. "He's fine. He's coming in the next car."

She nodded and headed down to meet him.

Mikko looked over me and pulled the necklace out by its chain. The once black stone was now a brilliant green emerald. "How's your knee?"

"It'll be fine." I was amazed with the change of color on the stone.

Mikko had me sit down before grabbing Erik and handing him to me. He handed Ben off to Philip and managed to juggle consoling Angie and Cass. I felt drained and ready to sleep for a day.

Finn came into the room and looked around at his family, making sure that all was ok. He then looked at me. "Come with me, bring the child."

Mikko glared over at his father and took a step forward to follow. Finn shook his head.

"No, you stay right there and fix this place up."

With narrowed eyes on Finn, Mikko stopped. I slowly followed Finn to his office. I wasn't afraid because he let me bring Erik with me.