The Falcon Ridge Series Book 4: Art of a Girl

(Chapter song ‘Dream is Collapsing' by Hanz Zimmer)

SAMMY

My fork dances around my plate and pushes the food around the food that I've barely touched. Every bite I eat makes me feel sick. My throat feels so closed and I can't rid my mind of the nightmare of the battle that has to be going on by now.

I haven’t heard from Bastian since and I know I shouldn’t expect a call everyday, but I need something, damn it.

Wren leans on the table across from me. "Sam, eat something. You haven't eaten properly in days."

"Why hasn't he called me?" I drop my fork and slump back in my chair.

"I don't know, maybe because he's preparing for war? Come on, Sam. He'll be ok. He's trained for years. He's fought over a dozen major missions and hundreds of minor ones. Bastian knows what he's doing." She sits back and puts some food in her mouth.

"I know. It's just... the more he's away the more it hurts. I know he's coming back, but my chest feels like it's in a vice. I feel like I'm going to be sick." I whine.

Wren smiles. "You're in love. You miss him."

I lean on the table. "I do, but this feels a hundred times worse for some reason. I'm not a clingy person, but I need him here now or I'll lose my mind."

She looks at me funny.

"What?" I ask.

"Sam. What do know about the Blue Moon?" She leans on the table to me.

"Nothing, really. I just heard stories. I've never seen it except for the last few days. The moon looks like it has a pale blue color. " I shrug.

"You saw it?" He face lights up. "You saw the blue moon?"

I sit back. "Well, I mean it wasn't like blue, blue, but yeah. It looks different to me now.:

"Hot damn!" Wren laughs, hitting the table.

I jump out of my skin at her outburst. "Wren!" I scowl. "You scared me!"

"Sorry." She grins, then points to me. "You seeing the moon means your wolf has integrated! You're a shifter!"

“I was kind of thinking the same thing. You think it’s true?" I blink at her.

"That fact that you see the moon is proof. Your wolf has accepted you and you have accepted her." She grabs my hand. "This is great news."

I smile. "I can't wait to tell Bastian. He's going to be so happy."

Someone clears their throat and we turn to a soldier walking into the dining hall with a slip of paper. He walks stiffly to Wren and stops. "Alpha." He presents the paper to her and she takes it. He nods and leaves.

"Thank you!" She calls back, then proceeds to read the note. She leans on the table and rubs her lips.

This concerns me. I glance at the paper, then lean to find her eyes. "Wren. What is it?"

She looks the paper over, drops it on the table then rubs her forehead. "The Dragons. They showed up 2 days early. The camp. It was unprepared. They lost hundreds." Her brows pinch up as she looks at me with a mix of worry and sadness.

"Bastian." I whisper. My eyes widen and my heart crushes in my chest.

“No… Sam…You can’ think like that.” She gets up and walks around to sit beside me.

“But…hundreds.” Fear fills me as tears well in my eyes.

She holds a hand up. "No. Sam. He's fine. I'm sure of it, ok. If something happened, we would have been told right away. You hold onto that. Right now, we need to secure this place and hunker down. It’s not a time to lose it.”

I don't say anything, just nod. My heart wants to explode along with my head. I want to scream and burst into tears. I'm choking back the lump as I stand and walk out of the dining hall.

“Sam.”

She calls to my back, but I don’t turn around.

I walk to a soldier, wrap my arms around myself and speak to his chest. "Soldier. Can you make sure the mansion is in total lockdown?"

"Yes, Miss." He turns on his heels and directs others to check the floors.

I glance at the front door almost expecting him to throw it open and run to me. I close my eyes and turn to the common room. I head down the office hall to Bastian's office.

I quietly open the door and close it behind me. The quiet does nothing for my thoughts, but I’m hoping distracting me with Bastian’s things and presence will help me to not believe the worst case.

I walk around his desk, running my fingers across the top, and stop at a photo of Bastian with his parents. I smile at the two people who gave me the love of my life and filled him with the bravery he has now. He has a piece of each of them. I have yet to meet his father and it’s my understanding his mother passed when he was young. He’s been sitting on the council since he was 18 and was taught what it meant to be Alpha. Unfortunately, he wasn’t taught the right way. I’m glad I could show him what was wrong. Soon, he’ll prove he can help the pack like he did me.

I kiss my fingers and touch Bastian’s face before I set the picture down and walk to the couch in his sitting area. I curl up with a pillow in my lap and I can’t hang on anymore. I cry so hard into the pillow at the thought that Bastian maybe one of the hundreds lost in the pack war.

I shrink into a little ball and let my heart break for my Alpha.

****

BASTIAN

We sit and stand on our side of the clearing. We're broken, but not beaten. I walk to the edge of the hilltop and look up and down the lines. Thousands of us wait for anything to happen. They’re all staring at the trees the Dragons ran into, ready to pounce at the slightest branch break.

We've been here all night. The sun’s rays crest the tops of the trees, making me squint. It shines down on the clearing covered in bodies belonging to them and us. My head hurts at the senselessness of these fucking wars. We sit here ready to do die because one man lost his fucking mind and convinced others his way was right. And still, 4 years later, the Draco bitch just won’t die.

I rub my nape and try to settle my wolf. We're tired, but too agitated and angry to sleep. The Dragons got the drop on us once. They won't do it again.

River joins my side and crosses his arms as he looks out to the open space.

"What are they waiting for?" I grit.

"I don't know." He slowly shakes his head. "The flyers report they're just sitting there. This is new and I don’t like it."

"This is really grating me." Luke's lips curl into a snarl as he steps to River’s other side.

"What do we do?" Jayson gets in line beside Luke. “We can’t sit here forever. Do we call a stalemate?”

River was about to respond when someone opened the link.

‘DOG PILE! DOG PILE!’

My brows shoot up and I meet River’s shocked face. "Dog pile?!”

“What the fuck?" Luke growls and takes off to the camp.

“Fuck!!”

Behind us is a mountain of Dragons running for the camp and in front is a wave coming in from the trees in front. They split off and are now attacking from both sides. How did we not see this coming?!

"FUCKING SHIFT!" I bellow out the order and soldiers explode into their wolves.

‘UNITS SPLIT!’ River yells in the link.

Our groups split into two and try to cut off most of each group before they reach the integral part of the camp.

I run, shift, and hit the front group as the two waves of Dragons hit us. I barrel through with the rage of a rabid dog. Killing anything that moved. I'm tearing throats out like it's my fucking job.

I'm smashing wolf bodies into the ground with a force to be reckoned with.

‘Bastian! Main tent!’ River yells.

I turn and the tent is being defended, but there losing fast. ‘UNIT 6! MAIN TENT!!’ I run as fast as I can, dodging and ducking wolves and join up with Unit 6 as we crest the hill and tear through the compound.

We attack the Dragons from the back and shred their asses until we reach our guys on the other side. More of our soldiers run into the camp to stop the Dragons from stealing and destroying our supplies.

‘Luke! Mow the lawn!’ I yell.

Luke with his now, two-hundred-man artillery, start to advance from the side and drop Dragons in the field. Gunfire rings out as the sounds of pissed off wolves shake the trees.

We started making headway until our guys started hitting the ground in return fire.

“DAMN IT!”

The Dragons have their own artillery. The human Dragons fire hand guns and semis with silver bullets.

‘Hit the ground!!’ Luke orders and his shooters drop like stones.

Jayson links me. ‘Bastian! Units 1 and 2. Take out those guns!’

‘No problem.’ I growl.

With a hundred fighters behind me, we circle around behind the shooters in the trees.

We leap on their backs, tearing their human flesh from their bones and stealing their guns. Gunfire and growls are heard as the trees sway violently. Some shift. Jaws shred and blood flies. Trunks of trees are coated in red.

Once the gunners were dead, we shift, get in a line, we march out the trees firing a hail of bullets into the battle.

‘YEAH! BRING IT, ALPHA DOG!!’

I see Luke jump up and start firing back with me. His shooters join him and I smirk as we both plow the road from two sides.

“You like that, you Dragon fucks!" I scream as I fire bullet after bullet into any Dragon I see in front of me.

"I was supposed to be at a fucking PARTY!!" I fire more and more. When my ammo was gone, I throw the weapon, shift and rush into the battle again.

We fought and died well into the night.

We're exhausted, injuries were piling up and we had no time to count the dead. As the stars blanketed the sky above, the flash of guns light things up even more.

But what got me was the how deep blue everything is. I wince and grit as a soldier helps me to the medical tent to remove two bullets in my side. He lowers me to a cot and I growl out the pain as I lay down. I hold the bloody shirt to my side and blow out burn of the silver. It’s not long before two medics are at my side and begin to remove them and stitch me up.

I look up at the sky and see the blue moon traveling to its peak. My eyes heat and I swallow. “I'm sorry.” I whisper as a tear rolls down the side of my face.

Not this year, baby doll. But I promise, next year, will be amazing.

"Errgh…" I grind as the medic pull the last bullet out.

"Ok. That's it, Alpha." The medic says patches me up.

I lay in the cot and close my eyes as I feel the pain in my side fade. My eyes open and the pain in my heart starts to grow. It’s not fucking fair.

"Hey, Alpha. Look.” I roll my eyes to a kid of maybe 19, sitting on cot with a broken arm and bullet hole in his chest. He smiles at me, then points up. “I think it's prettier this year."

I sit up on my elbows and glance up. "Yeah, it is. Too bad we have to be here." I look down at the white bandages on my side.

The moon is a few hours off its peak. There’s no way in hell this war will be over in time.

"This was going to be my year, too." He lowers his head in disappointment.

"Oh, yeah?" I arch a brow.

He smiles. "My girl, Stacy. She's in Falcon Ridge, right now. We were going to stand under that. To find out, ya know. Until the Dragons fucked it up."

"Well, there's always next year. You aren't going to stop loving her right?" I tilt my head to him.

"Oh, heck no. That girl is my life. It's why I joined the Unit. To make sure these fuckers don't hurt her." He said it with such conviction I admired him for thinking in that way. He leans to me. “I bought her this ring. Cost me an arm and a leg, but I’m so sure she’s mine. I just wish we could take care of it now.”

"I know how you feel." I look back up the moon. "But… There's always next year."

****

SAMMY

I didn’t think the moon could get prettier until tonight. When everything turned deep blue, I had to draw it. I’m sitting on Bastian’s bed, using colored charcoal to match the blue that’s filling my eyes. As an artist, I'm in awe of its beauty. As a lover, I'm pained that Bastian isn't here with me.

Wren explained a little bit, but kept most to herself. She said she wanted me to feel it on my own, but I felt like she was holding back for other reasons. I didn’t question it.

All I know is somehow the magic of this special moon is supposed to tell me if Bastian and I are to remain together forever. How that works, no one can tell me. I guess I have to let the Blue Moon be a moon.

As I touch up the lines, I'm suddenly in the dark. I yelp and look around the room. My eyes adjust to the blue light being let in the window as I leave my pad and slide off the bed.

I walk to the light switch and look to the light as I flick it a few times. I open my door and walk out to an even darker house.

“WREN?” I call out as I walk to the stairs.

I slow my descent as the front foyer comes into view. Wren is standing in the middle of the floor and the front door is wide open.

“Wren? What's going on?” I step down faster as she turns around.

“Sam! Run!”

The sound of a gun firing has me flinch back and fall to the stairs as Wren screams and falls to the floor. Blood splatters from her thigh and I’m hit in the face with it.

My mouth hangs open and I crawl down the steps. “Wren!”

“Hello. Sweetheart.”

My blood turns to ice as I slowly raise my eyes to the door. Shadows move in the light as they approach the door.

“I’ve missed you.”

Red eyes glow and I stand. “No.” I watch as Chase crosses into the house with five other Dragons behind him.

“Sam… Run…” Wren growls as she reaches for her gun.

One of the Dragons raises a weapon and fires. The bullet hits her hand and we both cry out as she falls to the floor with her hand to her chest.

My face fills with fear as he walks in and holds his hands out. “I’ve come to take you home, Sweetie.”

“No.” I grit as I feel my wolf stir. "Get out of my house." I growl as my eyes flash pink.

He laughs. "Your house? This isn't your house, Sam. You belong in Aurora. With me."

"You’re sick!" Wren clenches as she sits up.

Chase smirks. “I may be sick, but I’m winning.” He ticks his head as he looks to me.

"You’re not winning anything." I bend down and scoop up Wren's gun. I've never held a gun before, but I've seen a lot of action movie, so it should be easy. "I'm not running. I'm not scared of you, Chase." I raise the gun and aim it at his chest as I step over Wren.

“Sam…no…God!” She clenches as she tries to stop my leg, but misses and slumps back to the floor.

He shakes his head and steps closer. "I don't want you to be scared of me, Sam. I want you to love me. And now that we're under that…" He points up to the moon. "I'll mark you and you'll really be mine."

"Get back!" I shove the gun at him and snarl my lip.

"Darling. Put the gun down." He puts his hands behind his back and lifts his chin. “Before you get hurt.”

The four dragon men and one dragon woman sneer and growl at me. Chase glances behind him and waves them down. “It’s alright. She’s no threat. Are you, Sam?”

"I'll shoot. I swear." I warn as I purse my lips.

"You won't shoot me, darling. You couldn't hurt a flea." He smirks.

I pull the trigger and the gun fires. The bullet hits one of his men in the neck. He growls and falls backward hitting the wall. The kick back scares the crap out me and I yelp, dropping the gun and it slides across the floor.

I look at Chase with concern on my face.

"Sam. Get out of here." Wren clenches her teeth at the pain.

I stand like a deer in headlights. I back up until I hit Wren’s leg.

Chase stares me down and lifts a hand. He crooks two fingers. "Take them to the ballroom."

My face twists into anger. “NO!” I try to call my wolf and look down at my feet.

The Dragons step around Chase.

I shake my hands. “Come on!” I fall to Wren. “It’s not working!”

She’s about ready to pass out. “Try…”

The men descend on us and I stand up. I squeeze my eyes tight and call her but she’s not coming.

A big guy grabs my arm and I yelp. I shoot my eyes open and start to hit him with my fists. He stands firm and yanks me down the hallway. "LET ME GO!!" I struggle against him, but it's no use.

Wren groans as she's lifted to her feet and dragged to the ballroom behind me.

Once inside, she's thrown to the floor. I’m tossed in and spin around as I back up into the middle of the room. I look up and see the moon shining down on me coating me with its light and filling the ballroom.

I look down to the door of the ballroom as Chase stalks me and raises a finger to me. “A few more minutes and you won’t dare argue with me.” He growls and flashes his red eyes.

I whip my head to the side and bolt for a table. I hit it and grabs the plates. “STAY AWAY FROM ME!!” I throw them and he bats them out of the way as he continues to stalk. They smash on the floor and I throw more. I practically tip the table as I grab the heavy moon centerpiece, turn and raise it above my head. He grabs my wrist and squeezes making me grind and bend down in pain. My hand opens and the statue hits the floor.

He grabs my hair and lifts me up to his face. “Continue to fight and it will be that much more painful.” He forces his mouth on mine and I try to push him off me. When he doesn’t stop, I step on foot and kick him in the shin.

"Ah!” He stumbles back then looks up at me. “Fuck. Bitch." He growls and backhands me. I cry out and falter to the side until he grabs my hair again. "You will lead the Dragons, Samantha."

He tilts his head back revealing his elongated canines. I scream at the shock of it and frantically struggle against his grip until he grabs my throat.

"Don't fight it, Sam. This is what you were created for." He smiles as his teeth drip with venom.

My face fills with horror as he laughs.

"BASTIAN!!"