Beside me, Wesley activated his crab armor, making him almost impervious to damage, just before an Aries hit him with a ram charge, knocking him back almost to the cabin. Kaden sank his poison fangs into a Leo who dared attack him, and I felt the mental presence of Harper, Dane, and Jack nearby too, each of them fighting together in sync.
I darted under a stray bolt of sunlight and lunged toward a nearby shifter, gripping him around the leg and trying to throw him across the clearing. He stood his ground, using his immovable powers so that it ended up being me who fell. Fucking bull stance. I couldn't take the Taurus down with my poison bite, and without any moonlight, I couldn't use my other powers. Luckily Devin shot an arrow that hit the Taurus wolf in the eye, and I let out a short yip of thanks before scampering off.
At my side, Kaden ripped his way through enemy shifters like a machine. Wesley brushed up against me, a brief press of fur against fur to give me strength in the battle, and I was relieved he had survived the ram charge.
The enemy wolves reached the cabin, breaking down the door, and I saw Eileen just inside. She shifted into a small black wolf and snarled. Mira wasn’t anywhere in sight, and I hoped she had escaped to safety with Amos somehow. The Pisces pack could swim incredibly fast underwater, but Amos was right—they weren't warriors. At least on land.
Help protect the cabin, I sent out to the other Ophiuchus warriors, and felt Harper, Dane, and Jack acknowledge my order and move into position. Through the pack bond, I felt Kaden's approval.
Devin and the Sagittarius archers had the same idea, and they moved to fight against the wolves trying to get into the cabin. Devin suddenly went down under a Leo's jaw, and Eileen let out a ragged howl before clawing at the shifter on top of her mate.
I wanted to help them, but I couldn’t pause to focus on their fight. All I could do was tear through flesh with my paws and teeth, to bowl shifters over and hope they wouldn’t stand up again.
Then I caught a glimpse of Evanora in her red robes, standing at the back of the battle with her daughter, Roxandra. I snarled, but before I could lunge toward her, Jordan stepped into my line of view. He was still in human form, and he held his hands out as if saying don't attack.
The instant he stood before me, in all his shirtless glory, the mate bond flared to life, nearly knocking me over. It was madness. He was my brother, for fuck's sake, and I didn’t want him, but the mate bond drew me toward him anyway. Rage turned my vision red. The Sun Witches had done this to me, to us. How dare they meddle with my life, trying to force me to want my own brother?
"Ayla!" he called out, but before I could decide whether to lunge at him with my fangs or turn and flee, a bolt of bright white power slammed into my side.
I hit the ground hard, my vision temporarily going dark, and heard a female voice say, “Capture her, I want her alive.”
I swung my head around to see Evanora closing in on me with a few of the other Sun Witches. I stood up on four paws and shook myself, but before I could do much of anything else, I felt someone grab onto me, holding me in place. I instantly knew it was Jordan by the way the mate bond purred.
“It’ll be easier for everyone if you go along with this,” Jordan whispered into my ear. Nausea roiled in my gut alongside the ever-present desire of the mate bond. “I’ll protect you.”
I shifted back into human form just to tell him to fuck off. Of course, that meant I was now naked and squirming in his arms. “Get off me,” I screamed. But he was too damn strong, and no matter how hard I struggled, he didn't let me go.
A huge black wolf snarled and charged toward us—Kaden! He looked terrifying in his rage, and in another few seconds he would tear Jordan apart, and at this moment, I would let him. But then the Sun Witches all turned to face him and fired beams of burning light directly into his side.
I watched it happen in slow motion, unable to move. The first few beams didn’t take him down. He shook them off, and I thought he’s stronger than they are. Then one knocked him over, and though he got up, it looked like it was a struggle. He shifted back to human and grit his teeth, then chanted some sort of spell of his own, but with the sun out now, I wasn't sure how much it did to protect him.
“Attack again, he’s getting weaker,” Evanora said, and they shot more beams of light at him. The sounds of fighting faded into the background as I zeroed in on what they were doing to Kaden. Light licked across his skin like fire, and he let out a roar full of pain and rage as his body was burned by the power of the sun.
I managed to tear away from Jordan, just as Kaden went down and didn’t get back up again. "Kaden!" I yelled, but he didn't move.