The Luna Trials by Marissa Gilbert

Chapter 73 Blessed

Kai watched as Joran, on the opposite side of the vast clearing, smirked at him and returned to Bjorn's side, placing his hand on his

shoulder and saying something that only made the bear more confident, judging by the looks of it.

"Well, we are utterly f*cked now," Lachlan said to his King, using the mindlink between the two of them and Aspen. They couldn't risk demoralising their warriors right before the fight by discussing openly how their chances of winning just dropped significantly. "Just more bear meat," Aspen snarled. He was the one ready to charge at any moment and avenge his human legs. The Gamma felt like he had nothing to lose, but everything to gain by killing as many enemies as he could.

"Just a few chosen ones," Kai reminded them calmly, even though inside he was worried. "They are bigger and stronger, butthey are still mortal. Besides, there is a reason why gods don't bless everyone all the time. Maybe they aren't as strong as Riannon and I because they all shared one blessing."

"Yeah," Lachlan did not sound confident, "maybe-"

Kai closed his eyes and connected to all of his people at once, knowing that this was the moment they needed to hear from him. He hated giving speeches, and by no means was he good at it, but when duty called, he rose to the occasion once again.

"Remember who we are," he said, skipping a fancy beginning. It looked like the bears were ready to attack, and he had mere seconds. "We are the true Northerners! We defend our home, our way of life! We shared the North with them; they had their land, they

had their ruler, but they were greedy and wanted more. They want what we have, and they want us gone! Like it or not, if we lose today, the Northern and the Western Lycan Kingdoms, the way we know them, will be gone forever. The continent as we know it will be gone forever! Everything will change, and not for the better. But we have friends, and we have allies. We have eliminated the traitors, and now our lines only have people who will defend your back. We are fighting for what is right and just! Those bears and foxes will go home tonight, and their lands will finally be enough for them because there will be just a few of them left - If any survive at all... We did not start this, but we will finish the war today, whatever it takes us! Even if it takes all of us!"

First, silence greeted him, then a howl of approval emerged somewhere in the lines of wolves. And then another, followed by more and more until all of the Northern lycans howled as one in a battle cry that let their enemies know they'd rather die than give up. As soon as they were done, more howls erupted from afar, and Kai snapped his head to see more wolves approaching from the Western Mountains. They were fast and ready to clash with the bears, but they stopped as the pitch-black Royal Lycan stepped forward. Gideon roared, and his army joined him to let everyone know that the Western Kingdom warriors were here to support the North and defend their own borders. This would be the first time in many years that the West and the North would fight back to back.

The bears roared in response, foxes snarling at their sides. However, soon the cats arrived and took the stage. Things of beauty, there were so many kinds of them. Lions, pumas, leopards, lynxes, in all shades of furs. All graceful and deadly. And all were ready to tear

their adversaries to pieces. No one dared to underestimate them because their battle skills were legendary.

Bjorn was watching his enemies gather and wondering where Savannah had gone, secretly hoping she was far away, where she would be safe and sound until he came for her when everything was done.

He hated Kai with a passion. Hated him so much that he couldn't wait to send his men to fight him and to see him and all the other lycans dead. Even if he'd lose some of his bears and allies, it would be worth it. Kai always had it easy. He always had everything Bjorn longed for. His parents never questioned him, never stabbed him in the eye, never separated him from his sibling. He did not have to earn. bits of approval from his own people, and everything always came easy to the golden boy. While Bjorn had to work hard simply to

survive. Everything was denied to him. His birthright, the respect he deserved, and even his mates. Contemplating about his mates, the White Bear King decided that Ingrida made a choice of her own accord while Savannah was deceived from the very beginning and stolen from him. This was something he was going to fix today.

Usually, this was the moment where the final negotiations between the kings could take place, but this time there was nothing to -negotiate about. They all knew why they were there, and they all chose to stay and fight to the death.

A sneer spread over Bjorn's face. Finally, the fates favoured him. Joran did something he had tried to get for the past few years and blessed his army. The wolves had no chance now.

Kai knew what that ugly smirk meant Bjorn felt superior to him now, and he wanted to wipe that grin off entirely. The Lycan King shifted into his woll form first and grew out his spikes purely as a demonstration of his might. Amarok's eyes glowed blue, and the second

his large paw hit the ground, the withered grass under it covered with frost. Like an unrolling carpet, it spread quickly through the field

towards the bears and the foxes with unimaginable speed until it reached the front lines of the enemies, and large icy spikes started emerging from the ground like a deadly trap. Some managed to dodge them but many didn't, giving Kai his first kills.

Bjorn, still in his human form, roared loudly, "Forward!"

And a horde of enhanced shifters charged the lycan's way.

Gideon's people wanted to join the fight too, but he motioned for them to stay in place. It wasn't the time yet.

Kai snarled so loudly that the earth under their feet shook, the sound echoing through the woods and the mountains surrounding them. It seemed like something changed in the world when the sound died down because one could tell that it did not disappear, Instead, it became something else. A snow mist appeared out of nowhere, chaotic and merciless, surrounding the bears before they managed to reach their opponents, It blinded and startled them, making them stop in their tracks to regroup. The unusual, unnatural hare was biting at them, suffocating their senses.

"Now!" Amarok commanded his army with a loud growl which each of his men understood at once.

"Now!" Gideon ordered and shifted straight into his Royal Lycan form. He wasn't going to risk it - there was no denying that this was what was required of him today.

Both forces lashed out into the cloud of the snow storm that was holding the white bears, foxes and traitor wolves captive. The enemy could hear them approaching, but the snow made it almost impossible to see anything. So, when Amarok reached them first, they could barely defend themselves from his icy claws and sharp canines. Kai was destroying them one by one, methodically working through their formation to make way for his lycans. However, this distracted him from keeping up the mist that he summoned. The power was still new to him, and he found it hard to control everything at once. Nevertheless. the desired effect was already.

achieved.

The armies clashed. Teeth, claws, cuts, bites, whimpers, roars and snarls mixed all at once. Warm blood was spraying the frosty ground, and lifeless bodies were falling left and right.

The bears were strong, too strong for them to be underestimated by anyone now, and Kai had to admit that without Fenrir's blessing, he would have found it much harder to defeat them. He was throwing himself into their clusters, breaking them up to help his men, but often sadly watched his people die before he was able to reach them. The lycans were strong, but it was something else to be blessed by a deity. The blessing made the white bears bigger and tougher, the foxes faster and with deadlier canines than usual, the

traitorous wolves probably got the least of this power, but even they seemed stronger than they should have been.

From the corner of his eye, Kai noticed Gideon in his Royal Lycan form, crushing whoever was in his way. The divine power was flowing through him. As Amarok, Kai could feel it and hoped that the North Star mark on his mate's neck would give her the same

strength.

He crushed skull after skull, broke neck after neck, tore limbs and ripped pieces of flesh out, acting on his feral instincts. Still, it was far from enough, and he saw lycan after lycan falling before his eyes while there was nothing he could do to help them.

Savannah was watching the battle from above, hoping that they had made the right call about the Luna Squad. Every fighter was important now and if she was wrong, she'd fail everyone on her first day as the Northern Lycan Queen.

It was hard to see what was going on below in what looked like a snowstorm, but she could hear the howls and the roars of the

bloody fight. She could imagine what her mate had to face.

"He will be fine," Elene placed her hand on her sister-in-law's shoulder, giving it a light squeeze. "If anything, he is the last one I am worried about. Amarok can take care of himself."

Savvy tried to smile, but the lips just did not want to curl today, so she gave up on that. Snarls from deep underground reached her ears, and this was when a cruel sneer painted itself over her face. She wasn't wrong after all, and she wasn't wasting resources at the most

ritial moment. She was saving them all.

One of the perks of having her photographic memory was that she never forgot anything. So when her husband and brother were building a strategy for today, it was she who remembered the catacombs of the Lost City which Bjorn's people loved to use so much. They sealed everything that was connected to the city, but she saw the map once and knew that there were other ancient underground tunnels leading elsewhere. For example, the ones where she was standing now. In the olden days, this tunnel helped people to escape from the city walls to the mountains and the Forbidden Forest ise the capital was under attack.

The tunnel connected the Forest and the mountains above the battlefield, and Savvy realised that Bjorn wouldn't pass an opportunity for a sneaky attack. It turned out, she wasn't wrong about this.

They were standing right next to the exits of the mountain tunnel. It would be easy to descend on the battleground below from here

and catch the opponent by surprise.

However, thanks to Savannah, the element of surprise was now on their side.

The females waited patiently and quietly for the huge rock that was covering the exit to be moved aside and for the first werebears to walk out before they attacked. The northern Queen and Princess shifted into their Royal Lycan forms, leading the rest of the she wolves in a fast and precise attack. Sawy could tell that the bears were trying to avoid her, probably having some orders from Bjorn on her account, and she wasn't below using that to her advantage. She had made her choice, and it wasn't her fault that Bjorn couldn't accept it and let it go. She did not owe him anything, and she was happy to accept this little gift from him because her only desire today

was to win this war.

They were lucky that it was a smaller group. The White Bear King probably did not think that it was important and arranged this ambush more as a habit. Or maybe it was just his backup plan to make one final blow from where they wouldn't expect it if things went South. Savvy did not care. Her thoughts were on the main battlefield, where her husband and brother were leading their armies against a force greater than anything they had experienced before.

Sawy and Elene worked nicely as a team, greeting the bears and attacking them first together, then letting the rest of the she-wolves finish them off. Savannah knew now that she trusted Elene with her life, and the princess did not disappoint her so far even if she never considered her a fighter.

The Northern Queen glanced down to see the mist die down and the bloody scene unveiled before her eyes. Amarok was the only

one she noticed at once, relieved that he was alive, but the overall picture made her panic slightly. There were so many shifters down there, so much blood... It was hard to tell who was winning because it looked like one messy c*****e.

She had to focus on her own mission, but she couldn't erase the m* 'e from her mind.

Things were not going well for them. She saw what Joran did and hoped that it wouldn't influence the fight, but it did. The lycans were far from winning the war. The losses were too big, and she realised for the first time that she wasn't ready for the future under Bjorn's rule. She wouldn't be able to- Anything but that!

The enemies from the tunnel kept coming, and the element of surprise that her group had was now gone, and now the bears were appearing, ready to kill them all. She saw one of the she wolves attacking a huge bear only to have her head ripped off. Savannah was moving swiftly between them, trying to wound as many and as deeply as possible.

But she knew that it was time for phase two, and she found a moment to stop and raise her head to the sky, letting out a long

resounding howl...

Zara recognised her Queen's call at once, and a piercing shriek left her chest to summon the rest of the werebirds. A surprise that no one expected and not the last one for today. Kai had to strike a deal with them which was unheard of before. Werebirds almost never fought on anyone's side, not if their own safety wasn't in jeopardy. But the King's offer was too good to pass.

The only reason the Flocks sent Mavis to the Luna Trials was to try to make her a Queen, so that she could give them a safe place to stay during the summer. This was something they never had but always wanted. So, this was exactly what Kai decided to offer them in

exchange for their help.

A dark ominous cloud rose from the forest where they had been hiding up till now, watching and waiting for their turn. Now the wait

was over, and they launched their attack from the sky, Zara among them, searching for her lycan mate in between attacks.

Birds of prey knew how to fight without getting hurt, making clean dives down, damaging the opponent and going straight back up. They were distracting foxes and the bears, throwing them off the game and getting away with it.

Zara personally clawed a few eyes out, escaping before anything could be done about it by the victims.

Kai looked around, the picture was still far from perfect but it was too early to give up because it was time for his last surprise of

today.

The witches came from the Lost

City, Salome fulfilling her end of the deal they made back when she was still a contender. The date that was filmed and broadcasted everywhere was nothing more than a business meeting for the two of them, Kai was surprised that a witch joined the Luna Trials, ignoring that there was no chance in hell of them getting married. Not unless she was his mate, and they

were done with that theory back at Introductions. However, he was still surprised when he heard Salome's offer. The offer he had

accepted, and now he was happy that he did.

It was a small group, just around ten people, but the damage they caused in minutes was incredible. Three of

them were fire summoners, while the other three were earthbreakers, two were holding shields, protecting the team, and what Salome and the

guy next

to her did was unclear, but they looked busy. And in all honesty, Kai did not care. They finally managed to shift the balance of power, and

now he could see the glimpse of final victory even despite their many disadvantages.

Kai was looking at the mountain where Savannah had taken her new personal warriors and said the silent prayer to Fenrir each time

he noticed her white fur gleaming in the sunshine, thankful for his lycan vision. He wanted to find Bjorn, whom he had been looking for from the very beginning, and kill the batard once and for all. However, no matter how hard he looked, he couldn't find him. Kai killed bear after bear, aiming mostly for the white ones as they were the strongest, but not a trace of Bjorn was found. He suddenly had a very bad feeling, and his head snapped to the mountain where Savannah went. There was one serpentine path that led to the secret tunnel, and on that path, he saw a group of three bears rushing, undoubtedly to get his Queen. He tried to get out,

but he was in the very centre of the battle, and someone was constantly on his path. Kai's stomach churned as he realised, he may not get

there in time.

Zara was launching a new attack when she noticed familiar cream fur a few feet away from her. Lachlan was fighting several bears.

and foxes alone, and she did not hesitate to shift to a bigger-sized hawk to get one of the foxes out in less than a few seconds. She closed her claws around the red beast's back, piercing her flesh while she was at it. Then she lifted the creature into the sky, only to drop it on the rocks. She circled quickly and dived down again to defend the man she loved.

And this was what saved her from the huge black shadow that swept the sky, taking down dozens of birds. Their colourful leathers. were falling down, drifting in the air slowly, and Zara couldn't believe her eyes. She had heard many legends, but never thought that

she'd see a real dragon with her own eyes...

Riannon ordered everyone to leave

the control

room. She still had monitors with drone footage in front of her, and just now, she witnessed half of them destroyed together with dozens of the werebirds. She stuck

her emotions to the back of her

mind, because she

knew what would happen next.

The dark shadow covered the castle so fast that even the Queen of the Western Kingdom lost her confidence for a few seconds.

However, she wasn't going to admit it, and did her best to calm herself down, taking her seat in the main chair of the room. "Greetings, Riannon," Joran said as he hopped off the windowsill...