Chapter 25:

"That means you can help me get revenge." The young girl says, her long black hair was in a loose ponytail, her red eyes watching me closely. Her ruffled and bloody pink dress was torn and dirty and it hurt me to think of what happened to her, but my curiosity for her was too great.

"Who is it you wish to revenge against?" I ask when she scratched at the skin on her wrist.

"Those who killed my parents. We only wanted peace and to remain away from everyone, but then they came and requested for our help." She hisses, her eyes glaring at the broken furniture with such malice that it made me sympathize for her. "Also for the person who has cursed me." The girl growls when I tilted my head at her.

"I can have a friend of mine remove this curse from you, however, I need to know what has happened to you and who you are," I tell the headstrong girl before tilting my head. "Come with me and I will help you with your revenge. I have a good feeling about you." I admit, a unique connection between the both of us that not even I could deny.

She reminded me so much of myself at her age...

"Why should I trust you? The last person I trusted betrayed me." She admits, lowering her hands as I smirked and peered around the home.

"What has happened to this last person?" I ask in a curious, for the first time, watching as her lips twisted in a delightful smile.

"Dead." She simply says in victory when I leaned forward towards her.

"Good. But if I truly wanted to hurt you, I could have. I am one of the strongest Valkyries in existence and I am not afraid of a mere girl. Do not forget you speak with a goddess." I remind her, knowing it was a long stretch but taking the measures to gain the girl's trust.

She narrowed her eyes at me, still unsure about me when I held out the stuffed animal with a genuine smile. I knew that this young girl has seen much in the past days or however long she's been here.

The longer we remain here, the more danger that lurks outside.

"I will train you and treat you like my own," I promise as she stared at the animal with an unknown emotion. "Come with us." My words were laced in persuasion when she looked up at me with a determined expression.

"Okay. I wish to come with you." She clasped the animal, her eyes softening at the touch of its plush fur. I smirked and rested my hand on her shoulder before kneeling down for my blade.

We left the home as I glanced around and saw it was almost night time. Proximo and the others were quick to join me while the young girl surprisingly hides behind me, still wary of the people despite the bravery she showed me moments ago.

I will scold her later for her fear. She didn't seem afraid seconds ago.

"We must leave now. Those bloodsuckers will come in-"

"Hrudra." I heard a voice a few feet from us as I spied Valrun with Rogan following behind her. "It's about time you get here. We should hurry back now." She glanced down at the girl cowering behind my leg before looking up at me and giving a swift nod.

"I was about to tell you they were coming." Proximo defends making me chuckle and nod in understanding.

"It's alright. Come on everyone. We've got to get there before the battle breaks off." I order, holding a weapon to the frightened girl. She took it quickly, not denying my protection as we all quickly followed after the couple.

Though they bickered and argued the whole time, it calmed me knowing that they were safe and sound with the Lykae. I was curious as to why we had to wait so long for them to come and get to us, but I decided to push that thought away and focus on my task at hand.

Get them to base camp, ready myself for war, then fight these mother fucking bloodsuckers.

The girl clutched onto my hand harder before tugging it roughly. I glanced down at her as she pointed at the rogue vampire coming towards us. The man's speed mind-blowing and it would no doubt take less than seconds to get to us.

I spun around, tossing her to the ground and stabbing the vampire in the chest before throwing it down onto the ground. He screeched loudly making me bare my scowl and swipe my blade across his neck.

"They're going to start coming!" Valrun yells, matching the vampire's speed to take another one down. I snatched the wide-eyed child off the ground and picked her up.

"Hold onto me, young one," I order and turned to Proximo who was striking a vampire that came at me and the girl. "We've gotta get out of here before more come. Sevetha cannot fight and neither can the young girl." I inform him as he closed in and grasped my shoulder.

"Rogan, Arley and I can secure passage for you all." He tells me when Valrun snarls and twisted her blade in a vampire's head with a deadly look.

"I will remain here." She throws at us when other Valkyries snarled their agreement, several flashes of lightning raining the sky.

"Alright. Arley, Proximo, and Hjala. You three will help Sevetha, me and the Princess to the safe house." I inform, pleasing looks blooming their faces.

"I don't-"

"Princess. You decided to come only if you followed my orders." I cut her off, throwing a hard stare at her. "I have no time for your disobedience. Now come." She frowned but followed after us when Arley threw daggers like there was no tomorrow and ducked to stab one into a vampire.

His brutality shocked me but it surprises me he doesn't use fire as his past ancestors have in wars. The electric blue in his eyes on flaming up the energy he released only making me grin and hand the girl to Sevetha.

"Watch after her. I am going to help them bring you three to the pack home." She nodded, clutching onto the girl when she spun around and narrowed her eyes at me. "Trust me, young one. I'll protect you. If you must, watch me slay these beasts." I tapped her nose, unsheathing my blade and nodding to Sevetha and the Princess to follow.

Arley and Hjala followed close up behind as Proximo and I struck enemies in front of the small group, preventing them from getting hurt. Thrusting my blade into a vampire, I caught sight of someone speeding up to the Sevetha and the girl before I dove and allowed myself to be brought down to the ground.

There was a small helpless cry in the midst of battle while I wrestled the man for power, throwing him down to the ground and quickly pressing my knee against his throat. Without a second longer, I slammed my blade into his skull as a spray of blood coated my face.

A grin stretched on my face reminding me that there were much more enemies to come. I stood up, glancing at the red-eyed girl who stared at me with fascination and wonder.

"I keep my promises," I tell her as Proximo threw down a vampire in a sexy way, glancing at me with knowing eyes. "We've got to hurry. I don't want them out here-"

A low ear piercing howl came from behind me as I spun around and saw a large wolf flanked with several more. I caught the leader, their ice blue eyes watching mine in caution when I nodded.

"I am Hrudra the cold beast," I smirked proudly, flinging the blood off my blade and raising it. "Nice to meet you, Alpha." I nod as the wolf nodded in respect before barking at the others. In a flash, roughly twenty wolves emerged from the forest and started aiding my allies in their fight while I spun and gazed at Sevetha and the Princess. "Time to go."

"We will bring them to the pack house." Arely and Hjala offer, a lone wolf standing on the side and waiting for them. The young girl looked at me with an unknown emotion before jumping from Sevetha's grasp and grabbing my hand.

"I want to stay." The girl says when I frowned about to say something but she piped in before I could speak. "I can prove useful in battle. Let me-"

"Young one." I cut off, kneeling down and running my hand down her arm in a comforting way. "I cannot have a child out on the battlefield. Once I return. We will speak and I may consider teaching you all I know, but if I am to teach you. You must go with them." I blackmail, knowing she wanted revenge but I needed to get her out of here. She's already been out here enough, it's time to spare her of the bloodshed.

She frowned as if she knew what I was doing before sighing and looking over at Sevetha and the others. "Fine. But I want t-"

"Like I said. We will speak once I return." I tap the girl's nose and pulled her forward for a small kiss on her forehead. "Be safe, young one," I whisper, standing up and letting Sevetha grab her little hand. With a confident look, the girl and others scurried off into the forest towards the pack house leaving me, Proximo, and the alpha.

"You alright, Hrudra?" Proximo asks, reaching for my hand when I sighed and watched them disappear.

"Yeah. Something about that girl reminds me of myself... Maybe it is the look of revenge in her eyes... But I need to help her out of this darkness in her life." I admit to him and turned to smile sheepishly. "We'll talk about it later, Proximo. Let's win this." I grin as he chuckled and kissed me softly.

"Let's." He agrees before we dove into battle and placed a bet. If I won, I got to tie him to our bed but if he won, he got to have his wicked ways with my shifted beast.

Not like he was going to actually kill more than me anyway.

The thought of tying him up had me aroused as I sliced through two vampires with swiftness making a large smile stretch on my face. Oh, I was so winning this bet.