Fighting by Anaya Phoenix (black books to read txt) 📕

“She comes to your court asking for her life then blatantly disrespects you, does she have a death wish?” The God of the mountains thundered.

“It seems to be you that’s disrespecting her. She’s already cleared my actions, yet you still have something to say about it.” I smirked and wanted to do a little dance at the strength in my baby sisters voice. I looked to Gaia and saw the respect she had there.

“Worry not about my children, what is it you come to me for?” She knew, but the official claim needed to be made my Elizabeth.

“I come to you asking for immortality as a way to be a better fighter for the oncoming war and as reparation for the ill life I lived.” Her voice was so clear and powerful I wanted to record it and send it to mom. Gaia raised gentle brow and nodded.

“And has your God approved it? Has Lupa granted that?”

“She said I needed to come to you if I wanted such a feat as immortality.” I saw a flit of annoyance go across Gaia’s face and I knew the reason why.

“Well, you didn’t have to come all the way here, child. I grant you immortality, but you will have the choice as to whether or not you wish to fight. I am not a malevolent Goddess to force you to fight, and I am not a spiteful enough mother to wish any of her children to die for me.” With that the court went silent as Gaia walked forward and her placed her hands on Libby’s cheek.

“I grant you immortality, Elizabeth Anne Green.” Such soft words my ears strained to hear them before Gaia kissed Libby’s forehead. There was a liberating feeling that I felt from Libby’s end which meant a lot because up until that point I had felt nothing. With a smile I bowed slightly before standing up.

“See you back home Libby.” I dragged myself from Eternal and stood from my bed, stretching and popping my joints. I looked down on the bed at my sleeping mate and smiled softly before sneaking out and heading to the infirmary. When I got there Libby moaned softly and my mother shot up. She slapped my fathers arm with one hand, all the while keeping a gentle grip on Libby.

“Tom, Tom! Wake up, she’s waking up!”

“Mom?” Libby groaned and blinked her eyes open. My mother fell back in to her chair with silent tears falling down.

“Oh my baby, my little Libby baby. You’ve come back to me.” She sobbed softly, gripping Libby’s hand with two of her hands. With a small smile I walked to them and put my hands on her head and, letting myself soak in this win, I let out a victorious howl.

Ander was waiting for me when I got back, his hair was tousled and his eyes were tired but he still smiled when he saw me. He moved over in the small bed and I snorted as he tried to make himself look smaller.

“Your bed awaits, m’lady.” He waved his hand over the empty spot and I smiled and took my hair out of my ponytail.

“Do me a favor, remind me not to have stubborn kids.” I walked towards him and the bed and peeled off my clothes.

“Have you met yourself, and have you met me? Our children would be entirely too stubborn.” I looked him in the eye and slid into the bed, sitting up and crossing my legs.

“Our kids would be brats, and you know it.”

“God you’re right. Running around, being rude.”

“They’d get that from you, I’m like the king of being polite. It comes in the blood of an Englishman.” I rolled my eyes and laid down, looking up and taking a deep breath. He laid beside me on his side and looked at me. I looked at him and kept eye contact as he put his hand on my exposed belly.

“Kids. That’s almost-“

“Too normal to even think of.” I finished with a whisper and put my hand on his.

“But I want it, I want that normalcy.”  With a soft sigh I looked up, rubbing soft circles on his hand with mine.

“We’ll have it, I know it.” There was so much conviction in his voice that I almost believed him. I smiled and looked back at home and moved to my side so we faced each other. His hand fell but his fingertips grazed the tip of my stomach and I longed for the day where it would be full with a pup or two.

“What would you name your first girl? And please, save her the long name. We don’t need another catastrophe like ‘LunaRosa’.” We both laughed and her pursed his lips, those blue eyes looking upward thoughtfully.

“Talula May.” He smiled and looked at me with challenge in his eyes.

“That’s… that’s beautiful.” His eyes grew unsure and I held his hand and gave it a small squeeze.

“I mean it, that’s a beautiful name for a beautiful girl.” He blushed and I kissed his cheek before sighing and closing my eyes.

“It’s gonna be loud tomorrow.”

“Guns?”

“Guns. I’ve gotta make sure the dragons are on their shit and make sure the others transition along well enough. All the girls have synched up so now there’s gonna be a cave wide heat cycle, and I’m just hoping nobody shoots anybody else. I need them all at top-“ He kissed me to shut me up and pulled back quickly.

“So I guess that means you need to head to sleep then.” He flipped me over to my other side and squeezed me to his chest.

“Night Luna.”

“Night Ander.”

                A gun shot rang through the air and I shot up, my rage and wolf already at the surface. With a growl I shot off the bed and ran toward the training grounds my claws and fangs out. A wide eyed girl stood in the middle of the arena with a small glock. A boy stood next to her and all the face drained from his face as he saw all the victors and some of the more trained shifters gather around him. With narrowed eyes Filly stalked forward, clad in only boy shorts and a sports bra, and snatched the gun from the girl and smacked them up their heads.

“Giving everybody a fucking heart attack, what the hell is wrong with you?” She roared and formed a paw with her other hand and smacked them against their head again repeatedly. Leo walked to her and lifted her by her abdomen but she kept smacking the girl in her head.

“You just see a couple of crates of guns and you decide that you want to scare everybody!?” She growled but Leo walked backwards. It didn’t mean she didn’t try, she still tried to kick her. With a shake of my head I walked to the girl and closed the crate, all the while looking at the girl.

“Two days of intensive training for both of y’all.” I crossed my arms and cocked my hip against the crate, watching as they skulked off. I looked to the rest of the shifters who looked at the rest of the crates in awe.

“I suggest y’all try and get some sleep, training has only been pushed back a half an hour.” With that I walked away, knowing there would be no more insubordinate actions this morning.

                Everybody woke up two hours later, groggy and sending glares to the pair that woke everybody up prematurely. I decided to wear shorts today and regretted it immediately. All the boys who were ignoring their mating bonds seemed to have a hard time remembering I could break their femurs with two pinkies. We started off with slight combat training before we called them all together. I opened a crate that held pistols and took out one. I cocked the gun and held it by my hip and walked to the middle of the crowd, knowing their eyes were following me.

“This is a gun, it’s a very dangerous gun but all guns are dangerous and I’m sure you all know that. I know you’ve all had bad experiences with guns but these are different. Somebody, only using your nose, tell me why this gun is different.” I held it up and waved it around slightly, willing the scent to travel.

“There’s no gun powder in it, it has no bullets.” Carmen said softly and I nodded my head once, smelling the pain that was laced in her voice.

“That’s right, there are no bullets. These guns were fashioned by the Gods, and they are not created to kill.”

“We’re not killing the humans?” A fox asked, his eyes amber and aware.

“No we’re not, that was never the plan actually. The only God that likes death are Gods of death, but we’re not fighting for that mean bastard. We’re fighting for our freedom and for Gaia.”

“So then what? It’s just there for decoration?” Lila asked snarkily with her arms crossed and her hip cocked. With a smile and lots of pleasure I flicked the switch on the gun that would stun and aimed it at her. Everybody gasped but I didn’t care and without any warning I shot her in her abdomen. Her entire body slumped down to the floor with a hard thud and everybody seemed terrified. I could smell magick being gathered against me and with a bored wave of my hand shot Susie in her leg, making her slump too.

“Now, this is only for short range attacks. It also has a cartridge so you can put bullets into it, but only under extreme duress are you to use the actual bullets.” I walked back to the guns and pulled out an assault rifle.

“This too has a stun option but it also has an electrocute option.” I looked to Seamus and with a deep frown he unfolded his arms and grimaced tightly. I flicked the switch and aimed at him and fired three shots, each of them making a triangle on his abdomen making sure it wasn’t too close to his heart to accidentally kill him. His body jerked and his black hair stood up, had it been a human he would’ve been knocked out cold. He wobbled slightly and shook his head before running his hands down his arms. My mouth dropped open as he seemed to take electricity out of his skin, he shook it off his hands and rolled his shoulders before looking at me.

“Couldn’t very well leave it in, could I? It gets uncomfortable.” I stared at him for a little while longer before clearing my throat and putting the assault rifle down and filed what just happen in the ‘freak out later’ box. I walked to another box and pulled out another god fashioned weapon.

“Hey so, do you know if Shay is like half lightning dragon or something?” I asked as I sat with the Victors for lunch. They all looked at me as I broke my bread dipped it into tomato soup.

“Any… Any particular reason you’re asking that?” Eva asked, leaning her elbos on the table and looking at me intently.

“You know the God guns, the rifles?”

“Did you electrocute him?” Leo asked while picking up a spoonful