His eyes burn with fury as he watches me like a wolf watching a sheep.
“How long did it take you to figure it out, oh powerful alpha?”
“No trick is going to save you now, little wolf who should have died as a pup. My only mistake was ever letting you live.”
He jumps across the courtyard in an inhuman way, knocking me straight to the ground, and then his power hits me like a brick a second later. I can’t see the power coming out of him, but it feels like a thousand bricks are weighing me down, plastering me to the floor, and I can’t move. My wolf whines, trying to shift, but the alpha is too powerful. I expect the hit when he punches me hard in my ribs, a cracking sound filling the quiet courtyard, but the pain makes me gasp, and tears prick my ears. And he doesn’t stop there. Rizer hits me again and again, destroying my body until I’m begging for him to stop and he doesn’t.
I’m sure I black out for a moment because when I open my sore eyes, I see nothing but the burning leaves falling from the trees above me. The world is spinning; the pain is unbearable, and I want to die. I want him to kill me because I can’t see a way out of this.
“Enough, Father!” Eziel growls from nearby.
In a haze, I manage to sit up and crawl to my feet. Every tiny movement hurts so bad as I look at Eziel and Rizer in front of me. Rizer’s hands and chest are smothered with my blood, and he is shaking from head to toe in anger.
“Get out of my way, son. You do not want to protect her,” Rizer warns. “Or I will rip you apart alongside her.”
Eziel never once glances back at me. “No.”
“What did you just say?”
“I said, fuck no. Fuck no am I letting you kill her,” he growls out.
“Then your head will be buried next to hers when I’m done with you both!”
Eziel moves slightly more in front of me. “Why the fuck is she so important to you? Why do you need her dead? Explain it to me!”
“Every ten thousand years a new alpha is born. An alpha baby who belongs to no pack and can create their own. I was the last child, and this was the pack the Crescent Mother gave to me in her wisdom,” he states and turns his gaze on me. “When this…wolf…was born to a normal wolf, and her mother asked for help. She had no clue what her little sweet baby was and was told Hell was the place for those answers. I was told of the baby when she was trying to leave Hell and I was very shocked to realise she was a female.”
“A female alpha?” Eziel questions, his eyes drifting back to me.
Shock makes every word Rizor says next seem slow. “I wanted to claim the baby as my mate when she turned eighteen but when I came for her, I found nothing but weakness. The pup who was destined to be an alpha female, the first alpha female of any pack, is weak. Killing her is a mercy, as I won’t have weakness bearing my children. Your mother was the last mistake in that department.”
“My mother was the last bit of good left in your soul,” Eziel snaps. “Now you’re nothing but evil and alone. She would have never been yours.”
“I would have made it so!” Rizor roars.
“So you’re not my fated mate?” I ask. My voice seems small compared to their shouting, but powerful enough to draw both of their attention.
“Alpha wolves do not have fated mates,” Eziel fills in for me, shock coating his tone. “The Crescent Mother lets you choose who you mate with.”
“Then you could have never controlled me,” I say, looking at Rizor, and then I laugh, even when it hurts my chest and likely broken ribs. Even when blood fills my mouth, I keep laughing. “And killing me is the only way to make sure I never rival you!”
Rizor’s anger seems to build, and I expect him to attack me but then I gasp in pain. Something sharp goes right through my stomach, and I look down, seeing a sword tip just before it’s pulled back through me. Oddly, the pain doesn’t last even as I fall to my knees, pressing my hands against my stomach like I can stop the blood pouring out from me.
“NO!” Eziel roars, his clothes ripping to pieces off his body, and he shifts. A massive red wolf bursts into the courtyard, and a low, possessive growl vibrates the surrounding air.
“You’re the reason my mate is dead, and you will pay for it,” a voice I never expected to hear again claims. My dad walks around from behind me, dragging his blood-coated sword across the ground. “You’re finally dead, just like you should have been from the—”
My dad’s head is cut off with a swing of a sharp paw, and his body drops as Eziel’s wolf lands on top of it. His red eyes burn into mine, and I try to smile.
“Thank you for everything. Don’t let your father tell you you’re not amazing, Con, because you are. You always have been,” I whisper, knowing my time is fading.
He howls in the air, and the pain in his howl hurts my chest. Another red wolf, Rizor no doubt, bites down hard on Eziel’s shoulder, and his roar echoes around the courtyard. The two of them fill the quietness with growls and roars. I fall on my side, unable to stop myself.
“Not yet,” a voice whispers into my ears when big arms pick me up and press me against a warm chest.
I instantly feel safe, even as I know I’m close to dying. At least I won’t die alone. In a daze, I look at the
