Chapter 43 #2
The tunnels, dug so deep they allowed no light, were nowhere near as dark as the black that settled in my heart.
A pit of despair formed inside my chest and burrowed into my veins.
Choler curdled my blood, and the darkness cinched my lungs, but I breathed it in, becoming the life force upon which I fed.
I had not felt like this since my father had passed. Hollow. Vacuous. My decisions, my fuck-ups… the reason he was dead. How often had I thought of his last hours on the battlefield? Whether he’d still be alive had I been alongside him instead of thousands of miles away.
History, with me it seemed, had a way of repeating itself.
Damiano sent the coordinates, which brought me to the farthest point of the northern border. Heavily wooded, the mountains—and the pack territory—ended abruptly at a ravine.
This gamma was an arrogant shit. He paid no mind to keeping quiet. Branches snapped where he ran, and the greenery rustled, disturbed. He’d had a head start, but his tracks were left uncovered, making for an easy follow.
“Be on alert,” I warned Menhyt, who had caught up to me, running above on a parallel path, acting as lookout.
A wolf who did not care about being tracked almost always had something up his sleeve. Apollo kept an ear trained for the cock of a gun or the pull of a trigger. The gamma weaved through the forest, Andy’s unconscious form bobbing on his back, then swung a left.
“He’s heading for the ravine!” Vallon exclaimed from her better vantage. “Alpha, he’s going to jump!”
“Fall back,” I said. Her wolf, smaller than mine, would never clear the distance.
“But, Alpha—”
“Vallon, I said fall back.”
Menhyt’s paws slowed to a crawl until she trotted impatiently in place.
The gamma’s feet reached the edge and left solid ground.
Wolf or not, no human form should have been able to make that jump.
He floated through the air in one graceful arch, as though any presence of gravity disappeared along the way.
Apollo sped up and ascended off the ledge, soaring in the same trajectory as the gamma before him.
Wind curled through his fur. Apollo’s eyes watered but never blinked, maintaining their focus as the gamma made landfall on the other side. Apprehension filled my stomach. This was our last chance.
We were more than halfway across, set to make our descent.
We were so close, I could hear him breathing, seeing his chest rise and fall, when a force, a barrier unseen, hit Apollo head-on.
The jolt of a million volts twisted his body, and my insides felt themselves rearrange.
It constricted my chest; my lungs couldn’t expand to breathe.
For a split second, we were held against the barrier, suspended and hanging in the air.
As he stood there calmly watching, the gamma tilted his head and partially lifted his mask.
His lips curled back, exposing a smug, malefic grin.
A hand rose to his temple to give me a two-finger salute before a shockwave, carrying the explosive force of a dying star, sent my wolf careening back over the ravine.
Apollo had the wherewithal to shift as we soared, and my head slammed into the rock.
I tasted blood in the well of my throat, and more seeped from my scalp, through my hair, and dribbled down the nape of my neck.
My hands fought against the mountain, grappling to find their grip.
I dug my fingers into the fissures, skinning their pads, and dangled there alone, gulping for breath.
I glanced at him. Still grinning, the gamma turned to leave.
Over his shoulder, Andy stirred, raised his head with difficulty, and looked me dead in the eye.
His face was broken, his eyes black and blue.
Blood had dried on his nose, crusted the sides of his mouth.
He inclined his chin slowly and gave me a subtle nod.
I saw a wave of peace wash over him, and content, he passed out.
Trembling with indignation, I watched as the gamma strolled leisurely into the woods. I ground my fist against the rock, my throat too bloodied to produce a scream.
“Alpha!” Menhyt cried frantically in my head.
“I’m fine.” I grunted. “Let him g—”
A flicker of sable caught my eye. Menhyt, no longer thinking it wise to heed my command, sailed across the chasm, her body lengthened and lean.
In those few moments of flight, I thought she might actually succeed in making the jump, but a second shockwave, more powerful than the first, blasted and took her out.
My teeth dug into my lip, and I heard the wolf utter a high-pitch whine.
The force bent back her spine, cracking the vertebrae, and she dropped through the air, plummeting hundreds of feet to the river below.
I dove after her, Menhyt’s swinging limbs an indication of consciousness, and I commanded the delta to shift.
Vallon’s limp body barely made a splash, the raging river engulfing her almost immediately. The rapids carried the two of us downstream, and I struggled against the current, hauling us both to shore.
I checked her injuries, relieved to see none were life-threatening. She’d suffered multiple fractures and several broken bones. I gently eased her into my arms. She kept her head down and refused to make eye contact. Tears flowed down her face, but not from the pain.
“Vallon, look at me,” I said softly, to which she brought a sprained arm to cover her eyes.
“Look at me,” I said a little more sternly, and she turned her head and took her arm away. Her eyes were bloodshot, and she hiccupped through her sobs.
“There is no shame in living to fight another day.” It was something my father used to tell me. Brawn is nothing without brains, he would say when we’d spar. Sometimes, Tinos, walking away is the smartest thing you can do.
I told the delta this, not quite sure I was being entirely sincere.
Inconsolable, Vallon shook her head, and her body, already weak, sagged some more. “Not when there are others who can’t do the same, Alpha,” she said with a rasp and shielded her face again.
I instantly thought of my mate—how I’d failed her—and said nothing else. Vallon was correct; there was no soothing a warrior’s wounded pride.
It was a quiet trek back to the castle, and Jason met us on the way. He was pale and grew paler upon seeing his mate. The grounds were bleak, a graveyard strewn with the dead not yet laid to rest.
“She’s all right,” I assured him. “Some broken bones, as far I can tell.” And two broken spirits, I thought, hers and my own. “Take her to the hospital.”
I tried to pass her off to him, but Vallon grabbed his wrist. “No,” she whispered. “Jason, please stay. The Alpha needs you.”
“What happened?” he asked her, kissing the top of her head.
“Nothing,” she replied. She heaved another sob and hid her face in my chest. “Just stay.”
“I’ll fill you in,” I told him, the simple act of linking causing my head to throb.
He nodded at me, understanding how Vallon’s sense of duty came before herself. It was unlike her to act so distraught, but she wasn’t used to what she saw as dereliction, and neither was I.
My mind was with Arax and my mother, but I was two officers down. I tapped into the bond and was met with no response—no emotion. There was no frenzy but also no calm, just the stagnant hum of subdued silence.
Jason went in search of a guard but didn’t need to go too far. Shouts and hollers reached our ears, and my gamma appeared, stomping and berating a handful of warriors. His words were jumbled, his ire rendering them incoherent.
“What the fuck were you thinking, leaving the castle unguarded? They were defenseless!”
It wasn’t Drake yelling, but Typhon.
Darius, one of the head warriors, began to explain. “The beta—”
“I don’t give a fuck what the beta said. Fat lot of good that did him!” Ty spat on the ground, waving them off.
Dorian stepped forward and took a knee in front of Jason, Vallon, and me. “Alpha, I’m sorry,” he said, shaking from head to toe. “I let you down.”
“Hardly,” I replied, glowering at Typhon. “Stand up, Dorian. Here, take the delta to the hospital. The rest of you, gather the mystics and whichever of the elders is available. I need a read on the northern borders. Have them confer with Damiano.”
I didn’t know much of magic, outside of its existence.
Witches and folks alike were often a detriment to our kind.
The hatred was mutual. We gave them a wide berth, parlaying it into a fragile peace.
Too many past instances had threatened this détente, one of those being my father’s.
His death may have been ruled accidental, but his closest associates who saw his remains, were certain it was murder by poison of the black magic kind.
What I had experienced brought those ugly memories back. If today was what I thought it had been, then war was inevitable—except who the adversary was and why was still a mystery.
I dismissed the guards and turned toward the gamma. “Typhon, bring Drake forth.”
“I would prefer not to,” he answered defiantly, keeping Drake’s human form under his control. “That piece of shit can have a rest, yeah? Fucking incompetent git.”
Rather than use the Command, his slurs had my backhand plowing the wolf into the dirt.
He got up, licking the blood off the corner of his mouth and facing me. “That’s how we’re doing it, Daddy?” he snarled, and his lips twisted into a sadistic smile. “Let’s have a go then.”
“Fuck, man,” Jason said, stepping in the middle and holding Ty back, doing as his mate would do. “Can you not antagonize? For once? This isn’t the time or the place for your usual shit!”
Ty looked from me to Jason and back, his eyes a violent shade of blue. His face contorted, and what was supposed to pass as rage spilled out for what it really was: heartache. It was perhaps the first and only time Drake and his wolf had had anything in common.