Chapter Eight #2
“ Paxton, forget about me, ” Miriam commanded her son. Water blasted out of the kitchens, soaring straight for Cygnus. “ Don’t listen to him! Don’t hurt her!”
He dove out of the way, hitting the floor and rolling onto his knees. Fur sprouted from his body, filling his suit. His maw extended—rippling forth two vicious sets of fangs. “Lamond!”
“No! Stop!” Paxton bellowed. “Mom!”
The sword fell.
A towering wall of flames slammed into Lamond, throwing him off his feet. He flew into the wall beside the serving window, collapsing into a smoking, crispy pile.
“Argh!” Cygnus snarled, whirling on a blank-faced Orion as he lowered his arm.
Badr moved in front of his friend. “Sir, before you get mad, you should know Orion did that to help you.”
“Help me!?”
“Yes,” he replied calmly. “It’s one thing to kill a few traitorous epsilons that turned their backs on Wolf Nation, but executing a fellow alpha and a worried mother will not get you very much support.”
“You—!”
“I must agree, Cygnus,” Liliya broke in. “Calm down and remember what we’re here for. It’s for the good of all the alphas, Mrs. Clarke included, and she will come to see that eventually even if she doesn’t now.
“The traitors are captured. The high priestess is willing, and her fated mates are compliant. No more examples need to be made, so please...” She gestured to his throne. “Let us begin.”
Cygnus snapped back and forth among all the eyes staring at him, and finally noticed approval was held in none of them. “Uh, yes,” he said, straightening. “Well said, Councilwoman, and forgive me for forgetting myself. I can be overzealous in my devotion to Luame’s will.”
“As can we all. Let us begin,” she repeated more forcefully, finally acting to get that psychopath away from a female alpha from her clan.
“Gagging her will suffice. Daffyd, if you please.”
Mrs. Clarke’s shouting was quickly gagged and muffled.
“Let’s begin.” Cygnus claimed my throne. He flicked a finger at Paxton. “ Paxton Clarke, mate with your chosen. ”
Paxton didn’t move.
It took a second for him to put it together. “Blasted woman.” Cygnus flapped a hand. “Sunella, if you please.”
Sunella flicked to me, and the burning eyes glaring back at her. “ Paxton Clarke, gently and lovingly mate with— ”
“You think that’s going to make a difference? I will scream,” I rasped, making her wince. “I’ll fight, and kick, and make the whole world see exactly what you all are!”
“Daciana, please,” she cried. “There is no need for you to behave this way, or take it so personally. This must be done. You’ve known this your whole life. Simply stop making it difficult.”
“I stopped making it difficult when I agreed to mate with one of them at the end of every semester. Do you hear me out there?” I called, raising my voice at the cameras. “I agreed to fulfill Luame’s glorious purpose weeks ago! But they’re so determined to control and dominate me, they’re going back on the deal for no reason!”
“There is reason,” Elijah, the moon councilman, sliced in. “ We never agreed to any deal. You made these plans with Sunella and Sunella only, and you did so before you unjustly attacked and maimed Councilman Cygnus, before you bribed, threatened, and slandered the clan leaders, and before you incited riots in omega communities all over Wolf Nation.”
Green eyes glittered behind thin, wire-framed glasses. “Don’t you dare question our integrity, Daciana. If any party broke the terms of this supposed deal, it was you.”
“But—”
“Your father was a friend of mine. I cared for him as I care for you, but Cygnus is right. You are not well. After you’ve completed your duty, you’ll receive the help you need, I promise you. But there’ll be no more of you running around unchecked—breaking every law under the sun.” He stared down his long, hooked nose. “You wanted an end to special treatment. Your wish is granted.”
“Listen to—!”
“Sunella,” Elijah barked.
“ Paxton Clarke, gently and lovingly mate with Daciana. ”
Paxton rose, his soul vanishing behind his eyes, and his chains fell away.
Miriam’s muffled screams rose louder and more urgent—as did my tears.
All of this was for nothing. They had no idea that the bonds didn’t need to be completed because the power had already been passed on to the next generation. Broken bond or not, the drought power they were salivating over was in Hope, and it’d soon be within the thousands of werewolf babies waiting to be born.
The babies they were waiting to sacrifice.
No part of this horrible, wretched ceremony had to happen, but if I came right out and said that, what would happen to all of us? If they found out step one was complete, it wouldn’t save us. They’d just move right to step two: extract sperm from my fates, kill them, inject me with fertility drugs, and breed me.
I gazed at Edric and Nyx, screams leaking through my teeth as I fought every urge within me to phase through the chains, and bite Cygnus’s fucking head off. I’d never make it in time to stop him ordering the deaths of Nia, Idalia, Miriam, my friends or, gods forbid, those poor little boys.
I wouldn’t be saving us by attacking. I wouldn’t save them by admitting we didn’t need to mate anymore. All I’d be doing was bringing them one step closer to death, and myself a step closer to hell on earth.
I sobbed as Paxton’s shadow fell over me. No, nothing would be accomplished by forcing Paxton to complete a broken bond... nothing except ensuring it’d stay broken forever.
My head thrashed from side to side, releasing my screams to echo through Wolf Nation. For what a compelled Paxton was about to do, I screamed. For what he was about to destroy beyond repair... I screamed.
I didn’t know what it took to repair a broken bond, but I knew deep in my heart, this would destroy any chance of it happening.
Paxton dropped down between my spread legs, hands steadying himself on my thighs.
“Don’t do this, Paxton!” I looked deep in his eyes, beseeching someone that was no longer there. “I know you can hear me. I know you can fight!”
His brow twitched as fingers skated over my gossamer-covered skin, his touch as gentle and loving as that disgusting creep commanded.
“Please, don’t do this.” My throat was thick, sore, and clogged from crying, but I couldn’t stop. “Everyone believes these bonds are for them ! That it and we exist for their purposes, but I finally understand now. The bonds are for us.”
Paxton slowly slipped my gown off one side, then the other. He wasn’t hearing a word I was saying, but I pressed on.
“Luame wasn’t punishing me. We were punishing ourselves, because deep down we knew we could have something great—something real—and we sabotaged it,” I croaked, speaking faster as he rose up on his knees, and started taking off his clothes. “And something real, if you want to get it back again, it can’t be forced. It can’t be tricked, or seduced, or logicked. If you want it back, you have to be vulnerable. You have to close your eyes and jump, trusting that the other person will be there to catch you.
“You have to love, Paxton...” I freed my hand, ignoring Cygnus’s bark as I cupped his cheek. “And I do,” I whispered. “I love you.”
He stilled. For the barest possible second, Paxton’s fingers paused on his pants button.
“I love you, Paxton,” I repeated, loud and clear. “So fight them, baby. No matter what those monsters think, omegas were not put on this earth to do an alpha’s bidding. Your true power is inside of you—”
“Enough of this,” Cygnus bellowed. “Tell him to get on with it, Sunella.”
“But—”
“Now!”
“Fight, Paxton!” I screamed as Sunella’s lips parted.
“ Paxton Clarke, get it over with. ”
“Fight, Paxton!” Nia burst out.
“ Mate with her now! ”
He grabbed me, wrestling me back down.
“FIGHT!”
“All right already,” Paxton breezed. “Will everyone stop yelling?”
I choked on a cry, eyes popping.
My handsome, wicked love winked at me, grinning that grin. Swooping down, he dropped a kiss on my squawking lips, and whispered, “I love you too.” When he shot to his feet, he was glowing. “Thanks for freeing my hands, shitheads.”
“How!” Cygnus ripped his shirt, partially shifting in his rage. “This is impossi— eugh! ” He gagged, water spewing from his throat.
Within seconds, Orion, Badr, the secret police, and the council were on their knees, clutching their throats. Faces reddening, eyes popping, hands releasing their weapons to claw desperately at their throats.
Ash didn’t waste a moment.
Sprinting across the room, the woman dove headfirst through the serving window, shifting before her paws hit the floor. “ Boys, look away, ” she ordered in wolfspeak.
They clapped their hands over their eyes, but I didn’t.
Ash snapped her jaw over the man’s pale and bulging face, and ripped it right off. Whipping around, she slammed the full force of her body into his—throwing him across the kitchen into the steel-plated wall. Absolutely every bone broke on impact, and they didn’t heal.
The other man tried to stagger away. Trying, failing, and trying again to get to his feet while his lungs drowned on dry land, he tried to stand one more time, and Ash snapped on his torso.
Chomp!
Hands flopping away from his throat, one part of him fell one way, the other part fell forward, and she spat out the rest.
I didn’t think anything could tear my eyes away from such a shocking, gruesome sight. Nothing but my Paxton.
He was a half-naked maestro conducting his symphony—his masterpiece. His hands waved, almost flowed through the air. Left hand spinning and right a steady, immovable force, seven great towering columns of water burst from the ceiling, sweeping the alpha council right up.
Flames burst off Councilman Hakim and vaporized in the water. Liliya lashed out with her own water powers, shooting it off like a water hose and catching me with a blast to the face, but doing nothing to save herself. That was the thing about drowning from the inside out. You couldn’t speak. You couldn’t think. You couldn’t organize. All that existed was the all-consuming panic and need to breathe.
“Daze, quick,” Paxton said. “Unchain the others. Get them and my mom out of here.”
I was already moving before he finished the sentence. I ran to Nia and got hold of the padlock securing her chains. Phasing my glowing hand through, I got inside and ripped up, broke apart, and smashed whatever I touched.
“My gods, he’s amazing,” Nia said, straining to shrug off the chains. “Not only did he fight off the command, but he’s destroying them! No wonder Luame chose him to be your mate.”
Something flickered out of the corner of my eye.
“He’s the most amazing omega in all of—”
The sword by my knee skittered away, then shot into the air.
“Paxton, look out!”
Slicing the air, the weapon buried into Paxton’s back.
“No!”
Paxton dropped like a popped balloon. The towering whirlpools vanished, dumping Liliya, Cygnus, Sunella, and the others the long twelve-feet drop to the floor. Jabari’s metal-lined body broke the hardwood—peeling the boards up and showering the room with splinters.
“Paxton?” I raced to him, catching him as he fell. “Are you okay? Talk to me.”
His head lolled back on my shoulder. It was only then I saw the other end of the blade sticking out of his chest.
His heart.
“Aaahhhh!” My scream rattled the rafters.
“You idiot,” Cygnus roared. He staggered to his feet, still hacking and coughing. “What were you thinking? He’s the only water wolf. We needed him!”
Jabari’s iron melted away, leaving nothing but seething hatred on his face. “What would you have had me do? He was killing us!”
“He was killing you , you weak fool.” Cygnus threw a piece of plank at his face, ripping a seam across his forehead. “No omega can kill me!”
Their stupid damn fight filtered in the background, a droning buzz as I held Paxton—screaming for him. “Paxton, please, wake up. Please!”
“Don’t waste time,” Cygnus belted at the secret police moving at the edges of my blurred vision. “Cut the girl. Bring him back!”
“Paxton, baby, please, don’t leave me like this.” I patted his sallow cheeks, willing his eyes to flutter. “Look at me. Look— Ahh!”
Rough hands grabbed me, wrestling me away from him. Extending my arm, the officer sliced my wrist on the very sword sticking out of Paxton’s chest, then pulled it out.
Three more men piled on top of me, holding me down as he dripped my blood directly on Paxton’s wound. But they didn’t need to restrain me. I wasn’t fighting.
“Please work,” I begged, beseeching Luame, Ola, Zeus, Athena, and all the gods mundane, demigod, wolf, and otherwise. “Whatever this new power is, don’t you fucking dare help that human waste Cygnus and then let Paxton down.”
We waited as my cut slowly knit itself together.
And waited...
And waited...
And waited.
Paxton lay still and handsome, so angelic he could be sleeping... forever.
“ Hhmmmmm! ” Miriam wailed behind her gag.
Breaking free, I threw myself on him, sobbing on his chest.
“Damn it!” Cygnus dented the throne arm smashing his fist down. “That’s it. No more mistakes! Darius, Kellan, Raza, recapture the prisoners. You five, take her and chain her back up. Now!”
It was chaos.
I only had time to free Nia, who tried to use her forest power to assault the officers with a barrage of broken hardwood. Six officers raced into the kitchen after Ash. I heard her furious roars, and then cries of sorrow as she was defeated and her children retaken.
Nia ran for the door and found it blocked by two burly officers. Her wolf tranquilizer hadn’t failed her. They couldn’t hurt her, and no one tried to, but they weren’t letting her past either.
She raised her hands, then threw them forward—raining planks down on them.
Metal chains appeared in the air and swamped her, dragging her screaming to the floor.
The planks plonk, plonk, plonked all around her, falling very short of their goal.
Ash was hauled out of the kitchen kicking and screaming. All pretense gone, Jabari stopped pretending she was anything other than a hostage, and chained her up too.
I watched all of this as I was yanked away from Paxton, and dragged across the floor to my awaiting manacles.
“Let me be clear.” Cygnus’s raspy, ruined throat made him sound even more sinister. “If there is one more interruption—if any one of you even twitches your finger—I’ll start with that bowtied brat in there!”
Bowtied brat. Cygnus was speaking about Ash’s son. Her youngest son.
“Am I clear!”
He was clear. No one moved. No one did anything, but cry.
I thought a broken bond was the worst pain I’d ever felt. That pain was a papercut compared to the agony of a dying one.
Paxton’s life. His hopes, his dreams, his mistakes, his regrets, his love and obsession with me... and his vision for our future. All of it flooded my mind, traveling down the new and strengthened bond—bringing my wolf back to life—and then it vanished. Blown out like a candlelight, the last traces of him I could’ve held on to faded away.
“Son, go on.” Cygnus nodded to his second-born. “Make me proud. Do your duty.”
Even though an alpha’s compulsion didn’t work on another alpha, he could’ve pretended and spun Badr some bullshit about taking me “gently” and “lovingly.” But with him, he didn’t pretend that’s what this was about.
A silent Badr crossed to me—as silent as he was when a man he once called a friend died. As silent as he was as he watched my friends be executed. Quick and efficiently, he peeled off his clothing and dropped down between my legs.
“Badr, please, don’t do this,” I rasped.
“Do not speak to him,” Cygnus ordered.
Badr didn’t even look me in the eye.
“Everything I told you was true,” I burst out. “You have to believe—”
“You will not be told again!”
“This isn’t you,” I cried. “You’re not like that monster in a suit. You believe in right and wrong. You—”
“Bring the boy,” Cygnus bellowed.
“No!” Ash and I screamed at once.
“Stop! I’ll do it, okay! I’ll do what you want, just leave them alone!”
Cygnus smiled at me—if such a vile contortion of his face could be called that. “Better. Continue, son.”
Badr jerked a firm nod in his direction. Placing his hands on either side of my head, he bent down, whispering in my ear, “This is for my brother.”
I bit hard on my lip, penning in a scream. I’m sorry, Castor. I’m sorry, Hope. I failed.
Badr clapped his hand over my eyes. “Alpha council of Wolf Nation, I challenge you to right of defeat.”
“Wha—”
“Now!”
Pure, bright beaming sunlight burst from his pores, bleeding through his fingers and dousing me in brilliant white light.
Screams and bellows went up all around me. I saw nothing, but heard everything.
“Orion, Edric, Nyx, get them!”
Chains rattled and hit the floor. In an instant, a blast of heat singed my skin. I felt it as keenly as the smooth, slithering somethings that wrapped around my body and tugged.
Vines.
I instinctively phased through the manacles, letting the vines lift me into the air and out of the melee. All I could do was gape down at the sight beneath me.
Edric wrapped a steel-plated Jabari in a vortex of wind, sucking the air from his lungs, and finishing the job Paxton started. Beside him, Orion stood over two smoldering, burnt-out corpses that I couldn’t begin to identify. He made short work of them, like he did the shrieking, burning secret police officers—in and out of the kitchen.
I heaved at the smell of charred skin in the air. Ripping away, I landed on Nyx. An eager writhing mass of vines wrapped around Denis’s and Hakim’s heads—squeezing, squeezing, squeezing—
Pop!
Their headless corpses flopped on the floor.
Elijah roared. Snatching up a sword, he ran at Badr—heaving the weapon high.
“Look out!” I shouted.
Nyx pounced. Shifting in a blink, he bounded behind the charging Elijah and snapped at the floor, raking up wood, boards, and Elijah’s still solid feet.
“Ahhh!” Elijah phased straight through the floorboards, disappearing into the cold and dark below—forever.
His weapon lay forgotten, marking his final resting place. Badr snatched it up... and turned on his father.
Cygnus stumbled blindly across the floor. “Stay back!” He blasted his sun power. “Don’t come fucking near me!” Claws ripping free, he wildly sliced the air—letting off his power like a lighthouse, sweeping it over all seeing and unseeing. “I am your leader. I am your king! Surrender and your death will be quick!”
Badr didn’t slow. “It’s over, Cygnus.”
“You stupid boy!” Spittle dotted the table, before he tripped over it. “I should’ve bitten your mewling head off in your crib! One look at you, and I knew you were worthless. Weak!” His frenzied swipes raked gashes across the table. “You have no idea what I tried to give you. Give all of Wolf Nation! You’ve destroyed our destiny for some delusional whore!”
Badr scoffed, narrowing in on his flailing prey like a hunter—a wolf. “This is the part where I give some long, whiny, tearful speech about how you abandoned me, treated me like second to worst, and tortured me with your cruelty.
“Right about now is when I say all the magic words that suddenly gets you to hear all that you’ve ignored, and you’ll go to your death finally carrying the guilt and shame you never felt in life,” he said, “or at least that’s the abused, neglected-kid fantasy you deluded yourself into thinking I’m living in.
“Here’s the thing, Cygnus: I’ve never given a flying fuck that you think I’m worthless or weak. You’re a pathetic, moral-less, sack of shit who ran away from your responsibilities with your tail between your legs. Why in the hell would I want your approval on the man I am? You’re not even a man yourself.”
“Argh!” Cygnus roared, charging claws-raised in the direction of his voice.
Badr snapped to the side and tripped him, sending him skidding across the floor on his face.
“I don’t have a father. I never did,” Badr said, his voice calm and placid like a still lake. “But I did have a brother, and I do have a daughter, and I will have a strong, beautiful, and terrifying mate who stands up for what’s right no matter what it costs her.”
If I wasn’t already speechless, I would’ve been then. Me? Badr was talking about me?
“But you know what?” His lips peeled back from his lengthening canines. Gold bleached his eyes. “I’m fucking tired of her losing who and what she loves, so how about for a change, the one who loses everything in this fight for destiny... is you.”
Cygnus was bellowing before Badr lifted his sword. Speed-healing returned his gift of sight, allowing him that one final chance to look in his son’s hate-filled eyes before the blade fell.
Badr sliced through his chest, piercing his heart in one blow. He walked away before the light disappeared from Cygnus’s eyes, leaving him to die the way he chose to live—cold and alone.
Badr stood on the spot where they held me, looking right into the cameras. “I, Edric Blaze, Nyx Drach, and Orion Hayes challenged the alpha council through right of defeat. Are there any here who dispute this victory or the result?”
Breath catching, I stared down at the scene from my viney trap. An alpha once challenged my father to a right of defeat contest—another way of saying a fight to the death. My father won but then he needed the alphas who witnessed the fight to support that it was a true victory deserving of a champion, and that he didn’t just get lucky. If they didn’t support him, he would’ve lost what he killed to defend—making the whole thing pointless.
I studied the only alphas left alive in the room. Rianna Ash—who very much didn’t approve of twentysomething-year-olds who hadn’t graduated from the academy, taking on leadership positions they didn’t earn.
Sol Drach—Nyx’s younger brother, and future clan leader, who seized on the first opportunity to destroy and publicly humiliate his brother.
Miriam Clarke—who was listening to them speak of victories while her only son lay dead in the shadow of a dented throne.
They’re going to say no. Of course they’re going to say no.
My wolf, newly awaken and revitalized, agreed.
I have to do something. Say something! This can’t have all been for nothing.
My lips parted. “Everyone, I—”
“I accept and support your victory,” Miriam rasped as she rose to her feet, and went straight to her son.
“I accept and support your victory, brother.” Sol dusted himself off, rolling his neck. “Although, I would’ve defeated them better, faster, and more efficiently. Still, it’s good to see you’re not such a pansy ass after all.”
Nyx’s growls lit the air, making Sol growl right back. Oh no, those two would never like each other.
“I...” Ash stepped out of the kitchen, holding her sons tight to her side. “I don’t believe you four are old enough or wise enough to take on a role so important as councilmen,” she said, surprising me not in the least. “But—”
But?
“But only an hour ago, I thought those seven were, so what the fuck do I know?” Ash kissed her sons on the foreheads, bringing them in close. “I thank you, boys, more than I can say. And I accept and support your victory.”
“There you have it,” Edric addressed the cameras. “We’re your alpha council now, so sit back, await our new and not-up-for-questioning laws, and for those of you still involved in Project Destiny... run.”
He swept a hand, blasting the cameras into the walls.
That done, Nyx lowered me down. I touched down on the floor and immediately ran to Paxton, throwing myself down on his chest. His mother knelt on his other side, holding his hand and crying.
“I don’t understand,” I forced out. “I don’t understand any of this!”
“We’re sorry, Daze,” Orion said, speaking to me with more compassion and kindness than he had in... ever. “This wasn’t supposed to happen! Cygnus was supposed to order me or Badr to go first, and then we’d launch the attack. He wasn’t supposed to call Paxton. Why did he do that?!”
“Plan? What plan?”
“I knew Cygnus would have hostages,” Badr said, looking back at Edric hugging and comforting his sister. “I told the guys to play the part of broken, cowed, prisoner so that we could get them out of this safely. I’m sorry, Daze”—true sorrow that he’d never feel for his father etched in his face—“that it didn’t work.”
My eyes filled thinking of Ava, Melisent, and Paxton all lost to Cygnus’s obsession and hatred.
“I can’t believe this,” I whispered, holding Paxton tighter. “I just got him back and now he’s gone. What am I supposed to do now? What—?”
Paxton bolted upright, gasping.
Orion and Badr jumped back. Miriam fell over partially shifting. Screaming, I swung—slapping him across the face.
“Ow! What was that for?”
“Oh my gods, I’m sorry.” I threw my hands around him, peppering every inch of his face with kisses. Hope bloomed in my chest, chasing away every trace of grief and sadness. “I’m so sorry. I thought you were dead.”
“I was dead,” he muttered, giving in to my kisses very quickly. “I met Luame. Mean wolf.” Paxton rubbed his backside. “She took a bite out of my ass and yelled at me, ordering me to get back to your side and help you at once.”
“So why didn’t you!” My smooches took the heat out of my snap. “You scared the life out of me. I thought I lost your forever.”
“You’re not getting rid of me that easily.”
Paxton stood up, putting us both on our feet, then reached down to help his mother.
I clung to him for dear life. I had no intention of letting him go again.
“It’s over, Daze.” He softly kissed my forehead as Orion, Badr, Nyx, and Edric fell in around us—all hugging me tight. “It’s finally over.”