Chapter 18 #2
My father offered him a dry look. “I’m more than capable of controlling myself. After all, we aren’t animals—right, son?”
But he was. He was a fucking monster.
“I may need a minute.” Effie’s voice was a whisper in the wind, as I nodded sharply and did exactly what I knew I had to. I shifted before he could.
For the longest time I would have explained my experience shifting as a blur of emotions and violence, the mere action of shifting causing absolute chaos as my bones and muscles ripped themselves, rearranging my body into a hideous monster that Effie somehow loved.
Yet this time, as a howl broke from my throat, a savage primal noise of war—I felt more in control.
As if my bond with Effie had anchored some part of my magic. As I grew in height and size, my jaws snapping loudly, I looked towards Hastain and my father. Both stared at me with caution—good.
“How the fuck can he control it?” Hastain bit out.
Ryder chuckled at that as I crouched down and began to move towards them, Hastain raising the gun as my father narrowed his eyes on my form with disgust.
“Because he has a lykos mate.” But Effie was so much more than that.
Hastain’s first shot went straight through my chest—ineffective because it wasn’t silver—and the entire scene devolved into chaos.
I couldn’t explain what happened next because the savage animal inside of me was incensed that he’d not only shot us, but that the bullet could have hit our mate.
I barreled towards Hastain and was only stopped when my father shifted and hit into me hard enough that the world shook around us.
I moved quickly to get out his grasp and threw him against the wall of trees nearly thirty feet back, the sound of their trunks cracking extremely satisfying.
Hastain let out a bellow as three more shots rang out.
I couldn’t look to see who, if anyone, had been hit before my father appeared out of nowhere, his claws wrapping around my throat as he threw me against the ground, creating a crater.
I dug my claws into his chest as deep as possible, so that he let out a howl of pain that had me smiling even in this fucking form.
I wasn’t sure that was even possible, but I managed.
How often had he caused me so much pain? So much more than this?
“Watch out—fuck!” Tore’s voice was filled with pain as two more shots rang out. I looked to the side, seeing that others had joined us. My father’s men, and lots of them—nearly twenty—all had guns trained on us.
When Effie let out a whimper of fear though, everything else stopped mattering. I turned my head to see Ryder shifted and standing defensively in front of her as three men approached from the wall of trees. That was when I snapped.
Blood. Chaos. Absolute carnage. I no longer thought; I just killed ruthlessly. I was allowing Effie to see more of the monster I was, but I wouldn’t put my pack, my mate, and everything we’d worked for at risk because of my father.
“Caedmon!” Effie’s high-pitched scream of my name broke through the mindless bloodlust, and when I looked up to see who I needed to kill next for making her so scared, I noticed the piles of bodies around me.
The others were surrounding Hastain, who was pinned against a tree with a broken arm.
My father was on the ground, shifted back into his human form, his face bloody and Dakota’s teeth at his neck.
“We need to open the gate,” Effie said gently. “You killed them—you did it. We’re safe.”
I didn’t see or feel judgment, just concern…for me.
“You killed them,” my father mocked. “A fucking monster just like I—”
A bloody gurgle interrupted his speech as Dakota bit down on his throat and tore—hard.
Shock at the fact that my father was bleeding out had me shifting back to human form so quickly that it was unsteady and clumsy, causing me to fall.
I groaned as I hit the ground, staring at my father as his head fell to the side, blood saturating the ground as his eyes flickered with light before just… extinguishing.
Dead.
The bastard was dead.
“Holy crap.” Effie’s voice was stunned. I swallowed, trying to process the reality.
Dakota shifted, offering the man a sneer and spitting on him before offering me a hand to stand. He clapped my shoulder and walked towards Effie as if it was fucking nothing. I looked back at the bastard that had tormented me for years and couldn’t help but smile in fucking relief.
Gone. Fucking gone forever.
“Do not open that gate!” Hastain snarled, looking far less intimidating than before, broken and leaning against the tree, the gun that had been his only defense lying feet away from him, out of reach.
“Open it,” I told Effie evenly. “Let’s let the gods deal with him.”
“Fuck, ” Hastain snarled, trying to get up but unable to. Grabbing a gun from one of the slaughtered bodies, I pointed it towards the bastard and shot him right in the leg. His howl of pain caused Julian to chuckle as I offered a sharp nod and turned towards Effie.
“Let’s bring him with us,” Tore said, as Julian and Tore dragged him forward, the three of us joining Dakota, Ryder, and Effie. Hastain’s cries and begging were muted to me as I examined the stone arch, feeling an odd sense of calm considering what had just happened—what I’d just done.
When I reached Effie, she squeezed my hand, not bothered by the blood it was covered in.
Then she returned to examining the arch, which she’d cleared of vines on the right side during the fight, revealing carvings.
She’d also shifted some of the stones, revealing key-shaped holes—all of them different.
“I think this is the right one,” she said, opening her pendant and taking the key out. That was when Hastain really started on his shit.
“Please, Effie—I can give you anything. Fucking anything—”
“I want nothing from you.” Her eyes cooled to ice blue before looking at all of us as she whispered, “Let’s do this.”
She paused and inhaled, her face warming slightly. “I love you. I love all of you.”
Her ending words were soft and sweet—what happened next, though, was anything but.