Chapter 39
ITS CRIMSON IS A WARNING
LUKE
“WE’RE NOT WAITING.”
I prowl in front of the line of wolves, shouting at my Beta for being a goddamn wanker. Cole’s usually much more decisive and he’s invariably the one charging in. Instead, he’s urging restraint and that’s fine for him but it’s costing Nia.
She’s the one trapped in Bastan’s dungeon. She’s the one who’s having fuck knows what done to her. And she’s the only one who damn well counts and Cole’s about to feel the full extent of my wrath.
“You’d know if she wasn’t okay.”
I grind my teeth and turn, my eyes alight with rage as Cole tries to calm me down.
There’s no placating me, not after this.
I’ll have my revenge on every cunt who dared to breathe the same air as Bastan and then I’ll start on him.
And then, once I’m finished, I’ll be making sure Nia gets every single ounce of pain he ever caused her back. With interest. Compound interest.
The shit is about to hit the fan and things are going to get really bloody.
“We agreed we’d wait for sunrise,” Cole grits, his head turning as if that might magically make the sun show its fucking face.
“We don’t need it,” I snarl. “The night gives us enough cover.”
“We can do this without the shadows of the dawn, Luke. We’re strong enough to kill Nia’s father and anyone who stands in our way,” Lawson growls, losing his patience.
Especially when we have Carl’s plans outlining all of Bastan’s territory.
It pains me to acknowledge they’re more detailed than anything I’d obtained on my own and the extra information will prove more than crucial.
Bastan’s hired mercenaries and that’s dangerous, for everyone involved, and it means he’s desperate to win this.
He can’t have the numbers he needs and he’s had to outsource, at a price—one he’ll be forced to pay later if he makes it through this.
And I’ve got fuck all intention of letting him survive.
“We need to move, Cole.”
“We need to wait a little longer, Luke.”
My eyes narrow as they stare at the open ground between us and the mansion Bastan calls home.
It’s flashy, an English country house that screams refined taste and proper manners.
The bricks and mortar stand as a tribute to the gentleman who lived here before, but the only thing polished about the turd who lives here is the lies he tells.
It's astounding how good Bastan is at conning everyone, and the Alpha I’m about to face is nowhere as strong as he makes out.
He’s run his pack into the ground, letting stronger wolves die to secure his position.
He’s also been forcing females to marry men who aren’t their mates and I’m betting that he’s ruling through fear and intimidation.
Or zealotry.
Half his pack will be too terrified to stand up to him and the other half will worship him like some sort of god. Bastan attracts and raises a certain kind of male wolf and they need to be put down like the rabid dogs they are to spare everyone else the misery of their existence.
“Can you reach her?” Cole asks.
I shake my head. I’ve tried. Repeatedly.
Lawson’s tried too, calling over and over to Lyall as he does everything he can to summon his mate. My wolf is agitated, beyond livid that she’s in danger, and it’s taking every ounce of my control to keep him in check.
I don’t have much more to give.
Neither does Lawson. “We need to go, Luke. Let me loose. Let me get her. She needs us. Now, not in an hour or two.”
“You’d have felt her die.”
I growl and Cole looks sheepish. His attempt to soothe me isn’t helping and I don’t need the reminder that Nia might be in a shit load of trouble.
Death isn’t necessarily the worst thing that could happen to the girl who’s become the reason I live, and I refuse to accept a reality where any one of those despicable things happens to Nia.
“She’s strong, Luke. Lyall’s strong too. She’ll make it through this.”
“THEN WHY CAN’T I REACH HER?”
I snarl and my best friend takes a step away from me. He digs his heel into the ground, making a small hole in the soft, wet earth as he searches for the words to tell me what I already know.
“She’s being poisoned.”
I bare my teeth and Cole crosses his arms.
“Bastan hasn’t killed Nia or Lyall, but if I were him…
” he says, swallowing as he looks up and fails to find escape, “I’d use fellshade on Nia.
It’ll weaken Lyall and make it easier to control Nia, and they’d struggle to shift.
The poison makes it harder to link with you or her pack, and it’ll isolate Nia until this is over. ”
My hands curl into fists as every muscle tenses, fucking fuming that Bastan’s choosing a coward’s path.
Poison is for those too weak or pathetic to face the threat or meet the challenge, and the cunt knows it.
He knows I’d tear through him and any of his pack who stood in my way to get to the girl he’s torturing, and he knows I’ll take any risk to keep her safe.
The asshole knows I’m stronger than him in every way that matters, and he’s playing dirty, using every trick he can to tip the scales.
He’s using Nia, and that’s unforgivable.
Cole watches me carefully, his eyes flicking from my hands to my face, certain I’m about to lose it any second.
He’s right to worry—I’m barely keeping myself from ripping through anything that stands between me and Nia.
My skin’s already shifting and the heat of my wolf is bubbling just below the surface.
Lawson’s more enraged than I am and we all know that it would be safer to be in hell than around him once he’s unleashed.
“I know what you’re thinking, Luke,” Cole says, his voice low and steady, trying to keep me grounded. “But we need to stick to the plan. Charging in there…”
“Screw the plan.” The words are a snarl more wolf than man and I can’t stop the growl that rips from my throat.
“Nia doesn’t have time. If Bastan’s resorting to fellshade then she’s already in pain.
She’s on her own and he won’t stop there, Cole.
She’s running out of time. Time we’re wasting waiting for that cunt to turn up. ”
“About fucking time,” Lawson growls.
Cole steps back, his expression tightening and his eyes darkening as he holds my stare. “Going in alone won’t help her, Luke. It’ll get you killed.”
“I don’t care.”
My voice is a snarl, low and vicious, and Lawson pushes against my skin and the boundary between us holding him back, begging to be let loose.
He’s clawing at me from the inside, howling in fury at the thought of Nia and Lyall alone and suffering, held captive by that bastard.
My body trembles with the force of it, sheer rage coursing through me.
“I’ll tear through every guard and every goddamn wolf that gets in my way. I’ll rip his fucking throat out before I’m done, Cole. Now get the fuck out of my way.”
Cole swallows hard, but his jaw is set. “He wants you to rush in, Luke. He wants you hot and reckless and blinded by your rage. Nia doesn’t want you risking…”
Her name breaks the last strand of my resolve and any control I had disintegrates. Something snaps and I burn hotter than an inferno in hell and all I see is red. Mist envelopes me and its crimson is a warning to anyone who dares to even think about challenging me.
Lawson surges forward and there’s no holding him back.
I don’t even try, fading away as my bones snap and twist, reshaping as fur erupts across my skin.
A snarl tears through my throat and echoes through the night as I leap forward, landing on all four paws as I charge toward the house Nia grew up in.
Cole’s voice fades behind me, lost beneath the roar of the blood in my ears.
The pack calls and rallies, charging behind me as my Beta orders them to follow and I follow a different calling.
My world narrows as I ignore the needs of the wolves behind me, letting every scent and sound sharpen as they come at me.
I’m clearer than I’ve ever been, lost in a night humming with danger and the smell of fear, of trepidation, and of finality.
It's not mine.
It’s theirs.
Lawson launches forward, muscles coiling and firing like cylinders beneath him as he races across the open ground.
We’ve broken cover and the shadows of the forest no longer cover us and we sprint harder, teeth bare as we barrel over Bastan’s estate.
His paws pound the earth, leaving deep impressions in the soil as we make our mark and my thoughts merge with my wolf’s, our fury and minds as one, focused on the kill, on the blood, on the glory of the carnage we’re unleashing.
A shadow cuts across the garden wall and the guard doesn’t see me coming.
He’s barely turned when I’m on him, jaws snapping through flesh and bone.
His scream is cut off in a gurgle, his blood hot on my tongue and I don’t pause.
I don’t even slow down. He’s dead already and I move on to the next guard, a wolf trying to raise a weapon like a coward.
He’s fast but Lawson’s faster and his claws take him down in a single swipe, the satisfying crunch of bones breaking beneath his strength signaling the clinical efficiency of my wolf.
They never stood a chance. They never could.
Nor do the rest.
One by one more wolves rush at me and I move like a lightning bolt through the night’s storm, a beast unleashed.
They try to fight—to stop me—but Lawson and I are a force of nature, driven by the rage burning inside us.
Unstoppable and driven by the need to get to Nia. Only Nia and Lyall. Only our mate.
Blood splatters across the cold stone and grey gravel of the courtyard, painting the night in red. It’s deeper than blood, and my thirst isn’t sated and I push harder, slashing and tearing as I shred through anyone who dares to cross me.
“The door, Lawson.”
My wolf snarls, shaking his head as the arm he’s chewing on sprays blood.
His eyes narrow and his ears pin back as he drops the trophy and bounds over flower beds and burst through the heavy wooden doors as if they’re nothing.
Wood shatters and he slides over the polished marble floor, crashing into the disgustingly proper entrance hall and sending glass and ceramic ornaments flying.
The wolves inside scramble back as the decorations and peace shatter, fear flashing in their eyes, but there’s nowhere for them to run. Lawson’s claws rip through flesh, his jaws close around throats, and the air fills with the scent of copper and the metallic tang of blood.
Lawson’s feet slip for a second time, this time in the sticky and slippery pool of blood spreading over the marble. Its burgundy contrasts with the pure white stone, and there’s nothing innocent or good in the bodies or souls being slaughtered here.
My wolf prowls through the rooms, stalking like a killer hunting their prey.
Lawson doesn’t hold back, and blood sprays everywhere.
Men scream as limbs are torn from bodies and a massacre ensues.
The wails and cries crescendo and Lawson losing himself in the glorious chaos of the fight, searching for the peace that follows victory.
And there’s none to be had.
My pack piles in behind me, eviscerating anything that dares to cling to life and I snarl, more vicious and still unsatisfied.
Lawson’s caught Nia’s scent but she isn’t here, and the blood dripping from his teeth and matting his fur is no comfort.
The sting of air biting a small wound is a sharp contrast to the heat of the fight and yet it’s not unpleasant.
It's a call to action, a command to focus. The pain grounds me in my purpose and I need to be ruthless. There’s no room for hesitation. No excuse for mercy. There’s only one thing that will bring this night to an end, and she makes my sun rise and set.
Nia.
I need to find Nia.
Lawson steps through the shattered remains of the front doors and into the frigid night air.
His breath plumes before us, mingling with the steam rising from the blood-soaked ground as it reaches for the moon and stars that gaze down on us.
The heavens watch and refuse to weep over the deaths here and yet they offer me no help, neither sign nor guidance.
And then I see him.
The shadow of an outline of a silhouette against the moonlit sky, standing in the distance.
Bastan steps forward and his figure sharpens, his smile taunting as it curls his lips and the cunt’s got the sheer fucking audacity to think he has the upper hand. It’s as if he thinks I won’t rip him apart, as if he thinks I’m incapable.
A snarl tears through Lawson’s throat and the pack still, their anger as fierce as mine. My wolf breaks into a sprint, charging toward the Alpha who isn’t even a man, let alone a leader.
“Luke, wait!” Cole’s wolf calls out, desperate, somewhere behind me.
But I don’t stop.
I’ll never stop.
Not when Nia’s in danger. Not when getting her back is the only thing that matters. Not when she needs me and failure isn’t an option.
Bastan’s smile wavers as I close the distance between us, his confidence slipping as he realizes he’s bitten off more than he can chew. And like the complete and utter fucking coward that he is, he turns and flees, diving into the cover of the trees in the forlorn hope he’ll escape my wrath.