Chapter 59
“Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness.” ― Bertrand Russell, The Conquest of Happiness
Aiden's POV
The front door splintered open as I kicked it in.
“ALISTAIIIRRR!!!” I screamed at the top of my lungs, beginning to divest myself of my jacket and shirt. “ALISTAIIIRRR!!!”
Dylan and Tony were waiting nearby and emerged from their hiding spots in the shadows of the vast back lawn. Alistair emerged from the gym he’d made in his own basement.
I glared down at him as he stood at the foot of the basement stairs.
Alister looked at me like he was seeing a ghost and then he turned his eyes and looked behind me to Lexia with disbelief.
Lexia had told me that she promised her dad to keep me away.
And if I'd managed to give her the slip, she would have called to inform him.
So I knew seeing me standing in front of him was like plunging the knife of betrayal through his evil heart.
“You helped this bastard come here… I can smell his scent on you,” Alister snapped.
“Betrayed by my own flesh and blood.” He didn’t wait for Lexia's reply. He turned into his wolf without a moment’s hesitation, bounding from the basement to the floor I was currently toppling expensive china and glass vases on.
Another lamp was thrown to the floor as I yelled Alistair’s name.
A glass bowl bought by Lexia’s mother shattered at my feet when I pushed the contents of the coffee table to the floor in my bid to make enough noise for the evil alpha to get riled up.
Alistair’s wolf jumped towards me. I pulled back in time, making a beeline for the back lawn where my beta and second alpha stood waiting as witnesses.
Then I broadcast the message to Alistair’s mind while speaking it out loud simultaneously.
“I challenge you, Alistair Evans, for the title of Alpha of the Bloodfire Phoenix Pack and the Silver Creek Pack!”
I was going all in. If I won, I’d take Alistair’s pack too.
Alistair howled in his wolf form in protest while I signalled Dylan and Tony to broadcast the message to both packs. They all shared the same mind-link now since they had the same alpha.
I turned with a snarl, black pants tearing away at the seams and floating to the ground like black feathers of a crow. It didn’t take long for high-ranking members of Alistair’s pack to arrive to witness the fight.
Fueled by a new determination and strength to get back to Rose, I circled Alistair viciously, canines dripping with saliva. Blood lust surged in my eyes along with a determination to claim my birthright and luna. Alistair could sense I had the advantage this time.
“I’ve tasted your luna,” Alistair taunted me through the mind-link.
I growled. He was doing the only thing he could think of to distract me. And it was working!
“She bears my mark now. Your mate bond has been broken. She’s MINE now!”
NEVER! I pounced, and both of us went tumbling in the dirt, each trying to gain the upper hand.
“I wonder if she’ll take a little boy after she’s had a MAN!” Alistair crowed gleefully into my brain.
The pain in my heart increased tenfold over what my mate must have endured at this beast’s hands.
My attention diverted, it was enough for Alistair to kick me off of him.
My wolf skidded on his side against the dirt before gaining purchase with his paws.
Lifting myself upright, I breathed and looked at Alister standing in front of me.
I had to strategize. I couldn’t make the same mistakes as before and risk losing again.
Alistair snarled some more, tongue darting out to lick the blood on his snout I had managed to scratch.
We circled each other again. This time, I waited for Alistair to make the first move.
Alistair lunged, and I feinted to the right before landing a blow on Alistair’s side.
My claws dug in deep, drawing five slashes which wept crimson tears.
The momentary pain was enough to blindside Alistair.
My jaw clamped over Alistair’s neck, biting down hard.
Alistair howled in pain as blood seeped down his thick fur coat.
I kept a firm hold, clawing away down Alistair’s front.
My wolf wanted to cut out the sinister alphas heart and eat it.
My canines sunk deeper. Alistair bucked and jerked, pawing me desperately as an immense amount of his blood pooled at our feet.
I kept going, sinking my canines even deeper, claws digging in more viciously with each thump against Alistair’s fur until Alistair’s struggles became mere twitches. And I still kept going.
“Please, Aiden,” Lexia finally spoke amongst the silent crowd. She looked horrified at the way I kept mauling the old alpha. “You told me you’d try to spare him.”
I jerked slightly, mouth still around Alistair’s neck. My eyes found Lexia.
“He’s my father,” Lexia pleaded. “I promise you…I swear to you by the Moon Goddess. We’ll leave and never come back.”
I finally relinquished Alistair’s neck. Then began to change into my human form, stopping mid-way.
There was a collective gasp as the crowd realized I was suspended mid-change, fur on my entire body but standing upright like a human.
If the Silver Creek Pack had doubted their new alpha’s strength, they didn’t anymore.
To achieve semi-stasis such as this was a practically unheard of feat.
I growled low, extending my paws which had long furry fingers resembling human hands.
My wolf-like claws glinted against the setting sun.
And with inhumane strength, I dug my claws viciously into Alistair’s mouth, my two claws going straight into the roof of Alistair’s mouth and wrenching out the root of his canines.
Removal of alpha canines was a completely barbaric and ancient form of punishment given to wayward alphas. I had discovered it among the old pack journals when I’d been helping Rose look for Dylan’s cure. I’d been horrified to read about the punishment. Now, I was grimly satisfied to have dealt it.
Lexia screamed; Alistair’s wolf blacked out from the pain. I threw the bloody canines into the grass in disgust before becoming completely human.
“He’ll live but he can never be an alpha again,” I gritted out. I turned to Dylan. “Get rid of those canines.” Then I looked at the Silver Creek Pack members. “Who’s next?”
I’d officially opened the floor for anyone else to challenge me.
But instead, they all kneeled, popping into their wolf counterparts to submit to the new alpha. I shifted, accepting their allegiance before bounding away.
“Where are you going?” It was Tony’s voice through the mind-link.
“Home. To Rose,” I responded.
“Aiden, wait–”
But I cut off the mindlink, not wanting to hear whatever Tony was going to say.
Rose would be at our home. I wanted to see her and tell her I defeated Alistair.
Dylan's POV
I guided the Silver Creek warriors to get a stretcher for Alistair and take him wherever Lexia wanted.
Then, I took a step towards Lexia, “You know I have to reject you.”
I ignored Tony’s exclamation of surprise.
“Then do it,” Lexia responded stiffly, turning to look at me instead of her father being loaded into an ambulance.
Tear marks streaked down her cheeks and I knew it was from having to witness such an atrocious form of punishment inflicted upon her father.
I felt a pang of sympathy and I also felt guilty for doing it now, when she clearly wanted to hurry up and take Alistair away.
But it had to be done. I had to be free of her.
“I, Dylan Sinclair, second Alpha of the Bloodfire Phoenix Pack and Silver Creek Pack, reject you, Lexia Evans, as my mate and luna.”
Lexia looked momentarily taken aback.
Then she whispered, “You’re an alpha?” Yeah, she hadn’t known that. She hadn't known I was co-ruling with Aiden. Then her voice came out, strong yet filled with remorse. “I, Lexia Evans, daughter of the defeated Alpha of the Silver Creek pack accept your rejection, Alpha Dylan Sinclair.”
It was done. Finally. Now all that was left to be done was for me to mark another or for Lexia to let someone else mark her.
Rejection was only half of breaking the mate bond.
To break it fully, a female either had to be marked by someone else or her mate had to mark someone else.
Bonding the soul, mind, and body with another person was the most effective way to cut off the mate bond.
Lexia came closer to me and whispered, “I never wanted to harm anyone. Please believe that. I don’t hate you Dylan, but the age difference is too much between us.”
I didn’t reply, merely waiting for her to leave.
“It would have never worked out,” she muttered.
She definitely didn’t need to convince me on that point.
Then she turned and left with her injured father, promising never to return again, and to let us all live in peace.
“You won’t have any more trouble from us,” Lexia promised before stepping into the ambulance.
The white doors closed behind her with a finality that made me breath a sigh of relief.
Tony stood completely flabbergasted.
“When were you going to tell us?” Tony demanded as he watched the retreating vehicle, red siren blaring.
“Never,” I responded stiffly, almost bitterly.
I turned my attention to the task at hand. I had to dispose of Alistair’s canines. They could be dangerous in the wrong hands. Alpha canines, only in born alphas, were extremely coveted. Any rogue could decide to implant them into his own upper jaw.
Aiden's POV
I stood distressed at the sight before me in the study.
The door was broken, there was dried blood on my wooden floor and carpet, and papers were strewn about everywhere.
It was Rose’s blood, that much I knew. That much I could still smell along with faint traces of vomit. What the hell had happened here?
“She’s OK,” a new voice spoke up. It was Tony. “She’s…she’s in the hospital. Sleeping.”
I had to get to her. I turned to exit but Tony placed a hand on my shoulder to stop me.
“Listen, she isn’t awake yet. Go…get yourself cleaned up and then we’ll go see her,” Tony directed gently. “She woke up yesterday for a few hours. They had to…to sedate her. She had a panic attack.”
“What did he do to her?” I asked brokenly, tears falling down my eyes.
Alistair had taunted me mercilessly and a hundred different scenarios of Rose being brutally raped and tortured filled my mind, sending me into a downward spiral. I had failed her!
“Get a grip, Aiden. Rose is strong. She survived!” Tony gripped my shoulders and gave me a shake.
“I talked with Danvers and he told me that Alister bit her, very inhumanely. Her neck was a mess. But she’s healing now.
Rose ended up blacking out after that.” Tony gave a desolate sigh.
"I kept telling her that someone needed to stay in this house with her, but she wouldn't even let Lorraine come over anymore.
She didn't want anyone crossing Alistair's path. "
“I need to go to her,” I said in a suffocated voice.
I had to see her, to touch her, to feel her, to make sure she was OK!
“She’s asleep. Dr. Danvers said she’ll wake in another hour. Go clean up! You smell like blood and look like you walked out of a murder scene. Rose will be more distressed if she sees you like this,” Tony urged.
Resentfully, I listened to Tony. I took the fastest shower I’d ever taken in my entire life and bounded out of my house, not even waiting for Tony who had taken charge of repairing the mess in the study.
By the time I parked outside of the pack clinic, I couldn't care less about turning the car off. Leaving it running, I jumped out and rushed into the room where I thought Dr. Danvers must be keeping Rose in.
So before the elderly doctor could even begin to brief me on Rose’s condition,I was pushing through the door to see Rose sitting up in bed, pale and frail. She was awake. I looked at her relieved. She was awake and seemed fine.
“I don’t know whether to kiss you or yell at you for not leaving the minute things got bad,” I said the words achingly as I strode over to her.
“Alpha Aiden?” Rose looked up at me warily.
“What are you doing here?” She asked slowly and without even giving her any answer, I enveloped my arms around her and buried my face into her neck. Her body was rigid in my arms.
Displeasure gripped me when I noticed Alistair’s faint smell on her along with the mark but that didn’t matter for now.
She was safe, she was awake. She was alive!
And behind the scent of Alistair, I could pick up Rose’s familiar floral tones.
I breathed in deeply, trying to smell as much of her as possible.
It took a minute for me to realize she wasn’t hugging me back.
She wasn’t melting into me; she wasn’t warm and willing.
I pulled back to look at her searchingly.
“Rose?” I asked curiously. Her eyes were guarded, she looked skittish, leaning away from me. “Are you angry at me?”
“Why would I be angry at you, Alpha Aiden?” Rose asked me after swallowing.
My eyes narrowed as I noticed her scoot away from me slightly. Why was she calling me by my title?
“Babe—” I brought a hand up to cup her cheek.
Rose jerked away from my touch, alarm evident in her eyes. She looked wildly about the room.
“When did you get back? Why are you here?” Rose finally asked.
“Because-because…” I spluttered. Why was she asking me this? I took a deep breath realizing she must be a bit disoriented. “Why wouldn’t I be here, Rose? You’re in the hospital. Of course, I’d be here,” I reasoned with her gently.
“But you hate me!” Rose exclaimed, a hand going up to rub her neck unconsciously.
My eyes were fixed on her and I noticed how she winced as she felt the still swollen mark on her neck.
The minute her fingers touched that mark, an expression of confusion and surprise appeared on her face,as if this mark was a new part of her anatomy and she didn’t recognize it at all.
Hot anger boiled in my stomach as I saw the bite more clearly, saw the way Alistair had brutally bitten her to mark her.
He was a monster. I regretted not killing him.
“Was I injured recently?” she asked vacantly, her fingers skimming over Alistair’s bite again.
My eyebrows furrowed. “Rose. What’s the last thing you remember?”
Rose blinked up at me, hand falling away from her neck.
“The last thing...well...I'm supposed to be starting spring semester in college.
I recently got accepted into a medical internship with Dr. Danvers.
Jake asked me to have dinner with him at the diner this weekend.
" Rose cocked her head to the side and looked at me curiously.
"Aren't you supposed to be on a study abroad program with Lexia? Did you come back early?"