48 Alec
Alec
Fire raged across the mountainside, charring trees and sagebrush as embers rained like hellfire through black, ashy smoke. My wolf’s legs and lungs burned with the effort it took to outrun the flames of the gods’ destruction.
They were going to destroy us all.
My beast was the only one fast enough to get through this hell on earth as the flames tore through the open landscape between Fenrir and Cerberus Territories, eating everything in their path.
I needed to make it to the western seaboard and contact Alpha Aiden before the gods succeeded in isolating all our packs from each other for whatever plans they had in store.
Anger and white-hot rage pulsed through me as my wolf ran with all her might, trying to keep us alive.
I hated the gods for this.
A branch snapped overhead, cracking into a burst of embers and shattering as it hit the ground. My wolf dove to the left at the last minute, narrowly missing the crash.
She panted and shuddered, trying to draw at least one untainted breath of air into her lungs, but she didn’t slow down.
The heat closed in on either side, singeing fur as the world continued to burn… and burn… and burn.
It’d be so easy to succumb to the flames. To stop fighting and let the fire consume us too.
But we couldn’t give up.
Not yet. Not today. Not after all we’d learned.
Kill him. My wolf ran faster.
I agreed. It’s the only way.
It seemed like a lifetime before my beast finally escaped the worst of the inferno that destroyed everything in its wake as she broke through the wildfire line down the next mountain ridge.
Dark black clouds filled the sky behind us, raining ash like snow. She took her first breath of fresh air in what felt like days and used it to run faster.
We had to get to Fenrir. Alpha Kera needed us. My sisters—my family…
I had to find a way to stop this.
Kill… Kill… Kill… My wolf frothed at the mouth as she ran.
The smoke in the sky turned the sun setting in the west blood red. That was the beacon we raced toward.
Her steps slowed from exhaustion and I shoved all I was into the beast, giving her my strength.
Once, death’s call had been like a lover. An old friend I’d flirt with. But now, I had to live.
My wolf knew it too.
She ran like the world was on fire.
*
“Alec! Gods, what is she doing here?”
I collapsed on my cousins’ front porch of the beachside mansion in Fenrir Territory, naked and coughing up smoke as my wolf retreated to lick her wounds.
Aiden barked out frantic questions. “Did you run here? Through the wildfire? How? Why? Someone get a healer!”
His words were underwater and my throat burned as I wheezed, trying to get out the words as my cousin lifted me off the porch.
“Don’t talk,” he told me. “Just rest.”
Blackness edged at my vision, calling me like it always did. But I couldn’t go under. Not yet. Not when I knew what death held for me.
I’d seen a snippet of my fate. His glowing eyes. The beastly dark whispers that spoke to the night, caressing as they called me toward him. Cerberus of the underworld waited and watched.
I had no other choice.
“We need…” I wheezed, clinging to Aiden’s shirt and making sure he heard me.
“What?” His face was full of concern as he searched mine. “What is it? What do you need?”
“An army…” I choked out. “We need to raise an army.”
One strong enough to take on the gods after I killed the right hand of Hades, Cerberus of the underworld, my fated mate.
*