Chapter 33
I'm not giving up
Mordecai
Present time
Taryn weighs barely anything, and as I jog away from Keres, it feels like I’ve ripped out a chunk of my soul and shredded it. I look down at this omega who is costing me everything, trying not to hate her, only to discover that she’s not doing good at all.
Taryn isn’t going to make it. Just like the woman from my dream said. I don’t even need to check. I’ve seen this before. Her breathing is a rasp of sound, and her cheeks have turned bone white, but her lips have a black tinge around them.
“What’s wrong with her?” Cadel snaps as he keeps up. His eyes are wild, shining with rage and a fierceness that I need to be wary of. “And where is Kaida?”
“She’s at the temple,” I lie. It’s amazing how easily it comes out when it shreds me inside. “Waiting for us.”
He never looked back. He was so close, but he never looked at Kaida. She was right there. I want to hate him for it, but all my hate is caught up in hating me.
“Poison, I suspect.” My grim words hit the air like fate, and I look back down at Taryn, bitterly regretting everything, and especially that I’m here with her and not with Kaida.
I pause and turn left, darting into the shadows and pressing myself up against a wall as the footsteps of the Beta’s Path jog past. There are so many of them. They will find her soon.
No, I have time.
“Come on,” I hiss, infuriated with Cadel.
“Where are we going?”
“There’s a temple up here. We need to get her inside. There might be a cure.”
Taryn looks up, her eyes dulled with pain and weakness. She knows I’m lying, but then the prophet has been haunting her dreams for a long time, too. Manipulating us like we’re all puppets. Is it any wonder we all hate her?
Why did I do it, then?
I don’t want to answer that question, even to myself. She offered a future I couldn’t ignore, and fear made me choose the one that I hope will be the path that saves her. I can barely look at Taryn. She’s not disposable. She shouldn’t be. But tonight, I exchange her life for Keres.
At the end of the street, I pause, and when I peek around a corner, I see three black-robed pledges. One laughs and shoves the other. Such normal behaviour. They’re probably kids. Young and full of future promise, instead they are in here staining their souls in ways they can’t even comprehend.
They come this way, and I slowly slide backwards into a doorway, disappearing soundlessly into the shadows. They pass by with no idea of how easily they could die.
The fading light of day is almost gone. I pick up Taryn and run flat out. My heart thunders.
“She must be in the temple before the last of the day’s light disappears or everything is lost.” The prophet’s words slam into my head, booming.
I slam my shoulder into the door, but it’s locked. Taryn groans in pain. I shove at the door, cursing in hisses from between my clenched teeth.
“Please, open. Please,” I sob out.
Cadel slams into the door, and it crashes open. We get inside, and he closes the doors, but I’m running towards the altar. It’s a rectangle bench in the middle of the temple with three bowls. I use one arm to sweep the bowls off and lay her on the mosaic of gods.
She arches her back, letting out a pained moan that screams that the end is close.
“Wolf,” she whispers.
I frown, reaching out, but stop when Cadel creeps into the light, his face harshly outlined by shadows. He looks different; his skin is paler, and it’s tinged blue, like ice.
“Wolf of winter. Winter’s wolf. Chaos season. Bringer of Anarchy,” Taryn hisses.
He shudders and leans over her, his hands clenching the bench and squeezing.
I open my mouth to interrupt when he speaks in a voice I don’t recognise.
“What are you doing here, Omega Night?”
She lets a weak smile slide across her dry and cracked lips, ignoring the way they tear open.
“I’m here to help. We all are.”
He cocks his head to the side. “I thought—”
“That we all fell? No, you need to remember now.”
He frowns and turns, but she reaches out and grabs his wrist, holding him tight. Her fingernails break his skin, but he doesn’t react.
“Anarchy Wolf, Alpha of Winter, High Alpha, you lived in chains, and she set you free. Now you need to save her like you promised.”
Save her? Who? My heart races. Does she mean Kaida?
I back away from them, looking out onto the street. As I watch, the darkness becomes complete, and the light from the day vanishes.
Taryn arches up and lets out a shrill scream. She pants, refusing to let go. “I loved them. I loved them so much. I didn’t know I could. Watch over my…”
She falls back, her eyes open and staring at nothing, and then she fades. Her body literally fades away, right before my eyes. What the fuck? Cadel jerks and flies back into the wall. He struggles, pinned by some imaginary force; his snarls are ferocious, but he can’t get free.
I take a step towards him, but he lets out a savage growl and collapses on the ground.
No! No! This was not supposed to happen. I dive towards him, rolling him over. He’s breathing, but on his forehead, he’s got a capital A, which is glowing a deep crimson red, and there are whorls of colour pulsing in his skin.
“Wake up!”
I shake him, but he doesn’t respond.
“She’s going to die! Fucking help me, she promised you would help me! Get up Cadel! Keres is caught in a trap, and I had to get you both here or she’d die tonight. So, get up and help me!” I roar into his face.
He doesn’t move.
I shove at him once more, then explode towards the door. I pull it shut behind me and run back the way I came, uncaring of who might see me.
I see Bear running down the street to my left, but I ignore him, not even bothering to call out. I have to get to her.
She screams.
The Ravage Wolf roars.
And something much louder howls into the night from behind me. I stand there, surrounded on all sides.
“Stuff it.”
I slip through the buildings, and when I get to a window, I jump through it. I see the body on the ground, and my heart stutters and stalls.
No.
I run faster and see the red, red hair. A different part of me aches.
This alpha is as much a part of me as she is, and I didn’t know it.
I slam to my knees, ignoring the pain, and roll him onto his back.
I lean down and rip off part of his top and press it against the wound, then I lean down and cover his lips with mine and breathe into him.
Don’t go. I don’t know you yet, but it feels like I’ve just lost my best friend. Please don’t go.
I press my hand to his chest and compress, over and over.
“Live, Jarek, please.”
I’m crying and only partly because I know if something happens to him, she’s never going to forgive me.
The rest of me is mourning this alpha I don’t know.
But I can remember him lying in my lap, laughing as he brushes back my hair, leaning on me with his elbow on my shoulder.
Swinging her around. Kissing her. Kissing me.
Why do I have these memories that aren’t mine?
“Breathe, damn you!” I shout.
I hear a sound and turn, finding the three black-robed pledges approaching with their swords out.
“Get lost!” I roar.
They skitter back a few steps, but their fear doesn’t hold them too long; instead, they come closer to me, laughing and whispering to each other.
I lean down and breathe into his mouth again, furiously watching them get closer and closer.
“I mean, he would be good to take back.”
“He’d be terrible to take back, but we can kill him here,” His friend says.
I resume chest compressions and prepare myself to get up and fight them, but if I do that, Jarek probably will die for good. I don’t know how long he’s been gone, but he’s cold and getting colder.
I’m not giving up.
It wasn’t supposed to be like this. We were supposed to be together.
She promised.
I did as she said; I chose duty. That should have been right. Was I too late? Did I fail?
The pledges get closer, and one pulls out a long sword and lifts it up.
“Time to die, Alpha scum.”
I snarl, but my snarl is echoed by one much bigger and louder than mine.
A black wolf slams into the pledge holding the knife.
His fur is so black he’s just an inky stain, but when a bit of light hits him, I see he’s tipped with crimson, like he’s been soaked in blood.
He’s massive, and when he bites the pledge, he crushes his ribcage.
The other two run, but he chases them down, throwing one with bone-breaking force into the side of a building. The other he simply stands on until his head crushes like an overripe tomato.
I keep moving, watching him and waiting to see if he’s going to come over and kill me.
He walks towards me, his eyes are a deep crimson red, and as he gets closer, he shimmers, and standing before me is Cadel.
“What happened?”
“I had to get you there. I had to. She said Keres would die tonight if I failed to get you and Taryn there. I came back, but they’ve taken her, and Jarek...” I cut off, choking on the pain and guilt.
Cadel looks down and sees Jarek. I don’t know what he’s thinking.
I stare up at him while I keep Jarek’s heart pumping, wondering what he is and what he’s planning on doing.
And time ticks by.