Chapter 37
Fate works in mysterious and cruel ways
My roar is followed by the enraged and much more violent roar of something much bigger and more dangerous. Whatever it is hits the metal doors hard enough that they dent. I whip my head in that direction, staring with wide eyes.
Is it the Ravage Wolf?
“What is that?” the Beta’s Fang snaps.
Again and again until the metal buckles and huge black paws grab the edge and tear right through the metal like it’s paper. It’s not the Ravage wolf.
As soon as the betas see that, they panic, screaming.
They run in their robes, hoisted up to their waists, revealing skinny legs.
Their fear soaks the air, stinging my sensitive nose.
The barons and marquess try to maintain control, but, with another roar from the wolf, their fear takes over, sending the betas running.
I turn and smile up at the Beta’s Fang and his stunned and furious expression. “You'd better run now.”
He blinks and looks down at me, and I can see that he’s torn.
He wants to take me and knows he doesn’t have time.
Will he kill me now and rid himself of his fun?
I can almost see him debating that decision, greed and overconfidence wins out, and he takes a step back, his body poised to flee. “I will find you. This isn’t the end.”
I let out a wet chuckle. “Next time I see you, you’re going to die,” I promise.
I track his path, making sure he disappears before I notice something that stuns me into an uneasy silence. The Warden has been left behind. His eyes are in shadow, but I can see him watching what’s coming. They will kill him; the alphas and omegas will rip him to shreds with no mercy.
I should be happy. I should want that desperately.
I don’t.
The Resistance pours into the building, led by the massive and imposing form of the Anarchy wolf. His ears are pinned to the back of his head, and he launches at a pledge with a sword and bites the arm off, spraying the ground with a crimson arc as if to announce his arrival.
Mordecai dances in, moving so fast he’s almost a blur. He’s got long knives in each hand and is spinning and stabbing the pledges who have been forced to stay behind and fight. He is merciless; his hair flows out behind him, and all around him the blood of our enemies floats in the air.
Their eyes burn bright with terror, but they are no match for his violent skill. More people spill in, but I don’t pay attention to them, not until I catch a flash of red.
I turn my head and see him dancing with almost as much grace as Mordecai. He’s smiling, his hair whipping out behind him.
Impossible.
My chest aches, but I can’t look away.
“Jarek,” I whisper his name.
He looks up, meeting my gaze like he’s heard me across the distance.
He’s alive. It’s him. How?
I blink rapidly, and the tears blurring my vision disappear. He’s gone as if he was never there. I twist and turn my head, straining to see him.
“Boo.”
I startle and stare straight up. He’s standing behind my head, staring down at me. He ducks down and presses a hard kiss to my open mouth. His scent burns into my soul. It is him. I kiss him back until he pulls away.
“Omega,” he purrs, and then his eyes drift down my body, and I can see him take in my wounds one after the other. The air chills and turns deadly as the menace of an enraged alpha fills the air.
“Keys!” he demands.
Mordecai lets out a roar, and I see him swing with his weapons; they go straight through the throats of the black-robed betas in front of him.
“Get him the keys!” Mordecai snarls.
Alphas rush to do his bidding, searching dead bodies and slaughtering betas until one shouts he has them. He races towards Mordecai, but the huge alpha points a sword at Jarek, and the alpha veers off, bringing them straight to him.
The alpha stares at me, his mouth twisting in sympathy and horror. Jarek snarls in a deep and violent way, and the alpha averts his eyes.
“Sorry, Alpha,” he murmurs.
The Anarchy Wolf slams into the cage of prisoners, dismantling the doors. Omegas and alphas flee in a wave, flooding out and to freedom.
A handful stop, staring at me, their hands pressed to their chests, finger and thumb in the shape of an O.
“Keres saved us. The snow omega has saved us again.”
I want to argue with them not to call me that. To stop it because he uses it, but they are gone too fast, and I don’t have the energy to argue.
Jarek unlocks the shackles and pulls me up, growling when my wounds start bleeding. He fusses with them, but over his shoulder, I notice that Walker is gone. His blood is a dark red stain on the ground, but the manacles are empty.
I can’t lie. A part of me is relieved. I know there’s going to come a reckoning where it will be that one of us watches the other die, but I’m glad it isn’t this day.
Even if he is a monster who deserves it.
Even if he’s the reason my family is dead.
He’s the only one I have left, and I’m…not ready to be alone.
Jarek picks me up, drawing my gaze. I hate being so weak, so vulnerable.
“You died,” I say flatly.
“I did for a second, and then I lived, and I came for you. Not even death will keep me from you, remember that,” he murmurs and glowers at the alphas and omegas around us. They cringe and back away, leaving a wide space.
Came for me.
Three words that threaten to break down the walls I have built to protect myself. I avert my eyes, watching the massive shadow of the Anarchy Wolf trot back through the empty building towards us.
I stare at him as he gets closer.
I knew he wouldn’t eat us.
He slowly extends his neck, and his hot breath huffs over my hair.
I reach up, my fingers sinking into the most luxurious fur.
He allows it for a minute and then pulls back, snarling.
His deadly gaze is fixed on something beyond me, and when Jarek turns us, I find Mordecai staring up at a beta who is clinging to the side of a beam like it’s going to save his life.
I think he’s about ten feet in the air and climbing.
“Come down,” Mordecai demands.
“Oh, Beta Goddess High, save us from the perverted and barbaric minds of the alphas. Free us from the curse of the omega influence. Kill them all. Strike them down. Make this world free of the perversion of—”
The Anarchy Wolf jumps up with lethal grace, grips a chunk of robe and simply yanks him from his perch. He falls straight onto Mordecai’s sword, which splits open his throat and leaves his neck a ruin of blood and muscle.
“How sad,” Jarek whispers with a lack of sincerity.
“Jarek?”
He looks down. I put my fingers on his chest, over his heart. “Please, could you get me out of here?”
My family's fate beats at me, and all I want to do is sleep, but I can’t while we’re here. No matter how safe I feel in his arms.
“Okay, we’re going.” Jarek whistles, and Mordecai and the black wolf with its blood-tipped fur turn.
The wolf lets out a howl that the Resistance echoes. It’s an eerie sound. I get goosebumps, but the Resistance disappears like they were never here.
All that’s left is a building full of corpses that’s painted in blood.
Jarek and Mordecai run through the streets and into buildings. I lose track of time as the aches get so bad I drift in and out of consciousness.
I stand beside a man on a hill, looking up at the stars, and he reaches out and takes my hand, and nothing has ever felt so right.
I jolt awake, my heart hammering in my chest, confused because I’m on my back, staring up at Mordecai, who is leaning over me.
“What?”
“Sorry,” he says and moves back, giving me some room.
There are several people here, some sitting, some are sleeping, and others moving quietly around.
“Here, I have clothes,” a voice I recognise says.
“Legion?” I turn my head too fast, getting head spins, but I’m so relieved to see him. “You’re alive!”
“Hey, you. Scaring everyone seems to be a habit of yours.”
I laugh but weakly. “Just keeping you on your toes. Did you get Sophie and Mia?”
“I did; they are safe.” Legion looks like he wants to ask something, but then he presses his lips together and backs off.
Mordecai is hovering, and I know I have to deal with it, but not right now. I can’t. I lay back down and curl up on my side. I cry silently, too afraid to let anyone see but the alpha whose guilt is heavy in the air, turning it sweet.
A whole day passes. I wake up for the tenth time, feeling refreshed and able to deal with it, or at least show it deep enough I won’t think about it every moment. I roll over and find Jarek lying so close our noses are almost touching.
“You really are alive? I thought I was dreaming.”
“I really am alive. I don’t think the gods are finished with me yet.”
“He ran you through with a sword,” I protest, letting out a sad little whine, which instantly makes him lose his smile.
He cups the side of my face.
“I’m made of magic. Hush, Omega, I’m here; it’s okay.”
I snort, but it comes out wet and pathetic and not at all brave and tough like I planned.
His thumb strokes across my cheek. “I am so sorry that I failed.”
I jolt and reach for him, clenching my hand in his shirt, dragging us closer still, his breath and mine are one now. “No, you didn’t fail—”
“I failed, and they took you, and you got hurt, Kaida.”
“You were stabbed with a sword, so if anyone should be sorry, it’s Mordecai,” I hiss and feel a prick of guilt.
“And we’re going to talk about that too because there are some things that he wasn’t able to share at the time, reasons,” Jarek says firmly.
“About this prophet omega again?” I ask with disdain.
“Yes,” Jarek smiles widely and presses his hips to mine. I let out a startled squeak.
“I’ve never seen her,” I say breathlessly.
“But she’s talked about you to us a lot.”
I sniff, trying to ignore the way he’s pressed against me, the hard length of him that is impossible to pretend isn’t there.
“He could have killed me,” I whisper in an angry hiss. “It would have been kinder.”