Chapter 15
Elijah
Waiting for them to show up at my front door was the hardest thing I’d ever had to do in my life. Every instinct in my body was screaming for me to rush to my mate’s side, to rip through everyone that threatened her and end them. I wanted to rain down blood until she was returned to my side.
Doing so would be foolish. I knew that, but the wolf in me was saying otherwise.
I had called in every favor in the book.
I had allies fly in from all over the world.
Every local hotel and bed and breakfast was fully booked.
The overflow split into the surrounding towns and even into the outer edges of Zurich.
The weapons I had stored and collected were distributed and by the time I got word that an unscheduled flight had landed at a private airport only a short distance away, I was ready.
At the front of my army were myself and my pack.
Behind us were several other packs that had come from New Orleans, Las Vegas, Chicago, Belarus, and other places around the world.
My numbers had swelled to over a thousand, and that didn’t even include the townsfolk who had insisted on joining the battle as well.
They wanted to defend not only me, but Ashleigh too.
They loved Ashleigh like one of their own. In her free time, she’d helped out at the hospital and spent time with them and in those moments, they had fallen in love with her too. She had become their queen just like she was mine.
In preparation for the arrival of the Crimson Shadows and their vampire allies, I directed much of my numbers to hide in side streets. They were under strict orders not to reveal themselves unless I signaled for them to come.
To the unobservant eye, I would look ill prepared and easily subdued. Below the surface, however, I had everything at my disposal to destroy those that threatened my little slice of heaven here in Switzerland.
They would rue the day they’d challenged me.
My enemies crested over the hill only a few minutes after the sun had fully set. Their numbers were vast, and they kept coming. They bled in from the road, from the surrounding mountains through the less traveled passes and from the sides. They didn’t attack outright at first.
I was used to action, but this appeared to be like the conflicts of old.
They wandered in and lined up like a battle straight out of the revolutionary war.
I squinted my eyes. Most of them had handguns and a few of them had much larger rifles, but many of the vampires seemed almost disgusted by the weapons in their own hands.
I recognized many as Malkovian and others as Venuti. Amir and my former pack members crested the hill last, and it tore at my heart to see them by his side.
I would do everything in my power to make sure that I was able to keep as many of them alive as possible. It wasn’t their fault that their alpha was both a madman and a monster. I wondered if many of them even knew that he planned to sell off his daughter’s hand in marriage to a vampire.
I stepped to the front of my forces with Theo close by my side. I had two guns tucked into the back of my jeans, one loaded with silver bullets and the other of the sun fire variety. I had several more magazines full in my pockets.
I spotted Ashleigh almost immediately. When she saw me, she lifted her chin a bit higher. I’d received word from my inside man that she’d been outfitted with the weapons I’d sent and that she was safe, but seeing her alive with my own eyes was something else entirely.
I wanted her back in my arms right now. I wanted to take her back to the chalet and remind her in every way possible that she was mine and that I’d never allow another man to touch her. Not now. Not ever.
She belonged to me.
I pulled my shoulders back and readied myself for battle.
I took several steps forward and my enemy soon followed suit.
I recognized Vincenzo Venuti when he grabbed Ashleigh’s arm roughly and forced her on ahead with him.
I had to stop myself from grabbing the crossbow out of Theo’s hands and shooting the monster in the heart with the biggest wooden stake that I could find.
I didn’t though. Not yet. It wasn’t the right time.
Amir followed several steps behind, alongside Augustus Malkovian.
When we reached a place that was directly in the middle of the two forces, we paused and stared back at one another. Vincenzo forced Ashleigh forward, and I couldn’t keep myself quiet this time.
“Take your hands off of her,” I growled.
True to her nature, Ashleigh’s jaw tensed. She stood with a strong sense of pride and yanked her arm from Vincenzo’s grasp first.
“I will do what I want with my bride, wolf,” Vincenzo sneered. I decided then that he would be the very first one I killed.
“Let me do what I came here to do,” Ashleigh exclaimed.
The two vampires and her father stood haughtily behind her.
They didn’t know that I was already fully aware of their plans to take over my newly established territory.
I knew that they planned to kill anyone that stood in their way, and I also knew that they planned to use Ashleigh to force my hand at surrender.
I was far more prepared than they gave me credit for.
Amir looked out at my pack behind me. To him, it would look like I only had several hundred at my back at best. He’d underestimated me and I was looking forward to the moment when I saw the realization that he’d lost painted all over his face.
“Elijah, I’m here to beg you to surrender.
If you do, your people will live,” Ashleigh pleaded.
Her voice was begging for me to heed her words, but her eyes sparkled with rebellion.
She curled her hands around her waist, pulling the fabric just taut enough so that I could see the faint outline of a gun.
She didn’t have to say it, but I knew she had some kind of a plan forming in her head.
I’d play along for a little while. I wanted to see how it would play out.
“What will happen if I refuse?” I asked pointedly.
“They will kill your entire pack. My father will spare no mercy in your destruction if you refuse to bow to him,” she continued. Behind her, Amir preened with arrogance, and I glared at him over her shoulder.
“Perhaps before we come to blows, I should invite the rest of my allies to join me,” I replied cockily.
Amir started a bit in surprise but covered it up quickly.
Atreyu bounded to my side, fully in wolf form, and lifted his snout up into the air.
I snapped my fingers and he howled so loudly that the sound would carry for miles.
Behind me, a series of howls followed. Wolves and humans poured onto the streets, bulking up my forces and joining alongside my pack.
Amir’s face paled a little bit. He had a great deal of his own, but my numbers were far more than his and now he could see it. I enjoyed the way his brow furrowed with worry, the way his eyes narrowed with fear. I lapped up every second of it.
“You cannot think to defeat the Malkovians, the Venuti, and the Crimson Shadows,” Augustus murmured, and I turned my glare to him. I didn’t answer. I just smiled and said that was exactly what I planned on doing without words.
“You will die, wolf dog, and I’m going to enjoy taking what was promised to me on my wedding night,” Vincenzo countered, and Ashleigh lifted her chin in fury.
What happened next was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen in my life.
Ashleigh side-stepped out of Vincenzo’s reach and quickly slipped her fingers beneath her shirt.
She didn’t even hesitate as she whipped the gun out of the holster.
She pressed the barrel directly against his temple and squeezed the trigger.
The piercing sound of a gunshot echoed deafeningly up here in the mountains.
The bullet tore through his skull and a sudden brilliant flash of light ruined him from the inside out.
His head exploded, splashing a shower of blood down onto the ground before his headless body followed.
Everyone around her gasped in shock. They probably hadn’t even known she was armed. Her father was the most stunned of all. He stared at Ashleigh like she was a perfect stranger and I smiled. I couldn’t be prouder of her.
In the confusion, I un-holstered my own gun and narrowed in on Augustus.
I took aim with the experience of a thousand gunshots.
My finger was already on the trigger by the time he realized what was happening.
He made a move to get out of range, but I’d had my fair share of vampires that I shot dead in my time.
I guessed his movements and pulled that trigger.
He did exactly as I thought he would do, and my aim was true.
His fate was the same as Vincenzo, ending in a flash of light, blood, and gore. My wolves rushed at Amir, but he’d already turned tail and run. The vampires folded in around him, encompassing him with their protection. My pack surged forward, and the battlefield became chaos in a matter of moments.
I raced ahead, trusting in my pack to deal with the matter of Amir.
I had something more important to contend with. I had to get back to my mate. I reached out at the same time as her, taking her hand in my own and holding it tight. Her glittering eyes met mine, full of love and beauty and strength.
“Let me fight,” she exclaimed.
“You may fight, but you will stay by my side as you do it,” I declared, and she nodded once.
She used me to gain momentum as she sprinted toward another vampire, grasping one of the stakes at her ankle and slamming it straight into its heart.
The look of shock on his face was almost comical.
She tossed him to the ground, grinning in my direction with triumph.
She and I fought side by side for hours. She emptied her magazine of sun fire bullets, and I was proud to see that she ended a vampire with every single shot. Eventually, the vampires began giving her a wider berth.