Chapter 44 Wrath
Wrath
The wolf is lean, but he’s athletic in his human form. He grabs Cindel and pushes her up against the wall, kissing her hard. She tries to push him off, but she’s crying too hard. In the end, she drops her hands and just lets him do it.
“Get your act together, Cindel. We’re in this together. We planned all this so we could rule together.”
“Jonas is dead,” she sobs. “My mate is dead.”
“Good.”
“It hurts. It hurts so much. I had no idea it would feel like this.”
The alpha slaps her hard across the face. “With your dad dead, we can take over.”
“Take over what? Everyone is gone, and she’ll kill us, too.”
The guy turns, and I finally figure out why he seems so familiar. It’s Liam, the best friend who set Casey up to be gang raped. The one who helped create those screams.
He’s dead on principle.
And I’m going to make it last a while. Slow and painful. But…I look back to where I can feel the pack.
She needs justice.
“Liam, please, I can’t,” Cindel sobs.
“Get your fucking act together, you stupid slut.”
“Stop it, you’re hurting me.”
“I’ll make it hurt all right.”
He punches into her several times. I frown at her expression of shock. She crumples into his arms, and he simply tosses her to the ground. It’s only then that I realise that she’s dead.
The callousness of the act stuns me.
I stand up and follow him. As soon as he sees a group of alphas, he rushes to them, pretending to be helpless, like he didn’t just murder the alpha’s daughter. Who even is this piece of shit?
“Help! Please help!”
He pants and grabs hold of an alpha’s arm. Several wolves from my pack charge into the group. I watch as he shoves an alpha into the path of one of our wolves and runs away.
This cowardly, sneaky behaviour isn’t fit for a wolf pack.
I trail after him, not making a sound.
I hear a noise and turn my head, finding my father beside me. The days in prison haven’t affected him at all. He’s scary and totally committed to this hunt.
It’s like the old days.
A healing.
We hunt Liam relentlessly, and when he thinks he’s escaped, I get around him and howl, snarling.
We drive him in a huge circle around their shitty neighbourhood.
Every time he starts to relax, my father or I appear, charging him and forcing him to run.
He fears us, but then I think he knows we know what he’s done.
When he stumbles, I signal to my father, and we come at him from both sides, driving him straight through the middle of the deserted neighborhood.
He runs up the main street, his eyes wide. Whirling and looking back at us, begging, pleading.
We are relentless, and every time he tries to veer off, he finds his path blocked by wolves.
Fear stinks up the air. I step out, finally letting him really see me, recognise me. His eyes are wide as he looks me up and down.
Hazard blocks another street, his head down, teeth bared. My father and the twins’ mother block another one. Angel appears like a ghost. Riot walks out of the darkness.
I wait until I feel him. Khaos walks up the street.
He shifts into a man as he’s walking. It’s seamless, and the weight of the power he’s carrying, the heaviness of the alpha mantle, looks good on him.
He lifts his head, refusing to look at anyone but Liam. Duty, responsibility, the alpha of alphas.
“I sentence Pack Foster to death for crimes against our species, humanity, and against an omega.”
Liam scoffs. “I tried to stop them. We were friends, Casey, tell him.”
Khaos lifts his chin and turns his head as Casey walks slowly towards him.
No one else will be able to feel the butterflies he feels, the relief he experiences.
No one will know that he’s breaking and reforming.
He holds out his hand, and she puts hers in his.
I know he wants so much more, but he can’t.
I hate it for him.
“I don’t care if you were friends. You are a manipulative traitor who deserves to die with the rest of your pack!” Khaos thunders.
“No! No! I was good. I helped. I tried to get away, but they hurt me.”
“Do you think I can’t smell the lies you are throwing up into the air?”
Liam flinches.
“I am the alpha, and I have come for my mate and to mete out justice.”
Liam’s expression switches so quickly I’m almost impressed. “Oh, for that whore? Did she tell you how many had her?”
Khaos snarls, his growl echoed by every wolf. “It doesn’t matter how many came before me. We are the ones here now.”
Liam looks around frantically.
“Don’t let them kill me, Casey, please?” He drops to his knees and crawls towards her.
I walk forward and grab his hair, yanking his head back and stopping him from getting anywhere close to her.
“You should know he murdered Cindel tonight,” I say quietly to Khaos, but my eyes are locked on her, and, finally, she lifts her eyes and looks at me, and I see desperate longing and fear in her eyes.
Does she think I won’t want her?
Casey’s eyes flicker with outrage. “Kill him. Make him suffer.”
The wolves swarm.
He screams.
He screams for a long, long time.
The end of Pack Foster isn’t memorable. The pack is just there and gone in one swipe from Riot’s deadly claws.
“The alpha’s will is done!”
The wolves tip their heads back and howl.
I walk towards Casey, desperate for this moment. Needing it more than I need air. I don’t stop until I’ve lifted her into my arms and am holding her close to my chest.
She ducks her head, but I lift her chin, staring at her until she stops trying to look away from me. I try to tell her everything, all I feel in that one look.
“I thought I’d never see you again!” I murmur. “I’m sorry we’re late.”
She collapses onto me, hugging my head to her chest. I lift her up, holding her tight to me. I don’t ever want to let her go.
“Wrath, my Wrath.”
Khaos clears his throat and turns away from his official duties. The wolves at his side peel away, giving him space.
I let her slide down my body. She takes a step towards him, and he approaches her. It’s slow, but the meeting of our alpha and his omega happens in bittersweet hesitation. They stop a foot and a half from each other.
“I am the alpha,” Khaos says it apologetically.
“I can feel it.”
I roll my eyes at the silence that stretches out.
“He challenged and beat his father to come rescue you,” I stage whisper.
Her eyes flare wide.
“Kerrick,” she whispers.
He closes his eyes and steps into her. “I like any name you give me, just to hear your voice. Casey, I…”
“I didn’t think you remembered your promise.”
Hazard leans on Angel, grinning widely. Our families, what remains of them, are nearby.
Riot comes up to stand shoulder to shoulder with me, watching as Casey and Khaos exchange soft words.
“That vow was in mind every single minute that we were gone. I was coming to get you. Jeez, Casey, I was always coming for you. I can’t live without my heart. I can’t live without you. My mate.”
I close my eyes, feeling a tug, and trace it. As if in a dream, I open my eyes to see shimmers in the air. A second chance? There’s still time to make it right?
“My mate,” I whisper, and they flare brighter.
“You are my mate,” Angel says with a hand on his heart.
“And mine,” Hazard says.
Riot walks towards them and cups her cheek. “It was always you.”
Casey sniffles. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean it. You are mine. And I am yours.”
The colours explode, becoming firm, thick, shining ropes. The bonds shimmering brightly until they fade, but I can feel them. We get a second chance. We’re still mates.
When we exchange bites, they will become permanent, binding our lives together and making us one.
Khaos leans down and kisses our omega. With the whole Khaos Pack watching, he claims her as ours. The cheer is slow, but it grows, and then, one by one, the pack drops to one knee.
Angel is the first to go down, surprising all of us. I’ve never seen him willingly kneel to anyone, but he kneels to her. Hazard drops beside his twin. Riot and I glance at each and do the same, and, looking up at her, it’s right.
“The Khaos pack is yours, Omega,” Khaos says, and then, to the shock of everyone, our alpha kneels before his omega.
She wipes her dirty and bruised face.
“Can we go home?”
“We can go anywhere you like,” Riot says softly. “Whatever you want, Casey. No more chains. No more cages. You’re free.”
She flicks a startled look around. “I don’t want to stay here any longer. Take me far away.”
“Your wish,” I whisper, “my command.” I turn to the Khaos pack. “Let’s take our omega home.”
The cheer is deafening.