Chapter 19
SAPHIRA
Morden pushed me forwards, just a light shove in my shoulder for show as he barked at me. “Keep moving.”
My legs threatened to give out as I looked ahead of me, at the green and the barn in the middle of the small town, and my parents.
Heart pounding, head close to spinning from my thundering pulse, I marched towards what felt like my doom.
I crushed those fearful words, casting them away from me, and jerked my chin up, focusing on my mission as I ran through what Morden and I had hastily come up with on the short walk from where we had left Kaeleron.
Kaeleron.
I swore I could feel him watching me.
Could sense him in every shadow around me.
Morden shoved me again, catching me off guard this time, and my knee buckled.
It hit the ground hard, pain jolting up my limbs, and I snarled over my shoulder at him, flashing short fangs and not for show this time.
He scowled and bared fangs right back at me, but I caught that whisper of apology in his grey eyes, hidden beneath the mask he had donned.
He grabbed my arm and hauled me back onto my feet and roughly pushed me forwards.
“You son of a bitch,” I hissed as I sensed eyes on me and spat in his face. “Traitor.”
He flinched, wiped his face, and then his grip on my arm tightened and he marched me forwards, practically dragging me into town, gaining the attention of everyone. Murmurs ran through the crowd that gathered before us.
“Didn’t think he’d have the balls.” The male who said that looked at the one beside him.
Who said, “I figured he’d abandon his sister and we’d never see him again.”
“Or he’d be killed.” A third male who was passing them gave me a once over. “Not by her though. Scrawny little thing. No wonder she can’t stay on her feet. I prefer my females with a bit more meat on their bones.”
I bared fangs at him.
He laughed and walked away, heading for the barn, as if I wasn’t a threat to him.
I didn’t feel like one as we neared the green and I dared to look at my parents.
Tears filled my eyes, blurring my vision as I found my father watching me, pain etched on his face and fear in his gaze.
Fear for me. I tried to make a break for him as planned, and Morden’s hand clamped down with more force on my arm, ripping a cry from my throat.
He pulled me away from them, heading in the opposite direction, towards the road that led to Lucas’s house.
A wave rolled over me as we entered the green and the pressing throng of wolves, and my limbs felt heavy, harder to move as I stumbled behind Morden. My mind fogged and I shook my head, trying to clear it. Something was wrong with me, and deep in my gut I knew what it was.
My throat closed as I dared to look ahead of me, in the direction Morden was dragging me, my heart trembling at the sight of the dirt track that cut away from the main thoroughfare.
And that familiar wooden house slowly came into view.
My hackles rose as I stared at it, fear that only made my limbs feel heavier, my body weaker, and had a scream of denial building in my throat together with a desperate need to run as I thought about the male who lived there now.
A male who had murdered his parents to seize control of this pack and who was now steering them towards violence and sickening crimes.
A male who now threatened to murder my parents too.
A male I had never wanted to see again, even when I hungered for his death and to be the one who dealt the killing blow.
The weaker, fearful part of me that remained despite all my training, that softer side of me I could never quite vanquish, whispered I couldn’t do this.
I wasn’t a killer. If I faced Lucas, he would be the one to kill me.
He would finish the job he had started the night he had rejected me, giving me that death and release I had craved.
Death and release I craved no longer.
Now I wanted to live.
I wanted revenge.
The darker part of me that had been nurtured in the Shadow Court murmured that vengeance tasted delicious and I was starving just as Kaeleron was.
I wanted to feast on my revenge, to glut myself on it until I was sated.
I wanted to taste Lucas’s blood on my tongue, coating my fangs, dripping down my throat.
I wanted to watch that flicker of life in his eyes die.
Killed by me.
I clung to that desire as Morden marched me towards the house.
Even when someone said, “Halt right there.”
Braxton.
I kept my head low as I turned it to stare at him, glaring up at him through my lashes as I growled and bared my emerging fangs.
He smirked, his dark eyes glittering with malice and a mocking look, one that only fed that feeling that I wasn’t strong enough to do this.
That I was going to get myself and Morden killed, and get my parents and my pack slaughtered.
Instead of giving in to those fearful thoughts, I launched towards him, snarling and growling, the fury that flashed in my eyes real as I thought about how he had been the one to drug me, how he had known what Lucas had planned to do, and had been there when the bastard had sold me.
He deserved my wrath as much as his alpha.
Morden’s grip on my arm was firm enough to keep me in place, just as I had known it would be, but I got a beautiful hit of satisfaction—a hint of what I would feel when this was over and I was the victor—when Braxton tensed and jerked backwards. Fearful of me.
Not such a big, bad wolf after all.
He was afraid of what I might do if Morden released me.
He should be.
By the time I was done here, he would be begging on his knees, pleading with me for mercy, and I would give him none.
A shiver tumbled down my spine as I scented him.
All the fight left me as I slowly turned my face towards him and memories bombarded me, flashes of how foolish I had been throughout the years, of him smiling at me and laughing at something I had said and how it had lit me up.
Flashes of him pressing a kiss to my cheek and how I had burned for him.
Flashes of me yearning for him from a distance, so desperate to be his mate, so blinded by the potential bond between us that I had failed to see him for the monster he was.
I hated myself as I came to face him, some part of me unable to forgive myself for never seeing him for what he was, for falling for him and believing in some ridiculous fairy tale.
He might act like prince charming, but he was far from one.
I had been a fool to fall in love with him and believe that love was real, blind to the fact it was a lie, a fabrication, too na?ve to know better.
But now I knew better.
I knew what real love felt like.
It wasn’t a fairy tale, filled with light and singing birds and everything always being perfect.
It was powerful, and it made you reckless and brave, and willing to walk the fine line between light and dark, to do anything to hold on to that feeling and the one at the other end of that fragile tether that linked your hearts.
Lucas strolled through the males and females that parted before him, leaving a clear stretch of grass between me and him. A neatly pressed dark flannel shirt and jeans hugged his muscular body, his leather boots pristine.
I barely recognised the male before me.
But I knew he had always been there, concealed beneath layers of masks and manipulation, and also my own inability to see the truth of him.
Others had seen this side of him I was now seeing for the first time.
The entitled, cruel and malicious prick who was drunk on power, who had been spoiled by his parents—the parents he had turned on and killed—always told he was better than everyone else.
That he was born to be an alpha.
A male who had been poisoned by those words they dripped into his ear at every opportunity, moulded into a monster who didn’t value others, who believed they were either made to serve him or were a commodity.
He preened his short blond hair back, his glacial blue eyes glittering like ice as he smirked at me.
“I honestly didn’t think you’d do it.”
His icy gaze slid from me to Morden.
Morden huffed and shoved me forwards, towards Lucas, and released me as he grunted, “My sister. As agreed. I want to see her.”
Lucas casually waved him away. “All in good time.”
He ignored Morden’s threatening snarl as he slowly walked a circle around me, gaze raking over me. I turned with him, unwilling to give him my back again, and stilled when my eyes landed on several males I recognised from my pack.
None of which looked as if they were being held captive as they spoke with members of the Hunt Pack.
“You fucking traitors!” I spat and lunged forwards, flooded with a hot need to sink my fangs into them.
Lucas backhanded me hard enough that my vision distorted and my ears rang and I dropped to my knees on the grass as I tried to gather my wits.
Morden pulled me onto my feet again and this time he didn’t let go. He held me close to him, keeping me upright, and anger rolled off him in tangible waves, and it wasn’t all because Lucas wouldn’t let him see his sister. It was because he had struck me.
“I see some of the pack seem to be with yours now. I want the same deal.” Morden kept hold of me even as I rallied my wits enough to fall back into my act, pretending to struggle against his firm grip on my arm rather than leaning on it for support.
“I brought her to you. If you want her, you’ll let me join your pack. ”
I wanted to congratulate him on thinking on his feet and coming up with something so smart. If he joined the Hunt Pack, he would have more freedom and would be able to move around and scope things out without anyone being suspicious of him.
Lucas shrugged. “We’ll discuss that later.”
He came to me, but Morden didn’t release me, earning a dark look from him.
“I want to be part of your pack. My pack won’t have me after this. And I want to see my sister,” Morden snarled. “Then you get Saphira.”
“All in good time. Like I said.” Lucas held his hand out to me, as if I would take it, and I snapped at it and then at him.
“Touch me and I’ll bite your fucking hand off.” I bared my fangs.
“Harm me and…” He swept his hand out to his right, his grin fiendish and twisted, and I looked there.
All plans to rip his throat out with my fangs right that second put on hold as I watched in horror.
Braxton carved a line up my father’s chest with a curved knife.
“You sick son of a bitch,” I spat and tried to make a break to reach my father, but Morden held me firm again, stopping me as my gaze leaped between Braxton and Lucas.
My stomach twisted tight, my heart a painful knot in my chest as I wrestled against Morden’s hold and turned desperate eyes on Lucas.
“Leave them alone! I’m here like you wanted. So leave them alone!”
Braxton grinned as he dragged the blade down my father’s chest and my father grunted through his gritted teeth.
“Stop it!” I screamed.
Lucas held his hand up and Braxton stepped back, but the son of a bitch toyed with the bloodied blade as he stared at me, his dark eyes bright with delight and sick pleasure as he taunted me with it.
“Let them go.” I turned on Lucas. “If this is meant to be some kind of exchange, then let my pack go!”
He smirked. “All in good time. I’ll release them once I hand you over to your new owner.”
My heart stopped.
My stomach dropped.
I blinked at him.
New owner?