Chapter 44: Chapter 44

MYRA

Before Elizabeth had the chance to flee, Skye pounced on her. She kicked the drug-addled, disoriented wolf into the arena’s wall.

Elizabeth slammed into it, sending big cracks along the surface and breaking off some of the crumbling material. Before Elizabeth could stand, Skye jumped onto her back, knocking her to the ground.

“I don’t think so,” Brian shouted, pulling out a different type of gun and taking aim at Skye.

In a flash, Skye grabbed hold of Elizabeth. Her arm wrapped tightly around the struggling animal’s neck, and Skye used her body as a shield.

At that moment, deeper growls, barks, and yelps echoed from different parts of the building. A creature came running into the room.

“Son of a bitch! They’ve found us!” he cried out, trying to raise the alarm, but his words were cut short when Alpha jumped on his back and ripped his head from his body, showing no mercy for the boy’s life.

Skye could see his eyes frantically assessing the room, looking at each stunned rogue. She saw the moment his eyes locked on Brian, then slowly followed his downward-pointing gun. He turned his head and clapped his eyes on her.

Skye immediately felt relief, but she didn’t let the feeling distract her. She kept a firm grip on Elizabeth, who was wiggling even more in her arms.

~“That’s right, slut! He found me,”~ Skye linked with the whimpering animal.

As if in slow motion, chaos broke out. Rogues tried to shift and flee, but more of Sloan’s security team entered the room. The teams showed no mercy as they began eliminating the murderous group one by one.

“If I go down, the bitch dies with me.” Brian laughed at Sloan and pulled the trigger.

Skye was slow to react due to the euphoria of seeing Alpha in the flesh. Elizabeth slammed into her, crying out in pain, and immediately shifted back into her human self.

She gasped, holding her upper stomach as blood soaked her fingers.

“You shot me?” she whispered, looking at her wound and then up at Brian’s smiling face.

“Meh. You were in the way.” He shrugged. “But I got my target in the end.”

That’s when Skye registered a burning in her stomach. She glanced down and saw blood pouring out of a small hole in her belly. She gently touched the wound, and more blood poured out.

Alpha roared his displeasure and lunged at the boy who was still waving the gun around. Alpha tackled him, and the force of their bodies clashing caused the gun to fly out of his hand and fall over the edge into the arena.

Alpha punched him, and together they crashed through another wall. Growls, screams, bones breaking, and Brian pleading for his life echoed down to them.

Elizabeth chuckled, unconcerned by her nudity. Her smile was bloody, and she spat out some blood. “Now Sloan will have no mate.”

Skye growled at her and used the last of her depleting strength to attack her. She sank her canines into Elizabeth’s neck.

Elizabeth tried to push Skye off her, kicking and screaming as her teeth sank deeper into her foul-smelling neck. With a sudden jerk of her head, Elizabeth’s entire body went limp.

Skye gave her another shake for good measure before releasing her neck, and her body crumpled to the ground like a paper doll.

Elizabeth’s eyes were still wide open, and her blood pooled around her head. Skye spat twice then wiped her mouth in disgust.

~“Alpha…,”~ Skye weakly thought as she dropped to her knees, then collapsed to her side.

Her vision was becoming more and more blurry. The last image she saw before slipping into unconsciousness was a pair of fur-covered legs moving toward her.

ALPHA

~“Shit!”~ Alpha thought as the surprise mind-link from Skye ended. He ran at top speed in his hybrid wolf form.

He didn’t allow the brief communication with her to slow him down. Instead, it encouraged him to push his body to its limit. The extra push propelled him closer to the abandoned water processing plant.

Moments later, he broke through the forested area surrounding it. Some of his rescue team looked startled to see him, but they quickly regained their composure in the presence of their one true alpha.

He immediately found Declan against the sea of black-clothed security personnel. His second-in-command had complete control of the surroundings and the people under him.

~“Tristan, you have one minute to get here, or else we’re going in without you,”~ Alpha linked with his brother, who wasn’t as fast. He lagged in his arrival to the rendezvous point.

~“Not all of us are monstrous hybrid lycan assholes. I’m but a humble wolf. We’ll be there soon,”~ Tristan’s pissed-off voice echoed in his mind.

Alpha gazed at the group. They were all silently looking at him, waiting for instructions, and basking in his authority and dominance that surpassed their own alphas and leaders. Declan approached him, holding a device.

The screen depicted blue dots surrounding the infrastructure and red dots either scattered about the building or isolated in one area with two solitary blue dots.

“Kenny was so kind as to send these over. We have them completely trapped,” Declan explained.

“Team leaders have been informed and know to coordinate their siege upon your command. I also stationed several members of our pack security team in all the groups.”

Alpha nodded, half-listening, as his eyes fixed on the two lone blue dots.

“Also, there were several rogue scouts who ventured out of the compound, but they were taken care of,” Declan continued, handing him another device.

It was an earpiece. The device looked tiny in the palm of his furry hand, and it took some effort to insert it into his ear.

It was ridiculous, when you thought about it, because another new feature Sloan now possessed as a lycan was the ability to mass link with everyone, regardless of their association to his family or pack.

It was a better idea to use the earpiece, though, because his link could go across to the rogues. That would ruin the surprise and place the girls’ lives in greater danger.

~“We have one, possibly two, injured women in there. One of them is your luna. I don’t care about survivors, aside from the two we’re rescuing.~

~“If you do find someone from your community wishing to be spared, that’s your prerogative,”~ Alpha said to the group. He heard his words being echoed by the various team leaders as they relayed his message.

~“Reflect on those who were murdered and left to rot! They were shown no mercy, so consider this when sparing lives. This is revenge for those lost souls, whether creature or human.”~

Declan swiped his fingers across the screen. It was the live feed of Myra’s fight with Elizabeth, and it was in full swing. Alpha glanced at the screen just as Skye pulled the first dart from her calf, and he shook with rage.

Just then, Tristan and his group joined them. Declan quietly updated him, but Sloan didn’t want to waste another second.

~“Go!”~

The single command was immediately received. No one hesitated, and like a swarm of bees, they descended upon the abandoned compound.

“Alpha, we made a loop on their external cameras so they wouldn’t see you all coming.”

Kenny’s voice came across the earpiece. “We’re also piggybacking on their internal feeds and have loops ready for those cameras as well.”

Silently, they all advanced on the property. They strategically eliminated any rogue they came in contact with, giving them no chance to raise the alarm.

With the help of Kenny and the other council acolytes, they were able to move through the hallways with relative ease and swiftness.

“Alpha, you need to get to the luna ASAP!” Kenny’s worried voice came through the earpiece as a rogue shifter rounded the corner.

For a moment, they just stared at each other, until the shifter finally processed the group.

His eyes grew big, and he turned around, running back the way he came, hollering like a banshee. Sloan held up his hand to stop a team member from going after him.

~I guess we know the way inside,~ Tristan thought as they followed the creature.

But strangely, Alpha provided him with the opportunity to announce their presence. When the doors swung out, they all got a passing glimpse of the room.

“Son of a bitch! They’ve found us!” the boy cried out.

~That’s enough~, Alpha thought, jumping onto the traitor’s back and promptly removing his head. The gathered rogues watched in horror as the lycan dropped the creature’s head on the floor.

But Sloan was busy searching through the sea of masked creatures, looking for his angel. He immediately found Brian, who had a gun in his hand and was pointing it downward.

His head turned, and he saw Skye holding on to a wiggling Elizabeth in her wolf form. His eyes snapped back to Brian.

~“That bastard is mine!”~ He sent out a mass link, no longer caring if the rogues received it or not. More of his team entered the room, mercilessly eliminating the rogues as they tried shifting to escape the slaughter.

“If I go down, the bitch dies with me.” Brian laughed and shot at Skye.

Elizabeth’s body jerked into Skye’s. She swiftly shifted back into her human body, and Alpha almost laughed when Sloan gagged at the sight of her nudity.

“You shot me?!” Elizabeth shrieked.

Alpha felt no pity for her. If Brian wanted to die alongside his mate, he was welcome to it.

“You were in the way, but I got my target in the end,” Brian stated.

At his words, Alpha’s gaze snapped back to Skye, and he saw blood pouring out of a small hole in her stomach. His eyes widened, and the feeling of uncontrollable rage flooded his system, making him roar out his frustration.

Alpha lunged at the boy, instantly disarming him. He punched him, slamming his body into the wall behind him. The force of his body collided with Brian’s, crashing them through the wall.

~“You motherfucking asshole!”~ Alpha roared, throwing a right hook at Brian’s jaw. It knocked the mask off his face, and the sound of his jaw breaking reverberated through the hallway.

He then punched him in the stomach, puncturing vital organs and bones. The brutality of his attack was greatly fueled by his rage. Brian could only scream and cry for his mother.

~“You were like a brother to me!”~ Each word in the sentence was punctuated with another round of punches. Alpha stomped down on his left knee, breaking the bones.

He paused when he realized Brian was trying and failing to shift, but Alpha wouldn’t let him. He kept beating the everloving shit out of him.

~“You don’t deserve to keep on breathing,”~ Alpha roared in his badly beaten face.

At first, Alpha was going to let him live, so that he could undergo his punishment with the council. But when he shot at Skye, he’d signed his own death warrant.

“Please,” Brian cried, trying to block Alpha’s powerful punches, but Alpha just held onto his hand and twisted it.

Popping the elbow and shoulder out of their sockets, he then punched down, breaking through Brian’s ulna and radius bones.

Fat tears flowed down his face, and snot bubbles popped out of his nose. It was a pathetic sight.

~“Council of elders, justice for the leader of the rogues will be handed down by me,” ~Alpha stated, not requesting or asking. He knew his words were heard by all via the earpiece still in his ear.

“Let justice be swift,” the council of elders unanimously agreed, and their voices rang out through the earpiece. A brief moment later, another voice barked through.

“Kill the motherfucker!” Megan’s angry voice demanded.

~“Brian Marshall, you have forfeited your right to live among us. Burn and rot in hell, you bastard!”~ Alpha roughly grabbed his neck and head.

“Please, I’m not alo—” Brian tried to comment, but before he could finish the statement, Alpha snapped his neck like a twig, swiftly ending his life.

Alpha exhaled deeply and dropped Brian’s lifeless body onto the ground with a loud thud.

~“Alpha,”~ Skye’s sweet voice called to him. He immediately left the boy’s body and rushed back to her.

Looking over the edge into the arena, he saw Skye crumple to her knees, then fall onto her side. Alpha gripped the edge and jumped over, running to her as soon as his feet hit the ground.

“Angel!” Sloan shouted as her eyes closed, and he felt Alpha retreat, giving him control once again.