Chapter 26.

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*Karabo's POV*

I turned over in bed, blinking as I woke up before immediately groaning and covering my eyes and face as bright morning light shone in past the curtains I had forgotten to close the previous evening. I must have been really out of it last night after trying to stay up all night because I could hear that Eli was still awake downstairs, but I must have fallen asleep somewhere in between and dreamt that...

Was that a dream? Him walking into my room and suddenly kissing me? It had to be. Why would he randomly change his attitude? The memory was so vivid though...

I pushed the blanket aside and got out of bed to begin making my way to the bathroom but stopped as I focused on our pull. I'd expected to feel him nearby, at the gym or in his office at the recreational hall because he chose to work there rather than at home so that he could avoid everyone, but it did not feel that way. The pull felt too far away for him to be anywhere on Galaxy grounds. Had he gone to the city nearby? No, he was moving in the opposite direction. Wait. The kiss had not been a dream, Eli was up to something. What did he mean when he said he was fixing himself?!

I felt panic fill my chest as my body tensed. He had come to the same conclusion I had, that they needed to be taken care of. He was going to try to take Nicholas on by himself. But he wasn't strong enough yet! I looked towards the door conflicted. He will need help, but he would not want it... and definitely not from me. He would be so mad if I help him. It didn't matter how he would feel about me stepping in though, I needed to. He could not handle them alone, not in his current state.

Could I really take him hating me more?

I would have to. If I didn't go after him, he would get hurt again. That was so much worse than having him be embarrassed or angry at me. I bit my lip as I pulled on a pair of trainers and went running downstairs.

"Karabo?" Eli's father's voice spoke up as I passed by the kitchen without addressing anyone.

"Track Eli, I have to go!" I called back to Corey while sprinting from the house. I ignored his confused and concerned calls for me as I headed into the forest.

I focused on Eli's pull hoping he had not found them or the other way around, but knowing him, he had. It would not be hard with his warlock powers.

I felt my eyes burn, less from the wind because of my speed and more because of the terror filling my chest. What was he thinking? He wasn't. He could not be. There's no way Nicholas, being the coward I had heard he was, would be alone. I should have known what Eli was going to do. I should have stayed up and spoken to him or followed him when he left my room, instead of falling asleep.

Damn it.

*Eli's POV*

I slowed down my running until I was walking slowly while focusing on the glow in my hand before my eyes moved to the trees around me. Nicholas was somewhere around there...

"You're really going to keep being a coward?" I spoke out loud. I could smell him behind me.

"Coward? You ran away, Eli." His voice confirmed his position.

I curled my fingers into a fist effectively making the glowing map disappear into it as I turned to him.

"Is your owner here?" I asked.

I could sense his energy; he wasn't even trying to hide it, probably because he thought it would intimidate me. It did, but I would never show him that. He had gotten so much stronger in so little time. Craig...

Nicholas gave an annoyed breath through his nose, "A few days home and you're back to your disrespectful self. Someone needs to be put back in their place." I clenched my teeth trying to hide how humiliated I was by the last few hours we saw each other.

"Are you going to let your friends fight me?" I asked calmly. I could smell a lot of different scents around us indicating that there were other wolves, most likely from different packs so I assumed they were rouges that partnered with him.

"Why would I do that? You're mine." He said before raising his hands as if he was signalling a surrender, "Look, I don't want to hurt you... again." he smirked, "I know you came out here for that but I'm offering you a chance to keep what little pride and self-respect you have... the very little bit you have left."

I was sick of talking and wasting time so instead of replying, I launched at him and slammed him against the tree before swinging my fist into his abdomen. I suddenly felt deeply hurt. We had known each other our entire lives and hung out countless times. To me, he had been a close friend. I was so angry at him, felt so betrayed. I punched him two more times before he blocked it as I tried to swing at him again, grabbed my hand and shoved me back.

"I thought Alphas recovered faster than other wolves." I tried to dodge his fist but he was a lot faster than I had expected and I stumbled a few paces back at the force of his blow to my cheek. He laughed, "Still convinced it's your place, Eli? I'm the Alpha." He said.

I predicted his next punch and easily dodged it while sliding behind him in one motion. The fact that he was now faster and stronger didn't change the fact that he was a terrible fighter to begin with. I grabbed his shoulders pulling him back before kneeing him in his back. He cried out at the pain and I lifted my arm to elbow him in his chest but was distracted by a sudden, sharp pain in my leg. I let Nicholas go to kick the wolf – who felt way too powerful for his small shape and obvious gamma wolf status – away and that was all it took to send him running into the trees, I figured he was just distracting me and turned was right about that because Nicholas did exactly what I had done to him while my back was turned to him. I hid how much my back hurt from the impact of his knee as I fell onto the grass and tried to get up quickly but he didn't give me a chance to.

I tried my best to block and retaliate as he dove at me, swinging punches without any hesitation but I couldn't do much except occasionally create a second of space between us while I tried to back away.

I was trying to convince myself to keep fighting but a louder voice in my head was telling me that I was clearly too weak to. That I wasn't the Alpha here. I began wondering about whether I should even try to stop him if he decided to kill me or just let him because I couldn't take it anymore. The humiliation, the trust and belief I'd lost from my pack, the pain I'd caused Karabo and the constant worrying and panic I'd felt recently. It would be easier not to deal with any of it. As my back hit a tree, I gave up trying to get away from him.

His punches stopped almost as soon as I'd stopped trying to escape and we were quiet for a few seconds as I avoided his eyes feeling my body ache and my chest burn with hatred. Mostly for myself.

I lifted my hand to wipe the blood running down my chin onto my palm and licked my lip to find that the cut had already healed only to have Nicholas's fist slam into my face again before his fingers gripped my neck to shove me further against the tree while his other hand pinned me back by my shoulder. I glared up at him as he leaned over me. His fingers moved from my neck to trail onto my face and I grit my teeth as he wiped some blood from my cheek with his thumb. He gave a light chuckle as his hand moved to cup my face, his eyes studying mine almost as if he felt sorry reminded me of what Tamia had said and it made my stomach twist.

"What a shame it would be to kill you... I could make you strong again, you know. Stronger than you ever were, Eli." He said. His eyes held an excited spark as he stared at me, "I can forgive you... give you a chance. Craig told me what he said to you... we can lead together. I'll give you one more chance to join us. Don't make me have to kill you." I kicked my leg out, tripping him and causing him to fall onto his back with a surprised gasp before I jumped onto him and began punching him.

"I fucking trusted you," I said. Serves me right for being so stupid and trusting of everyone in our pack. "How could you do this to me?!" He shoved me off of him and I grit my teeth as he retaliated with punches while I tried to block and hit him back again until I was on my back and he was standing above me. He grabbed my collar lifting my back off the ground as he leaned down to me.

"I fucking loved you," he glared at me, "but I wasn't powerful enough to earn your attention was I, Eli? How about now, huh? How about now?!" I waited for the impact of his next attack but instead fell back onto my back as his grip suddenly ripped away from me. My head turned to see Karabo and Nicholas exchanging blows. Well, more Karabo than Nicholas.

Where...? This was my fight! What was he even doing there?!

I shoved myself off the ground to interrupt their brawl but spotted movement behind my mate and the only thing that mattered in that instant was making sure his back was clear while he was busy. I began fighting wolves that were unusually strong for just being normal gamma wolves but they were not nearly as strong as Nicholas. Figures. He wanted to be the Alpha. How were they even so strong?

'What are you doing here?' I linked to my mate as I fought. There were so many of them and I was beginning to tire. I had not even fully recovered from the previous fight with Nicholas. Somewhere into their fight, more wolves had joined us and Nicholas had escaped his fight with Karabo while my mate was being kept busy by the new arrivals. I couldn't see him anywhere; he had made a run for it... Why was he running? Apart from Karabo, he had to be the strongest wolf in that forest. I grabbed a wolf's head and smashed my foot into his chest hearing a snap at his spine when his head ripped off before I tossed it aside and fought my next couple of wolves, Karabo's approach was visibly less brutal; he was just knocking out everyone that attacked him. They woke up, and he had to fight them again. I could feel his frustration growing.

'Saving your ass.' I caught a glimpse of him from the corner of my eye and saw him smirk lightly but his smirk fell when I tried to dodge a punch but my fatigue was getting to me and I got hit.

'I'm fine.' I assured him as I killed the wolf that had hit me before I fell back against a tree finally having some time to breathe and praying there were no more wolves. Of course, the rest was short-lived and I dodged a knife as it was thrown into the tree right beside my head. There he is.

"I thought you'd run away," I said looking up at Nicholas as he strolled towards me.

"From you? Him?" he motioned to Karabo without turning to look at him, "Who the hell is he? Look at you, Eli, you can't even fight gammas." He said, "I realise now that the only good thing I saw in you is gone. You're not powerful, Eli, and you're nothing without it." I clenched my teeth trying not to let him get to me but he already had because I knew he was right. It hurt but it was the truth. "So –"

"Enough!" I jumped to fight a wolf as Karabo attacked Nicholas again; trying to convince myself I still had enough energy to fight. I didn't really have a choice. I glanced at my mate as I fought, he was visibly livid. Why was I making him fight? He hated it. I turned back to my own fight but felt uneasy and had to keep glancing at Karabo to find that he had gotten Nicholas down and was furiously punching him. Was it him?

I couldn't explain how I felt seeing him like that, I could feel that it was him, and yet I couldn't recognise him.

*Karabo's POV*

I swung my fist non-stop into Nicholas's face, even after I realised he wasn't fighting back and his face was already pretty badly smashed, my hands covered in hot, sticky liquid. I still saw red. I couldn't calm myself down. When I tried to, all I felt was the hurt of having Eli close off to everyone, hearing him at night when he was supposed to be sleeping, starving himself, blaming himself, hurting himself. I remembered every time he jumped at the slightest sound and tried to hide it, all his cautiousness, all his anger, all his sadness and my own anger combined with my wolf's would only grow. Only one thing could make me calm down: it was knowing that whoever did that to him paid. I had to kill this guy. It was the only way I knew Eli wouldn't have to deal with him anymore. All the punching and kicking just wasn't working, it wasn't helping knowing he was still breathing, still healing. I was oblivious to everything around me except my current need to kill Nicholas. I felt my wolf growl and glanced at Nicholas's chest before I lifted my hand to plunge it into his chest but I was suddenly knocked off of him forcefully.

I landed, rolling on the grass before turning onto my hands and knees and immediately looked back expecting to see Nicholas either gone or escaping with one of his men but I saw Eli above him. I watched surprised as an exhausted Eli slammed his hand down into Nicholas before pulling back out covered in crimson liquid. He pushed himself off Nicholas to sit on the grass while dropping the heart beside the body he had ripped it from before leaning his head into his arms as he sighed.

He must have thought I would let Nicholas go... Why didn't he trust me? Well... I would have let Nicholas go in any other situation... I was such a soft Alpha.

"I-I would have done it. I wouldn't have let him go." I said pushing myself to sit up and move over to him. "I swear, Eli, I wasn't going to let him esca –"

"I know. I didn't want you to kill him," he replied.

"Why not? I –"

"That's not you," Eli lifted his head to look at me. I stared back at him still confused, "That is you." he pointed to all the wolves that were knocked out around us and I felt my anger subside seeing a tiny smile form on his face as he looked at the scene before moving his gaze back to me but his eyes instantly widened. "MOVE!"

Before I could even attempt to, I felt something slam through my back painfully. Looking down as sharp pain filled my abdomen, I saw the sharp end of a jagged edge sword covered in blood protruding from my stomach. I screamed in agony as it was pulled out of me swiftly, it felt as though it had further sliced through me. I clutched my abdomen feeling the wound burn like crazy as I tried to keep breathing properly despite the pain. Wolfsbane? It felt the searing pain was getting worse instead of healing.

Wait, I couldn't just sit there. They were still behind me.

I began to move but let out a gasp as I was stabbed again. My head began to spin as I raised a trembling hand to the blade piercing through me but my fingers burned as they neared it. No. No. I had to go home...

The burning only spread and I couldn't lift my head as I looked up at a stunned Eli through my eyelashes.

At least I knew Nicholas was dead.

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