Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 103548 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103548 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
Ash was hauled out of the kitchen kicking and screaming. All pretense gone, Jabari stopped pretending she was anything other than a hostage, and chained her up too.
I watched all of this as I was yanked away from Paxton, and dragged across the floor to my awaiting manacles.
“Let me be clear.” Cygnus’s raspy, ruined throat made him sound even more sinister. “If there is one more interruption—if any one of you even twitches your finger—I’ll start with that bowtied brat in there!”
Bowtied brat. Cygnus was speaking about Ash’s son. Her youngest son.
“Am I clear!”
He was clear. No one moved. No one did anything, but cry.
I thought a broken bond was the worst pain I’d ever felt. That pain was a papercut compared to the agony of a dying one.
Paxton’s life. His hopes, his dreams, his mistakes, his regrets, his love and obsession with me... and his vision for our future. All of it flooded my mind, traveling down the new and strengthened bond—bringing my wolf back to life—and then it vanished. Blown out like a candlelight, the last traces of him I could’ve held on to faded away.
“Son, go on.” Cygnus nodded to his second-born. “Make me proud. Do your duty.”
Even though an alpha’s compulsion didn’t work on another alpha, he could’ve pretended and spun Badr some bullshit about taking me “gently” and “lovingly.” But with him, he didn’t pretend that’s what this was about.
A silent Badr crossed to me—as silent as he was when a man he once called a friend died. As silent as he was as he watched my friends be executed. Quick and efficiently, he peeled off his clothing and dropped down between my legs.
“Badr, please, don’t do this,” I rasped.
“Do not speak to him,” Cygnus ordered.
Badr didn’t even look me in the eye.
“Everything I told you was true,” I burst out. “You have to believe—”
“You will not be told again!”
“This isn’t you,” I cried. “You’re not like that monster in a suit. You believe in right and wrong. You—”
“Bring the boy,” Cygnus bellowed.
“No!” Ash and I screamed at once.
“Stop! I’ll do it, okay! I’ll do what you want, just leave them alone!”
Cygnus smiled at me—if such a vile contortion of his face could be called that. “Better. Continue, son.”
Badr jerked a firm nod in his direction. Placing his hands on either side of my head, he bent down, whispering in my ear, “This is for my brother.”
I bit hard on my lip, penning in a scream. I’m sorry, Castor. I’m sorry, Hope. I failed.
Badr clapped his hand over my eyes. “Alpha council of Wolf Nation, I challenge you to right of defeat.”
“Wha—”
“Now!”
Pure, bright beaming sunlight burst from his pores, bleeding through his fingers and dousing me in brilliant white light.
Screams and bellows went up all around me. I saw nothing, but heard everything.
“Orion, Edric, Nyx, get them!”
Chains rattled and hit the floor. In an instant, a blast of heat singed my skin. I felt it as keenly as the smooth, slithering somethings that wrapped around my body and tugged.
Vines.
I instinctively phased through the manacles, letting the vines lift me into the air and out of the melee. All I could do was gape down at the sight beneath me.
Edric wrapped a steel-plated Jabari in a vortex of wind, sucking the air from his lungs, and finishing the job Paxton started. Beside him, Orion stood over two smoldering, burnt-out corpses that I couldn’t begin to identify. He made short work of them, like he did the shrieking, burning secret police officers—in and out of the kitchen.
I heaved at the smell of charred skin in the air. Ripping away, I landed on Nyx. An eager writhing mass of vines wrapped around Denis’s and Hakim’s heads—squeezing, squeezing, squeezing—
Pop!
Their headless corpses flopped on the floor.
Elijah roared. Snatching up a sword, he ran at Badr—heaving the weapon high.
“Look out!” I shouted.
Nyx pounced. Shifting in a blink, he bounded behind the charging Elijah and snapped at the floor, raking up wood, boards, and Elijah’s still solid feet.
“Ahhh!” Elijah phased straight through the floorboards, disappearing into the cold and dark below—forever.
His weapon lay forgotten, marking his final resting place. Badr snatched it up... and turned on his father.
Cygnus stumbled blindly across the floor. “Stay back!” He blasted his sun power. “Don’t come fucking near me!” Claws ripping free, he wildly sliced the air—letting off his power like a lighthouse, sweeping it over all seeing and unseeing. “I am your leader. I am your king! Surrender and your death will be quick!”
Badr didn’t slow. “It’s over, Cygnus.”
“You stupid boy!” Spittle dotted the table, before he tripped over it. “I should’ve bitten your mewling head off in your crib! One look at you, and I knew you were worthless. Weak!” His frenzied swipes raked gashes across the table. “You have no idea what I tried to give you. Give all of Wolf Nation! You’ve destroyed our destiny for some delusional whore!”