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)
Badr scoffed, narrowing in on his flailing prey like a hunter—a wolf. “This is the part where I give some long, whiny, tearful speech about how you abandoned me, treated me like second to worst, and tortured me with your cruelty.
“Right about now is when I say all the magic words that suddenly gets you to hear all that you’ve ignored, and you’ll go to your death finally carrying the guilt and shame you never felt in life,” he said, “or at least that’s the abused, neglected-kid fantasy you deluded yourself into thinking I’m living in.
“Here’s the thing, Cygnus: I’ve never given a flying fuck that you think I’m worthless or weak. You’re a pathetic, moral-less, sack of shit who ran away from your responsibilities with your tail between your legs. Why in the hell would I want your approval on the man I am? You’re not even a man yourself.”
“Argh!” Cygnus roared, charging claws-raised in the direction of his voice.
Badr snapped to the side and tripped him, sending him skidding across the floor on his face.
“I don’t have a father. I never did,” Badr said, his voice calm and placid like a still lake. “But I did have a brother, and I do have a daughter, and I will have a strong, beautiful, and terrifying mate who stands up for what’s right no matter what it costs her.”
If I wasn’t already speechless, I would’ve been then. Me? Badr was talking about me?
“But you know what?” His lips peeled back from his lengthening canines. Gold bleached his eyes. “I’m fucking tired of her losing who and what she loves, so how about for a change, the one who loses everything in this fight for destiny... is you.”
Cygnus was bellowing before Badr lifted his sword. Speed-healing returned his gift of sight, allowing him that one final chance to look in his son’s hate-filled eyes before the blade fell.
Badr sliced through his chest, piercing his heart in one blow. He walked away before the light disappeared from Cygnus’s eyes, leaving him to die the way he chose to live—cold and alone.
Badr stood on the spot where they held me, looking right into the cameras. “I, Edric Blaze, Nyx Drach, and Orion Hayes challenged the alpha council through right of defeat. Are there any here who dispute this victory or the result?”
Breath catching, I stared down at the scene from my viney trap. An alpha once challenged my father to a right of defeat contest—another way of saying a fight to the death. My father won but then he needed the alphas who witnessed the fight to support that it was a true victory deserving of a champion, and that he didn’t just get lucky. If they didn’t support him, he would’ve lost what he killed to defend—making the whole thing pointless.
I studied the only alphas left alive in the room. Rianna Ash—who very much didn’t approve of twentysomething-year-olds who hadn’t graduated from the academy, taking on leadership positions they didn’t earn.
Sol Drach—Nyx’s younger brother, and future clan leader, who seized on the first opportunity to destroy and publicly humiliate his brother.
Miriam Clarke—who was listening to them speak of victories while her only son lay dead in the shadow of a dented throne.
They’re going to say no. Of course they’re going to say no.
My wolf, newly awaken and revitalized, agreed.
I have to do something. Say something! This can’t have all been for nothing.
My lips parted. “Everyone, I—”
“I accept and support your victory,” Miriam rasped as she rose to her feet, and went straight to her son.
“I accept and support your victory, brother.” Sol dusted himself off, rolling his neck. “Although, I would’ve defeated them better, faster, and more efficiently. Still, it’s good to see you’re not such a pansy ass after all.”
Nyx’s growls lit the air, making Sol growl right back. Oh no, those two would never like each other.
“I...” Ash stepped out of the kitchen, holding her sons tight to her side. “I don’t believe you four are old enough or wise enough to take on a role so important as councilmen,” she said, surprising me not in the least. “But—”
But?
“But only an hour ago, I thought those seven were, so what the fuck do I know?” Ash kissed her sons on the foreheads, bringing them in close. “I thank you, boys, more than I can say. And I accept and support your victory.”
“There you have it,” Edric addressed the cameras. “We’re your alpha council now, so sit back, await our new and not-up-for-questioning laws, and for those of you still involved in Project Destiny... run.”
He swept a hand, blasting the cameras into the walls.
That done, Nyx lowered me down. I touched down on the floor and immediately ran to Paxton, throwing myself down on his chest. His mother knelt on his other side, holding his hand and crying.