Filed to story: Owned by the Alphas Novel
My fingers dug into Derik harder as it stole my breath, the ache searing down my legs, but I refused to let her see it.
I stood still, using my alphas on either side of me to keep me grounded. I knew I didn’t have long before my will wouldn’t matter because our child was coming, but I had to last as long as I could.
Adrenna brushed her hair back from her face with her talons and eyed me before taking a deep breath and letting Kai up.
She nodded toward me. “Go to your mate, Alpha. It may be the last night you spend with her. Wouldn’t want you to miss the big event.”
She chuckled, then watched through a sly smirk as Kai backed up toward me, refusing to turn his back on her.
He tried to shield me with his big body, but I pulled him back, taking slow breaths to help with the pain that was becoming more taxing on my body.
“I’m sorry about what happened to you, but the wolves did not cause it. The witches turned you away, not us,” I tried, and she cackled loudly, her hand going to her chest as she arched into the noise.
“Oh, dearie, how kind, but the thing is, the witches don’t care about much. The only thing they have ever cared about is their stupid balance.
“Now, unless things have changed in the last hundred years I have been held in my prison world, you wolves are the very reason they hold so much power over that balance,” she said, and I hated that it was the truth.
They gave the wolves their power to counteract the necromancer magic of the vampires. To keep the balance.
“So now we must be punished?”
“Well. If it was up to me, then no. But to get out, I did have to make a deal with a powerful being that really likes the taste of werewolf.” She grinned, and I sucked in a breath.
“Who pulls your strings, witch?” Derik demanded, and she looked straight at me, pointing a long taloned finger.
“She knows.” Adrenna smirked playfully.
“Vampires,” I whispered, the image of Silas stuck in my head.
Beenie’s picture, their refusal to help. It all made sense, and yet, I still couldn’t accept it.
My alphas tensed, the wolves growled, and Kai’s snarl ripped through the air as Adrenna swirled her sand in a threatening swarm behind her like angry bees, waiting for their queen to give the order.
“Clever little winter born. Years ago, Silas saved me from a wretched fate worse than death. He gave me something to hold on to. He showed me mercy when no other would.
“Those witches left me bleeding out, leaching magic, and they didn’t care because I dared to fall in love with someone they didn’t approve of. Like the heart has a choice.
“They exiled me with all the races present on top of that godforsaken mountain, and not one of them stopped it. Until Silas.
“He knelt down as the magic took me and offered me a lifeline. I had to promise to help him take down the werewolves and claim the realm if he helped me get out of my prison.
“I agreed, and he branded me before I was taken.”
She sighed, then started pacing.
I sucked in a breath as she spoke, my contractions getting worse.
I knew I couldn’t stay here, I had to find somewhere safe to birth, but she was giving us all the answers we had been asking for, so I shut my mouth tight and pulled strength from my alphas.
They held me up, stroking my back, my arm, my hand. I forced myself to be silent in the pain, the mating link drenched with a begging that I couldn’t help.
It wanted them to do more, to stop the pain, but that wasn’t going to happen until our son was born. Which felt like it might be soon.
“So you waited?” I prompted, and she nodded.
“I had to. Silas was a master at stalling, always coming up with excuses.
“Until the blood moon came. The realm shook, even mine, and we both knew it was time. That fool of a human.”
She kicked my father’s clothes for dramatic effect, and I had to admit, it had me grimacing.
“He was weak-minded, easy to manipulate, and with the promise of power and riches, fell for every line we fed him. I told Silas what to teach him, the word to say that he was forbidden from.
“And then I had him sacrificing his people to me, feeding my magic, distracting the beast so when my world broke, I could escape.
“It worked. You have been chasing your tails ever since.” She eyed us. “No pun intended.”
She cackled, then looked over all of us, the air tense with what she might do and what we had to protect ourselves from.
I urged my magic to work with me, but it hovered around my stomach.
It needed to be with me and the baby to get us through the birth, I knew that just from the feelings it gave me, but the urge to use it was so strong.
How could we just let her have everything she wanted? How could we let the wolves go, to her?
“Now, you lot look like you are about to be very busy, and I have a border to break.”
She laughed manically and hoisted her skirts up before her black sand followed her back toward the gates.
“Wait,” I said, “the border? Why do you want it down?”
“Because I have to. As long as I am the one who wants it down, Silas won’t get the witches’ wrath. It was his condition. I do this one last thing and then I am free.”
She grinned, her wide mouth so creepy with its sharp teeth and red lips. Her eyes were red too, a wavering red that looked like it was moving.
I shuddered at the sight of it, but that might be the betrayal from Silas stabbing me.
He had played us all, the witches, the wolves, the humans. The whole time he had a plan, one that we played along to without paying him any of the attention he deserved.
The witch climbed up on my father’s horse and flicked her dress out over its back before peering over her shoulder.
“I’ll be seeing you, wolves. Don’t go anywhere.” She winked, then her eyes went bright red, glowing.
The black sand swirled, and we all stepped back. The sand pulled the humans back up, bloodied and broken corpses with red eyes that started snarling.
“This should keep you busy. Have a nice birth, winter born!”
She cackled, and then she was gone, riding out of the city without a care in the world while the humans–that weren’t human any longer–attacked.
The wolves ran past us, snarling and ripping their teeth through the “humans” as another pain filled my stomach.
I sucked in a breath, almost letting it take me down. Kai turned and picked me up.
“Inside!” Kai nodded toward Galen, and he shifted back, slowly and reluctantly, but he did it, and that was all I needed to see to finally be sure that he would not hurt my mother.
“Get the humans out here, they can fight these things with the pack.” Derik started shouting orders. “We need to get somebody to that border. Send half the pack there, we can’t let her take it down.”
“We’d be sending distractions, she’s too powerful,” Cain said, but Kai shook his head.
“Not if you and Beenie go. Take head on this, take our best. Stop her from taking down that border,” he growled, but Cain shook his head.
“Didn’t you hear me? She’s too powerful. The only thing that is going to slow her down is alpha magic,” Cain urged as we moved up the stairs to the mansion, leaving the sound of howling and screaming behind.
I curled into Kai, clenching my eyes shut, wishing I wasn’t so useless right now, but the pain, the deep ache in my bones kept me focused on getting the baby out, and it had to be my priority.
“We can’t leave Lorelai. Not now,” Derik said as we burst into the mansion and they slammed the doors shut.
My mother came rushing out with the women who were going to fight.
“They’re going to help,” Mom said, and Kai nodded.
“Stay in pairs, don’t get bit, and if you get tired, then hide in one of the buildings.
We’ll find you as soon as we can,” he said, letting them out.
The women of my village, who used to shudder at anything that didn’t include cross-stitch or gardening, wielded their swords and weapons like they had been born for it, running into the thick of the battle to fight alongside the werewolves in a way that made me so proud of Mom.
She had gotten them there, she had made it happen, and we might just survive because of it.
“Where’s Vaughn?” Ryleigh ran out, holding her stomach, her face pouring with tears.
I looked over her as Brax stopped her getting closer. “You knew it wasn’t him.”
“No. I just knew he was different. Then he said he would take me to the other girls and locked me in a cupboard. Your mom only just found me and let me out.
New Book: Veiled Desires of the Alpha King Novel
Dayson was the alpha of the largest pack in North America. Powerful figures from other packs sought to offer gorgeous girls as potential mates for Dayson. He steadfastly rejected these advances, he was not a pawn to be manipulated. But eventually there came a mysterious girl he could hardly say No. Who was she?