Chapter 79 – Owned by the Alphas Novel Free by Jen Cooper

Filed to story: Owned by the Alphas Novel

He was grinning. He was meant to be standing, but he was knelt down in front of me.

I looked down between us, gasping as the pain of his blade registered. He had cut down my arm with the sacrificial dagger as I had stuck his shoulder with mine. I hadn’t been quick enough.

Blood spilled from the cut as long as my forearm, and I fell back. Elias stood up over me, smirking as he licked the red from the blade.

I shivered, my body going cold as I held my arm, trying to stop the bleeding. I tore the bottom of my shirt off with my teeth before wrapping it around the cut, my movements fast and shaky.

I tried to use my erratic thoughts, but all I could think about was how I was losing and what was going to happen if I let Elias win.

If I failed, he might kill my alphas. I believed in them, but I also knew how powerful he was.

I looked over to him, frowning as he retreated back to the fireplace. He stood there, highlighted by the flames, my brother who wasn’t my brother.

I stood on shaky legs, my head swimming, my skin bruised, my clothes bloodied. I felt as bad as I looked, and I was pretty sure he knew that.

My shadows were weakening, something in the dagger making sure they were being drained with my blood.

He was still grinning, but his eyes went to the pentagram I stood in. I looked down to where my blood mixed in with it, a pool in the middle that now connected all the lines.

My head snapped to him as he chuckled darkly.

“Just a little of your blood, that was all I needed.” He grinned. “And the final sacrifice of course.”

He beamed before he buried the sacrificial dagger into the stomach of my brother.

“No!” I screamed, and my shadows burst out of me, going for the dagger.

I barely had a thought before my shadows threw the dagger across the room. I ran for my brother, falling to the ground with him as he looked up at me.

“He’s gone,” my brother whispered, blood coating his white lips.

I held my hand over his stomach that was pumping blood out of the wound. I tried to stop it, but there was too much. Tears fell from my eyes as I held him.

“Just hold on. I’ll help you,” I begged, but he shook his head, his eyelids drooping, his skin growing cold.

“You can’t. You have to stop him. He needed a winter born body and blood to complete the ritual.”

“Which he just got,” I realized, my heart racing, knowing it wasn’t over, that he was about to be more powerful thanks to whatever he had just done.

“You were meant to be the body, your shadows are stronger, but I heard his thoughts, Lorelai. He couldn’t beat you. He was giving you everything he had. He wasn’t showing it, but you were tapping him out.

“His shadows aren’t as loyal as yours, they won’t keep fighting once they tire. Yours will. He knew you’d outlast him, so he changed his plan. But it doesn’t matter now, he got what he wanted,” Lucas wheezed before coughing, spatters of blood landing on his pale skin.

“What does he want, Lucas? What was the ritual?” I demanded, and Lucas’s eyes closed. I shook him back awake, and he met my gaze.

“He’s human again. He brought his body back; he doesn’t need a host. He’s more powerful.”

“No, that’s impossible.”

“Before the final battle, he bribed a witch into putting a brand on him. It kept his body healthy. He knew eventually there would be another winter born. All he had to do was wait.”

Lucas breathed harshly, and I looked over my shoulder, checking the crypt, but I couldn’t see anything. I had no idea where he had gone, and that was scarier than if he was standing right behind me.

“I need to go find him. You have to stay alive, Lucas, I’ll save you. Just keep pressure on it,” I urged, laying him down and ripping off some of his shirt to hold over his own wound.

He nodded weakly, but his eyes closed. “I love you, Lorelai. I hate that you love the wolves, but I still love you,” he said quietly.

I clenched my eyes shut, tears falling, my heart aching so bad I almost heard my alphas howl through the link. They had to be close by now.

I leaned down and kissed Lucas on the cheek. “I love you, Lucas. Stay alive. I’ll finish this,” I promised, then stood up, determined to end this once and for all.

Elias was dying tonight. Permanently.

He may be more powerful with his shadows, but now he had a body I could hurt.

He was a human, just like me, and he’d bleed like one too.

I just had to make sure he didn’t come back by destroying that brand that kept his body so this could never happen again.

I turned away from my brother, about to leave the crypt, when Elias came down the stairs, brushing dirt off his worn clothes, a smirk on his face, his shadows swirling around him.

I clenched my jaw and my fists, glaring at him. I picked up my dagger and readied myself against him.

This time was different. I wasn’t intimidated, scared, or worrying about hurting my brother. Now I had a fire in me that demanded revenge for everyone Elias had ever hurt, including my brother.

Maybe Lucas had been wrong to do what he did, he shouldn’t have said yes, but no one ever told us anything about the shadows, only how bad they were, how horrible we were for being winter born and possibly having them.

Not that they could be good or help us.

If we had known a decision like that existed maybe he would have chosen differently.

Maybe the humans did need to change a few things, maybe the wolves needed to, it didn’t mean Elias could force everyone’s hand through fear and murder.

I was done being diplomatic about it.

“Now’s the perfect time for you to surrender. Stick the dagger in you and let your shadows find mine. I’ll make sure everyone knows of your sacrifice,” Elias said, his voice higher than I expected after hearing him as my brother.

I shook my head, my eyes narrowing. “If you want me dead, you’re going to have to do it yourself.”

“Oh no, I don’t fight like a barbarian. I fight like a winner. Dirty.”

He grinned before his shadows were on me. They pushed me back, surrounding me so I couldn’t see Elias, the crypt, or my brother.

But I didn’t panic. The link with my wolves was growing stronger. I didn’t know whether that was because of how confident I was now or whether they were close, but it did help.

I drew on their magic, making my shadows much stronger. I blasted them out from me, pinning Elias’s shadows to the walls of the crypt.

They hissed and squealed, but mine kept them there. It was hard, they were strong, but I didn’t need much of my strength to kill him now. He was essentially human, no shadows to cry to. No shadows to protect him.

And he knew it too.

He was frowning, straining as I walked forward with a smirk, twisting the dagger in my hands. His shadows pushed harder on mine, but they stayed pinned against the crypt.

I stood in front of Elias, who was glaring with a clenched jaw.

“Shall we do this like barbarians?” I snickered, and he growled.

“You want to defend humans? Pretend like you are doing this for them? Then why don’t you fight like one, hmm?” I antagonized, kicking his blade toward him.

He picked it up quickly and held it out. I grinned and got into a fighting stance, holding my dagger out, ready to sink it into his flesh. He copied what I did, his feet apart, a long stride, knees bent, arm up, ready to strike.

And that’s when I saw it. The brand. A red, lumpy brand like a burned-in welt, the shape of a pentagram resting on the inner part of his forearm.

I grinned and charged for him.

He could fight better than I thought he would be able to, but it was sparring for me.

I held his shadows, the fight easier because he couldn’t concentrate on both things.

And the fact that he thought I was going for his heart or a fatal stab.

But I wasn’t. I was going to destroy that brand on his arm.

He shoved me back as I got closer before I swung and swiped on the attack, determined to take him down. He kept on the defense before his blade nicked my face. I winced and stumbled back, wiping the dripping blood away. Lucky shot.

I went in again, not letting him recover the breaths he was trying to take. Finally he fucked up, and my dagger sliced through the brand. He cried out and fell to his knees, holding his arm.

Karma’s a bitch.

I stood over him as he glared, breathing hard.

“No safety net, no coming back from the dead.” I glared at him, and he grunted, getting back to his feet with a scowl. But there was a fear there now that hadn’t been there before.

Good. It was how I had come into this, and now that the tables had turned, I knew I had to be done with it.

<< Previous Chapter

 

Next Chapter >>

---