It wasn’t deadly, but it was horribly painful and degrading to an alpha. A broken tail was a sign that he was too weak to defend himself, that his pride had been insulted. That made him angry, and I knew I’d hit the mark.
A tired, insulted shifter wouldn’t think logically. He was out for blood, and that would give me my opening to end it.
He charged me head-on, jaws wide as he went for my throat. But I saw it coming a mile away and dove down, twisting my body as I skidded beneath him. He soared over me harmlessly, but I didn’t miss.
I clamped on to his bottom jaw, my momentum snapping it as I dragged it with me in the opposite direction. His howl of pain rang through the forest, and I knew I had won.
I leapt on his back, biting for his spinal cord as I bore him down to the ground beneath me. I paused, teeth primed for the kill as one of his more loyal pack mates dove toward me in a lawless, last-ditch effort to save his Alpha.
He never made it to me.
Petr?’s second, Valens, dove over the circle of wolves, collaring the imbecile and dragging him back out of the ring.
Petr? Varga’s life ended as he deserved: defeated and in the dirt.
Not a wolf dared howl to mourn his passing as they looked on, watching me shake their leader into the afterlife like a rag doll.
I was tempted to piss on his body as he had threatened to do to me, but I didn’t want to stoop to his level. It had been a clean fight, and he’d lost. The driving force behind all these attacks was gone, and there was only one threat remaining.
I looked up, the red haze of battle still clouding my vision as I searched for Dominik. But he wasn’t where I left him.
For one second, I thought the coward had run. But when I spotted him, the reality was much, much worse.
A naked, human Olivia was in his arms, her back pressed against his chest, his claw-tipped hand clamped over her mouth to keep her from screaming out and getting my attention.
Valens stood furiously a few feet away, eyes glowing with rage at his own pack mate.
“Put the girl down, Dominik,” he barked, but Petr?’s bastard cousin didn’t flinch. The sick son of a bitch grinned.
“I don’t think I will, Valens. You see, the second I put this little hottie down, he’s going to charge me and rip my throat out like he did my cousin. And while you stand on honor, I don’t. In my world, winning is staying alive.”
I shifted effortlessly, and once again, I stood as a man. “Your hands are on my mate, Dominik. If what you’d already done wasn’t enough, this alone would seal your death warrant. Put her down unharmed, or I’ll make what you did to me look like a baby’s first art project.”
He laughed, head thrown back and shoulders shaking. His gaze was demented when it met mine again. “You really haven’t figured it out, have you?” He shook his head. “You’ll never be like me, Lucien. Your threats are just petty tantrums. Mine? They’re real.”
I watched in slow motion as his other clawed hand came to Olivia’s throat, resting just above her breastbone. As she struggled weakly, all five claws sank into her pale, perfect skin and ripped straight down to her navel. I was moving, my body and brain disconnected by the horror as she fell, her blood running like a river that I knew was too much.
I dove to catch her head and shoulders, Dominik forgotten as I cradled my mate in my arms. Her eyes were wide with shock, her soft red hair a halo around her rapidly paling face.
“Olivia, no,” I sobbed, tears falling freely as her lips began to turn blue. “Don’t leave me, please!” I brushed my thumbs over her cheekbones as I begged, a man in torment. Glancing down at her wounds only confirmed what I didn’t want to know in my chest. There was no surviving it, not even for a wolf. She was going to die in my arms, and I didn’t have her skills to stop it.
When it really mattered, I was completely, utterly helpless.
Her cold, shaking hand pressed against my cheek, and I cupped it, savoring every last moment even as my wolf demanded that I do something, anything.
She knew. The look in her eyes was acceptance, not fear. She wet her lips with her tongue, tried and failed to speak.
I leaned down, closer, so I could hear whatever she was trying to say.
“I’m… sorry. I wanted to be yours. More than anything, I wanted to be yours.” My heart shattered into a million pieces. Her dying words. She wanted to be mine.
Her hand fell from my cheek, and something feral and wild came over me, something uncontrollable. I didn’t want her to die. I couldn’t let her slip away. She was mine, and I was nothing without her light, nothing but darkness and pain. And if she was going to die, I was going to go with her into the afterlife. Without her light, my life meant nothing.
I held her to my lips and sank my teeth into her throat, right where she’d wanted.
Her pulse was weak, her heart barely stuttering, but I held on for us both.
Take me instead! I demanded, taunting the Goddess herself. It was enough.
The moment our bond snapped partially into place, Olivia’s pain radiated through my body, and I fell at her side, still cradling her to my chest.
“I’m so sorry, hellcat.” The words were nothing but a rasp of pain as the cold she felt sucked me under with her. “You deserved so much better. And I’m sorry. I love you.”
Her blood bathed me as the light faded around us.
I leaned into the abyss, arms wide open as I welcomed the end.
Olivia
Something was very, very wrong. Everything had faded, my body had gone cold and numb, and I knew it was shutting down. The wounds were too grave for my brain to process the pain, so it shut off. Protecting me at the end, a simple mercy of biology.
Lucien had told me he loved me, finally, and then everything had gone cold. But someone was burning me. My neck felt like someone held a torch to it, and I just wanted it to end.
I thought dying would be less painful, not more. But the burn only increased, and I tried to scream, but no sound came out. Desperate, I clawed the ground, longing for the cool earth to stop it.
Help me! I cried out, and Mother Earth answered my call.
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