Maddox's POV
Blake's mother volunteered to be questioned first. Unwilling to expose them to King Casper's cruel temper and the accusing gaze of their pack mates I took back to the packhouse the back way, sneaking in through the cellar. The dungeon wasn't the most comfortable place to be interrogated for a crime worthy of banishment or execution by a man you looked upon as your own son but it would keep their secret from the rest of the pack until they had time to process.
"In here," I said softly, guiding Mrs Elliot into the largest of our three cells. Kayla grabbed a spare blanket from one of the other cells. She rested the folded blanket on the cold, stone bench which stretched across the back wall of the cell, making a cushioned seat for Blake's mom. She threw the other blanket around her shoulders protecting her vulnerable frame from the wicked breeze flowing through the barred windows. Mrs Elliot hu
Maddox's POVSamson barrelled into the cell, barging into my shoulder as he passed. The chair I sat on spun sideways crashing to the ground as I jumped to my feet. Samson dropped to the bench, scowling at me, his arms folded across his chest and his jaw clenched."What do you want?" He snarled."I apologise in advance for the questions I need to ask," I said trying to smooth things over. Samson scowled in response. "Did you know Henry was alive?""Do you see his dead body laying at my feet?" Samson hissed. "My father betrayed my family. The next time I see him he's a dead man.""So you haven't been in touch with him since he left?""No, Mason, I haven't been in touch with him. Have you been in touch with your father? Has your grandad?""Not that I'm aware," I said fighting to keep my building frustration from edging into my tone. "But my family will be questioned next.""By who? B
Maddox's POV"Really?" Blake grabbed my shoulder spinning me to face him. His face was drawn and tired, his brow crinkled with concern. "You're really doing this now? After I've just found out my father betrayed you're gonna put me through this?""I'm not going to kill your brother," I said shrugging his hand off my shoulder. "I would never do that to you. I made it clear the challenge was not to death.""It's not Samson I'm worried about," Blake hissed grabbing my shoulder again. "Look, I know I should have told you but Sammy's been building his own army. Mad, he trains every day. Hard.""Thanks for the vote of confidence," I huffed."Call it off, Maddox, this is suicide," Lena begged grabbing at my hand. "I do not want to abandon my pack.""Then don't," I frowned."Then don't force me to serve under Samson. The guy is insane. I'd rather be rogue than live under him.""Hey, he's my brother, remember?" Bl
Kayla's POVTime seemed to slow down. My body refused to move as quickly as I commanded it to. Will and Blake struggled to hold Maddox up. His glassy eyes stared ahead, unseeing."Lena," I begged, "I can't lose him.""He's lost a lot of blood," Lena said, "and Shadow can't heal him. I'm sorry, Kayla.""Bull," Blake snapped. "He's stronger than this Lena and you know it. He promised me it wasn't a fight to the death. He promised."A heavy lump formed in my throat.Maddox's grandparents raced towards us. His grandfather scooped his lifeless body into his arms and sprinted into the woods."Send the Lycan boy to meet the witch," his grandfather called back, "bring her to my cabin. He wouldn't want the pack to see him like this."When we reached his grandparent's cabin Maddox was laid on the sofa, glazed eyes still open, his arm flopped over the edge and blod dripping in a steady flow from his side landing in a stic
Maddox's POVThe scent of Kayla washing over me brought me back from the darkness. Her soft touch brushed my side. Her silky hair brushed my cheek as she dropped something sweet into my mouth."Help me to help you, Maddox," she whispered as she rubbed a warming lotion onto my skin. "Fight. Fight to live."Whatever she poured into my mouth woke Shadow."Our mate needs us," he growled. His pain mixed into mine, whirling around me in a tornado of agony as he strained to heal my wound. Kayla's touch, the pastes she patted into my injury warmed my frozen skin. My limbs were numb and heavy. No matter how much I fought to move, to speak, to focus my vision my body refused to co-operate. The pain was more than I could bear. It consumed every inch of my body racing through like wildfire. My blood boiled like acid in my veins. Each beat my heart made forced more of the wolfsbane around my system.Ka
Maddox's POV A few of my pack loitered in the hall strolling between the kitchen and the dining hall. Casper's voice boomed from the office. Will stood guard outside the door. "Casper sent everyone back to their cabins after Gage sent reinforcements to help guard your territory," Will explained the unusual silence after the chatter and bustle of the last few days. "Casper has no right to make that call," I growled. Mountain Ridge was my pack, the people mine to protect. Since his arrival Casper had slowly chipped away at my power, questioning the loyalty of my pack and my every move. "That's what I said," Will shrugged, "but, I have no right to be challenging your King, that's on you." I nodded making my way to the office. Lena, Blake and Kayla followed. "Finally," Casper growled as we opened the door and filtered inside. He paced the small room with his arm
Maddox's POVBlake grinned up from the blaring screen in front of him."Done," he said as he finished tapping keys. "It's posted.""Great," I sighed. Casper pursed his lips, his head shaking. He was the only one who raised concerns out loud about us posting werewolf business on a human trinket like the internet. Gage thought it was a brilliant idea. No one else really understood him as far as I could tell."So, I can like make friends on this thing?" Princess Serena asked peering over Blake's shoulder with wide eyes."Uh-huh," Blake confirmed. "It's how Will and Amber met.""You mean I can find a mate using this thing?" She jabbed a finger at the screen."Kinda," Blake said, spinning in his chair to face her. "I'll show you later.""Cool," her blue eyes widened to the size of dinner plates. She cooed at the screen as if it had just performed a groundbreaking magic trick."So what now?" I aske
Maddox's POV Willow's heartwrenching sobs echoed through the dusty library. Her tears soaked Kayla's shoulders as she hugged the witch tight. Casper shuffled from foot to foot. Gage loitered behind the embracing women, his gaze shifted down. The sun had long since dipped behind the trees outside. The flickering orange glow of candlelight bounced off the walls, shimmering in Kayla's deep chestnut hair. Willow's wavy mane was thinner, duller, lacking the shine of Kayla's but the shade matched exactly. Willow's knees buckled, she folded in Kayla's arms. Kayla stooped with her, gently lowering the weeping woman to the floor. "She killed my baby," Willow wailed. "She forced me to help her and then she killed my babe anyway. I never got to see her. I never got to hear her cry or stroke her head or smell her soft skin. She never knew my touch." "I'm sorry," Kayla said, pulling away, her hands still rested o
Maddox's POV I gazed at the witch, unblinking, trying to make sense of her words. "Huh?" I eventually managed to squeak. "It was your blood," she repeated firmly. "You were at the castle to celebrate the Princess' naming ceremony. The Lycans refused her request so she asked if the blood needed to be pure. It was because it wasn't pure she demanded I use more. You were ten years old." I shook my head, frowning at her, vaguely aware of Blake at my side, resting his hand on my shoulder. "I think I'd remember a virtual stranger taking blood from me," I said, "you must be mistaken." "You're Maddox Mason?" Willow asked, "son of Nicholas Mason?" I nodded. "Then I am not mistaken. It was her lover's idea. He was close to you." "Who?" Blake snapped, stiffening at my side and tightening his grip on my shoulder. Willow dropped her head and sighed. "I'm sorry," she said looking up at
The Patient's POVA burning sensation pulsed through my head like something was screaming inside my brain. My body ached and tensed with lightening hot pain, as if my limbs were twisting and breaking. I tried to open my eyes but the light pierced through me.I didn't know where I was but I knew I needed to be somewhere. Desperately needed to be somewhere. Something was missing. Something more important than anything else in the world. Something more important than air or food. It was like a part of me was missing, ripped away by a terrifying darkness. I took a deep breath, ignoring the stabbing, scratching pain in my ribs, and forced one eye open. The room I was in was dim and dusty but the warm glow from the fire was enough to make my eyeball scream in agony. Despite the pain, I forced my other eye open, squinting against the soft, orange glow of the flames dancing in the open fire. A deep knot tightened in my gut. I didn't know where I was. I frantically scrabbled through my brain,
Alaya's POVI tossed the empty rabbit trap back to the ground, scowling at it as if my rage would somehow shame it into trapping something edible. Without Fyre hunting was next to impossible but my patient would need sustenance if he ever woke up. A few dozen rabbits waited in the freezer for him, hardly enough to last a large werewolf three days. There was no telling how long it would take him to gain the strength to hunt for himself if he ever awoke.I'd snuck into a local human settlement a few days after finding him and stole some supplies. Patrick left a full pantry when he left but he couldn't live on sugar water forever. His body was already smaller and weaker than when I found him three weeks ago.Since Obsidian finally left me I had trawled Cedar Woods day and night, desperately searching for food. Yet more desperate was my search for survivors or any evidence that my people still lived, that Obsidian had not obliterated my entire pack along with every other pack in our regio
Alaya's POV I woke on the soft, mossy mound Henry left me on. The iron tang of blood still rested on my tongue. The horrors of the night came flooding back. The desperate pleas of women and children begging for their lives flooded my mind. It wasn't supposed to be like that. They were supposed to worship me for rescuing them from the moronic leadership of Ralph and his insipid son. The only ones supposed to die were Ralph and Casper and their soldiers. Oh Goddess, the Princess. She was a newborn, only a few days old and innocent. Fat, heavy tears rolled down my cheeks. I wanted power, I wanted revenge for losing Fyre. I wanted people to cower in my shadow. I didn't want terror and massacre. "Hmm," Obsidian murmured as she woke from her slumber. "Last night was the best night of my life," she grinned. "The screams, the terror and the carnage wasn't it just amazing?" "You're insane," I snapped. "You're sick.
Skye's POVWords spewed from the mouths of my friends and my family. My pack, our pack, Maddox's and mine but they made no sense. Maddox was lost. Not gone and yet they insisted on spewing lies at me instead of looking for him. On holding me tight, suffocating me with their grief instead of scouring the lands for him. He wasn't gone. I refused to believe it.We won. Maddox told me we won. Those were the last words he spoke to me before he was lost. Maddox would not lie to me.He promised me if he didn't make it our bond would slowly fade along with the mark he left on my skin but I felt it more than ever. He needed me. He was out there, lost and broken and he needed me."Skye," Blake said holding his hand to me."He's here," I said, "he's right here."I clasped my hand to my heart."Gage has called for transport back to Greystone. We can't stay here."Everything inside me boiled with rage an
Blake POVI dragged myself up from the mud and leaned against a half uprooted tree. Every bone in my body screamed in agony as I scanned the chaos around me. Bodies lay broken and battered. Trees were felled. Dirt and debris still fell from the sky.Skye stood in the middle of it all, howling an agonised howl that burned into my memory like a wretched scar."Maddox! Maddox!"No matter how loud she screamed he offered no reply.I looked over to where I last spotted Lena and my heart crashed to my knees. My stomach twisted into a thick knot. Her tiny, bruised body lay motionless in a crumpled heap against a rock. Blood matted her golden hair."Lena," I croaked still struggling to breathe after the massive blast of energy from Alaya threw me sailing through the skies. "Lena."She rolled to her side, groaning quietly and I deflated.Lena's eyes scanned the same mess mine had seconds earlier, des
Maddox POVAlaya stormed towards me her amber eyes locked on Henry's lifeless corpse and his blood-soaked son still standing over him with his fangs bloody and dripping. She didn't care who got in her way, her own warriors or mine, they were all fair game.She tossed their bodies aside as if they were nothing more than ragdolls. They smashed into trees or slammed into the ground their bones snapping and cracking as they landed. The anguished wail tearing from her lungs never waned.Skye tried to slow her down throwing the ground beneath her thick, heavy paws into the air. The earth rumbled and shook. Warriors, ours and Alaya's fell down crevices opening in the ground, their bodies buried by the debris raining from the sky.Willow's coven chanted spells, desperately trying to slow the beast down.I readied the syringe and rushed towards it, jumping over fallen trees and broken bodies. the beast fell to all
Maddox POVI stood back as my warriors slowly peeled their clothes off and released their wolves."Unless you can develop opposable thumbs in the next thirty seconds and can handle a syringe, this is my fight," I told Shadow."I understand," he said. We'd finally come to an understanding. He respected me and I listened to him and now it was all about to bed.Blake, Lena and Skye were the last to change."You take care of each other," I warned them."And you take care of you," Blake said as he shifted into his wolf."I love you," Skyesobbed as she let Izzy free. I kept my eyes on her massive white wolf as she took off into the herd rushing over the ridge. Lena was last to leave.Lena, my best friend for as long as I could remember. No matter how bad things got she was always at my side, always defending me and watching my back. She was the strongest wold I knew.
Maddox POVWarriors crammed into every inch of the entrance hall. Some spilt out of the kitchen and office, others piled on the balconied landing behind me. Hundreds of warriors, stood waiting for me to address them. Skye stood at my side at the top of the staircase. Casper, Serena, Blake and Lena stood behind me. The silence was sickening, deafening. Even the birds in the trees beyond our fortified walls stopped their singing and listened.Our families were secreted away in Greystone Manor. Whisked away amid tears and goodbyes to safely live another day. We all knew some of us would not live to see them again. My Gran took it hardest of all, wringing her hands in her apron and sobbing hysterically as she was forced into a four-wheel drive and taken away to safety. She knew as well as I did what needed to happen. Only I could force the cure into Alaya. And I would not survive it.Skye gripped my hand, her palm damp from the t
Maddox POVSkye's eyelids flickered. She nuzzled further into me in a vain attempt to block the morning sun from dragging her away from her dream. A soft smile rested on her lips."Mmm," she sighed, arching her back."It's morning," I whispered brushing a stray curl from her face. Her smile faded. She twisted to her side pulling herself up on her elbow to face me."It's today, isn't it? We go to war today?"I nodded swallowing down the lump in my throat.We had the perfect night last night, alone in the woods with only the song of the crickets for company we finally sealed our bond. We were mates. True, bonded mates and today we go to war with the vilest enemy my people have ever faced.Skye twisted herself around, pulling her knees into her chest as she faced the sunrise. We sat in silence, enjoying the last moments of our final morning on Earth. Golden rays of light kissed Mountain Ridge far in t