Alaya's POV
My packmates all piled into the packhouse to stuff their faces with whatever the paid kitchen staff prepared. Pre-Ralph the Omegas prepared our food and there was more to go around with those highest in rank eating first, the way it is supposed to be. Now, we scrambled for food like common animals, each grabbing what they could fit into their grubby paws. It was enough to put me off my appetite on a good day.
I waited until they'd all gone inside before sneaking back into the clubhouse. The gloves still lay on the floor where they landed when the stupid Omega threw them in my face as if I was a common wolf. My lips curled as I strode past them towards the lockers.
My key clicked in the lock. Stale, musty air slapped me in the face. My training gear, still unwashed from the day I rejected Anton was in a crumpled heap in the bottom of my locker. I had to wash my own clothes now. We all did. We all carried around our
Alaya's POVThe crowd brayed and cheered, all dressed in their finest rags. Not an inch of the white cobbled square in front of White Castle wasn't filled with an Omega. They huddled together like cattle, not just our pack but all packs. The higher-ranking wolves were allowed into the walled garden. Alphas, Betas and Gammas lined up on fold-out seats on the grass gazing up at the balcony in their three-piece suits and ball gowns. The Royal's inner circle was granted access to the Castle, their annoying pups with them.Nicolas and Henry, Alpha and Beta males of the Moutain Ridge pack stood at Nate's side both congratulating him for managing to get his wife pregnant like it was some massive achievement. Their wives simpered at Kayleigh's side, cooing over her newborn pup.Henry's son Blake, Maddox, son of Alpha Nicholas and some runt called Lena, who as a child of Omegas, had no right being there raced around the throne room throwing
Alaya's POVThe Alphas and Lunas of neighbouring packs piled into the grand dining hall of White Castle. Their ballgowns and cheap satin suits glittered under the candlelight. Laughter filled the room. Pups raced between the tables, all as wild and undisciplined as the three mutts in the throne room.They all appeared to respect the young Maddox Mason, at least. Even the older ones submitted to his will if he suggested a game. The younger ones clung to him, hanging on his every word. He was a true born leader, that much was obvious. It was a shame that his father raised him to be weak and show respect to those who did not deserve it, like the runt Lena and the Omegas serving his dinner.Princess Serena was passed from werewolf to werewolf-like a howling game of pass the parcel. They all admired the thick crop of flaxen hair covering her head and the intense blue eyes staring out of her doll-like face.My job, as always, was to stand at th
Alaya's POV"Lycan blood?" a panicked expression replaced Henry's growl. He stood, shaking his head as if the witch had just asked us to deliver her the moon a stick. "Where are we supposed to get Lycan blood?""The Lycans," I sighed. "Where else would get it?""Alaya," Henry inched back towards the door shaking his head. "You have no wolf and I can't fight Lycans, not on my own. This is... it's madness."Anger balled in the pit of my stomach. I looked between the witch and Henry. We had no choice now, not now the witch knew I had no wolf."Then what am I supposed to do?" My rage erupted. I screamed so hard the walls of the hut shook. More glass bottles fell to the floor. The stench of essential oils mixing together on the rotting wood floor assaulted our senses. The witch sobbed covering her ears. Henry's face turned as pale as the silver moonlight on a crisp winter morning.Fuck. I need him. Without Henry I did
Alaya's POVWe trudged back to the witch's cabin in silence the crickets teasing us with their happy song, the moon low in the sky as the sun threatened to break dawn from behind the mountain. Maddox Mason, the annoying pup from the throne room held Lycan blood in his veins. It would be a mercy to take it from him. Everyone knew Lycans lived a tortured existence, barely able to control their own wolves. I pushed open the door to the witches cabin. She lay where we left her, tethered to her bed, sweat covering her body. Henry snatched the grubby sock from her mouth and she heaved in a massive breath of air."Did you get it?" She sniffed. Henry shook his head. She exhaled. The deep creases in her forehead smoothed as she unfurrowed her brow. Her shoulders slumped. "Would half-breed blood work?" I demanded. She shook her head. "Can you make it work?""Alaya," she pleaded, "the spell is already dangerous and it's never been used on a werewolf. To change it even more... You might not even
Alaya's POVI stood syringes in hand my limbs shaking as Henry untied the witch. She groaned stretching out her limbs and rubbing at the reddened skin around her wrists. Henry grabbed her hand, yanking her to feet. She held one arm under her massive bump cradling her unborn pup as he forced her back into the main room of the house."Make the potion," I snarled shoving her to the small cauldron on the stove. She nodded with tears streaming down her face."Please," she begged, "last time this spell was performed... It was a massacre. The subject lost all sense of himself. He slaughtered his coven, his family. He couldn't make the change back to his human form. This is dark magic, Alaya, it shouldn't be messed with.""Do you want your child to live?" I asked tracing my finger tip over her bump. She waddled over the kitchen counter and ran her finger down the page as she read out the ingredients needed translating them to English. Henry
Alaya's POVA week passed before news of attacks on human camps and settlements reached White Castle. The celebration ended the day before leaving the army tired and hungover. Henry, Casper, Nicholas and Nate all crowded into the office at the side of the training hall. A large map filled the table with red dots marking where humans were slain. Two pale-faced scouts trembled in the corner of the room, tears staining their face."There was nothing left," one rambled as he ricked back and forth on a wooden dining chair pilfered from the dining hall. "Not even bone. Nothing but blood." His fellow scout shuddered closing his eyes as if to block out the memory. Henry turned to me with widened eyes. He knew better than to say anything. My wolf wasn't just hungry for human flesh, she craved the chewy, muscular flesh of her fellow wolves."They're so weak," she teased as she watched their fear and sorrow play o
Alaya's POVHenry helped me to my feet, throwing his jacket around my shoulders. He brushed my blood soaked hair from my face and guided me through the castle."You can't stay here, Alaya," he said. We stepped over half eaten bodies and through puddles of blood. Death lingered all around us. Obsidian was meant to kill the Royal family and take her place as ruler of the White Wolf pack. She wasn't meant to annihilate the entire pack. Tears rolled down my face, landing on Henrys beige jacket in light pink splotches as they mixed with the blood staining my face."We'll go to the witch," Henry said. "Get him to take Obsidian away. We'll find another way to bring Fyre back."I nodded, leaning against Henry. His arm wrapped around my waist, holding me upright. Waves of nausea rocked over me. My whole body shook like a leaf in a winter breeze. I closed my eyes shutting out the terror and carnage that filled W
Maddox POVGage helped me to my feet. My legs shook. Cuts and grazes covered my battered body."Hey," Gage said as I frowned down at my injuries, "better being hit by a few rocks than burned to death in a fiery explosion, right?"I nodded, smiling at Kayla. She wrapped herself around my body, sobbing into my chest. Gage's men finished rounding up the escaped prisoners, including Graham. They were all carted back to Greystone Mansion. Will helped me into the back of the remaining truck with Lena, Blake and Kayla. Will and Gage climbed into the front. The engine roared beneath us. The truck jolted as it sped over the disturbed ground bumping over rocks and uprooted trees."Did you really do that?" Blake asked, his eyes wide and fixed on Kayla. Kayla shrugged turning her head away, her shoulders shaking as she sobbed quietly into my ches
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