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EIGHTY-FOUR | HALF MAN, HALF WOLF
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2024-10-29 19:42:56Related chapters
The Broken Alpha EIGHTY-FIVE | A WRITHING SEA
AtticusNight had passed back into morning by the time Atticus heard that Lily had gone.Dew speckled the grass, sparkling in the last silver sliver of moonlight. A moon that was still a little over three weeks away from growing full again. It was a haunting sight, one that made fresh wounds rip open in his heart. Atticus stared at it helplessly, hovering above the horizon line, mere moments from dropping below it. Caught between this second and the next, he thought, as was he.The moon fell. Struggling to comprehend the swelling tide of emotions writhing desperately in his hollow chest, Atticus stalked across his grounds. Remnants of the Mabben decorations still hung in the trees, not magically disposed of as they usually were. They made him think of Lily, and his heart – his whole body – ached with the loss of her.He’d saved her. She’d betrayed him.Collapsing against the base of the same tree she’d sat by only a matter of days ago, he curled his hand around a bunch of grass and ri
The Broken Alpha EIGHTY-SIX | OAK AND IVY
LilyIt was strange, Lily thought, as she retraced the same steps she’d taken before, so many months ago now, that her father was with her. He walked with a permanent scowl, though it was neither malicious nor unkind; it was a scowl of defeat, of questioning a choice too long after it had been made to do anything about it now.“I’m glad you came,” she said, eyeing him sideways. “So am I,” he replied, too quickly.Lily smiled wryly. “No, you aren’t.”He sighed. “It’s getting dark. And I just realised…”“That you have no real bed?” she finished for him.“Exactly.”“We have a tent. And bedrolls. And blankets.” She shrugged. “We’ll be fine.”He wrapped his arms around himself. “It’s autumn.”“And?”“And it’ll be cold. We can’t light a fire, I know, but…”“I know, Dad. I’m sorry.”“You don’t have anything to be sorry for.” His mouth twisted. “I wasn’t going to let you go alone.”Lily let the silence swallow them both. She knew what he wanted her to say: let’s go home, Dad, and I’ll force
The Broken Alpha EIGHTY-SEVEN | THE LENGATHUL
ElijahA tentacle wound around Elijah’s leg. The world moved in slow motion around him as he was dragged below. His mind coughed up a series of half-forgotten rhymes, each one more disturbing than the last: swim up, fly down, don’t turn around, toe to toe, heart of woe, don’t look at the creature below…He gulped in his last breath of air, and then the water swallowed him whole. It was dark as pitch; something slimy writhed against his skin, somehow both wet and sticky. A glimmer of white broke through the darkness, snake-like but puckered with suckers. Elijah shuddered, though he told himself it was from the burning in his lungs rather than repulsion at the being that held him.His hair streamed across his face. He scrabbled blindly at it, wiping straggly clumps of it away from his nose and mouth. Not that it would help. Nothing would. He kicked and struggled, but the tentacle just tightened further. If he could just lift his sword a bit higher – Caslein screamed. Elijah had never
The Broken Alpha EIGHTY-EIGHT | A FATE DIVIDED
LilyLips pulled back from teeth, yellow and warped. Blood oozed from wounds, recent and old, dribbling down the creature’s furred chest. Lily’s breath caught in her throat. She couldn’t move. She couldn’t even blink.Time froze around them. Locked in its gaze, her mind flailed for a way out, considering a thousand useless ideas and tossing them aside in that elongated instant. Everything seemed important: her dad’s pulse throbbing violently against her palm, the pull of skin over her knuckles, the way her knees locked and the shallow amount of air left in her lungs. The flicker of a leave overhead, glistening gold in the gossamer sunlight, marked a cool breeze curling through the woods. With it came the stale scent of decay, pungent and rotting as it swarmed Lily’s nostrils.She inhaled, only to exhale hastily, the smell making first bile and then saliva pool on her tongue. She blinked, half hoping that the creature would disappear when she opened her eyes again. It didn’t.Her dad r
The Broken Alpha EIGHTY-NINE | CLAIMED
ElijahSurrounded by darkness, inky and slick, Elijah let go. It was easier here, everything murky in its blackness, than it had been above. He couldn’t quite remember what above was, exactly – only that it hurt. There was pain there, and he didn’t want to feel pain anymore. He settled into his new existence, somewhere between sky and rock, his limbs strewn through water and algae like a discarded dandelion seed. But something tugged at his heart, even in the darkness. It was a painful tug, he thought distantly, but it didn’t hurt. The pain was fuller than that, all encompassing in its fire. Yes – that was what it was. Fire. Hot and bright and comforting and agonising, all at once. With that realisation came a name. A single name that changed everything.Lily.Oblivion tried to claim him, but he had already been claimed, long ago, by her. His mind joined his heart, and together they found veins and muscles and bones. As his body reconnected, his skin started to feel.The air was cold
The Broken Alpha NINETY | DAFFODIL
LilyThe portal loomed ahead. Jared had found his way back to it effortlessly, taking turns that made no sense and going back on himself just as much as he’d walked forward. A part of Lily was glad that he’d found them and taken them captive, even though her shoulder throbbed and blood still seeped into the hastily-made bandage wrapped haphazardly round it. Without him, she doubted they would ever have found their way to Red Ripper’s magical territory.She squinted up at the trees. Half of their branches were bare, gnarled and knobbly as aged fingers. The others were too deep into autumn for the season, painted in dark reds and fading browns. One drifted to the ground in front of her, and she reached for it. It fluttered onto her palm and crumbled into ash. “Hurry up,” snarled Jared, saliva flicking from his distorted snout. It was almost impossible to make out the words, so thick and throaty was his voice. Rather than individual sounds, it was a growl split into syllables that hardl
The Broken Alpha NINETY-ONE | NOCTURNAL
LilyThe scent of death hung heavy in the air. Lily pressed her tongue to the roof of her mouth, begging the rising vomit to stay down. It was all too familiar: the eerie sense of being a step out of time, the little cabins, the pack house looming over everything at the centre of the realm.Worst of all were the flowers. When she’d been here before, they’d been alive – so alive that they’d looked unreal, the petals too bright, too plump, and the leaves unfurling from their stems glossy green and shimmering with thin silver hairs. Now, they curled in on themselves, wilted and withered, the leaves and petals turned grey and hanging limply upon the brown grass.Something was wrong. “Remind me of the plan again, Lils?” Her dad wrung his hands together, his pulse jumping beneath his jaw, sweat slicking his brow. She sighed. They’d been over it a thousand times – and there wasn’t that much to remember at all, really – but clearly he needed something to focus on, something to distract him
The Broken Alpha NINETY-TWO | PARCHMENT
ElijahThe journey back to Sea Pine passed Elijah by in a daze. Fogged with heartache and physical pain, he dragged himself along behind Caslein in silence. He watched, unable to even help, as he fought off slews of mossmen – more often than not grabbing Elijah and slinging him over his shoulder, running away with his Alpha bouncing against his back like a sack of potatoes. Elijah felt about as useful as one.Everywhere they went, the leaves were wrong. Spring buds dotted the same branches that held crisp orange leaves. Snowdrops and daffodils littered the moss and mulch. Elijah couldn’t bring himself to point them out to Caslein, not after he’d dismissed him the first time. Besides, he told himself, Cas was busy keeping them both alive. Flower spotting wasn’t high on his list of priorities.Their world was breaking. Unnatural magic was splitting into their realm. At night, they saw terrible, distorted creatures – half man, half wolf, stalking through the woods with wet noses, wolven
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The Broken Alpha 109 | EPILOGUE
LilyLily stared down at the letter, a tiny smile tugging at her lips. There had been something nagging at her, ever since the battle, and at last she understood what it was.Lily,Or I suppose I should refer to you by your proper title. Luna Lily,I always knew you would grow to be a completely insufferable pack leader. We last met at the Great Battle, as it is already being termed – and, really, should we not wait until longer than a few months have passed before we name things with such grandiose titles? – but you did not seem to recognise me. If I were another, I may have been hurt by that. Then again, you never were very good at seeing through my disguises.Therefore, I have decided to be blunt. I have lost everything. My home and my people are gone. I took that Alpha wolf you had a soft spot for, Atticus, to bargain with Blood Moon. To no avail, might I add. He was more irksome than he was useful, so he has been deposited back in his rightful home. The issue is this: I have no
The Broken Alpha 108 | HEARTFELT
ElijahElijah stared up into Lily’s beautiful face. “Elijah?” she breathed. He gazed at her, feeling like he was staring straight into the sun. Her warmth enveloped him, bringing heat into his frozen limbs. Elijah flexed his fingers and toes, waiting for the dark to swallow him once more.But it did not. He waited and waited, his heart in his throat, but nothing happened. He took a breath, then another. And life went on. His life went on.“I’m alive?” he whispered, raising his bloodied hands to the morning sun. “I think so?” Lily laughed; it broke, becoming a sob. Gently, he was lowered to the ground. They fell into each other, their hands clutching desperately, their bodies pressed flush. Elijah dropped his forehead against Lily’s, just breathing for a moment, relishing in the way his chest hollowed and filled with air. “You’re alive,” she whispered, pulling back to stare at him with wonder swimming in her eyes. “How? I saw you. I,” a hiccup cut her off, and more tears filled h
The Broken Alpha 107 | SUNRISE
Lily“Lily?” her dad murmured, his strong hand settling on her trembling shoulder. “Lils, we can’t stay here. We need to go home.”Sunlight fell in slanted beams through the trees, casting everything in a strange, gold-green light. Elijah looked more faelen than he ever had before, his skin pallid, his pointed ears sticking out of his long hair. She swallowed hard. Her face was dry and stiff with tears and her throat ached from screaming. And her heart lay in tatters on the ground beside him.“I won’t leave him,” she rasped, bowing over his too-still body and clutching at his torn clothes. “I can’t.”He sighed, the sound twisted and broken. “It’s okay, sweetheart. It’s all right. You don’t have to leave him. I won’t either.”She turned to look at her father with fresh tears beading along the dark sweep of her lashes. “You won’t leave me?”“Never again,” he swore. The lump in her throat grew too large for her to speak, but she nodded, her lips quivering. Silent sobs overcame her for
The Broken Alpha 106 | AUBURN
AtticusNeither Ralphin nor Trove spoke to Atticus as they went to face the Blood Moon pack. They kept sharing long glances, only looking away when Atticus tried to catch their eyes.The battle was already diminishing as they joined it. With the magic of Red Ripper gone, the wolves were shifting back into their human forms as the moon set. They had no leaders, no plan, and the Blood Moon pack were fresh and uninjured. Atticus barely had to think as he fell into the easy routine of fighting, punching and scraping and kicking. This part had always come to him with ease. It was other things he struggled with. Other things – like Lily. He slammed his fist into the jaw of a weedy, speckled wolf. Huh, he thought, it was no wonder that one had wanted to join Red Ripper and use their magical hoo-hah to get ahead. It didn’t stand a chance against a real wolf like him. He gripped its throat, squeezed, and something snapped deep within it. He dropped it to the ground, a sneer tugging at his mo
The Broken Alpha 105 | EMPTY
LilyNo.Lily could not think beyond that single word. This couldn’t be happening. She’d waited so long to see Elijah again, and now…No.She shoved out of Atticus’s arms, rage burning through her. “You,” she snarled, slamming her fists into his chest. His unharmed chest, which had been healed by Elijah. “You did this.”He looked at her blankly. “Of course I did. I did it for us, Lily. You would never have been truly happy with me while Alpha – Alpha Elijah lived. He was basically dead already.” He inspected his nails, wrinkling his nose as he picked out a sliver of dried blood.A sob built in her throat. She tore away from him and fell to her knees beside Elijah, gripping his ripped shirt in her fists and bowing her head over his. Her tears fell onto his face, blurring her vision so she couldn’t even see the man she loved. “Come back to me,” she rasped again, her whole body shaking with need.Warm hands pressed in on her. She recognised the touch of Elijah’s Beta, Ithia, and her own
The Broken Alpha 104 | IN DEATH
ElijahElijah fought through the darkness, every step excruciating. His burns seared his flesh, but he was alive. For now.His heart thrashed. The sounds of battle raged ahead, howls and choked off screams and the dull thumps of bodies smacking the ground. It was messy, undignified, and Elijah had never longed to be a part of something so badly.Because Lily had to be there. Everything in him was screaming that she was, even though the thick, pulsating magic cloying the air was throwing off the power of their mate bond. He could not pin her down – but still he knew.At last he reached the clearing. The remnants of magic hung heavy in the cool night air, sparking at his touch as he stepped through the boundary they’d made and through the ring of trees. He paused, sucking in heavy breaths, leaning heavily on a trunk as he tried to pick out Lily amongst the mass of wolves.Bile rose in his throat. Bodies were piled up everywhere, ringing the clearing, bloody and mutilated. He realised wi
The Broken Alpha 103 | KING
AtticusAtticus relished every racing beat of his heart. He was alive, more alive than he had ever felt, and each solid pound of it meant that he was still there. Still fighting.Still fighting for her.When he’d seen that arrogant, too-pretty-for-his-own-good, so-called Alpha kiss Lily, he’d seen red. He’d let that bright, burning red edging his vision become a prediction of the future: Apollo would bleed for all that he’d done. But this fight was no normal fight. Atticus was strong, brutally so, but Apollo never seemed to tire or lag. He had no weaknesses that Atticus could take advantage of, no faltering glances or too-slow reactions. He was on top form, all of the time, and Atticus’s energy was starting to wane.He whipped his head around, searching through the crowd for his Beta or Gamma. They were lost to the writhing sea of bodies, part of the blur of dark fur and bloody teeth surrounding him, packed tight in all directions. His pride kept him from asking them for help. Apoll
The Broken Alpha 102 | CEREMONIAL
LilyA howl shattered the clearing. It tore apart the chants, reverberating through each of the elements swirling through the darkness.The blade froze a hair’s breadth above Lily’s chest. She let out a ragged breath, though her eyes remained fixed on the glint of the blade. It shimmered in the moonlight, trembling in Peverton’s shaky grip.“Potentia grym,” he muttered, shaking his head. Then, again, louder, he said: “Potentia grym!” and raised the blade anew. Before he could slam it down into her chest, though, a huge black wolf smashed into him. Lily gasped, twitching away from the blade as it fell. It caught her foreleg, slicing down towards her paw, her blood dripping down onto the earth before she could tear away.The wolf towered over her on her altar, its fur alight with all four elements. The ends of its black fur were tinged red by the flames; air made its hair sway; ivy coiled up its legs; water slicked down its back. A loud sizzling noise drew her attention away. Her bloo
The Broken Alpha 101 | WARDS
ElijahThe brush of the magic skittering over the veil was cool to the touch. Elijah dipped his fingertips into it, a shiver running down his spine and raising the tiny hairs prickling down his forearms. A sense of foreboding washed over him as he stepped through, his foot landing solidly in Red Ripper’s territory.The entry point of this veil was different to the last one he’d come through. Darkness ebbed and flowed like a river in the far wood, but Elijah turned away from it. He had one goal to focus on: find the cells. Once he’d managed that unnoticed, he could worry about the incessant scratching at the back of his mind and the oppressive weight of magic hanging thick in the night air.Ducking low, Elijah picked his way towards a flickering light in the distance. He’d drawn out a scribbled map of the territory, as it was in his memory, but whether that was accurate to the reality he’d witnessed or if the Red Ripper wolves had changed the pack’s layout since then, he had no idea. I
