My heart bleeds for all of us. For the devastation Mad is about to unleash once he gets rid of Dušan. He’ll treat everyone like a slave and punish anyone for not obeying him.
Please, let Dušan be alive by the time we arrive there. Don’t let there be too many guards at the rear door. I push myself to go faster to reach my Alpha.
Swift and silent
Swift and silent.
Swift and silent.
Dušan
The rope burns into my wrists and around my chest, my shoulders screaming as my arms remain pulled taut around the pole at my back. I thrash and wrestle against my restraints, attempting to find some movement in the pole. But Mad made sure his guards dug it deep into the ground, and any chance of me knocking it over or wrenching it out is impossible.
Fury lashes over me and I jerk my attention over to the asshole. He stands on a platform behind the wall within the safety of the compound, while I’m left outside. An offering to the starved zombies.
And the siren wails around us like a roaring demon. There is no zombie breach in the pack grounds, but a calling for them to come outside the settlement and find me.
This is his final gift to me after everything we’ve gone through together. Growing up with his abusive father, when I took most of the beatings so he wouldn’t have to. I guarded him in the pack, gave him a high ranking position. But nothing was good enough. I should have seen this coming, should have fucking seen it.
Dozens and dozens of faces are climbing up the fence to gawk at me, and I meet every one of their gazes. Dread twists in my chest, but I want them to watch me fight to the end against a tyrant.
Fear fills most of their eyes. All part of Mad’s plan… Show them what happens when someone crosses him, and no one will stand up against him. I ache for these Ash Wolves who are left behind under the control of a monster.
But the depth of my pain surges for Meira.
For the agonizing heartache he will bring her. I fight against my restraints to escape and seek my retribution against my stepbrother. The whispers in my mind repeat, Break free and kill him. Every fucking flying, deceitful, arrogant inch of him.
I want blood.
Revenge.
Death for Mad.
He barks a laugh, standing up there, making sure no one misses the joy this brings him.
The crowd gathers behind the fence, climbing up to watch me, and they murmur their own whispers.
I seethe on the inside, my wolf crashing into me for escape, but changing will still leave me tied up, my back plastered to the pole just the same. Tugging against the pole, I won’t stop. Not even as the hollow ache in my chest spreads through me, swallowing me with the threat that maybe it’s too late for me.
Time drags too slow, and I suck in a hot breath beneath the scorching heat. Dread crawls through me as I keep picturing my death. Breathing heavily, I struggle to focus on nothing else but breaking the restraints holding me in place.
“How does it feel, to be on the receiving end, brother? If only you had trusted me instead of turning against your own family.” Mad’s words are like a whip, lashing over me.
“Fuck off! You are not my brother.” My response seems to echo. I have no time for his gloating. I’m barely keeping it together and not losing my shit. I’ll get out of this. I will.
And still the siren rings.
Then instead of his mocking voice, which I expect, comes a deep moaning sound that sends shivers down my spine.
Someone screams, and I twist my head toward the woods at my back.
Mad declares, “They’re here.”
The asshole grins deviously, while my gut twists on itself.
Trying my best not to tremble, I fail miserably. Silhouettes lurch out of the shadows, lanky things with torn clothes and gaunt faces. Missing eyes and limbs. Nothing stops the cursed.
Fighting harder, I yank on the ropes, the burn on my wrists digging deep, ripping at skin. Panic slices through me because this isn’t where I’m meant to die. Not like this. Not like fucking this.
More keep shambling out of the forest and the sight shudders me to the core. It’s a kick to the gut that despite everything I did, this is where I ended up.
“Beg me,” Mad demands.
I’d rather die than grovel to him. Nothing I say will make him change his mind. I’ve seen the darkness in his eyes, the hatred, the retaliation he thinks I deserve.
I straighten my spine, staring back around to the encroaching monsters. Moving ever closer. Darkening shadows blot the forest. These aren’t just a few zombies… but a whole herd.
A tremor jerks through me. Tugging for freedom, I never give up while trepidation claws at my insides. Gone is my calm demeanor as the sound of shuffling feet draws nearer.
A sudden lick of electricity hums along my skin, like it always does when a wolf shifts. Who is it? There’s nothing behind me but zombies staggering closer. The crowd on the fence isn’t changing but rather crying in panicked gasps. No one dares demand my release and I can’t blame them. Not when that’s all the push Mad needs to shove them over the fence and at the mercy of the undead.
Frantically, I tug on the rope, a tornado whipping in my chest with adrenaline and the terror coming for me.
A deafening growl slices through the air and it comes from deep in the woods, away from the settlement.
My heart soars. I pray it’s Bardhyl and Lucien. I crane my neck to look back. My men better be damn quick because the horde in the distance grows denser. And I hear the terror in people’s voices from the wall, their panicked words. They’ll be too close… There’re too many… like last time.
Such a cluster of the undead can have bigger consequences than the pack losing me, if they crash into the compound with so many spectators just out of reach. For the innocents trapped in there, I worry, but for Mad, it’s everything he deserves.
Someone screams, and I flinch at the reaction as the ground beneath me shudders like a small quake.
I wrench my head around as a huge white blur charges toward me.
So fast, so large, I can’t make it out at first.
“Bardhyl,” I murmur to myself, but the scent is all wrong. It’s no one I recognize, yet it belongs to an Alpha. My thoughts fly to the man sharing the dungeon with me. Except Meira insisted they negotiated her for him… so why are these trespassers still here?
The sudden swish of air across my back leaves me hardening my spine. I twist my head to the encroaching zombies.
Nothing is stopping the river from coming this way, and I desperately pull for escape.
Four Ash Wolf guards drop from the fence on either side of me. Seconds is all it takes for them to transform into their wolves. Clothes are torn, skin popping as it splits and bones elongate. Trotting closer, they linger around me in a protective circle… This has nothing to do with them keeping me safe from the zombies, but everything to do with stopping the newcomer wolf from freeing me.
Mad is so paranoid I’ll escape, he risks his own men to ensure I am torn apart by the undead, even if he loses a few of his own followers. Except for all I know, whoever these wolves are, they might want me dead as much as they do Mad.
Sadistic asshole.
Tension thickens the air.
I lift my gaze to Mad glaring at me, his lips thinning. I never lower my gaze from his, and for as long as I breathe, I will challenge him.
A howl pierces the air somewhere behind me, and I stiffen against the pole. Seconds later, the pounding of paws hitting the ground booms, coming right up behind me.