Fated To the Alpha by Jessica Hall
Chapter 123
“Climb them” He says and I climb the ladder before pushing on the grate. I slide it to the side to find I am in the pack hospital and we were in some sort of cleaning room.
Darian’s phone starts ringing and when he climbs out he answers it. The video call connects.
“Done Alpha” The man says and Darian holds the phone to me to show me but I can’t reject him while he is unconscious.
“Get out of there and bring a car to the back door of the hospital we are leaving, leave the phone there so I can see when he wakes and come get us” Darian orders. The man places the phone beside Ezra and I see them walk back off before going into the table drains which lead to the tunnels.
“End of the hall” Darian says, nudging me.
“ So you are just leaving your pack?” I ask him as I open the janitor’s closet and step into the white corridor.
“Yep my sister and I along with you are leaving this dump”
“What about your pack?” I ask him.
“Won’t be any of them left, I have wired all our money to offshore accounts. I don’t need a pack that agrees with my father” I remember Mateo saying something about the bunkers being loaded with explosives, he was planning to k!ll everyone. Anger burns within me, how could he be that sick to k!ll his own pack, the people he was raised to protect, raised with , his friends and family like they mean nothing to him.
“Left” He says at the end of the corridor near the rear fire exit, he pushes a door open before looking a t his watch. “We have thirty minutes to get out of here” he says motioning toward the bed. I see Tabitha hooked up to a ventilator, tubes coming out of her everywhere, her skin grey, her cheeks hollow and she looked like a corpse. I have no idea what sort of disease she has but she looked dead.
“Hurry up, he is waking up get on with it” He snaps, showing me the screen. I see Ezra get up, shaking himself looking dazed before I feel for the bond. I knew I had to be quick in case he commanded me so before he could figure it out, I f0rced the link.
“I Luna Katya Hartly reject you Ezra Pierce Alpha of the Black Creek pack and renounce my title as your Luna” I gasp out, clutching my chest and Darian Laughs enjoying the agony as he watched Ezra drop on the video recording, clutching his chest. A loud growl erupts from him just as I hear tyres screech outside.
“Now, heal her” He demands. I nod he was going to k!ll me, but I knew they would live, they would live when they aren’t tied to me.
Darian shoves me toward his sister. “Remember I have your brother, I will order him set free once she is healed ” But he was completely unaware of one thing. While Maddox was losing it and k!lling his men, he severed Andrei’s ties. I knew it was only a matter of time before Andrei woke and broke loose, I knew he would follow my scent, follow Darians. I just had to wait him out a little longer, praying he wakes but Darian had no more patience as he shoved me toward his sister and I almost landed on top of her.
He looks out the door to the corridor and I know I am right, I could hear Andrei in the tunnels, I was outmatched with no wolf, and now basically human with the ability to heal others lucky me. I thought. I wiggled my fingers and am surprised to see my claws slip into the mattress she is laying on. Maybe I am not so defenceless after all. I thought for sure my ability to shift would leave with the bond.
Andrei’s words make me smile. You are the wolf.
“Hurry up, do it now” He snaps. I lean over his sister as I hear a commotion in the hospital
corridors. I reach into my pocket while Darian turns with the gun pointed at the door before I rip the tube out of her throat.
I jam the vial down her throat harshly. I hear her jaw break as the vial breaks in her mouth, my venom sliding down her throat. Before the machines go haywire, screeching loudly and Darian spins around. The growl that escapes him makes me flinch before I lunge at him.
His gun goes off and I feel the bullet graze my arm but I shift tearing into his shoulder before he tosses me off. He shoots blindly and I am hit in the flank making me wheeze. Andrei’s wolf Donnie jumps clean over the top of me tearing him apart. I watched as his arm is ripped off and flung at my feet. Donnie went berserk when I remember we had 30 minutes, maybe to left if we are lucky to get them out and I rushed out the fire exit shifting back to toss the door open.
Yet Darian’s men don’t react as I burst through the door; instead they bare their necks in submission and I realise they were waiting for him to d*ie so the command over them drops.
“Dad, where are you?” I ask.
“We are working on getting the last of them out of the community centre bunkers”
“ The bombs are set on a timer, get out of there. Where are my mates?”
“At the school bunker” He says and my stomach drops and I start running.
“Got it, we got the community centre bunkers open, heading for the school” My dad says.
“No, help Andrei. I am at the hospital, he is taking on Darian” I tell him before I turn down the next street and I start running toward my old school.
“Ezra, Mateo” I scream through the link.
“You are in so much sh*t for rejecting me, ” both of them say at the same time.
“Get out of there” I tell them running toward their location.
“We are, we just got the door open and are letting them out, then I am remarking you” Ezra says and I chuckle.
“Only if you get to her first, I call dibs this time” Mateo teases. I feel relief as the school comes into view and I see everyone racing across the oval to get to safety. Nearly there, I think just as I see Ezra and Mateo rush out the double door at the front of the school. I reach the gates and am about to race through them when I feel the ground moving under my feet making me stop for a second before a scream leaves my lips.
I see the ground start exploding on the oval like land mines are going off, the school exploding, the windows blowing out and the entire building shaking before combusting into a pile of rubble and fire.
The ground swallowing those running on the ovals and my screams echoed as their loved ones raced to try to save their families. I f0rce my legs to keep moving as I race toward my mates. When a second explosion goes off across the town the air fills with another plume of smoke. The air leaves my lungs when I find them.
I collapsed beside them where they managed to make it before everything went wrong. Mateo had a piece of rebar through him and I pulled it from his chest before moving to Ezra whose lower half was crushed under the brick wall as it tore from the building. It took everything to drag his lower half out with the help from some warriors lifting the broken brick wall, his legs and pelvis and chest crushed under the weight.
Both of them are dead, and as I looked out at the carnage left. Hear everyone howling and wailing for their loved ones. I was reminded of Marabella
trying to heal her fallen pack before she couldn’t no more. I could save them but I look around at the gut wrenching scene before me, smoke filling the air and the place looked every part of a war zone, bod*ies scattered and lives destroyed all for greed, this was a battlefield and these were its victims.
Victims of greed, victims of a dictator who had no care for the victims of a war they never asked for.
“She could have saved them” I chuckled at my newfound clarity before looking down at my mates’ broken forms.
“She just had to give her life for them” I whisper the Moon Goddess’ words replaying like a broken record.
“I will pay the ultimate sacrifice and you will live” I tell my mates, I could save them or I could give everything and save them all. One life for all of theirs, it was simple and an easy decision even though I wasn’t just sacrificing my life but my future, their future that is growing within me.
“I am sorry Seline and I forgive you. I forgive you for what you did” I chuckled at my insanity before digging my hands into the earth.
I feel my contact lenses melting away as I feel my energy heat up like a beacon. I feel it build before I feel my magic slip out, feel it caress over the ground moving like a fog, and I see its tendrils oozing into everyone, joining them and healing them while I feel myself slipping, slipping further to the abyss and I scream my anger, my heartache and I scream for me, for the future I will never have and for every goddamn thing that’s been taken from me, but this, this wasn’t taken.
This was a choice and only one I could make as I feel my life f0rce be s*cked out of me. My soul slips from this earth to the next and I smile when I see movement, see them move as I become frozen in my death as the air leaves my lungs for the last time.
Ezra POV
I woke up coughing on dust. I felt the crushing
weight suddenly lifted and I shook my head trying to remember what happened. Mateo gr0@ns clutching his chest yet my eyes were on the oval as everyone sat up, their loved ones stared with shocked expressions.
“What happened?” Mateo asks, while Maddox stirred within me frantically. Ares growls within Mateo making my eyes dart to him before a guttural scream tears from him. I thought he was hurt at first before I saw what he was staring at behind me on the gra*s*s. She was covered in dust. Maddox howls in agony. The scream that left me realising she was dead matched the agony of Maddox’s howl as I reached for her, ripping her to me. Mateo wailed inconsolable as he clutched his hair rocking back and forth.
“Kitty” Maddox sobs in my head. I sink my teeth into her neck hoping I could take it, take it from her, take it back somehow yet nothing. The light in her gold eyes dim yet she smiled in her death. Her eyes peered up lifelessly.
My heart shattered like glass, burst within my chest into a million sharp shards tearing me to pieces as I clutched her to me.
“Kat?” I hear Derrick whisper as he collapses in front of me. I look up at him and see how crushed he is before seeing hundreds of people surrounding us. Andrei, drenched in blood, collapses beside his father. His eyes on Kat in my arms, my hands tangled in her hair, her body completely limp as Mateo leans into me. Through the bond I feel nothing, he was dead inside as he stared blankly ahead.
I don’t think he realized we were surrounded by everyone when the crowd parted. Alpha Nicholas came forward through the crowd before stopping dead in his tracks. I couldn’t stop the tears from rolling down my cheeks. Praying this was some sick nightmare I was stuck in and just needed to wake up from.
I felt hollow like a part of me was missing. Andrei pulls his father to him as his entire body racked with sobs. Everything falls silent and nobody moves, everyone is aware of the sacrifice she just made, made for them, made for us.
“She forgave me, How is it that a mere mortal of a wolf thinks she can forgive me?” A feminine voice comes, ringing clearly. I hear cackling laughter echoing around us. I growl how anyone could be laughing when she just gave her life for so many infuriated me.
Everyone peers around trying to find the source before their eyes look behind me and I turn to see what they are looking at. A woman walking toward us. She has long blonde hair flowing to the back of her knees, her white gown flowing to the ground yet untouched by the debris and blood that stains the earth.
I hear movement behind me and hear them gasp taking a step back and I could feel the authority oozing off her in waves, her aura so strong it made me want to bare my neck to her.
Mateo growls and she waves her hand dismissively at him.
“calm down Mateo Calder, you should know better than to get on the bad side of a Goddess, hasn’t Kat taught you anything?” She says, her chin held high like nothing could touch her, she was beautiful but she was the reason my mate was dead. I growl standing up with Kat still in my arms.
“I came to offer my condolences, but then she apologised and forgave me” She says with a laugh and I could tell she was baffled, yet I had no idea what she was talking about but it was like she felt insulted.
“ I always liked Katya she was different, so much more” – “You k!lled her” I growled at her, cutting her off.
“No she paid the price, though I was hoping it wasn’t with her life, but her love for both of you and her people was far stronger than I thought. She truly was a selfless girl.
She always believed she was never good enough, not fit to be Luna and lacked the confidence of who she truly is” She pauses and I watch as she steps closer. I wanted her blood, wanted to tear her to pieces for what she did, yet I couldn’t move, only watch her.
“Though I admit watching her grow up, I always felt bad about her being cursed and blessed. I knew she would break the curse and she did the moment she accepted you both”
“If she broke it, why is she dead?” Mateo yells at her, his anger bubbling over. The Moon Goddess seems unfazed that he screamed at her, just raising an eyebrow at him before touching her chin with her finger looking at Kat, like she was thinking of some hard math equation. My anger was reaching boiling point, did she come to gloat that she k!lled my mate?
“No, I came to help” She says, reading my thoughts. Her eyes darted to mine and I take a step away from her. Her eyes pierced into me like she could see the darkest parts of my soul.
“You came to help?” I ask, incredulous.
“Well I had a bit of a soft spot for her and Kora will never let me live it down, that incessant whining pup. I was nearly tempted to give her back just to shut her up” The Moon Goddess says, making me think of when Kat asked for a refund when Kora came to her, Maddox feeling quite smug about her annoying the Moon Goddess.
“How?” I ask.
“How indeed, I have never wanted to fiddle with fate like this, never felt anyone deserved it more than she does but most of all she forgave me?” She says like it was some unbelievable thing, did the Moon Goddess really think this wasn’t her fault?
“ It wasn’t my fault, I never asked for Marabella to curse me out. I had to set an example, show them the hardships.”
“So you cursed her entire bloodline, because Marabella wasn’t enough you cursed the entire bloodline”I tell her and she looks at Kat again, her lips pursing thoughtfully and if I didn’t know better, I would think she actually felt guilt only because Kat apparently apologised to her and forgave her? I look around and find everyone on their knees in worship before realising Mateo and I were the only ones still standing.
“She was meant to decide between Mateo and you but instead she chose death and now I can’t bring her back without a price, she ruined it, she could have lived happily enough without one of you because she would have had her kids but she ruined it” Seline says, this was our mighty Moon Goddess?
I almost shake my head, I don’t even know how she is here standing in front of me and I am pissed at her yet also in awe of her, the strangest feeling.
“What is the price?” Mateo asks.
“ I am” She says, “ I am the price that will have to pay and Katya will never be free, she will forever be cursed like me” She says.
“Cursed like you?” I asked, confused.
“Yes, you think being a Goddess is a blessing. You watch everyone you have ever known and loved around you d*ie, you live and live while being f0rced to decide who you pair together, who you let live, everything is a choice, I chose this, like Marabella chose the curse.
I thought it would ease the burden a little with her tempting fate, only it gave me a headache while trying to take the damn thing back, trying to show them how to break it and restore the power back to me. The curse should have d*ied out when Katya did” She says rubbing her temples like she did have a headache.
Even while angered and moping she still had this regal air around her, like she was untouchable and above all and she is, yet it was hard to believe the Moon Goddess was put out by my little mate, that she could have such an effect on her.
The Moon Goddess walks over to me before taking Kat from my arms like she weighed nothing before placing her on a bench, it would have to be the only one left standing in the school and the Moon Goddess places her on top of it. She strokes Katya’s hair from her face brushing her cheek gently.
“When you were born, I knew you would be great from the moment I heard you scream, such a way to be brought into this world and you fought with everything to make it out alive.
Only a true goddess would give it all up for her people just like I did to save mine a long time ago.” She tells Kat, yet I couldn’t move, couldn’t believe what I was seeing as a tear slipped down the Moon Goddesses cheek and I could tell she truly loved Kat. Kat was special to her for some reason.
“And for that I give you a piece of me, for that I make you a Queen. I bless you my Gemini wolf and I gift you with your life, one you never deserved to have taken by me, you shall be my first Alpha of Alpha’s and with it comes great responsibility, you d*ied like a Queen and now I make you one” She whispers to Kat before she bends down and presses her lips to Kat’s.
Light so bright makes me squint, it was like looking at the sun and I could feel the touch of her powers as she used them on Kat.
I watch as the Moon Goddess stands to look back at Mateo and I before feeling the bond snap into place, and I clutch my neck. I feel her mark returning and I see ours appearing on Kat’s neck, I feel a calmness through the bond, a sense of home, the void closing and I feel like I could breathe again.
“Now I think Seline is a good enough payment” She says and my brows furrowed in confusion.
“Excuse me?” I ask, confused.
“For a middle name for your daughter” She says with a smile. I looked at Kat before turning back to look at her but she was gone, just vanished into
thin air when I heard Kat gasp. Everyone eyes snapping toward her, her eyes snapping open as she s*cks in a ma*s*sive lung full of air.
“Kat! ” Matoe says rushing over to her and tugging her to him and she looks around stunned, clinging to him. I clutch them both, shocked at what happened. She is alive. I hang onto them like they are my life line and they are because without them no life is worth living because they are exactly that my life.