Page 25 of Curvy Alpha Bride (Wolfshade Brides-for-Hire #4)

My dreams are deep and comfortable, a place of soft sounds and warmth where Xavier and I are together, forever, without any pain or threats looming over our future.

A sharp stab of anxiety pierces through the sweet sensations of contentment, and I try to push it away. I don’t want to leave this wonderful place, even if it isn’t real.

You must wake… a sweet voice drifts through my dreams. Tonight is the night, mother. It has to be tonight.

I struggle against waking, eventually coming out of my deep sleep so violently, I almost fall off the couch. The chiming of the little voice rings through my mind, and I feel a rush of love so powerful it sends prickling goosebumps across my skin.

It can’t be.

I expect Xavier to be right next to me, comforting me already, and when I don’t hear him speak, the splinter of anxiety pierces into my heart, sending cracks of fear running through my body.

He’s not here.

I hurl myself up from the couch, refusing to believe it. Even though I know what I’m going to see, I run through the house, checking every room and finding the cabin terrifyingly empty.

Hopelessness overwhelms me as I return to the living room, and I sit down in front of the fire, my arms wrapped tightly around myself as fear robs me of breath.

This can’t be happening!

Tears slide down my cheeks, and the memory of my dream haunts me. In that perfect place, we were together in absolute safety, and about to welcome our child into the world.

And I still haven’t told him… he doesn’t know! He’s gone out to fight the witch all alone, and he doesn’t know he’s going to be a father!

The thought of my baby brings me strength, and determination builds with every beat of my heart. I get up and go to the door, pushing it open and staring out into the moonlit night.

Now, mother. It must be now.

I’m still not convinced I’m hearing the voice of my unborn child, but I hang on to the hope in that voice. It gives me the courage I need to keep fighting.

I won’t let you grow up without a dad, little one.

Taking a deep breath, I step out onto the porch. I wait to hear the screaming of the witch, smell her fetid stench, and feel her claws sinking into me. But instead, I feel nothing.

I take a few cautious steps into the yard, the bright moonlight flooding down onto my head. My instincts tell me nothing is amiss. There isn’t even the faint aura of threat that usually hangs over the valley.

She’s busy with Xavier.

I turn towards the hills, and I can sense her, like a dense, malignant shadow. The urge to race into the woods and take her on is almost overpowering, but I know it would be death to Xavier, me, and our child.

And then the destruction of Wolfshade. I have to get help!

Whatever mystical protection I am beginning to suspect my baby has, I’m not ready to put it to the test—but I feel like I don’t have a choice.

I run to the truck, starting it up and tearing down the dirt track towards town. I manage to cut the time in half by driving as fast as possible, almost totaling the truck more than once.

When I pull into the courtyard in front of the hall, a howl sounds from the nearby streets, picked up by another wolf nearby. A bell rings inside the hall, and Serra and Ivan run out to greet me.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” Serra yells. “Get to safety!”

“I can’t!” I yell back at her. “Xavier’s gone—the witch got him!”

Serra staggers back from me, a hand on her chest as if I dealt her a killing blow. From the doors of the hall, I hear Finnah wailing.

“No!” she screams. “This can’t be happening!”

“It is happening!” I yell. “He’s gone, he went to fight her on his own, and now she’s got him. I need some of you to come with me—”

“Yes,” Ivan says, taking my shoulders. “We should get a small group together, and they’ll go back with you. Hunker down in the cabin, and you might survive this.”

“What?” I ask, unable to believe what I just heard.

“Yes,” Serra says, recovering enough to come and grab my hand. “Get back to the cabin before she’s done with him, and you might have a chance. I don’t think that will slow her down once she has control of an alpha, but we have to try.”

“No!” I yell, grabbing Serra’s shoulders and shaking her. “I don’t accept that! We are going to rescue him!”

“I’m as upset about this as you are,” Finnah says, coming to put her arms around me. “But it’s over. She’ll return with him under thrall, and he’ll do her bidding. She’ll consume you, then the Range. It’s done. We lost.”

“How can you say that?” I scream at her. “We have to fight!”

“We can’t fight her,” Ivan says dully. “Especially not now.”

I take a moment to pull myself together, then step away from the miserable group and yell at the wolves on the perimeter.

“You, wolves! I need you to take to the Pass and call the other alphas! While the witch is busy with Xavier, you have a chance to get through. Send out the distress call, and they will come.”

“Are you out of your fucking mind?” Serra screams. “Bringing the other alphas here so she can enslave them? How is that a good plan?”

I turn on her, surprised by how cold my voice is.

“According to you, the battle is lost,” I say.

“She will come for me now, and no one can stop her. Then she will move on to take the Range, pack by pack. Why not alert them, call them all here, and give them a chance to fight? If it’s all over, then why not throw everything we have at her, right here and now? ”

Serra takes a step back, shaking her head, but I see hope dawn in Ivan’s eyes.

What a relief it must be to finally have all their worst nightmares come true. It’s not hanging over their heads anymore. It’s time to fight!

“Scouts!” I yell. “Will you go?”

The few wolves that had been left on patrol wait at the edge of the courtyard. All of them seem afraid to move.

They saw what the witch did to the others. Maybe they don’t have the courage to go into the Pass!

“We’ll go, Mabel,” a soft voice says.

I turn to see Lyssa and the other young girls standing at the doors, their arms linked together.

“No!” I cry, running to her and hugging her. “I can’t risk you! You’re too tempting to the witch!”

“Look at you, my luna,” Lyssa says, stroking my hair. “You’re out here, risking yourself, rallying the pack, ready to fight for all of us. You’re absolutely right—it’s all over. Now is the time to make our stand. We will take to the Pass and call to the other packs.”

The tears running down my cheeks sting my eyes so badly, I can barely see. I just shake my head and hug Lyssa as hard as I can.

“Go, then,” I whisper to her. “May the light of the full moon guide and protect you!”

“By your grace, Luna,” she replies. “So shall it be.”

Lyssa pulls away and gestures to the others. Just as they are about to leave the square, I call out to her one last time.

“Lyssa!”

“Yes, my luna?”

“If you make it to the top of the ridge and out of the valley… don’t stop.”

“What?”

“Keep going,” I say, forcing the words out through my tears. “Don’t look back. Run as fast as you can along the Pass. Follow it to the east, and it will lead you to the human world. You might be safe there.”

Lyssa bows her head and touches her heart, smiling as she turns to run towards the hills. I know that she acknowledged my command, but she won’t follow it.

“Right,” I say, turning back to the pack. “Who is coming with me?”

The small group of people who have come up out of the bunker shuffle back, looking around fearfully. Serra stands before them, a look of determination on her face.

“None of us will go,” she says. “It’s bad enough that our young women took your word and left town. I’m not letting you take anyone else!”

“According to you, all of us are doomed!” I hiss, hurrying over to glare into her face. “I don’t know about you, but I’d rather go down fighting instead of trapped underground, shivering in a puddle of my own cowardice!”

Serra’s face hardens, and unrecognizable emotion shimmers in her eyes. “Have you seen the witch kill?” she croaks, her voice weak. “Have you heard the sounds she makes when she feeds? None of us wants to die like that.”

“Then die as cowards!” I yell at her. “All of you. Crawl back into your holes and cling to your false hopes. I’m going to get my husband!”

I run back to the truck, expecting someone to follow me, but nobody does. Even though I’m disappointed, I have to admit I really don’t know what I’m up against.

Maybe it’s better if I don’t know. What’s that saying about fools rush in?

I floor it, wrenching the truck around every bend with reckless determination. Even though I know I’m putting myself in danger, the threat of a car crash has little impact on me.

There is a certain death looming in my future, no matter which path I choose. Maybe it would be better to go out in a crash.

Even though the thought is self-defeating, it has an odd ring to it. Somehow, I just feel like it isn’t my destiny to go out in a crash. That my path is waiting for me beyond the cabin.

Tonight is special, I can feel it. Whether we beat her for good or go out trying, this is the night we’ve been waiting for.

When I pull up at the cabin, the night is still, with a faint, warm breeze flowing down the mountain. There is a hint of sweetness in the wind, but I can also smell the stench of the witch hidden beneath it.

I look into the cabin for a moment, the soft glow of light from the fire and a comfortable couch waiting for me to go and curl up again, shutting the door and turning my back on the fight. Somehow, I know the wards would protect me if I went back inside, and the witch wouldn’t get me or my baby.

But I can’t give up. Not now. The others are counting on me—and the whole Range could be on its way right now! I know what I have to do.

A warm glow surrounds me, and again, I feel a sense of peace and confidence sweeping through my body. I don’t hear the strange, sweet voice again, but somehow I know my child is with me, and she is giving me strength.

I walk past the cabin, heading out to the shore of the lake. To my right, small, windswept waves catch the light, while to my left, the clearing stretches out towards the sheer fall of the mountain.

Ahead of me, the dense forest waits, the shadows getting thicker as I watch.

I stop at the edge of the lake, staring into the woods. I won’t fight her in the shadows. If she wants me, she’ll have to come out into the moonlight.

Cackling laughter echoes across the plain, and the shadows stretch like claws reaching for me across the ground. A blue haze condenses at the tree line, and I begin to see the edges of her form as she walks towards me.

Even in the full light, it’s hard to truly see her. I can only barely glimpse her form and features, as if she isn’t solid.

Where is Xavier?

My heart aches as I think of the possibility that he’s already dead and the witch left his body in the forest. I know she is supposed to enslave the alpha, though. Surely she wouldn’t have wasted his power like that.

Suddenly, a dark shadow lurches behind her, and the witch flits to the side, showing me the ruin my husband has become.

Xavier slouches, a lumbering, broken form, staggering forward in obvious pain. His eyes glow with electric blue fire, and his mouth is twisted in a horrific snarl.

“Welcome, little luna,” the witch sings. “I’m so glad you came.”

“Do whatever it is you do,” I say. “I’m not afraid of you.”

The witch laughs, a pretty, cascading trickle of sound that clashes with her wide mouth of fangs and deep black pits for eyes.

“Maybe not, but are you afraid of what I can make him do?”

She points at Xavier and twists her hand. He stands up straight, shakes his head, then comes straight at me, his hands out to grab my throat and his face full of fury.