Page 52

Back to Asher’s POV

I enter the makeshift military camp in the middle of the cold night, cursing myself for still wearing the long-sleeved mini-dress and not eating more of that tasteless soup.

I’m mad at all these grown-ass men around, fighting like preschoolers. In the middle of all this chaos, I can see Beta trying to diffuse the situation between the Officers while he fights with Gamma Atlas himself.

“Are you ready to tell me what’s going on here?” I shout, feeling through my mate-bond that Cain is fucking not here either.

“What are you doing here?” Beta roars back at me.

I tailed you, isn’t it obvious?

“Alpha got himself kidnapped,” Atlas says while raking his hand through his blonde hair.

I laugh. But I’m not in the mood for joking. Not when I see Cain’s sword stuck in the ground just a few feet behind them. I stride in its direction wondering why the fuck they are fighting instead of looking for him. “Excuse me, what?”

“You were supposed to stay in your fucking bedroom!” Beta screams at me, probably desperate to finally control anyone weaker than him.

But I’m not weaker.

I draw the sword from the ground and put it to his throat faster than he can react. “Don’t you ever disrespect me again, Beta. ”

It doesn’t take me much to control this wild crowd. Just a few cut fingers and even fewer minutes. I go into my general mode, all cold, calculated, and firm. Acting automatically, like in a trance, going on adrenaline. My life no longer matters. Only Cain’s does.

Because without his life, mine would be left to the mercy of the Rogue King, and the only thing I am sure of in this world anymore is that that freak doesn’t know what mercy is.

So, I command on the left and right, the fearless army I used to fight against. Werewolves I used to kill every chance I got—now my only hope.

And everything goes swiftly for a while until we finally know without a doubt where exactly Cain is—trapped on the Unwanted soil, drugged with wolfsbane on his own account, and clearly swordless.

It turns out Atlas was commanded to keep half of this info from us until the time comes.

Well, it came. We are days in, and I am at the point where I would follow my husband straight to hell if I needed to.

And something tells me, I will.

“What about that Unwanted teenager we found? Can’t we use him to get the sword inside?” I ask exhausted after another unplanned battle in front of Unwanted City gates.

The stone wall surrounding the town is guarded like an unconquerable fortress by dirty wolves of all ages, most of them borderline feral.

“Alpha already used him to go inside,” Beta says, clearly knowing more than he admitted before.

We are getting desperate. I’m getting desperate. It’s been days of defeat after defeat, and I need to do the stupidest thing I have ever done. And I’ve done them a lot in my Princess life.

All officers are fighting again, in the middle of the makeshift tent, in one of the few clearings in this abandoned thick winter green forest. Last time, they all had different opinions. This time, we all have only one, same idea.

And they don’t fucking like it.

I don’t either.

The full-blown massacre I pass while dragging Cain’s sword between the dead and wounded wolf bodies only makes me more confident—I’m making a good choice.

By now, I realize my life is not the only one on the line here. I spent enough time at the Rogue territory to know we are all doomed if Cain stops shielding us from the King, so I do the only thing we all came up with.

Me, bringing the sword alone, posing as a useless girl no Unwanted will suspect.

It was a tough choice, but not the toughest of my life.

No, the toughest comes to me the moment I’m surrounded by the blood-thirsty Unwanted—without my ability to shift or the access to the sword anymore. They just took it to their fortress, as we hoped they would.

Do I cover my head or the unborn baby with my hands, showing them I’m pregnant but risking the pup’s life anyway?

In the end, it doesn’t matter.

I can’t cover anything when they pull at all my limbs in an organized attack. They kick me everywhere until I almost lose consciousness.

It hurts.

The only thing keeping me alive through all of this is the thought that Cain still needs to be rescued.

I’m lying in a pool of blood with dark spots before my eyes—the high-pitched noise in my head doesn’t stop me from hearing the threatening roars increasing all around me.

If I were human, I would be long dead.

But I’m not. I’m left barely holding up when my attackers finally realize I was only a sweet diversion, a means to an end…

Huh, it starts snowing.

I try to heal myself, but something feels very, very wrong.

“Luna, you are bleeding?” Beta Lucifer comes to me according to the plan they didn’t want to execute, and helps me stand up.

Thank God —I wasn’t sure they’d follow. Or even realize I was gone.

He looks down, where I am sure a tear of blood is running down my inner thigh.

“You started your period,” he informs unhelpfully while taking me under his arm.

“No.”

“You were not raped…” he states, confused, while trying to smell the scents on me.

“No.” The real tears join the red ones, “I lost a pup.”

Lucifer stops in his tracks, almost making me fall. He looks deep into my watery eyes and then pulls me for a tight, soul-crushing hug. I start sobbing.

“They killed the future heir to the throne,” he shouts over my head to all the wolves fighting in the battle.

They all start howling in unison. The heart-shattering sound vibrates through my agony.

“Do you need—”

“I need to fight,” I cut Beta off because my body is healed enough, and my soul never will be. I angrily wipe my tears off.

He drags his tongue over his teeth and finally nods.

I turn in the direction of the fight, right in front of the closed and moated Unwanted City.

Hard, uneven terrain. Lots of evergreen trees, pointy needles on the forest floor, and decomposing bodies that didn’t survive previous fights. Light snow makes it all slippery. Falling dusk doesn’t help either.

I run and then jump, shifting into my wolf form in midair, my scream turning into a roar.

I don’t want to think about how bitter the ability to shift again so soon feels—so I sink my canines into the first stinky enemy I encounter and snap his neck instead. He didn’t even have a chance.

I kill one after another while Cain’s Beta—my Beta—is running with me on the same killing spree, leaving no one behind.

I don’t care if the enemy wolves are young or old, or even underage—Unwanted seem to send anyone they’ve got. I’m sinking my teeth in any enemy on my way, blind with numbness. Blind to the screams, blind to the suffering, blind to the sharp branches beating my sides when I push further into the forest, desperately trying to find and feel my true mate’s nearby presence again.

We run and fight until I can’t anymore. My wolf form is giving up. I shift, helpless human again, covered in the blood of my enemies, my own, and my baby who I’ll never be able to meet…

And that’s when I see him.

My mate, my Rogue, all bloody just like me—black, wet, semi-long hair falling over his forehead. The sword he has, thanks to my selfless sacrifice, is dripping with red sticky fluid. He is walking through the clearing in our direction and our eyes lock.

That’s all my body needs before finally giving up, shutting off for good.

He’s safe, he’s finally safe.

The last thing I hear is Beta screaming.