Page 26 of Spark (Damselverse #2)

Chapter twenty-six

Zara

I ’m overcome with joy as the woman I presumed dead is standing right before me.

This can’t be real. This has to be a dream…

“Grandma?” I croak.

The woman glances my way, and the hard steel in her eyes melts the instant she finds me. “It will be okay, Zara. I’m fine. Just stay back."

I nod, fighting back the tears before they have a chance to escape.

Now I glare at Napoleon and Will. They’re as vile as I remember, and I try to channel my grandma, assuming the same steely gaze.

It’s her who I learnt it from after all.

Xavier steps forward, taking up a position between Nolan and Dacre. “Hello, fellers.”

Napoleon sneers at the Alpha, but he can see that he and Will are outmatched. Even if George wasn’t bloodied and bound, they’d still be surpassed in strength.

After all, Alphas govern this whole world. They answer to no one, and they know who is weak and who is strong.

“Hand Grandma over, guys," Xavier says, his voice sending chills down my spine.

Napoleon scoffs. “No. You give us George first. Then we'll give you the old biddy.”

Zavier’s eyes glow, and then the scent of burned mocha reaches my nose.

Oh, shit. He’s asserting his dominance by using his scent. I spy both Betas recoil at the threat.

“If you think my twin is bad, then you have no idea what I am capable of… Hand. Her. Over. Now… Before this gets ugly…” Xavier's gray eyes flash bright silver.

Will chuckles. “We’re not scared of you.”

Xavier smirks. “Oh yeah? Boo!”

Will flinches when Xavier jumps out at him next. Napoleon snarls at his brother. “Keep it together.”

Xavier pulls out another cigarette, lighting it up at the end. Then he blows out a ring of smoke, smiling at the brothers. “I’ll tell you what… I will untie Georgie boy here, and we can trade at the same time. How does that sound?”

Napoleon and Will exchange glances. Then Will sighs and steps forward. “All right. Hand the little shit over.”

Xavier wiggles his brows, then gets out a knife, cutting George’s binds. Then he drags the small beta male to his feet. “Come on, Georgie Pig… Ha, George Pig! You have a bossy older sister called Peppa perchance?”

George sneers at him with blood-stained teeth. “What the fuck are you talking about, freak?”

Xavier rolls his eyes. “Never mind. It’s time you return to your brothers.”

Finally, the Pigs get a look at their youngest brother. Will snarls. “You said you wouldn’t touch him.”

Xavier shrugs. “Sorry… guess I forgot. Now, hand Granny over Wilbur… Seriously… What the fuck? Do you know a spider called Charlotte , too?”

Will grinds his teeth as he's not amused by the Alpha's antics. Xavier needs to tone it down.

“He’s fucking insane,” George mutters, trying to squirm out of Xavier’s grip.

“And you!” Xavier points at Napoleon. “Your mother a George Orwell fan by any chance?”

Napoleon glares at him. “Our mother is dead .”

Xavier sighs. “A shame because she seemed like she had a cracking sense of humor after naming you three. Clearly had a thing for fictitious pigs…"

Dacre growls, “Xavier, focus. George for Granny, as we discussed.”

My heart pounds as my gaze lands on my grandma. She’s good, her gaze laser-focused as she stares straight ahead.

I know what Xavier is doing. He is trying to buy us time. The police should be closing in soon, but he needs to make the exchange quickly.

My grandmother’s life depends on it.

Finally, Will and Xavier make the exchange. I throw my arms around my grandmother the moment she is on our side of the room.

“Oh, Granny…”

Her arms are still bound, so she can’t hug me. Dacre comes over next, untying her arms, and now she throws them around me, kissing my head and squeezing tight.

Then she grabs my hand, tugging me away towards a door out back. “Let’s go. It’s not safe here…”

Why?

I peer back at my pack. “But… my Alphas…”

“They will be fine, trust me. That Xavier certainly knows how to handle himself. I see why you like him…”

That he does. Still, I can't just leave them. We're a pack.

Nolan nods at me to go, while Xavier still taunts the brothers, ruffling George’s head. “I will miss you, little Georgie…”

Grandma pushes through the door, and now she leads me through the woods, far away from the shed.

It's so good to have her back. I honestly thought she was dead. It seems like I am in a dream as we trek through the woods hand in hand.

“I missed you so much, Grandma...” I cry.

“Shh. We will have time for that later, sweetheart. We just need to get you to safety.”

Again, why?

“Grandma, what’s happening? What—?”

Grandma freezes, tugging me closer just as a gun cocks behind us.

I whirl around, and my heart drops cold to my feet when I meet the end of a gun.

And the one holding the gun…

Just when I never thought I would see him again, but there he is in the flesh—Xavier’s twin.

My former Alpha.

“Long time no see, Zara ," he growls, fangs tipped with venom.

Grandma shoves me behind her. “Leave her alone. You’ve made her suffer enough.”

So, it was all a setup. The Pigs double-crossed us.

The Wolf sneers, stepping closer. “Finally, it’s time to take you out for good, sweet Omega of mine. And your grandma, too.”

No. This can’t be how it ends. It just can’t.

Not when I found my pack. Not when I had finally found my grandma.

“It will be okay, Zara. You just stay behind me,” Granny whispers, and she is my rock in that moment.

But I can’t let her shield me from The Wolf’s bullet. However, as I try to step around her, she shoves me back. “No, Zara.”

“But… he will shoot you.”

The Wolf sniggers. “And I will, too! I don’t need her anymore... I only kept her alive long enough to lure you, Zara. Just to see the pain and torment riddled on your face for one last time.”

Now all I see is red as I glare at the Alpha who ruined my life. “Why?”

He shows his sharp teeth again as he keeps his gun pointed. “ Why what?”

“ Why do you hate me so much? What did I ever do to deserve your wrath? It’s not like I asked to be matched with you!”

The Wolf actually ponders for a moment. Then he gives a comical shrug, and it’s in that moment that I see the similarities with Xavier.

Xavier has a screw loose, that’s for certain. But the Wolf is pure evil and chaos.

“I don’t know, really… I mean, at first, I was pretty open to the idea of having an Omega I could bend to my will. After all, all I have to do is bark and you’re mine …”

My eyes fill with tears just as he barks like the canine he is. My back goes straight, and now I am at his mercy.

Grandma freezes up, too, but she resists his pull a hell of a lot better than I do, refusing to get out of my way.

The Wolf sighs. “A shame it has to come to this. But if I have to kill you both, so be it.”

I shut my eyes as his finger hovers on the trigger of his gun, and I squeeze my grandmother’s hand.

At least we will die together.

Together until the very end.

The gun goes off, but the bullet hits the tree behind me. The bark explodes on impact, and then I am shoved aside.

When I look up, I find the eyes of Xavier.

He pushed me and Grandma out of the way. We’re safe.

“Go!” he roars.

I stumble at first, but then Grandma tugs me away into the forest just as the Wolf’s gun goes off for the second time.

Xavier…

“No!”