Page 28 of The Alpha’s Forced Omega (Alaska Alpha Wolves #1)
The gnarly figure of the demon dog appears out of nowhere, flashing and whooshing through the air with a speed that none of the werewolves can keep up with. Its sinister, mutt-like form swishes through the air, a tail of onyx smoke following behind it.
My eyes can barely keep up with the malign creature as it zooms across the air, attacking three of the four posts the Alphas had picked to keep watch.
While the device that houses Aurora’s powers sizzles with electric current and was meant to lure the demon to this spot, it eventually simmers down and dies out.
“ Aurora! Where are you?!” I desperately call through the mind link, but to no avail. It’s almost as if the connection has been severed, and now I’m caught amid the demon’s attack when it just figured out that Aurora’s powers being wielded in the field were a ruse to trap it.
We would have succeeded in trapping it if my call to Aurora had been heard in time. But the delay allowed enough time for the demon dog to gain the upper hand, moving through the air in a cloud of eerily black smoke and lunging for Brooks.
It caught him off guard and sent him tumbling over with a strike to his ribs. Bleeding out, his wolf cowered and left him in human form to watch the demon cripple Thane and Dawson, forcing them both into their human forms to suffer through the disabling pain of their injuries.
I’m the only one left staring at the demon in the dark abysses of its blank, malicious eyes, my chest heaving with uncontrollably panicked breaths when I remember that I stand no chance against it.
Not alone. And not without the magical abilities Aurora has.
My wolf form in all its might is nothing against the vicious creature who’s powered up by the dark forces of the world.
All I can do is rely on my instincts to dodge every incoming attack, my ears perking up to intercept the demon’s next move when it lowers its pointed head and sniffs the air as if it needs my scent to strike.
“Where’s Aurora?!” Thane yells out, distracting me for a split second that lasts long enough for the demon to blitz toward me in a flurry of black tendrils of smoke that curl through the air as it spears its head forward.
It snarls and growls, the sounds ringing through my eardrums as if it’s not a tangible sound, but one that comes from the deepest, darkest depths of the underworld, where the demon dog comes from.
The bleating cry of the demon dog slices through my soul just as its chilling talons slice through my side, cutting me open before it uses the entirety of its malignant form to crash into me, throwing me off my wolf's feet.
The excruciating pain from being cut open turns to a burning, fiery sensation when I crash into the snow in my human form, my battered body convulsing from the impact.
Through blurred, hazy vision, I see the demon dog stalking forward, licking its purple tongue across its grimy, hairless face, its black eyes trained on me. I’m not the only one down, but the demon doesn’t seem to care about the other alphas writhing in pain across the field.
All it seems to care about is me, as if its only focus is on returning to me to finish what it started, like it wants to kill me.
I lift my fingers from my bleeding ribcage and notice the thick, black substance that mixes with my blood, realizing it’s why I feel like I’m on the verge of blacking out.
For whatever reason, the demon is going to finish me off, and as I let defeat wash over me, my eyelids surrender to the throes of unconsciousness. There’s nothing I can do.
“Elias!” Aurora’s voice cracks through my mind, but I don’t have the strength to open my eyes when I’m on the brink of death, even if her voice is a subconscious manifestation meant to bring hope and ensure that I don’t give up so easily.
But when I feel warm fingers on my shoulder, my eyes instantly spring open just to see the golden, warm aura surrounding the angel who’s come to save me.
“Aurora…” I murmur, almost unconscious but grappling with my awareness to keep my hazy vision on her. There’s a flash of lilac rays that slices through the air, and I know she’s wielding her powers to strike the demon.
“I’m right here, Elias!” she yelps from where she’s crouched beside me. When she grabs my bloodied hand, I feel a surge of power run through the physical contact, and I realize this is why the demon wanted to kill me.
Around me, Aurora’s powers become charged, and her magic is at its full capacity.
“It’s going to kill you if I don’t stop it,” she says, her breath so close to my face that I can almost taste her.
I groan in response, turning onto my side as I use every last ounce of strength to squeeze her hand and send currents of energy through her. “It knows you’re stronger when I’m around,” I croak. “Stay close.”
“I’m not leaving your side,” Aurora declares as she swoops in to press her lips to mine, filling my parched airways with enough life to keep me conscious to watch her rise to the full extent of her courage, spreading out her fingers in front of her with all her might as she wields her magic against the demon.
The ghastly creature attempted to lunge at her, but she was able to fling bursts of amethyst lightning at the demon. It squeals in protest as it fights to dodge her attacks as it comes charging forward, floating across the snow-covered ground.
But Aurora is a quick thinker and calculates every one of the demon’s moves as she walks boldly forward, firing magic bolts at the spirit that it’s forced to dodge before shooting a ball of concentrated light in front of the demon.
The ball glows with light that illuminates the field and overpowers the radiant moonlight from the sky, then it explodes just as the demon attempts to leap over it.
The demon whimpers and squeals as it’s knocked over by the impact, throwing up a mouthful of black, slimy substance from its battered lip.
I gasp in awe of Aurora’s immense power, stronger than anything I’ve witnessed before.
With the demon momentarily paralyzed, Aurora was able to coil another ball of lilac light between her palms, gathering all her power into the translucent sphere.
“Gah!” Aurora yells out before spinning the ball in the demon’s direction, the magic sphere spearing into its face with such force that it sends it tumbling away before crashing into a tree to the sound of cracking ribs.
Aurora is panting as she stares after the spirit that somehow lost its spirit nature and became a full-fledged physical being that bleeds from where it’s been injured.
Big black eyes stare frightfully at Aurora as the hairless dog whines and scrambles to its feet, this time imprinting the snow as it disappears behind a tree.
Whatever havoc it had planned is thwarted since Aurora’s powers were majestic enough to hurt it, and it runs off, leaving behind trails of footprints in the snow.
Aurora turns to me, a heaving sigh escaping her lips, and dropping her shoulders. Without warning, she wheezes and collapses to the ground.
“Aurora!” I yelp, my throat dry from all the blood I’m losing. She manages to lift her head slightly, her eyes disoriented and unfocused from the exhaustion that has her confounded, to the cold, icy ground.
Mustering every last ounce of strength I can find, I pull myself forward using my stronger arm, trying to get to Aurora.
She extends her arm out, wiggling her fingers toward me until I’m close enough to place my hand over hers.
When our palms connect, I’m mentally whisked off into a chasm of bright amethyst light that would be blinding to my real eyes.
My breath catches as I tumble down a long, narrow passageway that finally blackens before flashing a set of silver eyes into the vision.
When I’m sprung back to reality, I’m met with Aurora’s glowing depths of purple fixed blankly at me.
“The stranger will come when our child is born,” Aurora proclaims in the same deep voice she used when she had her first psychic vision. “She will help us fight the demon again.”
Aurora breathes out deeply just as her eyes return to their usual color, her eyelids heavy as she hangs on to consciousness. Our eyes meet for a brief, knowing second, in which we both acknowledge the psychic vision she just had before we allow unconsciousness to draw us into its dark abyss.