Page 27

Chapter Twenty-Five

A LARIC HELLS

“Alaric.” The woman in front of me exhales my name like it’s a damn lifeline.

She stumbles forward, Lina still clinging to her neck, her tiny arms wrapped tight around her mother’s shoulders. And fuck if I don’t catch them both—Lila and Lina—like my whole world depends on it, because it does. I cradle them against me like they belong there. Because they do. They always have.

She’s here. I’ve got her. I’ve got them both. And I’m never letting them go.

I hold them so tightly I’m afraid I might crush them, but I can’t let go. Not yet.

Not after everything.

Not after the chaos that’s torn through my chest for the last three fucking hours.

Three. Hours. That’s how long it took to find them. That’s how long I’ve been barely holding it together, running on adrenaline and desperation, carving my way through the night all the way to dawn like a wild animal ready to be let loose.

Every second spent tracking Lila’s location, replaying the security footage, rerouting through back roads, coordinating my men like a damn war general— was a second that peeled another layer off my sanity.

The fury burned, sure, hell, I would be lying if I said it wasn’t still burning, but it was the fear that nearly broke me.

The not knowing if Julian had laid a finger on them.

The helplessness of not being there to protect them when Lila was going out of her mind, trying to make Lina better.

And now?

Now that I’ve got them in my arms, warm, breathing, sobbing, and real? I can finally breathe.

Her scent wraps around me, like lavender and rain. Her damp hair brushes my cheek, and Lina’s heartbeat flutters against my chest. I bury my face in Lila’s curls like I’m begging my wolf to believe it.

They’re here.

They’re alive.

And they’re safe.

The forest swells around us, the wind whistling through the pines like a war cry. The birds are starting to stir, calling to each other in high, bright tones. The sky behind the treetops lightens by the minute, the edge of dawn slicing through the black.

But none of that matters.

All I hear are my girls.

Lina sobbing into her mother’s neck.

Lila’s trembling breaths against my chest.

And beneath it all, the goddamn voice that makes my blood boil.

“Lila,” Julian calls out somewhere from the woods in front of us, like he hasn’t just signed his death sentence. His voice bounces through the trees, scratchy and frantic, the way unhinged men call for the thing they know they’ve lost.

I grit my teeth, my fists clenching around Lila’s waist.

He’s still looking for them. Still out there. Still daring to act like he has a fucking claim on either of them.

“I—I’m sorry.” Lila’s voice is muffled against my chest. “I should…I shouldn’t have gone to see him. I’m so sorry, Alaric.”

She pulls away slightly, her hands resting on my chest, her wide, bloodshot eyes searching mine like she’s afraid I’ll turn away.

All I focus on is reading the tell in her eyes, reading that fear Julian put inside her, focusing on the red bruise that forms on her jaw and trying my damn best not to make her feel bad about whatever she did, because in all honesty, it doesn’t matter.

“I thought I was doing the right thing,” she whispers, and her feeble voice cuts me more than her tears. “I didn’t know he lied to get me to go see him. I didn’t know he’d…”

“You don’t have to explain,” I say, my voice rough. “Not now.”

But she does anyway.

Her bottom lip trembles. “He said he could save her, and I believed him. I let my fear blind me. I should’ve trusted you. I should’ve stayed home. I should have…”

“I’m not angry, wild one.” I lean in, brushing a tear off her cheek with my thumb. “I’m not mad at you. I’m mad at him. I’m mad that he used your love for Lina to trick you. To trap you. That he dared to think he could take what’s mine.”

Lina stirs against her, and my heart clenches all over again. I slide my hand down and rest it on her small back, feeling the heat radiating off her skin. Too warm. Still too warm.

“She’s burning up,” I murmur, my other hand stroking her cheek softly, “Hi, princess. I’m here, so stop crying, okay?”

“A-Alaric?” Lina sobs hard. I don’t stop stroking her cheek. I don’t stop myself from kissing the top of her head and I don’t fucking stop the words that come out of my mouth, even though they are not true.

“Daddy’s here, baby girl, and I’m taking you and mommy home.”

The words are barely out of my mouth when a branch cracks somewhere to the right.

Julian’s voice echoes closer now. “Peaches! Where are you? Don’t make this harder than it has to be!”

Lila stiffens in my arms, and Lina hides her face on my chest. I read their expressions, and I promise to inflict a lot more pain on Julian than he did on them.

I’m going to rip him apart. I knew that when I tracked Lila down. I knew that when I saw my woman and Lina running to me like wounded pups, and with that in mind, I step in front of Lila, blocking her with my body.

“Stay behind me,” I growl. “Don’t move. Don’t speak. Just hold her and close your eyes for me. Can you do that, wild one?”

Lila’s hands tremble around Lina, but she nods.

I want to kiss her.

I want to kiss her tears away, and there’ll be time for that once I’m done with the man still calling out her name like she’s his.

“It’ll all be over. I’m going to make him pay for everything, Lila.”

“B-be careful,” Lila warns, and I kiss her.

I give her my all because she and Lina are my everything, and in order for them to remain that, Julian has to die.

Not be removed. Not be warned. Not be caged.

He has to bleed for what he’s done to them, to me. And I’m going to make sure he does.

Pulling away from Lila and watching her stand beside a tree, shielding Lina from what I’m about to do, I turn toward the trees, the fury in my chest coiling tighter as my wolf listens to every step that Julian takes toward us.

“Peaches!”

He’s ten steps away.

“You think you can get away from me?”

The leaves crunch. I smell his fucking ego before I even get a whiff of his putrid scent in the air.

“I made you! I own you! Without me, you are nothing!”

The bushes in front of me give way, and out comes my nephew, in the flesh.

Blood oozes from his ear to his neck. I don’t have to guess who did that to him.

His bloodshot eyes meet mine, and then he looks behind me, his jaw twitching when he notices Lila and Lina are safe behind me.

“I knew you’d show up. It was only a matter of when, uncle.”

I take a few steps from Lila, putting as much distance between us as I can.

My wolf is riding the edge of control now, howling for Julian’s blood.

But I don’t just move to protect them physically, I move so Lina won’t see.

So she won’t watch me become a monster. So she doesn’t carry the trauma of watching someone die with her innocent eyes.

Pushing my hair back, breathing in air and letting it stir up the fire inside of me, I chuckle.

“You were always bad at getting the hint, Julian. I blamed it on your parenting, your fucking sour personality and that was my mistake. At the end of day, you’re a piece of scum I gave way too many chances, but your luck’s run out today, kid. ”

“Peaches…”

“Lila,” I cut him off, my voice thunderous. “Lila is mine. Lina is mine! Take a look at them one last time because it’s the last time you will do so.”

Julian falters. Just for a second. Good, he should be scared.

I step forward, my claws gleaming in the faint sunlight that filters through the gray clouds. It’s a telltale sign of me wanting to shift, of every inch of my claws hungering for his skin, and my nephew gets the hint.

“You won’t kill me. I’m a valuable member of the pack.” He laughs, manic now. “The elders won’t let you take Irene if you do. They’ll strip you of your Alpha title. You’ll lose everything.”

“You think I give a damn about the council?” I spit dryly, because I can assure him the last fucking thing going through my mind is morals or the elders. “You think I wouldn’t burn it all down for my family?”

Because they are mine. My words only serve as a trigger for my nephew.

He shifts first, just like I hoped.

Predictable. Weak. Arrogant.

His wolf charges toward me in a blur of pale grey fur and bared fangs that snarl with fury and retribution. I shift mid-step before he can get to me, my bones snapping one by one, my spine arching as dark fur explodes across my skin.

White-hot pain flashes across my body, seizing my heartbeat for a minute, but then I am my wolf. I am power. And I’m a fucking scorned beast thirsting for vengeance.

Julian lunges at me, his massive body colliding with mine, his claws raking down my flank so hard that I can feel every inch of my skin being torn open. I let him have the upper hand. Nothing like feeding a man’s ego before you knock him down a peg so fast that he never sees it coming.

I grunt as his teeth snap inches from my throat, but it’s nothing too major, because I pivot hard, using his momentum against him, and sink my teeth into his shoulder.

The taste of his blood hits my tongue, metallic copper and bile, and that’s about as much adrenaline I need to make my wolf go berserk.

Ripping free, I slam him into the forest floor, dirt and leaves flying and giving way as his back hits the ground with a crack.

He howls in agony. I hear the telltale snap of a rib giving way, but it’s not enough.

Not nearly enough for the anguish he put my girls through.

Not nearly enough for the turmoil he put me through as I searched for my girls for three damn hours.

Digging my claws into his ribs, my wolf and I are possessed and moving like we are a machine. I tear through fur, skin, bone, anything my paws can find.

Julian howls in pain, trying to wriggle free, but he’s too slow. Too damn sloppy.