Page 63 of The Wars of Monsters

Jade pivoted toward me and flashed me a grateful smile, blood coating her teeth. “Thanks!” she shouted, and rolled before jumping up and swinging her mace, smashing her weapon into the face of another outlier.

I grinned as I collected my axe, but my smile fell as a large creature with a reptilian head and thick horns charged toward Borren. The demon alpha turned too late and braced, his face slick with sweat, and I jumped, driving my axes into the outlier’s scaled neck. The creature’s massive head rolled along the ground, its slitted eyes going pale as its body slumped.

Borren gave me a grim nod, but I didn’t do it for him. I’d already seen what happened with the wolves. The demons needed their alpha to lead them. With Borren now at my back, the pair of us fought like monsters possessed, taking down any outlier that drew close. Locke flapped his wings, gaining height to take down some of the larger outliers that circled the group.

Borren’s back bumped against mine. “Down,” he ordered, and I dropped into a crouch as a clawed paw of an outlier swiped above our heads. The massive creature now facing us was twice the size of a bear, and four times as thick, with saliva dripping from its maw.

Borren and I attacked the beast, coming from both sides to confuse the creature and we soon had it on the ground bleeding at our feet.

The demons of the House of Thorem and monsters of the House of Axeran rallied around us, but the outliers kept coming. Like a swarm of fuckin’ insects, they surrounded us, a never-ending mass of claws, and teeth, and red eyes. Another stream of blue fire lit up the sky, and I thought of my mate as I fought the outliers.Thank fuck Raine is away from this shit.

I took down two more outliers, breathing heavily as their bodies fell. And that’s when I realized the silence. Instead of attacking, the outliers swarmed around our group, a thick mass of ravenous beasts waiting as if they were observing us.

Locke dropped down beside me. Folding his wings behind his back, he held his swords that were dripping with blood. Borren clenched his jaw, eyeing the writhing swarm.

“What are they doin’?” I muttered under my breath, but even before I’d finished speaking, I spotted them. Three huge outliers lumbered toward us, their bodies covered in strange spikes the size of daggers. The little bastards were waiting for the big guys to join the fight.

“You’re right to think I failed,” Borren said unexpectedly, his gaze still on the outliers.

“Yeah?” I asked, holding my axes as the large outliers lumbered closer. We would have to avoid the spikes as we took them down. “The battle’s not over yet, alpha.”

Borren’s throat bobbed. “No, you’re right to think I failed Saskia.”

I frowned, anger coursing through me at the sound of my mother’s name. “You don’t get to speak about her,” I said, not willing to hear his bullshit. Not even now while death was staring us down. “You don’t get to apologize for what you did.”

The smaller outliers snapped at each other and growled, slavering as they watched us.

“I know that,” Borren replied gruffly, surprising me. “Your mother needed help, and I was too fucking weak.”

My nostrils flared. “I said, shut up.”

“At first, it was easy to ignore there was a problem,” Borren continued, ignoring me. “But by the end, fuck, I should have listened to her.”

He should have—?I took my gaze from the larger outliers to glance at the demon alpha. “What are you talkin’ about?”

Sorrow softened the features of the arrogant male. “There were times when we were together, times when she was lucid, that she asked me to end it. She knew she was a threat to you, to the house…to me. But I couldn’t, not until...” He swallowed hard. “And when it was over, you were gone. The demons found out about my relationship with Saskia and were beginning to question my role as alpha. So, when they turned their anger on you…” He dipped his head. “I was too weak once again.”

I stared at the demon beside me, a sharp ringing starting to drone in my ears. For years, I’d believed he was simply a cruel alpha who’d cleaned house when my mother became too much of a mess, but had he…caredfor her?

“You can explain yourself later,” I told him, but he didn’t appear to be listening.

“I’d always thought she’d gone mad, but that wasn’t it at all. I simply hadn’t pieced it together until now.” He chuckled darkly, and his lips formed a sad smile. “Forgive me, Saskia,” he muttered under his breath, and his face contorted with anger as he turned his head to where Warrick still sat on the massive beast, hundreds of yards away. The vampire was still watching the battle unfold from relative safety. With a anguished cry, Borren ran in Warrick’s direction, toward the outliers that stood like a sea between them.

He’d only made it two steps when spikes shot out from the large outliers that were headed for us. I swung my axes, diverting the spikes headed for me, but two spikes pierced into Borren’s chest, puncturing his armor, and driving deep.Borren staggered, and blood trailed from his mouth as his knees slammed to the ground.

The cries of the outliers became frenzied, but they didn’t attack as they continued to watch us.

“Alpha!” I dropped to Borren’s side as he pulled out the spikes. Blood gushed from beneath his armor, flowing onto the ground.

His gaze remained on me as he gripped my shoulder. “Saskia wasn’t broken,” he rasped, blood gurgling in his mouth. “It was always because of him. I didn’t realize it until I saw what happened with King Adrien and everything finally made sense.”

The outliers shot out more spikes, but I was too distracted to react. Locke diverted the ones away from me, but a spike buried into Borren’s throat. The demon alpha slumped to the ground, blood pooling in his mouth, and I turned to find the demons of the House of Thorem all staring at me grim-faced.

“Well, what the fuck are you waitin’ for?” I roared, the ringing still loud in my ears. “Let’s kill these bastards!”

The demons lurched into action, and we surged toward the outliers, carving into the lines of the beasts. Locke fought beside me, taking down the creatures with his inhuman speed. But I knew we wouldn’t survive this. There were too many of the fuckers, and not enough of us. Still, my axes sang as they connected with flesh, taking down Warrick’s monsters.

Saskia wasn’t broken. It was always because of him.The words echoed in my ears, mixing with the sharp ringing, as a memory resurfaced in my mind. A memory of Warrick talking to my mother and giving her a vial filled with a dark liquid. She’d refused to let me touch it, and when I’d questioned her, she’d merely said it was a payment she owed. My kind-hearted mother had always been in touch with others’ emotions, and when she’d turned into a monster, the sense had heightened to the point she would say she could feel others’ emotions like they were her own. When I reflected in the years after, I’d thought it had been the source of her madness.