Alpha's Child (10 page)

“It’s not the land he wants, Julia. It’s the females. It’s you.”

He heard a few expulsions of breath from her mouth, the beginnings of words that died before they could form.

“How can you beat him if you can’t see?” Julia asked finally, desperately.

I can’t
, Damien thought—but then he got mad at himself. He had to kill Grath. He had to. He was probably going to die himself, but he was going to go down clawing and biting and tearing.

“All it will take is one good bite,” Damien said.

“Just refuse. Refuse to fight, they can’t—”

“They’d kill me. And I doubt they’d make it painless. At least this way I have a chance.”

“That’s enough,” barked Grath from nearby. “It’s time.”

Julia was yanked away from Damien, out of his arms. Just like that. Gone. He realized in swooning horror that he was never going to feel her touch again.

“
No!
” Julia shrieked. “
Nooo
—”

One of the shifters grunted and then suddenly Julia was pressed against Damien once more and she was kissing him and he kissed her back for all he was worth.

Then she was ripped from his arms and he knew the shifters would not let her escape again.

“I love you, Julia,” Damien said hoarsely.

“I love you,” Julia cried out through tears as the shifters dragged her away. “I love you!”

Grath’s presence loomed in front of Damien.

“Shift,” Grath ordered.

The feel and taste of Julia’s lips lingered on his own. He relished it for one last moment in human form. For the last time. Then he shifted.

With slaps and kicks, the shifters guided him into the cavern again. The cavern was no longer empty; a few dozen people must have been clustered inside down there. Talking and laughter echoed through the room, and Damien felt the air crackle with excitement. The pack had been brought in to watch the fight.

When Grath stepped into the cavern ahead of Damien, a hush swept the crowd, and there was a shuffling of feet as people moved toward the edges of the room. Damien had expected roars of vicarious bloodlust and shouts of encouragement to their leader. The silence was eerie.

He heard a half-stifled moan behind him and knew that Julia had been brought in to watch as well. Helpless bitterness rose in him like bile. He did not want her to see him die. Especially not like this.

No
, he snapped at himself viciously.
You will not be slaughtered like a chicken. You will fight, and you will kill him.

“Alpha,” Grath said. “I will take your land. I will take your mate.”

“I will kill you first,” Damien breathed.

Grath’s claws clicked softly on the stone floor. It was the only sound in the cavern. He could have curled his claws back off the floor, which would have made his footfalls all but silent. He wanted Damien to hear. He was going to draw this out. Relish it.

Damien stayed perfectly still, his every hair bristled, his every muscle fiber humming with electricity. He surrendered himself to his senses.

It was a good thing the crowd was silent. Grath surely thought it didn’t matter whether Damien could hear him. Grath’s confidence would be Damien’s biggest advantage. He paced across from the bigger wolf

“You’re a disgrace to our kind,” Grath growled. “I kill one of your lieutenants, take your mate, kill your pups, and you want to
negotiate
? I would have demanded a fight. I don’t care if I was blind. I don’t care if I was paralyzed. Better to die fighting, no matter how badly you lose, than to live with your tail between your legs.”

Damien said nothing. Grath was moving around him in a slow circle, well out of reach.

“That’s what you get for trying to integrate with humans,” Grath continued. “Their civilization is a veneer. They try to make their own rules but ultimately the only rules that matter are the rules of nature. You begin to forget that if you live too close to them. You begin to think that
love
is important, and money, and luxury. No—all that matters is
winning
. The universe is one giant competition. Winning the chase after that deer. Winning a mate. And winning the right to take what you want.”

Grath went silent then—completely silent. Not only did he stop talking, the clicking of his claws ceased. He may have simply stopped moving, but Damien had to assume that Grath had curled his claws up off the floor and was sneaking up on Damien on the soft pads of his paws.

This was it.

Kill
. That was the only thought in Damien’s mind as he strained his senses.
Kill
.

Now that Grath had fallen silent, tiny noises from the crowd became more prominent in Damien’s ears—fabric rustling, feet shifting, throats being cleared. As soft as these noises were, they were enough to conceal Grath’s even softer footfalls. Damien had no idea where Grath was.

A breath of air on his right haunch.

Damien lashed around with a snarl and snapped his jaws—but there was nothing there. He’d imagined it.

A laugh split the silence from a completely different direction. Grath was still at least ten yards away; it didn’t sound like he’d moved at all from where he’d been when he stopped talking.

A whisper of movement and claws ripped at his side. Damien lunged in that direction but Grath leapt back too quickly. The pain barely penetrated through Damien’s adrenaline buzz. Blood trickled down his side but he did not care. He would kill the man who had killed his children.

An expulsion of breath through Grath’s nostrils, right in front of Damien. Only as Damien was already lunging forward did it occur to him that the breath had been oddly loud considering that Grath was trying to be stealthy. He was right—Grath had been baiting him—but it was too late. Grath dodged Damien’s lunge and raked his claws from the top of Damien’s front leg all the way to the back one. Julia cried out. Even through the adrenaline, the pain forced a strangled howl from Damien’s chest. He heard drops of blood spatter on the floor.

Half-crazed with pain and rage, Damien lashed out at the spot where he thought Grath was, but the wolf wasn’t there.

“Behind you!” Julia screamed.

Damien was halfway through his turn when Grath’s jaws locked onto his haunch, the teeth piercing deep into the muscle. Damien tried to torque his body around to bite Grath but he couldn’t quite reach. Grath wrenched his head back and forth, tearing at his leg with a mouthful of Damien’s flesh. Julia screamed again, her cry ringing through the cavern. Damien thrashed but Grath’s bite was too deep.

At long last Damien’s back foot touched Grath’s front leg and Damien clawed at the leg as hard as he could. Grath yelped and finally released Damien.

Damien’s haunch gave out and he collapsed into a growing pool of blood. This. This was it. He couldn’t save Jordan, or Julia, or his babies. He couldn’t save his pack. It was over.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Julia

He couldn’t die. Julia’s babies had been taken from her mere minutes ago, and Jordan an hour before that. Surely the universe would not take Damien as well. Surely the universe could not be that cruel.

Though screams and sobs built up inside her as Damien fought, she held them in for his sake, so that he could hear. Thank God the spectators were also silent. Julia was surprised at how subdued they were. A few of them did wear malicious grins, but many more of them looked like they had something sour on their tongues.

As Grath slinked around Damien, tapping his claws on the floor tauntingly, Julia considered calling to Damien to tell him which direction Grath was in. But Grath might twist this to his own advantage. Julia hugged herself, imagining the worst possibilities. Grath would go straight for Damien’s throat to end the fight. Better to let Damien focus on his senses, and let Grath be overconfident. The longer Grath drew it out, the more chances Damien would have.

Suddenly Grath lunged, swiping a paw across Damien’s flank, springing back before Damien could bite him. Fear clutched at Julia’s lungs. She didn’t want to watch but couldn’t look away.

Someone came up beside her from behind. Julia barely noticed…until a child’s voice whispered, “Don’t say anything.”

The werewitch. Julia recoiled.

The witch grabbed her wrist and hissed into her ear.

“I’m going to help you.”

Julia didn’t process these words. She wanted to grab the witch’s throat in both hands and squeeze for all she was worth. She wasn’t scared—the only thing left that they could take from her was her life, and Julia didn’t care about that, not anymore.

Julia yanked her wrist out of the witch’s grasp but stopped moving at her next whispered words.

“Your babies are alive.”

The breath in Julia’s lungs vanished.

Had she heard that correctly?
Your babies are alive
. Yes, yes, that’s what she’d said, her babies were alive.

The witch was probably just lying in order to achieve some diabolical end…but if there was even the remotest possibility…

“There’s no time to explain,” the witch said. She put a hand on Julia’s back, a hand that radiated an unnatural but pleasant heat, and slowly slid the hand up Julia’s spine while her fingers did a strange, spasmodic tap-dance. For all Julia knew, the witch was putting some torturous spell on her…but if…
if
…

The witch’s fingers splayed over the back of Julia’s head, and suddenly the heat emanating from the witch’s hand burst into Julia’s skull and poured through her body—

Julia gasped. It was the gasp of a drowning soul breaking the surface.

The twins’ little hearts pulsed inside her, strongly as ever.

Her babies were alive. Julia couldn’t even begin to fathom it, but she was absolutely sure of what she felt. They were alive,
alive!

No sooner had she felt this gush of joy than Grath raked his claws across Damien’s flank. Julia cried out a choked stream. Rivulets of blood fell from Damien’s belly.

“Focus all of your energy on your connection with him,” the werewitch whispered urgently.

“Behind you!” Julia screamed, but it was too late—Grath clenched his teeth down on Damien’s haunch and hung on as Damien thrashed.

“
Focus!
” the witch hissed. “It’s his last chance! Look at him! Focus on him!”

Julia didn’t understand how their connection could help him in this moment. Her mind was a whirlwind. But she had to try. There was nothing else she could do.

Damien collapsed. Grath’s mouth was a dripping scarlet grin.

Julia locked her eyes on her mate and poured her soul out to him to strengthen the connection that she had found again with the werewitch’s strange hex.
Damien
, she thought.
My love. My mate. Damien.

CHAPTER TWENTY

Damien

Damien was still sprawled on the ground, pain throbbing throughout his body. His strength was literally leaking out of him. If Grath landed one more good strike, even if it didn’t kill him right away, Damien didn’t think he’d have the strength to continue fighting back.

It was time for him to make his final effort.

“Get up,” Grath snarled.

Damien didn’t even try. He allowed a whine to come out of him, one he didn’t have to fake.

He was hoping Grath would get fed up with his pitifulness and end it—
try
to end it. When Grath came to rip his throat out, Damien would make his final lunge, hopefully catching Grath off guard. One blind shot at Grath’s jugular. He’d have to get the timing and the aim perfect. His chances were infinitesimal, but it was the only chance he had.

“Get up, you weakling!” Grath barked.

Damien
.

Julia
?

The connection to Julia flickered to life within the cavern, and he thought that perhaps it was like it had been with Jordan, with the connection growing strong just before death.

My love.

He felt her love for him. He felt her fear for him. And he felt her…hope? Yes, it was hope, hope for him, dwarfed by the fear but still a genuine, glowing beam of hope. How could she not be hopeless when she saw him like this?

It happened so fluidly that at first he assumed it was coming from his own imagination. But no—he was seeing what Julia was seeing. It was the same thing that had happened when they were making love. He could see himself, lying on his side, his fur tattered, a dark pool spreading out from under him. He looked more limp and broken than he ever could have imagined himself. He saw Grath stalking back and forth impatiently, a hulking, jet black beast with eyes that glinted orange in the dimness. Blood matted the fur around his jaws and stained his yellowing fangs.

“You shameful coward, GET UP!” Grath roared.

And Damien did. He didn’t know how long this vicarious vision would hold—he had to use it now. The mangled muscle in his haunch spasmed and the leg half-buckled but he kept his balance. His every movement twisted and widened the gashes all over his body. He ignored the pain.

He started limping toward Grath, but not straight at him, a little to Grath’s left. Grath stayed stock still except that his lips curled back in a grin. Damien got within a few yards of him and still Grath didn’t move. He was completely confident that Damien couldn’t hurt him, and amused that Damien could be so close to him and have no idea where he was.

But Damien saw exactly where he was, and exactly where he had to strike.

Forward. Up.

Kill
.

Damien lunged. Grath barely had time to blink before Damien’s jaws clamped down on his throat.

Instantly the vision vanished, but the dark curtain that swept across his vision didn’t matter now. Grath flailed his paws, thrashed so violently that Damien was jerked bodily back and forth, but Damien kept his jaws locked as tightly as he could. Hot, rusty-tasting blood poured into his mouth and sprayed against his face. It took all his strength and willpower to hold on.