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Thompson looked back to me, a low growl rumbling in his chest before stepping aside, leaving my path clear to enter the house. I entered the packhouse, finding it empty, proving that the entire pack was outside. A soft sound could be heard down the hall, past the staircase leading me to the room I had been told Paige was being kept in.
I quickly looked at the path before following the sound deeper into the packhouse; a soft light was flickering in a room resembling the common room back at my packhouse.
“So,” Markus sighed, swirling a glass of whiskey on the rocks in his hand. “I guess the pack has changed their mind about the witch. And my pack has turned their backs on me for good.” He let out a low chuckle. “Cowards.”
“What exactly were you expecting in all this, Markus?” I asked, stepping into the room and circling the older alpha. He didn’t bother standing up, sipping his drink as if we were two friends meeting to share after-work cocktails.”
“I expected loyalty.”
“Loyalty has its limits, and it isn’t blind.” I stepped closer, his gaze leaving his drink and smirking at me.
“Shouldn’t it be? After all, I give my life to protecting their lives. Shouldn’t they be willing to do anything I say?”
“You’ve lost your mind, Markus. No Alpha wants blind loyalty: it leads to imbalance. An Alpha is meant to keep balance within his pack.”
Markus let out a laugh. “Balance. What balance do you give your pack with all that unrivaled strength? You could destroy us all if you really wanted to put your mind to it. Where is the balance there?”
I smiled. “She’s upstairs in your room, waiting for me to take her home.”
Markus’s eyes changed. His expression darkened as his canines began to elongate with a growl. “You can’t have her. She’s mine!”
My own change began, my claws growing out as I adjusted my stance; the older man jumped to his feet, looking more wolf than man as he let out a deep howl.
“You have no claim on her,” I snarled, diving for the shifting wolf’s throat.
He avoided me, turning his fully shifted snout around at me, snapping sharpened teeth at my neck in the same attempt to end this in one bite. We swung our claws at one another, taking hit after hit, his claws digging into my side just as mine dug into his. I let out a feral howl, snapping my jaws at his arms. My teeth successfully sank into his right arm, his howl of pain echoing through the empty house as I pulled. I was entirely shifted now, using the full strength of my wolf to rip at his arm, relishing the loud snap of cartilage, tendons, and bones ripping apart.
His claws tore at my back, his teeth snapping unsuccessfully at my neck and side, struggling to free his arm. I pulled harder at the limb, finally releasing it, watching the useless arm fall to his side, far too torn to repair itself. I then turned to his other arm, dragging his body to the ground as I attacked his good arm, working to leave it as crippled as the other.
Markus’s howls turned from aggressive to panicked, the sound certain to be driving his beta mad outside as he fought back his urge to come to his Alpha’s aid. I decided to end this quickly, not wanting any of his pack to give in to their instincts to come to the call of their Alpha. It was far too convenient not to have to shed their blood. I had promised Alexander that Markus was the only wolf who would be gone after this, and I aimed to keep that promise.
My jaws closed around Markus’s neck, ending his howls, the sound replaced by a choking sound, his lungs filling with his blood. I gave a quick shake, breaking his neck and ending his suffering. I couldn’t begin to understand how he had come to this point in his life. His claim of Paige belonging to him. His belief that his pack should follow him blindly, even as he steals another man’s mate. None of it made any sense, and now, none of it mattered.
Thompson appeared in the doorway as I shifted back to my human form. Madilyn and Chase appeared behind him as he stood frozen in the doorway. I looked at the pain crossing the Beta’s eyes as he looked down at his fallen alpha, tears shimmering in his brown eyes.
“He wasn’t always like this,” Thompson swore, wiping his eyes. “Something happened about a year ago…a shift in his personality as if something inside him had just changed. He spoke nonsense. He claimed his mate was a witch, and he could feel her near. He began to leave the house every night to search all over the city for her. But he always came back empty-handed.”
I frowned at his words. “Until he found my mate.”
Thompson nodded. “He said that he knew it had to be her. No other witch in the city was as powerful, and he insisted his mate had to be powerful.” Thompson looked back at me, swallowing hard. “Your mate is upstairs. The old attic was converted years ago to become Alpha and Luna’s room. Markus put her there.”
I nodded, pushing past him and leaving the Beta to collect his Alpha’s remains. No matter how lost Markus had been at his end, his pack would still lay him to rest as the Alpha he was to them. I had no intention of stopping them from doing so. Madilyn and Chase followed me back down the hallway and upstairs, taking the steps two at a time. At the top of the second flight of stairs stood a single door, light trickling through the bottom of the door from a fireplace on the other side.
Slowly, I pressed the door open, looking around the room until my eyes fell on the bed. Paige was lying on it. She looked like she was sleeping like Sleeping Beauty, waiting for her prince’s true love kiss to break the spell of the evil fairy queen. I approached her carefully, bending next to her, my hand brushing the hair from her forehead. She didn’t stir, my heart skipping a beat before her heartbeat reached my ear. Steady, strong. Her breathing even.
“She’s sleeping,” I sighed. “Paige?” I tried to shake her, frowning when she still didn’t wake.
“Kiss her,” Madilyn said. “Like they do in the movies.”
I frowned at my would-be beta before looking back at my mate. Gently, I bent my head down to kiss her like a fairy tale character, but her eyes flew open just before my lips touched hers; her eyes widened as she took me in.
Chapter twenty-three
Paige
Thedarkwitch’seyesmet mine. Black veins running through the whites of her orbs gave an illusion of pitch-black eyes. I gasped, stepping back into the void. She turned around, her eyes almost seeming to follow me, her steps coming closer to me. An arm was stretching out with clawed fingers reaching toward me. My eyes flew open, and the wooden ceiling of the room I had been locked in blocked me from my view; my eyes widening as the shape took form, the vision faded away, and my eyes focused on the reality around me.
“Nyte,” I gasped, blinking as I stared into the grey eyes I knew so well. “Is that really you?”
