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Vince growls in pain as his knuckles collide with the solid oak door frame.
ChapterForty-One
Casen
Seizing the moment, I thrust my palm against his chest, unbalancing him. He tumbles off the porch, stumbling down the steps with a graceless thud. “You don't want to do this,” I warn him, my voice hardened with resolve.
“I think it is long overdue, brother,” he retorts, the venom in his words almost tangible. The moonlight illuminates Vince's features, casting an eerie glow on his features. His eyes reflect a feral glow. His face is contorted with rage as we clash on the front lawn. He springs back on his feet with a snarl, launching himself at me recklessly, given his state. I shift into predator mode, my eyes narrow, my nostrils flaring, my teeth bared in a savage snarl. I block his first punch, only to land mine. My knuckles bruise as I focus on landing punch after punch.
We clash, an explosive collision of strained brotherhood and past grievances. But I'm sober, my reflexes honed, my training with not only the pack but Eziah evident in every counterstrike. My fists find their mark repeatedly. His attempts to attack falter under my relentless assault, suddenly, the pack house door opens, and I see Sage stumble out bleary-eyed and in her dressing gown, followed closely by Andrei. She glances at us and then at Rose's house, heading in that direction, while Andrei makes his way to us.
However, I am distracted quickly when Vince staggers back onto his feet and tackles me to the ground. We wrestle, and his hand encloses on the dropped beer bottle. It crashes down onto my face, and I snarl, my face cracking like porcelain, and blood floods my vision, but I still manage to turn things around. With a surge of strength, I throw him off me and leap back onto my feet.
Wrapping my fingers around his throat, I hear Andrei yelling—and for a moment, hesitation flickers through me. But then Vince begins to choke out Rose's name in a mocking tone, “You were always a sucker for a damsel in distress,” he sneers, sending rage cascading through me once again.
With rage-filled strength, I lift him slightly, slamming him hard against the ground as he struggles desperately against my grip on his neck. “Where is she!?” I roar, but then an ear-splitting scream pierces the silence.
Sage. Her fear-laden cry wraps around my heart, squeezing it with an icy grip, making me twist to look over my shoulder. Vince, taking advantage of the situation, tosses me off him. Sage stops at the stairs in front of Rose's house, her wide eyes glinting with terror in the dim light. I long to abandon this pointless fight and follow, but Vince relentlessly demands my attention, a drunken storm that refuses to die down. Andrei gets between us–shoving us easily in opposite directions.
Another piercing scream slashes through the air, this one filled with anguish. My heart stumbles over a beat at the sight of Sage staggering out the door with Rose limp in her arms before she collapses, kneeling beside her daughter’s unconscious form. “Andrei!” her voice carries the pain with it, freezes my lungs, and sinks my stomach. Her cry for Andrei rings out, and my stomach sinks.
Andrei's icy composure shatters at the sight of his fallen daughter. His gaze swivels from our petty feud to the chilling scene of his wife clutching their daughter before him.
“What have you done?” he roars at Vince, his voice an echoing thunderclap. His eyes are blazing infernos, his fury palpable. With a growl, he throws himself at Vince, all Alpha authority replaced by paternal rage. He punches Vince so hard that his head snaps back before kicking him and throwing his body against the tree by the steps.
Emerging from the house with adrenaline and speed, Malik seizes Andrei, his muscular arms a vise around the raging Alpha as he rips him backward. “You can't kill him, they're mates. You'll only be hurting Rose if you do,” he warns Andrei.
The scene grinds me to a standstill, a horrifying view of how nightmarish my life has spiraled within a couple of days. My gaze travels to Vince, now bloody and beaten. However, a twisted smile sits on his lips. His laughter rings out, a cold, harsh sound. He wipes his bloodied lip, his grin a slash of white and red in the darkness. “Exactly, Alpha. You’ll hurt your precious Rose. Although she’s more of a fucking weed these days.”
Andrei's snarl ripples through the night as he lunges at Vince again.
Malik holds him back using all his strength. At that moment, Zyan surges forward, hearing him talk of our mate like that only amplifies his fury. I yield to his influence, and my body responds, shifting partially. Talon-like claws replace my fingernails, and my canines elongate, becoming deadly points. Vince’s laughter rings out again, a challenge and an insult rolled into one.
“You won’t do anything, Zyan, Rose needs a mate,” Vince crows, his face twisted with cruelty.
Zyan growls low in his throat, and I join him, my voice melding into one fierce roar of rage.
“You’re right, she does,” Zyan snarls, stalking him. Vince's smirk only broadens.
Zyan and I menacingly stalk toward Vince, our eyes raging with fire. His words hang in the air, dripping with a false sense of superiority. Unexpectedly, a snarl rips through us both, sending chills up my spine. “Good thing she has two,” we hiss in unison. His smirk fades away as I bare my sharp claws, ready to strike.
Without warning, we pounce, claws outstretched. My fingers slice through the air, aiming for Vince’s smug face. A gut-wrenching scream echoes through the night as my claw sinks into his flesh. Blood splatters against the ground. He stumbles backward, clutching at his mutilated face. His shriek rings out loudly, a scream of pain and surprise. The scent of fresh blood mingles with the cool night air, as he clutches his face.
ChapterForty-Two
Casen
Zyan stalks Vince and just as we reach down to grab him, another scream rips through the night, echoing cries of grief and despair. It seizes me by the soul, an iron grip that yanks me back from my focus on Vince. Sage's cry is raw, laced with the agonizing sorrow of loss, a scream I've heard before. It's a sound I wouldn't wish upon anyone, and it hurts, oh, how it hurts to hear it. It's the sound that brings death.
It's nothing to do with the loss of heartbreak, it's far, far worse, it is the sound someone makes when their soul shatters into a million pieces. It's the sound that only a parent can make when she loses a child. The sound of their soul being ripped apart, destroyed, completely obliterated when they realize their reason for living was taken from them.
Vince, his face a gruesome display of lacerations, gasps, clutches his chest. His eyes are wide, unblinking, as if he’s confronted by the ghost of death itself. His arrogant laughter is no more, replaced by a palpable sense of terror that sends a chilling wave through me and has me staggering back.
Then the next second, Andrei drops to his knees, his dominant Alpha exterior crumbling. The sight of him, broken, gives weight to the tragedy unfolding around us. Vince echoes Sage’s cry with a breathless, “No!” His voice wavers between the lines of shock and disbelief. Time slows down, and everything around me ceases to exist as I watch horrified, a sense of cold dread slivers through my body, making my bones ache. My stomach sinks, yet that sinking feeling does not leave, instead it keeps plunging into a bottomless pit.
Turning around, vertigo washes over me when I spot Sage crying, Rose in her arms as she rocks back and forth. “My baby, she's not breathing, she's not breathing!” she wails. I stagger at the sight, feeling like I’ve been punched brutally in the stomach as Zyan howls in my head.
“Rose?” I choke on her name when the sound of a soft, innocent voice makes my heart clench.
