Bitten by the Alpha: The Finale
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Lydia Rose
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15
Unrest Continues
QUINN
The journey home.
It felt as if I was running through clouds, safely and surely ensconced in the fluffiest, softest fabric. The color was red, not washed-out or cold, but warm, like a beating heart.
Love.
Selena had been right. When nothing else worked, it was love that showed me the way. It was love that brought us here, with another heart beating along with my own.
The realization washed over me like sweet honey dripping down my skin. It made me clammy but in the best way possible.
I could almost hear him moving inside me, telling me to keep him safe.
My son; my sun.
He would be my genesis.
Jax placed a protective hand over my belly.
“I’m so proud of us. For getting this far. For everything.”
I turned to him, finally willing to talk about the one unsaid thing that had remained in my mind.
“Jax.” I planted a gentle kiss on the side of his head. “Tell me about her.”
He looked at me then, and his beautifully luminous eyes held a profound story of loss, love, grief, and acceptance.
“Katherine’s intentions were noble,” he finally murmured, looking away from me and toward the deep horizon, now cast in a strange marriage of viridian forests meeting a purple sky.
“She wanted to experience life. She wasn’t ready to ascend to the great beyond, and that’s understandable. How many of us can willingly say we’re ready to leave behind everything and go, once and for all, my love?”
I nodded. “It must have been heartbreaking, needing to make that decision, and so unfairly.”
He sighed. “She couldn’t. When the rogues did what they did to her, she could only picture everything she was losing. Which is why she chose a half-life. She bartered her soul to Jodie.”
My eyes misted over. Jodie. I had trusted her so much.
I’d nearly lost everything that mattered because of her. But then again, I also knew I’d never have met my father were it not for her. She didn’t know how she’d become the catalyst.
She’d precipitated the whole chain of events that had brought us here. I’d never forgive her or forget her memory. But I certainly would be thankful in part.
Because without her, I’d never have known what I was capable of. Who I was capable of becoming.
“When she told me the truth about Jodie and her minions,” Jax continued. “She effectively broke the promise she’d made to that hag. That was the price. That was her undoing.”
I let the silence sit between us for some time before asking, “Did it hurt you?”
Jax caressed my cheek tenderly. “Quinn, I’d be lying if I said it didn’t shatter me into a million pieces. But even when she was with me, I never saw her as my mate—not after you came into my life.”
I smiled at that.
“She was…she was what she was. My past. A long-lost love, albeit a very great one. She was already a memory when I saw her. And you don’t forget love like that. But you also don’t forget your present. I could never.”
Something inside me fluttered, almost as if my babe was content with his father’s answer. I pulled Jax close and kissed his ear. “I love you.”
“And I love you.”
“This is most touching.”
The lilting voice made me turn in its direction. We were almost back at the Shadow Moon Pack mansion now, and I found Isabelle waiting by the clearing.
She had a warm smile on her face, but she also looked worried.
“Isabelle, what is it?”
“Selene and I had a long conversation. We’re so proud of you, Quinn. But I fear the end is not in sight. Not just yet. Both Theodore and I will stay to help.”
Jax and I shared a long look.
A part of me had known that the future would still be on shaky ground, even though the bonds of matedom were now restored.
“Selena has this inkling that all great powers have the ability to linger, if not in terms of physical form, then in spirit.”
An uneasiness stirred inside me. This was how Harper was still on this plane, even though her soul belonged somewhere else. This was what Katherine had done.
“She’s worried that Mathieus may have bartered what was left of that black soul of his to stay on in some rudimentary form. That means you have one final war to fight, Quinn.”
Just when I thought I could finally have some peace. Grow my family amidst the roses.
I exhaled. “He can’t possibly be strong enough to do much more on his own, though. Can he?”
Isabelle shook her head.
“No, you’re right about that. He’s not strong enough. But he can use vessels. He can speak, act, and destroy through them. The question you need to be asking is, is there someone who would do anything to get revenge on you?”
Jax and I shared another glance.
Anthony.
JAXON
I reached out to Alex after our conversation with Isabelle. I found him in the library, neck-deep in a kiss with Zara.
The only suitable thing was to announce my presence with a cough.
Zara jumped aside, blushing. Alex, of course, did no such thing, looking at me with a goofy grin on his face instead.
“What’s up, Alpha?”
I rubbed my face wearily and sat down. “Turns out we have more work to do.”
Zara frowned. “What’s wrong?”
I told them everything Isabelle had conveyed to Quinn and me. Zara fell completely silent.
“Come what may,” Alex said, his voice hoarse. “I never want our people to return to the chaos we just recovered from. We’re not meant to be without mates. Without love. We can’t let it happen again, Jax.”
He was right. If Mathieus was allowed to spread evil through a human form, it meant he would look for ways to dispel the hold of matedom once more.
Hell, he’d do worse. He’d be sure to try harder this time and make enemies out of wolves.
The fool did not realize that this wasn’t sustainable in the long run, that he could not possibly weed out the strongest if no one was left.
Zara rose and fetched a dusty tome from the left aisle of wolf mythology books.
She opened it to a specific section on ancient anatomy and read for a while. Her expression grew more and more worried.
“Turns out Isabelle was right. An evil of such great magnitude does not die so easily, at least not in spirit.”
She pushed the book toward me, but it was an ancient marriage of Sanskrit and some figures that I did not understand. I looked at her, nonplussed.
If she’d been Quinn, she’d certainly have rolled her eyes at me. But instead, she smiled wanly.
“It says that he needs a human vessel, just like what Isabelle told you. If he finds that, he can choose to transfer his atma to that vessel and speak and act through it. It is a new demon, a much more feral one.”
“What’s atma?”
“Soul.”
I rose and walked over to the library window. Outside, dusk was deep, her color a strange shade of indigo married into deep obsidian. Strains of pink cut across the darkness.
Quinn was walking in the garden of azaleas.
QUINN
Jax found me tending to a little bush of flowers, whispering words of encouragement to make sure it would grow well.
“What did you tell it?” He smiled.
“That it’s needed in the world,” I replied, standing up. “Did you find something?”
I already knew from the look on his face.
The war wasn’t over.
“We have work to do.”
ANTHONY
The death and destruction around me made no sense.
How did our kind become this…uncivilized?
Part of me could not help feeling Jax and his pack were responsible. And that bloody luna of his.
We’d been fine before she came along.
Sure, peace had been an uneasy, treacherous little thing, but at least it had existed.
I’d decide what to do later. First, I needed to see my mate. Touch her. Love her.
I missed her scent, the taste of her mouth, how she smiled when I made love to her.
To my utter rage, my own guards refused to let me into her bedroom.
“What is the meaning of this?” I roared. “How dare you keep me from my mate?”
One of the pack elders—I never liked the toad—came out of her chambers, his face fearful.
“Alpha Anthony.” His voice was trembling. “I regret to tell you that we have some bad news.”
“What is it?” My face became ashen. “What’s happened? Let me in so I can see her! I never meant to behave that way—”
“It’s more than that,” he cut me off. Normally, I’d whip him for this kind of insolence, but I didn’t have the time.
“WHAT ARE YOU SAYING?”
“Our luna—I’m afraid she is dead. You…you killed her. With your bare hands. We tried to stop you, but you were too strong.”
No. No. No.
I pushed the man aside and barged inside Melanie’s room. This was a joke. Some kind of an evil game.
She wasn’t there.
What I saw was a mauled corpse, her hair the exact shade of red as my beloved’s.
