Fatal Temptation: Between Two Alphas

Chapter Fifty-Five

CAMERON

"Get me a healer!"

The courtyard is awash in blood. The wraiths took their fill and then, like with the mist that carried them in, they receded.

It's eerily quiet in the aftermath.

The tall woman who was singing-if she was even real-she's gone.

Several black birds remain. They perch on the table and on the rooftops. Watching. Waiting.

Shift for me, Mia. Come on now.

Her blood pools beneath her and though I can hear the faint beat of her heart, the pulse is so slow that with each pause I wonder if it will be the last.

"No, my love. Stay with me!"

I apply pressure to her wound.

"Nala. If you hear me... shift. You're stronger and Mia needs you." But her body doesn't move and there is nothing to suggest she heard me. "Mia! Come on, open your eyes, honey. Please."

I take in the carnage in the courtyard.

Wolves are dead and eviscerated.

Plates and shattered glass line the cobblestone ground.

The air smells of flowers and blood, wine and death.

I glance across to where Adriana lies. She's the spitting image of Mia and the lifeless eyes that stare back at me are too much like my beloved mate's.

The Titans are gone. Only the one called Theo remains. He sits on the ground with Corinne cradled in his lap.

If he is indeed some old god, then I marvel at the tears that stream down his face. Because such creatures, though they may guide and watch humanity, are not known for their compassion for our species. Eric... he will be gutted.

Even more so, because he told Corinne to protect Mia.

She did...and paid the ultimate price for it.

The other women are dead too. They were swept up and ...consumed. What remains of them is unrecognizable.

"Mark her," Theo tells me.

"What?"

"Your woman."

If I do this, I'm breaking her trust and forcing our bond.

She didn't want that.

But if I don't do it, she'll die.

"Mark her," he says again. "Or she will follow my raven's fate."

I don't think. I bite down. Her neck is already mangled but I let my teeth break the skin, away from the blood vessels I'm desperately trying to triage.

I draw back and hold my own wrist above the wound. I'm bleeding and I flex my arm to force my blood to mix with hers.

Normally, we would profess each other as mates and the marking bond would extend both ways, with Mia then marking my neck or chest. It is an old tradition, one not many wolves practice these days because the teeth marks are too much for human society and even masking the marks isn't practical.

"Please, please Mia."

I can't think about our kids. Or her father, my beta.

They'll be devastated.

Me...I'll never get over this woman. She was mine from the beginning and in all the years of my life, she is the only thing that brings me peace.

"Mia," I kiss her head. I drag her close, needing to hear her heart to know that it still beats, that she is still breathing.

I wasn't gentle with her.

I didn't worship her the way she deserved.

I didn't love her or give her the words to let her know what she meant to me.

Her last moments on this earth were filled with betrayal and brutality and my selfishness.

I rock her in my arms. "Live. Please."

Conn is howling, the mournful sounds echoing in my brain until I'm certain I'll die or go insane.

I feel my own blood swirl. My heart thumps out of rhythm and slows.

We are joined now. One. Complete.

Either she comes back or I will perish along with her.

She survives or I follow her to the grave.

The absolute gravity of what I've done hits me in the chest.

Shift, I command.

My blood is in her now.

She is marked. Mated.

"Now goddamnit!" I scream.

We have a family, children, a pack that relies on us.

"Shift!" I demand again and I put the full force of my Alpha powers behind it.

The body in my arms shudders.

"That's it! Come on now, Nala."

Mia convulses once more.

Then...nothing.

SHIFT!!!

I give all of myself, not just my Alpha powers but my life force too.

Mia shudders again and then there is a ripple. I feel her muscles seize and her body contort. I blink and Nala's fur is soft beneath my hands.

She's so weak, she can't lift up her head, but that's all right. I stroke her back and comfort her the best I can.

"It's okay, honey. I'm here. I'm going to take you home. We're going to be alright."

Her wolf head swings to Theo where he holds Corinne.

Nala howls. The mournful wail echoes against the courtyard walls.

It's hard to imagine the horrors that happened here.

The sun shines and birds sing.

It's 9 o'clock on a Tuesday morning.

Bodies line the ground, blood is splattered against the stucco, and the other Titans move silently back into the Square, positioning themselves at the corners like points on a compass. They're waiting for Theo. . FindNovel.net

"You could've stopped this!" I accuse him.

"I know!" he acknowledges.

But he didn't. He did nothing.

UMS

"Don't even think about it," one of the female Titans tells him.

He sweeps up Corinne. His eyes are on the front courtyard and he runs with her in his arms before taking the stairs to the upper floors.

An SUV pulls up behind the fountain.

"If you want to take your dead with you," she tells me, "load them up now."

One of the Titan's opens the back door of the vehicle and body bags line the open trunk. The seats are already folded down.

The sight of it all...is sickening.

I scoop up Nala and bring her into the trunk. I make sure Mia's comfortable and lean down to kiss her snout. "It's okay. We'll go soon."

Then I collect what I can of our fallen comrades. My hands are bloody and my heart is heavy by the time I finish.

I'm not sure what to do with Mia's mother.

Maybe Sean, my beta, will want to

pay his respects. Regardless of how I feel about him concealing this information about Mia's mom his wife-Sean loyally served my father and he's been a trusted beta to me.

Although I realize that I don't trust him as implicitly as I once did.

I cross her arms over the hole in her chest and seal the bag.

"Here," the female Titan says. "Adriana left this for her."

It's a giant wooden box-a crate big enough to hold a body. It probably weighs close to two hundred pounds, but this woman lifts it as if it's a box of tissues. She hefts into the back of the trunk and slides it away from the bodies.

I glance up at the balconies.

"Theo will pay a grave price for what he has done..." she says quietly.

I'm not sure what that is.

"I need to take the other woman back," I say instead of asking questions. "Corinne is the Alpha's sister. Her pack... they'll want her buried on their grounds."

She shakes her head. "There won't be anything to bury."

Her eyes are cold and almost colorless. This creature is chilling in its complete lack of empathy.

She snaps her fingers and fires spark. They consume the dead wraiths and the local dead wolves. The flames catch the walls of the building and climb quickly.

Smoke billows from somewhere inside the grand mansion.

She's going to torch this place.

"You should go, wolf," she warns. "There's nothing left for you here."