His Redemption (Complete His Series)

AXEL

Once I left Lemon, I gathered all the wolves in town. I sent a few of them to the inn and a few more to run tight patrol around the town; then, I took the rest of them with me. We shifted, wanting to get there as fast as we could. It took me a lot longer than I wanted to get everyone gathered from town, and by the time we set out, the sun had already set. I was running at a pace that had the trees whipping by me so fast they were a blur. I could hear the panting of the wolves behind me, they were having trouble keeping up, but I couldn’t slow down. Luna asked for help, and the pack needed us. Lemon wasn’t safe if vampires were after the pack.

As we crossed over the boundary of the pack land, we made a straight line toward the packhouse. A bloodcurdling scream sent me skidding to a stop and changing directions. My team needed no directions to follow suit. As we followed the sound, the stench of vampire increased exponentially until a wall of pale, ragged bloodsuckers came into our view. They were faced away from us, so we couldn’t see what was beyond them.

“I’m going over; start attacking the ones on the outside,” I instructed the wolves following me.

I coiled myself and jumped high over the heads of the vampires. I saw them look up in confusion as I passed over, which quickly turned into them trying to follow me. However, they weren’t able to as my team attacked them from behind, igniting shouts of pain among them.

When I landed, my stomach retched at the scene. The scream must have been from Missy because she was leaning over Maddox. He was missing an arm, and it was lying next to him. She was trying to use torn pieces of clothes to stop the bleeding from the stump, but there was too much b***d. He was so pale that I couldn’t believe he was still alive. If he was, it was only barely. Something that could only be described as a monster was holding Beta Damien by the throat. Damien was fighting the grip on him as best he could. Two wolves broke through the line with me, and I sent them to Missy.

“Missy, take these two and get out of here. Now! You might be able to save him but not if you stay here,” I directed to Missy. It looked like my words snapped her out of her shock; she stood and got to work. She shifted, nosing under Maddox and getting him to her back. “Take the arm!” I called after them. Missy didn’t stop running, but one of the others broke off and came back for it, gingerly picking it up in their mouth and following again.

The gurgling sound of Damien being choked to death snapped my attention back to him. Without another thought, I launched myself at Damien’s enormous foe. I jumped up and bit as hard as I could onto his wrist, sinking into his skin and sinew. He looked at me flatly, not reacting to the pain at all, but his grip loosened enough to give Damien a chance to move. Damien brought an axe down into the monster’s forehead, leaving it buried there as the monster released him, and he collapsed to the ground. Damien rubbed his throat and took short ragged breaths trying to breathe again.

I jumped away from the monster, landing next to him. “Thank you, Axel,” he told me, probably unable to say it out loud.

“Of course, Beta,” I answered. “Let’s do this together.”

“That’s how Maddox ended up like that,” he said, nodding over to the b***d-soaked soil where Maddox was lying when I arrived.

“He’s hurt now, even if he can’t feel it. We have to try. If this thing gets to the packhouse, he’ll kill everyone,” I pointed out.

“Agreed. Together then,” Damien agreed.

The monster looked like he was trying to figure out whether it was a good idea to pull out the axe. It had gone into his face at an angle and taken out one of his eyes. The b***d poured down his face; he still looked like he could go all night. I prepared myself for another assault when Damien came through.

“I went high with the axes last time. Let’s switch. You go high, and I’ll try to cut his legs out from under him. It doesn’t matter how big he is if he can’t walk.”

Damien dropped to his hands and knees, and I launched myself into the air, using his back as a platform to jump from.

“Goddess let this work,” I prayed with everything I had. I had to get back to Lemon.

AZALEA

My mouth stung, but he had not broken anything. I was worried Liam might end up killing himself if he didn’t stop trying to break free. I could hear bones cracking as he hit the barrier over and over.

“You look so good on your knees Luna,” Warwick teased. “No wonder our Alpha is so desperate to get you back!”

I knew he was trying to taunt Liam, but it made me want to vomit. The feeling was cut short as he lifted me to my feet by my hair. He drug me behind him until we reached the barrier, his grip like a vice that I couldn’t get away from no matter how hard I tried. He forced my face to the wall and rubbed it there so Liam could see me better. The impact of my face against the magical wall sent pain up the center of my face like my nose was broken from the force. Pain radiated in waves from his grip on my hair. I tried desperately to hold back tears; I didn’t want Liam to witness the pain he had to be feeling through our bond. Liam’s face showed the horror he felt at the show Warwick was giving him.

“Are you trying not to cry out for your mate, Azalea? You dishonor me. I thought I was performing admirably here,” Warwick exclaimed disappointedly. He ripped my head upwards to look at him as he loomed over me. “I think we can fix that, can’t we?”

I could not tell what he was planning, and whatever it was would not be pleasant. The pain was making it hard to think and speak, my whole body revolting from the painful control Warwick had on me. With one hand, he reached down to the neckline of my shirt and tore it from me in one motion. His nails lightly grazed my skin as he did, and I was left in just a bra, terrified of what would come next. I tried to cover myself as my heart threatened to beat out of my chest. Warwick’s free hand came to my shoulder, and I breathed a short-lived sigh of relief.

His face lowered to my neck, and I felt his hot breath near Liam’s mark. “Is this the mark you mutts give each other when you find your mate?” he asked Liam coyly, a nasty smile visible from the corner of my eye. “What if I gave her one of my own?” My eyes went wide as I suddenly felt paralyzed.

“Just kill me, Warwick,” Liam pleaded, his face now desperate as he looked between us. “Kill me however you want. Kill me in front of the pack. Make an example of me. Just leave her alone. I will give myself to you. Just stop!”

“Ah, that’s so much better ‘Alpha.’ You’re finally beginning to understand your place at our feet. Still, it is too little too late. I will have what I came here for.”

His lips parted, and I felt his teeth sink into my shoulder near Liam’s mark. I couldn’t hold back the scream this time, and it felt like it reduced my throat to shreds. I didn’t know where the pain stopped, and my body began because I had become one open nerve. The venom spreading through my body felt like flames lapping within me, burning away my soul. I couldn’t feel Liam through our bond, I couldn’t think, and I wasn’t sure how I was still tethered to life. I now knew why it was so hard to bring Damien back from the brink because it felt like I was now beyond it. I was almost happy I didn’t have my wolf anymore because she was spared this all-encompassing agony.

I could hear Warwick laughing maniacally and Liam calling out for me, but it was muffled like they were in another room. I tried to focus on Liam’s voice; the pain was so much, but I didn’t want to leave my mate.

“Little Luna, come back to me. Please don’t go. You’re stronger than this. I need you to hold on.”

He was repeating it endlessly in my mind, guiding me back to him. When I opened my eyes, there he was. One blue and one black eye, Liam and Gavin. But just out of reach.

“Aw, don’t tell me the show is already over,” Warwick complained, regaining his grip on my hair and pulling me to stand again. I was so raw from the pain of the venom that his tug on my scalp barely registered. He turned me around towards him and caressed his new mark that lay next to Liam’s. I recoiled in disgust and spit in his face.

“You’ll never be half the man that Liam is, and all of this is to compensate for being a coward,” I told him in anger. “You lost your mate because you didn’t deserve her. You weren’t destined for anything.” There was more venom in my words than I had ever spat at anyone.

Warwick’s face flashed in rage, piercing through the arrogant facade he’d kept until now, “You will keep your thoughts about my destined to yourself. You could never know the depth-”

“f**k your destined,” I sneered. “I’m sure the rest of your kin did.”

I was done. Even with my gift, Warwick did not deserve empathy or understanding. He was a plague we needed to wipe the earth of. He has proved time and time again that he is a sick beast with no regard for anyone or anything. His face contorted into a snarl, and he released my hair only to grab my throat in both hands. I couldn’t breathe, but it was better than the venom. That residual pain had slowly subsided, and it was replaced with a pleasant warmth. I wondered if it meant I was going to die, and I was losing the ability to feel pain.

“You can die now!” Warwick shouted, closing his hands around my throat tightly. The warm feeling spread there too, and the pain I’d felt in my throat when I screamed left. Now, I could not draw breath in. I kicked out feebly, but I couldn’t reach his body with his arms outstretched in front of him. As my vision became hazy, I saw the orange disappear from the corner of my eye. Where did it go? Was Liam free? Warwick let go with one hand and struck a black, furry blur away from him. Warwick held onto me with one hand as he pushed Liam off again and again with the other.

I was able to draw in bits of air as I struggled against Warwick’s lessened grip. The watch on my wrist glinted in the moonlight, and my plan resurfaced in my mind. I had been so focused on the pain Warwick was putting me through and Liam’s desperation I had forgotten my ace. Now was my chance.

I mustered all of my strength and managed to sputter with the very little air left in my lungs, “Ex…ae…quo…”

I hit the ground like a ton of bricks, looking up to see why Warwick dropped me. Liam was on the other side of the clearing, having been thrown away by Warwick before he let go of me.

“You w-were heavy,” he stuttered in confusion. He flew down to grab my throat again; my body was heavy, and I couldn’t resist, but his grip felt weak. He couldn’t lift me no matter how much he tried.

“That’s what the watch was meant to do!” I thought in glee. He was my equal; the watch reduced him to my strength. Shakily, I reached into my waistband and drew the knife that Felix had given me while weakly pushing back at his assault. With both of Warwick’s hands trying to choke the life out of me, he didn’t notice as I drove the knife upward into his chest. I twisted once I felt the hilt come to a stop on his sternum.

He stumbled away from me, coughing and pawing at the knife. He ripped it from his chest, only making the wound worse. B***d sprayed from the hole, shooting out of him to blanket the ground. That same black blur flashed across the clearing. This time, it landed next to me. Warwick’s body stood in front of me, still on its feet but now missing his head. A heavy thud sounded as Liam dropped the head from his maw, and it rolled toward me. I had no time to react as I was crushed within Liam’s arms. His scent cascaded over me, and I was okay. It was over.

“Little Luna,” he gasped, barely able to stand himself. My body sagged as my energy seemed to flow away.

“My Alpha,” I cried in a cracked voice. Tears poured from my eyes as relief filled me. Warmth began to invade me as my consciousness tugged. Liam’s lips crashed down onto mine; it felt like a balm to every second of torture and agony Warwick just inflicted.

I could feel so many things coming from my mate. Joy and fear, relief and stress, happiness and sadness. He was a storm finally breaking over me.

“My brave girl,” he cried, not breaking our connection. I reached up, grabbing his face to pull him closer, to taste him better. “Oh, Azalea. It’s over. You did it.”

I wanted to tell him I didn’t do it alone. But suddenly, it felt like fireworks were erupting inside me. Liam pulled away with a gasp. His eyes reflected a pink glow, and it felt like I was exploding in his hands. I could feel myself arch away from him.

“Azalea!”