Page 108 of The Alpha's Fated Destiny

The weight of the barrier is too heavy. While my capacity for magic is more than that of a normal witch, it is not unlimited.

I look at Logan helplessly, and he meets my gaze.

“Keep going,” he tells me calmly. “I won’t let her capture you. Even if it means I have to break your neck when the time comes.”

“But Alex…”

“If you die, he dies,” Logan says darkly. “She won’t be able to use either one of you, nor torment you for a lifetime.”

“Don’t even think about it!” Patrick growls. “You’re not going to kill her!”

Logan squares off against Patrick. “You’ve never been captured, have you? It’s obvious. Whatever that woman has planned for Sophia is not going to be pleasant. She will make her suffer. I would rather she die a painless death than suffer for an eternity, being constantly humiliated like I was!”

I’m silent, my whole body trembling. I don’t know what decision to make. If I’m captured, Alex will be tortured. His suffering will be never-ending. If I’m captured, nobody will look for Alex because my capture means his friends will also be dead. A war will have broken out. Karina will have succeeded. There will be no one to look for us. Do I really want Alex to suffer?

It seems like I’m giving up, but I can see nothing else in front of me. There is no way out. For the first time, I’m looking into darkness. Nothing is coming to mind, not even a sliver of a plan. Helplessness courses through me.

Karina laughs. “Why are you even trying? You’re just wasting your time. Nobody will come to save you, Sophia. You should have run when you had the chance. But you just wanted to be a hero. The war had nothing to do with you.” She looks like she’s watching an entertaining show. “You could have gone looking for Alex and then run off into the sunset with him, letting the world burn around you. But no. You wanted to save the world. How’s that going for you?”

She has been dangling the chain and leash in her hand for a while, and she tosses them my way. They hit the barrier and fall to the ground.

“Put it on.” Her voice is gentle. “Spare yourself all of this. If it makes you feel better, after a couple of years, this collar will leave you a drooling, mindless creature. You will live as the Silver Wolf, not as Sophia. You will forever be in your wolf form, my loyal dog. The pups I breed from you will share the same fate. But you won’t know anything.”

She chuckles. “I’m not so cruel as to humiliate you for a lifetime. You will never know what I’m doing to you. You will just want to please me. So put it on. You’re not going to win this. There is nobody standing with you right now. And nobody will ever come to help you. Put on the collar like a good girl.”

I’m silent, my blood boiling.

Alex’s friends are snarling at Karina.

But nobody gets a chance to speak up.

“How dare you try to collar the granddaughter of the King of the Central Alliance!” A familiar voice thunders.

For a moment, I’m certain I’m hearing things because it is simply not possible for that voice to have called out at this moment.

But when I look up, I see my grandfather riding on the back of a large white wolf. He’s not alone, though. Hundreds, no, thousands of white wolves are with him. They form a line alongside him, snarling with their hackles raised.

Chapter 25

Sophia

“Cyrus,” I breathe. But then my eyes catch something else. On top of another white wolf, to his left, I see Elsa, and in her arms is my mother.

“Elsa!” I cry out in alarm, and for a moment, my concentration almost wavers. It’s Logan, who grabs me by the shoulders, ordering. “Focus!”

Karina doesn’t look too pleased. “Why is the Central Alliance getting involved with the affairs of the North Alliance?”

“Because the child you are threatening is of the Central Alliance,” my grandfather snarls. “Did you think that the Central Alliance would turn it back on its own blood?”

Karina grinds her teeth. “When Robert Black had your daughter in his custody, you didn’t remember her. Why is this girl so important?”

I see Cyrus flinch, but he narrows his eyes. “I made a mistake. I don’t plan on repeating it.”

Hearing my arrogant grandfather admit to a mistake is mind-boggling.

Karina is furious. “The Central Alliance has always stayed neutral. Your granddaughter is the leader of the South Alliance. You have no business getting involved in our fight.”

“You mean the war that you are about to start?” Cyrus demands. “We will not let this war happen. My grandchild will not suffer for my mistakes. And the Central Alliance will protect the Silver Wolf, no matter what her identity is inthe eyes of the world.”

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