Page 111 of The Alpha's Fated Destiny

“You need to stop looking so surprised,” I grunt. “I am not a complete dimwit.”

With Karina’s soldiers on the losing end of the fight and her inability to get close enough to me to capture me, she should be on the verge of giving up. However, she just looks mildly annoyed now. “I didn’t want it to come to this, but I guess everything happens for a reason.”

She turns her head to face the witches. “Turn the soldiers.”

For the first time, there is a hint of hesitation from the group, but Karina doesn’t have any patience. “I said, turn them!”

Her instructions make no sense to me. Turn the soldiers? Turn them where?

Suddenly the witches are no longer looking in my direction. Instead, they are now focused on the battlefield. I don’t understand what is happening, but then the soldier closest to Karina, one of her own soldiers, begins to seize, almost as if he is having a fit. He collapses to the ground, foaming from the mouth.

Before anybody can react, the rest of the soldiers begin showing the same symptoms.

Elsa’s fingers dig into my skin and she makes a choking sound. “No.”

“What’s wrong?” I ask, taken aback by the look of horror in her eyes.

“Their mouths.” She gives me a little shake. “Look at their mouths!”

I do as he says, and for a moment, I see nothing out of the ordinary. I don’t quite see what she means, but then I see the black veins spreading from their mouths.

“I don’t understand,” I murmur. “What is that?”

I’ve never seen Elsa look so frightened. “Dark magic. A very dangerous type of dark magic which has been banned for centuries.”

She looks white as a sheet. “It was banned for a reason, Sophia. It transforms a living person into a walking corpse. She’s killing her soldiers and turning them into mindless brutal fighting machines, ones that cannot be stopped or killed.”

“She can do that?” I’m still trying to unsee the terrible dark lines that look revolting.

“Look for yourself.” Elsa points at one of the soldiers, her voice shaking.

I’ve never seen Elsa so terrified ever. It tells me that something is really wrong.

Sure enough, the shifters stumble to their feet, their gait unsteady. When I look at their eyes, they are black. They go after their opponents, and my breath catches when I hear the terrible screams coming from the throats of the wolves at our side. Whatever Karina has done to her soldiersis frightening. They’ve become something monstrous.

I see three of them surround my grandfather, and while I have no great love for the man, I’m not going to let him get torn apart like the shifters at my side.

I attack the wolves, using my magic. But nothing works on them. I can see the dark tendrils of magic surrounding them, and I realize I have to do to them what I did to the children and the wolves who had once attacked us. They have been afflicted with dark magic, and there is no other choice.

I tear away at the threads of darkness lingering around the wolves. My attack is ruthless and I don’t care if I’m hurting the wolves who have become unwitting victims of their own master’s greed.

Two of them fall. The third one is persistent, desperate to end my grandfather’s life.

Shifting into my wolf form, I run forward and sink my teeth into his neck. Dark blood spurts into my mouth and I spit it out. In my wolf form, my magic is stronger, but it’s harder to use. It doesn’t help that I’ve used up nearly every ounce of magic inside of me now.

I shred the wolf with my claws, destroying the darkness inside him at the same time. He collapses, and as he does, I hear Karina laugh. “How long do you think you can keep this up, Sophia? You’ve not even seen the full extent of what I can do. Watch.”

To my horror, one of my grandfather’s soldiers, who is badly injured, begins foaming from the mouth.

His eyes widen in fear and despair.

Without blinking an eye, my grandfather bites his throat, ripping it out. He looks at me and I know what he’s asking me to do. I can see the darkness gathering around the soldier’s heart and I rip it out. The soldier still has some life in him, and when he looks at me, blood bubbling from his mouth, he looks grateful. The light fades out of his eyes and my heart hurts.

“See?” Karina chuckles. “You can’t defeat me. You can try, but you’re not going to succeed.”

I am weak enough that holding my wolf form is harder for me right now. I shift back to human form.

It is obvious to everybody around me that I don’t have the strength to go on for much longer. Karina throws her head back laughing. “Look at you. You can barely walk right now. Do you really think you can take on my entire army? Don’t be ridiculous. Even with all three alliances against me, I will win.”

---