Page 118 of The Alpha's Fated Destiny

“Your mother.” I nudge Sophia. “Look at her face. Her color is getting better."

Her cheeks are flushed a bright red and Sophia purses her lips, trying to calm down. “Okay. We have to get them to a safe location. Everything else can be figured out after."

"The closest place here is my old hometown," I say, hesitantly.

"Alex?"

I look over my shoulder to see Patrick standing a few feet from me.

"Patri…"

“What do you mean our home town?” he blurts out, his face pale. “Karina destroyed it. She said she built something on it.”

“She lied,” I tell him. “No resort, nothing has been built on it. It was sealed away by one of her dark witches. That's where she buried me.”

"Buried you?” Sophia turns rigid. “Like in the ground?”

I wrap my hand around hers. “It's fine. I'm all right. But we can take your parents there. It’s close to here. It’ll also give us time to sort things out here before we take them to another, more secure location.”

Jared and Saul have also reached us at this point, obvious relief showing on their faces upon seeing me.

“You can stay here,” one of the humans offers.

Sophia looks like she is about to agree, but I shake my head. “I'm sorry, but not all the humans in your city will be welcoming toward us, especially after an attack like this.”

The humans may not have suffered any losses but the panic that Karina's unexpected attack caused will make them hostile toward us. When the humans exchange a look saying nothing, I know they've considered the possibility.

“Thank you for your offer,” I continue, “but we can protect our own.”

We've lost a lot of people, I muse silently as I look around at the witches being rounded up by Marlene's coven, and the dead shifters on the ground. The entirety of Karina’s army is gone.

“Why don’t we ask one of the witches to open up another portal to the South?” Nathan demands. “We can simply go to—”

“Portals don’t work like that,” Elsa says as she holds Grace’s head in her lap. “It’s very strong magic. It can exhaust the witches. One portal is hard enough, opening up multiple is very hard on the physical body as well. Look at them. They’re already exhausted.”

She’s looking toward a group of women who are tending to injured white wolves. One of them is using healing magic and I can only assume these women are the witches from the Central Alliance.

“They are,” Cyrus admits. “They’ve opened multiple portals. And Sophia needs to stay in the North till everything is sorted. I can take Grace with me…”

“And my father.” Sophia suddenly looks up, her eyes flashing. “Don’t forget about him.”

I see Cyrus grimace. “How can I?”

“We’ll take them to our old hometown till we arrange something else. Grace and Logan aren’t going to the Central Alliance.”

Cyrus bristles but Sophia nods in agreement.

I’m about to pick up Logan, when Patrick steps forward. “I’ll do it. You go talk to Sophia.”

His voice is low, meant only for my ears.

It doesn’t seem that Sophia is focused on me right now. She is watching her parents. She tries to help her mother, but Elsa denies her that opportunity, asking Nathan for help instead. The witch nudges her toward me. “You should talk.”

I wonder why both Patrick and Elsa’s urging sounds so ominous.

Sophia isn’t meeting my gaze, her fingers fiddling with each other.

“What’s going on, Sophia?”

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