Page 28 of Bound By My Alpha Mate

“Lothair! Forget the goddamn kid; stop them!” David howled from deep within the cavern.

Flickering with anger, Lothair’s eyes shifted to look behind me. “You neglect the father’s obligation to his daughter. I will protect her above all else,” he said harshly, then zeroed in on me again. “Give her to me now!”

“You left her!” was all I could muster—the only argument I could think of to justify why I still held this baby dragon in my arms.

But it was stupid and reckless of me to think keeping hold of the child was the right thing to do. Lothair rushed toward me, reaching for his daughter with one hand and my throat with the other. His fingers wrapped around my windpipe with a sudden intensity I hadn’t expected. I choked as he wrestled the child out of my arms, and favoring survival, I let go of her. But at that moment, Aislin shoved her shoulder into Lothair’s back. He stumbled and hit the ground. I lost my footing, too. Everyone was screaming, but all I could hear was the infant’s cry as she tumbled out of all our arms, her impact with the ground surely enough to break her bones. To stop her heart.

We all gasped.

Reacting quicker than any of us was my mother.

It must have been her maternal instincts, her motherly love for the motherless child, that propelled Muriel toward the baby. While Lothair was still getting up, and I was still trying to understand what I’d just done, my mother was already on her knees, cradling the broken baby in her arms. “Oh no. I’m so sorry. You never deserved this. I should have helped you when I had the chance. I’m so sorry…”

“Mom!” I called out to her. I grabbed her arm and tried to get her to come with me, but Lothair was already on his feet, blinding wrath drawing him toward us.

“We have to go,” Aislin urged, taking me by the elbow.

“No! We can’t leave!” I pulled at my mother, but she didn’t move.

Suddenly, her body trembled with a swell of magic. She was using the last of her energy in a desperate attempt to save the baby from death. Her voice cracked with pain that I felt within myself.

“Kiara!” Billie cried.

She and Aislin dragged me away as I screamed for my mother. Through tears, I watched Lothair close in on her, and I felt her life force wither away as she used the last of it on the infant. I could only watch, helpless, as my mother succumbed to the furious claws of the dragon Alpha. I couldn’t save her anymore. I’d lost any chance I’d ever had.

The Mythguard, Grandbay, and Eastpeak warriors who survived the fight pulled back, retreating with us into the sunrise.

The last thing I saw was a glimpse of my mother’s sweet, violet eyes, a tear rolling down her cheek.

Chapter 18

Colt

The mayhem didn’t end once Kiara and her friends escaped. Some dragons and wolves took off after them, but I knew it would be futile. Mythguard would keep them safe. Instead, all attention turned to Lothair snatching Muriel off the ground and away from the baby girl.

The dragon I’d been fighting with had pinned me to the ground and punched me in the cheek. When he was distracted, I shoved him away and got to my feet. I couldn’t see what had happened to the child. People knelt around her and scooped her up off the ground; they took her away somewhere out of sight. My heart hurt as I feared she had become little more than a corpse.

All that was left on the ground there was Muriel. Lothair hoisted her up in the air; she had long since fallen limp, barely alive based on the shuddering gasps of her dying body.

“Enough!” My father stormed forward, limping and bleeding from his fight with Everett. He shoved everyone out of the way. I followed him, standing as tall as I could despite the pain radiating through my face from the dragon’s punches.

Lothair dropped Muriel to the ground and glared at David. “How could you let this happen?” he growled under his breath.

“You’re blaming this on him?” A voice rose up among the crowd. The dragon guard with the tattoo on his arm and a cut eyebrow emerged from the crowd. His hazel eyes flared with anger that appeared to be shared by everyone here. “David Hexen is not to blame for the chaos that left us all scrambling. You’re the one who did this! Abandoning us, disappearing without a word!”

“Sibyelle is dead, Kipling! I would rather lead in absence than lead in grief!” Lothair snapped back. “Sibyelle and my daughter are both dead because of the negligence of this selfish woman!” He thrust a finger at Muriel on the ground.

Nobody spoke up in defense of Muriel, who had no obligation to save the lives of the people who planned to sacrifice her for their own gain.

“I would rather serve a leader who places the needs of his people above his greedy heart,” said Kipling. “You’ve become weak, Lothair. How can we trust you to carry out your promises once you perform the Lycan ritual? What are we even supposed to do once you become Lycan?”

The atmosphere within the mine became heated. I worried that Kipling’s fury was still attached to me. I felt nothing for my father anymore, no desire to protect him from the anger brewing in the dragons, and certainly no determination to prove myself to him, not since he said I had to choose to kill either Aislin or Billie. As the argument intensified, I backed away, slipping among the bodies in search of my own freedom.

“The Inkscales will integrate into the ranks of Dalesbloom,” David spoke up. “You already know this.”

“Our alliance with Dalesbloom has already cut our numbers in half!” Kipling rebuked. “I’m starting to think this moronic scheme will rob us of the greatness the Inkscales once had. Even if we were forced to run in the night, at least we ruled the darkness. What will we have once our current leaders are reduced to mindless monsters? A town crippled with fear of us? Targets on our heads from Mythguard?”

I clung to the wall, sneaking away while everyone’s eyes were on Kipling, Lothair, and my father. Only when I felt the warmth of the sunrise coming in through the entrance of the mine did I pause, sensing Kipling’s attention suddenly on me.

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