Page 45 of Bound By My Alpha Mate

My heart skipped a beat. He was finally here, my fated mate. But…it was too late.

The Lycan ritual was already complete.

Chapter 28

Colt

For seven hours, we had deliberated where my father and the dragons might be hiding. Hexen Manor was among the last places we checked, simply because it seemed too obvious, but around 4 p.m., the recon team confirmed the heavy presence of wolves and dragons there. We conceived a new plan, and to avoid the risk of rushing in unprepared, we took an hour to thoroughly consider our approach and every possible outcome. Part of our team returned to the mine to make sure Lothair was still there; we had already given his daughter to Everett’s and Aislin’s mothers to watch over. By 7 p.m., we were finally ready to go to the Manor, but knowing that nightfall was approaching, we chose to wait until the Lycan transformations were underway. We would strike when their bodies were shifting—when they would be most vulnerable.

The entire time, I was in so much agony I could barely think.

Kiara was still alive; I would have sensed it if she had died. But she was suffering—most likely at the hand of my father—and I felt it everywhere he made her hurt. In my fingernails, in my toes, in my ear. Each stabbing pain made me hate my father even more. My strength drained from me the longer it went on, but I insisted that I wanted to be part of the raid. Billie wanted to stand beside me, and together, we were going to slay David. I fought back the dizzying anguish and waited among the trees, watching from afar as my father’s body twisted and jerked, sprouting black hair across a grotesque, human-beast amalgamation.

We charged forward, firing into the glass walls of the atrium. I never would have suspected this room my father had banned us from entering would become the site of his sacrilege. As the glass shattered, the other shifters in the room leaped into action while the five recipients of the ritual crumbled to the ground in the throes of transformation. Nearby was my fated mate, hopelessly bound by ropes. “Kiara!” I called out to her. I launched into the room through the broken window; my packmates and the dragons met us head-on, and in an instant, the scene devolved into chaos.

As soon as I was close enough, I threw a dart at one of the dragons writhing on the ground. I recognized the fanged tattoo on his arm—Kipling. Miraculously, the dart stuck in his chest, and he gasped, a guttural and fiendish noise welling out of him. Before I could fling another dart, one of my packmates lunged at me, knocking me to the ground. My other two darts flew out of my pocket and scattered as I grappled with my packmate in human form. She wasn’t anyone I’d spoken to regularly, a younger girl who had been dragged into the fray, probably coerced into serving David’s cruel goals by her parents who believed in him. I didn’t want to hurt this girl. Throwing her off of me, I left her for Mythguard to deal with while I gathered my two darts and pushed further into the atrium. Glass crunched under my sneakers as I faced off against another packmate, an older man. He punched me in the jaw, and I kicked his knee, dropping him to the floor.

“What are you doing, Colt?” he growled at me as he tried to stand. “You should be fighting alongside us, not against us!”

I panted, clutching his shirt and forcing him to stay on the ground. “This is wrong, and you know it!”

“It’s the only choice I have!”

“No! You always have another choice. When I let you go, just get up and run. Get out of here. Leave this all behind, or Mythguard will exterminate you, too!” I warned.

All around us, Mythguard were tranquilizing or, if necessary, killing those who fought against us. Watching our packmates and the dragons fall was enough to convince the man to give up. When I released him, he scrambled to his feet and fled.

The shifters that had once been standing between my fated mate and me were now all engrossed in battle, trying to protect David and the others who were undergoing the Lycan transformation. Kiara sat unmonitored, trying desperately to free herself from the ropes. When my eyes landed on her, my heart leaped with relief, then subsequent compassion at the sight of the blood smeared across her. I ran to her side and clutched her by the arms. She flinched away from me at first, only to meet my gaze with a gasp. “Colt!”

“Kiara,” I repeated her name as I embraced her. My whole body ached to be reunited with her, to feel her skin against mine, to heal her from all she had endured. But we were in the midst of a battle, so I kissed her cheek and then pulled back, looking determinedly at her. “I’m going to get you out of this.”

“Please hurry,” she said weakly.

We were both struggling against her pain. That was the downside of the fated mate bond: when one of us hurt, both of us did. Frantically scanning the scene, I saw the bloodied silver knife on the table, grabbed it, and severed the ropes binding Kiara. She unfurled onto the floor, trying to support herself now that her limbs were free. As I reached to help her up, a long, whip-like tail lashed against my leg and knocked me down.

I turned onto my back to see a dragon ready to attack. Not a Lycan; one of the other Inkscales had shifted into its beast form. As the dragon leaped at me, I braced a hand against its throat, barely stopping its snapping teeth from raking my face. My heart hammered as I plunged a dart into the side of its neck. The dragon shrieked and reeled back, the balsam resin already coursing through its veins, poisoning the monster. I crawled out from underneath it and grabbed Kiara’s hand. My first priority was to get her out of here, but as I searched for someone to help her escape, I found all of my companions enveloped in combat. Billie and Aislin were back to back, each fighting a dragon. Everett was blocking punches from one of my packmates. Gavin and a Mythguard human were tackling one of the new Lycans. I held Kiara close to me, deciding that I would pull her out of the fray myself. “Stay close, Kiara. I’ll get you to safety,” I promised, searching for her violet eyes again.

The moment I made eye contact with her, a body launched at Kiara, ripping her right out of my arms.

“Kiara!” I shouted, stunned.

The massive creature that had taken her stood up straight, twisting around to stare back at me. Kiara was tucked under its long, malformed arm; its neck arched, and it bared its teeth at me out of a gnarled maw. Black fur covered its body, and lightning-blue eyes pierced me to my very soul, reminding me of myself. The hulking beast looked neither human nor lupine but a gruesome combination of both, fur missing in patches, muscles and veins bulging. Even in this form, I recognized him—my father.

“No!” I yelled, lunging at him. “Let her go!”

The hideous beast roared, evading me with ease. I landed on the ground and rolled to my feet, stumbling after them as my father carried Kiara out through the broken glass walls of the atrium, heading toward the trees. One of the dragon Lycans intercepted me, its deformed draconic posture writhing with mindless violence. I reached for my last dart, only to find it missing. In a flare of panic, I stared at the gaping jaws of my fate looming over me, then winced as gunshots rang in the air. Two bullets punctured the Lycan’s skull, and it collapsed.

“David has Kiara!” I shouted at anyone who would listen. “He’s heading that way. We have to go after him!”

The battle was already thinning out. Half of the Mythguard contingent were dead or unconscious. Most of my packmates were either dead or unconscious, or had run away; the same was true of the dragons. As the remaining shifters realized how little there was to fight for, they fled while we all turned our attention to the path David had taken.

I didn’t know where he intended to take her, only that I would follow Kiara to the ends of the Earth.

Chapter 29

Kiara

The entire situation had unfolded like a nightmare. I was barely conscious anymore and couldn’t move because of the ropes when Mythguard burst onto the scene. The fighting simply bewildered me, and then suddenly, Colt was by my side, setting me free. For a fleeting few seconds, I thought I would finally be safe. My fated mate had come to protect me, as he had promised he would. He was going to save me! I barely managed to smile, and then I was stolen right out of his arms.

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