Seraphina relaxed into my hug, a sigh of relief leaving her. “Thank you.”
She pulled away quickly.
“You need to go. West has the guards distracted for now, but they’ll be back at any moment,” Seraphina said, a strength in her gaze that reminded me of her brother. “I’ve got this.”
I left, hearing the click of chains behind me as Seraphina chained Anastasia up in my place.
I was out of the dungeons in seconds, the guards gone as Seraphina had promised.
I ran, hoping against all odds that I would make it to Alexander in time to prevent what Dylan was planning.
For the first time, I actively reached for the mate bond between Alexander and me.
With a tug, it unfolded in my mind.
Before it had felt like a slender but resilient rope between us, and now it had evolved into a path.
A path that I couldn’t turn away from now that I’d seen it—a path that led straight to Alexander’s mind, which he’d currently walled off from me.
Following it, I headed to the northern border, where the troops had been deployed.
Please be fine. Please be fine.
I didn’t know how long I ran. It could have been minutes or hours. Time slipped through my fingers like sand.
Then I saw it—a cluster of tents in the Nightshade Pack’s colors, smoke from cooking fires, and the din of people.
I began to move toward the tents, only to halt several feet away from the camp.
The mate bond was tugging me in the opposite direction.
Alexander wasn’t at the camp.
Cold fear flooded my veins. Was I already too late?
No.No.
Turning around, I followed the mate bond, my heart racing so fast I could barely breathe.
The overpowering stench of blood and death hit me, and my knees buckled at the sight before me.
I’d run right into a massive valley that might have been beautiful once, but not anymore. Not with the bodies carelessly strewn about, some whole, others in pieces, their blood and innards splattered across the grass.
Alexander stood in the center of the carnage, bloody and fearsome, with his claws at Dylan’s throat.
A sigh of relief ripped from me as their voices reached me in the deathly quiet of the valley.
“You never deserved any of it. Not the alpha position. Not Eleanor,” Dylan spat out venomously, his face contorted with hatred.
I couldn’t see Alexander’s expression from where I stood, but the compassion in his voice drew me up short.
“I don’t want to hurt you, brother,” he said softly.
Dylan’s expression darkened further.
“You are no brother of mine,” he growled.
Alexander’s hand lashed out, but not with enough force to kill him. Dylan fell out of his grasp, unconscious.