Page 53 of Alpha's Runaway Mate

Hecate motioned for Thane to stand at the foot of the tomb while she took her position at the head. After one last fleeting glance in my direction, she raised her hand toward the sky and began chanting, her voice growing darker with each word.

“No!” I screamed, but the sound was muffled by the cloth gagging my mouth. Tears streamed down my face as I screamed and wailed, but it was as if my cries fell on deaf ears. Hecate was carrying out the ritual. After everything, I knew I couldn’t trust her. Rage, grief, and hopelessness overwhelmed me, a suffocating mix of emotions. A part of me wished more than anything that this was just another of my nightmares, that I would wake up any second. But when Thane raised the knife, poised to strike Leo, the brutal reality slammed into me like a punch to the gut.

Then, without warning, a surge of energy erupted, flinging everyone around me to the ground, including Thane. The blast sent me crashing into a tree, and I felt a bone in my body crack under the impact. But the pain in my back barely registered—I couldn’t focus on it. I scrambled to my feet, my heart racing, and I saw Hecate still standing at the head of the tomb, with Leo… unharmed.

His cry pierced through the silence, and I staggered toward him, limping with urgency.

“Leo, Leo,” I called desperately, frantically scanning his body for any sign of injury. “Are you hurt? Did they hurt you?”

“Mommy, please, don’t let them hurt me.” He shook his head, tears brimming in his eyes. I leaned down, pressing my lips to his skin, kissing him over and over, my heart both shattered and relieved.

“We had an agreement, Lyra,” Hecate said quietly. “Now it’s time for you to uphold yours.”

As if on cue, a deafening roar echoed through the night, and the ground beneath us trembled. I whipped my head up to see Kaine leading a pack of wolves, charging at us with incredible speed. Seeing the threat, the Blackwoods quickly recovered, baring their fangs and claws, reading for the battle. Thane shot a sharp, venomous glare at Hecate, having realized that she betrayed him, a look that promised death—both hers and mine. He grabbed a knife and began stomping toward us, but he barely made it a few steps before he was attacked from behind.

This was my chance to free Leo, and I turned to act on it, but then Hecate lifted the silver dagger, extending it to me. “Kill him,” she said, her eyes gleaming with a sinister intent. “Kill him and become the most powerful supernatural force the world has ever known.”

It hit me now—the realization that the deal I had made was something I could never uphold. I had spent so much time worrying about whether Hecate would keep her word, but deep down, I knew with absolute certainty that I could never uphold my end of the agreement.

I stood frozen, Hecate’s hand still extended with the dagger in it, as she searched my eyes for any sign of compliance. My heart pounded in my chest, filled with dread.

“Kill him, Lyra,” Hecate repeated, her voice sharper this time, cutting through the chaos behind us, carrying with it a warning of what was going to happen if I didn’t comply.

With trembling hands, I reached for the dagger, but the moment my fingers touched it, my grip faltered and it slipped from my hand, clattering to the ground.

Hecate’s eyes narrowed, and she hissed, “I knew it. I knew I could never trust a shifter. Like the rest of the world, you have let your emotions cloud your judgment. And now, it’s going to be the end of everything you’ve ever loved.”

As I watched her eyes darken with rage, I realized with terrifying clarity that this plan, this deal, was doomed from the start. With a wave of her hand, an invisible force shoved me from the tomb, the impact throwing me a few feet away, to the ground. And Hecate grabbed the dagger, raising it with intent to slit Leo’s wrists.

“Hecate!” I shouted, my voice trembling with fear and desperation. “Stop! You swore you wouldn’t hurt him!”

“And you swore you’d kill Kaine Thornfield!” she retorted. “But I see now that you have no intention of honoring our deal.”

Her fingers tightened around the dagger, and in a single swift motion, she slashed Leo’s right wrist.

“No!” I choked, my voice hoarse, but the words barely left my lips. Blood began to pool around Leo’s wrists, his anguished cryslicing through the air, drowning the chaos behind me till all I could hear was the raw sound of his suffering ripping through me like a blade.

I pushed myself off the ground, storming toward the tomb with a fury that surged from deep within, a fury I hadn’t even known existed. I could feel my wolf tugging at my insides, begging for me to unleash her. At that moment, I didn’t care that she’d be wild and uncontrollable, didn’t care about the destruction she’d cause. Hecate had harmed my son, and I was going to rip her apart, limb to limb.

The next moment happened in a blur. As I charged toward Hecate, I suddenly found myself immobilized, her spell paralyzing me from the waist down. Through the haze, I saw Kaine leap from behind me, a blur of rage as he rushed toward her. But she was ready—a flick of her wrist, and the silver dagger in her hand flew through the air, burying itself deep in his chest.

My breath hitched, freezing me in place as I watched in horror while she twisted the dagger deeper into his chest. I opened my mouth to scream, but no words came out, my mind was barely able to comprehend the sight of Kaine crumbling to the ground with a knife stuck in his chest. His eyes locked onto mine, filled with shock as his hands clutched the hilt of the dagger, fingers trembling while blood soaked his gray T-shirt.

But Hecate wasn’t finished. Leo’s cries pierced the night, snapping my gaze back to the tomb just as she sliced his left wrist. Dropping the knife to the ground, she lifted her hands and eyes to the sky, chanting a torrent of spells that made the earth tremble with brutal force. She was doing the ritual. She was killing Leo.

I stood in the middle, watching my entire world crumble in a scene of unbearable agony unfolding before me. To my left, Leo was fading, his little body going limp as blood drained from his wrist. To my right, Kaine was dying, his breaths shallow and ragged as he struggled to pull the knife embedded deep in his chest. The two people I loved most, my entire world, were shattering before my very eyes. I wanted to go to them, to save them both, but I could only stand there, paralyzed in helplessness.

I faced Hecate, tears streaming down my face as I screamed through the storm swirling around us. “Please, Hecate, stop this!” My voice cracked. I was clinging to the last shred of hope. “I’ll do whatever you want—just don’t take them from me.”

Hecate’s smirk was cold, twisted with satisfaction, and my heart sank. “It’s too late, Lyra.”

The sky rumbled as the ground beneath me shook violently. I fought with every ounce of strength to move, but it was useless.

Suddenly, an excruciating, burning pain hit me, a pain unlike anything I’d ever known. It felt as though something deep within me was being torn apart, struggling to break free. My hands flew to my head, clutching it as a desperate scream ripped through my throat.

“Make it stop, Hecate! Please, make it stop!” I begged desperately, but the pain grew sharper, every nerve in my body set ablaze. I sank to my knees, the paralysis now gone, clawing at the ground, my fingernails digging into the dirt as I writhed in agony. The pain intensified, magnified by the fierce struggle of my wolf trying to break free. Tears streamed down my face, but when the metallic taste hit my tongue, I realized it wasn’t tears.It was blood. My body convulsed, every muscle suddenly seizing as if a thousand needles were being driven into me from every angle.

And then, everything stopped.

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