Page 176 of The Alpha King's Fate

Something snapped inside her as her rage ripped through her body. She rose to her feet, her gaze focused on the threat in the room. Her vision sharpened. She saw Cole’s pulse in his neck as he scrambled to his feet. Her ears picked out his heartbeat—faint at first and then louder, like a beacon calling her.

She smelled him. Desperation and fear. She took a deep breath of the sweet scent and let it feed her. She was starving, and nothing but the Alpha’s flesh would do.

A growl echoed in the silent room, and then another. Both called to something inside her until she had no choice but to answer. She felt it deep in her chest as she let it out. And then a fire raged through her body, matching her fury.

How dare he! How dare he threaten the people she loved!

All her thoughts disappeared as she leapt over Alpha Lincoln’s body. When she landed on the other side, huge red paws replaced her feet. Alpha Cole stumbled back, his eyes as wide as saucers. Her snout lowered to the ground, and she bared her teeth in a snarl. Her hackles rose as she stalked her prey.

That was what he was. Prey. To be hunted and disposed of so he would never touch her family again.

Someone came beside her, a paw as red and as huge as her own. And then, on her other side, a dark grey one, even bigger than hers.

Cole dropped Brit and Hope and tried to run into the crowd behind him. But Chase shoved him back and blocked him. He tried to go another way, but Dylan was there.

“You can’t do that to me! I’m a Circle member! You should submit to me and beg for my forgiveness before my people descend on you,” Cole shouted.

She looked at Britney, who still had Hope in her arms, and then at the children in the room. They had seen too much already—they didn’t need to see anymore.

‘Britney, take the children away, she ordered.

In the mindlink. With Brit. But that realisation was fleeting as she kept her focus on Cole.

Brit’s eyes flashed green, and then she nodded. They walked carefully around the carnage, Omegas covering the younger children’s eyes. And then only the Alphas and the warriors remained.

She waited until the young ones were far away from the hall before launching at Cole and nipping at his arm. Cole shrieked and chanted something, holding out his uninjured arm, but his magic bounced off her as if it were nothing.

Rebecca came from the other side and nipped his thigh. And then it was Jax’s turn.

They were playing with their food, and Cole knew that.

“Please,” he whispered. “I understand now. I know I stepped out of line.”

Way out of line. There was no way he could ever get back across it. There would be no mercy. No redemption. Like the Commander, Cole would wreak havoc on them if he walked out of their territory alive.

They nipped at him until he sobbed. Until he was a bloody mess and all the fight left his body. Until he was on his knees with his head lowered, submitting to his king and queen.

And only then did they rip into him.

Piece by piece.

Scream by scream.

Until no sound remained, not even a heartbeat.

When she shifted back, her thirst for vengeance and anger drained from her body until her head cleared. And only then did she realise what had just happened.

Nia was back.

The wolf she murdered came back to her.

And she saved her once again.

‘Nia?’

‘I don’t know how.’

The wolf answered her unasked question. She clutched her heart when she heard her. Every cell in her body lit up as the sound washed over her.

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