Page 107 of The Alpha's Crimson Vow

And everything erupts.

The air is thick with the scent of blood and earth and something almost electric, like the charge before a storm.

Wolves.Everywhere.

Massive, snarling beasts locked in vicious battle. The ground is already soaked with blood. The sound of it all is deafening—snarls, howls, the sickening crunch of bones breaking under the force of brutal attacks.

A gasp escapes my lips at the sight of the sheer violence.

My eyes dark around the scene, dizziness threatening to overwhelm me. But then my eyes land on a human figure, a man a few feet away. I squint my eyes to see clearly through the haze of the battle raging. It’s Alex.

He stands just feet away. Battered. Bleeding.

His body is littered with cuts and bruises, deep gashes carving into his flesh, staining his skin with crimson. His hands are bloodied claws, his lip split, and blood drips from his temple, trailing down the side of his face. His shirt is torn, barely hanging onto his frame, soaked in blood.

But he’s standing. Tall. Defiant. His eyes are locked on Valerian, burning with something fierce.

My chest tightens, my breath coming in short, ragged gasps.

“Alex…” The word barely escapes my lips.

He doesn’t look at me. His gaze never wavers from Valerian.

For a moment, everything else fades. The battle. The chaos. The wolves tearing each other apart around us.

All that exists is this. Them.

And I don’t know how this is going to end.

Chapter Twenty Six

Alex

The boat slices through the water, cutting a path toward Miagani Island, but I barely register the movement. My thoughts are consumed with one thing—Katherine.

My grip tightens on the edge of the boat. The realization has been clawing at me since the moment Alice told me. I know what carrying a shifter’s child can do to a human. I should have been more careful. But even now as worry settles in my chest at what the pregnancy could do to her, a primal protectiveness sparks in me. Valerian has my mate and my child, and for that I am ready to burn the world down.

“Alex,” Jack’s voice cuts through the storm raging in my head. “We’re almost there.”

I nod, barely hearing him. I glance at Alice—she’s already poised, her entire body tense, waiting for the moment to attack.

I can already see the island on the horizon. I’ve been here before. I know its terrain. And I know that wooden house nestled between the hills— the old torture site. A place where kings long before me would send prisoners of the kingdom to be broken. There isn’t much of anything on this island, so I know that if Valerian has brought Katherine here, he certainly is holding her in that torture house.

The mere thought of it makes my stomach twists.

We reach the shore. The boat scrapes against the sand, and I leap off before it even fully stops. The ground beneath me is rough, uneven, but I don’t slow. The others follow close behind.

We finally reach the crest of a hill, just high enough to give us a full view of the house below. My heart pounds as my eyes rakeover the terrain, picking up every detail. Even from here, I can tell—the place is locked down. Heavily guarded.

Jack doesn’t waste a second. He pulls out a sleek pair of tech binoculars, scanning the property with sharp, calculating eyes. His expression hardens, and when he turns to me, his voice is low. “It’s well defended. I count a little over a hundred. If we engage now, with the numbers we’ve come with, it’s going to be a hell of a fight.”

He’s right. We came fast, with only a small force. If I’d had the patience to mobilize even a fraction of our full army, we’d roll over them like a storm. But waiting? Sitting back while Katherine is in there—alone at Valerian’s mercy?

Jack’s voice cuts in again, cautious but firm. “Should we call for reinforcements before we engage, Your Majesty?”

It’s a rational suggestion. But rationality doesn’t matter right now. Every second that ticks by is another second she’s in there.

“No,” I say, my voice flat, final. “The reinforcements can be on their way, but we advance now.”

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