Page 5 of Alpha Exile

I'm not fooled. Approaching her, I feel her eyes on my movements. So I bunch my legs beneath me, shift my weight to the left, and rush straight at her.

At the last moment, I throw my weight to the ground, roll over, and attack from the right instead.

Even so, she was expecting me. She was prepared. My teeth meet an invisible force field instead of her flesh, and I'm thrown several feet away.

"Nice try, alpha." Her lips peel back from too-white teeth. "Tell me, what has happened to the rest of you? I seem to remember observing five."

Instead of answering, I attack her again. This time I feint twice and come at her from behind. My claws connect with the sheer, shimmering fabric of her dress—and I get thrown belly-down into the ground, all the airwhumphingout of my lungs.

"Nice try." She looks down at me, her head craned over her shoulder, her fingers curled in the air. The expression on her face is bored, even as my ribs creak and crack, bones broken. "But have you forgotten that I'm a witch?"

I feel worried attention from Lance.You good?

Been better.I push up off the ground and shake myself off, wincing as my movements push the bones back together and heal them.This may be a battle that takes all of us. I need someone to distract her while I attack.

This time, when I tilt my head back to howl, I let out a short and focused sound. It rolls across the territory, piercing the fog and beckoning the three males I sent it towards.

We need you on the attack,I tell them.Leave Kerry behind to protect Delilah.

Kieran's voice responds,Be right there for an ass-kicking.

I turn my attention back towards Delphine, prodding at her defenses, sizing her up. She's used mostly physical attacks of magic against me so far, and only while defending herself. But I've noticed that she looks where her magic spells are going, her sharp eyes at attention. I hear strange, muttering chants leave her mouth more than once as she puts a vampire back together with her fingertips, her eerie magic seamlessly re-growing flesh and blood.

She has to look where she's casting her spells.

Maybe I can get Finn to distract her with his speed, or Bastian with his brutal attacks, while I go at her from another angle. Surely even immortals bleed, and if we wound her badly enough, she'll have to retreat and recoup her strength for another attack on another day. That'll give Delilah time to find Gregor's dagger—and us time to hunt down these feral vamps and put them downpermanently.

My plan forms shortly after the guys arrive, busting through rows of hungry vamps, tearing arms and legs apart. Finn is game to harass Delphine from all sides with feinted attacks, while Bastian will come at her with full-on fangs out. Lance and Kieran, meanwhile, will keep the vampires from attacking us—though they seem less interested in that than they are in sucking our warriors dry. He's mostly had to pry them off Ian, Kayla, and the others.

Almost like they're holding back instead of attacking us full-on.

Still. Even in this battle.

It unsettles me, leaving an itch between my shoulder blades. I don't want to underestimate Delphine, and I know that she's up to something. I just don't have the time to figure out what it is—which makes me worry that I'm leaving my pack open to attack.

Or worse, leaving Delilah weak and open to attack.

Her aunt Kerry is with her, though. I have to believe that's enough. As long as we keep Delphine here, distracted with whatever her strange plans are, Delilah will be protected. That will be worth the pain and misery—even if it costs us the strength of our warriors.

Let's go,Finn says, sliding through the vampires and slipping towards Delphine.I'm going to give her all I've got.

Bastian tells me,I'll come from the west.

I nod sharply.I've got her from the west, while her attention is split.Sending a thought out to Lance and Kieran, I tell them,While she's distracted, she won't be able to heal the vampires. That'd be a good time to put a few of them down, give our warriors a bit of a break.

Got it, boss.Kieran pumps his legs and throws his all into tearing two of the bloodsuckers off Wally's flank.Can't wait to watch these fuckers turn into ash and stay that way.

Delphine observes us as we prowl towards her, a sickening little smile on her blood-red lips.

"Tell me, why do you feel the urge to attack me? I've done nothing to you, after all. I'm not even in your territory." She motions to her feet, which are just outside the line of the borders. "All I've done is bring my cadre to a feast they sorely need after going hungry for so long."

An unnatural hunger that I have the feeling has something to do with Delphine's magic. And it's no wonder why she hasn't fully entered the territory—even her feral vampires struggle when they cross the line over to the wrong side, and wind up pummeled by tree branches or sucked under by living grass. The tree trunks around us groan, the land's desire to protect itsself racing up living bark and rustling the trees.

She isn't expecting an answer to her rhetorical question, and she won't be able to hear mine, but I tell her anyway,You deserve to die for what you did to your mates alone.

Delphine surprises me by laughing, turning her icy gaze to me and responding, "That's reason enough to kill me? You didn't even know my mates."

Finn leaps forward to bite her, only to get thrown away by a lazy flourish of her hand. She's still looking at me when she does it—which sickens me, and upends my theory that she has to look where she casts her spells. But the magic she throws at him is weak, and he jumps up quickly, leading me to believe that her focusissplit.

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