Page 6 of Alpha Exile

Though it's split onto me. Despite everything, she seems to want to hear my answer to her question. She almost seems hurt that we've rushed out here to attack her, even though she shouldn't expect anything less.

So while Finn prowls for another angle, and Bastian gets into position, I decide to distract her as much as I can.

The life you stole by killing your mates isn't yours, and you don't deserve to keep it.I prowl around so I'm standing opposite Bastian, giving him the opportunity to jump on her back without hitting her magic.But to truly answer your question—we all know that you're really here for Delilah. You want her power because your own is waning. So we've come here to attack you to prevent you from doing to her what you did to your mates.

Bastian shifts forward as I speak into Delphine's mind, and Finn bounces around her feet, grazing his teeth against her hand. She turns to glare at him and snaps her wrist, throwing him away—while Bastian races towards her unseen. Kieran takes down a pair of vampires running towards Bastian's blur of fur, and Finn bounces back up again, heading right for Delphine's back.

The hybrid snarls as she turns to face me again. "You don't understand what I want at all. But soon you'll see. I willmakeyou."

It all happens next so quickly.

Bastian is a furry bullet as he bunches his muscles up and leaps onto Delphine's back, his warrior body agile and strong.

She throws him off with surprising strength, keeping her legs under her. So Finn goes for those legs, pulling them off the ground and sending the air from her lungs as she's thrown down on her back.

I'm shocked seeing it, because some part of me almost didn't believe that her strange, ethereal beauty could be touched. I almost didn't think she was real flesh and blood. Somehow she's down, though, thoroughly distracted.

Her vampires howl with thirst and go for our warriors, piling on them in twos and threes, tearing at their flesh and knocking them unconscious. I see Marcus's unconscious body get dragged away by pale, bloodless limbs, and it takes everything in me not to tear the vampires off him.

Because I have something else to do instead. While Delphine is down and distracted, Finn still bouncing around her and evading her attacks, I race at her from the other side. I can feel the opening, the moment of surprise, and it's nearly as shocking to me as to anyone else.

I didn't really think it would work.

So as I push my claws out, gather my strength, and leap with my fangs bared, it's not really a shock when itdoesn'twork.

It's only a shock that I don't hit an invisible wall of power, or get thrown to the ground again.

This time, I just go... still.

I land on my paws, weight unbalanced, and find myself unable to do anything else.

A confused pair of golden eyes land on me, and I hear Kieran inquire in confusion,Roarke?

I try to answer back, but I can't.

Opposite me, Finn is frozen with his teeth inches away from Delphine's long black hair. His lips relax, and a confused expression flits across his brow.

Bastian bunches his muscles up as if to leap towards her again, then stops, flopping down onto his belly.

Delphine sits up, her eyes scanning the horizon lazily, and I feel my stomach drop.

On one side of me, four vampires tear at Ian's flesh and drag him out into the woods, fangs digging into him and sucking him dry. Kieran is only a few feet away, but instead of fighting them off, he calmly walks towards us.

Lance does the same, though Kayla, new to the pack and one of our females giving us hope, is descended on by five vampires and is struggling to stay on her feet.

The whole time, I don't move. Don't tilt my head back to howl. Don't slash my claws against flesh or rend limbs apart with my teeth.

Because I can't.

As Delphine raises a pale hand, her fist closed around something that dangles at the end of a long necklace, I realize with a drop of my stomach why.

"Thank you, alpha.” She brushes herself off and unfurls to her feet, a vial of my blood dangling between her fingers, four similar ones tied to her belt, each with a tuft of fur nestled in the red liquid. "It's so much easier to control the rest of them when I have control over you."

Then she turns towards the north and waves her hand towards her side.

I move towards her, pacing at heel like a well-trained dog.

Because I find I can't do anything else.

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