Page 89 of Alpha Exile

Around us, the stands where an audience of vampires used to watch me fight for my life, where that same audience cheered as I killed my sister in a drug-induced haze, start to crumble. And I never thought I would be sad to see the arena go, but when a fully-grown oak tree shoots up from the earth and rocks through the stone columns holding the place up, all I can feel is alarm.

Grabbing the vine around my ankle, I tear it off and jump to my feet. This time I race towards the tunnel for another reason now—to help Delilah and Roarke get to safety. They're holding Finn between them, eyes wide as they drag him out of the tunnel and towards the arena sand, while behind them the tunnel collapses.

I get to them just in time to grab Finn's waist and drag his weight up so we can all jump free. The spot where they were standing is suddenly occupied by a chunk of stone large enough to smash all our heads in.

"Go stab her to death," I tell Delilah, grabbing her palm and emptying the gemstones into it, "and take these, in case they help."

"On it," she says grimly, turning her face towards the sky as a bolt of lightning jumps from the clouds. "She can try all she wants, but she won't be able to turn this land against me."

Roarke frowns. "But aren't we outside the territory now? This isn't Glass Pack land, so neither one of you should be able to control it."

"Itwasour land a century ago," Delilah says, putting the gemstones into the satchel at her belt, and unsheathing the dagger. "And it remembers what it once was. Now I'm going to remind it whoIam. I just need your help with something."

"Anything." The voice belongs to Finn, who coughs, curling around his reddened middle as he shoves to his feet, swaying more than a little. I put my arm around him, and he leans into me gratefully, his mouth a grim line. "I may not be in fighting shape, but I'll rouse. Just tell me where to be in... twenty... no, thirty seconds."

"If you say so," she murmurs, and I know I'm not the only one thinking of his heart, which briefly stopped only minutes ago. "I need all of you to help me drag her further into the territory—past the border, and into the woodlands. We're going to take her where the land is strong, because its power is the only thing that can hold her still long enough for me to stab her in the heart."

It sounds like a plan.

Especially as the arena crumbles around us, overtaken by swarming vines and muddy sand.

Shifting into my wolf form, I race towards Delphine, Roarke at my heels—and, a moment later, Finn. Delilah puts a shield of woven fire out in front of us, steam hissing as raindrops hit it and instantly evaporate.

We make it towards the hybrid just in time, as she howls in rage and dislodges Kieran from her ankle.

I've got this.

Leaping with all my might, I close my jaws shut around her wrist and drag her to the ground. Lance grabs her other wrist, then Roarke gets her ankle, Kieran joining him at the other ankle, while Finn digs his teeth into her long hair and pulls.

Together, we drag her to the east, while she howls and curses, spitting in rage and calling for the very earth to tremble at our feet.

She throws her wrist up, and a tree tears its roots from the earth to grab Lance and throw him off her wrist.

Another wrist, and a wall of water appears out of nowhere, shoving Kieran away from her ankle.

She's scrambling towards her feet when Finn jerks her down. Howling, she sends grass up from the earth to wind around his paws, which is when I realize that we're no longer standing in the arena sand, but in the edges of Glass Pack's woods.

We managed to get her here.

Or the woods themselves moved beneath us, growing green and grassy at our feet.

Before I can celebrate, a crack opens beneath my paws, and for a moment I worry that I'm going to fall into it—until it closes just as suddenly beneath me.

"I've got this," Delilah calls out. "You've dragged her far enough, my powerful, wonderful mates. Now it's my turn to finish her off."

Thirty-Seven

Delilah

She thinks that she can turn the land against me, that whatever connection she has to it is stronger than mine.

Living for that long has either made her arrogant, foolish, or both.

I can feel the threads she's wound through the earth and sky, knots she's tied in the roots of centuries-old trees, her influence flowing through river water and sinking into sandy loam. Delphine has had years in captivity to plot and plan. She spent those years breaking out of whatever cracks she could find with her magic, and she tied herself to the most powerful thing of all: the territory Elder Vivia created for us.

Just like she was going to steal my mates forever, she was going to steal the land, and everything that thrives on it, including the pack itself.

She would've drained it all dry until there was nothing left. Just like she made those vampires feral and mad with her magic, she would've made my mates the same. I'm sure she thought she had Roarke—she didn't count on the parts of him that yearned for me, that led him towards me and made it possible for us to come back together.

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