Page 68 of My Bad Boy Alpha

“Derrit is up ahead,” Stone said through his canines.“I smell his stench.”

Our packmates had already shifted into their wolves and joined the fight, but Stone had stayed with me the entire time, walking through the field as my body seemingly collected the last of the energy from the corpses.

These wolves had stood no chance.

Energy swelled inside me.We walked further onto the battlefield, this time ready to fight.I wanted Derrit’s blood on the ground, like he had done to so many of my wolves.Yet canines gleamed as the wolves howled their last breaths.Blood was splattered everywhere on the battlefield.I scanned the forest.

“Where the fuck is he?”I growled, my eyes darting from one direction to the next.

Derrit had always been a coward, never one to take on a fight head-on and always having to use other people’s bodies to do his dirty work.

He preferred to slink in the shadows, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.Take the form of friendly wolves in order to buy himself time and get closer to us.But not now.No.I fucking refused.He had crossed a line, and he would pay for it.

The trees rustled to my left, catching my attention.A lone wolf emerged from them, his fur matted with blood and his eyes narrowed in fury.

Derrit bared his teeth and shifted into his human form, spitting a wad of flesh toward us.“Stoney, Zuri … you’ve finally arrived.I’ve been waiting for you.”

CHAPTERFORTY-FOUR

ZURI

With his packgathered around him, baring their canines at us, Derrit stood across the forest and smirked at me.His eyes glimmered with a magic so dark, as if he had been waiting and preparing for this fight since the last time I had seenhim, not in someone else’s body.

His black tattoos lifted off his body, and mists of blackness swirled around him.My heart raced in my chest, and I swallowed hard.

Had those tattoos been dark magic all along?Did he bring it everywhere that he went?

Screw it, I don’t have time to think.

I balled my hands into tight fists.My pack rested on my shoulders.And while I might’ve been part Moon Goddess now, who was supposed to be the protector of wolves, I didn’t know the first thing about fighting a man who wielded dark magic.

But I had to fight him if I wanted to save my pack.

“You think you can defeat me, Zuri?”he taunted, his eyes gleaming with malice.“Don’t let my brother fool you into thinking that you’re anything more than a rogue, a rut”—he chuckled—“a whore who would do anything to be accepted.”

A ferocious growl escaped my mate’s lips as he stepped forward, but I stayed by his side the entire time.Stone was still hurting from killing his grandma.I could feel his pain through our mate bond, so I couldn’t let Derrit corrupt him.

“Don’t feed his hatred,”I said to my mate through the mind link.

Sparks of power ignited my fingertips.I glanced down at them to see white light traveling up the length of my brown digits and then forming a ring of power in the center of my palms, the energy more powerful than I had ever felt before.

“If you turn her over to me, I vow not to attack you for the rest of eternity,” Derrit offered.

For a moment, my thoughts wavered at what the pack would choose for me.It was a decent offer, one that I wasn’t sure that Derrit could uphold, but nonetheless, if it was true, then they would all be saved.

“Fuck you,” Stone growled.

“We’re not handing anyone over to you,” James said.

The rest of the wolves in our pack followed suit and growled at Derrit.And I had never once felt more power, more happiness and joy, more protected than I had in that moment.They all were willing to risk their lives to save me, and I had to do the same for them.

Derrit growled, his eyes turning from a brown to a blazing black.The dark magic around him intensified, the air thick and heavy with impenetrable mist.We had to act quickly before he could launch an attack.

We had to be the predator.Not the prey.

So, I closed my eyes and focused on the power within me, drawing it out through my palms.The magic within me surged, and I opened my eyes to see my light blazing out from my hands and penetrating the mist.

With a loud snarl, Derrit charged toward me, his eyes blazing with fury.I stood my ground, my body enveloped in a bright light.As he neared me, I raised one of my hands, and another beam of light shot out, hitting Derrit square in the chest.The mist flickered out for a moment as he stumbled backward, crumbling in pain.

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