Page 71 of Curvy Alpha Bride
I run to the truck, starting it up and tearing down the dirt track towards town. I manage to cut the time in half by driving as fast as possible, almost totaling the truck more than once.
When I pull into the courtyard in front of the hall, a howl sounds from the nearby streets, picked up by another wolf nearby. A bell rings inside the hall, and Serra and Ivan run out to greet me.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” Serra yells. “Get to safety!”
“I can’t!” I yell back at her. “Xavier’s gone—the witch got him!”
Serra staggers back from me, a hand on her chest as if I dealt her a killing blow. From the doors of the hall, I hear Finnah wailing.
“No!” she screams. “This can’t be happening!”
“It is happening!” I yell. “He’s gone, he went to fight her on his own, and now she’s got him. I need some of you to come with me—”
“Yes,” Ivan says, taking my shoulders. “We should get a small group together, and they’ll go back with you. Hunker down in the cabin, and you might survive this.”
“What?” I ask, unable to believe what I just heard.
“Yes,” Serra says, recovering enough to come and grab my hand. “Get back to the cabin before she’s done with him, and you might have a chance. I don’t think that will slow her down once she has control of an alpha, but we have to try.”
“No!” I yell, grabbing Serra’s shoulders and shaking her. “I don’t accept that! We are going to rescue him!”
“I’m as upset about this as you are,” Finnah says, coming to put her arms around me. “But it’s over. She’ll return with him under thrall, and he’ll do her bidding. She’ll consume you, then the Range. It’s done. We lost.”
“How can you say that?” I scream at her. “We have to fight!”
“We can’t fight her,” Ivan says dully. “Especially not now.”
I take a moment to pull myself together, then step away from the miserable group and yell at the wolves on the perimeter.
“You, wolves! I need you to take to the Pass and call the other alphas! While the witch is busy with Xavier, you have a chance to get through. Send out the distress call, and they will come.”
“Are you out of your fucking mind?” Serra screams. “Bringing the other alphas here so she can enslave them? How is that a good plan?”
I turn on her, surprised by how cold my voice is. “According to you, the battle is lost,” I say. “She will come for me now, and no one can stop her. Then she will move on to take the Range, pack by pack. Why not alert them, call them all here, and give them a chance to fight? If it’s all over, then why not throw everything we have at her, right here and now?”
Serra takes a step back, shaking her head, but I see hope dawn in Ivan’s eyes.
What a relief it must be to finally have all their worst nightmares come true. It’s not hanging over their heads anymore. It’s time to fight!
“Scouts!” I yell. “Will you go?”
The few wolves that had been left on patrol wait at the edge of the courtyard. All of them seem afraid to move.
They saw what the witch did to the others. Maybe they don’t have the courage to go into the Pass!
“We’ll go, Mabel,” a soft voice says.
I turn to see Lyssa and the other young girls standing at the doors, their arms linked together.
“No!” I cry, running to her and hugging her. “I can’t risk you! You’re too tempting to the witch!”
“Look at you, my luna,” Lyssa says, stroking my hair. “You’re out here, risking yourself, rallying the pack, ready to fight for all of us. You’re absolutely right—it’s all over. Now is the time to make our stand. We will take to the Pass and call to the other packs.”
The tears running down my cheeks sting my eyes so badly, I can barely see. I just shake my head and hug Lyssa as hard as I can.
“Go, then,” I whisper to her. “May the light of the full moon guide and protect you!”
“By your grace, Luna,” she replies. “So shall it be.”
