Page 16 of Alpha's Arranged Mate

Braxton was plunged into it for only a few seconds before a second lantern took the place of the first, growing closer and closer as many footsteps came around a corner in the hall.

"Braxton, it is time to go," came Dash's commanding voice as a key was slammed into the lock on his door.

"Go where?" Braxton asked, lifting his nose to sniff at the many scents now surrounding him.

He was practically dragged from the cell by one of Dash's packmates, only to find that there were ten more besides. Yet theirs were not the only scents he could smell as he was guided back down the corridor. The electric scent of magic tingled his senses.

"Where are you taking me?" he demanded as he was shoved rudely forward.

"Emily and Malia here have kindly offered us a lift down to hell," Dash announced, and Braxton felt his gut begin to churn.

"Why the fuck would you want to go down there?" he demanded, digging his heels into the floor to stop himself from being pushed any further until he had answers.

"If this alliance is going to work, I must have the word of all those wolves still outside these walls," Dash explained, and Braxton's gut almost bottomed out. "You can vouch for those you have been locked up here with, but who is to say those still outside Silverdale will accept your rule, or even your word?"

Braxton's throat clenched. Dash was right. He had barely even thought on the fact. All he had been able to think of was getting back to his children, children who were likely down in hell as they spoke, with his grandmother and all the other wolves who had been left behind when their pack had attacked Silverdale.

And once more the urge to see them drew him forward. "Take me to them."

***

The portal that was opened up in the basement of the Silverdale manor was unlike anything Braxton had ever seen before. Though he had opened up portals of his own to travel between the worlds when he had had full access to his demon wolf, they had been nothing at all like this. They had been swirling balls of flame that opened up like a disc of burning embers before him with no hint at what might occur once he stepped through.

But this portal, though made of hellfire and brimstone, the scent burning the hairs in his nostrils, was quite clear. As he looked through it, Braxton could easily see the place right where they would land when they stepped through.

The taller of the two Michaels witches, the one they called Emily, stepped forward to stand before Braxton and asked, “Are you ready? This likely isn’t going to be easy, but we will keep the portal open for as long as possible.”

Braxton nodded, his lips pursed. Of course, he knew it wasn’t going to be easy. He was going into literal hell to try and convince the rest of his pack to allow him to be their alpha when not a single one of them had had contact with their former alpha, his father, or any of the others since the attack on Silverdale. For all his grandmother and the others knew, he and the rest of their pack were dead.

And for all he knew, they had already picked their own successor to lead the pack. In fact, that was the most likely outcome, and it scared the wits from him at times when he thought of it. If that were the case, then what had become of his children? They would likely not be suffered to live if someone else had taken the alphaship. After all, they were the grandchildren of the previous alpha.

“I’m as ready as I’ll ever be,” he admitted.

“We shall back you,” Dash said, stepping up beside Emily Michaels with his head held high.

Braxton’s hackles immediately started to rise, and it took everything in him not to bite back. Instead, he lifted his chin and looked the alpha in the eye. “I would prefer if you stayed out of it. My pack will not accept me as alpha if they believe I need a Silverdale’s help.”

Just as quickly as he had spoken, he added, “No offense.”

Dash merely dipped his head. “None taken, and I understand. Though I will step in if I believe the alliance is at risk of being broken.”

“Give me the chance to bring them around first,” Braxton stated, still meeting the other alpha’s gaze. “You at least owe me that.”

He gritted his teeth, fearful that the other wolf looked as though he was about to snap that he didn’t owe him anything after all his father and the rest of his pack had done to Silverdale. Instead, the Silverdale alpha simply nodded and gestured for Braxton to take the lead.

And so he did. Though he had expected for the portal to hurt as he stepped through it, he had not been at all prepared for it. The usual portals that the demon wolves conjured up were bad enough, but this portal felt as though searing hot knives were being punctured through every inch of his body, his insides becoming his outsides in the process. And by the time he reached hell, only a few seconds later, he had to look down at himself just to be sure he hadn’t actually turned inside out.

Already a mass of wolves had begun to form on the other side of the portal. They crowded in around it, whispering amongst each other, looking angry and fearful in equal measure, as though none of them wished to be the first to check out this new and strange portal.

It wasn’t until Dash and the others stepped through that they began to growl defensively. The demon wolf forms were all ablaze, each one melting into the next until Braxton couldn’t tell one apart from the other. With his senses so out of practice, he could barely distinguish who was who.

Seeing the violence blazing in their eyes, Braxton knew that there was only one thing for it. His heart skipped a beat as he immediately realized his error.

Turning on Dash, he snarled, “Remove these cuffs.”

Bile rose in the back of his throat, threatening to choke him. When Dash had come to tell him that he was going to hell, all he had thought of was returning home to his family, to his children. But now, faced with so many snarling, burning faces, he realized he had come back to entirely hostile territory.

He had been gone for months. How were these wolves to know that he was not a threat to them now?

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