Page 40 of Her Reborn Mate

Behind me, the fight waged on harder than before, with Will beating Maurice into the crates, breaking them open, causing blood to flow from the sealed bags and pool on the floor. It was unclear whether Maurice was dripping with his blood or the blood from all the smuggled packets that had ripped open.

From where I stood, it seemed unfair that Maurice had to fight Will. Will was easily three times larger in size and stature than Maurice. Compared to him, Maurice looked like a small dog. But then I remembered how Maurice was about to have all the werewolves killed, and the punishment did not seem so unfair then.

I couldn’t just stand and stare now that I had my own mission to get to. This place had been a prison for me for just a day or two, but even so, I felt so much hate for it that I wanted to tear it down. Will had been trapped in Beckett’s manor for seventy years. How must that have felt? There were dimensions to Will that I’d never understand, but fate had put me through such wringers that even though I’d never truly understand, I could at least comprehend their gravity.

I moved from one cave to the next, uncovering the boxes and seeing what was inside. Most of them contained blood as I had suspected, but every third or fourth one was filled with cocaine, ketamine, and heroin. None of the boxes contained anything that I needed. Until that is, I came to one particular crate that was tucked away from out of sight. When I slid it out, I saw that it contained around half a dozen remote controls and, underneath them, bricks of remote C4.

Why was Maurice holding a crate of remote detonative C4 in the cave? These were far too many for just one person to use. It did not matter. After today, no one would be able to use anything from these caves again.

I decided to make short work of the otherwise long and tiring task of setting up individual explosives all over the caves. Instead, I just set them up on the pillars holding the caves up. There were ten big pillars spread throughout the cave network, all of which were bearing the entire weight of the network upon them. I put three C4 on every pillar and all the remaining ones in the boxes so that even if the cave weren’t completely destroyed, at least all the smuggling merchandise would be.

With nothing more to do except pull the trigger on the remote control, I returned to the main tunnel where Will was still fighting with Maurice. I held just one controller in my hand, figuring that one explosion would trigger all the rest.

I saw Will shift back into his human form and hold Maurice’s limp body in his hands. Maurice, also in his human form, was bleeding profusely. I could see that it was his blood as it was spurting from the deep gashes and injuries on his body.

“You’re going to die, Will,” Maurice said, spitting out more blood.

“Irony seems to be lost on you, Maurice. It isn’t I who will die. At least not right now. Death can have me when I am ready for it. Today, death comes for you. Everything that you built has been destroyed. Your smuggling network, your relations with the vampires, and your power as the mayor and Alpha. It all ends today. Do you have any last words?” Will asked.

I joined Will, standing behind him, looking at Maurice’s pathetic face as he tried to summon the courage to utter his final words.

“You think of me as your enemy,” Maurice said, looking into Will’s eyes. For the first time ever, I could see that there was no malice or spite in Maurice’s eyes. Instead, there was just a somber sadness and defeat. “I am just a cog in the great machine that conspires against you. This madness began long before I was born. I was trained for this my entire life, but by someone who harbored ill will against you from the start. Why else would there be so many elements working against you? Why would someone kidnap you and then imprison you? Have you ever thought of that?”

I could see Will’s resolve faltering and his hands loosening their grip on Maurice.

“Who is it?” Will asked.

“Telling you that now, while I’m dying, would ruin all the fun, wouldn’t it? If there’s one vile thing I can do before I die, it’s this. I’ll make sure that you don’t find out who it was who sold you to Edward Beckett, who struck the original deal with vampires to aid in the smuggling business, and who tried to kill you the moment you escaped from Beckett’s manor.”

“I call bullshit,” I said, finally. I couldn’t keep out of it. Maurice’s final venomous words were making Will seethe from the inside. He was hurting.

“Why would you call bullshit? Your parents were killed by the same person,” Maurice said. “This goes all the way to the top. The best part is, you might kill me, Blair, and Ralph, but the real culprit will still be alive. And you’ll never know who they are!”

“Look at me,” Will said, holding Maurice by his neck. “I have vanquished demons larger than you and your purported puppet master that you speak of. I have braved through the threshold of life and death. You have no idea what I am capable of doing. You could have done better. You had a son. He looked up to you. You could have been a good father to him. You were made mayor and selected alpha. Your life had so many opportunities to good, yet you availed none!”

“Fuck you and your old-fashioned sense of morality, Will Grimm. Kill me already,” Maurice spat.

I knew that having Maurice’s death on Will’s conscience would be too much for him, given that Will was Vince’s best friend.

“You won’t get the honor of dying at the hands of the Alpha,” I said, putting my hands on Will’s shoulders and making him step back from Maurice.

“Will. Please kill me. I’d rather have my death at the hands of the Alpha. At least, that would be an honorable death. Just don’t have this fucking bitch kill me,” Maurice pleaded, holding his hands out to Will.

Will scoffed, then turned away, saying, “You deserve it.”

I grabbed the pistol that was lying around, aimed it at Maurice’s head, then said, “You have no idea how much I’ve wanted to do this.”

The last expression on Maurice’s face before I pulled the trigger was that of raw outrage. He could not perceive that someone like me, someone he had considered insignificant all his life, had the courage to kill him.

I pulled the trigger and watched the bullet lodge into his skull. I saw with satisfaction as his lifeless body fell limply into the puddle of blood. I could not believe it. Maurice was truly dead.

Finally, after all this time, the emotional burden that I had been carrying with me ever since that night at Beckett Tower slid off my shoulders and allowed me to breathe freely. The man who had been responsible for my entire life’s misery was no more. The vile person who had shot Will and had me thrown off a building had ceased to exist. Finally.

Now that he was dead, I could feel my soul and mind reclaiming Will. Now, it did not feel like he was the perpetrator of my mental agony. I no longer wanted to be away from him. With Maurice dead, I could understand that Will had been just as much a victim of Maurice’s agenda as I had been.

“No more,” I whispered.

“Freeing, isn’t it? People who say that revenge is overrated and does not resolve anything truly do not know a thing about revenge,” Will said.

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