Chapter 158

Chapter 158
Axel

The van hit another bump, and I gripped the door handle harder as Jace cursed under his breath. "Can't you drive any faster?" The words came out harsher than I meant, but I couldn't help it. Every second felt like an eternity when Calla was out there with that monster.

"I'm already doing eighty on a dirt road," Jace shot back, his knuckles white on the steering wheel. "You want me to flip us into a ditch?"

In the back of the van, the rest of my pack was geared up and ready for war. Malachai checked his shotgun for the third time, his massive frame tense with barely controlled anticipation. Rikka sat beside her medical kit and guns, her face set in hard lines. Even Zara looked deadly serious, her usual radiant atmosphere replaced by something fiercer.

Eden held onto the seat as we hit another pothole. "How much further?"

"Ten minutes," I said, squinting through the windshield at the landscape flying by. The sun was already setting, painting everything in shades of red and orange. We'd been driving for over two hours, and every mile felt like torture.

The last hour had been hell. When I'd called Derek with the coordinates, he'd exploded.

"That was her we all felt???!!! You knew and you kept her heritage a secret?" Derek's voice had been pure fury over the radio. "We've been wondering what made her so special, why vampires were willing to risk everything to get to her. And you knew she was a moonkeeper?"

The coalition members had every right to be pissed. They'd lost people protecting someone whose true nature could have helped them prepare better. But explaining would have put Calla in even more danger.

"I was protecting her," I'd told them.

"From what? From allies who could have helped keep her safe?"

Now they were converging on the same location from different directions, probably still furious but committed to the rescue. That was the thing about werewolf packs - personal feelings came second when lives were on the line.

Through our mate bond, I could feel Calla getting closer. The connection had strengthened since her moonkeeper abilities fully awakened. But there was something else now. Fear. Raw panic that made my hands shake.

"Something's wrong," I said, pressing my hand to my chest where the bond hummed strongest. "She's terrified."

Jace glanced at me in the rearview mirror. "What kind of terrified?"

Before I could answer, the facility came into view through the trees. A concrete complex surrounded by high walls and guard towers. Government issue, just like Calla had shown me in the dreamscape.

"There," I pointed ahead. "That's it."

As we got closer, I saw something that made my blood run cold. A figure stumbling out of the main building. Even from this distance, I could tell it was Blake. He moved wrong, like his body wasn't quite under his control.

"What the hell is he doing?" Malachai growled.

Blake collapsed to his knees just outside the facility entrance, his body convulsing. Then he pushed himself back up and kept moving, but every step looked like it hurt.

"Something happened to him," Rikka observed. "Those aren't normal movements."

That's when the world exploded.

The facility went up in a massive fireball that lit the evening sky like a second sun. The shockwave hit us a few seconds later, rocking the van and shattering the windshield. Jace fought to keep us on the road as debris rained down around us.

"What the fuck!" Zara screamed over the roaring sound.

I stared at the inferno where the building had been, my mind struggling to process what I was seeing. The entire complex was gone, reduced to flames and rubble in seconds.

And Calla had been inside.

The mate bond went silent.

"No." The word tore from my throat. "No, no, no."

I couldn't feel her anymore. The connection that had been my anchor for days, that had guided me here, was just... gone. Like someone had cut a wire in my chest.

"Calla!" I screamed her name at the burning ruins, but there was no answer.

My pack was shouting, cursing, trying to make sense of what we'd just witnessed. But I couldn't hear them over the roaring in my ears. Couldn't think past the horrible emptiness where our bond used to be.

She was gone. Calla was gone, and I'd arrived just in time to watch her die.

The grief hit me like a physical blow. I doubled over in my seat, gasping for air that wouldn't come. Seven days of desperate searching, following every lead, fighting through every obstacle, only to lose her at the last second.

"Axel." Jace's voice sounded far away. "Axel, look at me."

But I couldn't look at anything except the flames. Couldn't accept that this was how it ended.

Then the grief twisted into something else. Rage. Pure, burning fury at the man responsible for everything.

Blake was still alive. Still moving around near the blast site, though he'd been thrown to the ground by the explosion. He was trying to stand up, his movements jerky and wrong, like he was fighting against his own body.

"Stop the van," I said, my voice deadly quiet.

"Axel, we need to—"

"Stop the fucking van!"

Jace hit the brakes, and I was out the door before we'd fully stopped. My pack was shouting behind me, but I didn't care. All I could see was Blake struggling to his feet, and all I could think about was making him pay for what he'd done to her.

"Blake!" The name came out as a roar of pure hatred.

He turned toward me, and I got my first clear look at what he'd become. His face was twisted with pain, dark veins pulsing under his pale skin. His eyes were bloodshot, and when he moved, his whole body seemed to spasm.

Whatever he'd done to himself, it was tearing him apart from the inside.

I launched myself at him with everything I had. We crashed into the dirt and gravel, rolling in a tangle of fists and fury. I landed on top and started pounding him with everything I had.

Blake tried to fight back, but his body wasn't cooperating. Every punch I threw connected, snapping his head back, splitting his lip, breaking his nose. He made these awful choking sounds, like he was trying to scream but couldn't get the air.

"You killed her!" I hit him again. "You killed her, you bastard!"

Blake managed to get his hands on my chest and pushed. His hybrid strength threw me backward, sending me rolling across the ground. But even that simple movement seemed to cause him agony. He arched his back and let out a sound that was barely human.

I got back to my feet, ready to finish this, when Malachai's voice cut through my rage.

"Axel! We got company!"

I looked up to see movement in the rocky terrain around us. Pale figures moving with inhuman speed. Vampires. Lots of them.

My pack formed a circle around me, weapons ready. Malachai had his shotgun loaded with silver rounds. Rikka held her gun in one hand and a silver knife in the other. Even Zara had picked up a gun.

Blake was still on the ground, writhing in pain, but now he was screaming. The sound echoed off the rocks, high and desperate.

The vampires kept coming, in front of us. I counted at least twenty, maybe more. This wasn't just some random hunting party. This was an army.

"What's the play?" Jace asked quietly, never taking his eyes off the approaching enemies.

I was about to answer when something impossible happened.

The mate bond flared back to life.

It hit me like lightning, sudden and overwhelming. Calla was alive. Not just alive, but close. I could feel her presence somewhere behind me, getting closer.

I spun around, hardly daring to hope.

A figure emerged from the shadows between the rocks. Tall, elegant, moving with the kind of grace that spoke of centuries of experience. He carried something in his arms, cradled against his chest like it was precious.

As he got closer, I could see what he was carrying.

Calla.

She seemed unconscious, her hospital gown torn and dirty, but she was breathing. She was alive.

The figure holding her stepped into the dying light, and I got my first clear look at his face. Sharp features, pale skin, silver hair that caught the last rays of sunlight. He looked.... young, and at the same time old.

He looked directly at me, and when he spoke, his voice carried the weight of centuries.

"Alpha Cain, I presume."