“Well, would you look at that? Somethings just stay the same forever, I guess,” Viessa remarked loudly to herself after Mira had created the portal into the other reality.
“Is that Nebiru?” Harper asked, eyes squinting at what looked like a dead forest on the other side of the portal.
“That’s Moorland. Nebiru’s back door. That’s where you will look for Lucas,” Mira answered, looking pale and rather slightly weak. “Come on, Harper, I don’t have enough strength to hold the door for you all day.
Harper swallowed an imaginary lump in her throat as she further stared at the foreign land before her very eyes. She was scared, it was evident in her eyes, but if she was the only one who could save and bring Lucas back, she reckoned she had no choice.
“How are we supposed to come back here again?” she asked with bated breath. A sick feeling crept into her chest. She still couldn’t believe what was happening. She wanted to throw up.
“The two worlds will align every full moon. I will open the portal again on the next full phase of the moon,” Mira answered between pursed lips. “Go now!”
“No!” Alex yelled as he came hurling from one of the tall hedges and came down on the ground in the small clearing with a loud thud. His eyes immediately landed on Harper, who was about to step into the other side.
Viessa, surprised by his sudden interruption, leaped for him but was forced back and was slammed through the thick hedge by his fist.
Harper watched Alex intently and flashed back to the last time he went up against Sheila, Keane, and the other two wolves. She recalled how they all met their brutal demise. She looked around at Viessa and Mira, then at Alex, and recognized the same ruthless look on his face.
“Alex, what are you doing?” Mira looked frantic as the visible luminous red glow coursing through her continued to emit from her body.
“Harper, don’t do this,” Alex said. His focus was solely on Harper.
“Alex, I’m sorry, but I have to. There’s no one else who―” Harper stopped midsentence when a scarlet scream echoed around them. Her eyes widened as she watched Viessa gravitated in the air and flew to Mira’s side, and knelt next to the mage.
“That was so rude of you, Alexander,” Viessa muttered as she slowly stood up.
But before any one of them could say something, time suddenly seemed to hold still as they watched Lord Aleister joined them in the small clearing with four other men behind him. “What is going on here?”
“Harper, I’m begging you, don’t do this. You will die,” Alex exclaimed. It was apparent how much he was scared of the thought of Harper dying, and he didn’t care about any of them whom he had to fight.
"What do you mean?" Harper looked over to Lord Aleister. “What is he talking about?”
She waited for an answer from Lord Aleister, but Viessa spun around to pounce on her, pinning her to the ground. She raised her fist and swung it down on Harper’s face.
Alex snapped as the vampires carelessly tossed the unconscious Harper aside behind her. Suddenly, he was no longer in control of himself. He shifted into his wolf form and snarled at Viessa, who only smirked at him.
“Alexander, we don’t have time for this. Your parents will be here anytime soon.” Lord Aleister stepped forward but was immediately met with Alex’s threatening growl. “You leave me no choice then.” He eyed one of his men. “Restrain him.”
Viessa and the four other men, who now shifted into wolves with the same white fur, leaped at Alex on cue. Alex growled, snarled, and viciously snapped his jaws at the smallest of Lord Aleister’s wolves.
"I’m going to enjoy this." Viessa, with her sharp fangs, just grinned viciously at him.
But the vampiress’ taunt only fueled Alex. His adrenaline pump even faster than it ever had, and with an increased speed and strength, he let out a crushing growl as he sprinted off toward Lord Aleister.
As he pounced and pinned two wolves to the ground at the same time, he heard Viessa instructing Mira to make the drop. “Throw this filthy human to Moorland now!”
He turned back to stop Mira but was blocked by the other wolves. They readily launched themselves at him, but he swiftly dodged the attack, shot up into the air, and landed on one of the wolves, its head cracked beneath him. Then he caught the closest wolf to him in his jaws, crashing every bone in its neck before he slung the lifeless wolf into the third wolf, knocking it unconscious.
Looking at the only wolf that stood between them and Alex, Mira scowled, her scarlet glow cascading her entire body as she slowly beckoned her magic to pull Harper toward the gradually shrinking portal.
Alex stopped his attack against the remaining wolf as he watched with such worry. “No!”
Lord Aleister began to panic. He couldn’t believe how the young master Lycan had savagely dismembered his most trained fighters. He knew Alex wasn’t just any other shifter, but he hadn't expected him to be such a fierce warrior, given that his memories were wiped clean.
He took a step backward before walking back to the castle.
Harper gently opened her eyes. Ignoring the intense pain in her head, she looked around and found she was still in the clearing. She immediately panicked as soon as she felt her body moving involuntarily toward the entryway to the Moorland. Then her attention snapped toward the noise in front of her. She gasped as she watched Alex fought Viessa and the last wolf alive.
“Alex,” she called out.
Mira turned around to see Harper forcing herself up and fighting off her magic. This pissed her off, and without any hesitation, she raised one hand to raise Harper a few feet off the ground only to drop her down, knocking her unconscious once again.
Alex growled loudly when he saw Harper hit the ground hard. As he consciously summoned every energy in his body, he sprinted forward and knocked the largest and strongest white wolf Lord Aleister had ordered to restrain him. Their bodies hit the cascading fountain in the center before they landed hard on the ground. Dizzy and tired, he picked himself up, only to be rammed in the side by Viessa before the large white wolf bit into his calf. He screamed in pain as he fell back. Hot blood immediately gushed from the wound, matting his grey fur. He hissed at the pain that was almost unbearable.
Viessa looked down at him, laughing. “Oh, you poor dog.”
Alex’s muscles went taut under his thick grey fur. He forced himself up off the ground, leaped over the white wolf, and sped down on top. His claws dug into the white wolf’s belly and went on to rip its body to pieces, smearing its guts all over the ground.
“You’re going to pay for those lives, Alex,” Viessa threatened.
Alex looked up and leaped at her. The vampiress responded by assuming a defensive stance. He snapped his jaws at her.
“You filthy dog.” Viessa laughed at his attempt.
When he finally lost his patience, he swiftly pounced her, pinning her to the ground. He wrapped his paws around her throat and put as much pressure on her before biting her shoulder. Viessa screamed in pain yet countered by kicking him off of him. He broke his fall and sprinted at her again, throwing himself a few feet higher into the air. She jumped up and rammed him from below, sending both of them flying. They both hit the ground hard and painfully. Viessa showed her fangs as a threat, refusing to give up and ignoring the painful bite on her shoulder.
Mira watched the battle between Viessa and Alex unfolding before her, biting down her lower lip tensely. She knew that there was no stopping Alex now. Harper had to cross the portal, and she had to seal it before Alex could reach her. But her strength was wearing thin, and the doorway she created could close any moment now.
By this time, Harper had also regained her consciousness again. With a somewhat hazy vision, she saw both Viessa and Alex had been wounded.
“Alex!” she screamed from the sidelines when she noticed herself moving toward the portal again.
Alex paused to look for Harper’s faint voice. He growled when he saw her being forced toward the portal. He was about to take a leap toward her when he felt an excruciating pain in the crook of his neck. He fell to the ground with a loud thud.
Tears shot out of Harper’s eyes as she watched Alex’s blood dripping down Viessa’s mouth.
“Go!” Viessa roared at Mira.
"Shit!" The mage yelled as she invoked every ounce of strength left in her and started to walk towards Harper. She grabbed a handful of Harper’s hair with her free hand while the other remained up in the air to keep the door to Moorland open. Harper yelped in pain as she dragged her and flung her with her remaining energy, sending her screaming into the portal.
Alex’s loud and angry roar echoed throughout the labyrinth and the forest far ahead. Fury ignited inside him. He shot up above Viessa, ready to strike down as strong wind whipped around him. Viessa looked up and froze in her tracks. Her head suddenly met Alex’s powerful claw. With one decisive blow, his claws swung around and slashed at the vampiress’s neck and severed her head from her body.
“Viessa!” Mira cried out, feeling Viessa’s immediate death as if it were her own. Feeling her heart plummeting into her churning gut, she released a high-pitched scream.
Shifting back to his human form, Alex walked over to her. “Keep the portal open,” he growled and grabbed Mira’s wrist to keep it in place up in the air when it slowly came down. “Where is Harper?”
“She’s crossed the portal, Alex. Just as planned,” Mira replied between clenched teeth, her eyes moistened with tears.
“Did you know that she’s Lucas’ mate?”
She ran her tongue on her chapped lips. She was losing her strength and the will even to stand still. “She is,” she said and looked over at Viessa’s lifeless body. “Alex, what have you done?”
Alex briefly looked over his shoulder. “They were in my way.”
“You killed them because of Harper. Of that human! I’m your mate. Nothing else should matter other than that fact.”
“I needed to speak to Harper, and they were in my way. And now, you are too.” His voice was grave and deep.
“Well, it’s over. That lying bitch has already crossed.”
“Be careful with your mouth now, Mira,” he gnarled.
“Or what?” she bellowed. “What has she done to you, Alex? You used to worship me. There was nothing you wouldn’t do for me and I to you.” Her eyebrows were drawn so close in disbelief.
“Things have changed,” he replied. “And I don’t really feel our bond at all.”
Mira’s jaws tensed, her eyes glistened with anger. “I should have killed her instead.”
“What do you mean by that?” Alex wrapped his rough hand around her throat. “I said, what do you mean by what you just said?”
“I should have killed Harper instead of her useless mother,” she declared a bit too forcefully.
“You? You killed her mother?”
The mage felt him tightening his grip on her even more, but her smiled only broadened in response. “She wouldn’t cooperate. I lost my patience.”
“You’re one sick woman!” Alex spat.
Mira writhed in his grasp when he tightened his grip once again. She stifled a sob when she felt his nails digging through her flesh.
He leaned closer to her face as he held onto her. “There’s no way I’m mated to a murderer.”
She tried to pull back and snap the portal close, but his grasp remained painfully tight on both her throat and wrist.
“Harper’s mother didn’t deserve to die. You have no idea how much pain you have caused her,” he growled. “You don’t deserve to live.”
With her power and strength draining off her, Mira whispered, “Now.”
Alex’s brows met, but his confusion was soon answered when, from out of nowhere, several wolves jumped out of the hedges. He spun around and held Mira in place with a tight grip around her nape. When he saw the wolves, he thought there had to be about twenty of them.
Lord Aleister was standing in the middle of the pack.
“Alexander, let go of your mate and put this on, please,” Lord Aleister threw him a shirt and a pair of pants that landed before his bare feet. He tried so hard to look calm and collected, but the way his lips were drawn, thin and pressed had told Alex he was far from being calm.
“This woman a murderer,” he announced instead.
“Come on now. You can’t seriously hurt your mate for some human, can you?”
All of a sudden, everything went unexpectedly still.
“She can’t be my mate,” Alex stated a matter-of-factly. “And if she is, I am rejecting her.”
Suddenly, Mira’s mind went into shock when Alex’s eyes glowed, and his teeth grew sharp. Without any warning, his mouth sprung for her neck from the back. The mage screamed in pain as he bit down on her hard, almost crushing some bones.
“Alexander! Stop!” Lord Aleister yelled.
Mira clenched her eyes shut and waited for Alex to stop.
But Alex didn’t. At least not until he noticed the gateway to Moorland slowly shutting down. Without giving it much thought, and with one swift motion, he let go and flung Mira’s body onto Lord Aleister to buy him a few seconds to pick up the shirt and the pair of pants from the ground before jumping into the portal.
In the sudden absences of Mira’s consciousness, the doorway shut down in an instant, leaving everyone off guard.
Veins throbbing and nostrils flaring, Lord Aleister glared at the scarlet glint in the air. “Fuck!”