Chapter Fifty

F L O R E N C E

My body reacts before my brain processes it. I grab one of the broken drawers lying around and use it to block myself.

Alpha Isaac’s teeth impale the wood, and to my surprise, sink through it. I can still feel his breath on me, and I know right now he has the power to break this wooden plank and get to me if he wants to.

My heart starts to race harder. I let go of the drawer, running to the side and desperately trying to think of an attack. But the panic and the fear and the shock of facing such a monstrous hybrid are just contributing to the deafening blankness in my head. I don’t know how to get myself out of this situation.

As though reading my mind, Alpha Isaac cackles. “That’s right, girl. You can’t outsmart me. You can’t beat me. Right now I am more than what Alpha Magnus ever was. You can say that I have evolved. Unlike him, I am... invincible.”

I slowly move to the side, avoiding the section of the room that’s been torn open so he will not have a chance to push me off. I keep my eyes on him as I move, and that’s when I notice that he doesn’t seem to follow me when he’s talking.

Swallowing hard and hoping he will take the bait, I inch towards the bed, noting its metal frame while I keep my eyes on him and say, “And what do you stand to gain? The whole state? Do you think anyone will accept your authority after this?”

“They will have no choice,” he whispers. “Like your dear Niccolo has no choice. Do you know where he is now? Do you know that he’s safe?”

My heart sinks. “What did you do?”

Alpha Isaac laughs, the black veins on his neck sticking out. “That’s for you to find out really, really soon.”

Without warning, he lunges at me.

This time, I’m ready.

From my crouching position, I grab the bedframe and angle the sharp edges towards him as I flip it midair. He barely moves away in time, and his sluggishness makes him lose his balance. He falls on his side, struggling to get up, and I see that as my opportunity. I use my speed to zip right toward him, driving my knee up his abdomen and elbowing his face.

He groans in pain, coughing loudly, so I pick him up by the neck and slam him right on the wall.

“What did you do to Niccolo?” I demand, and even I get chills from the pure rage in my voice. I tighten my hand instinctively, watching his face go red. “Tell me now or I swear I’m going to squeeze your neck so hard your head will come off.”

“I don’t know,” he says innocently, and I squeeze just a little harder. “You can kill me, but you will never know.”

That makes me snap. Hard. I can actually see red in my vision. I want to break his neck right this instant, but at the same time I want the process to be slow— so I tighten my hand little by little, watching his reaction.

To my surprise, he just starts to laugh.

In a move I didn’t anticipate, he slaps my hand off and grabs my neck. I use his momentum to spin around and slam him on the ground, but that doesn’t ease his hold around my throat. If anything, the slight movement only tightens it, making me gasp.

We wrestle on the ground, and I use most of my energy to grasp his hands and get him away from my body. However, I’m soon under him. His weight and his pressure on my neck makes me weak and almost paralyzed. After a while, my vision starts to blur, my struggles getting weaker and weaker.

Alpha Isaac sees the opportunity and drives his thumb right in the middle of my neck. I close my eyes, waiting for the pain and the end—

Slam!

The pain doesn’t come. I feel the pressure of his hand and his body getting lifted off of me. Slowly, afraid of what’s happening, I open my eyes.

My heart stops.

Niccolo is standing before me, holding Alpha Isaac by the collar. But Alpha Isaac just turns around, elbows him, and extends his claws as if to cut Niccolo right through the chest.

Niccolo is here. He’s alive. Alpha Isaac was lying.

But he’s also about to fulfill all his lines of deceit by ending Niccolo right then and there, before my very eyes, after I worried so much about saving him. I can’t just lie here while all of that happens.

As quickly as I can, I get to my feet and intercept Alpha Isaac before his claws can come remotely close to Niccolo. I pull him out of the way, flinging him to the side where he cannot be touched, then I turn to Alpha Isaac and try to ram into him.

He steps back just in time and avoids my blow.

That simple motion alone makes me realize how fast he can go. He ends up pressing himself against the wall, smiling at Niccolo and me. Niccolo positions himself in front of me, determined to put me away from harm as much as possible.

This time, Isaac doesn’t seem all that interested in stabbing or wounding us. He’s just observing us from his spot, that smug expression prominent and his growing smile chilling. My skin gets covered in goosebumps.

“I suppose I should be proud of you, Niccolo,” he suddenly says, his voice a soft croon, the tone someone might use to refer to someone they are especially fond of. “After all, you were my idea.”

With that, he winks and chuckles as though someone just cracked a good joke.

Shock reverberates in my body, strong and pronounced. I glance at Niccolo to see his reaction and to gauge if the information that’s just been given to me is accurate. To my surprise, tears are brimming in his eyes.

“Shut up,” he says in a low voice, his hands balling into fists. I notice that there’s dried blood all over his hands, and some on his shirt and his pants. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Of course Alpha Isaac doesn’t heed any of this. “How is the Ombra Nera? Still the same? Still how I left it?” When Niccolo spits at him, he just laughs. “You’re very much like Margaret. She hated me too, but I still managed to get her to bed and have a child with her, and it’s good to see that you have grown into a good young man.”

“Stop!” This time I’m the one who’s saying it. “Just fight, you fucking coward!”

He’s sneering again. “Don’t talk to your father in law like that.”

No. No, that has to be a lie. I keep thinking about this to myself but the more time passes the more it makes sense.

Alpha Isaac is not a copycat of that tyrant Alpha...

Niccolo freezes on his spot, staring into the distance.

Alpha Isaac smiles at him, tilting his head as though to look at him kindly. “Why do you think I know so much about all of this? Why do you think Alpha Magnus had no body to bury?” he asks sweetly. “Why do you think I cannot go back to that cursed pack on my own? Niccolo, you’re not cursed because you slayed your own father. You’re cursed because you didn’t do the job well enough. I didn’t die that night. I survived and changed myself, repackaged myself for the next pack to conquer, to make the next child who could continue what I started. But Vera is not like Margaret, she had nothing special.” Alpha Isaac steps forward. “I am Alpha Magnus and you, Niccolo, are my son.”