Chapter 77

Chapter 77
Ryker POV



"Get our boys back!" Reika said through the link as I raced toward the packhouse. I repeatedly tried to command her through the bond and the mind link, but nothing worked as I felt her grow weaker. My lungs scorched as I tried to get to her. So close. Yet the distance felt impossible when she suddenly stopped talking, falling silent in my head.


"Reika!" I called through the link as I ran for the packhouse. Brax pushed us as hard as we could go when he hit the dirt, and a tortured groan left him. My body felt like it was engulfed in flames. Brax writhed in agony as he tried to take her pain when it suddenly stopped.


We were five hundred meters from the packhouse when I was forced to shift back, and I found myself lying in the dirt. Brax suddenly went as silent as Reika, and the bond felt numb.


The mate bond went quiet as I broke through the treeline surrounding the property. My legs almost gave way when I saw the house, and crushing pain shredded throughout my chest, making me clutch it.


I tripped over the wire fence as I forced my legs to move, my claws slashing through the wire to free me.


So much noise filled the air as pack members tossed buckets of water on the house, giving out orders to one another. Yet all I saw was flames, the roof had collapsed, and the front door was no longer accessible.


"Reika!" I screamed and half broke down as I neared the house. I caught a glimpse of Tyson and Ace but couldn't see Lucy as I raced forward when I was hit from the side. Arms wrapped around my waist as I hit the dirt, and his weight crushed me to the ground.


"You can't go in there!" Tyson snarled at me, trying to pin me down.


"She can't be saved. She is gone, brother," he gasped, and I roared. Tossing him off me, Ace suddenly appeared in his place along with some warriors, and my claws slipped out, slashing and attacking anyone that got in my way.


"She is there. Let me through!" I bellowed the command, and they hit the dirt as my rage-filled aura battered them down. Ace fought against it, and so did Tyson as they both charged at me.


I swung blindly at them, and my fist connected with Ace's face, and he went sprawling on the ground when Brax shoved forward, lending me his strength before we tore into Tyrant, Tyson's wolf who tried to block us from getting to her.


I suddenly choked, clawing at my throat as I gasped for air, and my eyes flitted to the house. Brax took over, and I let him have control. Driven on instinct, he searched for the pull to her, letting it lead him to Rayan's bedroom window, yet it was too high for us to jump as the roof had now collapsed in, and Brax whimpered. My eyes moved to a huge hole in the side of the house where the kitchen used to be.


A moment later, I ripped at the hands that tried to hold us back from stepping into my burning home before my foot connected with Tyson's midsection and knocked him down, but I didn't wait to check on him. Instead, covering my mouth and nose with my hand, not that it did much, I stepped inside what used to be the kitchen, the bare frame of the house still standing thanks to the sandstone brick exterior.


Brax tore through the place just as the second floor started collapsing. The roof above crushed half the area and my skin burned and blistered as the flames blew over me.


Brax tried to heal us as quickly as possible when we came to what remained of the foyer; the fireplace running up the center of the house was the only thing holding the roof up where we stood.


However, the roof had collapsed on the stairs, and the scorched brickwork of the structure was barely holding together.


"Reika?" I called out before choking on the hazardous fumes. My eyes darted around, trying to find a way to the next floor. Water running over the landing above and spilling on the floor around me made me look up, and the banister directly above still held firm. Regardless, the walls were covered in flames above.


"She is up there. She isn't dead. She is alive barely," Brax growled. The vibration of the bond barely existed. Still, it was there.


The living room suddenly caved in, sending flames and dust all over me, and I groaned as pain flared across my back, face, and left arm.


"There," I told Brax at the crushed stairs, the tiled roof crushing the ground.


"We will be burned alive," he growled, yet I could feel his determination.


"Now!" I roared at him, not giving a damn. It was the only way up to the banister; we just had to endure it. The collapsed roof made the place a raging inferno as the air fueled the fire. Chunks of concrete fell from the floor above as the house crumbled around us, trapping us in its fiery confines. The only way out now was up.


Gritting my teeth, I ran up what used to be the staircase, the tiles like hot coals under my feet. But adrenaline forced me forward, and we pivoted at the last second and jumped across.


My fingers only just managed to catch the banister above, and a mangled scream left me as my hands locked around it. The metal was glowing red, and I felt the skin of my hands stick and melt to it as I forced myself up. The putrid smell of flesh burning filled my nose.


The inside of my thigh melted to the metal as I swung my leg over, and my skin pulled away as I pulled away from it. The ground was soaking wet but turning to steam and boiling hot as the flames licked at the walls around us.


Dropping to our hands and knees, we tried to remain under the smoke, the toxic fumes making us delirious as we made our way to where the bathroom was, feeling the pull in that direction. The tiles were hot under our hands. The double sinks and the overflowing bath spilled onto the floor.


The ground felt unstable as we tried to make our way to her. The wall shared with Rayan's room was busted through, a hole barely big enough to squeeze through, the broken tiles covered in blood, and the mirror shattered on the floor around the sink basin.


The water poured out, yet the pipes had heated, making the water boil as it streamed out.


"She is in the tub," Brax choked as I clutched the side and pulled myself up.


Gazing into the blood-filled water was Reika, her skin blistered, bright red, and she was not breathing. She boiled herself alive. Diving my hands into the bathtub, I ripped her out of the bubbling water.


It was that hot I groaned and fought the urge to pull my arms out. We pulled Reika out, water sloshing over the sides of the tub, and my back melted against the clawfoot tub as I leaned against it.


Moving her to the floor, I placed my hands on her chest and started compressions. We grew weaker, the smoke becoming too much, and not even Brax could heal us fast enough. I punched the center of her chest with one last breath before collapsing over her body.


My body tingled as life started to leave me when I felt her heave a breath from under me.


Her body convulsed, and she rolled underneath me. "You fool!" she gasped and sputtered before collapsing.


"Get out!" Brax ordered, the words slurred, but the command was our final one as he forced what little strength we had left into forcing our aura over her. I welcomed death with open arms, unable to move as the fumes ravaged my lungs, praying some miracle could get her out. I couldn't live without her, but please let her live without me. My kids could live without a father, but they needed her; she needed to live for them.


"Nothing like a barbeque. However, a cooked wolf isn't a delicacy I want to try. Your ass would be tough like jerky," came a voice.


My mind was unclear about whose voice it was, yet the smell of burned almonds could be tasted on my tongue when I wheezed out my last breath. The smell and taste were somehow oddly familiar to me.