Chapter 168

Chapter 168
Allie: 

The twing snapping behind us, and my body went up in goosebumps. All those nights trapped in this moment, and when I turned, there he was. Crawling from my mind into the real world. 

Denver. 

The monster who has wanted all humans dead. Or enslaved. The man whose plans I greatly foiled. The vicious beast that the coven had unleashed to do their dirty work. 

Green shoved me behind his back as he always did. I couldn’t see anything, but I could tell you exactly what was happening, just as I had seen dozens of times before. Denver stepped out of the shadows and into the clearing. We had walked so far away from any other wolves that they wouldn’t get to us in time. 

“Well, well. I must admit you're not the trembling pup I remember,” He appraised green eyes wide in admiration. 

I was pulled tightly against Green's back, his heart hammering in his chest, a fist buried in my shirt keeping me to him, keeping me alive. I couldn’t tell if I was dreaming or not, the only difference was that I could hear the words the monster spoke. 

“It is so good to finally see you two in the flesh. I feel as if we’re old friends at this point. So long have we been bound together by that pretty little witch of yours, boy,” 

To his credit, Green didn't utter a response. The muscles in his back were a tense net of knots ready to grab Denver when he would inevitably lunge forward. 

“Oh, now now, Green, don't be that way, you bulked up and became a fighter, I expect to see some action out of you, especially if you think you'll save your little weapon. Allison, I do hope he's been treating you all right. Wolves can be such voracious lovers, and you humans burn out so quickly,” he addressed me with such callousness in his voice, and I gripped onto Green's shirt so as not to let him lunge forward. 

I could feel across our bond the feral urge inside of him to rip off Denver's face, but if he did that, he was playing to his hand. I took one of my hands off of him, grabbing for the daggers at my side. 

“Smart girl. Silver,” he sniffed the air as if it were a potent drug of his choice. 

He stepped forward, his hands up and ready. “You may have prepared for this boy, but so have I. And I am not the bootlicker you and your father are- or oh yes, that's changed now that you have a woman to lie with. How one good fuck can really spell a man is so foolish,” 

He was doing his best to get underneath Green's skin gr. If Geen were angry, he would be unfocused. He played with his enemies, breaking them apart mentally, but Green knew this, and when he watched Denver now, it seemed so childish to him. 

“Schoolyard taunts do work on me,” Green smirked. 

A snarl flickered across Denver's mouth for a moment, anger sizzling in his eyes. “You think I don't know you've debased yourself for the sadonistic powers of a human siphoning off your bond. It's an abomination! A lie! No goddess of ours would taint our might with human mates! She's a witch! A demon! A harpy!” he shrieked as if I was burning him with my mere existence. 

“She's going to get you killed,” Green in turn goaded Denver. 

A widening to Denvers eyes at the notion someone was trying to play his game and a sharp suck of air before a laugh. “As if she had the ability to touch someone with true sight,” he snickered and stuck his tongue out of his mouth. 

I blinked. He truly did seem like a child the way he spoke, which was all the more unnerving as if a part of him never grew right and was now misshapen and deformed in a viscous way. 

He circled around us, getting ever so slightly closer. “I heard you have that welp's pup and wife here. You know, I'll do after I break your little witch's neck, I'll go into that pack house and make her watch as I kill her son too,” he changed tactics, clearly getting nowhere with harassing me. 

Green loved his friends, and I know the thought of Emmett getting hurt made him want to snap, but still, he stayed calm. 

“I'll give you credit boy, your patience outlasts mine but no amount of meditation and self-control will help you survive this,” he tried to place a seed of doubt in Green. I couldn't tell you if it worked or not, but what I did remember was the vow he made me. 

I.Will. Not. Die. 

I remember the way his heartbeat was steady as he said that, calm and sure, as if he knew then the outcome of this day. This day that had haunted us for so long. This monster that had been the centerpeice of all of our worries cause of all of our troubles, and now here he was circling us for the final time. I could barely catch glimpses of him, but I wanted to see it for myself. I wanted to be sure that this was true. That I wasn’t just trapped in another dream of mine.

I couldn't stop myself. My curiosity getting the better of me, glancing out beyond Green, I saw him standing there, the untamed, crazy hair of weeks on the road. The stubble on his face was scraggly, but he wasn’t the broken-down man that I saw in my dreams from the Florida coast. No, he was a sharper, leaner version, more fit, ready to fight. 

Seeing me edge forward, must’ve been enough temptation for him because all desire to try and provoke Green to come at him first went out the window. 

I was quickly shoved back before he even moved a step, hurled away into the forest floor. My mind was spinning for a moment, but I knew by heart the steps that were taking place at this moment. 

Green would dodge his first advance and get two strikes to either side of Denver's stomach. I scooted back against the tree, seeing Denver grit his teeth and absorb the blows, all these little details that I had missed before. They all played out before me with haunting reality. I will never see them again, and I couldn’t do anything to warn Green, there weren't enough seconds between the blows to help him. He knew what was coming next, taking the necessary one to two steps back. I grabbed my knives, ready for Denver to charge me. 

Green turned and landed on the side of Denver, punching once, then twice. Denver shoved him hard away, realizing that I had seen the fight long before he had ever decided to come here. 

“DEMONIC BITCH!” He grolwed, charging for me before leaping up as if moving in slow motion, his yellow and brown claws extended out, ready to slash my throat to ribbons.