Chapter 150: Father Alive

Maddie Pov

I took a deep breath of the thick smoke. It made my chest feel tight and hot. I jumped through the orange flames.

The heat hit my skin hard. It was so hot that I felt my clothes start to singe. I felt the hair on my arms burn off and the smell of it was very bad. I hit the hot floorboards on the other side of the flames and I went rolling. I coughed hard and I spit some black soot onto the floorboards. My knees were scraped and they were bleeding. My shirt was torn at the shoulder and my skin felt like it was starting to blister from the heat, but I did not stop. I pushed myself up and I looked through the thick grey smoke.

Calix was lying there. The main oak beam of the roof was sitting right across his lower back. It was black with soot and it was very hot and heavy. He was flat against the floorboards and his hands were flat too. He did not look at me. His head was down and his eyes were closed.

"Calix," I said and I ran toward him.

But I stopped before I could reach his side. Someone was standing in the smoke next to him.

He was wearing a long dark coat that did not have any ash or dirt on it. He looked clean and his face was very still. He had his hands in his pockets. He did not look like he had been in the war room. He looked down at Calix like my father used to look at a broken wagon wheel.

It was Alpha Hawthorne.

I felt a cold numbness start at my toes and move up to my chest. He was supposed to be dead. But he was standing here and he did not have a single scratch on him.

"You are alive," I said and I stood up straight.

"I faked my death," Hawthorne said and he adjusted his grip on the grey stone.

"But you are dead. How are you possibly here?"

"Simone is a fool. She thought she was the one playing the game."

"You let her take the other stone."

"I wanted her to take it. She drew you out. She brought the white wolf back to my house. That was all I needed to happen."

"Why?"

"Because the power belongs to the Alpha."

"I am not going to let you do this."

"You cannot stop me, Maddie."

I looked at Calix under the beam. I did not want to talk to him anymore. I dropped to my knees beside Calix and I grabbed his arms. I pulled with everything I had left in my legs. My arms and back hurt very much and the skin on my palms started to burn and peel from the heat of the oak wood, but the beam did not move. It was too heavy for a human.

"Help me," I said and I looked up at Hawthorne.

"He is weak, Maddie. He let a foolosh female like you ruin the pack. He let you turn him against his own blood."

"He is your son."

"The strength is in the blood. And I am going to take it back," he said and he raised the grey stone.

The white light inside the grey stone got very bright. I felt the pressure in the room change. It was not cold like the purple stone. It was hot. It felt like my blood was starting to boil inside my veins. I let go of Calix's arms and I covered my ears because my head started to ache from the pressure.

Calix groaned under the beam. His body started to shake. He opened his eyes and I saw the gold color fade away fast. The blackness came back. It was a solid, deep black that filled his eyes until there was no white left in them. He looked at me but his face was completely empty.

"Calix, please," I said.

"He does not hear you. He belongs to the stone now."

I felt the anger rise up in my chest. Gory was screaming in my brain and I did not try to push her back. I needed the white wolf's speed and I needed the red wolf's anger to fight him. I let the shift happen fast. My bones popped into place and the fur grew out of my skin. It was white but it had those deep red streaks through it.

I lunged at Hawthorne.

I was fast. I was a blur of red and white light. I aimed for his throat with my jaws open.

But Hawthorne was stronger than I expected. He did not even shift into his wolf form. He just raised his left arm and caught me by the neck in mid-air. His grip was very cold and very strong. He lifted my entire wolf form off the ground with one hand. I thrashed and tried to scratch his arm, but his coat was thick and he did not even flinch.

"You are weak too," Hawthorne said.

He swung his arm and slammed me sideways against the burning wall.

The impact was very loud. My ribs rattled and I felt something crack in my side. The heat of the burning wood hit my back and my fur started to smell like it was on fire. I fell to the floorboards hard. The pain was too much and I shifted back to my human form. I lay on the floor and I coughed up some dark blood.

Hawthorne walked over and stood over me. He did not have a single hair out of place.

"You have a choice, Maddie," Hawthorne said and he raised the grey stone toward my face.

I felt the heat from the stone push against my head. It made my vision turn dark at the edges. My legs would not move and I was shaking from the pain in my side.

"You will obey or die."

"The pack is losing," I whispered and I spit some blood on the floorboards.

"They are weak without a real Alpha. They need someone who does not hesitate. And they will have one."

"Now, get up."

I tried to push myself up but my side hurt too much.