Chapter 189
Blake’s POV
I swear that Graham is the biggest piece of shit that I have ever met in my life. Completely despicable, and now that he could use his arms again, I know that he had probably planned on using that knife they found on him. He would have used it on any one of us in an effort to try to escape. My anger comes back to the forefront and I cannot wait to get this whole thing over with right now. I need to be able to sit down and speak with my beautiful new mate, and I can hardly wait to hold her in my arms when we go to sleep tonight if she is willing to have me. That spurs me on to get this over and done with Graham.
Graham continues to sit on the ground, with anger on his face, while he is completely healed. “Graham, get up, you know that you cannot stop this. I will kill you on the ground if I need to. Don’t you want to fight me? You sure spent a lot of time telling me how much better than you are than me for a year as you abused me. So what’s the deal now? Get your ass up and fight, or I can just end you on the ground, but you won't even get a punch in on me if that happens” I told him. He is a stubborn wolf, and he just stayed in place, with Brandon and Justin each having to grab an arm and help him up.
“I don’t want to fight you, Blake. You are stronger than me, and it isn’t a fair fight. I refuse to do it, for the fact that you have an unfair advantage against me” Graham announced and Cole started laughing at what he had the nerve to say.
“You were losing against me too, Graham. We are the same age, so what was your excuse then, your lack of training? You stabbed me to end our fight because you couldn’t beat me. You are not interested in a fair fight, you never have been. You like to fight dirty, to try to give yourself the best opportunity to win. Since you don’t have any more hidden weapons, you refuse to fight which is hilarious to me. That is typical behavior for you, but you have reached the end of your era now. You could have been training this whole time, as only you knew when the attack was going to be, but yet you didn’t. You still depend on others to protect you. That is not Alpha mentality, and you know it. As an Alpha, you should protect those weaker than you. We both know that is not anything that you have ever done, or wanted to do. You may be Alpha born, but you have never been Alpha material. Your first mate, the warrior you didn't want, would have helped to make you better. A better wolf, a better man, and a better Alpha to your people, but you didn’t think she was “good” enough for you. You are the "great" Alpha, and she was not worthy of you. But the Goddess thought she was, and look at her now, she really was. She is Luna of a very strong and well-defended pack because she used what she knew to help train them all to help them be the best they could be. She made her second chance mate so much stronger, and her input is invaluable to him. Your thinking that you know more than the Goddess herself, is your downfall. You don’t, as the Goddess makes her decisions based on both of her children. She lets them work together to be stronger, and one takes up when the other is weaker. She always knows more than we do, and that is why we all need to listen to her when she speaks to us. You are so conceited to think that your opinion is so much more valuable than anyone else’s, let alone the Goddesses. The lack of humility or care that you have for anyone around you is the worst part of it. You are a disgusting person, Graham, and I know that when the Goddess gets you back, she will be dealing with you herself, and harshly. I hope she has mercy on your wolf, but you sir are in for a world of hurt for your actions” Cole told Graham.
Graham was pissed at the truths being handed to him, and said, “Fine, I will fight. You all clearly want me dead. He is younger and stronger than me, so how about since I was hurt, why don’t you let Cheryl fight me instead? I was injured, and I am barely able to fight right now. I can still feel where the bullets went through my arms. I am not at full strength, so I shouldn’t have to fight Blake. I would need to be at full strength to do that. Plus, she is younger than me, so our strength should be even with each other” Graham said, and I know that he is lying.
“Graham, you just shot me, I am not at 100 percent either. You almost killed me tonight, and my wound was much more serious than yours was. You cannot be serious that you want to fight a woman, as your last act? Are you serious about that? I don’t think I can support your thought process. Sorry, you will be fighting me. She just gave birth, how could you even think that it would be OK? I see that you will continue to be despicable to the very end there, won’t you Graham” I said to him. I didn’t even look back at Cheryl because Graham’s suggestion was just completely ridiculous. There was no way that I was going to let this asshole hurt her again, I just couldn’t allow it. I knew what he was planning this whole time, if he can’t kill anyone else, he would kill her to hurt me, Anton, and our children. He is a horrible person, and he would do it just to claim that he did it for Cassandra. I would have never thought that he would stoop so low, yet here we are. I forgot who I was dealing with for a moment, but this is a new low, even for him.
I feel a hand on my arm and Cheryl is standing there with a small smile on her face, as she looks at Graham. She stops me from saying anything more as she said, “I accept. I will fight you, Graham, to the death. Just remember that this was your idea.”
“Cheryl, I have got this. It is fine, I am healed from the gunshot. I can end this. I don’t want this piece of shit to ever hurt you again. What I did to you I can never fix, please just let me do this for you” I told her. I see her smile widen and then she looked up at me. Her eyes have changed, they are no longer blue, they are now the same color as my new mate's eyes, an amber-yellow color. Cheryl has become a vampire, and I am stunned into silence. It is dark, and I know that Graham will not be able to see her eyes until she gets very close to him. He thinks that this will be easy, but I saw the vampires fight at Aaron's pack, they are strong, very strong. They are much faster than we are. Anton stepped up next to her, and he gave me a nod. I know that he would never put her in any danger. He knows that she has this, and he was letting me know that she is OK without speaking. I will let her deal with him then, she was the one that was actually hurt the most, in my opinion.
“OK, Graham. You got your wish. You will be fighting Cheryl, instead of me. This was your last request, and we will honor it” I told him. The smirk that crossed his face let us all know that he thought we were stupid for even allowing her to fight with him. He always thinks that he is the smartest person in the room, no matter who is in it. He is shameful with how he looks down on others, especially women. I am glad that he is about to learn a hard lesson, right before he dies. Cheryl is not the same person that she was, even with just giving birth recently I am 100 percent positive that she is smarter, stronger, and faster than Graham is. Cheryl was a strong fighter back at our pack, but she couldn’t beat the ranked wolves. Graham thinks that he has the upper hand now, without knowing that the last choice he made, will end up killing him. I cannot wait to see how this all plays out now, that I get to watch the show, instead of being in it.
My mate is under my arm and pressed into my side. She said, “Do not worry. She has trained, and she will toy with him first to pay him back for all her did to her. She will allow him to get a few hits in, but it is all an act. When she is through playing with him, she will end him quickly. Do not worry about Cheryl, none of us will allow him to hurt her.” I smiled down at her and we stepped back to get into the circle that had formed and grown to create a 60-foot-wide area for them to fight in. Anton gives her a kiss and Robert and Kevin both come up to hug and kiss her too. Neither of the boys seem to be concerned about the fight and I was proud that they came to stand between me and Anton to watch the fight. Kevin has not voluntarily stood near me for a long time, not since he was trying to win my affection back years ago at Black Moon.
I don’t know what has changed lately, but I am thankful that Kevin was currently standing next to me. I am aware that he could be on the other side of the circle, or on the other side of Anton. It is a win and I will take it, I make sure I don’t push too hard by trying to hug him. But I couldn’t stop myself from smiling at the thought that he might forgive me for my actions. He probably heard what I said to Graham as neither of us was speaking in a low tone earlier. Maybe this is the first step for him in finally being willing to accept a relationship with me again. I can only hope that our relationship will improve as I do want him to take over my pack if he is willing to do it.
“Well, what are you waiting for Graham? I am standing right here, we are all just waiting on you. Isn’t this your dream come true? You wanted me to wither away and die, and yet I managed to escape your plans, Kevin did too. Seems like even with your best-laid plans something ends up going wrong in the end, doesn't it? I bet that was the Goddess working against you too. She is not proud of what you have been doing Graham. I wonder if she will help you fight against me? I am guessing that she won't, but feel free to try to prove me wrong. I am sure you just can’t pass this up now, you wanted to fight me. I know you can’t wait to get your hands on me, so stop dragging your feet and come on with it. I will need to feed the babies soon” Cheryl taunted him.
It did make him look bad, as she just gave birth and he still insisted on fighting her. He was clearly scared of me, but I know for a fact that he is going to be really sorry for picking Cheryl over me. I saw the vampires fighting at Aaron’s pack, and even on camera it was hard to watch as they were ruthless. I am sure before it is done he will realize his mistake. Graham didn’t like what she said and moved forward toward Cheryl. Her words spurred him on.
“I did want you to die, Cheryl, I only wish you had before you took my precious Cassandra away from me. If I knew then what I know now, you would have. I swear that I would have made sure to push you so much harder, and got Blake those drugs faster. I knew you were on your last legs. I know that you would not have made it a week more, I just ran out of time. But that is fine, I will end you now. Even if I get killed after the fact, I will still die happy, because I avenged Cassandra’s death. You don’t deserve to live any longer, let alone be happy. I wish I had taken your mate away when I had the chance. I should have shot the rogue he was fighting and then took him out. Hindsight is always so much better, and I wish I had not hesitated on taking that shot. Your fighting would be even weaker against me from losing your new mate” Graham told her. He is trying to upset her to get her to attack first so he can see her fighting style. She started training here, and they do much more here than we ever did at Black Moon.
They are circling each other looking for a weak spot to make the first move. Graham thinks he found one and moves in to punch Cheryl in the stomach, and she does a low tumble and goes under his arm, springing right back up again behind him, and punches him in the kidney. I have been punched there, and it hurts pretty badly. Graham grunts from the blow, and probably for looking bad by swinging at an opponent that managed to elude him. He growls in anger at her, turning around and coming right back at her quickly. He wants to land a blow and he manages to make a glancing blow on her. It barely caught her on the side, but his punch was a hard one, and I could tell from the sound it made when it landed, that it hurt.
I see Cheryl’s eyes narrow at Graham who was very happy with hurting her, and I growled at him, at the same time Anton did. Graham gave us both a smirk and then got right back into his stance. Cheryl did too, and before he could blink she had kicked him in the side of his head with a spinning round kick. She was very fast, and Graham was dazed by how hard the blow actually was. He took longer to get back into his stance as the hit had shaken him. We don’t train like that at my pack, and he didn’t know what she was doing, or how to counter it. I warned Graham when I tried to talk him out of coming here to fight, but he refused to listen to me. He wanted to do this, so he can go ahead and finish it. Graham got back into position again and tried to hit her in the ribs with his next punch. If he landed it, I know it would have broken at least 2 of her ribs. But she just did a graceful flip and was out of his reach. This must be the toying that my mate mentioned. Graham was super pissed not just missing her with his punch, but because it seemed like she was not scared of him at all. He really takes offense at the lack of respect that she is giving him, He just keeps getting more frustrated each time he tries to hit her, and misses. She seems like she can do this all night, and every other time, she manages to hit him. Graham is getting more and more frustrated as the fight goes on.
The fact that she was almost using gymnastic moves to stay just out of his reach was infuriating him. He was now super angry and it was clear that between them that she had the upper hand. She was not taking it seriously at all, and that ended up embarrassing Graham a lot. He kept striking at her and, she kept dodging, and then hitting him. All of her punches were landing now, and his punches weren’t. We could all see that, and for him, it was completely unacceptable. His growls got louder and louder as he kept trying to hit her, with no success. “Stop moving around so much” Graham yelled at Cheryl.
“What, you want me to just stand there and get hit? Is that right, Graham? I don’t think that is how fighting works, is it? It seems like you are unhappy with how this is going. Maybe you need to focus more, I guess I might have kicked you in the head too hard at the start of the fight. Maybe I will be nice and let you land one,” Cheryl mocked him and stood still like she was actually going to let him rush her. Graham did run at her, and she waited until the last second and then took one step to her right. Graham was shocked at how fast she moved and his growl of frustration tore through the night. She is really making him angry, and I know if he does get his hands on her, he will kill her. She has shamed him in front of other Alphas and that is not something that is taken lightly. She has been toying with him over and over again for ten minutes now, and I am starting to get antsy for her. I know Graham probably better than anyone here, except Cole. I am very worried that he is going to finally get his hands on her, and when he does, he is going to hurt her.
Graham turns to face her again, and I can see the raw fury on his face. It is actually very intimidating, and I do not think that I have even seen him this mad before. I wanted to step in and tap her out because I was scared of what Graham might do to her. When I did take a step forward, Kevin put his arm in front of me to stop me. “No, Dad, she needs this. She has it, don’t worry. She will end him soon,” Kevin said and kept his gaze trained on them both. The rush of emotions that I got from him calling me dad, whether intentional or not, lifted my spirits. He knew as he trained with her, and he knew what skill level she had. I was able to relax and look forward to seeing what Cheryl was going to do next.
Graham shifted into his wolf, Duko, and he was intimidating standing there before he lifted his head to howl out his warning to her. Cheryl just stood there and smiled at him, and was not phased by the threat looming over her. The group stepped back making the circle grow as we knew that he was going to charge her, and he did. Duko's jaws were snapping in anger as he came charging at Cheryl wanting to get his teeth on any part of her, her legs, her arms, or onto her side. He was ferocious and the way his teeth were snapping at her, he meant business. Whatever piece of her that he managed to get a hold of, it was clear to all of us that he would be ripping said limb off. I can’t help the shift in my stance as I am very concerned for her right now. This is the last act of a desperate wolf, who has clearly been driven past his point of sanity. He is just a vicious, snarling animal that is just operating on instinct right now. Duko finally thinks he has her locked down, and jumped up to land on her to knock her off her feet.
Cheryl seemed to be frozen in place for a minute like she was too scared to move, but I can’t see her face. I don’t know what she is feeling right now, and I am scared for her. My mate grabs a hold of my hand and murmurs to me, “Have faith in Cheryl.” I cannot look away from what I think will be her final moment. At the last possible second, Cheryl slips forward sliding under Duko in a move that he didn’t see coming. I see his head go down to look at her in surprise, as he flew over her. I watched as her arm comes up and her fingernails extend to slice him open on his unprotected underbelly. His howl of pain ripped through the night as he landed heavily and phased back into his human form a few seconds later. He is trying to hold his intestines in as he now looks in fear at the same woman he just wanted to kill a few moments ago.
Cheryl didn’t run up to him, she walked slowly towards him and we all knew from the look on her face that his end was near. “It is my pleasure to end your reign of evil Graham. You have never done anything nice to anyone in your life. Which is incredibly sad to me, because I am including your own mate and child in that. You lived to try to one-up others, never satisfied with what you have been given. Not your pack, not your mate, not your life. You were the cause of all of this. You started it when you rejected your mate, and took Cassandra from Alpha Cole. You were a shameful excuse for an Alpha, and your pack suffered for it. You blame everyone else for your own failings and I am glad that I will be the last face that you will ever see. What you did to us, was disgusting. The pain that you caused both me, and Kevin, is completely unforgivable. So I will be ending you today, carrying out your death sentence that was passed down by the werewolf council. I hope the Goddess gives your wolf a better human the next time around Graham, because he sure got a bad one this time” Cheryl told him in a low tone.
Cheryl stood over him and didn’t wait to hear the response that he was going to give. It would have just been more of the same crap he spewed anyway. I was stunned to see her kneel down next to Graham on the ground. As I stood there stunned in surprise, I watched her pull Graham’s head right off his shoulders as she rose up from her kneeling position. Cheryl just dropped his head on the ground, letting it roll back towards his body, and walked over to Anton. It was now finished, but I am shocked by how easy she made that look. Everyone gave her a little while with Anton before they congratulated her on the fight. She didn’t even look winded like it was nothing at all to her what just happened. I looked back over at his body, and I am glad his life is over. I just wished that he had not gotten away with all that he had. I wish he had a longer time for his punishment to be carried out. He got away from being imprisoned already when I had him locked up. I had to agree that it was best that he was just taken care of now. It is over and done with and we will never have to worry about him coming back to hurt any of us again. The Goddess would be dealing with him now. I have a feeling that she will make sure to get her disappointment in him, and his actions, across to him when she does deal with him. The warriors load Graham's body onto the trailer with the rest of the rogues they were picking up and take his body to be burned along with them. A fitting end for a man who spent his life hurting others for his own whims, because there was never any reason for what he did. There was no talking from the group as we headed toward the packhouse, this has been a very long night, and we are all exhausted.