Chapter 25 Chapter 25
Orin's POV
I saw lilith throw past Rhea, her hands lit up with that dark crimson energy and something inside me clicked.
Not anger at Lilith. Not the jealousy of Theron lying there dying. But a sudden, overwhelming clarity.
I had spent my life taking orders; I was used to it. Creating an empire full of conquest and cruelty because that is what the prince was supposed to do. Being the lovable manwhore was a great deflection, it kept people from probing too deeply.
But seeing Rhea, my mate even if I hadn’t accepted her yet, being treated like she was an inconvenience while her other mate lay in a river somewhere dying had struck something primal inside me.
"Kieran," I muttered, keeping my voice as hushed as possible while still being able to be heard.
My brother was next to me, his cold blue staring eyes watching the action. But I knew him better than everyone. I could see that mental math playing out behind the mask.
“We have to make a decision,” I went on. "Right now."
Kieran's gaze swept the battlefield. Our uncle, propping up Alaric in that treachery. The Lycan dying from poison. Rhea desperate and afraid. Cassian lifting himself up from the spot where Lilith had tossed him, wrath pouring out of every inch of his body.
"I know," Kieran said quietly.
And for the first time in years, I saw bona fide emotion break through his carefully preserved facade. Not anger or calculation. Fear.
Not for us. For her.
We acted at once, moving up beside him to form a barrier between our uncle and the others surrounding Theron.
"Uncle," I said, striving to maintain an even tone though anger tightened in my chest. "Stand down."
The face of Lord Darius was livid with rage. "You dare defy me? After all I’ve done for you? The power I've given you?"
“Power built on betrayal,” Kieran growled, his voice as icy as the grave. “This was to be a contest of honorable combat. You used poison. You've dishonored the Moonvale name."
Darius laughed harshly. "Honor? From the twins that had eight packs of abs down one another’s throat by fear -distilled blood and violence? For a girl, don't grow conscience all of a sudden.”
My wolf flew to the top of my skin, guttural and protective in a way I’d never felt. "That girl is our mate. And we will not let you kill hers.”
The announcement echoed throughout the battlefield. Silence fell.
Our men hesitated, torn between their alpha twins and the former alpha. Others shifted nervously, hands on weapons, to see how this would play out.
Alaric moved forward, his face hard and composed. "This is touching, but irrelevant. Lycan will perish, the girl will return home and balance restored.
I bared my teeth. "Over my dead body."
Alaric grinned — the grin of a man who’d prepared for every single possibility. "That can be arranged."
He made a sign, and the concealed mercenaries rushed on.
Battle erupted once more.
Verse 9 I took my sword, sheathed it, and slew the Philistine. Kieran was at my side, his actions as precise as they were deadly, dispelling all who dared come near the small space in which Rhea and Lilith labored.
"Protect them!" I shouted to our warriors.
Some hesitated. Others obeyed immediately. Within seconds, it was chaos.
"And a mercenary came at me with a silver blade. I leaned back and countered with a strike that decapitated him. Blood sprayed across the dirt.
Another attacked from the side. I wheeled, and my sword met his with a high whine of metal on metal.
Then there was Cassian, his sleepy alpha power now blazing. He seized the merc’s neck and toss him aside with superhuman strength.
We were stuck back to back, fending off wave after wave of enemy.
“For the record,” I bellowed over the clashing bronze and steel, “I still didn’t like you!”
Cassian chuckled, a sound stripped of all his masks and full of darkness. He dropped two mercenaries with ruthless speed, more animal than human in his actions. "The feeling's mutual!"
But we fought together nonetheless, guarding Rhea and the rest.
I saw flashes between killing knocks. Lilith's hands were shining with that dark energy of hers, drawing thick black veins of poison from Theron's chest. Rhea’s silver flames helping out, Patching the injury as quickly as Lilith sucked poison.
It was odd to see them collaborate. Two women who were supposed to be enemies, each bound by ties to the same man.
Kieran met us there, and for a moment, it was like old. The twins dancing perfectly in sync, an unstoppable pair. We’d fought side by side since we could walk, and knew each other’s instincts for what they were.
A mercenary lunged at Kieran. I intercepted the blade in his back, and my sword deflected it at the last moment.
"Thanks," Kieran grunted.
"Always."
We pushed on, pushing the mercenaries back. I actually thought for a second that we might win this.
And then I could feel the blade go in between my ribs.
But I hadn’t seen the one coming from the side, and had been too busy watching my enemy to realize how vulnerable I was. The sword tore through leather and skin to strike something vital.
I landed with a thud, and the breath was knocked from my body.
"Orin!" Kieran's scream was raw, anguished. The shatter of his iron grip breaking.
My vision blurred. I could see him, fighting hard to get to me and killing whoever got in his way.” But we had too many enemies between us.
Hot, sticky blood welled out of the wound. I put my hand over it, attempting to plug the flow. But I could sense my strength ebbing with every pulsation of my heart.
Then Rhea was there.
Her face swam into view above me, her blue eyes scared. “Keep it together,” she ordered clasping her hands to my injury.
The silvery flames that had mended Theron now streamed into me. I gasped at the sensation.
It was lightning and honey. Pain and pleasure. Fire and ice. It was as if every nerve ending lighted up at once.
Our dormant mate bond snapped into place fully.
I saw into Rhea's mind. Felt the power of her resolve, her terror, and her anguish to save me. And under it all, feeling that took your breath away. She cared about me. About all of us.
Even me, the manwhore who thought of women as dispos- able pleasure. She spotted beyond that veneer to something worth redeeming.
And she saw into me. Witnessed the true Orin behind the charm and cockiness.
The man so terrified by attachment, since every person he’d ever cared for had ultimately used it against him. The boy who’d seen his father die and made a vow never to feel that strongly about anything again.
The warrior who had buried his heart under casual cruelty because it was safer than feeling.
Rhea whispered, still moving her hands rapidly. "The real you."
I wanted to tell her to run. To save herself while she could. I was not worth dying for.
But the words wouldn't come.
I did not do so, but reached up with a hand covered in my blood and drew her down. Our lips touched, and I tasted copper and salt, something sweet.
The mate mark was there on my neck, scalding like a brand. Perfect and permanent.
I felt when she was surprised through the bond. Her acceptance. Her determination to save me.
And I sensed the other ties as well. Theron, recovering behind her. Cassian, fighting to protect us. Kieran, my brother, my twin; the other me.
We were all connected now. All tethered by this woman who would not suffer any of us to die.
The healing intensified. I felt the wound start to seal, flesh knitting over again. The hurt subsided and a warmth took its place.
“You’re going to be fine,” Rhea said, but I could hear the fatigue in her voice. Healing Theron and now me was wearing him down.
I wished I could have said she was amazing. You know, I’d wanted to apologize for every cruel word, dismissive gesture I’d ever made toward a woman.
But our moment was broken by Alaric’s voice slicing through the din.
"Enough!"
Everything stopped.
The mercenaries pulled back. Our warriors froze. Even the crashes of warfare no long heard.
Alaric remained in the middle of the combat zone and he was cradling the body of someone.
A woman I didn't recognize. She was beaten up, destroyed, her face so puffed I could barely see features. But she was conscious, aware.
"Do any of you know Cassian's mother? Alaric inquired cheerfully, the only sound that dominated the sudden quiet.
I saw Cassian freeze. His face turned dead white, all the blood draining from it at once.
The woman lifted her face with obvious difficulty.
"Cassian," she cried out hoarsely. "Run."
"Mother," Cassian exhaled, a step toward her.
Alaric gripped her throat tightly, and she gasped. "If I continue to hear fighting, I will kill her. And it will be slow."
That calculating smile that I was starting to despise. "Drop your weapons. All of you. Or watch her die."
Cassian’s sword hit the rocks with a loud clatter. His hands trembled, the alpha power newly opened flaring and going out.
"That's better," Alaric said. “Now, this is what’s going to happen. Rhea will come with me. Voluntarily. And for good measure, I’ll allow Cassian’s mother to live. I’ll even pull back the mercenaries.’”
"Don't," Rhea said, but she did not sound certain. I felt her struggle over the bond.
“The other option,” Alaric went on, “is I take her out right here and now. The mercenaries then kill everyone else. Your friends, Theron’s pack, the twins’ troops. Everyone dies. Your choice, daughter."
Rhea rose to her feet, her hands dimly lit with healing light. “And if I come with you, you’ll let them all live? You'll leave them alone?"
"You have my word."
“Your promise is nothing,” Kieran spat.
But Rhea was already advancing, taking slow, measured steps toward Alaric.
"Rhea, no," Theron said. He had enough strength to sit up, but Lilith helped him. "Don't do this."
“I must,” Rhea said simply. “I can’t let him kill innocent people.”
She was a few steps short of Alaric when Cassian lunged.
It was so quick that I almost missed it. One moment he was there, a loser. The next he was all the way turned and lunging at Alaric.
But Alaric was ready. He tossed Cassian’s mother aside and faced the charge.
The two alphas met with force. Claws raked flesh. Teeth snapped for throats.
And amid the confusion, nobody saw Thanos’s shifter army pouring out of the treeline until they’d already descended on us.