Chapter 129 - JR POV

Chapter 129 - JR POV
These bastards have been running through our tunnels for weeks...
Maybe months.
Right beneath our feet.
Irune is going to lose his damn mind when he finds out how Stephen infiltrated the pack from the inside.
His mother. My Father. Working their own damn plan.
I clenched my jaw.
If this plan failed...
There wasn't a force on earth that would stop Irune from killing her himself.
The only thing standing between her and death was Alana's insane plan actually working.
God help us all if it didn't.
Alana knew every witch.
Every tunnel.
Every hidden chamber beneath the pack.
She and Pops led us deeper into the maze of underground passages, moving with absolute confidence.
Warriors had carved many of these tunnels barely a month ago.
No one outside the pack should've known they even existed.
Yet Stephen had somehow learned every route.
Every weakness.
Every escape.
The thought made my blood boil.
The ritual circle waited ahead.
Something else planted ahead. 
Everything depended on Stephen stepping into it and Trinity noticing the signal.
One chance.
One strike.
One opportunity to end this nightmare.
No pressure.
We settled into position.
Silence.
Waiting.
Above us...
War erupted.
Steel clashed.
Explosions shook dirt from the ceiling.
The howls of wolves mixed with screams of pain until it became impossible to tell one from the other.
Every instinct begged me to move.
Fight.
Help.
Instead...
I waited.
Because that was the mission.
Then...
Pain.
It hit so suddenly I doubled over.
My heart seized.
Like invisible hands had wrapped around it and squeezed.
"What..."
I gasped.
"I can't..."
Then...
A scent drifted through the tunnels.
Sweet.
Warm.
Strawberries.
Roses.
Ruby.
Nyxen's head snapped upward.
OUR MATE!
"No."
I shook my head violently.
"We stay."
SHE NEEDS US!
"No!"
The bond tightened again.
So hard I nearly dropped to one knee.
I couldn't breathe.
Every heartbeat screamed the same thing.
Find her.
Now.
Across the chamber, Alana's eyes narrowed.
She knew.
"Don't."
Her voice cut through me like a knife.
"Don't you dare ruin this."
I squeezed my eyes shut.
"You wanted in," she hissed. 
"So stay."
Nyxen whimpered.
A sound I'd never heard from him before.
She's bleeding.
My chest tightened even more.
"I changed this plan for you," Alana said.
"If you leave..." frustration etched her narrow face.
I looked at my father.
His expression said everything.
Stay.
Duty.
The plan.
The war.
Everything they'd sacrificed.
Then...
The bond pulsed again.
This time...
Agony.
Not mine.
Ruby's.
I looked up.
"I can't let her die."
Those words weren't for Alana.
Or Pops.
They were for me.
Because somewhere along the way...
Without realizing it...
I'd already made my choice.
Nyxen didn't wait.
He exploded forward.
The tunnel disappeared behind us.
The battlefield looked like the end of the world.
Smoke.
Fire.
Blood.
Bodies.
Pieces of bodies.
The scent of death was so thick it coated my tongue.
I couldn't tell wolves from vampires.
Couldn't tell bears from hybrids.
Everything had become one grotesque sea of broken flesh.
Stephen had turned the battlefield into a slaughterhouse.
To my left...
Cole.
He stood surrounded by hybrids.
Three already lay dead around him.
Two more charged.
His movements were flawless.
Efficient.
Every strike killed.
Every command inspired the wolves around him.
Despite everything...
He held the line.
A grin tugged at my lips.
You're going to be one hell of an Alpha.
If I didn't already belong beside Irune...
I'd gladly fight beside him.
But the bond pulled harder.
This way.
Nyxen surged toward the tree line.
Then...
I saw her.
Ruby.
Her long ebony braids whipped through the air as she spun.
An emerald top clung to her blood-soaked back.
One hand wielded a curved blade wrapped in crackling black magic.
The other controlled the wind itself.
Cyclones erupted around her, launching hybrids into the trees before she finished them with impossible precision.
She wasn't surviving.
She was dominating.
Nyxen practically purred.
Our mate...
Then I noticed the blood.
Too much of it.
Every movement left another crimson trail behind her.
She was running on sheer willpower.
As if sensing me, Ruby looked over her shoulder.
Our eyes met.
For one impossible second...
Everything else disappeared.
"You're not supposed to be here!" she shouted.
"You have your own mission!"
Her blade severed a hybrid's arm.
"GO!"
I barked out a laugh despite myself.
"Who the hell do you think you're ordering around?"
Before she could answer...
The hybrids stopped attacking everyone else.
One turned.
Then another.
Then six more.
Eight.
Twelve.
Their yellow eyes all fixed on Ruby.
Like predators catching the scent of wounded prey.
"What the..."
One of them let out a guttural howl.
Every hybrid within earshot answered.
The battlefield shifted.
They weren't attacking randomly anymore.
They were converging.
On her.
"Nyx..."
His growl shook my entire body.
Another wave came crashing through the trees.
Twenty...
Maybe more.
Ruby's breathing grew ragged.
Even she couldn't survive those numbers.
One hybrid slipped beneath her guard.
His claws ripped across her shoulder.
She stumbled.
A second slammed into her side.
A third wrapped massive arms around her waist, pinning her.
Her blade fell from her hand.
"RUBY!"
She drove her head backward, shattering the hybrid's nose.
Another grabbed her wrist.
A fourth seized her braid and yanked her to her knees.
Still...
She kept fighting.
Wind erupted from her body, throwing several enemies backward.
But they kept coming.
Too many.
Far too many.
One massive hybrid stepped forward, wrapping a clawed hand around her throat.
He lifted her off the ground.
Ruby clawed at his wrist, struggling for air.
Our eyes met again.
She wasn't pleading.
She wasn't afraid.
She was furious.
And that somehow made it worse.
Something inside me snapped.
Completely.
The world narrowed to a single target.
The hybrid touching my mate.
Nyxen's roar became my own.
MINE!
I launched myself into the air.
The hybrid barely had time to turn before my jaws closed around his throat.
Bone shattered between my teeth.
I ripped backward with every ounce of strength I possessed.
His head tore free in a spray of black blood.
The body stood for half a heartbeat.
Then collapsed at Ruby's feet.
I landed between her and the advancing hybrids, blood dripping from my muzzle.
There were too many to count now.
Ruby picked up her blade beside me.
Without looking away from the enemy, she muttered,
"I told you to leave."
I bared my fangs.
"And I don't take orders from stubborn witches."
For the first time since we'd met...
Ruby smiled.
Then the next wave hit us.