Tyler.
The fact that I knew what Arya had been trying to do did not mean it was any easier to stand there and take it. As much as her words hurt, I knew she was only trying to protect me and my pack. But I’d rather die than watch her walk away from me. I would not let Ethan have her, even if it was the last thing I did.
I paced around my room like an angry bull, working to blow off steam. The thought of Arya with another man made my boil blood and caused me to see red. She was mine. Mine. Nobody else’s. And Arya knew that and it was why she’d gone for where it hurt the most.
Her.
No matter how hard I thought about it, I just couldn’t understand why Lauren was so stuck on me. I’d never promise her marriage and I’d been explicitly clear with her father, Felix, that marriage to his daughter was not something I was interested in. At this point, her obsession with me was becoming unhinged and downright annoying.
As much as I wanted to fight it, Arya was right. I was responsible for this pack, and I planned to protect my home from my family and past. Arya was my home, the Queen on my throne. Giving one up for the other was not an option.
So, what I would do is take some time to cool off, and then I would go to my pack and have a reasonable conversation with them, try to make them see that Lauren as an instigator of chaos and all this was part of her plan to get rid of Arya.
But then my ears perked up at a distant sound, straining to hear. I’d always had expert hearing as I was in tune with my wolf abilities even when I was in human form. It was the chants from earlier. I paused for a second. Had they followed us home? It began to ring at the back of my mind that this was more serious than I thought.
The chants got closer and the smell of hostility filled the air.
“Let her go!”
“She must go!”
It happened too fast. I didn’t have time to think. Everything seemed like a blue. A scream shattered around me and I tensed. I would recognize that voice even in my sleep. At that moment, the smell of smoke permeated the air.
“Arya!” Without thinking about it, my legs moved. Fear clenched at my chest, but determination fueled my steps. I had to get to her. I had to find her.
“Tyler!” The shout of my name drew a breath of fear out of me but I forced myself to be calm. Arya was inside the house. I burst through the door and into the hallway, the smoke filling my lungs. With a hand over my nose, I yelled out her name, going from door to door with no luck.
Horror filled me with the recollection that Arya was not the only other person in the mansion. My housekeepers, servants, and cook had all been present. All around me, I could hear chants of war echoing in the night. My own pack had chosen to burn my house down. Shit. I couldn’t think about that now. I needed to find Arya and get her the hell out of here.
Flames danced in the night, consuming the sanctuary I had called home. The scent of burning wood and despair hung thick in the air as I moved. When I reached the foyer, my eyes found a lithe body laying face down on the ground, unconscious. The flames that crackled around me painted a haunting picture, the walls whispering the fear I felt.
In a second, I was at her side, coughing and blinking severally to adjust my sight to the burning sensation. I pressed a hand to her neck. I couldn’t feel her heartbeat.
Panic gripped my heart as I scooped her into my arms, the heat of the flames licking at my skin.
Please. No. If anything happened to her, I would never forgive myself for not protecting her.
Just then, the front door burst open and in came a frantic Nate. He was at my side in no time. “IS she okay?” he yelled over the loud crackling of the fire as heat engulfed us.
“I don’t know!” I yelled back in response, getting to my feet. “We have to get out of here. There are others.”
“Go through the back. It’s not safe out front.” Nate nodded at me, referring to the secret entrance I’d built at the far corner of the hallway upstairs for emergencies. I’d never actually thought I’d use it. “I’ll check for others. Natalie’s just outside. She’ll take you to safety.”
I’d never been more thankful that I’d chosen him as my beta as I had in that moment. With my heart in my throat and an unconscious Arya in my arms, I ran up the stairs, a burning need for retribution eating at me. But I didn’t allow myself to think about anything other than getting Arya to safety.
My house was burning to the ground. The angry flames ate everything in sight, spreading from room to room as they engulfed the whole place in smoke. I ran like our lives were at stake, which it probably was, almost missing my way for a second due to the thick fog.
My skin was burnt and I had inhaled enough smoke to kill a grown man but I willed myself to keep moving. I couldn’t stop. Not when the life of the woman I loved lay in the balance. Not when I knew giving up would be tantamount to letting Lauren win.
I was almost at the corner now. Adjusting Arya to one hand, I pushed at the wall with all the strength I could muster, sighing in relief when it gave way and opened to a secret path.
It closed behind me, a much-welcomed relief from the smoke. I coughed, trying to clear my lungs. True enough, when I reached the other side that opened up into the forest, Natalie was there, her strawberry blonde hair standing out in the darkness.
“Oh, my God,” she breathed, running to me to press a hand to Arya’s hot cheek. “Is she alright?”
I coughed a little more. “She must have inhaled too much smoke. We need to get her to safety.”
“Yes,” Natalie nodded. “Yes. But what about Nate? Wasn’t he supposed to come out with you?”
I heard the concern in her gaze at the mention of her husband. Just then, the wall caved in and Nate appeared, followed by the housekeepers and my cook. Everyone else had gotten out safely.
I sighed in relief, finally allowing myself to calm down. Things could have been much worse.
“Come on,” Nate said, running into the forest. “Let’s go. If they find us here, things will get uglier.”