Chapter 149 One or None
TEN YEARS AFTER THE CRIMSON WAR
☽ Bastian ☽ (Age: 15)
Ronath, the weakest wolfling in my gang, twined his hands like a little girl.
I glared, disgusted at his cowardice.
“If you don’t have the guts, then stay back, Ronath. This mission is for strong wolves loyal to the pack!”
“I’m loyal to the pack!” Ronath argued. “But we’re not immortal yet. If the vampires overpower us, we’re dead.”
As if I didn’t know that.
My gang was a group of five friends. Ashar, Ronath, Conrad, Kael, and myself.
I’d lost both my parents in the Crimson War. Two valuable Lycans stolen by the leeches in their greed for our lands.
Now the only Lycans that remained in IronWolf were my uncle, Alpha Mordane, and myself.
The need for vengeance burned within me, and I couldn’t sit back and do nothing while the vampires still breathed.
None of my friends had achieved immortality, which usually happened between the ages of 20 to 35.
Five years. I’d have choked on my fury toward the leeches by then.
I crowded Ronath, my voice cracking with anger. “I knew you never had it in you. All this time we planned, you pretended to be interested. Now the day has come, and you’re balking!”
“You’re going to get us all killed! We don’t even have our wolves.”
“True.” I sneered, “but we have something better. Numbers, fury, determination.”
Ronath was seventeen and still cowardly. I didn’t want him on my team anyway.
“Just go home, Ronath. At least someone will speak of our bravery if we never return.”
“Yeah, go home, wimp.”
The boys and I burst into mocking laughter as Ronath turned and headed back toward IronWolf.
“Sissy!” We taunted at his retreat.
The plan had been to capture at least one vampire. Our weapons were packed in bags slung across our backs. Poison-tipped arrows. Mystically enforced chains. Darts. Swords.
Only royal vampires, called Crimsons, could trace. Teleport.
And the royals never left their mountainous lands except ten years ago, when their queen, Lyssa the Crimson Wraith, had waged war on us.
My uncle Mordane had captured the fiend, and my parents, amongst hundreds of warriors, had given their lives to push back the vampire army.
Now, I would make them pay for that. One vampire at a time. Until I achieved immortality. Then they would surely pay en masse—
The bushes rustled behind us, on the path we’d just come through.
We paused, weapons out, faces painted. Fangless teeth bared.
“I smell something.”
“Remember, if we can’t capture it, we kill it.”
I wasn’t delusional. I knew we were massively at a disadvantage here. But there was no vampire a strong will couldn’t vanquish.
A branch snapped behind us.
“Tight circle!” I hissed, sensing a threat.
Something like bone snapping echoed in the clearing, and a choked sound cut off.
Gasps.
Something thumped to the ground behind me.
I spun to face the disturbance.
My breath hitched.
A headless body, one of our own, sprawled dead on the ground.
Panic ensued.
The gang scattered.
“No! Stay together!” I yelled urgently.
But Conrad was running back the way we came, and a dark form landed right in front of him.
Conrad crashed into the figure just as it grabbed his head and lifted him off the ground.
My eyes widened.
Vampires.
Instinct kicked in.
I snatched a dart, fixing it to the crossbow.
Conrad screamed as the vampire sank its fangs deep into his neck. His screams reverberated in my stomach, my skin pebbling with desperation.
“No!” I yelled as I fired the dart.
The damned leech used Conrad’s body as a shield, still feeding. Then he flung the body to the side.
I looked around. I was alone.
Clenching a sword in my hands, I roared, crazed, and charged the thing.
Another scream rang out in the distance, sounding like Kael. It made me stutter on my feet, face planting on the soggy ground.
But I was back up in a second, snarling.
Now I had to avenge my friends in addition to my parents and all those soldiers ravaged in the war—
The vampire backhanded me, sending me flying into the thick trunk of a tree.
Something cracked in my body as I slid down the rough bark. I coughed blood, vision wavering as the vampire stood over me with flashing, sinister fangs.
In the end, one vampire had conquered all five of us.
…..
PRESENT
☽ Bastian ☽ (Age: 26)
The memory of my first failure burned like a brand.
That night, the vampire had abducted me back to its lair, where I’d experienced torture like I’d never known.
They’d made me a bloodbag, a punching sack. A slave.
Until Sorin, my uncle’s beta at the time, had rescued me.
On my return to the pack, I discovered Ashar had survived. He’d explained the tragedy and given Sorin information that led to them finding me.
But the lives of my other two friends weighed on me throughout my life. Their parents’ judging expressions followed my every step.
Fate’s sense of humor was unrivaled.
Pairing me with a vampire as a mate, despite the near-tangible coil of hate I harbored for those creatures.
My jaw clenched.
Not just a vampire. But the queen of them.
The daughter of the previous queen who had broken the uneasy peace between wolves and vampires and slaughtered my people in the war.
Even worse, she believed she was Nikolai’s bride. A cursed vampire I’d had to pummel last night to temper his ‘wrath’.
My brows furrowed.
Even being Lycan, a crazed Crimson vampire should have been capable of doing way more damage to me than he did.
Whenever we fought, as per his request, he’d never go all out. I’d begun to suspect he allowed me to inflict enough pain to dissipate the wrath he claimed overcame him.
And in the same vein, I’d never been able to bring myself to outright kill the leech.
Were we both operating from a grudging sense of respect for the other?
My eyes slitted, the idea repulsive to acknowledge.
As my men combed through the ruins of Graves’ facility, I watched on. Impassive.
But within, my heart churned.
My feelings for Maeve were undeniable. My admiration for her strength and courage, intense.
She’d left Blackbridge wolfless with nothing to her name, only to blossom into a warrior and queen whose past could never douse her ambitions.
I’d thought her unworthy of me at first. Only to realize now that the unworthy one was me.
My mind veered back to that night. How she’d stood her ground, refusing to cower before me…
“Sir. Nothing organic survived the fire,” a soldier said, interrupting my thoughts.
I gazed around the vast field that had hidden the facility. The explosion had churned the earth, launching everything buried to light.
“Hidden escape routes or bunkers?”
“Nothing of the sort. Anyone present within the last few seconds of the explosion is ash.”
I gave a curt nod. He left.
The sun dipped closer to the line of the horizon, its soft orange light dimming with every second.
Graves was dead, his collection of the late vampire queen’s blood destroyed. My mate was finally free of the threat the mortal and his aspirations posed.
But she was still at risk from one thing.
The Crimson amulet.
I clenched my fist as I watched my men prepare to head back to the pack.
That amulet was a threat now to not one, but two people I cared about.
If Alpha Mordane wouldn’t give it up willingly, then he’d have to die.
Maybe then, through that sacrifice, my mate would see which mate she ought to choose.
Because sharing her with the red-eyed leech, no matter his position in her life or involvement in her rescue, was impossible.
She would have me, or she would have none.