Chapter 48 To Fell an Alpha
❀ Maeve ❀
Before my eyes, the sunset dimmed as we stared at each other in silence. While I forced my pounding heart to steady, hers sped up to a concerning degree.
“Please, princess, you have to help me. Even if you speak to the Alpha concerning the others, I won’t be pardoned.”
She pulled her hands back, and I let them drop from mine.
“Explain yourself.” I couldn’t help that my voice came out a growl.
My wolf sensed a threat. And Tammy was a hair’s breadth away from getting slashed in defense.
She swallowed, twisting her fingers.
Her gaze strayed to the door. I saw her contemplating an escape, but I knew I’d catch her anyway.
She changed her mind and spoke.
“I lost my family in a clash years ago.” Her voice was blank, her face taking on a faraway look. “Before they died, they hid me, my brother, and a bunch of other children in our underground basement to protect us. Father ordered Mother to stay, but after he left, she picked up a weapon and followed him.”
I already knew where this story was going, and once again, I hurt for the countless people who lost loved ones during the interspecies clashes worsened by the war.
“We were locked in for weeks, even after our rations were exhausted.” She continued, her eyes beginning to water. “I and another girl, Bertha, were the eldest in the basement. So we decided to stay until the worst of the violence and noise died down. When we surfaced, it was… terrible. My mother’s corpse was just outside the house. She never made it past the gate.”
My breath hitched.
I took her arms again. “I’m so sorry.”
A single tear dropped from her eye, but I could see she was trying to be strong.
“It’s not easy being human in Blackbridge. We have to walk on eggshells all the time. So when a vampire propositioned Bertha with an opportunity to… to be transformed… we took it.”
My brows furrowed. “But feral vampires aren’t lucid?”
“This one was.” She shivered. “Even though his eyes were red and his fangs permanently extended.”
It was known that vampires became feral when they drank too many living beings to death, or when created through unnatural means like Maverick Graves did.
Could Graves possibly have created lucid ferals who retained their sanity?
“Then what happened?” I urged.
“He promised we wouldn’t be insane ferals, that we would have our sanity. But that Graves would need us in the future.”
“For what?”
She hesitated, then her shoulders sagged as she whispered, “For war.”
War.
Graves really was building an army to attack Ironwolf.
“Is Graves working with Veilmoor to take Ironwolf territory?” I prodded, heart in my throat.
Please let Nikolai not have lied to me.
“I don’t know. The vampire just told us the war was inevitable, and that we would be summoned in time.”
“Knowing this, you still wanted to go ahead with it?”
Her eyes dimmed with shame, but then she straightened. “We had no choice. It was either kill or be killed. We chose the former. And what has Ironwolf ever done for us?”
I had a living witness of Graves’ network in my arms right now. Excitement thrummed through me. For years no one could find his hideouts. This was a promising lead.
“Where is Bertha now?” I asked Tammy, my tone desperate.
According to Nikolai, Graves had a whole hive-network of labs he controlled. No one knew his exact location.
She looked pensive.
Her gaze darted as she lowered her voice.
“We got separated during the arrest. The soldiers struck the lab just before we were to be turned. Bertha escaped with the vampires, but I was caught.”
Trying not to spook her, I rubbed my thumbs over her hands. “Tammy, you might not believe this, but I was once human too.”
“W-what?” She gasped, disbelieving. “But you’re a wolf. Your eyes. Your… fangs.”
“My mother is human, my father a wolf. I bloomed really late, only awakening my wolf days ago. I was raised in Blackbridge, so I understand you. You can trust me.”
She wiped her tears with one hand. “You’re the princess consort…”
“Hard to believe, I know.” I softened my tone. “But now I need your help.”
Meeting my gaze, she nodded carefully. “You saved my life. I’ll do anything I can.”
I smiled.
A plan bloomed like night jasmines at twilight.
If Nikolai was being honest about not being in league with Graves, he would want this information.
I’d give him an ultimatum. My mother’s location for everything Tammy knows. If he really wanted to catch Graves, he would have no choice but to find my mother and trace her directly to me.
I considered letting Bastian in on it, but he wouldn’t be able to get away long enough to find my mother. He always returned to the pack early to “babysit” Alpha Mordane.
Tammy looked pale and tired. As much as I wanted to question her further and possibly get directions to the lab she’d been taken to, she needed rest.
I drew her up from the foot of the bed. “Tammy, you’ve done enough for now, you can go and—”
A loud crash shook the fortress.
Followed by a thunderous roar.
My spine stiffened as ice washed over me.
Tammy yelped and drew closer, body trembling like a leaf.
“What was that?!” she cried.
That was our murderous, rage-filled Alpha in his throes.
I pushed her behind me. “Stay here,” I ordered.
“Don’t go!” she hissed when I moved for the door.
Without responding, I opened the door, peering out into the corridor.
Staff silently ran past with terror-stricken faces.
The noise upstairs increased—multiple voices bellowing and screaming. The fortress shook again, dust falling from the ceiling and walls.
Something crunched with a wet, sickening sound upstairs.
More screaming.
More palpable terror.
Somehow, instead of fear, anger enveloped me.
What kind of Alpha would choose to be a monster to his own people just for some power he didn’t need?
My heart hardened.
If Nikolai could prove he was against Maverick Graves, and his tale about the blood and essence of Queen Lyssa the vampire queen was true, I wouldn’t hesitate to plant those runes for him.
That amulet had to be destroyed.
Another enraged bellow shook the whole structure.
My body jolted, instincts flaring.
That was Bastian!
My mind flickered to the last time he’d walked into our chambers with bone-deep wounds from his last fight with a feral Alpha Mordane.
He could die.
Mordane was an older, faster Lycan. Enhanced with the powers of a crimson vampire.
My wolf howled.
Protect mate.
I ran back into the room, pulling out a drawer so hard it broke off in my hands.
Tammy followed me with her eyes, hands gripping her skirts in fright.
I snatched up the dagger Nikolai had gifted me and unsheathed it.
The onyx blade glinted in the firelight.
Infused with enough poison to fell an immortal.
I dashed out into the corridor.