68__Mated to the fallen alphas

Shadow tilted his head when Evelynn only stared at him like a wide-eyed chipmunk. What? Did she think he would let her run wild forever?

An amused smile played on his lips. His little wildcat had grown into a dangerous tigress. It was time to tame her before she got herself hurt any further.

“Come here, Evie.”

“With what right are you attempting to take her?” asked Arroe, half hiding behind Eroz.

With glaring eyes, Eroz crossed his arms. “That’s what I want to know as well.”

With a careless sniff, Shadow ignored them and pushed right into the room.

“What the fuck are you doing?” demanded Brian. “Is it because Raiden isn’t here? You don’t think I’ll whip your ass even without his permission?”

Ignoring them, Shadow continued into the room, striding past the royal Beta, with whom he had no problems. After all, Cyrus was a sort of comrade to him and Dev. He’d experienced pain and maltreatment at the hands of the same person who’d troubled the two of them.

Evelynn pressed deeper and deeper into the throne as Shadow neared, her eyes growing wide as she struggled and failed to accept that he was really here.

When he marched up to the throne and loomed over her like judgment day, she swallowed her fear. “W-what… what are you doing?”

Shadow raised a warning brow. “Now… behave. I’m quite sure I told you to keep your shit together until we reclaimed you, I didn’t tell you to start trying to kill people.”

She glared at him, her eyes overflowing with tears. “I did… what I had to! If you want to be a coward, that’s your problem!”

When his eyes narrowed dangerously, she shrunk back. “Watch that fucking tone, blondie… before I bend you over in front of everyone in this room.”

The threat made her face go white as snow and Evelynn kept her mouth shut, not wanting to test Shadow’s patience.

Brian moved toward the throne where the two spoke quietly. “Shadow. It’s been decades. Shouldn’t you forget it?”

Taking his eyes away from Evelynn, Shadow slowly turned around to face Brian, his expression cold, mean even. “Forget? You want me to forget?”

With a scoff, he looked around at all the alphas in the room. “Which one of you fuckers would forget… if your mate was ripped out of your arms… and given to another alpha?” When they said nothing, he titled his head. “Oh? None of you?”

“You’re not a true Alpha,” Eroz pointed out bluntly. “You’re a fallen Alpha. Both you and your brother. What kind of men, Alphas, cannot get a grip on their inner wolves? Civilisation has moved forward, but you two have remained behind, savages. Wild beasts, dare I say.”

“Knowing that, d’you really want to keep running your mouth, Eroz?” Shadow questioned darkly, triggered by those words. “Who knows when I’ll go crazy and rip your throat out? That’s the nice thing about being insane… it tends to come in handy sometimes.”

“You bastard—”

Arroe snapped a hand onto Eroz’s shoulder, holding him back. With a dark growl and glowing, purple eyes, Eroz held himself back, the pride of his wolf bruised.

Ignoring him, Shadow looked at Brian. “Devil and I… we’re reclaiming our mate.”

Cyrus’s eyes went wide and he stared at Shadow. “Your… your *mate?”*

Shadow looked at him. “You’re not aware, are you? Of course. The late queen enjoyed causing chaos in secret. You don’t know about Raiden’s stolen mate, Raiden doesn’t know that you were abused. Chaos. In silence.” He saw Brian’s eyes grow dark in warning but didn’t stop speaking.

The nice thing about being a fallen alpha was that he didn’t have to give a fuck about orders from Raiden or Brian. He could do as he pleased. With a sadistic grin, Shadow looked at Cyrus. “Your mother stole our mate and gave her to your brother. Because apparently, Raiden didn’t have a mate? I guess now he’s found her so the bastard tried to rid himself of our Evie. Good thing too, I’ve been planning, for years, to kill him for her.”

Evelynn rolled her eyes. He was hours too late, she’d already done it herself! It was just her luck to be mated to two fallen alphas with psychotic issues. She never would have known about them had Shadow not begun stalking her around the kingdom as soon as she’d turned eighteen.

She hadn’t let anybody know that she knew about her birth mates. How could she? Her duty, by then, was to serve Raiden. It had been drilled into her head so hard, she’d chosen to accept it.

Sadly, knowing that Raiden’s mother had stolen her away from Shadow and Devil had only made Evelynn’s grudge against the royal family grow bigger and darker.

With a sigh, she looked up at the massive height of Shadow. It was strange. She didn’t like him one bit, he annoyed the hell out of her.

And yet… yet she felt at peace now. Her eyes pricked with tears. She felt like she finally had someone to depend on. That and also, Raiden and Natalia were dead.

Everything was working out.

Once the Alphas heard about Raiden’s death, they would naturally blame Cyrus and would probably kill him. Evelynn would be protected by Shadow and Dev and they’d take her away from this place.

It was all working out.

*************

“Where… where is she?”

Devil met Raiden’s gaze but he didn’t answer him. Raiden didn’t like that.

Groaning deeply from the pain gripping every inch of his being, Raiden forced himself to stand, his hair hanging over his eyes as he stared at Devil. “Answer me…”

Watching him silently as Raiden tried to turn around and walk, Devil noted the exact moment, his body gave out. He was there in an instant, stretching open his arms and catching Raiden as he fell.

“Calm down,” he told him.

Raiden took the opportunity to wrap a hand around Devil’s neck, staring into his eyes with dark rage. “Where is she? If you’ve laid a hand…”

Groaning, he trailed off, shutting his eyes tightly. With a sigh, Devil helped him to the bed and sat him down.

Raiden’s head was spinning, his vision going black every ten seconds. He didn’t know what the hell had happened. All he knew was the panic in his head because he’d woken up and hadn’t seen her. Where was Natalia? What had happened to her?

One moment they’d been well on their way home and, the next, she’d found that piece of paper. That damn piece of paper.

She’d just totally panicked when she’d read that paper. She hadn’t even told him what it was before she’d grabbed him and said they had to get out of the carriage. Something about rebels.

Raiden had slammed his fist repeatedly against the roof of the vehicle to tell his driver to stop. It hadn’t stopped.

It hadn’t stopped even for a moment and, when he’d turned to calm Natalia down, it had been too late.

The sound of Natalia’s scream tore through his mind now and he flinched as the rest of his memory went black. He didn’t remember anything further.

It had been a total catastrophe. They’d plunged off the cliff and Raiden didn’t even understand how he’d survived.

Gripping his hair, he tried to think through the pain throbbing in his skull.

Suddenly, gentle hands touched his shoulder. Raiden jerked away, raising a stormy gaze to the man before him. “Where the fuck is she, Devil?”

“You need to relax,” Devil murmured coldly, not meeting Raiden’s gaze. “I need to change your bandages.”

“Fuck the bandages. Where is Natalia? What did you do with her?”

Mildly irritated, Devil lowered the pack of bandages and looked at Raiden. “What did I do with her? I would never hurt her, if there’s anyone I would hurt, it would be you!”

Raiden’s eyes narrowed with both suspicion and anger. “You didn’t… answer… my fucking question.”

Devil clenched his jaw. “She’s asleep downstairs. Recovering. You two had… a horrific accident.” Breaking their eye contact, Devil preoccupied himself with opening the pack of bandages and laying out new ones to change Raiden’s dressing.

Clenching his jaw to combat the headache cracking through his skull, Raiden began to stand. He had to see Natalia.

With a hand on his shoulder, Devil forced him back down. “Sit. You should worry about yourself right now, you damn near died.”

Raiden’s head fell back and he closed his eyes, trying to catch his breath. “Natalia… how is she?”

“Much better than you,” responded Devil, peeling the bandages away from Raiden’s skin. “You shielded her. When you fell, you wrapped yourself around her like some living protective bubble wrap.”

Raiden looked hopefully at him. “I did? Did it… did it help?”

Devil pursed his lips and nodded stiffly. “She was only mildly injured.”

“Let me see her. Is she completely fine?”

“Of course not,” muttered Devil, his usually cheerful face sombre today. The very mention of Raiden made his mood darken, how could he possibly manage to smile while standing in the same room as him? “How could she possibly be completely fine when you nearly died? She had to use any means necessary to strengthen you.”

Raiden’s face darkened with a frown. “What does that mean?”

Devil focused his gaze on the bandages he was changing. “It means she damn nearly drained herself to use her Vamp blood to heal you. It weakened her so she’s asleep.”

The words had made Raiden go completely still. “…What form was I in?”

Devil paused.

When he didn’t answer, Raiden stood, staring at him. “Answer me. What form was I in?”

The question had meaning. Devil knew why Raiden had asked. If he’d been in this form, it might be okay. If he’d been in his wolf form… the size of him would have needed far more blood from her in order for him to survive.

Raiden had been in his wolf form when Devil had found them.

Natalia had had the unconscious wolf’s head on her chest, her arms wrapped around his thick neck as she slowly passed out from pouring her very life into him. She’d nearly been dead herself.

It had been pointless. Raiden hadn’t even begun recovering until Devil had used a few of his personal healing gems on him. The accident had just been that terrible.

Devil released a heavy breath and began to pick the dirty bandages off the floor. “You were in wolf form. So be grateful to her.” Pausing, he met Raiden’s gaze. “You’re someone who doesn’t even deserve her love… much less her life.”

The cold words made Raiden grit his teeth. “That will never be for you to decide.”

Without another word, he trudged heavily to the door and pulled it open, desperately wanting to go to her.

Raiden immediately froze. With wide eyes, he looked into the hallway, staring in disbelief.

A short exhale parted his lips.

There was Natalia, leaning weakly against the wall, staring back at him.

Her hazel eyes glimmered with tears and she smiled weakly at him. “Raiden... you’re… you’re okay…”