Chapter 180 Kaden's POV
The last of my warriors fell.
Marcus went down fighting, taking three Erebus followers with him before a sword pierced his chest.
He looked at me once, mouthed the word "Alpha," and then his eyes went blank.
I was alone now, surrounded by bodies, my pack members, and my friends all dead.
And Erebus stood across the burning camp, watching me with cold satisfaction.
I could barely stand, blood poured from a dozen wounds. My ribs were broken, my left arm hung useless at my side.
But I forced myself forward, one step, then another. Toward the monster who had destroyed everything I loved.
"Kaden," Erebus said, his voice like gravel scraping stone.
"The last Alpha standing, how admirable,how futile."
He moved toward me, his dark robes sweeping the blood-soaked ground.
I raised my remaining weapon, a knife I had pulled from a fallen warrior. My hand shook with exhaustion and pain.
"Come then," I managed to say. "Finish this."
Erebus reached up and pulled back his hood. I had expected something monstrous, something inhuman.
What I saw was worse.
An old man was ancient, actually his face was covered in scars.
Deep, twisted scars that looked like they had been carved deliberately. His skin was gray and papery, his eyes were milky white, blind, yet somehow he could see perfectly.
"Do you know what these scars are?" Erebus asked, touching his ruined face.
"Each one represents a pack I have destroyed, a bloodline I have ended. A resistance I have crushed, I have hundreds of them, and soon, I will add one more, for the Blue Moon Pack, for you."
He moved faster than I could track, his fist connected with my chest. I felt ribs crack, felt myself flying backward.
I hit the ground hard, gasping for air that wouldn't come.
Erebus was on me immediately, his hands glowing with dark magic. He grabbed my head, forcing me to look into his blind eyes.
"Let me show you something, Alpha let me show you what true power looks like."
Black energy poured from his hands into my mind.
Suddenly I was somewhere else somewhere else.
I was young watching my mother die, seeing the light fade from her eyes as illness consumed her. Feeling helpless, powerless, small.
Then I was older, teenage, standing over my father's body, knowing I wasn't ready to be Alpha. Knowing I had failed everyone who depended on me.
Then I was with Elara, the morning I rejected her. Seeing the devastation on her face, hearing her broken voice asking why.
Then Ethan dying, the cursed blade in his chest. His blood on my hands, his last words echoing in my ears.
Then my sister. Kira fifteen years of torture. All because I hadn't found her, hadn't saved her, hadn't even known she was suffering.
Every failure, every loss, every moment of pain and grief and guilt. All of it flooding through me at once magnified, intensified, made unbearable.
I screamed or tried to, no sound came out.
Tears poured down my face, sobs wracked my body. The emotional pain was worse than any physical wound.
"Yes," Erebus whispered.
"Feel it, feel every failure, every weakness. Every person you couldn't save. This is what you are, Kaden. A failure. A weak Alpha who let everyone he loved die."
He was right, he was absolutely right.
I had failed them all, failed to protect them. Failed to save them, failed to be strong enough.
"Please," I sobbed.
"Please just kill me end this."
"Oh, I will. But first, I want you to understand. To truly understand what you've lost."
The visions continued, more death, more suffering, more failure.
I broke completely, utterly, reduced to a weeping mess on the ground.
Finally, Erebus released me from the torture. The visions stopped. I lay there, shaking, tears still streaming down my face.
Erebus stood over me, placed his hand directly over my heart.
"Now, I take what is left, your life, your power. Your bloodline, the Xandros line ends with you."
I felt his fingers beginning to dig into my chest. Dark magic burning through flesh and bone. He was going to rip my heart out, literally tear it from my body.
I couldn't fight back, couldn't resist, could barely breathe.
This was how I died, broken, defeated, having failed everyone.
Then something flew through the air. A dagger, silver glowing faintly with blue light.
It embedded itself in Erebus's back, he stumbled forward, releasing me. Turned around with a snarl.
"Who dares-"
"Me."
Elara stood at the edge of the clearing, alive, healed, strong.
She looked different, her eyes glowed with the same blue light as Adrian's mark. Her skin seemed to shimmer with power.
And behind her, I could see Alpha Helena and her warriors, reinforcements, and help.
Erebus reached back and pulled the dagger from his shoulder. Black blood dripped from the wound.
"You," he said, studying Elara.
"Mother, you're supposed to be wounded. Dying in a medical tent."
"I was but I healed, stronger than before."
"How? What have you done?"
"I took my son's blood, the lunar pulse. It's in me now, part of me."
Erebus's expression changed, becoming calculating, suspicious.
He closed his eyes, seeming to search for something. Sense for something then his eyes snapped open, fury blazed across his scarred face.
"What have you done?" His voice rose to a roar. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO THE CHILD?"