Chapter 161

Dylan's PoV

The way Alpha Tris touched Sarah intimately will always be burned into my mind, and so will the way she recoiled in disgust. He thinks he has a claim to her, but he doesn’t. She will never accept him as hers. Not even if he bent the knee and called her his queen.

I slowly place the bow onto the ground, my eyes locked on Sarah, not my brother, not Jeremy, not Alpha Tris, but my mate. My beautiful, selfless mate.

She would have allowed him to mark her if it saved us, I know she would have, and she would have left with him, even if she don’t want to, all to make sure we were safe. But I couldn’t allow her to do that. I couldn’t allow her to throw her own life away.

She had already saved me, I know that I was on the brink of death when she rushed to my side. I thought it was all over for me, but Sarah is truly a gift from the goddess. She brought me back, I don’t know how, and I’ll never ask, but that doesn’t mean that I’m not grateful. I’ll spend the rest of my life making it up to her.

I want to hand her the world on a silver platter, but for now, I’ll just have to give her Alpha Tris’ head instead.

“You think you can just take her?” I ask him, my voice like I’ve never heard it before. “Do you really think we’d allow that?”

Warriors rush forward, quickly taking down the men holding my brother and Jeremy, snapping their bones like they were nothing more than sticks. She left the best warriors around me to protect me whilst she fought.

Sarah left herself vulnerable for me.

I’ll never forget that.

I’ll never get waking up to find her gone out of my head, the panic and the fear. Worry that I was too late to save her.

Jeremy and Drake slowly stand, though Jeremy’s leg is still in a bad state. He can barely put weight on it, but with his accelerated healing it should be back to normal in a few days.

“You can’t do this to me!” Tris shouts, desperately looking around for help from his men who had already surrendered to me. “I’m her mate, I have the same rights as any of you to her and her power.”

I slowly walk over to Sarah and help her to stand, my arms on her hips, “Sarah doesn’t want you, Tris. Not today, not tomorrow, not in this lifetime.” I say, keeping my voice low. “But she does want your death, and we are happy to give her that.”

He turns to Sarah, eyes wide with desperation. “You can’t let them kill me! Our souls are bound together by the goddess, you can’t just reject fate.”

“I’m not rejecting fate.” She whispers, eyes hard. “I’m rejecting you.”

I slowly pull a blade from my pocket and hand it over to Sarah, it has to be her who finishes the job, not me, not the warriors or anyone else. It is her throne he tried to take, she has to be the one to end the war.

“I don’t know if I can.” She whispers to me in my mind. “He’s evil, but I don’t want to become like him.”

“He has to die baby girl; he’ll just keep coming back if you let him leave.” Drake says, opening the link between us all.

She shakes her head again, “I hate him, but does that mean he should die? I’m not the goddess, I shouldn’t decide who lives and who dies.”

“We know you don’t want to do this, princess, and that is what sets you apart from him. He wouldn’t have hesitated to kill all of us for his own gain. You are doing this to protect our home and our people… and our children.” Jeremy says, his voice soft but with an edge to it I can’t quite identify. “You have to do this Sarah. Not just for you, but for all of us.”

Sarah’s eyes widen, but then she nods. “Ok.” She says, “I’ll kill him.”

“Good girl.” I coo, gently taking her hand and leading her over to where he is on the ground.

Chris steps forward, Tris’ beta. “You don’t have to do this.” He says quickly, “we can leave and never come back.”

I turn to him, “you can leave and never come back, but Alpha Tris isn’t going anywhere.” I growl. “He won’t make it off our lands alive.”

“You can’t do this to me!” Tris shouts, trying to pull the arrow out of his spine. “It isn’t a fair battle.”

“No one said it had to be fair.” My twin brother growls, stepping forward to block Chris’ path to his alpha, “you don’t have to leave quietly Chris, but make a scene or try to help your alpha and you will join him in death.”

Chris looks visibly shaken, his shoulders trembling, at first, he doesn’t move, just stares at us all one by one. He thought today would end much differently; he didn’t expect us to actually win. He thought that they would be the ones to leave here victorious, and with a prisoner.

It must’ve hard to reason that isn’t the case, but I feel nothing for him, no sympathy and no pity. In fact, I wish I could kill him as well. But we have to show their people that we are willing to forgive.

We refuse to be as bad as those we went to war with.

“You have three seconds to decide.” Sarah says in a voice that makes even me shiver. “Live or die.”

Chris slowly walks backwards, his eyes wide. He knows what she is capable of, and he wants nothing to do with any of it.

He clearly wants to live.

When he’s gone out of sight, I turn back to Sarah, “finish it.”

She nods, walking towards tris with dark eyes, “I didn’t want to do this.” She tells him softly, “but you have given me no choice.”

He opens his mouth to speak, but before he can utter a single word, Sarah slits his throat with the silver blade.

Blood splatters across her face, and she looks every bit like the warrior I know that she is, she doesn’t cry, doesn’t show a single emotion, she just watches as the life drains from him slowly.

The war with Alpha Tris is over, but there are still those who think that a woman shouldn’t rule, and will come for us, maybe not tomorrow or next week, but they will come.

And we’ll be ready for them.