Chapter 162

Sarah's pov

Alpha Tris’ threats were nothing more than empty words, he thought his men were loyal, but he was wrong. The moment my blade dug into the flesh of his throat, his warriors all started surrendering to me. They wanted nothing more to do with someone else’s war, they just wanted to go home to their families. The families their Alpha had threatened to kill.

Perhaps if he had been a better man, they would have avenged him, but that isn’t the case here, and it never will be. He was a monster, plain and simple. And he died with nothing, no dignity, no warmth and no one to take away his rotting body.

It was sad, too sad to comprehend, but he did this to himself.

He chose his path, and now he had to face the music.

“Well done baby girl.” Drake says, embracing me tightly. “You did so well.”

“I don’t feel accomplished.” I admit softly, “I don’t feel much of anything right now.”

“That’s completely normal.” Dylan assures me, taking my hand, “you’ll be in a state of shock. But it will pass, and you’ll feel better. But if I’m honest, you might need some therapy.”

Jeremy limps over to us. “I didn’t think you’d actually be able to do it, you proved me wrong, princess.”

“I had no choice.” I say in a small voice, “it was either him or us.”

I should feel victorious, happy maybe? But I feel nothing but sadness. I didn’t want to kill him. Not really, even after everything he had done to us all.

I don’t know why he wanted the throne, but it was never his to take.

“You’re right, love, it was either him or us.” Dylan says, rubbing his hand over my back in small circles. “But that doesn’t mean the decision wasn’t hard, you are allowed to feel sad, you are allowed to be upset.”

“But I shouldn’t be.” I whisper, my voice breaking. “I should feel happy that it is all over, I should feel happy that we don’t have to fight anymore.”

I stare down at the blood, wondering if I could have done something different to avoid this ending.

“Emotions are complicated.” Drake tells me in a soft but stern voice. “You can give yourself some grace. But don’t drown in guilt, he would have killed you, he would have killed us all. Even the children.”

“Drake’s right.” Jeremy chimes in, “Alpha Tris was not a good man.”

I give my head a shake, I want to feel something else rather than the guilt that’s eating me alive.

“We need to check on the children.” I say eventually, watching as the warriors guide the enemy back out of the gate.

The fighting is over, but that doesn’t mean that the war is, there will always be men who think they can take the throne from me, and I can’t let any of them succeed.

I will never be my father, but I won’t stand for treason either.

“We will.” Dylan assured me, taking my hand, “I’ve already called the warriors and told them it’s over, they should be bringing them out of the bunker soon.”

“And what about the witch we saved?” Jeremy asks, his voice tense. “What are we going to do with her?”

I’m silent for a long moment. Thinking.

We can’t send her back to the pack she came from. The Beta Chris could use her as a weapon and come back. We can’t risk it.

But I also don’t want to hurt her, she’s just a child who got forced into a situation she couldn’t control.

She is a victim.

“We adopt her.” I finally say, “show her what a happy childhood can be like.”

Drake smiles. “I knew you would say that.” He laughs, “and I’m happy to bring her in as part of the family, if that’s what she wants.”

“She trusts Jeremy, maybe he should be the one to ask her if she wants to stay.” Dylan suggests, letting go of my hand. “But first we have a lot of cleaning up to do, and we better burn the bodies to stop the spread of disease.”

“You’re right.” I say. “Burning the bodies is the best option.”

Jeremy steps forward. “I’ll go find the girl, she must have plenty of questions by now.”

I nod, pulling him into my arms, “be careful, she could still he dangerous.”

He smiles don at me sweetly, “you don’t need to worry about me, princess, I’m fine.”

I watch him walk away, he’s still limping, but it isn’t as bad as before. If I had enough energy left, id heal him. But I don’t. Not right now.

Maybe I will later, but at this moment, my body needs a break. I’ve already used so much of my strength, I need to save some for myself. Just in case.

I grab Drake and Dylan’s hands, pulling them to the side. “What about those who were forced to fight? Are we still giving them shelter?”

Drake nods, his voice hard. “We can’t just let them go back to their cages, they need freedom as much as we do.”

Dylan nods in agreement. “We should help as many as we can.”

“Ok.” I say, deep in thought. “We just have to be careful which of them we do help. We don’t want to let the bad ones slip through the net again.”

Drake looks oddly guilty. “We will make sure their stories are true before we let them past the gate and onto our land.”

I look around at the mess, I wish I could bring back all the dead, we have families here who will never see their loved ones again. But that is what happens in war. They knew it was a possibility when they decided to fight.

But that doesn’t make it any easier for me to deal with, I feel responsible for all of them. Even the ones who weren’t on our side.

So much death. So much suffering. It could have all been avoided.

But some men are greedy, they try and take what isn’t theirs, and there has to be consequences to that.

I’m not sad that Tris was my mate, I would have never accepted him the way I did the others, he was rotten to his very core, and I won’t love someone like that. Not again. Not after my step father.

This isn’t the end for us, but it might just be the beginning of something else, something we make ourselves.