Chapter 254 The Dark Woods
The echo of the gunshot was still ringing violently in the damp air.
Fennigan slowly turned his head away from the paralyzed stealth team, his glowing silver eyes finally landing on his Beta. The terrifying, demonic Alpha mask he had just weaponized to command his men slipped, just for a fraction of a second. But it was enough.
"Can you take care of this?" Fennigan asked. His voice was suddenly stripped of its booming, earth-shattering command, dropping into a terrifyingly rough, hollow rasp.
Jax’s sharp eyes locked onto his brother. He saw the violent tremor locked in Fennigan’s jaw and the sickly, ashen color completely draining the warmth from his scarred face. The fiercely tactical Beta knew immediately that something was fundamentally, deeply wrong—looking into that pit and pulling the trigger on a perfect replica of his pregnant mate had just shattered something inside the Alpha.
But Jax wasn't going to push it. Not here. Not in front of the men, and not when the threat was still walking around at the bottom of the cave.
Jax gave a single, hard nod, his own expression shifting into absolute, unyielding loyalty. He stepped forward, physically placing himself between Fennigan and the cavern to take over the command.
"Go," Jax ordered quietly.
Fennigan didn't hesitate. He turned his back on the blown-out mountain, the blast zone, and his men, plunging blindly straight back into the suffocating darkness of the tree line.
He walked fast, his long, heavy strides tearing through the underbrush. He pushed himself relentlessly until the sickening, mechanical sound of the stealth team finally racking their tactical rifles and opening fire on the cavern floor faded into a dull, distant pop. He pushed until he was completely out of earshot, absolutely alone in the dead, ash-choked woods.
Then, the Alpha King's knees simply gave out.
Fennigan dropped hard to the forest floor, his massive hands slamming into the dirt to catch his weight. His broad chest heaved as his stomach convulsed violently, and he threw up. His massive body was physically, violently rejecting the absolute, sickening evil of what Damon had built, and the paralyzing trauma of putting a bullet between the eyes of the woman he loved, even if it was just a hollow shell.
When there was absolutely nothing left to heave, he didn't get back up.
The great, unshakeable leader—the fierce wolf who carried the weight of the entire rebellion on his shoulders—collapsed back onto his heels. He pulled his trembling hands up, burying his scarred face deep in his palms. Hidden entirely by the dark, with no packs to lead and no enemies to terrify, Fennigan completely broke down.
His massive shoulders shook with the force of his silent, agonizing sobs, weeping for the sheer, unadulterated nightmare his family had been dragged into.
Miles away from the blown-out cavern, surrounded by the warmth and deafening music of the bonfire, Leela suddenly stopped dead in her tracks.
The heavy, joyful atmosphere of the party was instantly violently overwritten by a blinding, sickening spike of raw emotion tearing through her mate bond.
It hit Leela so hard it physically stole the breath from her lungs. She felt the terrifying, lethal absolute of Fennigan pulling a trigger. It was immediately followed by a wave of pure, visceral horror, and then an agonizing, soul-crushing grief so profound it made her knees buckle.
She braced her hand against the side of the wagon, her silver eyes going wide. She reached back out through the bond, desperately searching for him in the dark, but there was nothing. A sudden, terrifying wall slammed down as Fennigan violently locked his emotions away.
The abrupt silence in her mind didn't soothe her; it triggered an immediate, blinding spike of Matriarchal panic. Something was horribly, fundamentally wrong.
Leela forced herself to keep her face perfectly neutral, not allowing a single ounce of her rising terror to show to the fifteen visiting Alphas or their packs. She quickly wheeled the wagon over to the edge of the firelight where Sarah and Elana were standing. The two toddlers were still happily oblivious, munching on their bread.
"Sarah," Leela murmured, her voice tight but carefully controlled. "Would you and Elana watch them for just a minute?"
Sarah’s sharp, protective eyes immediately caught the rigid tension in her Luna's shoulders. She didn't ask questions. She just gave a firm, absolute nod, instantly stepping closer to the wagon. "Of course, Luna. Take all the time you need."
Leela didn't waste another second. She turned and moved swiftly through the celebrating crowd, slipping seamlessly past laughing warriors and dancing couples. She kept her pace entirely casual until she reached the heavy back doors of the packhouse.
The moment she crossed the threshold, she broke into a run.
She bypassed the main halls, moving silently through the empty corridors and slipping straight out the secondary back door that led toward the eastern perimeter. The heavy, thumping bass of the party instantly muted, replaced by the dead, unnerving silence of the ash-choked woods.
Leela pushed into the dark, her heightened senses straining to find her mate. She knew she was getting close to the blast radius. The faint, metallic scent of ozone and melted earth was growing stronger in the cold night air.
She opened her mouth to whisper his name into the dark.
A shadow suddenly detached itself from the thick trunk of an oak tree right behind her.
Before Leela's instincts could even scream a warning, a heavy, gloved hand clamped violently over her mouth and nose. A thick, coarse rag was crushed against her face, instantly flooding her senses with the harsh, sickening chemical burn of a high-grade sedative.
Leela thrashed, her hands flying up to claw fiercely at the thick arm banded like iron around her chest. She fought with the terrifying, adrenaline-fueled strength of a mother trying to protect her unborn child, but the chemical worked impossibly fast. The suffocating fumes burned her lungs, dragging her forcefully down.
The dark woods began to violently spin. As her fierce, silver eyes rolled back and her desperate struggle slowed to a heavy, sluggish twitch, her fading consciousness violently reached out through the mate bond one last time.
It wasn't a call for help for herself; it was pure, unadulterated maternal terror.
My baby! her mind screamed into the void, a desperate, shattering echo that tore straight through the ether. My Zephyr!
And then, the absolute darkness finally pulled her under.
Deep in the ash-choked woods, Fennigan was still on his knees in the dirt, his massive frame shaking with the silent, agonizing weight of the horrors he had just witnessed.
Suddenly, the mental scream ripped through his skull with the concussive force of a physical bullet.
My baby! My Zephyr!
Fennigan gasped, his chest heaving as his head snapped up. His glowing silver eyes blew wide in the dark. The sheer, blinding terror in his mate's voice instantly incinerated his grief, replacing it with a lethal, world-ending panic.
He instantly threw his entire soul against the bond, reaching back for her with a desperate, roaring surge of Alpha power.
Leela?! Sparky!
But there was nothing.