Chapter 75

Chapter 75
Tristan pov

I’m so fucking close, close enough to hear the tearing of flesh and the the howls of those being injured, I just hope that I’ve made it on time. I hope Talia is alive. I can see dead bodies scattered in the dirt, but I can’t see them clearly from where I’m hiding.

I need to move closer, I need to find her.

“Goddess above, please let her be alive.” I say to myself, quickly shifting back into my human form to get a better look.

The men I brought with me all stand behind me in their wolf forms, ready to move as soon as I give the order. But I’m not ready to do that. I don’t know what we’re walking into.

“Alpha there!” One of my warriors says through mind-link, his head indicating left.

I turn, and I see her, I see Talia.

She is being circled by a big guy, presumably one of the enemy, and he’s talking to her in a low voice. He looks pissed. He could attack her at any moment and I’ll be too far away to stop him.

“Attack.” I say to my men, using the packs mind-link. “Save your Luna.”

He grabs her shoulder as I run through the bodies, and I hear her cry out, dropping to her knees. He’s hurting her. Really hurting her.

I burst through the crowd of men who are watching him torture her and I tackle the guy into the ground, shifting into my wolf at the last second. I don’t give him a chance to fight back, I sink my teeth into his arm, the same arm that he used to hurt my mate, and I bite down as hard as I can until I feel the bone snap. He screams like a little girl, much louder than Talia did and she’s more than half his size.

“Get off me!” He growls, trying to pry me off his arm by force.

I bite down harder before letting go and trotting over to Talia. My wolf sniffing her shoulder, it isn’t broken, but it will definitely bruise.

I shift back, keeping my eye on the big guy as he is dragged away by his own men. They think they can save him. But they’re wrong, I’m going to kill him.

First though, I’m going to make sure my mate is ok.

“Talia.” I say, wiping away the tears sliding down her cheeks. “It’s ok now. I’m here.”

She looks up at me, leaning into my touch. “He’s broken my wrist.” She whispers in a voice so low I almost miss it. “It hurts and it’s swelling.”

I’m going to tear out his throat and feed it to him.

I look around, searching for one of my warriors, but they’re all locked in fights, I can’t interrupt them without possibly causing them to be hurt. I won’t risk their lives more than I already am.

But I also can’t take care of Talia and kill the guys who hurt her. Fuck, what should I do?

I slowly rise back to my feet as two men approach me, large smiles on their faces, and from their smell, they’re not friendly.

“Hand her over and we’ll spare your life.” The first one says, he is half shifted, his arms full of fur and his hands more like paws with claws.

Does he really think I’ll hand her over? I’d rather die here with her than let them take her from me.

“I’m not letting you take her.” I say, my voice utterly calm. “You’ll have to kill me if you want to get to her.”

I need to think clearly, I can’t let my anger overtake my mind.

I need to be smart about this.

There are too many of them to fight alone, but my warriors are doing a good job at keeping most of them too distracted to care what I’m doing. And the rest are protecting the big guy and trying to stop the bleeding I caused.

He’s lucky I didn’t go straight for his throat. Perhaps I should have. It would have made what comes next much easier.

Talia grabs my arm, “the beta wants to take me back to my father pack and make me his.” She rushes to say, “he knows a witch who can destroy the mate marks I have.”

What then hell?

I frown, removing a mate mark can mean death, even with a talented witch, which I doubt they have. They’re very hard to come by.

If he tries to remove her marks, she could die.

I definitely can’t let him take her, no matter the cost to me or my pack. Her life depends on it. And I already made the wrong choice once before.

“I won’t let him take you.” I promise her, squeezing her hand. “Do you trust me?”

She stares at me for several seconds and I think she’s going to say no, but eventually, she nods. “I trust you.” She says.

Good, because she’s going to need that trust.

I turn to the men closing in around us, “if you want to kill me, you are welcome to come and try.” I shout, loud enough for my own men to hear.

Several of them are by my side immediately, blocking Talia from view and ready to fight for their Alpha and their Luna.

The enemy wolves suddenly look nervous, they don’t know what to do, but we all know they can’t run away. If they do, they’ll be branded traitors by her father and killed anyway.

They could surrender, but I know they won’t.

These are not the type of men who surrender.

“Surrender.” I say, knowing they won’t. “Or die.”

Talia looks horrified, but she has to understand that I have no choice but to destroy them. They came here to hurt her and steal her from her home. I can’t let them do that, and I can’t let them go either.

I have no choice but to kill them, that is just how these things work.

To my surprise, Talia nods at me, giving me the go ahead to do what I need to do.

I couldn’t be more grateful for that small action of hers, Talia hates violence of any kind, but she is showing she knows that there is no other way.

She’s come a long way from the scared girl I found sleeping under a tree.

And I couldn’t be prouder.