121- The Wolf Without a Heart
POV Lunara Grimwald:
I shook my head, crying uncontrollably.
I tried to stand, but my muscles felt as if they weighed tons. Still, I tried. I used every ounce of strength I had left inside me. Sweat broke across my forehead, and I began to tremble, pouring out every drop of energy that remained.
I hated the lupine hierarchy, hated that Alessio was stronger than me, that I couldn’t act when it mattered most.
No, please, no! I begged silently, pleading to the heavens.
“For Eldoria, until my last breath,” he rasped.
Alessio’s nails lengthened, turning into sharp claws. Then he plunged his hand into the wolf’s back, shattering bones, making them crack in a dry, sickening snap. I gasped in despair. The acrid scent of blood filled the air around us. More of the liquid spilled from Anton’s lips, and the pain I saw in his eyes was unbearable. Alessio yanked his hand back with a violent motion, holding the heart of the Eldoria wolf between his fingers.
“I do this just as your damn alpha loved doing to my wolves. Let him find you without a heart, like the heads of my men that hang from the stakes behind us,” he growled.
“NO!”
The scream that tore through me was so loud and fierce that the leaves of the trees around us shuddered, as if they could feel my agony, trembling with what I felt and expressed.
Anton fell to the side, eyes wide open, his green gaze lifeless.
The pain that struck me was excruciating, ripping me apart from the inside out. My screams didn’t stop; they felt like the only thing that could somehow lessen the intensity of what I was feeling.
I threw myself over him, finally breaking free from the hypnotic fear that Alessio had bound me with. Every cell in my body ached. Every muscle burned. I groped at his body, as if I could bring him back somehow. My vision blurred with tears, and my heart roared so loudly I could hear its pounding in my ears.
His death tore through me—it shredded my soul and shattered my heart.
Anton had become an important friend over the months; I saw him as family and trusted him, just as I did Edric. All he had ever done was remain loyal to his leader, from the beginning until his final breath.
Another strangled cry caught in my throat.
I lay over his body, trembling, crying in despair, begging for it not to be true, pleading for fate to somehow be changed.
“No, please, no!” I exhaled, my voice hoarse and broken.
The pain was unlike anything I had ever felt before, different from when I had been hurt by the Eclipse males. It was deeper, sharper. Edric was coming—he had to be. My anguish was blinding; there was no way he couldn’t feel it.
I closed my eyes for a moment, trying to contain the avalanche of emotions threatening to engulf me. It was useless. The weight of losing my friend was crushing. I bent over, sobbing in pain and grief.
“Anton,” I called, as if he could answer.
The world around me felt blurred and distant, as though everything had frozen except for my own tearing agony. I clung to Anton’s body, feeling the chill of death seep into my soul.
I felt Alessio draw closer. I ignored him. He no longer mattered—nothing did. I just wanted Anton back. Our group would never be whole again without him.
He crouched beside me and pulled me away from Anton’s lifeless body.
“You really did like him, didn’t you?” he laughed. “Makes me feel even more satisfied for killing him.” He raised a syringe before my face. “Time to sleep.”
Then he shoved it into my neck. I felt the cold needle pierce my skin as the sedative entered my bloodstream.
I blinked, struggling to keep my eyes open as the wave of drowsiness overcame me. Tears still cascaded down my face like a waterfall.
“Edric,” I whispered hoarsely.
“He won’t come for you. He’ll never see you again,” Alessio promised, kissing the top of my head.
“Get out of here already. Edric’s probably on his way after all her little display over the wolf’s death,” Thalira grunted. “If I’d known she’d react like this, I wouldn’t have let you kill him.”
“He promised me the life of one of his men, just as he took mine.”
“I know, but this stupid girl’s reaction puts our whole plan at risk. He feels everything she feels. He must know something’s wrong and is probably coming back right now. You should’ve sedated her before killing the idiot.”
“And miss all the fun of watching her suffer? You wanted it as much as I did.”
I tried to fight the numbness taking over me. My breathing slowed, becoming calm and steady. My vision blurred, and the voices around me faded into distant echoes. I tried to protest, to scream, to say anything that could stop what was happening, but my tongue was too heavy.
“Yes, I did,” she admitted, “but not if it meant putting the plan at risk. If Edric gets his hands on her, he’ll kill you on the spot and end everything.”
He laughed.
“Give me some credit, omega. I’m an alpha too.”
“You may be an alpha, but he’s stronger.”
Laughing, Alessio pulled me against him.
“I just need to do one little thing first.”
“And what’s that?” Thalira asked.
“Mark my territory. Something that’s been mine for a long time.”
He sank his teeth into the side of my neck. I had no strength left to resist; the sedation had taken hold. I tried to dissociate, but the pain sliced through me like a blade. His bite filled me with revulsion. It wasn’t right—I didn’t belong to him. He had no right to mark me. My body rejected him; my wolf rejected him.
It was a betrayal of the act of mating, of my true mate. I felt his teeth in my flesh, and I couldn’t do anything as my body trembled in response to the grotesque, twisted act.
He spat my blood onto the ground, curling his lips in disgust.