Alpha King’s Wolfless Mate by Scarlett Higgins

Chapter 133**Blake POVGraham and I were doing little more than sparring as the battle around us raged. It was infuriating. If I didn’t know better, I would think that he was toying with me. We never shifted back—rather, Graham kept his human form, so I kept mine.If he wasn’t going to surrender, I’d at least make it a fair fight.He was hurting me, but all of the injuries were superficial. He dodged most of my attacks easily. It was obvious now that Graham was raised as a warrior—not because of his skill in as a human, but because of his mind. He knew how to keep a fight going. For whatever reason, he didn’t want to defeat me. Not yet.So, that’s why he was waiting on me before—not taking the attack when Jermey arrived and caught my attention. He was holding me off. But why?With Graham unwilling to launch a full force attack, I couldn’t get enough of an opening to take him out. He was using just enough force to keep me on my toes. I couldn’t risk taking a full hit from him, so I had no choice but to keep my guard up.I wanted to end this before it could go any further. I had to kill him, but I needed him to sl*p up first. Even the smallest mistake onhis part could give me the opportunity I needed. I knew that I was stronger than him, I just had to put that strength to use.I ran at him as fast as I could, and at the last moment, I jumped. Graham was caught off guard. He spun to keep me from attacking him from behind, but he was too slow. I tore a chunk from the back of his shoulder and he howled in pain.I could hear Jeremy shouting orders to his men, but I tried to ignore them. I had to focus on Graham and entrust the rest of the fight to him.He could handle his own men, and Maisie’s voice rang out alongside his occasionally, so I knew that my warriors were in good hands.Graham was becoming more erratic as the fight wore on. It was like he was slowly losing the ability to think clearly and plan his attacks. He was just rushing at me like a wild animal.It was easy enough to do dge those kinds of attacks, but he was relentless.Our fight had carried on for so long, that I didn’t even realize the chaos around us was going silent. It wasn’t until Graham stopped attacking and turned his attention to the right that I realized the castle grounds had fallen silent.I didn’t take my eyes off of Graham, even though he was ignoring me.“King Blake,”Jeremy’s voice called out.“Allof the Lanecreek warriors have been apprehended.”“The dungeons are full,” Maisi e chimed in.“But I doubt we’ll have much more troublefor them. Most of them seemed relieved.”“And the rogues?”I asked. Given the silencethat had fallen, I had a feeling I already knew the answer.“Dead,”Maisi e answered coolly.“It doesn’t matter,”Graham muttered, hisface battered and covered in dry blood.I shook my head in disbelief. He had lost, but he didn’t care. It didn’t make sense.“I trust you’re already moving the injured tothe hospital?”I asked, ignoring Graham’s comment.w𝕎𝓦.ñ𝗢𝗩ℯ𝓛ⓦⓞ𝓇m.𝘤ⓞ𝗠“Yes, King Blake,”Jeremy answered.“Is thereanything else we can do?”“Reinforce the borders,”I said firmly.“Andleave a troop here. Something isn’t right. I don’t know what they’re up to, but it hasn’t escaped my notice that my uncle hasn’t shown his face yet. I want to make sure that he doesn’t get the drop on us.”“Yes, sir,”Jeremy answered immediately.He turned to his warriors and started giving orders.“Maisie,”I started.“Shut that damned alarmoff and get a message to the shelters that they are to remain in lockdown until I say otherwise.”“Yes, sir,” she answered. She ran toward theside entrance of the castle without another word.Graham turned to stare at me. Graham stood up shakily and looked around us.

There were corpses scattered across the lawn. The garden was reduced to smoldering ash and the statue of the god dess was scorched black.The sight of it shook me more than I wanted to admit. This was my childhood home. I had played with my mother on this lawn. We had picnics in the garden. Those were some of the happiest memories of my childhood, and now they would forever be tainted by the sight of soot and blood.I didn’t recognize any of the dead, but I didn’t take the time to look closely. I couldn’t be distracted by grief right now. This was far from over.Graham looked at me and shook his head. “Don’t think this means you’ve won,” he saidangrily.“This isn’t over yet. Just because those pathetic excuses for warriors have fallen, doesn’t mean that I am beaten. Those traitors will be put to death the moment I finish with you!”“Why are you doing this?”I demanded.“Doyou want power this badly? People are dead because of you, Graham!”He went very still and stared at me. The intensity of his gaze sent a shiver through me. It was unsettling to be stared at with so much hatred.“You don’t deserve to be king!”Grahamscreamed.“There is nothing you can tell me that will change what is happening here today. You are going to die, and your whole pack with you! I will flood these streets with their blood!”Any semblance of san ity had left his eyes. He was crazed.A grin spread across his face and he turned his back to me and looked up at the castle. “Well, maybe I’ll leave one person alive.”Helooked at me over his shoulder.“Nora is in there, isn’t she?”“You bastard!”I clenched my jaw.His grin widened impossibly.“Thanks to your b*tch of a Beta, I need a new Luna. I think that Nora would do very nicely.”ⓦ𝚠ⓦ.𝓝o𝓥𝗲𝕃ⓦ𝕠𝔯𝘮.𝗰𝔬m“You won’t lay a hand on her!”I screamed. Iwould never let scum like Graham hurt Nora. He would have to squeeze every last drop of life out of me before something like that could even become a remote possibility.Graham turned to face me and held his arms out in invitation.“Go ahead and stop me! I’ve played with you long enough. You’ve gotto be tired, nowYour Majesty. So, now that we’re on even ground-FIGHT ME!There it was. That’s why he was biding his time. Not for my uncle, but to make me weaker—slower. And I had to say, it worked. But I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of knowing that.I ran forward, intent on ending this once and for all, but I stopped cold when I saw a figure appear behind Graham.There was a resounding thud and a sp urt of blood sprang from the center of Graham’s chest. The crazy look in his eyes was replaced by shock and he lifted his hands to his chest. He tried to turn his head and look at who was standing behind him, but he couldn’t turn far enough.“Wha-”He tried to speak but a wet choking sound silenced him. His head fell forward and blood dripped down his chin and chest. His b*dy went limp.I wasn’t even sure if I was still breathing. The shock of the sight in front of me was too much for my mind to process at first.My uncle pulled his hand from Graham’s chest and shook it, sending blood spattering along the ground. It was such a dismissive, careless motion—as if he had stuck his hand in something unpleasant and was shaking it off 𝚌𝔬𝑚Graham collapsed to the side and crashed down on the hard ground. He was stone still.My uncle stepped over Graham’s prostrate b*dy like it was nothing but trash on the sidewalk. It was so cold, I could hardly believe what I was seeing.I knew that he was using Graham, but he had been living with him for so long. He was Graham’s Beta and he killed him like he was no more than killing a fly.“This pack is mine now,”he said with awicked grin.“Poor Graham had no heir, not even a Luna, so the leadership of Lanecreek now falls to me.”“That doesn’t do you much good,”I pointedout.“We’ve already defeated your warriors.”He cackled.“You can’t think that was all I had in store for you.” He took a step toward me.“My plan is almost complete, Blake. All I have to do is kill you and I’ll finally get everything I’ve always wanted. I’ll finally have my crown.”There was no doubt or hesitation in his eyes. He meant every word that he said.This was really it. I had to face my uncle once and for all. If I didn’t stop him now, the kingdom would fall into his hands, and everything would be lost.