Fatal Temptation: Between Two Alphas

Chapter Fifty-Four

"Hello husband."

Holy shit. It's Ashley.

She's here. Walking into the courtyard in a long floral dress that hangs on her frail body. Her hair is pulled back and even sickly, she is beautiful. Her voice is like a siren's song and I wonder if this was one more deal she made with the witches to be able to entrance others so easily.

As the sound fades, I shake my head to clear it.

She turns to our mother. "Adriana."

My mother nods. There is something in her expression that is haunted. Is it acceptance or regret? The recognition that all of her choices have led to this moment of reckoning. Or maybe it's just seeing her two daughters whom she'd abandoned together. Finally.

Then again, it could be the gun in Ashley's hand.

Ashley sniffs the air. "Well, I must say, this feels familiar. Fucking her again, Cameron?"

He doesn't argue or apologize. "It was only through your treachery that I was separated from my mate in the first place, Ashley."

His voice is calm, patient even.

What is that sound? The singing is back only it isn't coming from Ashley now, maybe it wasn't her in the first place?

The melody... it's distracting me, drawing my attention to the mist.

Mia! It's Eric. He's in my head. My sister...

"Corinne," I whisper. "You need to leave."

She points up to the balconies.

And then I see them. Wraiths. Dozens of them.

They're human...but not. They smell like death. They are death.

And their insatiable appetites mean we will have a hard fight to break free of this place.

They're in the mist, a part of it, and the singing in the air drowns the jazz and hisses of the wraiths.

"Why the hell would you bring me here!?" I shout at my mother.

It was her map.

I came to find her, seeking answers and instead I led us all into a trap.

"You brought me here," Ashley says to me. She laughs cruelly.

Oh my God. I've caused this.

I set us on this path.

And in doing so, I brought my love and my Alpha, Corinne and her warriors, into this place.

"Corinne. Run!"

"Too late for that," she says.

I turn to Cam. "You need to get out of here. Now. You need to get back to our kids."

He's already shifting. His body expanding and his face morphing into his lycan form. He won't run. He won't leave me. "Ashley," I try to reason with her. "Please don't do this."

"I have lost everything!" she reminds me. "And it's all because of this bitch!"

She lifts the gun in her hand and shoots our mother. At such a short range, the bullet goes straight into Adriana's heart.

The blast echoes in the courtyard.

It is the signal the wraiths are waiting for.

They leap over the balconies and pour out of the mist before my mother's body hits the ground.

Ashley stands there. She doesn't

fight and the wraiths don't attack

her. The creatures are normally mindless so it must be something in the blood or some spell to hold them back from her.

That's my last thought and then I'm shifting and fighting, using fists and claws and the butter knife beside my plate to cut my way through these beasts.

The Titans draw back... they don't

fight. They don't interfere in any way. One wraith leaps onto Corinne's

back

and Theo breaks their ranks

and charges into the fray, but the

others catch him.

They retreat-dragging Theo away. He roars and tries to break free, but is restrained.

I focus on fighting as I call Nala.

I shift completely, giving myself over to my wolf.

She's large and fierce and right now I can't have any emotion.

I need to fight and kill and do everything I can to get back to my children.

Cam is sweeping and roaring. He dives from one creature to another, ripping out their throats, his claws digging into chests.

He's brutal.

The Ravens fight like a unit. Backs to each other. The local wolves also fight as a team.

But it isn't enough, we're gravely

outnumbered and these hideous creatures pour like ants over the walls into the square. Rachel falls first, her body overrun by wraiths that drag her into the mist and then up into the air to the third floor where they feast.

Her screams are piercing.

Ashley stands over our mother. "Maybe you should've seen this coming."

Adriana gurgles blood. It splatters on her pristine dress. "You will find happiness, my child."

Ashley's eyes are cold. "And you will find death. Alone. With no one to grieve you."

I manage to maul the wraith in front of me but two others are approaching Cam's blind side. I'm only partially aware of what's happening around me. Nala sees. She hears. Her focus lets us fight.

We run for Cam and lunge at the wraith closest to his back. Its sinew and bones break beneath our maw, but something crashes into my side, cutting off my air and pinning me to the ground. The wraith thrashes its head from side to side and even though I'm clawing at its eyes and biting its face, the monster doesn't let go of my throat.

There's a horrible roar and then the creature is thrown off me.

I shift back to human.

Corinne is above me. She's in her lycan form and she's the last thing I see before three wraiths drag her away. "Noooo!"

The mist melts.

The screaming fades.

But the singing intensifies. I blink, my vision blurry.

There is a woman. She's tall, over six feet tall, with dark eyes and hair. She walks among the fallen wolves, pausing at Lianne and Rachel. Jessica's body is somewhere on an upper floor. "Sisters," she proclaims.

Her hand sweeps over them like she's scooping the air and then she holds her hand to the sky. Actual ravens circle her and take flight. A second flock lands on one of the upper balconies. I see this in slow motion.

I think I'm hallucinating.

The battle still rages.

At one point, Corinne's body drops from the balcony and lands on the table, shattering dishes and glasses. Her head lulls to the side and her eyes are unseeing.

My vision too, is dimming.

Then Cam is above me. He's dragging me up and holding me against his chest. He's roaring, and trying to staunch my bleeding.

I get it now. Why I panicked when he tried to mark me.

Because if he had... If we finished our mating bond.

Then he would die now with me.