Ace POV
I kept slipping in and out of consciousness, my lungs burning as one had collapsed when the bullet passed through it, my breathing wheezed with each breath before I lost consciousness, my wolf unable to heal me fast enough.
However, Lucy’s scream and agony ripped me out of my pain-induced slumber, my wolf livid as he rushed to the surface to see the witch plunge the poker straight through her stomach. Her scream was deafening before it suddenly died out. Rayan’s screams for them to stop died out the moment Atticus shoved forward and tried to shift, only we couldn’t.
My body was strapped down to the chair, and all we could do was watch. I could feel the skin on my legs melting off, and I glanced down to find my legs submerged in a bucket of wolfsbane, yet were unrestrained and heavy as pain rippled up each leg, my hands, forearms, and chest strapped to the chair, and a collar was around my neck.
The witch laughed; the sound seemed to vibrate around the room, echoing loudly as she laughed before doing it again. I struggle against my restraints. Lucy was dripping in sweat, her skin deathly pale, and I could see Melana lying on the floor not far from her feet. Josie was unconscious on the floor face down near the door.
“Come on, boy,” The witch laughs, and I scream when she plunges the poker through Lucy’s sternum, hear her flesh-tearing, the muscle shredding, her eyes fly open, and her mouth opens with a silent scream when her eyes fall on me. She looks down at the poker protruding out of her. The witch pushes it all the way through to the handle. Blood dribbles from her mouth, and she sputters, coughing blood everywhere. Lucy looked up at me; her face held shock before she spoke.
“Get them out,” She gasps, blood pouring from her lips down her chest as she chokes on it.
My world stopped, everything around me stopped as I listened to her heartbeat slow, thump, thump, thump….. thump…thump before her head fell forward and searing pain crushed my heart to oblivion, the bond severing and Rayan calls for his sister.
“Lucy?” he whispers. The witch taps her cheek with her filthy hands, yet all I could do was stare. She is dead. Her heat made her unable to heal from her injuries, and her body succumbs unable to take anymore.
“Hey, wake up,” The witch snaps at her. Alpha Jamie turns and stares at Lucy.
“I said wake up,” The witch snarls at her, slapping her, and her head just rolls, blood running down her nose and from her eyes, but she doesn’t move, her heart no longer beating when I feel the tether to her snap completely.
Blinding pain moves through my chest, and Atticus howls and thrashes while Rayan growls, the sound is predatory, yet all I can think about was my dead mate, sitting across from me, unmoving dead, and I did nothing just watched her die, I couldn’t save her.
“Whoops,” The witch says with a shrug, and I glare at her. She raises her hands before turning back to Rayan and clapping her hands and her eyes lit up with joy, the sick bitch just killed my mate, and she couldn’t care less. Like Lucy’s life meant nothing to the old hag.
“Well, will you look at that? Seems your wolf isn’t far from the surface after all, boy,”
“I will go get Emily,” Alpha Jamie says, turning toward the door.
“Best I do it, I need to prepare her, don’t want the little wolf in pain when she receives her mark, now do we,” Beryl says, and Jamie nods, watching her go. When she does, he turns to face me.
“You know all this could have been avoided. Your brother only had to do as I ask, and your mate would still be alive,” he taunts, kicking lucy’s foot. Rayan snarls at him, and I peer over at him. His canines had slipped out, his silver and gold eyes were fluorescent as he bared his teeth.
Alpha Jamie sneers at him. “I own you boy, don’t you forget it, that marking up your arm ensured it,” He says, spitting at Rayan’s feet, and I notice the swirling pattern etched up his arm, the skin raised and an angry red, his hands clenched the armrest, claws digging into the wood.
“I’m gonna kill him,” Atticus growls in my head, yet all I can do is watch. I had no point in living without her, my mind numb at what I witnessed, the way she looked at me. Her heartbeat was forever ingrained in my memory with the way it abruptly stopped.
Tyson POV
Aamon and I moved Avery into the same room as Reika and my brother so I could watch over all of them while Aamon traveled to the underworld, it confused me, but he explained it was some strange voodoo meditation that would allow him to remain here while his soul traveled between realms.
“Ready?” I ask him. And Aamon moved to the spare bed we dragged in and was just about lay down when Avery suddenly gasped and sat up abruptly, nearly making me jump out of my skin.
“Avery?” Aamon jumps off the bed, rushing to her side. Her eyes were wide open, and her lips moving quickly muttering in some foreign tongue, but her eyes were white. Aamon clutches her face in his hands.
“Babe? What do you see?” He says, shaking her gently when she grips his hands, her eyes returning to the emerald green I was used to.
“Avery?” he whispers.
“The earth will bleed,” She whispers. My brows furrow at her words.
“The what?”
“The earth will bleed, and so will she, for she touched my hybrids,” Avery says. Aamon and I both stare at her trying to make sense of her words when pain rippled through my chest, making me clutch it. My knees buckled, and Tyrant howled in my head.
“Lucy,” I choke out before feeling the bond sever. A scream leaves my lips as unbearable pain ripped at my soul and tore my heart from my chest. Pure agony when Avery was suddenly beside me, her hand over my heart, and Aamon hovered behind her like he was worried she would drop dead like my mate just did.
“Lucy!” I gasp, and Avery nods sadly, and I feel her hand warm against my chest, the pain receding when we hear another gasp turned feral growl, making my eyes dart to the two other beds in the room. Ryker’s remained the same, the machine breathing for him and the soft beeping of the devices attached to him is loud in the quiet room. Looking at Reika’s, she was staring at me, only it wasn’t Reika, her eyes a demonic black, and her canines protruded. A look of pure evil had her nose wrinkle before Amanda growled.
“Reika?” I choke out, holding back tears.
She turns her head, observing me for a second before looking at her hand and Avery rises to her feet.
“How is she awake when Ryker isn’t,” Aamon asks the question I was thinking.
“Hello Amanda,” Avery smiles.
“Where is my daughter,” Amanda says, her voice raspy when she moves with blinding speed, and Avery puts a hand on her chest as she goes to dart from the room.
“Power to the wolf,” Avery says.
Amanda laughs. “No power needed witch, I like to kill with my bare hands, now who am I killing first,”