Jade’s pov:
To say the queen was livid, as she saw the guards’ futile attempts at getting through to us, would be the understatement of the century.
But truth be told, I couldn’t be bothered with her at the moment. She was just a deranged woman among many, and though there would be no helping her, I knew my time here was up.
The guards were stopped by the barrier. Despite all their efforts to get to us, they couldn’t… But I wasn’t sure how long said barrier would last. Paulina was already beginning to pale, as it seemed to drain her of energy.
They kept urging us to drop the barrier so we could talk, but we weren’t stupid enough to do as they said.
Before long, Anna grabbed my hand and said in a timid voice, “Repeat after me.”
I trusted the little girl enough to do as she said, and repeated the Latin words she chanted. And just as Paulina’s barrier was about to give way, another one sprung up.
“You put a barrier in place?” Paulina let out in an incredulous tone of voice. She was breathless, and that was the sole indication that she had been running low on energy. “That’s insane considering you’ve only been practising for a couple of weeks.”
“I only did as Anna told me,” I responded, blushing to the roots of my hair because I didn’t even know what I was chanting for a few moments ago.
“Well, you did it just in the nick of time. Thank you, Anna,” Paulina ruffled her daughter’s hair affectionately.
“Let us in,” one guard kept yelling as he kept bouncing off the barrier.
“We did nothing wrong,” I told him flippantly. “Why would we accept getting thrown into the dungeons?”
“The queen’s words are absolute,” another one added, even though I could see the doubt in his eyes.
I wasn’t surprised because he had been watching us, and we hadn’t done anything but put a barrier in place to protect ourselves… Naturally, the doubt could also be attributed to the queen’s desire to imprison a child too.
Another guard shifted and began to hit the barrier full force. He was undeterred, and I wondered if my barrier would even last as long as Paulina’s did.
I reasoned that we needed to be prepared for the worst.
“Don’t be foolish,” the first guard let out exasperatedly. “This can be sorted out…”
I drowned the rest of his sentence, knowing he was merely trying to get us to give in to the queen’s demands. I saw no chance of that happening. She was power crazy and delirious with greed. She wouldn’t allow my unborn baby to keep living if it were up to her… I could feel it already.
I could also feel some numbness hitting my limbs, and I knew I must have overexerted myself, but I would keep the barrier up as long as I possibly could. I trusted my mate to come save the day, but I needed to do my part too.
I was about to black out when I sensed a powerful werewolf nearby.
“He’s here,” I whispered just as I fell to one knee and the barrier dropped.
“You’ve used too much of your power,” Paulina declared, and came to stand in front of me. “I’ll protect you as much as I can.”
“Don’t be reckless, friend,” I said in a hushed tone of voice.
I felt mom’s warm hand support my head before it dropped to the ground unceremeniously, and then chaos followed while I was passed out.
** ** ** ** **
Alex’s pov:
Jade’s call had thrown me into a state of anxiousness, and I couldn’t wait to get to her. She was in danger. She and our unborn baby were in danger. I could barely believe that she carried a supreme alpha… It made me happy, excited, and yet oh so worried at the same time.
We needed to make it. There was no other option.
“Hit the damned gas, Cole,” I told the warrior as we were about to step into the lands of the alpha king. I had informed him two days ago that I was coming, so I knew the warriors at the gates wouldn’t be a bother.
It was the queen whom I was the most worried about. She would be a pain, I could already see it.
I had naturally called the alpha king, only to get voicemail. I then decided to send him a text. I chose my words wisely, because crazy and greedy or not, the queen was still his mother.
Word might have reached you already: Jade is carrying the next alpha of alphas, and your mother isn’t too happy about it. I will be taking my mate home with me tonight.
The text should tell him exactly how troublesome the situation was without me having to spell it out for him. After all, I had trusted him for two weeks with my mate’s safety, and up till her call, I had had no doubt that nothing could harm her there.
Now, I wasn’t so sure, but I was glad I had requested that someone would go along with her and she had chosen her mother, an elite warrior.
When I arrived to where I sensed my precious Jade was at, I saw that her mother had shifted into a wolf and was fighting two others. Jade laid on the ground, passed out from the looks of it, as a woman and a child stood next to her.
I recognized the blonde duo as the mother-daughter witches, and it seemed like the woman was doing her best to prevent the queen’s lapdogs from advancing. There was a circle of fire that protected the two witches but also my mate, and the two other wolves didn’t dare to step into the circle.
I shifted at once and howled angrily, bringing attention to myself. I snarled in warning as the wolves looked at me. And before long, I was charging through the mess to get to my precious mate and our unborn baby.