Killian's POV
The air still reeked like a slaughterhouse, even outside the tunnels. I stumbled into the courtyard, my lungs searing. Mina was dead weight against my side, her fingers digging into my arm. She was shaking with small tremors that wouldn't stop.
Mina wasn't weak. She never had been. There was a reason Lucian had made her an Omega and a reason I'd kept her in my bed and by my side for years until I found my mate, if I ever did. But the wards, which were supposed to be absolute, had been breached so easily. Maybe that was why she clung to me like I was her only solid ground.
I stopped at the edge of the fountain. The water was pink with runoff. The grass was stained with blood, and in the center of the carnage stood my twin.
Lucian had shifted, but shifting was too clean a term for the nightmare standing in the mountain. To the pack, his wolf was Gravefang, a name whispered in terror across the territories. But we both knew the real name of the beast – Vraal.
Vraal was a wall of gray muscle and scarred fur. He stood over six feet at the shoulder, his coat was matted with the blood of the rebels who had dared to cross our borders. Around him lay at least a dozen men some missing limbs, others with their throats torn wide open.
The Valerius Enforcers stood ten feet back, their heads bowed. They were terrified of their own Alpha. Gravefang wasn't a wolf you could reason with, he was a primal force that did as he pleased, even my brother could barely control him.
"Brother," I called out.
Gravefang turned his head toward me. His eyes were pitch black, it was a warning that the beast was in full control. Then, the monster did the one thing that made my brother the most feared Alpha in the hemisphere.
He spoke.
Not through a telepathic link, but with a physical voice, something no other wolf in our lineage could do while shifted.
"Traitors," Gravefang growled. "They bleed....like humans."
I flinched. I still hadn't gotten used to hearing him speak in that form. Gravefang was a lone wolf, a beast that didn't even recognize me as it's other half's twin. To him I was just another throat to tear if I came close.
In a blur of cracking bone, he shifted back.
Lucian stood there naked, panting, his chest heaving. As he turned, the red siphon mark at the center of his stomach was pulsing a violent crimson. It was a brand that had materialized the first time he truly lost control.
"The borders," Lucian said hoarsely. "They didn't break them. They didn't have to."
My blood turned to ice. "The wards?"
"Intact," Lucian hissed, stepping over a tangled limb. "Someone neutralized the western perimeter. Someone who knows the rotation. We have a motherfucking rat."
Mina whimpered, burying her face in my shoulder. "Lucian, please... it was horrible. I thought we were going to die. The howling..."
Lucian didn't even acknowledge her. His gaze drifted past me, searching the space behind my shoulder.
"Where is she?"
"The cellar," I said, my throat tightening. "The blast... it took out the main supports. The whole floor gave way. I tried to reach her, Lucian. I reached out, but the stone—"
"You let her go?" Lucian's voice dropped to a whisper. It was worse than a roar.
"I had to get Mina out!" I snapped, my own wolf rising in defense. "The roof was coming down. I couldn't save both."
Lucian took a step toward me, and the siphon mark on his stomach flared a brighter, angry red.
"Vraal is restless, isn't he?" I said, trying to steady my voice with a bit of the old humor we used to share. "He's always been... naughty. A wild thing that never learned how to be leashed."
"He's not naughty, and this shit isn't a call for humor. You chose an Omega," Lucian hissed, gripping his stomach as if to hold the beast in. "You chose her over the one thing keeping me sane? You chose a wolf over a fragile human whom we brought into our world?"
"Alpha, Killian almost died!" Mina cried out, her voice high and trembling. "He tried to save her. The rebels... they targeted her. They knew Elara was the last Anchor."
Lucian stared at her for a long, agonizing moment. Then his eyes flicked back to me.
"If she's dead, Killian," Lucian whispered, "When I finally lose my mind, I'll come for the Omega first."
He turned and vanished into the treeline without waiting for an answer, not like i had an answer to that.
He was going to hunt, and God help anyone he found in those woods.
I led Mina toward the East Wing. My floor.
Every floor we passed felt like a mile further away from the girl I'd left in the dark. Malakor wasn't a beast I wanted to fight, especially when I was.. still incomplete, but I knew I could have tried harder.
I should have dug until my fingers bled instead of running.
We reached my suite. The doors slid open to silk rugs and floor-to-ceiling glass, a world away from the grit and blood of the day.
I walked to the window, staring out at the forest. I felt an ache in my chest. My own beast was pacing in my head, snarling at the mistake I'd made.
"Killian," Mina whispered.
She was standing behind me. She had kicked off her ruined shoes. Her scent sweet, like honey and wilted flowers tried to wrap around me, but it felt thin. Insufficient.
"It's been so long," she said, her hand sliding up my back. "I know how to fix this. I know how to bring you back to me."
I didn't move. I felt numb.
Mina sank to her knees, her fingers working the buckle of my belt with practiced ease.
"Forget the human," she murmured against the fabric of my trousers. "What happened wasn't your fault. After all, she was never one of us, Killian. You did the right thing. You saved me."
She pulled me free. I looked down, seeing the top of her pink hair as she took me into her mouth.
It should have felt good. Mina was skilled and she knew exactly how to move, how to use her tongue to make me forget the world existed.
I closed my eyes, my fingers tangling in her hair. I wanted to feel her. I wanted to forget the silver sparks in Elara's eyes.
But as the pleasure peaked, it didn't feel like a release. It felt like a distraction, and a cheap one at that.
Mina looked up at me, her eyes wide, pleading for me to stay with her. To choose her again. To tell her she was enough.
I stood there, breathing hard in the quiet of my room, and realized the truth.
Mina's warmth couldn't touch the ache Elara had left behind.
I had saved the Omega. I had followed the rules of the pack.
But as I looked out at the moon, I knew I'd fucked up and if Lucian didn't kill me for this, the silence in my own head would.