The Alpha Assassin novel Chapter 74

“He’s here,” I whispered to Ezra. “I’m going to find him.”

I went to turn, but he grabbed my elbow, placing a palm on my face. He lowered his forehead to mine. “Go get him,” he said, placing a hungry kiss against my lips before letting me go.

I turned from him, knowing that he had everything else covered, that he would not leave this packland either by me or contained by his brothers.

This was what true partnership must be like. I smiled at that. Once this was over, to whatever end after the certain death I would inflict on Miles, I knew I had him and his support.

I wasn’t doing it alone anymore.

I let that knowledge of safety and trust wash over me as I sunk deep into that place I had learned as a child. As I descended deep into that well I let myself hear the voices that I spent so much time trying to suppress.

Instinct and logic. Emotions can fuel you, but they do not decide your course—my dad told me, helping me up.

She’s a natural - my mother’s worried yet proud face came into view.

That only means that she can develop into something unparalleled - my dad told her, kissing her brow warmed by the rare summer sun.

Eagerness does not equate to victory. Only strike first if you are confident that you can strike last - Gamma Drew told me, motioning me to get back into position again.

Each move must mean something. Move to cover, move to block, move to engage - my dad’s best friend, his most trusted ally, my uncle Miles instructed.

I opened my eyes when I hit the bottom of that well. I was engulfed in a cool, calculated state where only the fight mattered. I could picture all of the outcomes. None of them facorable for him.

I carried my pack and my ancestors with me. They may not be here but every training, every encouragement, their friendship and love and WHATEVER had molded me.

I was a product by blood of all of those that had come before me, and shaped by all of those that I knew, that I had grown with on this very land.

I would keep them with me always. I would lay them to rest, and somehow… somehow, I would have to move on to hold them dear but let them go.

But right now, it was time to remember what they had created. Not the person molded by molten anger and hatred, but the one fostered by love. Those two pieces of me clashed, but they were both as much a part of me as each other. I needed them both in different ways. I was them both and they could exist together.

I was a product of it all, and I was proud.

It was time for his atonement. His reckoning. And if The Goddess didn’t want to tip the scales to favor justice, justice would be my burden to carry. One I carried gladly.

Uncle Miles - I called.

I felt the link go through, something I hadn’t done in years. I knew it did, but there was no response.

I followed that trace of thrumming magic. I did not recoil from it anymore. The shock was gone. I now realized it wasn’t dark magic; the ringing disturbance I felt that time was a calling - a warning. It was searching for me, reaching for me. It needed to be removed from the vessel it was never intended for.

I did not know why our lands were blessed or how. I did not need to know the details to understand that he had taken what was never meant to be. I knew deep in my bones that he had taken it from the land.

Aksala stayed quiet. She quietly growled her thoughts along with mine. It was everything I needed from her.

This power… It was mine, just twisted.

I smiled at them all, and I re-focused.

I stood, feeling the cool stone of my packhouse, my home, under my fingers. I wrapped my hand around the dagger for comfort and moved up the steps. I did not have to surprise him, nor did I want to.

I followed that stolen power, and it led me outside my father's office. The bones of my father’s Gamma and his mate still lay there.

My stomach churned, and it wasn’t because they were now bones. But because those very bones seemed kicked aside, scattered, as if they were in the way.

They died, reaching for each other.

I tucked that anger away. For now. And opened the doors where that twisted power was concentrated.

The wooden doors echoed off the stone walls, and I stood in the entranceway.

“Forget how to use a mindlink since you slaughtered your pack?” I asked him.

Miles scampered up, standing from where he was sitting…. Behind my father's desk.

He rubbed the back of his head. His eyes darted everywhere but me.

“Don’t worry about it.” I waved my hand before crossing it over my other. “I’ll relieve you of the burden. In a few moments, you will have no tie to my pack or of this life or the next, you traitorous swine.”