“I turned on every tap and flooded the hall, but it won’t be long. It was only these two rooms it hadn’t reached. The moment I opened the bedroom door on the room next door, it became consumed from the open window. I forgot to close the window,” my mother said, and I saw her hair was all singed. Her arms were covered in burns, yet she seemed eerily calm, almost like she accepted dying here, or maybe she was in shock.
“On the count of three, we both command her to jump,” Tyson said, looking at Ace as he stepped inside behind me.
They tried numerous times, but the smoke was becoming too bad, and all of us were choking, and I knew the fire was about to reach this room. The rest of the house was destroyed, only this room remained, and I could feel the heat growing hotter under my feet.
“Just stop. Get my daughter out of here,” my mother wheezed out before slumping on the ground. She started hacking, and the room filled with smoke. My eyes and throat burned, and I struggled to see.
“NO! Try again. It has to work,” I rasped out. My breathing was becoming increasingly difficult, and I could hear people outside telling us to get out.
“My brother is the King. Nothing overthrows his commands, Lucy. She can’t overthrow him without her wolf,” Tyson said.
“I am not leaving her here,” I told them when my mother reached for me. I gripped her hands, holding onto her.
“Tell your brothers I love them.” I shook my head.
“What, no! I am not leaving you. We will find a way!”
“Yes, you are, sweety. There is no way, and you won’t be dying with me,” my mother said before kissing my face.
“I love you,” she told me, and I shook my head and gripped her arms, my nails digging into her arm as I held on to her.
“No, we leave together!” I told her, and she shook her head, trying to pry my hands from her arms.
We heard a crash somewhere on the other side of the door, and I coughed smoke coming in under the door. Flames had started to creep in the cracks and around the hinges. The door was on fire. Despite having the gap jammed with blankets, the room became unbearable. The smoke turned the walls black. The space heated up like an oven, and the wallpaper peeled away.
“Get my daughter out of here!” my mother choked out.
“No, no, no!” I screamed when I felt arms wrap around my stomach. I kicked and hit when they pried my hands off my mother, calling for Ace to let me go.
“Stop fighting me!” Ace commanded, and I tried to fight off his order when Tyson’s aura rushed over me too, forcing me to submit.
Tyson looked at me grimly, and I could feel his heartache. “Get her out,” Tyson said while turning away from me.
Ace dragged me toward the window before scooping my legs out from under me, and I screamed, thrashing in his arms and clawing at his back to let me go.
“No!” I screamed when he jumped from the second-story window before landing on the ground below with a soft thud, his arms holding me in a vice-like grip.
“Mom!” I cried out. Tyson walked over to the window, hauling my mother to it as she resisted.
“Jump with him!” I begged her.
“If she does, she will run right back in, Lucy. Right into the middle of it. Just jumping could even kill her.” Ace told me what I already knew, but we had to try.
I looked back up at her, and Tyson seemed to think the same thing. Maybe we could take our chances and pray Ryker got here in time when another explosion went off, and half the roof caved in, including the garage roof, before it exploded. The cars inside blew up, and it collapsed, falling to flaming debris and rubble.
Tyson reached for her when my mother suddenly shoved him out the window. Tyson fell backward before twisting at the last second and landing in a crouched position below the window. I screamed, trying to escape Ace’s arms to get to her, and Tyson rushed over to help him contain me.
“Get my boys back, and look after Lucy! No one is dying up here with me!” my mother called out when I saw pack members about to try to find another way.
They all stopped and stared up at her when she shut the window.
“No!” I screamed when she walked away, disappearing in the smoke. The warriors around us suddenly howled loudly, the noise tearing at my soul.
“Stop, Lucy! You can’t go back in there!” Tyson said, clutching my face in his hands.
“Please, it’s my mother!” I begged him, trying to pull free of them.
“And that’s why you can’t watch,” Ace’s voice said behind me, turning into a growl before I felt his teeth sink into my neck. I struggled against him, my hands smacking at him when Tyson gripped them. My vision grew darker, and I felt myself slipping away as he buried his teeth deeper into my neck.