“Shut up, brat! So help me, god!”
“We had a deal,” Josie said to Jamie. He sighed, and the woman laughed.
“So naïve!”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“There was no deal, sweety. You think a witch can get your mate out of the underworld?” She laughed maniacally, and Alpha Jamie growled at her. Josie looked to Alpha Jamie.
He shrugged. “You asked for the impossible. You didn’t truly think I could bring him back? Why would you even want him back after what he did to your friend?” Jamie asked, pointing to me.
“She spelled him, she seduced him, it’s all on her!” The old hag laughed again, finding the drama unfolding comically.
“Sit down! Shut up, or I may kill your sister!”
“So, was it all a lie? You were never going to help?”
“Is she retarded? Did she really… Oh my gosh, the stupidity runs deep in this one.” The woman laughed, turning back to me. Josie lunged at her, but with the flick of her wrist, Josie was tossed and smashed against the wall. The woman didn’t even look in her direction but instead faced me, and I glanced at Josie to see her get to her feet. The woman waved her hand again, and Josie’s head suddenly bounced off the concrete and knocked her out.
“Now, where were we? Oh yes, awakening one’s wolf.” She laughed, plunging the poker back through my stomach. Rayan growled and screamed for her to stop while I faded out again, the darkness taking my vision.
Chapter ninety
Ace
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 was 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 the 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 struggled 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 laughed, and I screamed when she plunged the poker through Lucy’s sternum, hearing her flesh tearing and muscles shredding. Her eyes flew open, and her mouth opened with a silent scream when her eyes fell on me. She looked down at the poker protruding out of her. The witch pushed it all the way through to the handle. Blood dribbled from her mouth, and she sputtered, 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 and down her chest as she choked on it.
My world stopped. Everything around me stopped as I listened to her heartbeat slow before her head fell forward. Searing pain crushed my heart to oblivion, the bond severing. Rayan called for his sister.
“Lucy?” he whispered. The witch tapped her cheek with her filthy hands, yet all I could do was stare. She was dead. Her heat made her unable to heal from her injuries, and her body succumbed, unable to take anymore.
“Hey, wake up!” the witch snapped at her. Alpha Jamie turned and stared at Lucy.
“I said wake up!” the witch snarled at her, slapping her, and her head just rolled, blood running down her nose and from her eyes, but she didn’t move, her heart no longer beating, and I felt the tether to her had snapped completely.
Blinding pain moved through my chest, and Atticus howled and thrashed while Rayan growled. The sound was predatory, yet all I could think about was my dead mate, sitting across from me, unmoving dead. I did nothing and just watched her die; I couldn’t save her.
“Whoops,” the witch said with a shrug, and I glared at her. She raised 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 said, 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 said, and Jamie nodded, watching her go. When she did, he turned to face me.
“You know all this could have been avoided. Your brother only had to do as I asked, and your mate would still be alive,” he taunted, kicking Lucy’s foot. Rayan snarled at him, and I peered over at him. His canines had slipped out, and his silver and gold eyes were fluorescent as he bared his teeth.
Alpha Jamie sneered at him. “I own you, boy. Don’t you forget it. That marking up your arm ensured it,” he said, spitting at Rayan’s feet, and I noticed the swirling pattern etched up his arm, the skin raised and an angry red. His hands clenched the armrest, claws digging into the wood.