Authors: Tammy Blackwell
“
I can’t tell if you’re
crazy enough to actually believe that or not.”
“
Surely you know none of
this would have happened if you weren’t a power hungry
abomination.”
“
I’m sorry. Are you talking
to yourself here? I can give you some privacy, if you need
it.”
Hatred lit her eyes. “You think this is a
joke?”
“
Actually, I think this is
a Challenge.” Shoulders back. Voice loud and clear. No one could be
in doubt of what was happening. “Sarvarna, I officially Challenge
you for the position of Alpha Female.”
“
You can’t do
that!”
“
I can, and I
did.”
“
Submit,”
I said to her through the brain-to-brain
network.
“You know you can’t beat me, and
I don’t want to kill you. Please. Submit.”
Sarvarna stood there debating her options
for a second before releasing a breath. “Okay,” she said, her head
dipping down. She walked slowly towards me, her shoulders bent
forward. Then, when she was standing directly in front of me, her
head whipped up. “I accept your Challenge.”
At first, I didn’t understand. I saw her
hand clutched around the knife sticking out of my stomach, but it
seemed like a stage prop or something. Then, the pain hit and I
knew it was real.
Pull it out. Pull it out. Pull it out…
There was a scream piercing the air, but it
wasn’t mine. I wanted to tell Liam it was okay, and maybe mention
that I loved him, but I couldn’t talk. I couldn’t do much of
anything. If only she would pull out the freaking knife…
“
I told you I wouldn’t let
you take what’s mine.” She rotated her wrist and my vision wavered.
“You should have just died like you were supposed to in July.”
Another twist. I wasn’t going to make it. “In fact, you never
should have existed.”
“
And you should have never
been Al--”
The world started going black.
My body went slack, and Sarvarna pulled the knife from my
stomach.
Finally.
With the absolute last of my consciousness,
I yanked energy from the ground beneath me. Two heartbeats later,
Sarvarna found herself pinned to the ground by a very angry arctic
wolf.
Submit.
Sarvarna bared her teeth as if she was a
wolf herself. It was the last thing she ever did.
Chapter 30
Death has many smells. The sulfuric bite of
gunpowder. The metallic tang of blood. The harsh burn of hospital
antiseptic.
“
Would you like a few
moments?”
The bright yellow and purple flowers on the
nurse’s scrubs offended me with their cheeriness. This wasn’t a
cheerful moment. It wasn’t a cheerful place. The only part of a
hospital where someone should be allowed to wear such blinding
colors is the maternity ward. Everywhere else is filled with people
in their darkest moments. When you’re going through hell, the last
thing you want to see is your nurse in something so bright it glows
in the daylight.
“
No,” Liam said. “We’re
good.”
Those ridiculous scrubs moved towards the IV
pole. Just as her finger was posed in front of the touch screen I
yelled, “No!”
“
Leslie?” Liam asked, using
the name we gave the hospital staff when we presented ourselves as
Stefan’s son and soon-to-be daughter-in-law.
I tucked a piece of the strawberry blond wig
behind my ear. “I think I need some time with him first.” Some time
before they stopped all the drips and machines that were keeping
Stefan alive and cemented Liam’s and my positions as the new
Alphas.
Before running off to fill out paper work or
whatever it is nurses do while they’re waiting to end a life, she
grabbed a box of tissues from the shelf. “Here you go, sweetie,”
she said, handing them to me. “You take all the time you need.”
There was no door to shut in this unit, but she slid the curtain
closed behind her as she left.
Stefan looked nothing like his former self.
The man I knew was strong and proud, radiating so much power even
normal humans instinctively knew to stay out of his way. The man on
the hospital bed was shriveled up, except for the odd places he was
bloated out like a Macy’s Thanksgiving Day balloon. His dark skin
had turned a sickly yellow, the color a cross between a bruise and
a stain. The Stratego who kept watch over him had taken care of his
hair as best as they could, but still it hung off his head in dull
clumps. The scar which ran down the side of his face no longer
screamed menace. Instead, it whimpered pain and defeat.
I blinked against the stinging in my
eyes.
“
The doctors say you’re
still in there,” I said to Stefan. “They showed us graphs with
wiggly lines and said it was your brain activity. And then they
told us you may never wake up, and if you do, you will never be
able to function like you once did. You won’t be able to walk or
talk or even swallow. You will spend the rest of your life hooked
up to these machines.” I took a deep breath. “Someone once told me
I wouldn’t be able to do this. They said I wouldn’t be able to
stand here and kill you while you’re defenseless, but they were
wrong. Of all the things I’ve had to do these last few months, this
is the easiest, because I’m not killing you, Stefan. I’m setting
you free.” I squeezed Liam’s hand even tighter.
“
We’re
sitting you
free.”
I moved closer to the bed. I thought about
reaching out and grabbing onto his hand to give him some comfort in
these final moments, but I couldn’t do it. Yes, I felt sorry for
him, but not so much that I could forget all the pain he caused
others.
“
You should know this is an
official Challenge. Liam declared it to the Stratego, and they
allowed it without protest. Of course, that was probably because
there aren't many of them left, and with Sarvarna dead, they aren’t
willing to die for you.”
The monitor lit up as his heart rate spiked,
setting off a few bells and whistles.
“
So, they were right. You
are still in there. Good. I need to you to hear this,” I said as
Liam walked around to fiddle with the monitor, which surprisingly
went quiet. I hoped it was because he somehow knew what he was
doing, and not because he had unplugged it a few minutes too
early.
“
I didn’t want this. It’s
not like I woke up one day and thought,
‘I’m going to take over the Alpha Pack.’
I know many people, including you, don’t believe that, but
it’s true.
“
I don’t know where it all
went wrong. You’re probably as much a victim of circumstance as I
am. The difference is, once we were in the middle of it, you chose
power over basic human decency. I know the world is an imperfect
place - that peace, love, and harmony are pipe dreams - but I need
to believe it can be better than this.” I looked across the bed
into Liam’s eyes. “I need to believe we can make it better.” My
voice cracked. I took a deep breath, and before I could release it,
Liam was there, gathering me into his arms.
“
I’m done,” I said into his
chest, letting his warmth seep through my clothes and flesh to warm
the chill inside. “It’s time. Let’s get this over with.”
Liam’s lips pressed against the corner of my
eye, absorbing the liquid gathered there. A rush of heat shot
straight to my heart, and then he was moving away from me and
towards the bed. He looked huge leaning over Stefan’s withered
form. His aura of power blanketed the former Alpha Male, and I
could have sworn I saw is body shudder under the weight of it.
“
For the record,” he said,
his finger hovering above the Call Button, “this is for my family,
you selfish bastard.”
I barely had enough time to be shocked
before a flock of scrubs descended upon the room.
“
Are you ready?” Cheery
Scrub Nurse asked.
I nodded, afraid of what would come out
should I try to speak. A middle-aged man with a paunchy gut and
receding hair line also gave a nod of the head, which was
apparently the call to action. Cheery Scrub Nurse started pushing
buttons on the IV pole. It took both longer and less time than I
expected. We all stood there - the doctor, nurses, Liam, and me -
watching the monitor as Stefan’s heart rate slowed. When it finally
flatlined, someone turned off the screen, but I couldn’t see who
through the tears in my eyes.
***
I wanted nothing more than to escape the
sterile sadness of the hospital, but it wasn’t happening. In the
thirty-six hours since Sarvarna’s death, a lot of plans were made,
including one to reintroduce Scout Donovan to the real world.
“
Unless you want to see my
butt, you better close your eyes,” I called out the door before
traipsing into a hospital room of my very own. Liam was sitting on
the corner of the bed, his eyes very much open as he leaned to the
side. “What are you doing?”
“
Trying to get a glimpse of
your butt, but you’re ruining all my fun.”
My face burst into flames as I
double-checked to make sure I was holding my gown together in the
right place.
“
What is wrong with you?” I
hissed, very much aware that the FBI agents standing outside my
door had Shifter hearing as I crawled up onto the bed and
immediately threw a sheet over my legs.
Liam shrugged. “It’s a nice butt.”
He was flying to Romania in
a matter of hours and
now
he wants to get all cute and flirty? That was so
not fair.
Once I was settled with all my nearly naked
parts tucked away, Liam climbed up next to me. There was no awkward
shifting or limb organizing. After half a year of sleeping
side-by-side, we knew how our bodies fit together.
“
You doing
okay?”
I took a cue from him and thought before I
responded. “It had to be done.”
“
That doesn’t answer my
question, Scout.”
No, it didn’t, but it answered the more
important one.
“
I’m going to miss you,” I
said, oh-so-cleverly switching topics.
“
You could come with me.
You're the Alpha Female now. Your place is at the Den.”
“
No, my place is with my
family.” He already knew my answer just as well as I knew his
argument. This wasn’t a new discussion. “I miss them so much it
hurts.”
“
You could be putting them
in danger if you stay.”
“
And I could be leaving
them to face the danger alone if I don't.” Not everyone was onboard
with our little regime change, and I wasn’t naive enough to believe
those who wanted retribution would play by the rules. “I’ve not
been very fair to my parents this past year. I need to make it up
to them.”
This is where our discussion ended. It
always did, because there was nothing Liam could say to refute
that. It didn’t mean we wouldn’t say the exact same things two or
three more times before he left.
“
I want you to relinquish
your position as Alpha Female.”
Then again, maybe we wouldn’t.
“
Excuse me?”
“
I had Rachel do a little
research, and it’s possible. All you have to do--”
“
You want me to
relinquish
my position
as
Alpha Female?
”
It was a good thing I wasn’t hooked up to any monitors. Every
freaking alarm would have been blaring. “The position I just got by
ripping the throats out of anyone who would oppose me? The position
you’ve been training me to take for months? You want me to
just…
relinquish
it?”
“
You don’t want to go to
the Den--”
“
Because it’s in
Romania
. Do you know how
far Romania is from Kentucky? Fifty-five hundred miles. That’s
nearly 9000 kilometers, in case your Canadian brain can’t do the
math.”
Liam had been reclined alongside me, but now
he was sitting up, his scowl back where it belonged. “Scout, calm
down.”
“
Calm down? You’re asking
me to give up after everything I’ve been through. What was the
point?” A horrible, sickening thought occurred to me. “Was this
your plan all along? Was I really nothing more than a pawn to you?”
I was shaking with fury. “Did I do a good job, Liam? Did I kill
them all dead enough for you? Did I save your hands from enough
blood that you’ll be able to live with yourself?”
“
You’re not being
fair.”
“
I’m
not being fair?!?!”
One of the Shifters/FBI agents outside the
door discreetly coughed, pointing out that even people without
super-senses could hear us.
When Liam spoke again, his voice was
decidedly quieter. “I thought this is what you would want.”
“
You thought
wrong.”
“
Obviously.”
He didn’t elaborate, so I did. “I made a
commitment, and I’m going to stick to it. This is important. I
might not believe in destiny or fate or any of that other crap, but
I do believe I’m supposed to do this.”
Liam picked up one of my hands. The knuckles
were covered with scrapes and bruises from an encounter with one of
the Odom Pack. More bruises stretched down the right side of my
body, and if I wasn’t mistaken, my wrist was broken. Again. I could
have healed everything by Changing, but the bruised and battered
look added more credibility to the “held hostage by terrorists”
story. One of my first acts as Alpha Female had been to make sure
the United States government recognized Toby Hagan for dying during
the rescue mission.