The Alpha

Chapter 15

*Luca's POV*

          'Her a sense renders my existence obsolete. She is everything that I am. Everything that I will be.' I felt the life drain from her, like the pain of losing a limb; it coursed through my veins, sending my body into shock until I was delirious. Ethan growled as I neared, but my vision was blurred red - by the blood he had spilled of my beloved. "Ethan! You are a traitor amongst our pack! You have destroyed my mate! Anima mea! My fucking soul! You have destroyed me! And now, you will die."
          I lunged for him, a growl fierce enough to command respect from every creative in the woods, reared from my lips as I gripped Ethan by his neck. His teeth were bared as he attempted to bite me, but it was no good. 'Because in loss, there is strength.'
          In one swift moment, I broke his jaw. Whimpers left his slackened mouth before I tossed him away from me, watching the weakened stature of his wolf form roll a few feet. 'Rae.. Anima mea. My fate. My love.' My footsteps were heavy as I stomped towards Ethan. His eyes plead with me, but I had no mercy left to give. Not when what I loved had been ripped away by him. 'He gave her no mercy. So there will be none extended from me.' I stopped in front of him, peering apathetically down at his suffering. My lip curled upward with malice as I regarded him. My chest heaved with each ragged breath while my hands curled into fists at my sides. "You are my blood. And you've betrayed me."
I lowered myself to my knees, reaching for his neck as my nostrils flared with angered breaths. My lips firmed and I kept my eyes trained on Ethan. With one swift motion, I snapped his neck. Bones breaking and an audible gasp echoed along the tree line., and my pain amplified. I must have looked like a monster. Blood painting my skin, malice on my face. 'Now. Now I have lost everything.'
          As if on cue, the wolves howled from the trees and I heard their remorse. 'The pack cries for my loss.' I had chosen to block out their voices from my head, because my sorrow was too loud to distinguish from them. My eyes shifted from the lifeless wolf to Rae's body which was just as still, and for once fear struck me swiftly. 'I don't know if I can bear it. She has died. I have failed her.'
"I must go to her." I moved toward her body, inhaling a sharp breath at the bloodied sight of her. 'Anima mea. If I had known you would lose everything accepting me as your mate, I would have left you alone... I would had suffered, if it meant you'd live a full life. I would've given up Alpha for you.'
          I scooped her up in my arms, unable to let any other pack members touch her. My inner wolf hissed at them, before I began to walk around the mansion to the front of the house where the moon shined down on the grass. 'I wish this was a bad dream. I'd die a million times to bring her back. A million fucking times.'
          When I got to the front yard, I laid her down, peering through glossy eyes at her gorgeous face. Even in death, she appeared innocent, almost like she was sleeping and soon she would awake and stir in my arms and all would be right. 'Just as I've seen. What has been prophesied.' My heart pounded uselessly in my chest. 'Because without her, I am nothing. The blood that pumps into my veins is meaningless.' Except it wasn't. It dawned on me that with the connection of being her mate, the blood in my veins wasn't useless. It was strength. It was healing. 'It is life. I have nothing left to lose.'
          I lifted my arm to my mouth, teeth dragging over my wrist. A stinging sensation alerted me that I had broken the skin, followed by a warm flow of blood. I pressed it to her mouth quickly, shaking my head as I watched her lips being painted red from the liquid. "Come on, Anima mea. I know you are strong. Come back to me, baby. Come back." I howled. It was a strangled noise. Not that of an Alpha, but that of a man. 'A desperate man.' I pressed my wrist harder against her lips, to the point where I felt her teeth against my skin. 'Fucking eh!' My eyes lifted to the moon, and I began to beg. I begged whomever controlled the darkness of death, the one that had Rae in their clutches. 'Bring her back! She is mine and I will not let her go.'
"Luca - she's gone." Taila reached for my shoulder. "Get your fucking hands off me if you want to keep them."
          Taila's eyes widened with fright, and she ripped her hand from my shoulder. The animosity she held towards Rae hadn't gone unnoticed. I had been questioning her loyalty to the pack. 'Because anyone that is an enemy to my love, is an enemy of mine.'
"You're going to drain yourself completely. If that amount of blood hasn't brought her back yet, it won't happen."
          I didn't care to hear her reasoning. I heard how her heart hammered in her chest, and when I peered at her, I smelt her arousal thick in between her thighs. 'Self interest. She doesn't give a shit about Rae. She wants me to fuck her right now...'
I hissed a deep breath and pulled my wrist from Rae. I grazed my tongue over the wound, aware of how it was already healing shut, before I shit a look of disdain at the moon. The moon which was supposed to bind Rae and I together forever. 'There is only one way we will be together now.' I eyed the trees before my gaze moved across the pack. Their gazes were wary as I regarded them. 'I know what I have to do.'
"I must die!"
Protesting howls and voices boomed around me. "Luca, no!"
"No!"
"How could you! You are our Alpha."
"What Alpha can I be? I will succumb to the fate of the curse! I will not change!"
"But what about Ethan?"
"That was unheard of. An anomaly. I will not be so lucky! I am just speeding up the inevitable."
"No, Luca. I won't let you! You can still lead a fulfilling life. You can still rule our pack. We will bow to you. I will be whatever you need. I will provide an heir-"
I realized Rae, moving quickly to grab a hold of Taila's throat. She gasped, choking beneath the weight of my fingers as they dug into her flesh. "Do you need to be reminded of your place? You are not my mate. Not my chosen one! How dare you offer to provide something you're in no position to offer! Rae is the only one who was worthy of providing me an heir and she's fucking gone!" I squeezed tighter to the point she was flailing. "I should crush your neck for the utter disrespect."
"Luca, please. You're not thinking clearly."
          I released her throat and she gasped, twisting and moving far away from me, shielded by the shadows of the trees. "Let me carry Rae, Luca."
"I can carry her myself!" I snarled at him before scooping Rae into my arms, beginning to carry her towards the mansion. I peered at her, disappointed in the fact there was no life in her. No shade to her cheeks. No small twitches of her eyes or lips. 'She's so fucking far out of each. Cloaked in the darkness."
          Once inside, I climbed the steps, moving quickly to my bedroom where I deposited her onto the bed. "Sir, do you need any-"
"Leave me!"
"As you wish."
'What do I have to do to trade places with her?' My eyes scanned the room, moving over leather bound books tossed carefully about before I moved to them quickly. 'There has to be something. Anything. I will burn this whole world to the ground if it means I can take her place.' My fingers skimmed the bindings of a book before I pulled it open and my eyes scanned the Latin text. I looked for something about mates. Anything about resurrection. 'No.' I moved to another book. 'Nothing.' Then another book. "Fuck! There is nothing!" I swiped the books off of the bookshelf, before I kicked the wood, watching it explode into splinters. I moved to the lamp, smashing it, then over to the dresser where I ripped drawers from within it. 'Chaos. It's all that consumes me.'
          When there was nothing left to destroy, I moved back towards the bed. I kneeled beside her, pressing my forehead against the mattress. "By the power of the blue moon, bring back my mate. I am begging. Bring her back to me." A knock on the door caused me to draw my head up from the bed. I got up, moving towards it before ripping it open fiercely enough to rip it from it's hinges, but all it did was groan. "What." I barked at Taila. She formed her lips, fear in her gaze as she stepped back and wrapped her arms around herself. "I just wanted to apologize."
"Your apology means nothing. You know the role of a wolf. The place of the Alpha and his mate. How that law is absolute. Yet you still got in the way. Still tried to change what will be."
"I-I love you."
          My eyes widened a fraction as I stared at her pink stained cheeks. She was embarrassed at her admittance. She rubbed her arms soothingly and awaited my reaction. All that filled me was anger. 'What does she want me to say? I love my pack. But I do not return her feelings.'
"I love you." She stated it more firmly. "I always have. I-I wanted to be your mate. Prayed for it."
Taila's eyes shifted past my side to view Rae atop my bed. Her brows furrowed and she slowly shook her head. "Yes. I was jealous. Before her... you and I-" I sighed and she continued, her eyes moving over my lips, remembering the way they used to drag along her body, and in between her thighs. 'But that was before. That was a freak need. Something every Alpha has before his mate is truly presented in his lip.'
          Taila pressed her thighs together and shivered. "You and I..." She struggled getting the words out. "I've never felt this way about someone. But regardless... I shouldn't have brought it up while you were mourning."
'I'm still mourning. Rae's body isn't even cold yet. I cannot just forget my mate and move on. These are the thoughts of a jealous woman...' I shook my head. "No you should not have brought that up. Rae is your Alpha just as much as I am. We are bound. You disrespect her, you disrespect me."
'Fuck. I don't want to deal with this.' I took a step back and Taila frowned. "Oh well, her mother would like to see you."
          I was surprised her mother asked for me. She hadn't exactly been a fan of my presence. I'm fact, I wouldn't have been surprised if she screamed at me. She was right about keeping her daughter away from me and safe. 'I should've let them go.' I twisted my head and glanced back at Rae. 'But I don't think she would've gone. Our bond was too strong. It still is. Even in death. I cannot leave her side.' I gritted my teeth, my hand tightening around the doorknob. 'Just go see her mother. She will be there when you get back.' I nodded, closing the door tightly behind me. "No one goes in this room." She nodded, eyeing the door a little longer than I liked before I moved through the house. "Where is she?"
"She's in a spare bedroom." I was aware of Taila following behind me. "That'll be all Taila." She stuttered her reply. "Y-yes sir. Sorry to bother you."
          When I got to the spare bedroom, Rae's mother was no longer in wolf form. She was shivering, sprawled out on the bed, blankets up to her waist. She had a tank top on to shield her nakedness. Her forehead was coated with sweat. She eyed me warily as I entered the room and tightened her grip on the blanket. Her wounds hadn't fully healed. "Luca."
The malice I expected in my voice was absent. My confused knitted my brows together and I cracked my neck, tightening my hands into fists, and stepped forward. "Cora, how are you?" She shivered and shrugged. "Confused. Hurt." She sniffled and I finally noticed the sunken look to her face and red nose along with her glossy, bloodshot eyes. 'She's been crying. Mourning her daughter along with me.'
"Where is she?"
"My bed." Cora nodded. "Can I see her! Before you -"
          Although she didn't finish that sentence, I knew that she meant before I disposed of the body. The thought of burying Rae was horrifying. In the dirt. Alone. 'I won't allow it. I'm not giving up.' I nodded slowly. "Shall I carry you?" Cora's eyes widened and she shook her head. "I can manage." I nodded, admiring her strength, aware of how similar Rae's strength was to her mother's. 'My Rae may be innocent, but she is fierce when she needs to be. For the people she loves, she'd do anything.' Cora hobbled up, wrapping the blanket around herself as if it would protect her from me. 'Ethan is gone. Now she has nothing to worry about.'
          I spun on my heel swiftly and stalked back down the hallway, ascending the steps. I felt Cora's presence behind me, wobbling but continuing forward without any help. When we both finally arrived to my room, I took a deep breath and pushed open the door, before nodding to Cora to enter. "Please." She nodded, slowly moving past me into the room as her eyes laid on her daughter. She gasped. "She's alive."