Bound to the Alpha King

57 - Fatal

Ivy's POV

Muscles coiling tight, Seles leaps at Cole, who sidesteps briefly to avoid our advance, but he's not fast enough as she collides into him, knocking him off balance in the snow. White dust kicks up from the top layer of snow as he scrambles to get back up on his paws.

He growls low and deep, trying to manipulate us with an Alpha command, but we don't even feel it's effect. Seles responds with a low growl of her own, before leaping at him again and clamping her teeth around his shoulder and pulling hard with all her strength.

She throws him effortlessly, and before he has time to recover, she's on top of him, snarling and snapping her jaws near his neck. Cole tries to push us off and eventually is successful. We tumble in the snow a little before regaining our footing. Seles huffs in annoyance before training her gaze on Cole again as he paces around us. She doesn't allow him to get behind us, and matches his pace, circling, paws softly crunching in the snow.

Blood stains Cole's blonde fur as he snarls, clearly another threat of attack. He leaps suddenly and Seles dodges in time, Cole sliding and slipping before whipping his head back to growl at us again.

Here we go.

- - -

Nathaniel's POV

My feet crunch in the snow as I make my way in the direction Volmir and Lela had told me. I glance around, feeling the cold air blow gently through my hair, making goosebumps rise on my skin. I glance over to Evie, Kane and Tobias who are walking alongside me. We've been out here looking for almost an hour, having started at Red Moon and worked our way south.

They all came as fast as they could after I informed them that we had a possible lead, and I'm thankful. I don't want to think of it, but if I found my mate and something had happened to her, being here on my own would not be a great outcome, so this is just as much for my safety as it is hers.

"Alpha. Over there." Kane states as he points. I follow the direction he's directing my attention to, squinting my eyes to focus. I inhale sharply as I see a line of three of four houses and I pick up pace, pretty much running to close the distance.

We approach and I hold my hand up, signalling them all to be careful.

We make our way around before coming to one house with the door wide open. We walk in and I immediately pick up Ivy's scent and growl. Kane and Tobias check the remaining houses as Evie and I enter.

"She was here." I follow where her scent is the strongest and I step down into the basement. I clench my jaw as I see a chair with silver cord wrapped around the arms and dried blood surrounding it.

"They bound and beat her again." Evie says quietly, the hurt in her voice obvious. I glance to my left and see a makeshift cell with a flat pillow and small blanket. I step in and pick up the blanket, smelling it and inhaling my mate's scent deeply.

Fuck, I miss her.

"Seems like they're not here anymore, the other house we can access looks like an office. There are signs of a confrontation in there and plenty of evidence." Kane says as he enters behind us.

"Call the council, get them to send people out to gather it all."

"Yes, Alpha."

We all move back upstairs, and I note that her scent goes out the door but due to the wind and the cold snow it dissipates too much for me to pinpoint. Kane dials out on his phone and moves to the corner of the room as Tobias, Evie and I all look at each other.

"Okay. So, they were here. They couldn't have gone far." I state and Tobias nods in agreement.

"There's no way to tell which way they went." Evie says, her tone defeated but I shake my head.

"We could probably find them. Based on what we've seen it's possible Ivy got out and they're trying to find her outside. Let's keep searching out there and see what we come across."

They both nod as Kane rejoins us. "Council is sending out a team. They'll be here in the hour."

I nod in acknowledgement before we all head back outside. We walk forward from the front of the houses for maybe 10-15 minutes before I pick up the sound of a wolf growling. I look back at everyone and their eyes widen as they hear what I do, and we all take off running the direction of the noise.

A few minutes later we come into a clearing and I hear Evie and Kane's loud gasps as we look at the sight in front of us.

Two wolves, one white/silver, and another blonde fighting aggressively. The blonde one is bleeding from injuries to the shoulder and legs, the white one bleeding from the shoulder and head.

I glance behind them and see a human body in the snow. I recognize who it is immediately, and my eyes widen.

Evie and Kane stand beside me, their mouths open in shock.

"Alarik's body is over there, which means...." Evie trails off.

"Ivy and Cole are the wolves fighting right now." Kane finishes her sentence.

"She got her wolf back." I state proudly, watching her for a quick moment before we all run in her direction.

- - -

Ivy's POV

Cole has put up one hell of a fight, but I can tell he's fatiguing from his injuries. Seles is only partially injured, and there's a reason we were always so skilled at fighting. Seles knows how to conserve her energy to last a long time in a fight. Even now I still feel her full strength with only minor fatigue in her legs from dodging most of Cole's attacks.

She's maintained a steady pace avoiding his attacks, making him act more out of frustration, rather than tactics. The way his paws hit the snow sloppily clearly shows his wolf is getting tired, and I feel Seles' smugness in knowing this is going to come to an end shortly.

Cole stops suddenly and whips his head behind him for a brief second and Seles glances over to follow his gaze, and finds our mate, Evie, Kane, and Tobias all running over in our direction.

She's overjoyed that everyone is here, but I feel her snap her attention back to Cole in the quickest of seconds before leaping close as his head is still turned away from us. She clamps her teeth down hard into the back of his neck and Cole howls loudly as she plants her paws sturdily and pulls in the opposite direction as Cole tries to rip himself out of her jaw.

In doing this, he allows Seles to rip the largest chunk out of the back of his neck. It's a large wound and he staggers back before shifting back into his human form due to the sheer trauma, blood pouring onto the white snow, staining it crimson.

Dropping the chunk of flesh, Seles gives me control, satisfied with her fatal attack and I feel myself being pulled back into my body as I shift back myself. I walk over to Cole, watching him shake and tremor from the loos of blood in combination with the cold on his bare skin. I crouch down over him, and he looks up at me with anger.

"I told you I was going to kill you."

I watch him choke and sputter as he takes his final breaths before standing and seeing everyone else staring at me. I glance at all their faces as they take in what just happened. When my eyes land on Nathaniel he smiles softly and opens his arms and I run to him.

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 - so sorry this took so long to get up! Enjoy!!

 - See you in the next one!! - vv