Alpha's Servant: The Finale

ARES

I hated watching Skyler leave.

She looked back through the car window, her face red with tears, as Cyrus drove her away. She looked so hurt, so betrayed, and it took everything in me to force myself to stand there and watch.

But I had to. I had to suffer through my own hurt. It was my fault she was in this situation. And the damn vampires.

I knew that eventually, I’d have to take her to court, but this was never the way I had planned it. But then the vampires had ruined everything.

With that one bite that had nearly taken Skyler’s life, all of my plans had been shot out the window.

I had been trying desperately to hide her from them. I didn’t want them to know about her or that she was my mate. But the crafty undead figured it out and sought to take her from me, giving me no choice.

It was either let the blood-sucking vamps take her, or me. No way in hell would I give them the chance to get their nasty hands on her again, so I’d had no choice but to send her.

I knew Skyler may never forgive me, but there was nothing to be done about it. However, this was going to be extremely hard on both of us.

Now that I’d marked her as mine, the pull between us would be all the stronger. It would be painful, both physically and emotionally, to be so far away from each other.

I scowled as I watched the car turn the corner and disappear out of sight. With a curse, I went back inside and slammed the door so loud that a couple of servants jumped and nearly dropped the burdens they carried.

I didn’t care and I didn’t apologize. Skyler was going to suffer and probably wouldn’t even understand why. We hadn’t had time to talk much about the mark and what it meant.

Being a slave all her life, I was sure she knew something about werewolves and our marks. But with her being human, there was no telling how badly it might affect her.

I stomped up the stairs to my chamber and slammed the door, taking only a little pleasure with each door I could find to slam shut.

The little bout of violence helped to release some of my pent-up tension, but not much. A knock sounded on my door, and I spun around to glare at it.

“Go away!” I snarled, my voice booming through the chamber.

Whoever was on the other side stood there hesitantly for a few seconds before I heard their footsteps fading away down the hall.

I was in no mood to speak to anyone.

As I walked across the chamber, I caught the lingering scent of Skyler and scowled deeper. When she’d almost died, I thought I was dying too.

The human had somehow become important to me. I knew I was developing strong feelings for her, and it pissed me off. How could fate put me together with a human?

Fate, though, had never been fond of me. I was doomed to live a life of blood, death, and loneliness. I never believed I was really meant to have a mate. Not a true one. Yet here I was, stuck with a small human.

I didn’t like being honest with myself but right now I couldn’t hold back my thoughts.

I couldn’t stop the flood of memories of time spent with Skyler, of her independence and strength, her boldness and daring, even though she’d spent her entire life as a slave.

The way she stood up to me was impressive. Most wolves didn’t dare push me like that little slip of a human did. Even though it infuriated me, it also amused me.

My fingertips tingled and I looked down to see my claws starting to emerge. My anger and hurt were combined so thoroughly, that I wasn’t sure which one was overpowering.

I wanted to tear the vampires limb from limb and bathe in their blood, but to do that would put Skyler, as well as the rest of the wolves, in danger.

It wasn’t lost on me that part of what I was feeling was fear, too. Fear because my heart, which I had thought had been forever hardened, was melting because of Skyler.

Although I couldn’t admit it out loud or to anyone else, even Cyrus, I knew I was falling in love with the human slave.

Frustrated, I dragged a claw along the surface of my desk, creating a deep groove in the wood. Curling tendrils of sawdust and lacquer peeled away with my sharp claw, and I watched it with grim satisfaction.

Was this another curse from the witch? Or part of the original one? How many curses did I have on me anyway? It was hard to imagine that with everything that had happened in my life, there was only one curse responsible.

And now Skyler was talking to one. Goddesses, but I hated witches. They were the slime of the Earth. They couldn’t be trusted and were always looking for ways to fuck with a person’s life.

If I was going to protect Skyler and have any kind of life with her, I had to find the bitch witch who cursed me and take care of her once and for all. That was the only way to make sure I didn’t lose my mate before I even had a chance to be with her.

Meanwhile, though, what was I supposed to do about the witch Skyler had been talking to? Was it the same one or a different one? Just the thought of having another witch in my life had me wanting to roar to the moon.

One witch was too many. More than one and there’s the beginning of a coven. The more of them together, the more dangerous it was.

But first thing first. I needed to find and destroy the one who ruined my life. “I will find that witch if I have to hunt down every witch on Earth,” I vowed with a deep growl.