Page 67 of Betrayed Alpha Mate

Delilah’s voice cuts through, sharp and commanding, as golden light detonates outward, sigils slamming into Grimes’s chest with enough force to crater stone. Gwen and Arianna follow, magic threading together in blinding arcs, binding spells snapping tight.

For half a heartbeat, it looks like it works.

Until Grimes lifts one hand, and the spells implode.

A pressure wave slams outward, hurling wolves and witches alike through the air. I barely have time to pull Emily down before the shockwave hits, stone shattering around us, trees snapping like matchsticks.

“Sean!” she gasps.

“I’ve got you,” I growl, hauling her upright as chaos erupts around us.

Wolves charge forward, and Nicholas and Dominic hit Grimes from opposite sides, massive bodies slamming into his legs, tearing at shadow and flesh alike. Tyler shifts into human form before gunfire crackles uselessly against barriers of condensed darkness.

Grimes snarls and moves forward like he’s floating, levitating, and he’s controlled.

A sweep of his arm sends Nicholas flying, his massive wolf body crashing through two standing stones before he collapses, stunned but alive. Another gesture, and shadow spears erupt from the ground, hitting Dominic in the hind leg mid-leap.

Emily screams, her magic surging.

A golden dome snaps into place around us just as a spear directed at my chest slams into the barrier, shattering on impact. I feel the strain immediately, the pressure behind my eyes, and a ringing in my ears as her magic bears the brunt of the attack.

He’s testing us, testing her.

“Stay with me,” I tell her, gripping her hand tighter than I mean to.

“I’m not going anywhere,” she replies, voice steady even as power crackles around her. “But he knows about the bond. He’s targeting us.”

Grimes’s eyes flick to me.

“Ah. The alpha…” he muses with an eerie half-smile. “You were not part of the prophecy before.”

He steps closer, shadow curling protectively around his frame as witches and wolves strike again, coordinated and relentless. Magic barriers shatter. Blood stains ancient earth.

“And yet…” Grimes continues, voice carrying effortlessly over the fight, “here you are. Bound to her.”

The bond flares as anger brews inside me, watching my brothers get injured. This was part of the plan—staying by Emily’s side when Grimes emerges. But my one moment of weakness, when my anger surges because I’m not with them, fighting by their sides, is what does it.

Pain lances through my chest, sharp and disorienting, as Grimes gestures toward me. Shadow clamps around my limbs, yanking me forward violently.

“Sean!” Emily yells out.

I hit the ground hard, breath knocked clean out of me as darkness coils around my throat, crushing me, choking me. Emily’s magic slams into the shadow binding me, but Grimes counters instantly, hurling her back with a flick of his wrist.

She lands hard, skidding across stone.

Rage explodes inside me, and my wolf tears free of the dark magic binds, bones snapping, vision reddening as I shift mid-roar. I rip through the shadow binding with brute force, launching myself at Grimes with everything I have.

He laughs as I strike.

We collide in a brutal crash of fur and shadow, my claws tearing through his chest, ripping free chunks of dark flesh that dissolve into smoke even as he reforms. His power slams into me like a wall, crushing me into the earth, shadow spears pinning my limbs.

“If you break…” he says calmly, leaning down until his face is inches from mine, “she dies.”

Pain floods through the bond.

Emily screams again, feeling my pain, every ounce of agony transferred through that cursed, beautiful connection.

“And if you die…” Grimes continues, eyes gleaming obsidian, “...she dies, too.”