The Game Of Quadruplet Mates
Chapter 46

Jeremy

For as long as I can remember, the city pack has only ever caused me pain. My family in particular has only ever caused me pain. At a young age I learned the importance of keeping my head down, of when to hide and when to close my mouth- that was always. My body to this day is covered in bruises... mapping out years and years of torture in the hands of my mother and that's not including the emotional and mental damage I received from the Alpha. He was best at making sure my mind was unstable, making sure I

knew that there was nothing else but this.

I have wanted an escape from that life and at first I thought I could get it by dying, by making sure they would never get to hurt me again, but with my Alpha, with Ajax, I learned that I could fight back. As we stood around the table, staring down at the map of a place that had only ever been hell for me, I felt both exhilarated and sad.

Exhilarated that finally, after years of terror, they're finally getting what they deserve, and sad because some part of me was attached to the city pack. Because there is glory and history there, but maybe that's my family talking, the part of me that was them coming through.

The plan was simple: three teams attacking simultaneously. The Alpha's plan was to make sure everything was happening at once without giving anyone time to react. Konstantin and I had the pleasure of replaceing Cora, of making sure we found her and took her back as the Alpha's weakness.

My Alpha planned to use Cora as a way to get Larissa back.

But...

"Cora is not his weakness." Konstantin tells me as we walk away from the camp.

My mind was still on June kissing her mate goodbye. There wasn't any pain in my neck anymore, the burn was gone as well as my connection with her, but there was certainly pain in my heart. Like I just split my chest open and let it bleed.

I thought losing the bond would free me from this pain, from this prison that kept me entwined with June, but it seems I prefer the burn of my neck than the stabbing of my heart.

Thankfully, Konstantin's words were a great distraction as I used this to try to get my mind out of where it was not supposed to be.

"Yes. You're right." I agreed with a nod. "I doubt taking Cora would move him. He doesn't care about her. He doesn't care about anyone but himself."

"He never cared about her," Konstantin adds with a forlorn look. Something was bothering him and it wasn't hard to guess what.

"She did something to you." It wasn't a question. It was a fact.

Years and years of living around Cora made me realize she's just like her father. She defiled just as many boys as her father defiled women. Cora liked to fantasize about men she couldn't have. And the one she never had by force because they needed him for his money was Konstantin.

She liked him.

She really liked him.

In her crazed, psychotic way.

Cora would flutter her eyelashes and touch him all over, but Konstantin never really reciprocated. At least not to my knowledge. He was far too focused on himself to ever care about her and this just made her angry. Because what Cora wants, Cora gets.

And by the looks of it, this past week, she has been getting it by force.

I felt bad for him.

Growing up, I thought he was invincible and that his money would be able to protect him and I envied that, wishing I could be him. Not anymore. I didn't know he had his own demons to battle.

Konstantin finally looks up from his hands- from making himself look smaller and I swear he's blinking back tears. "She did everything to me."

He didn't need to emphasize what everything was.

I knew.

Because she would make me watch her too. I was younger than her and she easily pulled me around, forcing me to do her bidding, and in those horrible times, she'd drag me to her room dangling an unfortunate boy in there with her.

"I suppose you're happy about this somehow." Konstantin laughed but there was no humor in it. "I've done terrible things to you, so I guess you think I deserve what I got."

My reply comes to me easily and I replace myself reaching to hold him by the shoulder. "I don't think anyone deserves what happened to you. Not even you."

This surprised him. "I would apologize for everything I've done to you, but I won't lie. At the time, I really did mean everything I did. I wanted you to hurt and beg and cry. And it's horrible and disgusting, but that's the truth and I wish I could change that." Now this surprises me.

Konstantin never apologizes. He was above that.

And the old him would never.

"I was always jealous of you." He continues, his expression tight with emotion. "Blonde and blue eyed, strong and smart and perfect. I was never any of those and seeing you always reminded me of that. I was wrong, so very wrong to take it out on you. You were just a boy and you had your own problems... I didn't need to add to that."

I wanted to hate Konstantin and I did, but it was getting hard to continue hating him when I knew he had suffered just as much as I suffered. Maybe June was rubbing off on me because the old me would have already killed him right here, right now. Left him here to rot. I would tell my Alpha it was an accident and move on. But June wouldn't do that. June wouldn't laugh or put down someone who was already at their lowest. "We all had our own problems. Both of us didn't have it easy. He told you that every day, didn't he? That I was fairer than you, that I had his blood even if it was only half, so I was better, that I was smarter despite being young and he laughed whenever I beat you in training. He wanted this. He wanted us to hate each other because if we hated each other, we would be too busy to see who the real enemy was. He made sure we would never become friends. He didn't want us to replace allies in each other."

"And look at us now." Konstantin gestured to the warriors that we brought to set up explosions by the borders. "Who would have thought that the people who hated each other the most would be working together?"

"Not I." I mused, a smile playing at my lips.

"Not I." He repeated with his own tired grin.

It was strange to see us working together, but I suppose this is my own way of giving the finger to my uncle who, despite trying to destroy us all our lives, by using children to cause as much pain to each other as possible- for his mere pastime, no less. Those two children are now working together, working towards his demise.

I was proud of this.

Proud that even after everything, Konstantin and I could still replace peace in each other.

My uncle hasn't fully destroyed us. He didn't get what he wanted.

And I know he will hate it.

Which is what made it even better.

"It's time." Konstantin gestured to the sky. "Let's go."

I ordered the warriors we brought to move, following the carefully planned instructions given to us, and when the time was just right, I nodded. "Blow it up. Burn everything to the ground."

Konstantin and I took a step back, facing the city pack as everything was silent for a few seconds before all that we knew went up in flames. My knees buckled as the earth shook under my feet, the tremors of explosions happening in every direction. The constant shake of the ground made me grasp a nearby tree and the instant smoke and rubble that came had my lungs begging for fresh air.

"I know this might sound awful, but is it wrong that I feel sad to see everything burn?" Konstantin asked in a low voice. "This is my home. I know it wasn't much of a home for you but this was... everything I knew. I hate the pack but I did love the land."

I wanted to lie, to tell him he was stupid for thinking such a thing, but surprisingly, I couldn't help but agree. "This was strangely a home for me too."

Konstantin and I shared a look of respect before nodding in quiet understanding.

No one else but us will ever understand.

We didn't have much time to think, shifting into our wolves and running through the borders that my Alpha took just minutes ago. We ran as fast as we could towards the center of the city. All the while, explosions are happening all around us, leaving nothing untouched.

Each explosion that came rang through my ears, my heart beating wildly in my chest. Looking up at the tall buildings and seeing everything fall was something else entirely.

For these mighty buildings always seemed impenetrable... untouchable.

Well, not anymore.

Our team tried to go through undetected, with the few city pack members that saw us d y in g quickly before they could warn anyone of our arrival, but there were still a lot of guards that came for us and with the destruction happening all around us, we were losing people left and right.

Half way through, our paws were stung by the heat of the earth, the wild fires coming from every direction, but they were also soaked with the blood of our enemies, tracking dried blood with each step we took.

We made it to the city with Konstantin leading the way. He knows this by heart, his soul attached to the place and memorizing it better than anyone.

He was right.

I've long kept this place away from my heart, thus forgetting that this street led to that, that this place was here and there.

Though I hate to admit it, I'm glad he was here because if he hadn't been, I think I would have been lost. Mentally and physically. Two sides fought inside me. The side that called this home and the side that wanted it all gone.

Konstantin takes us to the back of a building that I know very well. The memories of this place haunted me as old bruises started the throb, remembering everything that happened in the past, the memories I've tried hard to forget coming back to me in waves. I started to breathe hard, swallowing back the pain that flashed through my eyes.

From in front of me, Konstantin turns back and stares at me, asking if I'm alright.

I nodded, urging him to move forward. We didn't have much time.

And finally we made it to the top.

Konstantin slams into the silver door that Cora used to try and keep us out, slamming against it three times before the door crashes down on the ground, revealing the roof top where she barricaded herself in.

The sizzle of fur and skin came from Konstantin, but surprisingly, he didn't flinch as I expected him to, merely staring ahead at where Cora was. My cousin was busy smoking drugs while sitting on a boy's lap, indifferent to the chaos happening all around her. She was surrounded by guards who tried their best not to look at what she was doing, grinding against... what seemed to be a random boy she had brought with her to use while stuck up here.

And when she saw us, she looked too out of it to recognize that she was in danger, continuing to smoke and laugh and grind against her terrified companion.

"I was beginning to get bored." She giggled, motioning to the boy she was sitting on. "I knew you would come and fix that, Konstantin."

Cora's heavy lidded eyes stared at Konstantin, a hunger in them as she licked her lips.

My cousin seemed to finish herself off to this random boy before standing up, wobbling as she did. She was drunk and far too wasted, the flames behind her making her look horrifying. "I always knew you would taste good and now you're back for more, my Beta." The way she said Konstantin's title was so possessive and so disgusting that it made my skin prickle and my blood turn cold.

"And look, you've brought Jeremy. Come to see how it's done, little cousin?" She teased, grinning widely. "After all, I taught you everything you needed to know."

Konstantin's wolf turned to me in horror before whipping back to growl at Cora protectively.

"Tell Jeremy what we did. All those restless nights." She murmured suggestively, wiggling her eyebrows up and down as she licked and smacked her lips. "Had to strap you down at one point, didn't I? You were fighting so hard too, struggling and crying and begging, but I won in the end because I always get what I want. Come. It's your turn. Let me make you mine again."

I underestimated two things.

First, Cora and how low she's truly gotten, how terrible and broken she left Konstantin. I expected the worst to have happened to him, choosing June and embarrassing Cora in public, but I didn't expect this kind of horror.

I didn't expect her to do all that and more to him.

Second, the damage she had done to Konstantin and how he would react upon seeing her. She was in her lingerie that didn't hide anything, sashaying her way to Konstantin, to claim her Beta, much like how she possibly did for that entire week when she violate d him.

I didn't think. I didn't expect.

But by the time it dawned upon me, it was too late for Konstantin was upon her, his teeth out and completely out of it, driven mad by the sight of her and basically telling everyone what had happened to him.

The guards all around Cora came for him, trying to yank Konstatin off of Cora, and I could do nothing but tear them away from Konstantin as he ripped Cora apart.

He shifted somehow, continuing to rip her apart with his bare hands as he shook.

"That girl I chose over you," Konstantin whispered, growled, cried. "She's the true Alpha's daughter- the golden wolf, and June is everything you wanted to be but will never become."

Cora's eyes were wide and angry, her famous tantrum coming out, but what could she do? Konstantin clawed at everything and anything, leaving her bloody and barely recognizable. We were supposed to keep her alive.

To use her as leverage for Larissa.

But as Konstantin bathed in the blood of his a buser, I knew we had failed our mission but had won another.