Untamed - Book 2
Chapter 4

Alpha Jordan

I was startled when Cora shoved me away from her, but when my eyes saw Laurent’s body flying toward me with that dagger in his hand, I knew he had accepted his fate. Still, I had not expected to see Cora’s beast end him so savagely. I was shocked, to say the least, but when her eyes met mine, I know she saw the hint of fear behind it all. I wanted to tell her that I had feared that she might have been hurt, feared I could have lost her, but that would have been a lie and she did not stick around for me to try to explain anyway. As I stand and watch the trees where Cora had disappeared when I feel an icy hand land on my shoulder.

“Alpha, you are a fool. She has been alive for nearly 183 years, 140 years of it spent working for the council. How many witches did your pack kill for crimes they had been tricked into believing were true? We are all guilty of sins that were committed in good faith, all for the sake of protecting people who were not worthy of that protection. The darkness brought on by our sins never goes away, but hers is better controlled than anyone I have ever met. She is beauty and chaos in the purest form. I am going to go replace her and you should stay here and figure out if you are worthy of her, because if you aren’t, you need to let her go. At the end of the day, she may not be the mate you want, but she will undoubtedly be the monster we need.” My heart clenches with each word.

“I couldn’t let her go even if I wanted to. She’s my mate.” He smirks and it only makes him look more sinister.

“I know. I knew it the second I saw the two of you together in the courtyard. Mate or not, she doesn’t deserve to be treated like a damn monster, even if one lurks beneath her surface. She is more than her sins.” I watch as Darius vanishes before my eyes, leaving to search for my mate while I stand there wondering if I will ever deserve her.

“I hate to say it, but the bloodsucker has a point. Hell, she let him go and he went after you. She was only protecting her mate.” Danny speaks in a voice weighted with worry and frustration.

“That isn’t what worries me. Did you see the look in her eyes? She enjoyed killing him.” He places his arm over my shoulders and chuckles loudly.

“Like you wouldn’t have? He tried to bring down our pack by abducting the mates and children of rogues then sending them to attack us, he sent his daughter in to not only gather intel, but to seduce you and then he has Cora’s brother. Add to all of that the fact that he ordered the slaughter of the rogues he forced into helping him then tried to attack her mate. Why shouldn’t she enjoy it? Sure, she may have killed innocent people in the past, but she changed. She didn’t stop because she had to, she stopped because she realized that what she was doing was wrong. To top it all off, she spent the entire time she was running helping those in need. She didn’t care what race they were, she helped them anyway. Without her need to atone for her sins, how many of those people at the pack house would be there right now? How many would offer their lives and their people to help us?” I feel my heart drop, knowing everything he said is true.

“We need to replace her.” Danny tightens his hold on my shoulder.

“Bloodsucker already did.” He points toward the trees where Darius and Cora are emerging from the darkness. I walk up to her and try to pull her to me, but she ducks away and keeps walking until she is standing where the rogues and our people have gathered.

“Change of plans. We need to get back and inform the others, we need to move at dawn.” Her voice is shaky and Darius is standing beside her with a grave expression on his terrifying, pale face.

“What about the rogues?” One of Darius’s men, Dante, asks as he points at the group of rogue wolves standing to his left.

“This is their fight, now more than ever, should they choose to seek justice.” The pain in her voice mixed with the emotions I feel flooding the bond are overwhelming. She walks toward the group of rogues and I have to wonder what she saw while she was in the woods that has her so rattled, but my curiosity is quickly replaced by rage when she speaks to the men in front of her.

“I will help you with a proper send off. If you choose not to fight, I will understand, but if you do, I will be honored to fight and, if necessary, die at your side.” All of the men nod and they all follow her into the woods with everyone of us following behind her. Darius stops my men and I, letting the others get a head start before speaking.

“Alpha, if you go with them now, you will not be able to unsee what lies ahead.” I furrow my brow and stare him firmly in the eye.

“I am not leaving here until she has accomplished whatever this task is.” Though I cannot say I know exactly what lies ahead, I assume it has to do with the dead rogues we had seen in the woods.

“You are about to see what had made her into a monster, Alpha. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” We follow behind him, catching up with the others quickly and just as quickly, wishing we had headed his warning. We reach a small clearing and under the light of the moon, dozens of bodies are scattered around the clearing. Women and children, the ones who were taken by Laurent and used for leverage. Every single one reduced to a bloodied mess of exposed flesh, blood and bone. I watch in absolute horror as the vampires help the rogues and my mate carry the bodies and place them in a straight line. My heart shatters as I watch Cora carry the small body of a child, no more than two years old from the looks of it, to the line of bodies, cradling it in her arms as tears flow down her cheeks like angry rivers. One of the rogues runs up to her and takes the child in his arms before collapsing to the ground with the child held tightly to his chest as he screams into the night, his anguish and grief nearly suffocating everyone. Cora kneels beside him and speaks in a low voice that I am barely close enough to hear, but I do.

“This isn’t fair. I can’t accept this, I won’t.” She places her hands on the child’s head and begins chanting something I cannot understand. A bright blue light begins to flow from her hands into the child, casting a blinding glow throughout the clearing. She holds her left hand toward the bodies in the clearing while keeping her right hand on the child. Several ear piercing screams shatter the mournful silence as the bodies begin to move and gasp for the air that has long since stopped filling their lungs. The men rush to their family members, embracing them and sobbing, only the sadness is replaced by joy. Cora stands up and turns away from them, walking back toward the woods in the direction of the camp. Darius, Danny and I follow her to the location where the other mutilated bodies are. She performs the same strange spell with the dismembered bodies slowly reforming, the flesh knitting back together and the men eventually rising with their wounds being completely healed. Danny guides them back to where their families are while Darius and I remain with Cora who stands, staring blankly ahead.