Her Savior Alpha
Chapter 57

I heaved, my body writhing in pain from the injury on my leg. Looking back, I could see a half-moon trace of teeth etched on my leg. Blood leaked out steadily, hot against my tough wolf skin, sinking into the fur, making it wet and matted. It was a bright scarlet against white, the image flickering in my vision.

I could feel my control slipping.

My strength was leaving me, the last of it allowing me to scrape myself away from Dane with my front paws. I managed to nudge a few feet, and realized with a sinking feeling that Dane was making no move to get me. He knew there was nothing I could do anymore, no where I could run. I had lost.

I’m sorry, Vera. I cannot keep it up.... my wolf moaned within me.

I could barely concentrate on giving her a message, struggling to get as far away as possible, even in my sluggish form. My lower body lay heavily on the ground, a deadweight holding me back from escape. Bitter disappointment in myself filled me like salty blood on my tongue; I really thought I could take him down. But I must have been too weakened by the journey. Or perhaps I had no chance at all.

Then, in a flash of darkness, I felt my fur and bone shift, leaving me a trembling mess of human on the grass. My leg stretched across from, the injury stark against my pale skin, the bone showed through flayed flesh and gushing blood. On my tailbone, I hoisted my upper body by my shaking arms, using them to drag me back. Dane still loomed a few feet away as the wolf, the monster he was, teeth bared and glimmering with red. He seemed to wait for me with humor, knowing he had me.

Should I call out to Archer?

No, I couldn’t. This was my fight; I couldn’t stand to see him come at my rescue when I had lost miserably. Maybe I still had a chance, I just needed to catch my breath.

Is the little bitch done takng a break? Dane taunted.

Heaving, shoulders dripping with sweat, hair escaping my tie and stuck across my back and over my breasts, I stared up at Dane with the fiercest glare I could.

A dark laugh echoed in my head. Then, unexpectedly, the wolf before me began twisting and collapsing in on itself as Dane transformed back to his human form. The sight of him standing tall and burly, nude flesh on display, was an alarming one, to say the least. I didn’t have it in me to make any wry jokes, even to myself, but I certainly never thought I’d see my grandfather stark naked in front of me. Although nudity was normal amongst wolves, the tense energy electrified the air around us with something malignant, something dark and putrid, and I felt fear coil in the pit of my stomach.

Dane took a threatening step forward, prompting me to scramble back against the tree behind me.

A cruel smile curled between the gray facial hair. “You know, dear Vera, that I have been alpha for long, and I have always believed I was the best his pack had ever had.”

I scoffed with a trembling voice. “Sure, that’s been really clear these days. Because an alpha kills its own.”

“Some punishment is necessary to maintain control,” he said, brushing off my bite. He seemed unusually calm as he neared me. “Anyway, the pack is under the impression that Grant is my heir. But you’re a smart girl, Vera. You knew that the throne was never going to be hers, didn’t you?”

I gulped as he took another step closer, his shadow covered me like a black cloud about to strike out in lightning.

“While I wish I could rule forever, even werewolves are mortal. Unfortunate. But there is a next best thing: grooming my next successor, one who could be the most powerful wolf in the land. While you have the lycan blood and you are....” he grimaced in distaste. “My kin... there’s a lot of bad blood between us. If I’d know before, perhaps I could have salvaged the situation. But now, you’re too far gone, uncontrollable...broken. Instead, there’s another way.”

Suddenly, Dane lowered himself to me, the scent of his masculine sweat suffocating around me, and I felt deeply uncomfortable, aware of every inch o bare skin that was near me. Black eyes nearly swallowed me whole as a large, rough hard reached out to stroke my cheek, the hand that had always smacked me around. It felt like a disgusting creature was touching me, and I tensed, trying to lean back from his reach. I didn’t dare close my eyes, I couldn’t show fear, even if it ate at my insides like acid.

“I can simply create a new heir,” he soulless eyes were hungry now like a rapid beast, roving across me. We head stepped over the line of safety and my breath hitched. “One with the sacred bloodline of the lycan, which combined with my own power, will grow to be an unstoppable force with my guidance. That would be the perfect solution.”

Dane bared his lips into a ghoulish grin, his gray and white hair tousled around him. He was deranged. What he was insinuating made my blood run cold, and I couldn’t escape a whimper.

“No...you wouldn’t,” I whispered with a slip of a voice, unstable and trembling.

His fingers hooked behind my neck, gripping tightly and pulling me forward forcefully. Soon salty lips and scratchy bread met my face as he pressed me to him in some sort of kiss. Instantly, I pushed against him, beating fists against his chest, only for them to be locked into the tight grip of his other hand. He held both wrists above my head, shoving them against the bark of the tree, exposing my front to him.

Winding his arm around my waist, he pulled me to him like I was a ragdoll, throwing me onto the ground completely and pressing down onto me. I was pinned completely, my body replaceing no place to lean back away from him. His skin felt loathsome every where it touched mine.

ARCHER! I screamed inside my head as Dane pawed at my body, feeling down my side and over my hip. I tried to twist beneath him, be he tool a hold of me and shook me, his tight grip pressing me down further to the dirt, his knees pressing my legs to each other. I was immobilized and I could stop the tears from streaming down my face, as I twisted my head around to get his lips off of me.

“Shut it!” A heavy sting rang across my right cheek; he’d slapped me until blood tanged in my mouth. “No one’s going to help you now, little bitch. It’s time for you to actually be of use for once.”

“NO!” screamed, not stopping my resistance. Angrily, Dane’s dirty fingers took my chin, squeezing my cheeks in his grip and pulling me in to silence me with his mouth. I buckled around like a wld horse - I wouldn’t let this happen, not f I lost my life. For an old man to stoop to doing such a thing! It was absolutely despicable.

But I was too busy trying to get away, desperately, to even contemplate the morality of his actions.

Archer, help!

Dane’s fingers roughly slid down my stomach, my thighs. I sobbed, my breaths heaving and strangled as he continued trying to make out with me.

Frustrated with my unrelenting movement, Dane lifted himself off me a bit, his eyes livid and liens on his face seething. “I said SHUT IT, you whore!” He thumped me hard across the head, and his fist may as well have been a rock, because lights dancing in my vision before everything blurred around me. Losing control of my limbs, I could hear myself still crying out and moaning but weakly, my head lolling. My head was in an explosion of pain, and I felt like an outsider in my own body, vaguely seeing the dark shape of Dane continuing his ministrations over me. Dazed, I could barely keep my eyes open. Dane had let my arms loose, seeing me completely out of it. He was right, I couldn’t feel them at all. With both hands free, Dane took the opportunity to enjoy my body, and tears kept leaking out against my will, as the hopeless feeling of being stuck loomed over me.

Would this really be my fate?

There was little I could do, but was I giving up too easily?

I didn’t know what to do. I could barely muster up the strength to mentally project to Archer. I wondered if he could hear me. Sometimes with distances, it could be hard for a message to reach someone.

No, no, no. I couldn’t let Dane do this. I couldn’t do nothing, even if I had no strength left in me. OR did I? Could the sheer force of will increase my power?

My left hand twitched slightly under my control. If he was distracted, I could try to hurt him at least. I wouldn’t go down without at least get a victorious hit; even if I lost in the end.

My arm dragged slowly across the grass. Closing my eyes, I ignored what Dane was doing as best as I could, trying to draw strength from every little corner and pocket I had within me, letting it swell in my muscles and bloom in my mind. I imagined as I did when learning to shift, focusing only on my fingers, on my nails; feeling them grow into small claws achingly slow, burning my fingertips.

Then with a deep breath, with every amount of force I had compiled concentrated at my arm, I shot it directly to spot Dane’s side would be, right under his ribcage; my sharpened nails broke skin with the little, but gathered energy I put into the hit, and I didn’t stop until my fingers had drilled a hole into his flesh, until my fingers could feel the slick wetness. A guttural roar deafened my ears, spittle on my face.

As he checked his injury, I took my chance, feeling my legs only slightly loose from beneath him, attempting to scramble away once more. I couldn’t breath, dry sobs racking through me, although I couldn’t tell if they were sobs or hyperventilation.

Dane rose to a crouch, blood dripping from the wound on his side.

“You sure don’t know when to stop and sit down, like a good little bitch,” he grunted.

With a mighty leap, he was on me in seconds, and I screamed, shutting my eyes at the impact. He stuffed his wrist into my mouth to shut me up.

“Just let me finish my job, you pesky brat!” he hissed.

I clawed furiously, desperately, at nothing, none of my hits landing, none of my arms strong enough to do more than lightly thump against him. Dane’s thick, corded muscled arms surrounded me, and I couldn’t escape nor breathe. Soon, I really couldn’t breathe, when he moved his arm from my between my teeth to my neck, pressing down on my airways until my head felt like it was underwater and my vision tilted.

“Choking is always what shuts them up,” he guffawed, his voice sounding far away. The edges of my vision filled with shadows, closing in. Although I was still just barely conscious, my body became slack, both from exhaustion and from losing my will to fight a losing battle.

I did what I could, I thought to myself, drifting into darkness.

***

Archer

A rush of horror filled me the second I heard Vera’s incredibly loud mental scream for help.

I practically flew through the trees, possessed by a spirit of speed and destruction, not allowing a single branch to slow me. I could smell Vera’s blood, tanging the air. Passing by a group of wolves ambling on their way out of the woods, I mindlinked them: Stay on standby near the woods.

Then I raced passed them. I didn’t shift just yet, in case I needed my strength.

When I reached the clearing, a horrible sight met my eyes: The Mount Hunter Pack’s alpha’s large, burly body flat on top of Vera, dwarfing her with his size, groping her limp body. She seemed knocked out, although her eyes peeked open every few seconds, as if trying to get back to reality. Keening sobs ripped my heart out of my chest, feeing like thousands of knives stabbing into it.

Without hesitation, I roared and tore across the clearing, body slamming into Dane. We rolled around a bit, before I quickly straddled him and punched. And punched. And punched. Rage filled every cell in my body. He managed to flip me over then and pummeled to the ground. I spit out blood from the hit to my jaw.

With everything I had, with everything the harsh training under Sigmund’s lead taught me, I built up moment in my hook and let it sail straight for Dane’s head. Pain burst at my knuckles from the impact, jarring my bones all the way up to my arm socket, but I gripped my teeth and held it steady. Dane grunted from the hit, and I could almost see his black bead eyes roll up, his jaw tremble and creak in slow motion.

The hit surprisingly dazed the large alpha. But I didn’t think it would have if it weren’t for the absolute raw fury ripping me apart on the inside, threatening to combust if I didn’t directly it externally.

Despite that, I couldn’t let my guard down. Dane’s head rolled to the side, but his thick, meaty fingers still bruised my neck where he pinned me down. In seconds, he would get a grip on himself through the injury and retaliate.

My hand quickly felt through the grass, meeting a rough, solid object, round in my palm, yet sharp and jagged. Lifting up the apple-sized rock, I didn’t hesitate to slam it against Dane temple. This time, his grip on me slackened, and his heavyset weight shook the earth when he landed sideways. Or maybe that was my own injuries talking.

Although I was tired, I couldn’t stop there. Quite literally, I had no control over my actions when I got up and took Dane by the hair at the back of his head, lifted and smashed his face against the ground. Again. And again. At first he groaned with each hit, his hands twitching to stop me, but after the third smash-down, radio silence filled the air.

Breathing heavily, I wiped the blood of my face. I wasn’t done. I wanted to beat him to a pulp, but a whimper nearby stole my attention.

Before I could go to Vera’s side like my deepest desires ached for painfully, I had to make sure Dane was secured - he was a walking time-bomb. Locating some scraps of cloth from the clothes torn off from shifting, I tied them together and then around Dane wrists and ankles. Tightening the complex holds, I left Dane where he lay like livestock awaiting slaughter. If I had my way, he’d be dead.

Finally, I turned to the curled-up, shivering pale body at the far end of the clearing. Hair spread across the ground like black paint, and face covered by an arm, she looked like she was trying to cave in on herself. I rushed to her despite my limp, horrified at her vulnerable appearance, at the gory bitemark on her leg, blood covering it from the knee down amidst bone-deep fang marks.

“Vera,” the whisper caught in my throat as I hovered over her violently trembling body. Carefully, I touched her cold arm covering her face, prying it as gently as I could. Glassy, barely there eyes stared down, dried streams of tears dancing down cheeks, gasps heaving her bruised lips.

“Ar-cher,” she gasped out. “You...came.”

“Of course,” I said, torn at her broken voice. “I’m so sorry I didn’t come sooner.”

Tearing off my jacket, I draped it over her shoulders before gathering her into my arms, like putting shards of glass together into their original form. Sobs still racked her, and I drew her into my chest.

“Shhh,” I whispered. “It’s okay now. You’re safe.”