The Game Of Quadruplet Mates
Chapter 48

Smoke had filled my lungs but I did not dare react to it, keeping my stare at this monstrous woman. She smiles wickedly, knowing I am not used to this- knowing that I am a fake and had no knowledge of fighting or had ever seen war. I was untrained, unfit for what was to come. She knows I am weak. She can probably smell it but I stay where I am, keeping my head up even if all I wanted to do was run.

No.

That's the old June.

The new June, the June that is responsible for so many lives, for lives that want revenge from this woman I once called mother, has to be stronger for everyone. I have to be strong because Ajax's people deserve someone strong, someone that will fight for them and protect them. Most of Ajax's pack members have suffered so much under the cruelty of this woman and her family. The city pack's sins are endless and with the way this woman killed more, she wasn't stopping anytime soon. There is no redemption here.

There is only death. Her death.

Jeremy isn't very vocal about his life in the city pack, but I've heard whispers... I've heard the stories. Konstantin told me enough to know that Jeremy's life in the city pack was worse than Jeremy likes everyone to believe. He has suffered a lot, beaten until an inch of his life, crawling and broken and hiding in the sewers to live. And the main person that caused all the pain, all the hurt he's ever experienced was because of the woman in front of me. I don't think I've ever hated anyone in my life, but I sure hated her. And I was going to be strong for everyone.

And for myself.

And for Jeremy, who needs this monster gone.

The woman grins at me, a hand out and taunting me to come to her by gesturing forward. Everyone that came at her she dodged or killed effortlessly. All while in her human form. She was a master at this, stronger than I thought possible.

How many packs has she murdered? How many lives has she taken and ruined? How many has she left begging and d e a d?

Is this merely just another fight for her? Another pack to pillage and take over?

And why did she smile so happily? Like the death surrounding her was so exciting?

Jeremy is a strong fighter and it looks like he got it from his mother, who continued to taunt me by kicking her living shields and using them to distract the nameless pack who clearly knew who these people were. I saw the recognition on their faces, the surprise, the horror of realizing some of their family members were still alive.

It was by design.

Bringing their weaknesses here was a calculated move to distract our pack, to make them emotional and horrified. We were strong but we all had weaknesses... and this was theirs. I knew it would be mine too.

'Free the prisoners!' I replace myself ordering. 'Focus on getting them out. Save them from this woman!'

Quietly, I command the guards protecting me to target the city pack holding the prisoners hostage, the ones that kept them on the ground.

'Take them all out. Leave none alive.'

Following my instincts, my wolf leaped forward, crashing against the city pack defenses and biting down at all the wolves that seemed to rush forward when I came close. My guards cleared a path with Shannon cleaving a way through and I did my best to help, ripping through bodies and bodies that targeted me.

But that's when I started to notice that a few of the city pack had seen me, that some had taken a step back, shifting back into their human forms with a look of awe on their faces.

"Gold!" They say through the scream s and the cries of pain. "She's a gold wolf! The true Alpha!"

Jeremy's mother notices their reactions and turns, whipping her head back to them. "What are you doing? Attack you fools!"

"But she's gold! The rightful Alpha. She's the lost heir." Her people argued, dispersing and thinning their numbers exceptionally. Most made a run for it, others going on their knees in surrender, but some still stayed, refusing to consider me as anything. The loyal ones that stayed were just as bloodthirsty as her, making me their main focus as they took down a few of my guards, running straight for me.

I let my wolf take over completely and I am surprised by the ferocity that was unleashed, the powerful strikes that smashed faces and broke bones and limbs. It's as if my body wasn't strained with injuries and a skin that burned, fighting like I had nothing left but this moment.

Breathing hard through the mouth, I could taste the blood, I could taste the d e a t h. It was all around me, consuming life and everything in its path. The smoke was in my lungs, dragging me down, but I fought through it, running head first towards the woman already waiting for me.

She was still grinning, taking pleasure in all of this and enjoying the d e a t h and destruction happening in all directions.

My hate grew, my anger exploded like a fire lit inside me.

When the path that led to her cleared, I knew she ordered her remaining defenders to stand back, spreading her arms wide. "It's just you and me... daughter."

I didn't have many lessons in combat with Ajax, but I prepared myself nonetheless. Remembering his voice from behind me, whispering instructions, telling me to focus and to keep my head up. My wolf knows what to do, her eyes narrowed, a low growl leaving her lips. "I'm quite surprised, June." She says, her voice loud and clear for everyone to hear. "I didn't think you had it in you to sleep through your ranks. First my son, the Beta of your pack, and then his Alpha right after. That's not counting Konstantin too. He has quite a thing for you, doesn't he? Did you taste him too?"

I was tempted to shift, to defend myself, but that's what she wanted. She wanted my wolf out of the picture. In response, I merely kept my head up, not allowing her words to affect me.

"Whoring yourself worked, didn't it?" She grinned, licking her lips. "It seems we have more in common than you would like to admit. Who else do you want? I'm sure there's more. The city Alpha certainly took an interest in you, but now he's with your friend... and I can assure you whatever he's doing to her, he's thinking about you the entire time. He's taking it very slow and very painful. Just the way you like it."

I broke. I snapped. I lunged.

Without thinking, I was on her as she had hoped for. I could take all the insults, all the stories about me, but when she saw it didn't affect me, she went for what she knew would hurt. Larissa.

And she happily told me where she was... what was happening to her.

The thought of the city Alpha on top of her. The thought that he was doing to her was all because of me. It killed me. He's a vile man and I'm sure there's nothing worse than being defiled by him. He would do what Cora did to Konstantin and it's all my fault. It should have been me. Not her.

She didn't do anything.

She wasn't even supposed to be there if they didn't know she was my friend.

Enraged and blind by it, I barreled through the space between us and lunged for the woman's neck. She reads my moves easily and shoved me to the side, laughing loudly.

"You goldies have always been weak." She says with a roll of her bored eyes. "Too nice. Too full of emotion. So in love with the people and their wellbeing. It was so easy to kill your father. He never saw it coming. He thought we were loyal to him. But your mother... that farm bitch, she was even easier. Small little thing. You look just like her. Ugly. A one. I should have killed you while you were a baby. You tainted the blood of the pure."

This is coming from a woman who had a son with a farm boy? Wasn't she so in love with her farm boy too?

She apparently sees this and knows what I'm thinking.

"All of your kind only want one thing from us. You ones seduce us for our money using your sweet words, trying to get us to fall in love and bound so you can take everything. And for what? To get out of your miserable lives on the farms? You will never become us. The wealthy. The powerful. The pure." She spat on the ground, absolutely disgusted by us as she took everyone in her vicinity. "You're all dirt and I'm going to kill every last one of you."

Finally, she shifted, the sight of her wolf making me catch my breath. She was beautiful. Like Jeremy. Tall and radiant, her wolf shook with undeniable power.

Jeremy was right.

We shouldn't underestimate them.

Especially not her.

This time, she didn't wait for me to attack, throwing an onslaught of claws and teeth my way. She used her people to hold mine back, letting my guards and everyone close to watch as she ravaged me.

I was overwhelmed, taking hit after hit after hit. I was no match for a woman that has spent her entire life killing. And she was angry, angry at me and what I was.

She was impossibly fast, endlessly agile... fighting like nothing I had ever seen before.

Still, she was not Ajax.

The best of us, who is relentless, his strength was an army's worth and his rage was more than she could ever imagine.

If she was Ajax, I would already been long d e a d but she is not.

Each time she brought me down, I stood back up, my legs shaking and my skin burning. My legs and my arms are crusted and scraped and bleeding. She hit, bit and clawed me until my blood painted the earth, but I still stood, never letting go.

Her frustration was obvious, fighting and plowing me down, but she didn't know how the farm pack operated. Because I am from the farm pack and being brought down is what I'm used to. I have worked myself to the bone, moving and functioning without food or water or anything. We are resilient... I am resilient and even when she hurt me with everything she had, I was still there.

Even when my body begged for respite, begged for it all to be over, I still stood, staring down at her.

And once she became tired and flustered and slow-worn out from trying to keep me down, I started to hit back, cornering her with careful strikes that targeted exposed weaknesses in her stance. She wasn't hard to read and she wasn't used to this kind of fighting. She only knew how to fight quick battles, against weak opponents, but not the ones that fought even if they were too tired to move.

I regain my footing, striking and whipping towards her, my attacks faster than thought. It was instinct, my body knowing exactly what to do and where to hit. It didn't take long for her to stumble back, a slight shift of her balance. There is an opening, my wolf sees it like a light in a dark tunnel and I go for the throat, biting down on it. I am tired. I am breathing hard but I do not pause. I do not stop.

Until I see Jeremy, Konstantin and Larissa racing towards us.

She was limping and bleeding, her eyes... they were haunted by a look I had only ever seen in Konstantin. The truth of what happened to her weighs down on my chest and I lose air in my lungs.

But this was her opening, seeing my shock, my hesitation.

This was the monster's time.

She shoves me back, falling roughly, and when my head hits a rock behind me, I am too dazed to stand back up.

I hear my name being called, somewhere, everywhere.

A face looms over me, a shadow of an older woman with a grin so wide and so cruel. She was my death. Her neck is bleeding. She is dying but she wants to bring me with her.

And then something happens.

Jeremy, maybe.

Was it Konstantin?

Or Shannon.

No. It was my father, leaping through the city pack defenders and coming to throw back the woman that came to kill me. He is bruised, tired and shaking from exhaustion. It had been a long day for us all and it was catching up to him, but he wouldn't let anyone hurt me.

He has always protected me.

The question was... who was going to protect him?

Because as he fights her off as best as he can, Jeremy's mother realizes something. It was in her eyes. I could see it and I desperately ran towards her, dizzy and battered as she saw it... seeing my weakness. The last weakness that I had, but before I could make it to them, she already had my father in her arms, her claws through his throat, his life spilling like ink on the ground, the dark color of blood bleeding away the last of my father and I am screaming.

I am crying.

I am howling and crumpling to the floor.

I was too late.

And it didn't even matter anymore because she was on the ground with him, bleeding to death as I watched, as I stared, as something inside me died with the man who saved me, who protected me and who cared for me like his own.