Alpha’s Hybrid Cinderella
Chapter 70

This was a trap. It was meant to be the end of him. Evan had walked into too many battles to miss the signs, the scent in the air, the killing intent buried in crafty tricks.

He stood before the Wellington Federal Bank alone, in the shadow of the massive building where he had already caught more than two dozen unique scents. There would have been more had Evan's pack not circled the entire area - though from a distance of about half a kilometer out. Evan had forbidden anyone from coming any closer. He wouldn't risk Claudia. But to forestall a backstabbing, he had ordered all werewolves already outside the base to gather at a safe radius, surrounding the patch of land to hem in the enemy should they try to escape. Or, more importantly, to fight whoever else tried to come in and reinforce the enemy's numbers so as to overwhelm Evan even more.

Two dozen enemies and some change. That was a lot. They weren't all werewolves either, probably a lion shifter in the mix and a tiger too, if he wasn't wrong. There would be blood tonight, and much of it would be his.

But if they thought that was enough to take him down, they had no idea what Evan was truly capable of. He would remind them all that Alpha Evan had conquered every territory and pack almost five hundred kilometers to the north, south, west. He was a conqueror, a warlord, not some pampered Alpha only in name. They would learn how he had done all he had at his young age, and they would regret underestimating him.

Claudia was waiting for him. He would rescue Flicka and Matthen too when he found them, but it was Claudia waiting in there, maybe hurt. Not dead. He would know if she was dead. The world would have crumbled if she had died, and he would have burned it down to ashes already. She was still alive. He could feel it to the very marrow of his bones.

The first enemy emerged from the doors, in wolf form just like him. Then the second. Then the third. Then more, shadow after shadow rising out of the night.

Evan bared his fangs and advanced.

***

Blood coated his jet black fur. There were so many wounds on him they didn't even have time to close before they were split open again. But now, Evan had fought his way inside the bank, crashing through the tempered glass that made up the front doors and sending splinters of wood, strips of metal, and thousands of shards of glass to litter the floor inside. The unlucky hyena shifters who had tried to gang up on him had gotten the brunt of the damage. Two of them lay twitching on the bed of shattered glass, their bodies lacerated and bleeding out all over the ground.

He didn't stop to admire his handiwork. The c*****e was not the point. A year ago, he would have crowed and growled his amusement, delighting in the violence and fear he inspired, but what was the point now? He didn't enjoy it. He was doing this to save Claudia. She was the only thing on his mind. The fight was only a means to an end, not proof of his strength, not a stroking of his ego.

He wished Claudia didn't have to see him fight at all.

But to save her, if he had to become the monster, he would do it again and again as many times as it took. Then he would cradle her in his arms and hold her until she understood the monster was only temporary, not the center of him, not who he was underneath the boundless power and fury.

He was hers. He would bring her back and love her, mate her, make her truly his.

He tore into the ring of rogues that surrounded him with no mercy. They tore into him right back, fangs and claws dripping with blood.

Tonight, all of this would end.

Tonight-

An Alpha would fall.

But if he fell, he was taking them all with him.

***

I couldn't feel my hands. I couldn't feel my feet. At least I wasn't running out of air like I had feared. There was no doubt in my mind this was a small vault room inside a bank. After wrenching myself free, the first thing I had done was explore the sides of the room, and the feel of the metal lockers and deposit boxes had told me enough. When Peelle brought me to the bank once to teach me how to use my cards and accounts, he had given me an impromptu tour just because he could, as a boast. I sent a prayer heavenward for his spirit as thanks. He was helping me even from beyond the grave.

The soundproofing was poor, though. If I pressed my ear to the door, I could hear the metallic echoes outside growing and growing. Something was going on outside. My werewolf senses were dead still, but the intuition that kept raising its head more and more frequently lately made an appearance once more. There was a fight going on outside, it told me. A big one. Flicka and Matthen might have planned for this all along, but if there was ever a chance for me to get out, it was now.

And yet no matter how I tugged on the safe door from all directions, it failed to budge. I took a deep breath and focused, reaching for strength, reaching for a mind-link, scrabbling for anything - and almost gave up, until Flicka's panicked thoughts seeped through the door.

I've got to grab her and get out! Where's Alpha Matthen! Oh, Moon Goddess, they weren't supposed to go down so fast, what am I going to do! No, I have to get Claudia out of here first. What have I done! I'm so stupid! Why did I fall for it!

If Flicka was having second thoughts as she fumbled with the lock code on the other side, it was too late. I had already formulated my plan. Although I had no weapon, and although my strength was far less than it should be, I had the advantage of surprise on my side. Not only that, in their eagerness to break my spirit, Flicka and Matthen had darkened the vault room. That darkness would be Flicka's undoing.

When the vault door swung open and she stepped in, there was a crucial second where she had no idea what had happened. She had not turned on the light yet, and her panicked breathing filled the room so loudly I could pinpoint where her face was by hearing alone.

From my position right next to the door, and right next to Flicka when she took the first step inward, I launched my ambush.

I poured everything I had into it. I was no bleeding heart today. I was fighting for survival, not only for myself but for others, for Evan. For Peelle's memory and Osborn's and everyone else. Matthen might have manipulated the foolish Flicka, but she was in too deep for me to go easy on her. So I let her have it all.

Her head banged against the vault door like a gong, and she fell like a rock. No resistance. Not even a moan of pain. She simply collapsed like a sack of bricks, and I stepped over her to sprint out of my prison.

***

"No... No..."

I stumbled over to the motionless black wolf lying amid a sea of blood. There were bodies everywhere, some of them so ruined I could never hope to recognize what went where. In times past, I would have been frozen in shock at the scene of pure, blood soaked violence, but tonight, all I saw was Evan.

"Evan. Evan, please, wake up."

Impossibly, the wolf's eyes opened. I pulled the upper half of his massive body into my arms, not caring that my legs were in such pain I hadn't even been able to run properly. My blood smeared on him too now, but none of that mattered. "Evan... Evan!"

In my arms, he transformed, shifting back to his human shape with such agonizing slowness I feared it might stop in the middle, and that he would give up and fade away. I was too terrified to even cry.

"Evan! Evan, say something. Oh, no. This is, you're hurt, you're hurt-"

"Claudia."

His voice was so quiet. The rasp of it rendered him almost inaudible. I clutched at him with my waning strength, the tears still frozen in my throat and scorching me like a fire.

"Claudia... You're safe. I'm sorry I didn't come sooner."

"No! Evan, it's okay, it'll be okay. Let's, let's go, I'll find a radio here somewhere-"

"Claudia. Don't go. Hold me a little longer. I want you to be the last thing I see."

I burst into tears then. I couldn't hold them back. If I let go, he would fade away. I knew it. That intuition, that otherworldly knowledge that had led me straight to Evan even though my werewolf senses should have been lost, told me without a doubt that Evan was dying, dying, dying, and the second I tried to move away from him, he would slip away.

No...

I would do anything.

I would do anything to keep him safe.

This was my fault. If I had been stronger, if I had been faster, if I had...

"Oh, Evan. I remember you." My whisper was soft, breeze-light as I rocked back and forth. His body was getting cold. No time... no time. I had to follow my heart. "I remember you from back then. Finally. I'm sorry it took me so long."

"Don't be sorry... Claudia. I love you. I love... I love you... Only you. Don't let go. Let me see you..."

He could see me forever. I would never let him go.

I smiled, as the old memory surfaced again.

That was how I had saved Evan back then, almost ten years ago. My touch. So simple. The answer had been there all along my supposed green thumb, the way I could grow and save plants that everyone else gave up for dead. The power that had swelled again lately, like in the greenhouse when it rejuvenated the seedlings and made them thrive. The power that had been in me all along, and had simply been waiting for me to become ready to use it.

I was ready now.

I was ready to save Evan, again.

I closed my eyes, and I let the power flow.

It was eating me up. This wasn't free - there was a cost to this power, just as how it had cost me before. The first time almost a decade ago, healing Evan had come with the price of my memory. I had lost all recollection of that night until now, of everything, of Evan's very face.

Tonight, it would be my life.

But that was a price worth paying.

"I love you, Evan. I love you more than I can ever tell you. I hope you remember that. I love you..."