The Alpha King Call Boy
Chapter 248

Caius had let his guard down. And he was not at full power, being up in the daytime. He was acting as if he were, but I knew better. I knew he had probably worn himself out with the sprint to catch me and tie me up in this silver, and he was probably feeling very weak now, at least physically. And though even I am not able to break through silver... I am also not afraid of pain.

Caius resumed his circling of me where I lay on the hard, red stone floor.

I slowed and steadied my breathing while I waited for him to be in the right place. And when he was directly in front of me again, I exhaled deeply and began my counterattack.

I wrenched my arms up and forwards, breaking my thumbs against each other and succeeding in pulling one hand, then the other, free of the single silver chain that Caius had looped around both my wrists.

He reacted, but not fast enough.

I was counting on that. I was counting on him to attack when he saw me free my hands, and I was counting on him to be slow.

My ankles were still bound in silver. I knew I was about to do some serious damage to my legs by changing into my wolf form when I was bound like this. But it was my only shot at killing Caius before he could kill me. He'd separated me from my pack, he'd gotten me on the ground and he was a moment away from finishing me off.

My vampire captor lunged down, baring his fangs.

And I shifted. My snout elongated and my canine jaw snapped open wide and with a growling roar I caught the demon's cold neck in my bite as he landed on me-but he sank his teeth into my own neck at the same time.

If pain existed at that time, I wasn't aware of it.

My wolf's only awareness was on clamping my big, sharp teeth down hard into the bitter flesh of my enemy. Harder and harder and harder until -

Caius reared back, clutching at what remained of his neck. The front of his throat was still in my mouth.

A torrent of black blood spewed from where his throat used to be.

He collapsed back against the cave wall. And then his big, ugly, horned head fell to the side and finally came apart from his body with a wet snapping sound, and crashed to the ground.

The mouth still hung open on the severed head. It was painted red with my blood. A tuft of my white fur was stuck to one of the big fangs.

I spat the severed throat out of my mouth and shifted back into my human shape in the next second.

My clothes had been torn to pieces when I shifted inside of them.

My naked body rested a top the scattered remnants of bloody fabric.

I looked down the length of my body with numb awe.

My legs were mangled. Unrecognizable.

The pain didn't come for me right away.

I became aware that I was still bleeding from my neck. The dusty stone I lay upon was absorbing a widening puddle of crimson that bloomed out from my body as I bled and bled...

I must have blacked out. The room was darker when I opened my eyes, telling me some measure of time had passed.

The pain had arrived.

It was extreme, and it was everywhere.

My ankles were broken. My feet connected to my body at an angle that was very wrong, that made me sick to look at. I saw a white bone protruding from my own torn and bloody flesh and didn't even know what kind of bone it was or where it belonged. I had to look away. I feared I'd pass out again if 1 looked down at the horrific mess that was my lower body,

And even if I had been able to keep my eyes on the area without freaking out, I don't think messing with the chain would have done any good. I had no idea how to get it off of me. My bones were all broken and smashed all around it.

And my hands were nearly useless. I'd broken both my thumbs, and from the looks of them, a few fingers too.

I lay flat on my back, panting, dizzy and exhausted. That torch leaning against the wall had almost burned out. Its pale, ghastly glow would soon smoke out into blackness.

Kayden and the rest of the Strike Team could not be far. I had no idea if they'd also been attacked, though. If they were being held captive in another cave. Or if they were looking for me.

I tried to mindlink them. I couldn't tell if they got the message or not. Amidst the horrific pain that demanded my mind and body's full attention, I could only manage to eke out one short message:

Find me. I'm alive. Find me.

I was not going to get out of here on my own. I could hardly move any part of my body. Only my arms.

And I could feel the blood still gushing out of my neck. The flow had slowed down a bit. But that meant I didn't have much time. It meant I was running out of blood.There was nothing to do now except hold on. Hold on and try not to fall down into the surrender of death.

And then I remembered: I had something in my pants pocket, something that might help me with that mission. Might help me to hold on long enough for my pack to find and save me.

I didn't want to move my head or neck. Didn't want to give my jugular any encouragement as it kept spewing out the last of my life force. So I felt around on the ground on either side of me with just my broken fingertips.

1 can't believe I found it, but 1 did. I felt a bit of fabric that had something hard inside it, and used up the very last of my strength and focus inching it into my palm.

I could force my broken fingers to move despite the pain, but I couldn't force them to function correctly. It took a great deal of patience and effort to pull the item out of its pocket and bring it up to rest on my chest, but I did it.

I'd found it. The little box that contained Fiona's note.

The box was soaked in blood, but when I lifted the lid, ott it, and reached inside; the paper felt dry.

I held it up to my face.

And smelled Fiona. Her scent was on the paper.

My eyes flushed with hot tears at the aroma of my Luna's sweet lavender scent. I brought my hand back down to rest on my chest while I tried to blink the tears away enough to be able to focus my vision.

The light dimmed further and the smell of smoke intensified, telling me the torch flame was smoldering out...

I shivered, feeling a sudden, intense chill. I was getting cold... losing too much blood...

I held the small piece of paper as tightly as I could manage between two of my few unbroken fingers and lifted my arm again, and brought my hand close to my fare The note read

Alexander, My Love,

I have never believed in anything as much as I believe that you can do this.

I love you.

Your Fiona