The Alpha's Gamble - Chapter 73: Chapter 73

Here it goes. This was it. Now we die. I closed my eyes. Knowing that they didn’t see me somehow brought a sense of comfort. They weren’t killing me, they were killing the reckless, unhinged wolf hellbent on ripping them to shreds. Her energy was draining, her lifeforce was strained and withering with each second that Logan remained on top of her, sinking his teeth as deep as he could and clenching his jaw to keep her down.
This was it. Here we go. Another few more seconds, and this would all be over. No more shame, no more fighting, no more wondering if this was all that life was meant to be.
I’m done.
I’m finally done. Ready to meet the creator and give her an earful about the life path she chose for me. She’d better have a good excuse for this sorry life I was forced into. All my life, I’d tried to prove myself, to be a winner at the things I did well, and to build a future I could be proud of. One that I controlled, only me.
I drew a deep breath, filling my lungs while Nasha’s were being crushed, screaming for air as her eyes slowly shut.
But it would appear the jokes weren’t over.
My sorry excuse for existence wasn’t about to be rectified and redeemed with the sweet surrender of death. Everything came crashing down, once again reminding me that hope was the thing I most needed to let go of. A loud howl erupted from far away. It was a call. A warning. Someone was coming. In the same instant, Noah’s wolf let out a vicious growl that forced Logan to step back. He reluctantly pulled his fangs out, twitching from not having killed us yet. His teeth sank in one last time before he unlocked his jaw and pulled back. Through Nasha’s barely open eyes, I saw Noah stalking his brother, biting the air and drawing to his fullest size to exert his dominance.
Logan’s wolf staggered, slowly bowing his head and showing his neck in submission, everything was done as though it caused him physical pain: the stepping back from his near-kill, dragging his tongue over his fangs to catch every drop of blood, bowing his head to his brother.
Noah stood a short distance away, lifting his head, and their wolves stood in the most obvious show of dominance, one raised high, the other offering his neck, proving he wasn’t a threat.
I could tell that Logan hated it.
It made me chuckle in the back of Nasha’s mind, a sound that seemed foreign to me right now.
Blood was forming in a puddle around her, covering her grey fur with brown-like patches.
She was gravely wounded, and despite this, the bitch started to move again.
She dug her claws into the ground and forced herself up on trembling legs, one of which gave in and she nearly fell back down, hitting her chin on the pebbles below her.
With every tremble and shake, the pain shooting down her back and her open wound expanding as the flesh had yet to heal, Nasha stood leaning against her one good front leg, shifting the weight back as much as she could to put most of it on her hind legs and spare her body from overexerting itself.
She locked eyes with Noah.
A snarl spread her lips, and her fangs glimmered in the sun that streaked down with its last mellowing rays.
“You have got to be kidding me,” Noah said through the mind link as his wolf turned its head.
“Noah,” I said, knowing that he didn’t see a single hint of my existence in Nasha’s eyes.
But I saw him through his wolf.
“What?”
“Kill her,” I said, and those may have been the calmest spoken words I’d ever uttered.
He stepped away, shielding his brother—or maybe shielding us from Logan. I couldn’t quite tell.
Noah knew what needed to be done.
It wasn’t a matter of if we died, it was a matter of when.
If he didn’t make the kill now, his father would make it later.
The decision had already been made, it came down to a matter of who would be doing it.
Nasha’s large head whipped to the side.
A fast strike of fear panged through her core, and I felt it in my chest when we saw the large wolf running towards us.
His eyes glowing in yellow with brown streaks, glistening furrows caressed by the wind waving back with his quickening speed.
The wolf’s canines in full display as his lips pulled back in a snarl, and as he lunged from the ground, a growl rippled from his wide-spread jaw.
He shoved his head under Nasha, lifting with a strength I would expect from Noah, or an Alpha, and we were tossed far into the woods.
Nasha hit a tree with a force that must’ve shattered a few ribs.
The pain was spreading through her body and up my legs.
How come I could feel it now?
My eyes closed, like an earthquake had shaken my brain against the protective walls of my skull.
And I fell back.
Everything went dark.
My heart slowed to a calming beat.
And my hands relaxed as my fingers fell open from my clenched fists.