98. Jax

98

Jax

Pulling free from our captors, London and I raced up the hill. He got to Lunessa and yanked her from the stone before I could reach Anna. A large, mutated wolf pounced at Anna, and I dove into him. Teeth and claws raked into the flesh of my human form, but I ignored it. There was only one truth. If I didn't get to Anna, she would be torn limb from limb.

Shifting faster than I'd ever shifted in my life, I turned and raced back to her. With a roar, I pulled her chains from the rocks with my paws and turned back to her.

"Jax," she whispered and sank into the ground. "I'm sorry. I don't think I can walk, let alone shift. Help Finn."

Finn didn't need my help. He was ripping through wolves at an alarming rate. I wasn't even sure he knew what he was doing.

Anna flinched, and I turned as another wolf tried to pounce. Ripping my claws into their flank, we tumbled, but as soon as I found my footing, I returned to her side.

If she couldn't shift, she would be vulnerable, but I would defend her until my last breath.

Suddenly, she was surrounded by wolves. My wolves. Saul. Amelia. Kenzi. Jenson. Howling, they formed a ring and lowered their stance. Their posture was clear.

She was ours, and we would never give her up.

I caught sight of Irene, Janelle, and Ava in their own circle. Whatever they were doing caught hold of the remained witches, and their screams could be heard over the chaos as they stumbled.

And the wolves kept fighting.

Elonso was down below, bellowing orders to my warriors, organizing them.

On the other side, Finn kept slaughtering. Our bond had snapped in half the moment he killed Maeve, and I couldn't feel him anymore. I knew exactly what that meant even if he didn't. He probably didn't even know what he was fighting for. He'd been close to death before he killed Maeve, and I had no idea how much longer he would last, but I couldn't intervene.

I wasn't allowed to intervene.

Blood flowed down from the mountain, but not in how Maeve had envisioned it. Her wolves were weakening. In drugging them, she'd essentially killed them. My wolves were just making it happen sooner.

Then, it was quiet. There were groans and whimpers, but the fighting was over. Any of Maeve's wolves who weren't dead were on their backs, belly-up in surrender.

Below me, a lone figure caught my attention, and I growled softly as I felt her presence.

Saris.

So, she'd come after all. Had she done whatever had broken Maeve's spell? Had she interfered after all?

In human form, Elonso made the long climb up. "Indigo Peak," he shouted. "A new alpha has arisen. Accept his bond or die."

Finn's wolf's head snapped up in surprise, and London and I howled in acceptance.

Slowly, wolf-by-wolf, the surviving members of Indigo Peak who were in attendance followed suit.

"The son will kill the mother," Anna whispered behind me.

It was never about our baby. It was always about Finn. From the moment I met him, I'd sensed his alpha power inside of him. I always knew that one day he would be even more powerful than me.

And I hoped that was true, because Indigo Peak had a rough road ahead of them.

Water poured from the skies as Anna and Lunessa slept. My inner circle, along with London and Elonso, met in their room, as I refused to leave Anna's side. Something was different about her, I just couldn't tell what, and she'd passed about before she could explain.

"Explain," I demanded in a small voice. "How could Lunessa teleport that many wolves at once?"

"In a way, it was Evalina," Irene whispered. She was exhausted. "When Evalina asked how my magic had been taken from me, she started experimenting with the magic. Lunessa and I thumbed through her spell book after she'd died. She'd found a quick and dirty way of borrowing power for thirty seconds, but that was all Lunessa needed. We prepped her and let her get caught. I adjusted the spell on the land under our feet. Janelle manipulated the magic in the wolves, which they were not happy about, and Ava contained a portal around us. It took all of us, and really, the odds were not good that it would even work."

I stared at her. "She stole their magic?"

"If you had any understanding of how our magic worked, you would be terrified. We thought holding that much power all at once might kill her. She did something impossible."

"She and Anna both," I muttered as I stared down at my mate. "There were witches mixed in with the coven who were working against Maeve. There's one in the prison cells."

"I'll find her," Janelle said quietly. "There were holes in that circle that let us come through. Their betrayal helped."

Saul finished his examination of both Lunessa and Anna and returned to us. "They're sleeping deeply, but otherwise, they seem fine, and so is the baby. I'll see to them again when they've awakened, but that may be awhile. For now, I'll start seeing about curing some of the mutated wolves."

"You'll need Finn's permission," Elonso cut in. "These next few days will be incredibly important to Finn's success. We do nothing to this pack without his permission, even if it's something that you know he would approve of."

Grimly, Saul nodded his head and started to leave.

"Can I go with him?" Amelia asked in a small voice. "Please."

Nodding shortly, I watched as she ran out with Saul. She'd sustained plenty of injuries, but I knew she was still reeling from the shock that Finn was an alpha. It would hurt to lose her, but she belonged by his side.

I had no idea where Finn was, and now that he wasn't my wolf, I had no business searching him out. We were guests on his land, and if he needed us, he would come find us.

It was a strange situation. The only transition of power I'd witnessed was Elonso's, and we weren't on his land. We were also, unsurprisingly, not invited, but if anyone knew what Finn was going through, it was Elonso.

Of course, Elonso had also planned to kill Emerson and take over the pack. Finn just wanted his own personal nightmare to be over. I didn't know if his taking over Indigo Peak was the answer or if it would only make things worse for him.

"You should talk to him. I know you want to get back to your pack, but you should reach out and let him know you've got advice. You took over a traumatized pack. Finn might need your help." I took a breath. "And thank you for coming to help."

"Hey, I still think we could have just killed her and avoided all of this, but I'm glad it worked out. At least I think it worked out." Elonso frowned at her. "Do you know what she did?"

"Not yet. I guess I won't know until she wakes up."

As if she heard me speak, she shifted and moaned. Elonso quickly backed away and I crossed to Anna in two steps and waited by her bedside as her eyes fluttered open. We locked eyes, and she didn't speak.

Something tore inside me when I saw the hesitation in that mournful gaze. We were free, but we were not healed.

"Easy," I murmured when she tried to push herself up. "You should rest longer, but I've got some water if you need it. Or food. I don't know when you last ate."

"You came for me," she whispered.

"Always, Anna. No matter what we're facing, I will always come for you. You know that."

"The baby…"

"Our baby is fine, Anna. Saul already examined you. The baby had a healthy heartbeat." I lifted the cup to her lips, and she drank greedily. Finally, her head fell back, and she stared mournfully at me.

"You did it," I whispered and leaned down to kiss her forehead. "It's over. Think of all the things we said we were going to do when it was all over, and rest, Anna."

"Are we over?"

"What?"

Her eyes closed, and panic took hold, but I didn't wake her back up again. She needed to rest, and I needed to process what the fuck I'd just heard.

I'd failed her so much. What if she'd finally decided that now that it was over, we were better off separate? Too much history. Too much broken to fix.

Elonso cleared his throat. "Someone is approaching," he said in a low voice. A second later, there was a tentative knock. Elonso opened it and a nervous female shifter stood on the other side. "The alpha requests your presence."