Chapter 262: The Fight

​Scarlett’s POV

​I couldn’t move. My feet felt glued to the muddy ground. I looked at the three of them, my chest heaving as I tried to draw in air, but their thick, powerful scents were everywhere. Mint, cedar, and mountain air filled my nose, choking out the smell of the pine trees around us.

​Liam took another step forward. The dangerous, angry Alpha look I expected wasn’t on his face. Instead, his jaw was trembling, and his eyes looked completely shattered. He looked at me the way someone looks at a ghost.

​"Do you know what I saw when I walked into your room a few minutes ago?" Liam asked. His voice wasn’t a roar. It was low, rough, and completely broken. It hurt more than any shout. "I saw you. I saw you curled up under the blankets, sleeping. I actually felt relieved for a split second. I thought you were finally resting."

​He stopped a few feet away from me. The heat from his body rolled off him, but his eyes were filled with deep, agonizing pain.

​"But then I reached out to touch your shoulder, and my hand went right through you," Liam whispered, his voice cracking. "It was a trick. An illusion. You were willing to trick us, Scarlett. You were willing to leave us in the middle of the night... without even saying a single goodbye. Did we mean that little to you?"

​His words felt like a physical knife twisting in my heart. The cold, emotionless mask I had been wearing for days began to crack. I bit my inner cheek, trying to keep the tears back, but my throat felt like it was on fire.

​"It’s not like that, Liam," I choked out, my voice small.

​"Then what is it like?!" Leo suddenly exploded.

​He didn’t just yell—he roared. His face was completely red, his veins popping out against his neck. He looked like a wild animal that had been pushed into a corner. With a sharp growl, he turned and slammed his bare fist straight into the trunk of a massive oak tree next to him.

​CRACK.

​The bark exploded into tiny pieces, wood flying everywhere as the tree groaned under his strength. Leo didn’t even flinch at the pain in his knuckles. He spun back to face me, his chest heaving up and down.

​"Why do you keep doing this?!" Leo screamed, tears of pure rage spilling over his eyelids. "Why do you think your life is worth less than everyone else’s? We are out here breaking our backs, preparing our entire army, ready to bleed out for you! And you just sneak out the window like you’re a piece of garbage we can just replace!"

​He marched up to me, stopping right beside Liam. He was so close I could feel the wild beat of his heart.

​"If you walk across that border, you die, Scarlett!" Leo shouted, his voice breaking completely. "Twenty liters of blood will kill you! If you die... what exactly do you expect us to live for? Do you think we want to rule a pack without our mate?!"

​"Stop it, Leo," I cried, the first tear finally slipping down my cheek. I couldn’t hold it in anymore. Hearing them talk about their pain made the guilt inside me grow into a massive, suffocating monster.

​I looked over at Leonard, waiting for him to say something. He was always the calm one, the logical one. But when my eyes met his, my breath caught. His usual calm face was entirely gone. His eyes were dark, cold, and fixed on me with a scary, dangerous intensity.

​"How did you know?" I whispered, looking between them. "How did you catch me? The Red Wolf said the illusion was perfect. The scent was there. The heartbeat was there."

​Leonard let out a short, cold breath. It wasn’t a laugh. "Did you really think we would just go to sleep, Scarlett? Did you really think we would trust an illusion created by an ancient wolf when we already knew you were planning to leave?"

​He walked forward, his steps slow and heavy, until all three of them were standing in front of me like an unbreakable stone wall.

​"We never went to bed," Leonard revealed, his voice dangerously low. "We have been standing in these woods since midnight. We know you too well, Scar. We knew you wouldn’t sit in that room and let us fight a war for you. We didn’t need a magic spell to know you were going to run. We just had to wait."

​The truth hit me like a wave of ice water. They hadn’t tracked me down. They hadn’t broken the spell. They were already out here, waiting in the freezing dark, because they knew my heart better than I knew it myself.

​And right then, I completely broke.

​The tears came fast and hot, burning my skin as they rushed down my face. I covered my mouth with my hand, my shoulders shaking as a loud sob tore through my chest. I wasn’t crying because I was caught. I wasn’t crying because I was scared of the Vampire King.

​I was crying because I loved them. I loved them so much it felt like my chest was breaking open.

​"I have to go," I sobbed, looking at their beautiful, tortured faces. "You don’t understand. I watched innocent wolves die in the past. The Vampire King won’t stop with a normal war. He is an ancient monster, and he will destroy everything you have ever built. I refuse to watch the people I love die. I refuse to watch all of you die too!"

​"We won’t die, Scar," Liam said softly, reaching out to wipe a tear from my cheek. His touch was so warm, so gentle, it made me want to give up and hide in his arms forever. "We are strong. We will fight him together."

​"No, you can’t win this way!" I cried, stepping back to escape his touch. I couldn’t let myself feel the comfort of the bond. If I stayed, everyone would die. The Red Wolf’s plan was the only way to kill the King from the inside out. "I’m sorry. I really am. But I am not going back to that house."

​The triplets’ expressions shifted instantly. The heartbreak vanished, replaced by a firm, unyielding Alpha authority.

​"You don’t have a choice, Scarlett," Leonard said, his voice flat and hard. "You are coming back with us. Securely. Even if we have to lock you in the deep bunker ourselves."

​I looked at them, wiping the tears from my eyes. The sadness inside me suddenly turned into a sharp, fierce flame. The Red Wolf was roaring in my mind, her ancient power pushing against my ribs, ready to break free.

​"I’m sorry," I whispered, stepping back into the shadows of the trees. "But you will have to fight and win me before I go back."

​Leo’s eyes went wide. "What do you mean by that?"

​I didn’t answer with words.

​Instead, I let go of the lock on my soul. I let the power rush through my veins. My bones cracked and shifted fast, the painful heat of the transformation tearing through my body in a split second. Where a human girl had just been standing, a massive red wolf now stood, her fur glowing under the dim moonlight.

​But it wasn’t just my normal wolf. Crimson red energy began to bleed into my fur, and my eyes flashed a bright, dangerous blood-red. The Red Wolf was awake.

​Stop me if you can, I sent the words directly into their minds through our link, the message sharp and challenging.

​Before they could even react, I jumped forward. I lunged straight at Liam, using all my weight to push his massive chest. He didn’t expect the sudden strength of the Red Wolf. With a loud grunt, he flew backward, his boots sliding in the mud as he tried to keep his balance.

​"Scarlett, stop!" Leo yelled, shifting into his massive black wolf in the blink of an eye.

​He lunged at me from the side, trying to pin me to the ground. He didn’t use his teeth or his claws—he was trying to hold me down securely without hurting me. He loved me too much to scratch my skin, and that was his biggest mistake.

​I wasn’t going to be careful.

​As Leo’s heavy body hit mine, I snarled, a deep, terrifying sound that didn’t sound like a normal wolf at all. I twisted beneath him, using the ancient force in my muscles to snap my head up and slam my shoulder into his chest, throwing him off me.

​Leonard shifted next, his huge dark wolf blocking my path to the border line. He lowered his head, growling low as he tried to corral me back toward the mansion. From behind me, Liam’s massive black wolf was already up, rushing toward me with his jaws open, aiming for the scruff of my neck to hold me still.

​They were trying to trap me like an escaped pet. They were being gentle, trying to bind me without leaving a single mark on my body. ℯℯ𝑙.

​But I had to leave. The survival of the entire pack depended on me getting across that border tonight.

​Forgive me, I thought, letting the Red Wolf take total control of our body.

​Suddenly, a blinding red light flickered around my fur. The ancient pressure in the air grew ten times heavier. The three Alphas flinched, their ears flattening against their heads as the terrifying aura of a primordial predator slammed into them.

​With a savage roar, I spun around. I didn’t use claws, but the pure force of my ancient magic. As Leo and Liam jumped at me together, I unleashed a burst of red energy, throwing my body into theirs.

​BOOM.

​The impact was massive. Liam and Leo were thrown sideways, their heavy wolf bodies slamming hard against the thick trunks of the oak trees. The trees shook, leaves raining down around them as they hit the ground with painful groans.

​Leonard lunged from the front, his teeth baring as he tried to grab my front leg. I snapped my head down, my red eyes locking onto his golden ones. With a brutal shove of my head, I slammed my forehead into his snout, dazing him just enough to make him stumble back into the mud.

​They were down, but only for a few seconds. They were elite Alphas; their healing would fix the dizziness fast.

​I didn’t wait for them to stand up.

​I turned toward the northern border and sprinted. I ran faster than any normal wolf could ever move, my red fur blurring through the dark trees like a ghost. Behind me, I could hear their furious, heartbroken roars echoing through the night, but I didn’t look back.

​I crossed the border line, diving straight into the dark, cold jaws of the vampire kingdom.