Chapter 264: The Fight

​Liam’s POV

​"Tear them down! Leave nothing standing!" I roared through the mind-link, my black wolf leaping forward into the freezing, gray mist of the vampire territory.

​Behind me, a massive wave of over two hundred Full Moon fighters answered with a unified howl that shook the dead trees. We weren’t here to negotiate. We weren’t here to make deals. Our mate had run straight into the jaws of death, and we were going to burn this entire place to the ground to get her back.

​A pale vampire warrior leaped from a high branch, his fangs bared, aiming straight for my neck. Before his cold fingers could touch my fur, Leo’s massive golden-brown wolf caught him mid-air. Leo snapped his jaws shut around the vampire’s throat, twisting his heavy head with a brutal, resounding CRUNCH. The vampire’s head tore completely off his shoulders, spraying ash and dark, frozen blood across the mud as the lifeless body dropped.

​To my right, Leonard was a blur of swift, calculated violence. Two vampires rushed him with silver blades, but he dipped low, using his massive shoulder to ram them into a thick oak tree. As the wood splintered, Leonard snapped his jaws around the first one’s waist, biting him completely in half, while our fighters trampled the second, ripping him to pieces.

​They are retreating toward the castle! Leonard’s voice slammed into my head through our link, sharp and urgent. They’re trying to slow us down! Scarlett’s scent is fading deep inside the stone walls!

​Move faster! Leo roared back, his mind-voice frantic with fear and fury. I can feel her pain through the bond! It feels like she’s burning alive!

​The bond was screaming. It was a searing pulse of pure agony that made my wolf want to dig his own claws into my chest just to make it stop. Scarlett was dying in there. Every second we spent fighting these monsters in the woods was a second closer to her heart stopping forever.

​We broke through the tree line, and the colossal, ruined stone castle loomed ahead. Hundreds of red-eyed vampires stood in the courtyard, forming a solid wall of pale skin and sharp fangs.

​"Form the line!" I ordered the pack, my paws digging into the wet dirt as I sprinted at top speed. "Smash the gates!"

​Our strongest fighters formed a heavy wall of muscle right beside Leo, Leonard, and me. We didn’t slow down. We hit the front lines of the vampire army like a battering ram. Necks snapped, bones shattered, and the agonizing screams of dying vampires filled the night air. I used my heavy paws to crush the chest of a guard, stepping right over his broken ribs as we charged the massive wooden doors of the castle.

​Leo and I hit the doors together, channeling all of our Alpha strength.

​BOOM!

​The wood splintered into a thousand flying shards. We tore through the grand hall, leaving our fighters behind to handle the rest of the army. The sounds of tearing flesh, howling wolves, and shattering stone echoed behind us as the three of us sprinted down the dark stone stairs, following the faint, burning scent of Scarlett and blood.

​Scarlett’s POV

​Scarlett!

​Suddenly, the massive stone doors of the chamber exploded completely.

​Three giant wolves smashed through the dust. Leading the way was Liam’s huge black wolf, his fur drenched in fresh vampire blood. Right behind him were Leo and Leonard, their jaws open in pure, terrifying rage.

​The Vampire King tried to turn his head toward the entrance, but the poison in my blood had locked his jaw completely onto my neck. He let out a choked, terrified scream through his teeth as the red fire turned his veins totally black. His gray skin began to crack and smoke from the inside out.

​Liam didn’t wait. With a deafening roar, his huge black wolf leaped across the room. He slammed into the King, tearing the rotting monster away from my neck and throwing him hard across the stone floor.

​The King hit the wall with a sickening crunch. He rolled onto his back, his body convulsing wildly as the Red Wolf’s poison melted his heart. He exhaled one last breath before his body completely collapsed into a pile of gray ash and bone on the floor. The Vampire King was dead.

​But the moment the King was ripped away, the last of my strength vanished. My head fell back against the stone table. The cold numbness had reached my chest, slowing my heart down to a faint, sluggish beat.

​We did it, little wolf, the Red Wolf whispered in my mind, her voice sounding incredibly distant and exhausted. But the price... must be paid...

​In a flash of fur and skin, the triplets shifted back into their human forms. They rushed to the table like men escaping a burning building.

​"Oh gods, no. No, no, no," Leo cried, his hands shaking violently as he reached for the silver chains. He didn’t even care that the silver burned his own flesh; he ripped the heavy metal rings straight out of the stone wall with his bare strength.

​Leonard caught my upper body as the chains fell away, pulling me against his warm chest. His hands pressed hard against the deep, bleeding punctures in my neck. His face was completely bloodless, his usual calm entirely shattered.

​"Scar, look at me. Stay with me," Leonard ordered, his voice breaking as his golden eyes searched my fading ones. "Don’t you dare close your eyes!"

​Liam dropped to his knees on the other side of the table, grabbing my freezing hand and pressing it against his tear-stained cheek. Tears were running down his face, mixing with the vampire blood on his skin.

​"The healers are right outside, Scar! The fighters cleared the path!" Liam choked out, his chest heaving as he tried to use his Alpha aura to keep me alive. But my body was too weak to absorb it. "You’re going to be okay. Please, just breathe."

​"I... I love you," I whispered, the words barely a breath against Leonard’s chest. I wanted them to know. I wanted them to hear it before the darkness consumed me.

​"Don’t talk like that!" Leo screamed, grabbing my other hand and squeezing it so tight it hurt. "You are not leaving us! Do you hear me? We won’t let you!"

​I tried to take one more breath, but my lungs wouldn’t expand. The small, comforting pull of the mate bond in my chest suddenly went dead silent. My vision turned completely black, and my head fell lifelessly against Leonard’s shoulder.

​My heart stopped beating.