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“I went to visit you in the dungeons yesterday when word arrived that Ravenrath would soon be under attack. I wanted to find out what you knew about those that were coming for us and from the looks of those with you right now, I would assume that you know exactly who they are,” he began.
I gritted my teeth, deciding it would be best if I didn’t respond at all.
“I knew you’d never leave the city of your own free will though without Esme, so it was only a matter of time before you revealed yourself to me here,” he continued. “Tell me, how is it you found this place?”
“We have our ways,” Ivar answered. Ariana was careful to stay silent beside us.
Vikar growled softly in warning at my father.
Two other large men came out of the shadows and joined my father by his side. Both Ivar and Vikar bristled at the challenge and behind us, more men moved in to block the doorway. I heard Ariana yelp in surprise and my father grinned knowingly. I turned, seeing her struggling in the arms of a rather large man dressed in dark combat gear and I whipped my head back around.
“Don’t you dare touch her,” I exclaimed furiously. Ariana cried out behind me. I could hear her trying to break free of the guards, but from the sounds of it, she wasn’t having any luck.
“You made a mistake coming back, Luna, but I do appreciate you bringing me such a pretty omega to make up for the waste of one that you turned out to be,” my father snarled, and I roared with anger.
“Kill them and run, Luna. Don’t worry about me. Do whatever it takes to break Esme free. The fates demand it,” Ariana cried out. She screeched behind the three of us and I watched as she was dragged down the hall by three large alphas. She didn’t stop fighting for a single moment as she disappeared around the corner at the end of the hallway and even when I couldn’t see her anymore, I could hear her vicious snarls of fury at being taken against her will echoing in her wake.
Vikar reached behind his back and I edged closer to him, using my body to cover his movements while he pulled a small dagger free of its sheath at his belt. He tucked it into his sleeve, and I maneuvered between the two alphas that remained with me. My bond with Vikar pulsed hard. I glanced up at him, feeling that it would be time to act. Soon.
I readied myself for what was to come next.
Along with my father, there were now four guards in the room with us, two at the door behind us and then two more directly in front of us. He moved to sit next to Esme, and I stiffened with fear. I watched warily as he pulled her into his lap. She was quiet and smiled up at him with such pure naivety that it sickened me. I swallowed my sneer and waited.
“Your friends are from the Brotherhood, aren’t they, Luna?” he asked.
“Are you afraid of us?” Vikar responded carefully, his tone shaking with barely contained restraint. My father wound an arm around Esme’s neck, and I stilled, watching the way his fingers curled around her possessively and it scared me down to the very depths of my core.
“I’m not afraid of you,” he answered.
“You should be,” Ivar replied, his voice carrying just as much fury as I struggled to keep quiet.
My father pursed his lips, trying to weigh the warning in the brother’s word against his own.
“From my intel, it is likely that the city will fall to the Brotherhood tonight, but like you, the Cult of the Blood Moon can move just as quickly. We’ve already begun to move our resources, including a number of omegas that we had lying in wait for their time of sale to another location. You see, Ravenrath isn’t our only place of strength. We have several others throughout the world,” he said brazenly.
“Do you now?” Vikar replied dryly.
My father just smirked in return. I couldn’t take my eyes off the way he was clutching at my daughter’s collarbone. His fingers were inching up toward her throat and every protective instinct within me wanted to rip her away from him and tear him apart for threatening her like that.
“Don’t you dare hurt her,” I exclaimed, unable to keep myself quiet.
“The Cult plans to make a lot of money from the sale of this sweet little thing; however, if the news of her mother’s traitorous behavior ever reaches the ears of the ones bidding, she would be deemed just as worthless,” my father continued. “You should know most of all, that anyone under our leadership is replaceable, Luna. It would be very easy for the Cult to find another little girl to take Esme’s place, so let me tell you how this is going to go. The three of you will surrender immediately,” he replied. “If you do, the little girl will live to see another day. If not, she won’t survive the night.”
He snaked his arms to either side of her head. With a single hard motion, he could snap her neck and he stared me down in a blatant challenge. He knew exactly what he was doing. My entire body quaked with emotion. I’d already lost Dyna tonight and I didn’t know if we would be able to find Ariana again. That was more than enough loss for a single day, and I didn’t know if I could go on if I lost my daughter too.
“Take your hands off her,” I snarled, not even caring that I was an omega challenging another alpha anymore. I saw nothing but red fury and at once, the pair bond throbbed hard as Vikar took charge.
“Take a step back, omega,” Vikar demanded and I heard the distinctive alpha undertone in his voice. My shoulders bowed in compliance despite my anger and I obeyed even though everything inside me was screaming for me to run to my daughter’s aid.
Then the entire room exploded into a flurry of activity all at once.
Ivar lurched to the side and tackled the man closest to Esme, providing a momentary distraction for everyone in the room. My father tightened his grip around my daughter’s neck while at the same moment, Vikar whipped his hand forward and released his dagger with practiced precision that could only be learned on the battlefield.
There was hardly enough time to blink before the handle of Vikar’s blade was sticking out right between my father’s eyes. The knife had pierced his skull with enough force to sink all the way to the hilt, burying it so deeply that I couldn’t see even the glint of the metal blade. My father stared forward blankly for a long moment before he wavered and swayed back and forth. He blinked once and a single drop of blood dripped down his forehead and off the tip of his nose. The fury in his eyes deadened and I watched as he slowly started leaning to the side. His grip on my daughter softened. His arms loosened, and he finally fell over completely, slipping off the bed and falling to the floor in a loud heap.
Vikar had killed my father with a single throw of the knife. It was a quick death, which was far more than he deserved.
After a long moment of silence, the guards moved in to attack Ivar and Vikar, but it soon became clear that they were not trained in the art of battle as the brothers were. Even though they were outmatched two to one, it wasn’t really a fight at all. In close combat, Vikar and Ivar tore through the guards. Ivar spun quickly and unclipped a weapon from his belt that he whipped around one of the men’s throat. In either hand, he held a wooden handle and between them was a thick metal wire. He gripped it hard and tightened it as man tried to get a hold of it, but it proved fruitless. In the span of a minute, Ivar killed him before pinning the other man in a chokehold. In a flash of movement, he’d snapped the other’s neck and both men were dead.
