BOOK 2

Alexander’s POV

“Kill me…” he wheezed, his voice bubbling with his own blood, “…and you will never see her again!”

My silver sword stopped a fraction of a millimeter from his carotid artery. 

The intolerable force it took to halt my own momentum nearly tore the muscles in my arm. I dropped the blade just enough to spare his flesh, the steel vibrating fiercely as it hovered over his skin, desperate to taste his blood.

But Nikolai laughed. He looked up at me like he knew everything, and I knew nothing.

“Did you really think you knew how to play the game this time?!” he spat. “You and Katherine made me a fool in this timeline!”

I didn't just grab him by the collar. I launched my hand into his armor, crushing the steel breastplate with my bare fingers, and hauled him entirely off the mud. 

I screamed right into his face, my Alpha aura exploding from me in a shockwave. “What did you do, Nikolai?! Who did you send to my palace?!”

His smile only grew wider, stretching across his face like a grotesque, mocking mask. He looked at me with victorious madness. He wasn't afraid of my wrath. He was feeding on it.

“It’s already been two weeks, Alexander,” he huffed, leaning his own throat intentionally against my blade. “You’re late again… you can’t save her anymore...”

My eyes flashed to the memory of what had happened in the first life... 

They killed Katherine right in front of my eyes. I arrived late—always too damn late—watching her blood pool everywhere...

“STOP!"

"Katherine!” I roared her name. She stared at me one last time until she closed her eyes, and she died while everyone watched.

I looked around. Nikolai and Sofia were laughing together, like they had just put down a rabid animal.

Everyone stopped laughing when I stepped toward Katherine’s dead body and took her in my arms.

Nikolai sneered, “What are you doing?!”

I slowly put her on the stone table, wiping the blood from her mouth, and touched her lifeless face slowly. I was crying. Crying for the very first time in my miserable life because I had loved her in secret. 

I had admired her from afar because she was head over heels for my brother. And what could I do? She was terrified of me. 

No matter how I tried to talk to her, she ran away as if I were a monster.

“Did I say… stop?” I said as I turned my head towards them. My claws slowly extended from my knuckles, my fangs lengthened, and the face of a raging Alpha showed on my face.

As I walked towards them, their smiles slowly vanished and they started stepping back.

“Why… Why did you kill her?!”

Nikolai scoffed, crossing his arms. “Because she is a barren, useless Luna for five years!”

Sofia hold her hand over her pregnant stomach and whimpered, “Nikolai, I’m scared…”

“Don’t be scared,” he mocked, staring directly at Katherine's corpse with disgust. “My brother will not put blood on his hands for this silly, weak woman.”

I scoffed. And that was it.

I looked at everyone with murderous grace, and I shifted half-way into my beast in front of them. 

I lunged forward, grabbed Sofia by the throat, and before she could even scream, I squeezed her head. 

A sickening crunch echoed through the hall.

Nikolai was frozen in shock as the blood splattered directly across his face. He stared at his pregnant mistress on the floor, dead.

Everyone was completely silent. Paralyzed by the sudden, brutal gore.

“Now, we're even, Nikolai.”

"Sofia!" He gasped, then glanced at me in rage, "What... What have you done... Alexander?!" Nikolai drew his sword and tried to fight me. He swung his blade at my neck, screaming, “You’re gonna kill your own blood just for this woman?!”

I caught his steel blade with my bare, bleeding hand and whispered, “You killed her for your mistress, too!”

And just like that, we fought. It was a feral, bloody brawl. Many royal guards tried to stop me, but I killed them all. I ripped their throats out and bathed the floor in their insides.

Then, the heavy doors burst open, and my father, the great Alpha King, stepped in. 

He drew his royal sword, his eyes blazing with fury at the sight of my massacre.

"Stand down, Alexander!" my father commanded, his voice booming with authority. "You are acting like a rabid dog! I order you to heel!"

I looked at the man who had sired me, my eyes glowing a blinding, demonic red.

"You let them slaughter my mate!" I growled, letting my beast take complete control.

"Your mate?! She's not your mate!" My father tried to stop me, but I drove my claws straight through his chest, ripping his heart out.

Then I whispered, "She was my mate..."

The Alpha King fell to the floor, choking on his own blood.

But I did not stop there. Then, I turned to everyone in the crowd. I slowly took them all, killing them piece by piece, slowly by slowly. 

I tore through the nobles, the elders, and the servants. I massacred the entire kingdom until the screams finally stopped.

Then, I slowly turned my head. Amidst the carnage, Nikolai was still breathing, but barely. 

He looked up at me, his face completely covered in blood, and he cried when he saw Sofia’s ruined body on the floor.

I walked towards him, my boots squelching in the blood of our court, and grabbed him by his collar, dragging his face close to mine.

“Please, don’t… kill me…” he gasped, his eyes wide with terror. “I AM YOUR BROTHER!”

I tightened my grip, twisted my bloody hands, and cracked his neck. 

The snap echoed in the silent hall, and I dropped his lifeless body onto the floor.

My rage slowly faded, replaced by a hollow, crushing agony. I walked back to Katherine’s body, falling to my knees beside her. 

Then, I took the silver sword from the floor, positioning the blade over my chest. Without a single second of hesitation, I dragged it right through my own heart.

The physical pain was nothing compared to losing her. I coughed up dark blood, and I collapsed onto her body. 

I buried my face in her cold neck, my blood soaking into her dress, and whispered my final vow into the dark.

“If there's another life after this... please, don't run away from me… Katherine…” I breathed, my vision finally fading into black.