9: Stop Staring, You Big Silver Idiot !

∆ALPHA KING ADRIC'S POV∆

I kicked the carriage door wide open and threw myself into the trees before the wheels even stopped turning.

"Your Majesty! Wait!" Captain Vane’s voice bellowed from behind me, full of panic. "Guards, follow the King! Draw your weapons! Move!"

I ignored their heavy footsteps and panicked shouts behind me. My heart was beating faster with every step I took.

The air was thick with the same scent of wild berries, sweet floral notes, and a sharp edge of spice, the intoxicating smell of my mate. But mixed right into it was the smell of fresh, warm blood, getting stronger with every step I took.

Suddenly, a loud, pain-filled scream echoed through the quiet forest, slicing right through my chest like a blade.

In my mind, Jax went completely wild, his claws digging deep into my thoughts. 'No! No!' he wailed, his voice full of panic. 'Are you fucking kidding me?! We just found our mate! We just smelled our mate’s scent, and now our mate is dying?! Adric, if you let our mate die, I will never forgive you!'

'Shut up and let me run!' I snapped back, clenching my jaw until my teeth hurt. 'You are underestimating me, Jax.'

I stopped holding back my wolf. In a single second, my bones shifted and my body expanded as I exploded into my full wolf form. My silver fur caught the faint sunlight through the leaves, and my paws pounded against the dirt, tearing through the trees at a speed no human could ever match.

"Your Majesty… he shifted! Move faster!" Vane roared in the distance, his voice fading as I left my own royal guards far behind in the dust.

We burst through the last line of thick bushes and reached the edge of a wide space.

The moment my eyes landed on my mate, my breath caught in my throat. Everything inside me just... stopped.

Standing right near the edge of a massive drop was a young man.

Even covered in mud, sweat, and streaks of blood, he was the most breathtaking creature I had ever laid eyes on.

He had silky golden hair clinging to his forehead, high cheekbones, and pale, flawless skin that seemed to glow even under all the dirt. But it was his eyes, a striking, intense amber, that completely took my breath away. They were bright, wild, and so fiercely beautiful it made my blood run hot.

He was a man. My fated mate was a stunning, captivating man.

Then my eyes dropped down to his left leg, and my blood ran completely cold.

His knee was twisted at a sickening, broken angle. Blood was pouring down his calf, soaking straight through his torn pants and pooling on the leaves beneath his bare foot. He was trembling from head to toe, barely able to keep his balance, yet he was standing tall.

A painful knot tightened in my gut. What kind of monsters had done this to him?

Before I could even process the awe washing over me, a dark, possessive rage boiled up from the bottom of my soul. My lips pulled back over my sharp fangs, a low, deadly growl building deep in my chest. How dare these worthless bastards touch something so beautiful? How dare they make my mate bleed?

'He must be out of his mind with fear!' Jax screamed in my head, his golden eyes burning behind my own. 'Tear them apart, Adric! Kill every single one of those bastards!'

I lowered my body, bracing my paws against the dirt to spring forward and rip their throats out. But before I could jump, I froze.

My mate wasn't crying. He wasn't begging for his life. There was not a single drop of fear on that beautiful face.

Instead, he wiped blood from his lips with the back of his dirty hand, looked straight into the eyes of the armed guards surrounding him, and let out a cold, arrogant laugh.

"Come on, you spineless cowards!" he spat, his eyes flashing with a wild, dangerous fire. "If you've got the balls, jump down with me! Otherwise, quit running your mouth about how tough you are!”

Without a second of hesitation, he let himself fall backward over the open edge of the cliff.

'NO!' Jax roared at the top of his voice. I was too stunned to shout, my mouth hanging open as I stared at the empty space where my mate had disappeared.

That gorgeous, stubborn figure vanished over the edge in the blink of an eye.

My heart felt like it had been ripped clean out of my ribs. The grief hit me so hard my knees almost buckled right there. He had jumped. Those fucking scum had backed my mate into a corner and forced him to throw his own life away!

Two of the enemy guards, driven completely mad by his words, shouted in anger and stupidly jumped off the edge after him. A few agonizing seconds later, two loud cracks echoed up from the rocks below, followed by dead silence.

The four enemy guards left at the top let out long breaths, wiping sweat off their faces as they looked down the drop.

"That crazy bastard is definitely dead," one of them spat, shaking his head. "He just wanted to drag us down with him. Fuck it. Let's get out of here before anyone sees us."

They turned around to leave, but the words froze in their throats.

My royal guards had formed a half-circle behind them, but I stepped right past my men. My silver wolf body towered over the cliff, radiating a terrifying, suffocating air of death. My golden eyes burned with pure hatred—a rage so hot it felt like it could burn the entire forest to ash.

The enemy guards stumbled backward, their faces turning ghost white as their knees knocked together in terror.

"Gold... golden eyes!" one of them shrieked, his voice cracking with pure panic. "It's... it's the royal bloodline! It's the Alpha King!"

"Who gave you bastards the right..." I growled, my wolf voice vibrating through the ground beneath their feet, "...to think you could destroy my mate and walk away alive?"

I became a complete monster.

I launched forward like a silver shadow, striking the first guard before he could even raise his claws. My massive front paw slammed straight into his chest with enough force to shatter his ribs. My razor-sharp claws sliced through his flesh, bone, and muscle, plunging deep into his chest

Before he could even scream, my claws locked around his beating heart. With one jerk, I ripped his heart straight out of his chest, tearing his sternum completely open. Warm, dark red blood burst out, spraying across my silver fur and coating the grass. I tossed his heart onto the dirt like a piece of garbage.

The second guard shrieked in horror, trying to turn and run, but I lunged again, snapping my huge jaws around his left arm. I twisted my massive head hard to the side, and broke his bone. I tore his entire arm completely off at the shoulder joint. Blood erupted from the gaping hole, soaking the leaves as he collapsed to his knees, drowning in his own agonizing screams. I slammed my jaws shut over his throat and bit down until his neck snapped, tearing his head half-off his shoulders and dropping his dismembered corpse into the mud.

The remaining two guards dropped their weapons, completely paralyzed with fear as blood rained down around them.

I didn't give them a single second of mercy. I whipped my body around, using my massive claws to slice through the third man's torso, ripping him completely in half at the waist. Guts, bone fragments, and blood spilled across the grass in a gruesome heap. The last guard tried to drop to his knees to beg, but I stepped on his chest with all my weight, crushing his ribcage into nothing before tearing his jaw straight off his face.

In less than five seconds, the entire place looked like a slaughterhouse. Severed limbs, torn flesh, and pools of blood covered the ground, looking like an actual demon had torn through the forest.

I spun around, my bloody silver fur dripping with blood, and rushed to the very edge of the cliff, looking down into the deep, dark drop below.

It was a fall onto jagged rocks and thick, wild bushes. Even a fully trained warrior wouldn't survive a fall like that, let alone a severely injured boy with a snapped knee.

My legs gave out beneath me. I dropped to my knees at the edge of the cliff and stared into the empty space below, unable to accept what I was seeing.

I was too late. I was the King of Silvercrest, the strongest Alpha on the continent, and I couldn't even save the one person meant for me. I hated myself. I hated every single minute I had spent sitting on that throne arguing about noble women while he was out here bleeding to death.

Inside my mind, Jax curled into a tight ball and let out a long, gut-wrenching howl of loss that shook my very soul. We had lost him before we even got to hold him in our arms.

I squeezed my eyes shut, letting out a broken breath as hot tears mixed with the guard's blood on my face.

"Hey..."

A tired, raspy voice suddenly cut through the quiet mountain wind.

My eyes snapped open, my whole body going completely rigid.

"Stop staring like a giant silver idiot and give me a hand..."

I scrambled forward and looked straight down. Just two feet below the edge, hanging onto a thick tree root growing out of the rock face with one bloody, trembling hand, was my mate. His exhausted amber eyes stared up at me, still carrying that same stubborn, defiant light.