Chapter 4

ALPHA RUNE GARTOR

I was bored.  

Listening to the spy I had just captured plead for his sorry life filled me with revulsion. Real men did not beg. They lived and died standing by their actions.  

“Alpha Rune, please have mercy! Prove to the world that you are not the ruthless, heartless Alpha they all claim you are,” the spy said, banging his head on the floor in front of me.  

I had to laugh at that. “And why would I want to prove that, my good friend? I’m exactly as heartless as the world thinks.”  

I smiled even more as hope died in his eyes. Ever since the All-Pack War, I had focused solely on conquering packs and acquiring power. Being feared was an added advantage.  

With a flick of my hand, I motioned for my guards. “I sentence this man to—”  

“Alpha Rune! She’s in danger!” Kayvon, my personal messenger, burst into the throne room, his eyes blazing with alarm.  

Who? I wanted to ask, but staring at him, I already knew.  

Little Miss Blue Eyes.  

Even now, I could still see her soft blue eyes filled with compassion, shining down on me through the Moonstone connection as she whispered those words: “Everyone deserves a little love…….”

She hadn’t needed to, but she had chosen to extend love to me, an unknown Alpha, at a point when I was at my lowest. Fighting in a war, realizing that no one really cared for me, that aside from power, I had nothing. And then she’d shown up, channeling to me not out of necessity, but simply because she wanted me to feel loved. Nothing in my entire life could ever make me forget that. 

After conquering all my enemies in the war, Kayvon and I had scoured the earth looking for her. He’d found her first and told me something that instantly made me back down.  

She had a mate already.  

Now, I asked, “What’s wrong with her?”  

“Her mate has infected her with wolfbane.”  

I shot to my feet immediately, dashing out as Kayvon followed in my wake.  

“Wait! What about me?” the spy cried out in one last pathetic attempt.  

I barely spared him a glance, about to finish my order for execution, but I paused. What would Little Miss Blue Eyes want?

I knew the answer instantly. She would want me to spare his life. “Guards, release this man,” I ordered. “He is banished from this pack, to be killed on sight if he ever returns.”  

Ignoring his gratitude, I quickly shifted as I began racing toward the Twilight Zone. My Alpha speed easily outpacing Kayvon’s.  

I could almost smell her as I got closer—that purity, a kindness untouched by the wickedness of this world. Spotting my little angel and her sorry excuse of a mate was easy. She was tied up at the center of the pack arena, writhing in pain, while he cheered at her agony.  

A growl tore through my throat as, for the first time in my life, I knew true panic. She must not die! Not my blue-eyed angel.

My aura must have spread because the pack members soon started screaming, running helter-skelter, crying that ‘Alpha Rune the Conqueror’ had come to invade their pack. 

I couldn’t care less about the pack members’ terror, I had my own fear, that they would trample on my Angel before I could get to her. 

Her mate, the Alpha of the pack, managed to stand his ground, stalking toward me while his entire pack deserted him. “What do you want, Rune? I won’t let you harm my pack members,” he declared.  

With disgust, I brushed him away. “You couldn’t even protect your own mate, and yet you think you can protect a pack,” I growled. But my attention was all for the girl huddled on the floor, her hands tied, her body writhing in pain.  

I scooped her into my arms, easily cutting the flimsy chains that bound her. At loss for words, for the first time in my life, I held her soft body against me, wishing stupidly that I could transfer my own strength to her – but there was no Moonstone for transferring from a man to a woman. 

She turned her face to look up at me, and there was such a look of brokenness in her eyes that I felt my chest constrict painfully.  

Her lips parted. “Help,” she muttered weakly, tears pouring from her eyes.  

I swallowed. “I’ve got you, my dear. I’ve got you, my little love.”  

I needed to get her to a healer—from the neighboring pack. I didn’t trust this one. I’d learned that wolfbane could be very deadly for wolves from the Twilight Zone, if I didn’t get her to a healer on time… 

Lifting her in my arms, I started to run. But to my chagrin, her mate blocked me.  

“I can’t let you save her. She killed the love of my life,” he demanded stupidly. 

I opened my mouth to speak, but instead, a growl escaped my throat. “The only reason you’re not dead right now, for infecting her, is because I can’t put her down to deal with you. Her need for me is greater than my anger for you, but don’t tempt me!”  

His face went white, and he mumbled something, but he quickly stepped aside as I continued running. Turning into my wolf would have made me faster, but I was too scared to let her out of my arms. In her state, I knew she wouldn’t be able to hold on to my wolf.  

“I’ve got you, love,” I whispered as I ran. “Just hang in there, please.”  

Luckily, Mari, the healer from the next pack, understood the urgency. She quickly began grinding herbs to staunch the blood flow.  

“How about the wolfbane? How can you cure her of it?” I asked frantically.  

Mari shook her head. “She’ll just have to fight through it. There’s no cure for wolfbane. I can stop the blood flow, and the hutu leaves she was given, probably to prolong the agony of her death also weakened the effect of the wolfbane, but she’s already weak, and I don’t sense much will to live in her. You’ll have to convince her to live, convince her to fight this.”  

I stared down at the girl in my arms as a feeling of hopelessness washed ove

r me. How the hell do I convince someone who’s already so broken to live?