Chapter Thirty Eight

Zane's POV.

The sorching pain woke me from the drowning darkness of my unconscious. I could feel my blood fighting the silver which was burning through my veins.

I opened my eyes. Darkness, and then light.

I blinked again, and the light settled. I was strapped to a chair. My arms were tied behind my back and my legs to each sides of the chair. I could feel something thugging my stomach, the sharp pain was endless. I took a look to see the knife still in me.

Across from me, sprawled out on a wide, gold-accented bed with satin sheets, was Chase, and he wasn't alone.

Dana, the girl I was with, laid on him.

The same Dana who had said she only did what she had to do to survive. She was on top of him, naked, and riding him like he was her carriage to bliss.

Her back was arched, and her soft moans floated around in the room while her hands dug into his chest. His hands gripped her waist tight, moving her on him with slow, lazy confidence like he owned her.

My stomach turned. I knew the message he was trying to convey and my heart raged angrily at it.

I yanked at the straps, growling low, but my arms wouldn't budge from the straps.

Chase's eyes met mine.

He grinned, as he grabbed Dana's hair and flipped her over, yanked her head back. She gasped, her moans mixing thrills.

He rammed into her hard,

"Ahhh!" She screamed. Her concorted face from the pleasure stared directly at me. He made me watch the scene unravel.

"You sick son of a bitch!" I growled, struggling again. "You sick fucking coward!"

He ignored me. His hips kept thrusting, and his hand held her hair like a leash. She looked at me once. The more frustrated I got, the more intense it became for him. His movement got faster by the second as he locked eyes contact with me.

Chase finished with a long groan, letting go of her and pushing her off him like she was trash. She stumbled and scrambled off the bed, picking up her clothes.

He stood up still naked, and walked over to the sink, rinsing his hands like he just did dark work or whatever.

He dried his hands off on a towel, walked over to me, and rubbed the cloth into my hair like I was his pet.

I stared angrily, my hate erupted within me to a point that I could hardly feel the pain in my guts.

"I ..."

He shushed me when I was about to speak.

"Shh, not yet.” He said calmly. "You'll talk when I'm done, just listen to the music."

I didn't know what he meant until I heard it.

Screams. Loud, guttural screams and growls. Screams of my men in agony. I could feel the pain they were in, the agony they were enduring and helplessly I listened.

My eyes widened.

"No." My voice broke. "No, no, no!"

I yanked at the straps again, nearly dislocating my shoulder.

“You fucking bastard! I’ll kill you, I promise!”

He sat in front of me, now dressed in a robe like he was in a spa, sipping from a glass of wine.

"I told you to listen to the music.” He said, smiling. "It’s called the sound of loyalty dying."

I slammed my head forward, trying to reach him.

“Those are my men, you evil bastard!”

"Language, Zane." He smiled wider. “And I know, that’s why I did that.”

"Kill me instead!" I screamed. "Do whatever the fuck you want, but let them go!"

He laughed at me, and it felt worse than being slapped in the face.

"What makes you think that this is about you?" He asked, standing. "You really think that I want your pathetic life in exchange for theirs?"

He leaned in close, so close I could smell Dana's scent on him.

“No. I want Lucien."

I froze.

"You think I was hoping you'd come instead?" He hissed. "No. I want the butcher of eclipse, the big bad wolf, the one that makes people lie awake at night. He'd have put up a good fight, and would have have kept things interesting for me. I am stuck with the brother,”

He pulled away in disgust.

"But instead... I got you. A broken little mutt crying over some bitch who doesn't even want him. You're not a challenge, you’re a fucking insult to me. Look at yourself!”

More screams tore through the walls. One of them, it sounded like Xandre, howled so loud it made my spine shiver. I held back the tears in my eyes as I imagined the fate he suffered.

And suddenly, it was silent. Not even a word, just silence.

I could neither move nor breathe.

The smell of the blood was much clearer without the screams.

I looked up at Chase, and the triumphant look on his face confirmed what I already knew deep in my heart.

"You piece of shit!” I whispered, tears blurring my vision. "You're weak. You couldn't even fight me like a real Alpha. Who stabs an unarmed man? A coward!."

He blinked, and that moment, the smirk on his face cleared out, leaving behind a blazing anger that had me stunned instantly.

"Fight you?" He asked quietly. "You think you're worth that?"

"Unstrap me, bitch." I snarled, summoning all the courage in me. I had no choice, it was for my men.

Chase walked to the door and opened it.

“Come in!” He yelled.

The next thing I saw was a line of men walking in.

My eyes bulged when I got their scents. Alphas, the whole lot of them.

Chase held up a hand to them.

“Don't move. He kindly asked me to fight him.”

Then he walked over to me, crouched, and unbuckled the straps one by one.

"Zane, I thought you were smarter than this. Do you really want to die that badly?" He asked, taking some steps back after setting me free.

I didn't answer him.

The second my arms were free, I grabbed the hilt of the knife still sticking out of me and ripped it out with a guttural roar. Blood splashed out from the wound .

I lunged at him, aiming for his throat. With a weapon and my my heart burning with revenge, I thought I had a svhanve.

He dodged the first strike, but the second one caught him clean across the ribs.

He gasped."Nice!" He remarked with excitement.

"Maybe the kitten does have claws,"

"Not so fucking funny now, is it?" I spat.

I punched him hard, again and again. I slammed him into the wall and then edge of the bed frame. Blood smeared across the walls and floor like a paint. His robe ripped, and his face bruised.

Still, he didn't go down and the alphas didn't move a muscle. The fact that they didn't showed only one path to that fight. A path that quickly unfolded when Chase grabbed me from the neck. He fought back, teeth bared, claws out, snarling like a rabid dog.

We went back and forth, tearing through our skin and cracking bone. I wasn't going to stop. Not until one of us went down and from the rate I was losing blood, I could tell it was just a matter of time.

I pinned him down to the ground, the knife in my hand held high.

Just as I was about to drive it into his head, he smiled.

"Go ahead.” He whispered. "Do it because I promise you, what I have planned for you is worse than death."

My hand shook.

"Death?" I said, laughing. “I don’t give a flying fuck about death at this point!”

I drove my hand down with the knife, hitting his forehead, but before I could drive the blade in, I felt something heavy slam into the back of my skull.

The knife dropped from my hand, and my grip on consciousness wavered.

“What the actual—”

I had barely completed my question when Chase flipped and got up, standing above me. There were multiple versions of him moving in front of me, blending and distorting. Everything and everyone was that way. Blood was starting to drop behind me.

“You’re a pathetic little boy.” Chase said, pulling me up and sending a clean punch to my face.

Everything in my line of vision spun even more. My head throbbed, and I felt my soul leaving my body as he sent another punch, throwing me down to the ground.

"You think you matter? You are in a world of beasts, kitten." he whispered into my ears. His voice echoed in my disoriented head.

"You are nothing!" He roared as he stabbed me again. I gasped, grabbing his robe instinctively. My life flashed before my eyes at that moment when I collapsed to the floor.

"Keep him alive," I heard him say to his Alphas.

"Send him on an errand to his brother,"

My vision blurred gradually till it blacked out with Chase's furiating smirk on my mind.