CHAPTER FIVE

MAYA’S POV

  I had witnessed soldiers train before. I had seen cruelty on the training ground, I had seen soldiers bleed, but this was a massacre.

  

  “This won’t end well,” I cried out.

  

  Alpha Damien stood at the center of it all, blood running down from his jaw to his chest. Five opponents surrounded him, and they might just take him down.

  

  I stood frozen at the edge of the chaos, my breath caught in my throat, and I found myself gulping almost every second. The clash of swords was all my ears could catch.

  

  “If they find me here, then I’m done for,” I murmured, glancing around nervously.

  

  An Omega like me shouldn’t have been on the battlefield, but Alpha Damien had brought me here forcefully. Perhaps he wanted me to watch him die.

  

  The minute I realized that things had begun to go bad, I found solace behind the tree I was holding on to, and I had no plans to leave until the storm was over.

  

  “The head of security is gone!” I couldn’t help screaming. Thankfully, no one heard me.

  

  The head of security didn’t deserve to be killed in such a brutal manner. He had been one of the few people in the mansion who didn’t enjoy bullying others.

  

  It all happened so fast. One minute the pack soldiers alongside Alpha Damien were having the upper hand, and the next, the tables turned.

  

  “The pack might go into extinction at this point. They won’t stop killing!”

  

  Lycan Rasmus’s men kept surging forward. I had assumed Alpha Damien knew better than to underestimate Lycan Rasmus, but I had just realized I was wrong.

  

  Alpha Damien’s warriors fell one by one, their final cries echoing in my ears. Kendra wasn’t far from him, and she was doing a good job holding her ground.

  

  “I have to find a way to escape. I won’t be able to defend myself if they come for me,” I told my wolf, Aria, who had never responded to me since I was born.

  

  My heart raced as my gaze fixated on Alpha Damien. He was struggling to take down so many opponents at once.

  

  The smell of blood filled my nostrils, and I hated it. So many of the pack soldiers were lying lifeless on the ground, some with their heads severed from their necks.

  

  “Alpha Damien!” I suddenly screamed, but my voice was swallowed by the clash of steel and the howls of wolves.

  

  Did he hear me?

  

  He looked in my direction after I called his name, even though I wasn’t close to him at all. I hadn’t meant to scream; I only did because an opponent almost struck him from behind.

  

  “The mate bond,” I whispered. I figured it out. He heard my call because we were connected as mates.

  

  I batted my eyelashes a few times just to be sure I wasn’t imagining things. It dawned on me that I could still see clearly, and Alpha Damien was actually running toward me.

  

  “He must have assumed I screamed because I was in danger, and now he’s running to save me,” I told Aria as I tried to make sense of it.

  

  Three opponents ran after him, but he didn’t pause. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Kendra had told me I meant nothing to him.

  

  “Maya,” he shouted. He was only a few steps away from me.

  

  “Alpha Damien!” I responded.

  

  Right behind me was a clear path. He would hold my hand, and we would escape together. That had to be his plan.

  

  He reached me and pulled me into a tight hug. I got emotional and stained his back with tears. I had thought he would lose his life to his opponents.

  

  “We have to go,” I managed to say through my sobs.

  

  My eyes were still on the battleground, but his weren’t. He still hadn’t let me go. I saw the opponents getting closer, but he didn’t react.

  

  He lifted me off the ground slightly, and in a matter of seconds, our positions switched. He had made it happen.

  

  “Bye,” he said and released me.

  

  Alpha Damien shoved me forward, and I landed in the arms of the opponents. We all fell to the ground together. When I looked up, he was gone.

  

  I closed my eyes. This was the part where my head would be chopped off. They had done the same to others, and now it was my turn. It was inevitable.

  

  It took me more than a minute to grasp what had just happened, and when I did, tears streamed down my cheeks uncontrollably. He had thrown me at them as a distraction so he could escape.

  

  “He mustn’t escape!” a voice roared in the distance, and I opened my eyes. It had been a full minute since I closed them, yet my head was still on my neck.

  

  How did I get lucky?

  

  My eyes landed on the backs of the three opponents I had fallen on. They were now headed in the same direction Alpha Damien had gone.

  

  They could have slit my throat before leaving, or maybe they planned to come back for me.

  

  I dragged myself into the woods, my legs trembling and my hands shaking. Kendra had been right. Alpha Damien had used me until the very last second and hadn’t hesitated to sacrifice me.

  

  “You’re safe now,” I whispered to myself.

  

  I found a hollow between two rocks and sank to the ground. I tried to hold myself together, but it was impossible.

  

  My ears caught the sound of approaching footsteps. I pushed myself up and tried to run, but a figure emerged right in front of me, its face hidden behind a mask.

  

  “Let me…” The rest of my words got stuck in my throat. Pain struck so fast that I didn’t understand it at first.

  

  A sword had gone deep into my side, just below my ribs. My hands were covered in blood, and it was spilling too fast. Breathing became impossible.

  

  “No… no… I can’t…” I groaned weakly.

  

  “Not… like… this.”

  

  “This… can’t… be… the… end.”

  

  My body grew colder by the second, the ground beneath me soaking up the warmth that was leaving my skin.

    

  If this was how it ended, I only hoped the goddess would give me another chance… somewhere far away from Alpha Damien.

  

  And then, everything went still.