Page 8 of Alpha Exile

Stalking through the woods, Delphine snaps her fingers, and Roarke shudders as he falls in line beside her. The rest of us follow, my feet jerking forward against my will. I try to fight it for only a moment before giving in. Each attempt to fight back only tires me more—and I need to save my fight for when she gets the gemstones out again.

Or when Delilah arrives to fight for us. Whichever comes first.

Did you feel that?Finn's voice in my mind startles me, and I swing my head over just enough to spot him, the spell allowing that much.Earlier, when she touched the vials. I felt a shiver down my spine.

I felt the same.

They're her conduit to us, obviously.Finn's glimmering eyes settle on them, his gait oddly jerky and short because of the magic controlling him.There has to be a way to break the spell. Maybe if we break them.

Delilah would know.

We'll figure it out,he reassures me.For now, at least, our minds seem to be free.

They are, though when I reach out towards the others, I can't feel them. Only Finn, who is walking closest to me, is reachable. I can sense Lance off and to my left, Roarke up ahead, and Kieran back behind me—but their minds are clouded, either dragged too far under the spell to surface, or simply too far away.

The pack is impossible to feel at all. I saw the vampires drag limp bodies just out of sight prior to Delphine telling them to leave theirmealsbehind. I pray that means some of our brave warriors survived. I can't stand the thought of losing all of them.

Delilah will need them now more than ever.

As the hybrid drags us with her into a gathering fog, I feel sick nausea settle in my stomach. I can't believe how brief my taste of freedom was. I got so little of the world before it was stolen from me again.

I want to have faith that we'll free ourselves somehow, or failing that, Delilah will find us and free us. But as I stare up at the hybrid ahead of me, I can't help but feel that it'll be impossible.

She's calm and collected, her body language completely controlled from head to toe. She planned this—all the way down to stealing Cat's blood so she could use her as a gopher, and sending a fake battle against us to take our blood and fur as well. Wherever she's taking us, she doesn't plan on letting us go.

Something she confirms by confidently saying, "I've wanted what I lost for so long. Five mates." Her eyes stray back, towards me, and my stomach clenches even as my legs are forced to march on. "An Otherworld mate especially is so...divine.I can't wait until we're finally alone, and I'm able to mate with each of you. I'll save the best for last, of course."

I hear Finn's reassuring voice in my head, his tone cut through with anger,She won't be able to do that.

I feel a shiver deep in my mind, another presence pushing in beside Finn's voice, but I'm unable to identify it. Finn continues,Delilah is too strong for this bitch to take her mates away from her. Delphine may be confident, but she's going to regret this.

Will I, though?Delphine's intrusion is a sickening presence in our minds. She smiles smugly as Finn's head comes up and his lips twitch back, an aborted snarl on his face. "I suppose you thought that it's only your bodies I can control. But your minds are becoming mine as well—inch by inch, bit by bit. Soon I'll be able to hearallyour thoughts."

I shudder, thankful as I feel her presence withdraw from my mind, pushed out by either the limits of her control or simply because she chose to leave. The sickening wave inside me grows, and this time, Finn isn't able to reassure my fears away.

As she turns towards the fog and twists her fingers in the air, summoning on a willful power that requires no spells, Delphine says to us confidently, "Anyone can mate. Only the most beautiful and powerful can keep her mates. I don't intend to lose mine a second time around—so I suggest you boys give up and give in, the sooner, the better."

Then a dark, oozing magic twists around us, and the fog turns into a suffocating blanket. All around me, I see pale specters—the vampires, yes, but between them, other shapes. Strange, see-through visions of people with hollowed cheeks and dark eyes.

I don't know how, but I'm certain that they're the spirits of the dead.

They gather around us, draw us together, and usher us away into nothingness.

Until everything and everyone I've ever cared about is gone.

Five

Delilah

Smoke rises, and ash falls.

The ashes are as white as snowflakes, drifting all around me. Some of them have landed in my hair and smudged my skin. I brush them away, only to find that one of my hands is covered in soot, and the other is clutching Gregor's dagger.

The useless, found-too-late dagger.

I can feel my heart beating, but it's a distant sensation. It seems to beat sluggishly and painfully in my chest. My rib cage is tight around it, holding it still like it's a struggling baby bird.

Th-thump. Th-thump.

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