Alpha Charming | Rheon

TWENTY-EIGHT

With a flick of her wrist, Lucine had me bound by the smoke tendrils. I choked when they tightened around my frame, making it nearly impossible to breathe. It sent Rheon in a frenzy and with a blood-curdling snarl, he charged at her.

"Rheon, no!" I tried warning him, but too late.

Lucine lifted a hand and Rheon ploughed into the grass, whining as her magic penetrated his skull and senses. He scratched at his ears until blood coated his claws.

"No!" I cried and thrashed against the red smoke surrounding me. "Stop it! Stop it!"

"Beautiful, isn't it?" She admired Rheon squirming on the ground, "Imagine what it must feel like to have hundreds of thousand needles penetrating your skull. A fracture of a millimeter deeper, and his brain will lose all function. He'll be nothing but a living corpse."

She seemed to consider it as she circled him. I fought against the binds with everything I had but they wouldn't budge. Blood started coming out of Rheon's ears. My stomach clenched when he stopped squirming.

He lied there motionlessly.

Lucine tilted her head and shoved him with her foot. "Even without senses he's beautiful."

She extracted her claws and stabbed them into the back of his neck. I screwed my eyes shut as she twisted her hand, causing blood to ooze from his wounds and tint her knuckles red.

Stepping back, she waved her bloodstained hand. Rheon jerked to life and struggled to his feet. He was visibly in pain from torture she inflicted on him and still, he resumed his fighting stance. When his eyes locked on Lucine, they were dark and vengeful. Rheon backed up to shield me from the half-witch, never letting her out of his sight.

But even as he protected me from her, I realized nothing he could do would be able to stop her, not while she had magic that could render him helpless with a flick of her wrist. There had to be another way to end this.

A loophole.

Something Blake said after we escaped the cave echoed in my head. For the curse to become permanent, Lucine had to mark Rheon. And sticking to my profile on the witch, I assumed she wanted to do that in front of all the packs of Scotland. She wanted to make a spectacle out of bringing the most powerful alpha to his knees in before her.

Perhaps that's what needed to happen to get her out in the open – it would surely give Blake the opportunity to confine her without risking someone else getting hurt. It was risky, though. Who was I to say Blake would seize the chance when it played out? I haven't seen him since I left the garage. He could be injured for all I knew, and I'd be sending Rheon to his demise.

But it was all we had and when faced with limited options, you take what you get.

"Rheon," I saw him tense when I said his name, "You have to let her mark you."

His head jerked to me as if asking 'have you gone mad?!' Perhaps I did. I don't think I've been completely sane since discovering werewolves are real and it showed. This plan was a gamble whether Lucine would fall for it and whether her brother could recognize an opportunity when he sees one.

"You have to," I pleaded, "It's the only way to stop this war and save your pack."

A sinister grin spread across Lucine's face – she's falling for it.

I could see the conflict in his eyes as he looked at me. He was begging me not to make him do this. But whether this plan would work or not, depended entirely on Blake - he better be ready or else I'll kill and skin him myself...if Lucine lets me live.