Alpha's STOLEN Mate Chapter 116

Frost

There was nothing else to say. I tipped the bottle back and drank half the potion—it tasted like lightning and honey—then shoved the rest into my pocket and ran.

The cave tunnels blurred past me. My enhanced speed carried me down the mountain path in great leaping bounds. The potion was already working—I could feel magical energy sliding off my skin like water, my body rejecting any supernatural influence trying to take hold.

*Please let me be in time. Please let her be okay.*

I burst through the tree line and skidded to a halt.

Scarlett was surrounded by five red wolves—the same crimson-furred creatures that had attacked me before, the ones that carried Morgath's curse in their bite.

But Scarlett hadn't shifted. She was fighting in human form, using her warrior training and a short blade to devastating effect. She moved like water, using the terrain to her advantage—ducking behind trees, leaping over fallen logs, making the wolves' superior numbers work against them as they crashed into each other trying to reach her.

*She's holding her own. She's actually—*

Then I saw it. The lead wolf's claws ignited with flame—actual fire wreathing its paws. The others followed suit, and suddenly Scarlett was dodging not just teeth and claws but magical fire that scorched the earth where she'd been standing a moment before.

She was slowing down. Tiring. The flames were forcing her into increasingly desperate maneuvers.

*Those are the same wolves that cursed me. If they bite her—if they infect her with that same magic—*

I didn't think. I just moved.

I closed the distance in seconds, positioning myself between Scarlett and the attacking pack.

"FROST!" Her voice was furious, not grateful. "Get the fuck out of here! I don't need you to rescue me!"

Anger flared hot in my chest. I didn't know if it was the cigarette or something else, but my blood was boiling. Every emotion felt amplified, raw, like my skin had been stripped away and I was feeling everything at ten times the normal intensity.

"Well!" I snarled back. "I could leave you here to die if that's what you want! But I refuse to let you get killed because you came to see me!" I prowled between her and the circling red wolves. "And it's not just death you need to worry about! These creatures don't just copy the White Wolf's abilities—they carry magical infection! One bite and you could become Morgath's pet! Is that what you want?!"

Scarlett's eyes cleared slightly at that, genuine fear flickering across her face. But even as she dodged another lunging attack, she spat back, "Well! Maybe being a mindless pet would be better! At least then I wouldn't have to deal with reality! Wouldn't have to accept that I just traveled hundreds of miles to see you for five minutes only to be humiliated again!"

"God, woman!" I roared. "This isn't the time for—"

I started to shift, ready to drag her to safety whether she wanted it or not.

"If you come near me," Scarlett said, her voice dropping to something cold and final, "I'll let them kill me. I mean it, Frost. I'll die right here. Or—" She raised her blade to her own throat. "I'll die by my own hand. Your choice."

My entire body went rigid. Rage and desperation warred inside me.

"What the fuck do you want from me?!" I shouted. "You want me to just stand here and watch you die?! God, you're as stubborn as your fucking Alpha!"

Scarlett sliced clean through one wolf's paw as it swiped at her, her movements still precise despite her exhaustion. "Too bad you love her and not me," she said quietly.

The words hit like a physical blow.

Normally, I would've deflected. Changed the subject. Run away from this conversation like I'd been running from everything else in my life.

But something in that cigarette, or that potion, or maybe just the sheer insanity of this situation had stripped away my usual defenses.

"My feelings for Elowen have nothing to do with you throwing your life away!" I snapped. "And if you know I love her—if you've always known—then why the hell did you come see me in the first place?!"

Scarlett went still for just a moment, and I saw something break in her expression. "God," she breathed, "I thought... after all this time away from her, after being injured and isolated... I thought maybe you'd changed. That you might have forgotten her a little." Her laugh was bitter, broken. "I'm such a fucking idiot."

A ball of flame hurtled toward her face—

I didn't think. I shifted fully and lunged, catching Scarlett around the waist and rolling us both away from the blast. We tumbled across the forest floor, and when we stopped, I quickly kicked the remaining half of Lysandra's potion toward her with my tail.

Scarlett stared at the vial, then at me. Her face was a mess of emotions—hurt, anger, confusion, something that might have been hope if it wasn't so thoroughly crushed.

"Even if you save me in wolf form," she said, not reaching for the potion, "I'm not going to thank you."