Alpha's STOLEN Mate Chapter 74

Elowen

The wolves kept coming, faster and more cunning with each wave. Their nearly invisible scent made tracking impossible—I was fighting blind in this shattered mirror maze.

But the physical battle wasn't what was breaking me.

Through the mate bond, Kaius's agony crashed over me in relentless waves. It wasn't just sensing that he was hurt—I could feel his pain as if it were my own. Sharp, burning sensations across my chest.

He was dying. Really dying. And every second brought him closer to the edge.

The combination was too much. Enemy wolves tearing at me from all sides, my own body screaming with exhaustion, and the unbearable torture of feeling my mate's death in real-time through our connection.

Something inside me snapped.

Heat built beneath my skin, volcanic and unstoppable. My vision bled red at the edges, the world taking on a crimson tint. I could feel my body changing—the white fur on my head darkening to vivid scarlet, the color spreading down my neck and shoulders like blood soaking through snow.

My claws erupted in flames so intense they turned blue-white at the core, heat radiating in waves that made the air shimmer. The fire climbed up my legs, engulfed my entire body until I was a living inferno. The cave walls began to glow from the temperature, stone actually starting to melt and run in rivulets.

Kaius's pain spiked through the bond—a death cry I felt in my very bones.

I lost myself completely.

Rational thought dissolved. Strategy vanished. All that remained was pure, animal rage and one driving imperative: *Destroy. Kill everything. Reach him.*

I launched into the air, and my power exploded outward with no direction or control. Lightning erupted from my body in jagged purple bolts that crackled through the superheated air, while flames spiraled around me in a massive vortex of orange and white fire. The two elements fed off each other, creating a maelstrom of destruction.

I wasn't controlling it anymore. The power was using me, responding to my fury and pain, amplifying it into something catastrophic.

The detonation was apocalyptic.

Fire and lightning burst outward in a devastating shockwave. Every mirror in the cave shattered simultaneously, the sound like a thousand bells breaking at once. The wolves didn't even have time to scream—they were consumed instantly, bodies incinerated by flames or torn apart by the explosive force. The scent of burning flesh and charred fur filled the air.

Explosions rippled through the tunnels as my uncontrolled energy tore through stone and crystal. Sections of the ceiling collapsed. Walls crumbled. The entire cave system shook with the force of destruction.

Then darkness—total, absolute black as the last light sources died.

But only for a heartbeat. My flames illuminated the wreckage, revealing what the mirrors had been hiding all along.

There, in a massive chamber that had been concealed by the maze of reflections—the source. A huge crystal pulsed with sickly unnatural light, easily twice my wolf form in size. And beneath it, sprawled on the ground, was a massive black wolf being consumed by lightning and fire.

Kaius. Writhing in agony.

My lightning. My fire. I'd done this to him.

Strangely, I felt nothing—no guilt, no remorse.

Above him hovered the golden-masked witch, her entire body wreathed in dark magic that made the air around her shimmer with wrongness. The crystal's sickly light seemed to respond to her power, pulsing in rhythm with her magic.

She was laughing.

"Beautiful! Absolutely beautiful!" Her voice echoed with delight. "Look at your berserk energy! Such magnificent chaos!" She gestured at the destruction around us. "Just one small illusion about your mate dying, and you lose complete control! You destroyed my mirror maze, nearly killed him yourself with your rampage, and proved exactly what I've always known—"

She leaned forward, her masked face somehow conveying smug satisfaction. "Wolves are nothing but beasts who can't master themselves. You're slaves to instinct, to rage, to those pathetic bonds you think make you special. Even the legendary white wolf is just another rabid animal!"

The word "beast" penetrated the red haze. It didn't calm me—it enraged me further.

I couldn't process her actual words, couldn't think beyond the burning need to tear her apart. I was barely conscious, operating on pure feral instinct and bottomless hatred.

I lunged at the witch with supernatural speed, claws extended to rip her throat out. She vanished like smoke, reappearing behind me with casual, mocking ease.

"Oh, this is precious! Your power doesn't just destroy my wolves—it's been hurting your precious mate this whole time!" She gestured at Kaius's burned and bloodied form. "Every time you lose control, every wild burst of energy, you damage him more! Can't you feel it through your bond?"

Her words stirred something—fragmented memories trying to surface through the madness. Four years ago. Rejection. The mate who'd thrown me away like garbage, who'd valued his pack's politics over the bond between us.

*Fuck mates! My mate is my enemy! The one who abandoned me, who made me nothing!*

*Why should I care if he dies?*

The thought was the final break. Whatever thin thread of sanity I'd been clinging to snapped completely.

I unleashed everything. Lightning and fire in devastating combination, no longer aimed or controlled but simply pouring out of me in waves of destruction. The bombardment tore through stone, shattered crystal formations, turned sand to glass. Somewhere in the chaos, I felt the black wolf take more damage from my attacks, felt his pain spike through the bond.

I didn't care. Couldn't care. My mind knew only the need to kill the witch, to destroy anything and everything until she was dead.

The witch laughed and vanished. The moment she disappeared, the massive crystal's light flickered and died, plunging us into darkness. The oppressive magical presence was gone.

The cave went eerily quiet, just the crackle of flames and settling rubble.

Then—noise from the entrance. Running footsteps. A gray wolf burst into the ruined chamber at full speed, eyes wild with desperation.

Something about it tugged at buried recognition, but the killing frenzy overwhelmed everything else. The witch had escaped, but here was a new target! Finally, something I could sink my claws into!

*Another weak wolf daring to enter! Perfect! Let me show you what a white wolf can do!*

I snarled and attacked with blinding speed, my claws striking with enough force to shatter stone. The gray wolf flew backward, slamming into rubble with bone-breaking impact.

But it didn't fight back. It just looked at me with eyes full of something that almost, almost penetrated the madness—recognition. Grief. Love?

I knew this wolf. Somewhere deep down, past the rage and fire, I knew it.

But my claws only wanted to tear and rend and destroy.

Enemy or friend—the distinction no longer existed. There was only prey and the hunt.

I lunged for the killing blow, my flaming claws aimed at the gray wolf's exposed throat. It didn't even try to defend itself, just stared at me with those impossibly sad eyes, like it was accepting death.

Suddenly the black wolf surged upward despite its catastrophic injuries, throwing itself between us with desperate strength. My claws raked across its throat, the sharp edges opening deep gashes that just barely missed the jugular. Hot blood sprayed across my face and chest.

*Fuck! Another enemy trying to interfere!*

I leaped back into a predatory crouch, circling, snarling threats. The black wolf positioned itself protectively over the gray one, its eyes showing profound confusion and fury at being attacked by me.

*Well, you look stronger than the gray one. More worthy of a fight. But still weak compared to me.*

I decided to test him without elemental powers—wanted to feel flesh tear under my claws, wanted the visceral satisfaction of pure combat. I accelerated to inhuman speed, attacking from every angle in rapid succession—above, below, left, right, behind—flowing like wind made flesh. My claws struck again and again, each blow calculated to maim.

The black wolf was powerful, clearly an exceptional fighter with strength that would terrify normal wolves. But he refused to attack me back, putting every ounce of his considerable power into defense alone. He took hit after hit, blood flowing from dozens of wounds, his breathing growing labored—yet never once did he try to hurt me in return.

Even in my feral state, I recognized this was unusual. Wrong, somehow.

But mostly I just felt disappointed. Bored.

*Only defense? I expected more entertainment from such a strong black wolf. How dull. How pathetic.*

I lost interest and pivoted toward the gray wolf. In a blur of motion, I grabbed it by the scruff and hurled it into the air with savage force. It crashed down hard against the stone floor, the impact echoing through the cave. The gray wolf lay motionless, knocked unconscious.

Perfect. Now I could finish it.

I stalked toward the limp form, claws extended, ready to tear out its throat while it was helpless—

The black wolf crashed between us, throwing itself over the gray wolf's body. My claws punched clean through his chest with a sickening crunch. I felt them pierce his heart, create a gaping hole.

Inexplicable agony exploded through my own chest.

The black wolf's eyes met mine—not with hatred, but with acceptance. Relief that it was him instead of the gray one.

His blood dripped onto my white fur, warm and horribly familiar. Each drop burned through the rage.

The mate bond flared with his pain. Suddenly I could feel everything—his love, his desperate need to protect me even from myself, his willingness to die for me.

Reality crashed back like ice water.

The red haze cleared. The feral rage drained away.

*Fuck. This is Kaius. The gray wolf is Frost.*

*And I just killed him.*

*What have I done?*