Into the Alpha’s Keep Chapter 33: 32

POV Fenrir Dăneşti

"Kill him!" I ordered Anton.

He scratched the back of his neck, showing his disapproval of the order.

"Are you sure?" he insisted. "He was one of our best buyers."

"Who lost all his fortune gambling and now doesn't have the money to pay us," I retorted, throwing the reports onto the table, irritated. "Killing Peter will serve as a message to all our buyers. No one should think they have the right to owe us, Anton. Rip Peter's head off and make sure everyone knows why it happened."

Peter had once been one of our biggest buyers, but he lost his way after trading his wife for a much younger girl who dragged him into the world of gambling. Since then, he hadn't been able to maintain his business, spending more than he earned. He owed a lot of people, including me.

And that was unacceptable.

"Alright," he agreed at last. He pulled his phone from his pocket and typed a message. "Done. Peter's head is up for auction."

"Great."

I pressed my temples and closed my eyes, taking a deep breath. The business world could be more suffocating than managing an entire pack most of the time. My wolves followed me, listened to me, and obeyed my commands, unlike my clients.

I opened my mouth to respond to Anton when I felt like I was going to suffocate. I stood up in one swift motion, pushing the chair away with my legs.

I blinked, confused.

A bitter taste stung my tongue. It felt like fear. Not just fear, but absolute panic.

A sharp pain hit the side of my head, causing a deep ache just as the taste of blood took over my mouth.

My skin froze.

I was dazed for a second, not understanding what was happening. I felt my pupils dilating and the color of my eyes changing.

Anton took a step back, noticing the sudden change.

I was about to lose control to my wolf. He felt what I couldn't feel, noticed something that had gone unnoticed by me.

"Anton, where is Savannah?" I asked, hearing my heart race.

The world seemed to stop spinning, condensing around me.

I tried to keep the fear away, but its appearance was inevitable. If I closed my eyes, I could see Catalina's dead body before my eyelids. I couldn’t and wouldn’t let that happen again, I couldn’t fail again.

He frowned, confused.

"If I’m not mistaken, Alexandra said she was going to invite her to the pup challenge. She's trying to include Savannah since Marilyn sabotaged her cakes."

What the omega had done angered me deeply. She had no right to come into my home and mess with things that belonged to Savannah. The wolf had good intentions, and Marilyn ruined that. She had been banned from coming to my house since then.

"What stage is it?" I inquired, my voice firm and deep, slightly transformed by the state I was in.

Part man, part animal.

"Primary, I think."

He didn't need to say anything else. I shot out of the office using my inhuman speed. I heard Anton shout my name.

"Call Andrei and meet me in the forest, we have company."

The fear I felt didn't belong to me, it belonged to Savannah. Just like the pain in the side of my head and the taste of blood. She was injured.

That's why my wolf was trying to take control, that's why he was desperate to go to her.

Savannah belonged to me, she was a wolf under my care, under my protection. What kind of alpha would I be if I let them take her?

I wouldn't fail again.

And my pack, so many females and pups, all heading in the same direction as her. They were all beyond the boundaries of my territory, outside my protection, and in danger.

I ran through the trees at a dizzying speed. They were nothing more than a blur before my eyes. My feet made no sound on the leaves and dry branches, keeping me undetected by any of them.

As I got closer, I smelled my pack. It came from different directions as the pups tried to find the objects that had been hidden.

I didn't waste time trying to distinguish the scents and find hers because I knew exactly where she was. Not me, but my wolf, yes.

I turned left, not slowing down.

The first thing I smelled was lamb meat. It was strong and dense, from a freshly killed animal, meant to make the challenge easier for the pups.

Then I smelled her. Dew and wild jasmine. There was also the scent of Alexandra, a pup, and the damn wolves who didn’t belong to any pack in the region.

And blood.

The unmistakable smell of her blood.

It was the smell of Savannah's blood.

I didn’t falter, even though I felt my heart miss a beat.

My steps remained firm on the ground, leading me to where she was. I didn't know whose desperation it was coming from—mine, from the fear of failing again, or my wolf's obsession with the girl.

The image was worse than I imagined. Savannah was hurt on the ground, dizzy, trying to get up. Blood was running down the side of her head, staining her dark hair. A few meters away from her was a fallen pup. And Alexandra was a little farther from where they were, trying to keep the wolf she was fighting away from Savannah.

I stopped in front of them, grabbed the sides of the bastard's head, and twisted his neck to the left, pushing the bones to the limit. He died as soon as they snapped.

Alexandra was panting, terrified.

"They... they almost took her," she whispered, her lips trembling. "They killed Ruda. They killed the pup," she sobbed, and a tear rolled down one of her brown eyes.

Her knees gave way, and I caught her before she fell to the ground, pulling her head to my chest.

"It’s going to be okay, you did your best, as strong as I said you are," I whispered.

She pushed me away and turned her back on me as if she wanted to recover from the emotional shock. Alexandra was tough and had trouble showing her vulnerabilities.

"Just... leave me alone," she whispered, her voice faltering.

She took a few steps, distancing herself from the scene.

I ran to Savannah, placed my hand behind her head, and pulled her carefully. She blinked, but her eyes seemed cloudy, distant. Tears streamed down her face, her lips were pale, and she looked cold.

"Savannah," I gasped, worried.

"He’s dead," she cried, choking on the words.

I looked to the side, at Ruda lying in the middle of the dry leaves. His eyes were overtaken by blackness, showing the face of a dead wolf. His head was twisted at an abnormal angle, and blood was dripping from his nose and mouth. His bronzed skin had already turned too pale for a healthy boy.

Saliva burned down my throat, tasting bitter. Guilt and anger clashed inside me.

One of mine had been killed.

One of my wolves, who was under my protection. A pup who never even made it to puberty, who lived so little for someone with a life expectancy of five hundred years.

I turned my gaze from him, focusing back on the wounded omega. I approached and sniffed her. There was the scent of another male on her. I pulled her to me and licked the wound on her head, rubbing my tongue through the broken skin and hair strands.