The Biker Alpha Who Became My Second Chance Mate Chapter 112

Tristan

I could feel my life slipping away.

It wasn't slow or gentle like I had always imagined death might be.

It was a burning, tearing pain that sank into my bones and dragged every ounce of strength out of me with ruthless efficiency.

My chest felt hollow and my head was so light I thought I might be floating somewhere between life and death.

The sensation was unlike anything I had ever experienced as an Alpha.

All my life I had been the strong one, the one who protected others, the one who never showed weakness.

But here I was, crumpled on a cave floor, feeling more helpless than I had ever felt in my entire existence.

I wanted to scream but my throat wouldn't work properly and all that left my mouth was a broken whisper.

"Athena..."

It was weak and shattered but it was all I had left to give. The sound of her name on my lips felt like a wish, like maybe if I said it enough times she would remember who she used to be.

Her hands were still on me, still drinking me dry like I was nothing more than a vessel to be emptied, but when Orion's voice rang out through the chamber it was like the entire world shifted around us.

"Athena, stop!"

His Alpha command cracked through the air like thunder and I felt it hit both of us with the force.

The power in his voice was something I had heard countless times before in training and in battle, but never directed at someone we both loved.

She paused and her grip loosened before she let go of me completely. My body crumpled to the ground like a broken doll, empty and cold and shaking so badly I could barely draw breath into my lungs.

The sudden absence of her touch left me feeling even more drained than when she had been actively pulling the life from me.

It was like losing a connection to something vital and necessary, even though that connection had been killing me.

I had never felt anything like this before in my entire life. It wasn't just my own pain that was tearing through me, I could feel hers too.

I could feel her fear clawing at my chest and her rage roaring in my veins and her desperation cutting into me like a knife in my lungs.

The bond between us was so raw and exposed that I thought it might actually rip me apart from the inside out. Every emotion she was experiencing crashed into me like waves against a rocky shore, and I was drowning in the intensity of it all.

Through the bond I could sense her confusion and her terror at what she was becoming. She was trapped inside her own body, watching herself do things she would never choose to do, and the horror of that realization was almost worse than the physical pain.

The thing that was inside her.

It's a power so deep and consuming and ancient that even my own Alpha strength felt like nothing in comparison.

The power I had been born with, trained with, fought with my entire life suddenly seemed as weak as a child's toy compared to whatever force had taken control of my mate.

I'd tried to push my own command toward her through our bond, tried to reach whatever part of her was still fighting in there, but it was like throwing a stone into a raging storm. It didn't even cause a ripple in whatever darkness had consumed her.

I and Orion's Alpha voices, which had never failed us before, which had commanded respect from every wolf we've ever encountered, was completely useless against this thing.

It was a humbling and terrifying realization that made me question everything I thought I knew about power and strength.

I couldn't fight it.

I couldn't even touch it.

And that terrified me more than the physical pain did.

The helplessness was eating me alive from the inside. All my life I had been able to protect the people I cared about through sheer force of will and Alpha dominance, but none of that mattered here. None of my training or experience or natural abilities could help Athena now.

She turned away from me and started walking toward Orion with movements that were slow and deliberate and absolutely dangerous.

I could see her shoulders rising and falling with each step and I could feel the heat radiating from her body like she had become a living furnace. The air around her seemed to shimmer with the intensity of whatever power was flowing through her.

My pulse was hammering so hard in my ears that it drowned out almost everything else and I knew exactly what she was about to do.

I had seen what she had done to Seraphine and Daxon, had seen the dried husks that used to be living, breathing people.

She was going to kill him.

She was going to kill Orion and there was nothing I could do to stop her.

The thought sent a fresh wave of panic through me that was so intense it made my vision blur.

If she killed him while under the influence of this power, I knew it would destroy whatever humanity she had left.

I pushed my palms against the cold stone floor and tried to force myself to stand but my body wouldn't obey me.

My arms shook with the effort and gave out almost immediately, sending me crashing back down to the ground.

I had nothing left to give and barely enough strength to keep my eyes open.

The life force that Athena had drained from me was slow to return, if it would return at all, and I felt like a shadow of my former self.

I tried reaching out to my wolf but he too felt so far away.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Orion and his face was carved from stone with his jaw tight and his hands clenched into fists at his sides.

He didn't even look at me but I could feel his anger radiating off him like heat from a blade.

His anger was different from mine though. Where I felt desperate and broken and willing to do anything to save her, his rage was cold and calculating.

He was preparing for war, preparing to do whatever was necessary to stop the thing that had taken his sister.

And I didn't care about his anger or his commands or his plans.

If killing me was what it took to bring Athena back then I would let her do it. If dying with her was the only way to reach whatever part of her was still trapped inside that thing then I would die gladly.

But she wasn't coming for me now.

She was walking toward her brother with death in her silver eyes and I could feel through our bond that the thing controlling her saw Orion as a threat that needed to be eliminated.

And I was too weak to stop her.

"Shift!" Orion's command boomed through the chamber again, stronger and sharper than before, and I felt it hit her with enough force to make her wolf surface.

The power in his voice was incredible, layered with all the authority he had developed over years of leading his own pack.

It was the kind of command that could stop a rampaging wolf in its tracks, that could force submission from even the most rebellious pack member.

Her body jerked violently and cracks tore across her skin that was still glowing. She screamed and it was a sound so raw and animalistic that it scraped down my spine and left me shaking even harder than before.

The sound she made wasn't entirely human and wasn't entirely wolf. It was something else, something that spoke of pain and rage and a power too great for any mortal body to contain.

I felt every single ounce of her agony through our bond and it was worse than anything I had experienced when she was draining my life away. Her pain became my pain, her struggle became my struggle, and I thought I might actually die from the intensity of it.

"Stop!" I shouted hoarsely, choking on my own voice as I tried to make it loud enough for him to hear me. "You're hurting her!"

But Orion didn't even glance in my direction.

He kept commanding her and kept forcing her to fight whatever darkness had taken hold of her soul, even though I could see that each command was tearing her apart from the inside.

His face was set in grim determination and I realized he was willing to hurt her if that's what it took to save her.

The conflict between his methods and my instincts was tearing me apart almost as much as the bond was.

Every fiber of my being wanted to protect Athena from any kind of pain, even if that pain might ultimately help her, but I was too weak to intervene.

Her steps quickened and the sound of her bones shifting and changing filled the chamber. It was a sick cracking sound that made my stomach twist with nausea. Her body looked like it couldn't decide if it wanted to shift into her wolf form or break apart entirely.

The power inside her was fighting against Orion's commands and I could feel the war raging inside her through every fiber of our bond. It was like being connected to a lightning storm and I thought it might actually kill me just from the intensity of it.

She was caught between two opposing forces, the ancient power that had consumed her and her brother's Alpha commands, and her body was paying the price for that internal battle.

I could see her struggling to maintain control, to hold onto some piece of herself while these greater powers fought for dominance.

And then in the space of a single heartbeat she moved.

She blurred forward so fast that my eyes could barely track the movement and in an instant she was standing directly in front of Orion with her hand raised toward his face.

Her fingers were inches away from his skin and I could see the deadly energy crackling between them like electricity.

One touch. That was all it would take. One touch and he would end up like Seraphine and Daxon, drained and withered and dead on the cave floor.

My heart stopped beating in my chest.

The realization hit me and knocked what little breath I had left right out of my lungs.

This wasn't just about losing Athena anymore. This was about watching her become a monster, about watching her destroy everyone she had ever loved.

"She's going to kill him," my mind screamed at me. "She's going to kill her own brother."

The thought was so horrific that it jolted me in ways that my own pain couldn't. I tried to move and tried to throw myself between them but my arms gave out completely and I collapsed back to the floor with a impact that sent fresh waves of agony through my already broken body.

The pain tore through me like fire but I didn't care about my own suffering anymore. Nothing mattered except stopping what was about to happen.

I had to stop her.

I had to find a way to reach her before she did something that would destroy her completely, something that would leave her so consumed by guilt and horror that there would be no coming back from it.

With the very last scrap of strength left in my body I forced my head up off the stone floor and shouted with everything I was feeling.

"Athena, no!"