Chapter 223
Nicholas’s POV
I didn’t wait for Roman. I didn’t wait for Andrei.
I tracked the faint, scraping sound through the pitch-black trees. My bare feet crunched against the freezing gravel and bloody snow. I moved with lethal silence. Irina was right beside me. Her presence was a burning fire in my veins. The thick, stolen cloak wrapped around her small shoulders fluttered in the bitter wind.
*Rustle. Scrape.*
The sound was getting louder. The metallic stench of old blood and rotten pride filled my nose.
I knew that scent. I hated that scent. It was a smell permanently burned into my darkest childhood memories. It made my black wolf bare his heavy teeth. It made him claw violently at the inside of my skull.
We descended a steep, jagged slope away from the ruined camp. The shadows here were suffocating. They felt like a cold grave. But my Alpha vision pierced straight through the darkness.
I saw the broken pine branches. I saw the fresh drops of crimson blood staining the pure white snow. He was dragging himself.
And then, I saw him.
My father.
The former Alpha. The architect of my nightmares. The monster who had built a massive underground empire on a throne of crushed bones and innocent blood.
He was huddled against the wide base of a massive, frozen pine tree. He looked absolutely pathetic. He was no longer the untouchable, terrifying dictator who used to torture his own sons for fun.
He was severely injured. A dark, thick pool of blood soaked the snow beneath his right leg. His breathing was ragged. It sounded like wet gravel. He clutched his torn side. His scarred hands shook violently from the biting cold and the immense pain.
I stopped in my tracks. My muscles coiled tight like heavy steel springs.
I put out an arm. I instinctively kept Irina slightly behind me. I wanted to shield her from his toxic gaze.
When he heard the crunch of the snow, his heavy head snapped up.
His dark, cruel eyes locked onto us in the shadows.
He didn’t scream. He didn’t beg for mercy. He didn’t try to crawl away.
Instead, he smiled.
It was a sick, twisted smile. It revealed his blood-stained teeth. It was the exact same arrogant expression he wore when he ordered mass executions. The sight of it made my blood boil. It made my thick fingers twitch with the absolute, blinding need to snap his neck.
He coughed. He spat a thick glob of dark blood onto the white snow. He leaned his heavy head back against the rough pine bark. He looked amused.
"Well, well," he rasped. His voice was incredibly weak, but the pure venom in it was just as toxic as ever. "Look who decided to crawl out of the grave."
I stood tall. I let my lethal Alpha aura crash down on him like a massive, physical weight. I wanted him to feel my new power. I wanted him to suffocate under it.
"You failed," I growled. My voice was pure, rolling thunder. It vibrated off the icy rocks. "Your rogues are dead. Your pathetic little rebellion is over."
He let out a dry, raspy laugh. It quickly turned into a violent, wet cough. His chest heaved.
Then, his dark eyes shifted away from my face. They landed directly on Irina.
I felt Irina stiffen beside me. Our mate bond flared bright hot. But she didn’t cower. She didn’t shrink away from his terrifying gaze. She stood her ground.
My father’s sickening smile grew wider. His eyes crawled over her small, pale face. He looked at her bare legs hiding under the oversized cloak. It was disgusting. It was a violation.
"Finally brought your little thing here?" he mocked. He wiped a streak of dark blood from his chin. "Is that what brought you back from the dead, Nicholas? This fragile little Omega?"
My jaw clenched. I wanted to reach down his throat and rip his heart out.
He let out another vile chuckle. He enjoyed my anger. He always did.
"What?" he taunted. He tilted his head against the tree. "Did you bring her down here so I could meet my new daughter-in-law?"
"Don’t you dare look at her," I snarled. I took a slow, menacing step forward. My fists were clenched so tight my knuckles turned completely white.
"She’s pretty," he continued, completely ignoring my lethal warning. He wanted to push my buttons. "But she looks incredibly soft. She won’t survive our world, Nicholas. You know that. Look at her. She’s just a toy. A pathetic, broken little—"
"Shut your mouth!" I roared.
The sound violently shook the heavy branches above us. A shower of loose snow fell around our shoulders. The air dropped to freezing temperatures. My chest heaved rapidly. I stared down at the broken old man.
I sneered. The pure, unfiltered hatred in my heart overrode everything else. I didn’t just want to kill him. I wanted to break his evil spirit first.
"Look at you," I said coldly. My voice dropped to a lethal, vibrating whisper. "Look at what you have become."
He glared at me. The arrogant amusement finally dropped from his bloody face.
"You think you are still a king," I continued. I took another slow step closer. I wanted him to feel the intense heat radiating from my massive body. "You think you still have power. But you are nothing. You are just a dying rat in the snow."
His chest rose and fell rapidly. The pain was finally catching up to him.
"You couldn’t even kill me," I mocked him. "Your claws were deep in my chest. I was lying dead in the mud. And you still lost."
"I made you!" he spat back. His eyes flashed with a desperate, feral rage. "I forged you in blood! You owe your crown to me!"
"I owe you nothing but a grave," I countered smoothly. I didn’t yell. I didn’t need to. I had already won. "You are weak. Your era is completely done. Your cruel, psychotic rule ends tonight."
He tried to push himself up against the tree trunk, but his broken leg gave out. He slid back down into the bloody slush with a harsh, painful groan.
I watched him suffer. I felt absolutely no pity.
"You built a kingdom on torture," I told him. My green eyes burned into his dark ones. "And now you will choke on your own blood. It is time for you to bow down. You will swallow the bitter consequences of your own evil."
He sneered back. His yellowed teeth bared in a desperate, pathetic snarl. "You think you can judge me? You are just like me, Nicholas! You are a violent monster! You will destroy her just like—"
I prepared to step forward. My patience was gone.
I was going to wrap my large hands tightly around his throat. I was going to slowly, methodically squeeze the last pathetic breath out of his lungs. He deserved a slow, agonizing death. I was going to rip his head from his shoulders.
But I didn’t get the chance.
A violent blur of motion erupted from my right side.
It was so incredibly fast, it shocked even my heightened, reborn Alpha reflexes. The sacred mate bond violently spiked with a blinding, explosive rage. It wasn’t my rage. It wasn’t my protective fury.
It was hers.
Before I could even blink, Irina lunged forward.