Before Rita's insulting slap could land on my face, the pitch-black shadow leaping from the darkness tore through the air like a sword. Varg was beyond human rage; he had descended upon us like the wrath of an ancient god whose sanctuary had been violated. The dust falling from the ceiling of the mine shaft descended like lead bullets at Varg's roar.
Within seconds, Rita found herself on the ground, pinned under Varg's massive black claws. As he pressed down on her chest, I could hear the sound of the gravel on the mine floor biting into her back. Despite the pain, Rita did not compromise on her toxic, neon-blue arrogance. Smirking despite the near-black vampire blood leaking from her mouth, she looked into Varg's eyes, which burned like embers.
"Ah, the Alpha's crude display of heroism..." Rita said, her voice cold as a snake's hiss. "Do you really think you can protect her? She's just a freak, Varg. A sacrifice our Lady is waiting for on a silver platter. Even if you take her from me, even if you bury her scent in the deepest pit of Alberta, we will find her. Her blood calls to us, and we will not stop."
Varg didn't wait a single moment to shift back to human form. As his skeleton clicked back into place with a crunching sound, he loomed over Rita—half-naked, wounded, and as terrifying as a demon. The bandages on his body were completely shredded by the sheer force of his fury; the scarred tissue on his chest heaved with every hateful breath.
He gripped Rita's throat with his coarse, massive hands, his knuckles crushing her windpipe like a vise.
"Your Lady..." Varg said, his voice a rumbling earthquake from seven layers deep. "Is safe as long as she sits in her own stench-ridden palace. But every hand, every claw, every poisonous breath she sends to my borders, to my territory..."
Varg gripped Rita's left arm by the shoulder, squeezing it hard enough to crush the bone. "...will be erased from this world. I am the blood of Alberta, and when my blood is spilled, I burn everything."
Rita's eyes widened with terror. In the sterile world of vampires, she had never encountered such raw power. "You can't! The Prince won't allow this! It will be war, Varg!" she moaned.
Varg leaned into Rita's face, the burning embers in his eyes searing her soul. "Tell your Prince," Varg said with a savage, bloody smile.
"If he's going to cry this much over a single arm, he should never send his army into Alberta's winter. Because only flowers of death bloom in that winter, b*tch. My next station is his bloodles c-ck."
Varg caught Rita's arm at the elbow. In that moment, the only sound heard in the mine was not a bone breaking, but the sound of teeth as hard as steel and a primal strength tearing through flesh and cartilage like paper.
When Varg jerked his head with a single animal instinct, Rita's arm didn't just snap—it was torn away at the elbow by the sheer pressure of his jaws.
Rita's shrill, ear-piercing vampire scream brought down dust from the ceiling. I was jolted by the warm, stale liquid splashing over me. When I wiped my eyes, I saw my muddy hands washed in the blood of my enemy.
Varg spat the severed and still-twitching arm onto the mine rails like a piece of trash. Rita staggered back, looking at the spurting dark void where her arm should have been. The aristocratic lady was gone, replaced by a creature writhing in agony. Varg grabbed her by her neon-blue hair and forced her to her knees once more.
"This was only a warning." Varg roared. "Now go and gift this severed piece to your master. If you ever dare touch my wife again, I will bury you piece by piece in the depths of this mine! Never... never try to steal anything from me again."
The wolf pack waiting outside began that bone-chilling howl celebrating their Alpha's victory. Varg slowly turned his head toward me, toward the trembling girl on the ground. The burning embers in his eyes now collided directly with my weak purple light.
"Get up, Luna!" Varg said, his voice filled with an authority that drowned out even Rita's screams. "What business do you have in this filth, among these weak humans? Did you prefer this stench of mold, this misery, over the bed of an Alpha?"
"They are my family, Varg!" I screamed, my voice echoing like a ruin, as the hybrid power within me flickered again. "They didn't lock me in a room like you did! They were tortured by those vampires for me!"
Varg wrapped his fingers around my jaw, forcing my face up to his. His gaze was so hard I felt my bones melting. "They didn't die for you, Vespera; they were merely bait for you! Never try to run from me again. Because I will tear the world apart, turn heaven into hell just to find you."
As Dominic and Chloe couldn't even breathe under Varg's magnificent but terrifying silhouette, Varg lifted me from the ground in one single move, as easily as if I were a feather. As he crushed me against his bare, blood-stained chest, the heat radiating from his skin felt like a wildfire trying to swallow my soul.
He leaned down, his lips brushing against my ear, his breath hot and lethal.
"You are mine, Vespera." he growled, the vibration of his voice rattling my ribcage. "And if I have to burn this whole world to ashes just to keep you in my cage, I will do it with a smile. Now, let's go home. You have a debt to pay for this rebellion."
The storm of Alberta had calmed outside, but as he carried me through the shadows, I realized the real storm was only just beginning.
And this time, there was no place to hide from the lightning in his eyes.