METAMORPHOSIS • DEREK HALE [COMPLETED]

Chapter Twenty-Nine

"I knew-"

"Derek," she breathed out a stifled sob as her knees fell to the ground. Her hand rose a final time to stroke his cheekbone, feeling roughness of his stubble beneath her fingertips. It was a feeling she had come to love, and she wasn't willing to let go. She couldn't. Alex refused to believe he was gone, even with the silence of a pulse.

The ceasing of firing bullets and her surroundings failed to catch her attention, her mind too clouded and focused on taking in his features. She couldn't help but let the tears fall to the ground, leaving darkened impressions on the arid dirt. Her attention had not surfaced to reality until she sensed Braeden approach them.

"Alex," the mercenary uttered, her face twisting into a look of sadness as she saw the sight infront of her. "Alex, I'm so sorry."

"It's not possible. He can't be-"

"Alex, we have to go," Braeden pulled on her arm, yet Alex couldn't move. She knew Braeden was only concerned for their safety as their stance was visible from each side of the firing teams, but she couldn't part from him.

"I can't- I can't leave him," she shook her head, her voice coming out in soft sobs.

"We'll come back, Alex. But we can't stay here, not now," her whisper came out fast and with uneasiness.

The air was too quiet, the only sound being the light padding of surrounding feet, yet it was absent of fighting, something they all came to Mexico to expect. But Alex could sense that it would soon come, and she was right.

In mere seconds a growl she recognized as Kate sounded from the desert ground, and gunshots and yells soon followed.

Alex and Braeden rose, the noise loud in their ears, but before they raced off, Alex vowed to come back. She would never leave without him.

Braeden stood tall, firing rounds in the dimly illuminated range and only aiming for Kate. Peering up as well, Alex spotted the changed werejaguar with a Berserker by her side through the smoke of ammunition, and she couldn't help but let the anger overtake her. She couldn't hold it in, and she wasn't going to hide it either.

Her heart heavy with grief, she could barely move, but in an instance, rage and adrenaline flooded her veins, dulling the pain just enough and giving her strength to lunge. Alex felt her transformation take place, her mind racing as well as the sensation of her teeth sharpening, skin attaining a blue hue, and her eyes glowing a vibrant purple. And then, she charged.

Yells of protest came from Braeden behind her, but her heart was pounding too loud for her to understand; all she knew was that she needed to reach Kate and the Berserker, she needed to seek vengeance for Derek's death. It was the only message her brain was sending to every nerve.

Alex continued to run into the crossfire, dodging bullets that came her way, and through the grey clouds, her roaming eyes spotted Araya standing on the opposing side. But she couldn't think of that now; it was a battle for another time.

When she reached Kate and the Berserker, everything else followed in a blur. In her true form, she attacked the Berserker in a blinded rage. Her claws scraped the surface of its bone cladded face, yet she was caught off guard as its hand clasped around her arm, its strength overtaking her. In any other situation, she would have know this wasn't a good idea, but every part of her was pressing for reprisal.

"Take her inside," she heard Kate yell over the roar of the current man she was attacking.

Alex felt her feet rise from the ground as a searing pain blossomed in her stomach. Looking down, she saw its claws embedded deep in her abdomen, and it began to move them away from the fray, in the direction of the small opening to La Iglesia.