The Alpha's Shatter Zone ✔️

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2412 words

"I have to go, Lex. He's my mate. Only I can save him."

"Then I'm sending guards with you," Lexi stated firmly. The Head Guard wrapped her arms around herself in the cool dawn air, feeling the cold from lack of a jacket. She'd come as soon as her Alpha had called. As soon as Chesca had fallen to her knees and released a blood chilling cry that had surely woken most of the pack.

"No!" Chesca snapped. "No one comes with me. I'm going alone. No one else is getting hurt because of me." The feelings of guilt began sinking into Chesca's veins as she thought over all the decisions she'd made in regards to Kaiden. He may have disrespected her, but admittedly she'd done the same to him. She hadn't trusted him, hadn't listened to him. And now he was paying the price, was all she could deduce from the most recent message they'd received.

"Alpha, at least think this through. You have no idea what's out there beyond the border," her Head guard spoke in a firm voice, trying to reason with her.

She could see what Lexi was saying, but the weight of the unknown was clouding her mind, squeezing her heart with its emptiness. "It doesn't matter. I can handle it. It's all my fault anyway," Chesca had turned and was heading towards the trees when Lexi stopped her gently, wrapping a hand around her bicep.

"It's not your fault, Chesca. We're all in this together. We've faced this anonymous threat as a pack for the last few months, so we deal with it together. Just like we have everything else over the years. You don't have to face this alone." Her words were now spoken as a friend, not just a guard to her Alpha.

Chesca stared hard at Lexi for a few seconds, the veins throbbing in her neck as she restrained herself. Then she snapped, yanking her arm from Lexi and growling at the guard.

"I'm going! And no one follows." Her stubbornness and impulsive actions had gotten her into trouble many times in the past, but this time Chesca would use it to protect her pack. To find and protect her mate.

"But Chesca—"

Running and leaping into the air, the Alpha of Steelheart shifted and ran into the forest, Lexi's pleas falling on defiant ears. Only one thought caressed Chesca's mind; only one face remained imprinted in her vision. His mischievous smile and sparkling brown eyes pushed her heart to go further, to keep beating. To beat for him.

Her mate had been hurt, possibly killed, and whoever did it was clearly sending her a message. They knew how much it would hurt Chesca. They knew how much the necklace meant to Kaiden, and how much it had come to mean to her.

The dark forest cast shadows on the Alpha wolf's body as it ran along the path, ducking and weaving between the ferns and shrubs. Birds twittered in consternation as she panted and growled with deadly threats.

The rocks sat sharp and obstructing up the mountainous ridge, but Chesca bounded over them in huge leaps. This difficult terrain was no match for her strong wolf. The tall trees practically blocked out the early morning sun light that hadn't yet crested the mountain, but her eyes were built for this, and she deftly weaved in and out between the thick trunks.

She didn't know exactly where she was going or what she'd find, but she kept going anyway. Following the scent of her mate that clung to the path, Chesca kept placing one foot in front of the other at a fast pace. She was pretty sure he wasn't dead, or else her heart would have collapsed in on itself before exploding in searing pain. At least, that's what she'd heard happens when one's mate dies.

He couldn't die, not yet anyway. They still had so much of life to live together, and so much to experience, so much to achieve. So much to love each other.