The Warrior’s Broken Mate novel Chapter 62

Looking around the room engulfed in flames, I felt confused, frightened, and deeply concerned about how I had ended up in this situation in the first place. My hand was burned and still throbbed painfully, yet it didn’t seem to be healing or showing any signs of recovery like it should have. Not for a wolf.

I attempted to call Noir to come forward, but there was nothing. Inside my mind, it was completely silent, as if she wasn’t present at all.

I tried once more to move through the fire, searching for another escape route. When I spotted a gap in the flames, I thought I could seize the opportunity. But the opening shut again before I could dash through it, and my shirt caught fire.

Quickly, I used my hands to pat down the flames on my clothing, but when I looked down at my scorched shirt and the increasing burns on my hands, panic rose in me.

Suddenly, a hidden door swung open on the far side of the room, and Elias rushed in.

“Lyra,” he shouted.

“Elias,” I called back.

Upon seeing me, he tried to brave the fire and reach me, but he had to pull back several times, overwhelmed by the heat radiating from the blaze.

From where he stood on the other side of the room, he looked at me with fierce determination, then crouched down and made a leap over the fire separating us.

As he jumped into the air, the fire seemed to act on its own will. It surged up, wrapped around Elias, and dragged him back down into the center of the room.

I screamed for Elias, hearing his screams as he was consumed by the flames–burning alive, dying from his wounds.

I collapsed to the floor, hugging my legs tightly, trying to steady my breathing. Moving was nearly impossible when a familiar voice began echoing all around me.

I rose to my feet and searched the room, but I couldn’t see him anywhere.

“You know you’ll never win this battle against him,” Dad’s voice said.

“I’ve already won, you bastard. Don’t you realize that?” I shouted back.

“You haven’t won anything. All you’ve done is cost me a few allies and some business investors. If you think that will stop me, you’re mistaken,” he replied.

“You lost allies, we gained new ones. They want nothing to do with you. You’re the one who will burn in hell for everything you’ve done” I growled. He began to look uneasy.

“Look where you are, Lyra. You’re the one who’s going to burn before I do,” he said.

“And if you believe my people will let you get away with this, you’re going to die in the most agonizing way imaginable” I snarled.

“Well, not if you can’t find me,” he sneered.

“That’ll never stop them. They are the Vanguards pack. They’re called that for a reason. You will never win” I said firmly

“My pack isn’t as weak as you assume,” Dad shot back.

“And I’m not as weak as you think I am,” I answered.

A door suddenly opened on the opposite side of the room, and I saw my pack gathered there. They were in the gully where they had taken me when they first rescued me. They were going about their usual activities when, all of a sudden, everything began to ignite. The buildings caught fire, and the people did too. He was burning them all alive, just to send a message to me.

“That isn’t real,” I said.

“Not yet. But it will be. Once you’re out of the way, they’ll come back to the gully. And I’ll be there waiting for them,” he replied.

I watched through the door as each person burst into flames, screaming in agony. He left the closest ones for last–Luke and Stephanie, and the others I had become friends with in the Vanguards pack.

How did he know they were the ones closest to me? How did he know they were my friends?

If the witch was giving him the ability to see that, then he could watch us whenever he was a real chance he knew we were at the castle.

The thought sent a chill down my spine and stirred up a swarm of hornets in my stomach just imagining it. I couldn’t let him get his hands on my people.

Then the door slammed shut, and I began to hear a baby crying.

I scanned the room from where I stood, and suddenly, I spotted a baby in a cot on the left side of the building.

The baby was standing up, crying and staring directly at me.

I don’t know how I just knew, but I knew without a doubt it was my child–mine and Elias’s. Our future child. One who didn’t even exist yet.

I tried to move past the flames to reach him, but I couldn’t. The fire flared up and blocked my way to the cot every time I tried to get close.

Then I saw a figure walking toward the baby. The flames parted before him, and he turned to look at me with a crazed expression on his face.

“Leave him alone,” I growled.

“Why would I do that? I lost you. I might as well take the next heir to the throne and train him to work for me to destroy my enemies like you were supposed to,” Dad said.

“Screw you. Leave the baby alone. You’ll never get my children,” I said fiercely.

“I already have him,” Dad said, bending down to pick up the baby.

He walked over to the side wall, opened another door, and disappeared through it.

I screamed at him to come back, to bring my baby back.

I turned and faced the wall behind me, pounding my hands against it, desperate to find another secret door. But it was useless. There was no door behind me. Flames suddenly flared up next to me, forcing me to raise my arm to shield my face.

I screamed again, then collapsed to the floor, hugging my knees tightly to my chest, rocking back and forth.

Elias was gone. My baby was gone. I felt like I had lost everything–my pack, my friends, everything. Just when I had finally found where I belonged, it had all been torn away from me.