Page 81 of Meeting Her Mate
It was downright comical how the three of them, strong as they might be, immediately turned on their heels and ran for the elevators. In my heart, I could feel Will’s strength returning to him, making him more agile. With his newfound speed, Will jumped in a trajectory that landed him in front of the elevators, blocking their way.
They scampered at the last minute, all three of them running for the stairwell. But this was my time to shine. I pounced just in time, hindering their passage to the stairs. They were truly trapped on this floor with two wild werewolves out for blood.
As they ran, thudding into each other, I gave them a chase, biting at their ankles, swiping my claws where their legs were a moment ago to let them know I had closed in on them and that there was nowhere to run.
Upon seeing me in such swift action, Will came running from behind and joined me as we chased Blair, Ralph, and Maurice across the laboratory.
Something happened then that neither Will nor I had anticipated. The trio broke up and headed in three different directions.
You take Ralph!Will spoke to me.I’ll see to the other two.
Will knew it was personal between Ralph and me. Had he not orchestrated that car crash that night, my parents would still be alive. He had been under orders from someone. I intended to find out who had given that order. But before I’d do that, I would rend his flesh from his bones and make sure that he’d never do something like that ever again. After tonight, Ralph would not live to drink another person’s blood.
“Stop chasing me, you manic bitch!” he yelled as he recklessly ran, breaking everything in his path, and making equipment topple over to hinder my path. I was in my wolf form, and nothing was posing a hindrance to me. Each time I leaped into the air, I covered the distance that Ralph had gained from me.
Just before he was about to jump out of the window, I dug my claws into his heel and pulled him back, drawing blood from his foot, and creating deep gashes all the way up to his calves.
“Fuck!” Ralph yelled as he crawled on his back and put his arms up in self-defense. I clamped my jaw around his arms and yanked, slashing his forearms and bloodying his entire torso.
“Stop, stop! Please, listen to me. Stop. This fight, it’s not with me. You and I don’t have any qualms, do we? I didn’t even want to poison your mate. It was never about me. I was just in for the ride. Let me go, I beg of you, and you shall never hear from me again,” Ralph begged, holding his bleeding hands in front of me, his face all grotesque with blood, tears, and strain.
I shifted back into my human form and towered over his maimed body.
“You think this is about you being a minor nuisance for Will and me? No, Ralph. This goes all the way back to when you had my parents killed. You might not even remember doing that, but you changed my life for the worse that day when you issued the order. It’s time you paid for that. It’s time you paid back for all the times you haunted this town, controlled its roads, terrorized its people, feasted on the blood of the innocent, and plotted schemes against the werewolves,” I said, closing my fists and kneeling over his body.
“I didn’t know they were your parents! I’m sorry. Just…please…don’t kill me,” Ralph stuttered.
It did not matter to me that he begged. It only served to provoke me more. How dare he beg? How many lives had he played with? How many men and women were murdered? He did not deserve mercy in the slightest.
I grabbed him by the collar and punched him across the face. He groaned as my fist met his chin. As barbaric as this act was, it gave me a beastly pleasure in inflicting violence on him. Of all the people that deserved it, Ralph was on top of the list. I punched him again and again, bruising his face and bloodying his cheeks, and with the final punch, I broke off his vampiric fangs.
At this point, he yelled in pain.
“You broke my teeth, you bitch!” he spat, throwing up blood.
“At least you’re not going to be drinking some innocent human’s blood anymore,” I said, letting go of his collar. Once on my feet, I looked at the pathetic pile of whimpering limbs and bloodied torso and delivered another kick to his side, making him yelp even more.
“Curse you!” Ralph yelled. “I’m glad I had your parents killed!”
“Oh, if you think that by angering me, you’re going to make me kill you quickly, you’re in for some bad news. My parents are dead, and nothing can change that. But I can prolong your death, extending each moment of torture into infinity, making you feel pain like you’ve never felt before,” I said, picking up a piece of glass from the floor.
“You don’t understand, little one,” Ralph said, his tone turning deeper suddenly. He sat up and coughed out more blood. “I have danced this dance a thousand times. One does not get to my age, and my age is in the hundreds, without having their fair share of brushes with death. Do you think that you’re the first person to break my bones and my teeth and rip my flesh? Think again. Think very hard about your next step. What will happen when I am no more? Where do hundreds of vampires go when their leader dies? Who will be responsible for all the unchecked chaos? Me? Oh no, I’m dead. It’s you. You who have decided to play with the scales of power as if they’re toys, not knowing that the slightest tip can cause tremors and quakes.”
“Feeling awfully chatty for someone on the brink of death, aren’t you?” I said, kicking his side again. This time he didn’t even flinch. Instead, he stared back at me, his face all maroon with blood, his mouth looking lopsided from the lack of teeth.
“Death and I are acquainted on a first-name basis by now. But you must understand that you’re messing with forces you don’t understand. And you’re not going to kill me yet. I haven’t told you who ordered your parents’ death. Ah yes, your father, the honorable alpha, and your mother, the woman who could make the seraphim envious with her voice… tsk, tsk. Such a pity. Their love was fabled all over town. If they saw you like this, so needlessly violent, do you think they would be proud?”
“Don’t talk about my parents with your filthy mouth!” I slashed the piece of glass across his face, cleaving his cheek open.
Rather than scream, he started howling with laughter. It was a deranged sight; Ralph, with his cheek split open, his teeth missing, and blood all over his body, was laughing hysterically.
“Werewolves are so primitive. You’re nothing more than a fucking bitch in heat for her mate. An animal! You’re nothing more than an animal! An animal who does not know that blood, whether his own or another’s, strengthens a vampire. Look at the bloodbath you’ve provided me!” Ralph rose from the ground so quickly that I barely registered it.
He wrapped his hands around my neck and squeezed, staring viciously into my eyes, snarling with his blood-soaked mouth.
“I would rob your body of its last droplet of blood, but I do not drink tainted dog blood, and so, I must now do unto you what you willed unto me,” he said, squeezing my neck harder, making darkness dance in front of my eyes, and making my head feel light. He pushed me to my knees and began digging his nails into my skin.
Bulbous, red pain gorged from where his nails pierced into my neck. At the last second, I shifted, reveling in the feeling of his grasp getting weaker as my body grew, as fur took the place of skin, as fang replaced tooth, as fingers shaped themselves into claws.