Alpha Asher By Jane Doe

Chapter 211

I was so unfathomably tired of death.

The pale rider and I knew each other intimately. We were partners in a dance I no longer remembered the movements for, one I wished would end already but knew never would.

There were so many fallen wolves. So many families to contact, so many devastating blows to land.

Just as many, if not more, witches littered the ground.

They had friends, I‘m sure. Families that would wonder where they were or if they were ever coming back. They would be mourned by someone, somewhere.

It had taken me months to no longer have nightmares of my father‘s severed head tumbling from his shoulders, rolling across the ground in a sea of blood. Every

time I escaped the pull of a nightmare, a new one sprouted in its place, brought on by all of the death and carnage.

Even now, after all these months, I couldn‘t even look at grass without seeing flashes of it covered in blood.

I kept to Asher‘s side, shifting between human and wolf as I killed in both forms. Each life I took broke something inside of me that could never be fixed.

Asher was horrifically elegant in his wolf form, slashing throats and sinking his teeth into anything that wielded magic. He knew the dance moves, knew death much longer than I had. There were rare beings in this world born and bred to send people to the other side.

Asher was one of these beings. The more ! killed and slaughtered, the faster I realized that I was not.

So, I piggybacked off his strength and ferocity, letting his one–track mind

smother my feelings of regret and doubt.

We searched through the sea of crimson high and low looking for Ember, but she wasn‘t here.

I used my magic sparingly, diffusing some of the more powerful witches before they had a chance to kill any more of our warriors. I‘d just slashed through a miniature fucking tornado when I hesitated.

The witch that had conjured it was a child, barely a pre–teen.

Her face was round, her cheeks plump and flushed with blood. The rise and fall of her chest were heavy, spattered with blood that could‘ve easily been hers or someone else‘s. Seeing my hesitation, she blinked in surprise. Her lips opened to form a small‘o,‘ and her fingers twitched like she wasn‘t sure what to do next.

Staring at her through Maya‘s eyes, all I could think was that she wasn’t supposed

of tears as she tried again and

her, and my hesitation almost cost

her face as she twisted it into a sneer. Asher‘s voice

‘Lola, watch out!

rolled to the left, partially thrown by Asher as he barreled into the witch creeping

could cry out or tell them to stop, a wolf with wheat–colored fur tackled the young witch and crushed her neck in

hot air from his snout. ‘You would‘ve died if

blood. Within seconds the light faded from her eyes, and the future she deserved was ripped out from beneath her feet.

I whispered. ‘She‘s

head and stared the girl down, his tail twitching as he saw the truth for himself. Despite his strength, he had a heart just like anyone else, and I could feel it ache for the girl. It was his

and hold his head

she is a child.‘ He replied softly. ‘A

of killing.‘I closed my eyes, hearing nothing but

to face him when he brushed his snout along my neck. His voice circled my head, full of such

have the power,

or perhaps support, because the moment

I knew just

mind, and I used the image of her locked away in a cell as inspiration for what came next.

and arms, but the clothes I kept as I shifted into my human form, protected the rest of my

one moved on my command, an extension of my body that reminded me of having over a dozen extra limbs. I swung my arms to the left, and the number I wanted to

were lifted into the sky, their

wrapped around them,

to escape the roots I commanded left and right. I began to tire so quickly that I had to bite my tongue to keep from crying out

but I held on until the witches were driven back into the forest, chased far away from the pack‘s

and victories were bellowed in the only song we knew how to sing. When the howling had finally ceased and

peered up at Asher, losing myself in

did it.” He said, his

to escape with the help of the others, but it didn‘t matter. The point of this was to end the fight, to stop the senseless killing. We had six witches that would now occupy the prison cells. They had information, I was sure of it, but I couldn‘t justify torturing it out of them.

thought using my magic was supposed to get easier.” I

been using it a lot

to keep using it.

weakly, “Tell Cordelia we‘re going to need more Hemlock…lots

ton, there was still work to do. Once the Hemlock was delivered, we administered doses to the witches and brought them to their own holding cells in different