Alpha Asher By Jane Doe

Chapter 212

We left that day for the safe haven, not bothering to pack or say goodbye to our families.

It didn’t matter that I was on the verge of passing out, not when the place we promised would remain safe had been attacked. There was no more time to wait. I needed to use my magic to protect them, and I needed to do it now.

Asher gave me enough of his blood to keep me standing up right. The only pit stop we made before peeling out of town was to pick up Tristan and Giovanni. Now that the sun was finally setting, they could safely leave the house.

I cried out with relief when Giovanni passed two blood bags into my hands and quickly tore into them. It wasn’t nearly enough, but it would have to be.

We were just under a mile away and already I could tell something had happened. Smoke lingered in the air, crisp and heavy like someone had started a very large bonfire. Even coasting down the main road, the gouges in the forest were visible. Trees were knocked down and bushes trampled into the dirt. It looked like a pack of very large beasts had charged through at full force.

I wasn’t at all prepared for what I saw when we arrived.

There wasn’t a single part of me that thought the safe haven would survive an attack without any damage, but beyond all reasonable belief, I had clung to the hope that the damage would be minimal.

We rolled down the main road intersecting the town slowly, giving me plenty of time to scour every single shred of damage the witches had done.

From the number of houses that had scorch marks licking up the sides, it was clear Ember had been here.

So many of them were crumbling, halfway torn down with families hiding inside, clinging to the shadows as the last hints of sunlight faded.

It grew worse as we neared the center, so much worse.

Bodies were lined in neat rows, covered in white sheets stained grey with ash. There weren’t many, perhaps only a dozen, but it didn’t matter. Those twelve carried the same weight as a hundred as a thousand, would.

The sidewalks and street were streaked with black marks, kissed by Ember’s flame as she pillaged the town. Cars were turned over, some halfway crumpled and smoking. The stench of burnt motor oil hung in the air, mixing with the scent of death.

Tristan cursed, and Giovanni made a sound of agreement.

“Fuck, my mother and father are here.”

I craned my head to stare at him in the

back seat. If we weren’t surrounded by so much carnage and death, I might’ve laughed at how absurd he looked crammed in the backseat with Giovanni.

“Is that a bad thing?” I asked. Giovanni snorted. “If you think Tristan is unpleasant, wait until you meet his mother.”

I glanced at Tristan, waiting for him to snap or explode on Giovanni, but instead he actually nodded in agreement.

There was nothing to say that would ease their discomfort. In truth, I wasn’t too worried about Tristan’s family or what opinions his mother would have. Seeing what happened here with my own eyes, it outweighed everything else.

Asher’s hand grazed my own, his fingers sliding in between mine. I glanced away from the carnage and into his eyes, not realizing how close I was to plummeting until I felt his presence glide down the mate-bond and into my troubled mind.

‘It doesn’t matter how many times they destroy this place. We will rebuild.’ He promised, his eyes severe and set in stone.

More than anything, I wanted it to be enough, but it wasn’t.

was quiet in comparison to everything

brown curls

launched herself into Giovanni’s arms. She tangled her fingers in his hair and let

we all had the same expression on our faces, grim without the barest hint of

traversing the cluttered streets to the center of the safe haven, to the community center that served as a sort of Town Hall. Children clutching ash stained stuffed animals padded behind their mother’s and father’s, hiding behind legs and torso’s as they scanned

so much about?” A refined and almost nasal voice chimed.

passing between the two of them. Tristan made a sound

said as a warning and not

standing there, the woman with soft blonde hair and an upturned

and black pumps. There wasn’t a single curl on her head that was out of place. Clearly she’d gotten here long after the

face, recognition and disdain melting into one festering pool that

isn’t it?” She purred, the obliviousness in her voice as flimsy

spared her a glance.

you’re on her land, why don’t you show some goddamn respect

One after another, emotions impaled me in the chest. The longer I assessed the damages, the more I realized how long

to rubble in the span of two

to live here, Tristan.” She scoffed; a delicate hand pressed against her bird chest. Her voice lowered to a whisper that wasn’t nearly quiet enough to be an actual whisper. “Think about your sister for Goddess sake. Do you expect

told Asher through mind-link, feeling

and empty words were not

but his deep-set eyes, angular nose, and pouty lips were identical. The little girl was the spitting image of Tristan’s mother, only younger and not nearly as sour. She waved timidly when we locked

carefully. They clung to my face the most, and I wondered if he was naturally this curious or if he had a habit

you here, and you didn’t have to come. It wasn’t like this before.”

a talent for ignoring the things she found unimportant, because she didn’t seem to notice the tension in the air or how all of it radiated from where

faded into white noise, crackling in my ears like the vicious flames that had eaten through over half of the houses here. The rough asphalt beneath my feet

an observer to the damage and death the witches had

I won’t risk your sister’s life when it’s clear this place is undergoing attacks every other day. She might not be concerned with us noble families,

but he wasn’t looking at

“Lucinda.”

father approached. His hand was on his wife’s shoulder, but he

calm down. The shadows are reacting to

trickled down the mind link, but it was faint, muffled by

was paying more attention, it seemed darker than normal. Many of the streetlights were destroyed, but even the few that

of a million little eyes

cranny, crawling over every piece of this earth

brave ones slithered across the ground and circled around my feet, whispering sweet words of vengeance and

her tongue is not one of them.” Tristan’s father said in a calm voice, one without the disdain and malice his wife’s

Tristan’s mother, scowled at

place. No one cares about it more than we do. Seeing it like this is not easy

glanced down at the shadows pooling around my feet with eyes of ice. Her lips

yelped and stumbled back when a few tendrils of shadow got too close for her liking. “Honestly, your father couldn’t control those things either. Disgusting, foul creatures-”

in my neck cracked as my head snapped in her direction.