Alpha Queen (Claimed by Wolves #4) - Callie Rose Page 0,82

moving on their own with nothing but minor injuries sends a wave of relief surging through me.

Sable drops to her knees when she reaches me, wrapping her arms around my neck and burying her face in my fur. I can smell the witch magic she’s been using to assist us in the fight, along with the sweet scent that’s just her. I nuzzle her back, whuffing softly into her hair.

“I want to find Cleo,” she murmurs quietly. “I have to see her. I have to be sure.”

Nodding, I stand and say, Then let’s go inside.

We gather a team to go with us, then the other alphas and I walk inside first, with Sable a few steps behind us. The front doors are open, but the entryway is empty. Not even a body on the ground to indicate fighting occurred here.

The interior of the building is as silent as a tomb, but I can smell witches. Can smell their fear.

We root them out one by one as we work our way through the building. Older women and children, mostly, the same as those we left protected back home. All of them flee without a fight, and we let them go. Justice isn’t given by hurting people who don’t deserve it.

None of us expected anything different, but we find Cleo’s body in what appears to be her living quarters. Like we thought when we were making plans, she was hiding out, not even willing to fight alongside her people in the war she was responsible for.

She’s sprawled on a woven rug beside a bed, her eyes staring sightlessly at the ceiling and a thin trickle of blood drying down the side of her face from her lips.

“I’ll admit,” Sable says softly, staring down at the dead witch, “I was worried that she might not actually die if we killed her in the astral realm.”

Archer’s blond wolf speaks up. The mind and body can’t exist separately. Cleo died in her mind, which translates to true death of her body as well.

Sable nods, but she doesn’t look away from Cleo’s still, slack face. A touch of sadness pinches around her eyes.

What’s wrong? I ask. We won. She won’t hurt anymore wolves.

Or anymore witches, Archer adds.

Sable shrugs and finally tears her gaze away from the dead witch to look at me. “I just… I don’t know, I guess I feel bad for her. She had such shitty parents. They made her into a psychopath, pitted her against her sister until she killed her own twin, and then they tried to kill her for being a monster. It’s just so unfair.”

A few different emotions rise up inside me all at once. Love, for Sable’s goodness and her ability to find grace in everyone and everything. Disgust, because Sable is right, in a way—Cleo was a product of her upbringing, sure, and it wasn’t fair. But then fury, because she’s absolutely fucking wrong.

I shift back to human form and cross to her, taking her elbows in both my hands so that she’s facing me and can’t pull away or deny what I’m about to tell her.

“Your fake uncle was a monster,” I remind her, rage boiling inside me at the thought of the old fucker. “He treated you in an ‘unfair’ way. He abused you, lied to you, and hurt you in more ways than I can stand to think about. Yet you didn’t let him turn you into a psychopath.”

Sable stares at me wide-eyed, her lips parted, but she doesn’t speak.

“You were dealt just as shitty a hand as Cleo,” I go on, gaining steam. “Worse, even. But you came out of the ordeal with your soul intact. You didn’t let it change who you are. You’re a good person. The best I know.”

Pink creeps up Sable’s cheeks, and she blinks those long, dark lashes, making my heart thud hard against my ribs.

I slide my fingers into her hair on both sides of her face, anchoring her in place as we look into each other’s eyes. “Don’t feel sorry for Cleo,” I say softly. “She made her choices. Just like you. But she chose the wrong path.”

Sable doesn’t say anything for several long moments, though her blue eyes glitter with unshed tears. But finally, she nods. “You’re right. She didn’t deserve what happened to her, but neither did the innocent people she’s hurt since then.”

I kiss her, soft and slow, as if we have all the time in the world to stand here and be together.