You Will Bow Down Page 5

  I took the phone from Josef. “Darla… I’m Théoden, Prince of New Haven and the ruler of River Rock. Josef is my Alpha, as is Dante. Anything you need to discuss with them must go through me.”

  She was silent for a little while, then she spoke. “So, the rumors are true. Josef did lose his territory to you.”

  “Yes. Now, tell me everything you know about this other Alpha.”

  “No… I shouldn’t have called. I was just so angry. I hope he kills you all.” With that, she ended her call.

  “Well, that went splendidly,” Josef remarked with enough sarcasm for me to drown in.

  “We don’t need her. Had she tried to bring her pack here, I would have killer her and any of her pack not willing to pledge us allegiance. Besides, she’d already given us enough information we need to take into consideration.”

  “A wolf Alpha that is half dragon. With hybrid wolves and dragons in his army. Yeah, I think negotiations would be best until we know what we are truly dealing with,” Josef suggested.

  I cocked an eyebrow. “Negotiations?”

  “We send a human envoy to find out this new Alpha’s intentions. Was it just Laurent’s territory he was after, or more? If it’s more, we need to come up with another plan of defense. One that might have to include Akio. He is the oldest among us with the largest pack. We need to contact Akio first,” Josef said.

  I didn’t like this new player fucking up my plans. If he had dragons in his pack, then I needed to let Tylendel know. King Evander would need a heads up of another dragon army coming so close to his own land. A woman scorned had done us a favor.

  “Might I suggest you allow me to talk to Akio… that is if he answers my call? Perhaps I should call him on your cell. But the last person he’d want to talk to is you,” Josef said.

  “What are you going to tell him?”

  “That we may have a bigger threat on our hands and if we want to keep our territory, we’ll need to unite.”

  “Fine.” I didn’t want to have to agree to it, but with my vampires out of commission until nightfall, I may just need a pack as powerful as Akio’s on my side… for now. I handed Josef my cell and he dialed the Alpha. Again, there was no answer.

  Josef ended the call and looked up at me. “I don’t like this.” He handed my cell back.

  Yeah, I didn’t like it either. I called Deacon and he answered. “Yes, Théoden?”

  “We have a problem. Laurent’s pack has been defeated by another Alpha. Kendrick Sahr challenged Laurent and won with a bite. According to Laurent’s widow, who Kendrick allowed to live, which I find surprising, Kendrick is both a wolf and dragon. He also has dragons in his army and hybrid wolves. Attacking Akio is now out of the question if we can get him to join us against this new threat,” I warned.

  “Fuck,” was all Deacon said, followed by a few seconds of silence. “I will contact my human spy, see what she has to say about Akio. The Alpha isn’t answering my call since I last spoke with him and told him I’d killed Selena.”

  “You have a human spy?”

  “All responsible Alphas have human spies. It’s how we keep tabs on what other Alphas may be up to. Mine happens to be fucking one of Akio’s wolves, so her intel will be good,” Deacon said.

  “Very well, get back to me with whatever you find out.”

  “I will,” Deacon said, then he ended the call. It was the first time I didn’t feel like he was trying to work in an opportunity while talking to him. Finally, we were on the same page with being concerned about this Kendrick Sahr. Just who was this guy, what did he want, and how much trouble was he going to be?

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Kendrick

  I didn’t want to give Akio and his pack any real chance to defend themselves, which was why it was imperative that I attack him as soon as I was done with Darla. A part of me felt I should have kill the Alpha, but I respected her candor and nerve. Besides, it didn’t matter if she warned the other Alphas or not. Word would get out soon about Laurent’s defeat if I’d killed her or not. This was war and everything was unpredictable. I saw Akio’s home just a short distance from me. I was riding in the back seat of a very nice Bentley I’d claimed as spoils of war from Laurent’s property. It was all mine, including his beautiful mansion.

  My second in command, Kian Monroe, was beside me, staring out the window as well. He’d taken off his make-up, catsuit, and heels, as he liked to change his outfits more than some women. He was currently wearing sweats and a t-shirt with boots. Easy clothes to tear off when transforming. Ms. Monroe would resurface after he’d washed the blood of his enemies off his hands. Not that he wouldn’t cut a bitch as Ms. Monroe, but I knew he didn’t want to get blood on his designer clothes. Fashion was his thing. I looked forward to seeing Kian in action. It had been a while.

  My dragons were flying above me, some carrying a few of my wolves. The rest of my pack was traveling in cars, trucks, and buses behind my car. We were fifteen hundred strong. I had six hundred of my wolves and nine hundred of my dragons. The few that weren’t with me, I left to protect my newly acquired territory. Along the way, we were only stopped by two blockades of Akio’s wolves, to which my dragons burned to cinders. After the first two blockades had been decimated, we didn’t run into anymore on my journey to Akio’s home. I supposed he was calling all of his pack to his location. That would be the smart thing to do.

  As we drew closer, my assumption was correct. My brigade could travel no further in our cars as so many had clogged the road leading up to Akio’s home. His pack was definitely there and ready for battle. Hundreds of empty cars blocking the path meant we’d have to take to the air. Some of my wolves didn’t like traveling that way; it unnerved them, present company included. But they would have to get over it.

  “You know, I don’t mind running, even in heels,” Kian said after surveying the vehicles in our way, then looking up at the sky apprehensively.

  “You’re not wearing heels.”

  He huffed. “I’m just saying I don’t want to fly with one of your dragons or with you.”

  “They won’t drop you, and neither would I.”

  “Man, it ain’t even that. It’s just weird. Wind be fucking up my hair, bugs all in my face I have to avoid. Eww.”

  “Man up and let’s do this,” I said with a chuckle. “Stop being so fucking dramatic.”

  “I’m not being dramatic. Fine, but you take me.”

  I laughed. “Do you want to ride on my back?”

  “No, hold me in your arms like Superman held Lois Lane.”

  “Motherfucker, let’s go,” I said, then laughed.

  My driver and Monroe exited the car. I turned to see my wolves climbing out of their cars, and as they did, my dragons swooped down and gathered them up to fly them to Akio’s home. My driver was a dragon, so he simply took to the sky. Monroe walked over to me and I wrapped him in my arms.

  “God, I hate flying this way,” he complained one more time.

  “Hold on,” I said, ignoring his gripe, and he tightened his grip around me. I lifted off, flying toward Akio’s home, where I spotted the Alpha waiting for me in his vast back yard with all the members of his pack my dragons hadn’t burned to a crisp. I didn’t have time to admire the grounds. Not yet, at least. A new battle was upon me. Akio was in his strongest form, his full beast, which would give him an advantage in the fight. As for his pack, there were a lot of them, more in number than what I had, but none of that mattered. Just one of my dragons could kill ten of his wolves. This battle wasn’t nearly as fair as he thought it was going to be.

  I landed and released Monroe from my grip. It was then that Akio charged at me and the fight was initiated. I guessed he wasn’t going to bother with hearing me make my formal challenge. Showing up as I had, especially after killing dozens of his wolves, was good enough. He slammed into me hard, knocking the air out of my lungs. I felt the divide in our ages with that blow. He was far older than I was and had I had the bones of a regular wolf, I
would have been shattered. Even still, I ached from the force of the impact and lay on the ground gasping for air. Surely, something was fractured. Good thing I healed faster than your average wolf or dragon. He was on me instantly, clawing and scratching at my flesh. Laurent had been fast, but Akio surpassed him by leaps and bounds. I was on the defensive, shielding my vitals as much as I could as he slashed at my arms, ripping my flesh to shreds. I could smell my blood as well as the blood of all those fighting around us.

  Through my peripheral vision, I saw huge blasts of fire roared from my dragons and hybrids, burning his pack with ease. Silver daggers or bullets wouldn’t kill my dragons, and I didn’t think they had any dragon bone weapons at their disposal, which was another plus for me. Wolves, their best bet to defeat a dragon would be to inject them with wolf venom or rip out their hearts. That meant getting close, which was hard to do. I had to stop thinking about them and focus on my own battle, because even if my pack won, it wouldn’t matter if I died.

  Akio didn’t give me a chance to transform in my strongest form, but maybe I wouldn’t need to. His clawed hands were wrapped around my neck now. I knew he wanted me to black out, and without oxygen, I would. Unlike vampires, wolves and dragons needed to breathe air. He was digging his claws into my flesh, which was excruciating. I could feel my blood flowing from me as his claws dug in deeper as if he were trying to sever my head from my shoulders. He might just be strong enough to break through my half-dragon bones.

  I looked at his half-wolf face; his teeth were dripping with venomous saliva that wouldn’t kill me but was deadly to my dragons. Well, all who didn’t share my heartsblood. Only my dragon generals would be immune. I did see a few of my dragons lying dead from wolf bites, and that enraged me. I struggled to get Akio off me, but he was just too powerful. It was rumored he was over sixteen hundred years old and I could tell. Of course, age meant little to me. Everyone I’d ever fought was older than I was and they still lost.

  It was time I showed him what I could do. He was on top of me, and that was the perfect position for me to blast him with my fire. I conjured it up within me and I pointed my palm at his face, releasing a flame hotter than any fire from a stove. His fur ignited and he jumped back and fell to the ground, rolling back and forth to extinguish the flames. At least he tried. Being a half-dragon, I could control my fire and wouldn’t let the flames go out. I added more, engulfing the Alpha in an inferno. God, I loved being a hybrid. I was honestly the most powerful being in the world as far as I was concerned. No venom could kill me, only the most powerful force could break my bones, and I felt indestructible.

  After a while, Akio stopped moving and howling, his burnt body trembling as I finally extinguished my flames. It was time to truly finish it. Although I could have killed him with my fire, I wanted him to suffer a little bit more. I walked over to him. One of his eyes that hadn’t been burned away looked at me, and I could see that he knew he’d lost and his rage was very apparent. I smiled and flashed him my fangs before sinking them into his jugular. I injected him with my dual venoms, and then stood back to watch him go into convulsions as my venom worked its magic.

  I watched him take his last breath, then looked for his mate. His pack was still fighting, even after their Alpha had died. They surely felt the connection fade with Akio, but maybe his mate was still alive and thus, they still had a reason to fight.

  “Antonio, face me and die like your mate at my hands!” I yelled into the melee.

  “He is dead, my Liege,” I heard the voice of my Knight, Giancarlo, from behind me say.

  I turned toward him. “You killed him?” I asked.

  He nodded, then pointed to the corpse of a wolf that had definitely died from dragon venom. His corpse was riddled with black veins and graying flesh. Black fluid was still spilling from his mouth onto the grass.

  “Good job,” I congratulated.

  “Thank you, my King.” He bowed deeply.

  I didn’t want to spare this pack the way I’d spared Darla’s. Every wolf present would die, even those who surrendered. “Kill them all.”

  With that command, Giancarlo nodded, then ran off to fight some more. I thrust myself into the battle to finish off the rest of the pack. I burned wolves left and right as they were no match for me and mine. Two thousand wolves strong being reduced to only a handful in no time at all. I stopped my wolves from chasing down the few that had the good sense to run for their lives. They were no threat to me, and being rogues, they wouldn’t last long anyway. And if they tried to align themselves with Josef, Selena, or Deacon, well, they’d see me again in a few hours.

  It was almost too easy, this battle. Fire and venom were the best weapons. I walked over the many corpses of Akio’s pack. Mixed in were a few of my wolves and dragons, but not many. My fingertips dripped with blood, having slashed the flesh of several wolves who charged at me before I could set them ablaze. I looked out over the yard and there were so many charred remains still smoldering. The smell of burnt flesh was thick in the air and it tickled my nostrils. By the way my wolves sneezed and wiped at their noses, I knew it was irritating to them as well. My dragons seemed unaffected by the scent. They would be.

  I searched for Monroe, hoping he had survived the battle. “Monroe!” I called out.

  “I’m here,” I heard him reply from a distance.

  I ran over to him and saw that he was wrapping up a bloody wound on his stomach. “Are you okay?” I asked as I tried to get a better look at the wound.

  “I will be. It’s healing, just hurts like a son of a bitch. Motherfucker tried to disembowel me. Rian saved me,” Monroe said.

  I released a sigh of relief, because I would have hated to lose Monroe. He meant so much to me. He was my best friend, my family. I would have to reward Rian generously for saving his life.

  “So, is it over?” Monroe asked.

  I looked him over more closely. He was covered in blood and bits of flesh, so I knew he’d put a hurting on his fair share of wolves. I was proud of him. I nodded. “It’s over.”

  “Man, this was rough… he had some powerful-ass wolves in his pack,” Monroe said.

  I nodded. I’d encountered them, but when you could burn your enemy from afar, their strength meant nothing to me, my dragons, or my hybrids. That was why I knew I could claim this whole colony. Take the wolves out first, then the dragons and the vampires weren’t even an issue. We could kill them tomorrow morning when they were asleep in their beds. Even at night, vampires wouldn’t be an issue. Fire killed them just the same, as well as venom. If Théoden was smart, he’d pack it all up and leave.

  “Are you healed yet?” I asked as I looked at Monroe. He was standing straighter, so I knew he was getting better.

  “Almost.” He touched the wound. “It’s tender, but I can tell the skin has grown back in place.”

  “Good.” I could feel the presence of my left-hand-in-command approaching. Giancarlo.

  “Most of the wolves have been destroyed, my King,” he informed me. “A handful managed to escape in the chaos. Do you want us to track them down and kill them?”

  I wasn’t worried about those wolves. I waved my hand dismissively. “Let them run. They’ll most likely be running to their deaths anyway. Wayward wolves are often rejected by established packs.”

  “Very well, Your Highness.”

  “What are the total casualties on our side?”

  “One hundred and fifty-six, my King. One hundred and twenty wolves killed, thirty-six dragons,” Giancarlo stated.

  I didn’t like hearing I’d lost that many in this battle. Akio’s pack had been quite formidable. I knew I’d lost some, but not that many. They worked very well as a team. Perhaps I should have brought my entire army. At over nineteen hundred, we would have nearly matched Akio’s and more than tipped the scales in our favor.

  “My King?” Giancarlo captured my attention. “Is there something wrong?”

  I sighed. “I don’t like that we lost so many.”
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br />   He nodded. “It is unfortunate. This Alpha’s pack ganged up on their attacks. It took six of them to bring down Braiden.”

  Fuck, Braiden was dead!

  Ugh, I hated losing Braiden, he was one of my most powerful dragons. Had I had enough heartsblood within me, I would have made him one of my Knights. He would have been protected from their werewolf venom had I been able to do that. I was hoping that once I killed Evander and devoured his heart, I’d be strong enough to make even more Knights. Ah well, I would honor my fallen soldiers properly once all the dust settled. I knew going in that I would take causalities, but gaining this territory was worth the risk for me and for them.

  “Burn all the corpses of our enemy. Gather our dead and put them aside. We will have a proper funeral for them later. For now, assign some dragons to that task, then rest, eat, fuck, do whatever you all need to do to prepare for the next battle. We leave for Selena’s territory in an hour.

  Giancarlo bowed. “Yes, Your Majesty.” He walked off to carry out my orders.

  “Shit, you sure these two territories aren’t enough?” Monroe asked as he surveyed the large and beautiful property currently littered with mutilated and charred corpses.

  I cut him a glance. “You’re just saying that because you’re a lazy fuck,” I teased.

  “Fuck you, I’m not lazy. But you’re damn right if by ‘lazy’ you mean a motherfucker is tired. Then yes, I’m lazy. Shit, wolves need sleep more than dragons do, apparently. Y’all can just fuck and get second and third boosts. Full-blooded wolves need to eat and sleep,” Monroe reminded me.

  I’d never been a full-blooded wolf, so sometimes I forgot about their shortcomings. I nodded. “You’re right. You think three hours will be enough to eat and rest? I really don’t want to wait too much longer.”