Chapter 11: The Siege
1399 Words
The night air on the terrace was freezing, but Valerius’s jacket, draped over my shoulders, felt like a shield of fire. I gripped the stone railing, looking down at the street below. My breath hitched.
“Valerius,” I whispered. “Look.”
We were twenty floors up. From this height, the cars looked like toys. But the street wasn't filled with cars anymore. It was filled with Wolves.
Hundreds of them. They poured out of SUVs and trucks, swarming the hotel entrance like black ants. Fur rippled in the streetlights—grey, brown, black.
And at the front, standing by his silver sedan, was a man in a torn suit. Marcus.
He was looking up. Even from this distance, I could feel his golden gaze burning into me. He held a megaphone to his lips.
“SEND HER DOWN.”
His amplified voice boomed through the city blocks, shaking the glass doors behind me.
“OR WE BURN IT DOWN.”
I stumbled back. “He brought the pack. The entire Black Ridge fighting force. Valerius, he's going to storm the hotel.”
Valerius stepped up beside me. He didn't look at the army. He looked at his watch.
“He's blocking traffic,” he murmured, sounding mildly annoyed. “The city council will fine him for this.”
“He's not worried about fines!” I grabbed Valerius’s arm. “He's insane! There are humans in this hotel. Civilians. Marcus won't care. If he thinks you stole his mate, he'll tear this place apart brick by brick.”
Valerius turned to me. The wind whipped his dark hair, but his expression was eerily calm.
“He thinks he is laying siege to a castle,” Valerius said. “He forgets that the dragon is inside.”
The hotel room phone rang. A shrill, screaming sound. Valerius picked it up.
“Speak.” He listened for a second. His eyes narrowed. “Tell the manager to lock the lobby doors. Do not let anyone in. I am coming down.”
He hung up.
“They are threatening the staff,” Valerius said, adjusting his cufflinks. “Marcus has given us ten minutes before his Enforcers breach the glass.”
“I have to go down,” I said, my hand instinctively covering my stomach. “If I surrender, he'll stop. I can't let innocent people die for me.”
Valerius looked at me. His violet eyes darkened, swirling with a storm of possessive rage.
“Surrender?” He stepped closer, crowding me against the railing. The city lights haloed his silhouette. “You do not surrender, Elena. You are with me. And my Queen does not bow to stray dogs.”
He walked over to a closet near the terrace entrance. He pulled out a long, black object. A cane. Polished ebony, topped with a silver wolf's head. I had never seen him use it. He didn't walk with a limp.
“What is that for?” I asked.
“Theater,” Valerius smirked. He twirled the heavy cane in his hand. It made a low whoosh sound. “And... crowd control.”
He held out his elbow. “Shall we?”
The elevator ride down was silent. I watched the numbers tick down. 20... 15... 10... With every floor, the noise grew louder. Howling. Snarling. The sound of heavy bodies slamming against glass.
Ding.
The doors opened to the lobby.
Chaos. The terrified hotel staff were huddled behind the reception desk. Guests were screaming, running for the stairwells. Outside the massive revolving glass doors, a sea of wolves pressed against the barrier.
And Marcus stood right in front, holding a tire iron.
He saw me. His eyes flashed gold. He pointed the iron at Valerius.
“OPEN THE DOOR!” he roared. “LAST WARNING!”
Valerius stepped off the elevator. His footsteps on the marble floor were steady, rhythmic. Click. Click. Click. He didn't look at the wolves. He looked at the trembling concierge.
“Unlock it,” Valerius commanded.
“But sir!” the concierge stammered. “They'll kill us!”
“Unlock it.”
The concierge fumbled with a button under the desk. Buzz. The magnetic locks disengaged.
Marcus didn't wait. He kicked the door open. He marched in, flanked by ten of his biggest Enforcers. They were massive, shifting halfway, claws extended, drool dripping onto the pristine floor. The lobby smelled of wet fur, aggression, and cheap testosterone.
“It's over, Valerius,” Marcus snarled. He looked disheveled, wild. “You're outnumbered. Two hundred to one. Hand her over, and I might let you leave with your legs intact.”
I stepped behind Valerius, gripping the back of his jacket. “Marcus, stop,” I cried out. “You're scaring people!”
“I'm taking what's mine!” Marcus lunged forward. “Grab her!”
The ten Enforcers charged. A wall of muscle and teeth.
Valerius didn't shift. He didn't even drop his cane. He sighed.
“So noisy.”
He lifted the cane an inch off the ground. And tapped it down. HARD.
Click.
BOOM.
It wasn't a sound. It was a shockwave. A ring of violet energy exploded outward from the tip of the cane. It hit the charging Enforcers like a freight train.
Bones snapped. Bodies flew backward, smashing into the walls, into the ceiling, through the glass doors. In one second, ten elite warriors were reduced to groaning piles of broken limbs.
Silence. Absolute, ringing silence.
Marcus stood alone. The shockwave had ruffled his hair, but Valerius had intentionally missed him. He stared at his fallen men. Then at Valerius. Fear—cold and sharp—finally pierced through his madness.
Valerius took a step forward. Then another. He walked straight up to Marcus. Marcus growled, raising his claws, but his hands were shaking.
Valerius didn't attack. He leaned in, his face inches from the Alpha’s. His eyes began to glow. Not just the irises. The entire eye turned a blinding, celestial white. The air in the lobby grew heavy. Gravity seemed to double.
The True Voice. The voice that commanded all wolves.
“KNEEL.”
As the command left my lips, I felt a kickback. Not from Marcus. From behind me. From Elena.
A surge of golden, raw power exploded from her womb. It felt like a dormant dragon waking up, hungry to join the violence. It didn't want to submit; it wanted to crush.
Impossible. An unborn fetus shouldn't have this kind of density.
I had to split my focus. Half my will went to crushing Marcus; the other half went to weaving a desperate shield around Elena, clamping down on that golden storm before it leveled the entire city block. My nose started to bleed. Not from the two hundred wolves. But from holding him back.
Marcus didn't have a choice. His biology betrayed him. His knees hit the marble floor with a sickening crack. He gasped, clawing at his throat, forced into a bow.
Behind him, outside the hotel, the two hundred wolves in the street dropped to their bellies. A wave of submission rippling through the army.
Valerius stood over the kneeling Alpha. He looked like a god judging a mortal. He placed the tip of his ebony cane under Marcus's chin and forced his head up.
“You brought an army to my doorstep,” Valerius whispered. “You threatened my mate. You frightened my unborn child.”
Marcus's eyes widened. “Child?” he choked out. “She... she's...”
“She is nothing to you,” Valerius cut him off.
He leaned closer, his voice dropping to a lethal hiss. “Take your mutts. Go back to your sad little forest. If I see you in my city again... I will not use a cane. I will use your spine.”
He pulled the cane back. “Get. Out.”
The pressure lifted.
Marcus scrambled back, slipping on the polished floor. He looked at me one last time. Confusion. Horror. Realization. Then he ran. He fled into the night, his tail tucked between his legs, his army scattering like roaches.
Valerius watched them go. He turned to me. The white glow faded from his eyes, returning to their beautiful violet. He held out his hand.
“The car is waiting out back,” he said gently. “Let's go home.”
- Writer
