Alpha Darrell’s Redemption: Fated to the Betrayed Alpha

Betrayed by his own

TWO

Darrell’s POV

Even with a sword held to his neck, Miguel doesn’t flinch; he remains still on his horse, but his eyes widen by half an inch, even as the blade touches his skin, making a line that draws out blood from his neck. My smirk deepens, and I pivot my head back at Raul, whose brows raise so high, his lips parting, before he scoffs.

A millisecond later, a deep guffaw bubbles out from his throat, and his body trembles as he’s having a good laugh. A man beside him—his Beta perhaps, whom I recognize from the second attack we had—joins in his laughing spree, and my chest rises and falls as their derision continues.

Then, without thinking twice, I lift my sword from Miguel’s neck, snarling as I aim for his arm, slashing it with force. Miguel gasps softly and grits his teeth, holding his arm with his other hand, and I watch as thick blood oozes from his arm, with drops touching his horse and even more dripping on the floor.

My action causes the laughter to die on Raul and his Beta’s lips, and Raul’s eyes narrow immediately, his brows pulling together. Then he shakes his head, and with another click of his tongue, he says, “You’re even more pathetic than I thought, Darrell. Makes me wonder how these men take orders from a moron like you.”

My jaw hardens further, so much that I feel pain from it, and Raul continues. “You’re really gullible enough to think that this—” He pauses to glare at Miguel, his face twisting in disgust as he waves his hand at him. “—dog is the snitch?” He says it as if it’s almost unbelievable to even fathom it, then he chuckles again. “Well, good riddance to bad rubbish. With your most loyal dog out of the way, it's less trouble for me, even though I’ve fantasized many times about how satisfying it will be for him to watch me rip his throat out while he begs for mercy.”

It's my turn to let out a loud guffaw, with my laughter roaring in the air and Raul’s brow pulling in confusion as he watches me.

“Whoever said a thing about me thinking that he’s the one? I never said I disbelieved Miguel. I. Have. Your. Snitch. Where. I. Want. Him. To. Be,” I enunciate, and Raul’s face immediately becomes red with rage. The top of his ears instantly turns pink, and his blue eyes bulge like they are about to pop out of their sockets.

“Who the f**k do you think you’re messing with, huh? The playing time is over! Attack!” He yells, swinging his sword in the air, and loud snarls follow from both Raul’s side and mine as we close the distance between us, with our warriors taking the forefront as we charge into each other’s spaces. Blades swing in the air from different angles; yells and screams follow, then blood spills with slashes, which has men on horses falling with a thud on the dusty floor.

The smell of blood mixes with the scent of the wolves and the smell of dust, creating a nauseating confluence.

From the corner of my eye, I watch Miguel fighting, taking down several of Raul’s men with his sword almost effortlessly despite the pain in his arm. Blood splashes on my cheek as I take another man down, my sword dripping with his blood.

Raul’s men keep coming in their tens and more on their horses, and they also take down many of my men as the battle continues.

My blade is deep in a man’s belly when someone snarls from beside me, but before I can retrieve my sword, the swift sound of a moving blade fills my ears, and I watch as the man whose blade is only an inch from me falls with a thud as he screams in pain, clearing the way to reveal a nodding Miguel, who just saved me by throwing a pocket knife at the man. I give him a curt nod and continue fighting, clearing the way so I can reach Raul. He snarls at me, and I clear more men till he’s just in front of me, and we begin to fight. Each swing of my blade is blocked by Raul, and my sword and his make a shrill sound as they strike each other.

“Don’t tell me that’s all you’ve got.” Raul mocks, pushing me with force with the pressure from his hand when our blades meet again, and as I try to rein my horse back in position, he takes the chance to s***h me by the side, but I’m able to block it with a pocket knife by my side just as my horse is reined.

“A little impressive, but not for too long,” says Raul with that wicked smirk again, and he swings his blade at me, aiming for my head, but I quickly avoid it, pushing back my head till my upper body takes an almost horizontal form. The blade manages to cut some strands of my hair, and by the time I balance myself again, I aim my blade at his side which misses.

Roars, snarls, and the sound of shooting arrows are still filling the air as the fight continues, but I have more men down compared to Raul, whose men keep charging forward.

I notice a man retrieve a knife from his pocket, a smile on his face, as he aims at Miguel, and I scream, “Watch out!” Miguel looks in my direction, an action that makes the man miss, but before I can focus back on Raul, I feel a sharp pain in my arm. It’s another of Raul’s men. I instantly take him down with one swing of my sword, clutching my bleeding arm with the other as pain erupts from me.

Raul, who has been busy taking down some of my men, waves his blade at me, and this time, he doesn’t miss. His sword digs into my side before I can block it, and his smirk deepens as I groan in pain.

“Alpha Darrell!” Miguel half-screams. It’s the first time in a very long time that he’s called my name that way, and he clears the way towards me, but I urge him to continue as he reaches my side.

“I’m fine. It’s just a scratch.” He appears a little worried, but he continues fighting, and Raul and I go at it again. This time, he gets distracted as one of my men shoots an arrow at him, which he misses, and I take the chance to throw my pocket knife at him at the same time, and it digs into his side, but he removes it with a grit of his teeth, and his next action has me widening my gaze.

He strikes his horse, smirking as he moves forward toward the direction I came from with my pack warriors, clearing the way by killing more of my men. I stiffen for a second as I realize what he’s doing, and in the next second, I follow him. But when I glance to the side, I find Miguel trying to remove a knife from his chest, and I panic.

“Miguel!” He manages to pierce his sword into the heart of the person who wounded him, and when I spot blood in his teeth as he grits them in pain, my heart squeezes.

“Go, alpha Darrell. I. Will. Take. Care. Of. These. Rogues,” he enunciates as he pushes his sword into more men. Then, I look ahead and see that Raul has gone far, and with one last nod at Miguel, I follow Raul. I feel sorry for leaving Miguel alone at the battleground with perhaps less than a hundred of my men. Raul’s men are still over a thousand, and I’m not sure if Miguel is going to make it.

“But, I hope he does,” I mutter, praying silently to the moon goddess.

I take down over twenty men before the road leading to my packhouse becomes free, and I can see Raul’s head as he rides even faster, ready to charge into my palace. I look back to find that many of his men are following me, and I manage to duck the few knives and arrows thrown at me from behind.

The moment I reach the gates of my palace, which is still heavily guarded, Raul has mounted from his horse. Some of his men who managed to reach the palace before we arrived have been shot dead with wolfsbane arrows.

The moment Randall, my Beta spots me, he gasps, his eyes widening. I’m a bloody mess, and my clothes are drenched in my blood, with sweat dripping from my forehead, mingling with the blood on my face from the bloodbath.

“Alpha Darrell!” Randall says, shock still written on his face, and he pulls out his sword from its sheath.

“Hold it! Don’t hurt him!” I say as he reaches to strike down Raul. I also hold my hand in the air towards the guards of the gates, who attempt to fire at Raul and his men, who are behind me. From the corner of my eye, I can see that his men are also with arrows, and an order from Raul is all it takes for them to fire at my men, who are too small compared to Raul’s army.

I dismount from my horse, and Randall immediately runs to meet me, catching me in his hands, his eyes almost bulging from his sockets as he watches me.

The wicked smirk on Raul’s face lingers, and I sneer at him.

“I should have gone with you, Alpha Darrell. You shouldn’t have commanded me to stay.” Then, he raises his head slowly, pivoting it towards Raul and gazing at him with murderous intent. “I’ll take care of him, Alpha,” Randall says, his voice dripping venom, even as he still holds me.

Then, I shut my eyes hard, already feeling weak from the wolfsbane in the blades that cut me from the battlefield. I shake my head, even as he unsheathes his sword again, gripping his hand harder, but before I can talk some sense into him, Randall hugs me, and it’s almost as if I imagined the smirk on his lips before I feel the sharp edge of a blade dig into my belly, and I gasp as it shoots out of my back.

My vision blurs as spots flash in my eyes, and a wicked laughter I recognize all too well as Raul’s booms in the air.

I feel Randall’s knife push out of me, and he pulls away, an action that has me falling to my knees as I clutch my stomach, writhing in pain and looking down at my bloody hands.

Then, Randall smirks, one I know too well, which is mirroring another perfectly, and my heartbeat slows.

The Raul’s smirk.

He goes over to Raul’s side, taking down all five of my men standing guard with him, who try to fight him in a flash, and my eyes widen in terror. Then he stands side by side with Raul, his sword dripping blood—the blood of my innocent and loyal men, whom he slayed, and mine. My blood. His alpha’s blood.

“How does it feel, Darrell? Tell me. How does it feel to be betrayed by the one man you trust the most?” Raul’s voice feels like salt against the wound I feel in my heart as I try to comprehend everything that happened in the last few seconds.

“R-Randall?” I call his name with disbelief, and he scoffs.

“It was so easy fooling you, Alpha Darell. One of the easiest things I’ve had to do in my entire life. If not the easiest.” He has a wicked grin on his face.

“Y-you’re the snitch?!” The words feel heavy in my mouth, as heavy as the weight of his betrayal in my chest, as the reality stabs. The pain I feel from it as his betrayal stares at me is worse than the pain clawing at my rib, belly, and chest from the injuries I sustained at the warfront and his stab.

How could Randall, my Beta, betray me this way?

When I slashed Miguel, I wanted to know if he was the snitch because he was the one who suggested that someone stay behind. Also, Kimberly has been having her suspicions about him, so I wasn’t sure until Raul’s reaction. Telling him that I had the snitch where I wanted him to be was just some reverse psychology because I hadn’t yet figured out who it was.

Then, something settles in my mind at the thought of Kimberly.

Kimberly. My mate. Randall said he’d escorted her safely out of the palace. If he’s the snitch, then my mate isn’t safe.

Then, my eyes dart towards them both, and I spit blood out of my mouth to speak.

“Where’s Kimberly?”