Claimed By My Alpha Stepbrother.

41

Seraphina

My hands trembled as those creatures shot toward me. Before I could even react, Azriel grabbed the nearest two boys in a flash and slammed them into the concrete wall.

The wall crumbled immediately as Azriel threw another woman right into the two boys.

Any normal human would have been dead by now, but these creatures wriggled out of the blocks of cement, their joints popping and bending at impossible, sickening angles, and they dropped to all fours. Growling, their dark, glowing eyes locked right back onto me, they began to crawl across the floor with a monster-like speed.

"Azriel!" I screamed, throwing myself so hard against the back wall that the brick bit into my spine.

"I’ve got you," he growled.

In a flash, he zoomed past them, waving his hands across their necks so fast I couldn't even see it clearly.

It was when he finally stopped, and I saw their bodies drop onto the floor with blood dripping from horrifying, elongated, claw-like fingers, that I knew he'd slit their throats.

"Ahhhh." A breathless shriek came from my throat. My knees gave out completely, and I fell to the ground, my hands burying themselves in the dirt as I squeezed my eyes shut. The smell of hot, coppery blood immediately filled the cramped, rotting space. It was suffocating, and my stomach rolled violently.

"Seraphina. Seraphina, look at me. Don't look at them, look at me."

I flinched back from him, pushing away his bloodstained hands. With what I have seen, now I believe his confession. He wasn't human. He was like them. They'd all gone through the same thing. But it would've been best to live in that denial. Knowing and seeing weren't the same.

I couldn't look. I couldn't bear to see the bodies on the floor, or look into his cold, empty eyes only to find no compassion or resistance. I just shook, my entire body vibrating with a primal, uncontrollable fear.

His warm, heavy hands cupped my face, and I pulled back immediately, tears rolling down my eyes.

He pulled me forcefully against his chest, wrapping his massive arms around me until I was entirely engulfed by his warmth.

"I'm sorry," he whispered into my hair, with desperate regret. "I'm so sorry you had to see that. But it was necessary. They wouldn't have stopped. They were going to take you."

"They... they were people, Azriel," I choked out, the tears spilling over my eyelashes. "They were just starving... they were sick..."

"They weren't people anymore," he said fiercely, his grip tightening around my waist. "Listen to me. It’s more risky for us to leave this house right now. Vane’s men are out there hunting us, and it’s highly possible the city holds more of these creatures. We don't know who is infected and who isn't. We are safe in this place for now. We can stay low while we plan our next move."

His words were logical. They were smart. But logic couldn't erase the image of the blood spraying in the dark. It didn't make the fact that he had just killed living, breathing things any better.

I buried my face into the crook of his neck and just cried harder, my sobs muffled against his collarbone while he held me, rocking me gently in the pitch black.

We spent the rest of the agonizing day in that suffocating room.

The hours dragged by very slowly, and I spent the entire time huddled in the furthest corner, counting the minutes, my eyes fiercely locked on the ground so I wouldn't see the bodies.

Azriel kept me close, trying to ease the tension, but it wasn't working.

The memory of his claw-like fingers dripping with blood was forever etched in my brain.

Finally, the harsh desert sun dipped below the horizon, and a thick, heavy night settled over the city.

Azriel stood up, holding out a hand to me. "It's time. The patrols will be changing, and the slums are chaotic enough to mask our movements. We're going to explore the city and look for the lab."

I stood up by myself, unable to bring myself to touch those hands. My head didn't throb when I stood up, and my legs no longer felt weak.

"Azriel, wait," I stopped him. "I think I'm better now."

He stopped, turning his head to look down at me, his eyes searching my face in the dim light.

"There's no more fever, and I don't feel weak at all," I pressed on, trying to inject as much earnest confidence into my voice as possible. "Whatever was happening to me... maybe it passed. Maybe we don't need to find a lab. We should just think of a way to get out of this city. We can slip past the gates tonight and never look back."

Azriel’s expression didn't soften. A deep, pained frown creased his forehead, and he gently placed his hand over mine, squeezing my fingers. I tried my best not to flinch.

"You don't have to lie to make me feel better, Seraphina," he murmured, his voice heavy with profound sadness.

"I'm not lying!"

"I know what you're trying to do," he interrupted softly, shaking his head. "You're trying to make me not worry. But I know what this is. I spent years suffering every single day from the pain of the wolf. I know the agony of the beast clawing at your sanity, trying to tear its way out of your flesh. It doesn't just go away, Seraphina. It hides, and then it comes back worse." He stepped closer, his thumb brushing my cheek. "I am not going to let you go through that for years. I won't watch you suffer the way I did. We'll find the lab, and we'll find you a cure."

I opened my mouth to argue, to tell him that I knew exactly what I felt, but the absolute wall of stubborn determination in his eyes told me it was useless. He was driven by a guilt I couldn't ease.

"Fine," I whispered. "Let's go."

We slipped out into the cool night air, navigating the alleyways like ghosts.

Azriel kept sniffing the air, trying to filter through the overwhelming stench of the city to locate any trace of industrial chemicals or heavy medicines that would point toward a hidden laboratory.

"If there are already this many casualties," I whispered, stepping over a pile of rusted metal debris, "if those people in the house were infected too... that means Vane and his people are carrying out the experiment openly. They aren't even trying to hide it."

"They don't need to hide it," Azriel muttered, his eyes scanning the rooftops. "In a place like this, the people are expendable. To them, this city is just a giant petri dish."

But even after hours, and after walking through almost half the area, we found nothing.

There was nothing except the suffocating stench of the city.

My feet were starting to ache, and the frustration radiating off Azriel was understandable. "Azriel," I breathed. "Maybe we should go back to the house. It's getting late, and we're going to stumble into a patrol if we keep wandering blindly. We can try again tomorrow."

He stood frozen, his jaw tight, his chest rising and falling as he tried one last time to catch a scent. "No. There has to be something. I can't—"

A low, wet growl came directly from behind us.

Azriel turned around instantly, pushing me behind his back. I peeked over his shoulder, my heart leaping into my throat, expecting to see Vane's men, but instead, three figures emerged from the deep shadows of the archway. Their clothes looked like military gear, but they were torn and splattered with old blood.

The moment Azriel's eyes met them, he paused, his hands dropping slightly as he stared in disbelief.

"Kade?" Azriel breathed.