Chapter 506: Did you?

Adrein.

My lungs burned like fire, every breath dragging the sharp, heavy stench of copper and sweat deep into my chest. Blood was slick on the stone floor beneath my boots, making every step a calculated fight for balance as I shoved forward in the narrow hallway.

Noah was right beside me, his broadsword a blurred wheel of heavy, brutal steel. But he was faltering. The lingering effects of the wolfsbane were catching up to him, his shoulders shuddering with exhaustion every time he parried a heavy strike.

Around us, the last of Noah’s house guards collapsed onto the bloodied stone. One by one, they had fallen to the sheer weight of the assault, leaving just the two of us standing at the threshold of the medical wing.

There were only three of Vincent’s elite soldiers left standing out of the thirty that had smashed through the doors—and their scarred captain was right in the center, his face twisted in a desperate, bloodthirsty sneer.

"Die, you bastard!" one of the remaining guards screamed, lunging at Noah with a spear.

Noah barely brought his blade up in time, deflecting the spearhead, but the force of the strike drove him down to one knee. His sword tip clicked against the stone floorboards, his breath coming in ragged, painful wheezes as he struggled to push himself back up.

"Noah!" I yelled, stepping straight into the gap before the soldier could drive the blade down into his neck.

I spun inside the spearman’s reach, swinging my arm in a tight arc. My broadsword sheared through his wrist leather, sending his weapon clattering across the floor before I kicked him violently back into the wall. The second guard lunged from the right, but I ducked under his wild swing, driving the butt of my sword directly into his throat, dropping him instantly into the pool of blood at my feet.

That left only the captain.

The scarred brute spat a mouthful of blood onto the floor, stepping over the corpses of his own men. His heavy broadsword was raised with two hands, his golden eyes glowing with a feral, murderous heat. "You’re out of guards, Alpha," he spat, his voice echoing off the stone walls. "It ends here."

"Not today," I growled, stepping over Noah to stand directly between the captain and the infirmary door.

The captain let out a guttural roar and charged, bringing his heavy blade down in a skull-cleaving overhead strike. I didn’t try to block it head-on—I didn’t have heavy armor to absorb that kind of kinetic force. Instead, I pivoted sharply to the left on the slick stone, letting his heavy steel crash uselessly into the floorboards where I had been standing a microsecond before.

Before he could pull his weapon back, I stepped into his guard. With every ounce of strength remaining in my body, I drove my broadsword forward, thrusting the silver blade straight through the center of his heavy chest plate.

The iron cracked. The captain gasped, his eyes widening in pure shock as four inches of cold steel punched out through his back.

He froze, his fingers twitching on his sword hilt, his dark eyes staring directly into mine with disbelief. Blood bubbled up from his lips, spilling over his chin.

"For Maria," I whispered, my voice cold, lethal, and devoid of mercy.

I yanked my foot up and kicked hard against his breastplate, ripping my blade free from his chest as he collapsed heavily into the pile of dead soldiers behind him.

Silence abruptly descended on the hallway.

I stood there heaving, my woolen tunic soaked in sweat and splash-marks of enemy blood, my fingers trembling around the leather hilt of my sword. I looked down at Noah, who was slowly pushing himself up against the stone wall, using his blade for balance as he wiped a dark smudge of blood from his eyebrow.

"You... you alright?" I panted out, offering him a hand.

Noah took it, pulling himself up, his chest heaving as he leaned back against the wall. "I’ll live," he rasped, looking around the corridor at the dozens of bodies carpeted across the floor. "Your brothers... they better be riding fast..."

"We held the line," I said, a faint, breathless smirk cracking through my exhausted face as I looked back toward the quiet infirmary door where Maria was safe inside. "We actually held the damn line."

"Did you?" a smooth, terrifyingly cold voice echoed from the far end of the hallway.

My blood ran instantly cold.

The heavy archway leading to the main foyer filled with motion. Dozens of fresh, heavily armored Lycan soldiers flooded into the corridor, their dark shields locking together in a disciplined, impenetrable wall. Iron boots stomped in unison over the marble tiles, their broadswords gleaming under the lantern light.

And stepping through the center of the formation came the Lycan prince.

He didn’t have a scratch on him. His dark leather cloak was pinned with a silver crest, his dark hair immaculately combed, his face set in a cold, arrogant sneer as he stepped over the corpses of Noah’s men.

In his hands, he held a heavy, black iron war bow.

"You quadruplets really are persistent gnats," Vincent said softly, his voice carrying effortlessly down the blood-stained corridor. "I give you credit, Adrein. You cut through my forward unit like a mad dog."

Noah straightened up, shoving himself off the wall and drawing his broadsword back into a defensive stance, despite his muscles visibly shaking from exhaustion. "Vincent," Noah growled, his Alpha aura flaring weakly. "You won’t leave this valley alive."

"I don’t need to leave the valley to take what is mine," Vincent replied smoothly.

Without a single wasted motion, Vincent raised the heavy war bow. His dark leather gauntlet pulled the black bowstring back to his cheek in one fluid, terrifying movement. The sharp, iron-tipped arrow was notched and drawn, pointing straight at the center of Noah’s chest from less than fifteen paces away.

Behind Vincent, thirty fresh archers lined up along the archway, every single one of them drawing their bows, their black arrows all trained directly on Noah and me.

"Drop your blades," Vincent commanded, his voice dropping into a razor-sharp, lethal decree as his finger rested lightly on the release. "Or I put an arrow through your precious friend heart before he can take another breath."