Mated to Her Alpha Instructor (Eileen and Regis) novel Chapter 237

Chapter 237

Regis

The world narrowed to a single point: Eileen, crumpled in a pool of blood at the center of that cursed ritual circle.

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Valdor didn’t ask permission. He erupted.

My human skin split away like paper as silver–black fur exploded across my frame. Bones cracked and reformed, muscle mass doubling in heartbeats. The transformation hurt–it always did when rage drove it this fast–but I welcomed the pain. Channeled it into speed.

I hit the ground on four massive paws and launched.

Trees blurred past. The forest floor shook with each bound. Through the bond I felt her terror, her pain, the awful pulling sensation as

that bastard’s ritual tried to drain her life away-

A figure stepped into my path.

Cornelius.

He should have run. Should have begged. Instead, the old bastard smiled and raised one hand. Moonlight caught on something dark clutched in his palm–a black medallion carved with a wolf’s head, its eyes set with chips of obsidian.

The medallion shrieked.

Not a sound. Worse. A pulse of dark energy that rippled through the air like a shockwave, and suddenly the shadows around the ravine

were moving.

Wolves poured from the rocks. Ten, twelve, fifteen–massive brutes with fur the color of smoke and eyes that glowed sulfur–yellow. Shadow wolves. But wrong, somehow. Too fast. Too coordinated.

“You think I relied solely on the Council’s protection?” Cornelius’s voice carried over the snarls. “I’ve been preparing for this day for

decades.

One of the shadow wolves lunged.

I caught it mid–leap, jaws clamping around its throat. Bone crunched. Hot blood flooded my mouth–tasted of ash and corruption. I flung the corpse aside and kept moving, but three more were already on me.

Claws raked my shoulder. Teeth snapped at my hindquarters. I spun, using my greater mass to bowl two of them over, but the sheer

number-

Another came from my blind side. Its claws found purchase along my ribs, tearing through fur and flesh. Pain lanced white–hot down my

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flank.

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I roared and twisted, catching the attacker’s skull between my jaws. Crushed it. But in that split second of distraction, two more hit me

from opposite sides.

Eileen.

Through the bond: fading. Weakening. The ritual was still active, still draining her even as I fought.

I had to get to her. Had to-

A shadow wolf clamped onto my hind leg. Another tore at my shoulder. I shook them off, lunged forward-

And that’s when Cornelius moved.

He was fast for an old man. Inhumanly fast. In his good hand–the one I hadn’t severed during our last encounter–he held a dagger. Not silver. Something worse. The blade shimmered with sick purple light, runes crawling along its surface like living things.

“Courtesy of the witch,” he hissed.

The dagger punched between my ribs.

White–hot agony exploded through my chest. Not just the wound–though that was bad enough, the blade scraping bone as it sank deep- but something else. Something that burned like liquid fire spreading through my veins.

Poison.

My legs buckled. I tried to stay upright, tried to keep myself between Cornelius and Eileen, but my muscles weren’t responding right. The

world tilted sideways.

Valdor snarled in my head: GET UP. GET UP, YOU FOOL-

I snapped at Cornelius’s arm. Felt bone break between my teeth. Heard him scream. But the damage was done. The poison was spreading, turning my blood to sludge, my strength to water.

The shadow wolves backed off, waiting. Watching.

Cornelius stumbled away, cradling his mangled arm, but his eyes were triumphant. “You’re too late, Vane. You’re always too late.”

No.

I forced the shift. Poured every ounce of remaining strength into dragging my human form back to the surface. Fur receded. Bones cracked. When I finally collapsed onto the blood–soaked ground, I was man–shaped again–naked, bleeding, the dagger still buried in my

chest.

H

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But I was between Cornelius and Eileen.

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I reached back, found her hand. So cold. Her pulse fluttered against my palm like a dying bird.

I’m sorry, I sent through the bond. I’m sorry I wasn’t fast enough.

Her pain flooded back through the connection. Not just physical–though there was plenty of that–but soul–deep terror. For me. For our

pup. For everyone.

And underneath it all, a spark. Stubborn. Furious.

Alive.

“Touching,” Cornelius spat. Blood poured from the stump where his hand used to be, but he didn’t seem to care. He fumbled in his robes with his remaining hand and pulled out something that made my stomach drop.

A runestone. Purple–black, covered in symbols that hurt to look at. The same sick energy that pulsed from the dagger.

“If I can’t have the power,” he whispered, “then no one will.”

He slammed the stone into the center of the ritual circle.

The ground screamed.

Nina

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