The challenge two alphas one girl novel Chapter 67

Ezra’s POV

Raelynn and I went straight to my father. He was awake and staring at the raindrops streaming down the glass of his floor length bedroom windows. This was not unusual for him. He had not truly been normal since my mother’s death. She had been his predestined.

“Father, Katrina is missing! Her room has been ransacked!” I said, my voice strained.

My father turned to me. His l!ps curved upwards into a strange smile. “I know,” he said simply.

My heart plummeted. Chills crept through me. I pulled Raelynn close to me.

“What have you done with her?” I said through gritted teeth.

My father turned back to the rain-streaked window. He remained silent.

“TELL ME!!” I yelled so loudly bats flew out of the high towers of our Manor. My eyes were a glowing red and my fangs were bared. I was ready to pounce on my own father.

My father turned back to me with a disdainful expression.

“She has brought this upon herself,” he said slowly, enunciating every word.

I launched myself at him. I tackled him to the ground and clasped by hands around his throat. My fingernails lengthened into claws of their own accord. I saw a flash of fear in my father’s eyes for once. I felt some sense of sick satisfaction. It was usually impossible to get a reaction out of him. He was a sadist and a masochist so very little truly upset or unnerved him. Now, here, beneath me, at the mercy of my wrath he was afraid. But not for long. I heard a scuffle behind me. Raelynn. I yanked my father upwards by the neck as I righted myself. I held him in front of me still clutching him by the throat. His fingers clawed at mine to no avail. I sp0tted what the noise behind me had been and my bl00d ran cold. One of my father’s loyal henchmen had my Raelynn in a vice grip and was holding a dagger to her throat. She watched me with fearful eyes.

“LET HER GO!!!” I demanded, making the room shake. Dust fell from the ceiling of the old manor at the impact of the sound.

My father cackled hoarsely. I tightened my grip and so did the henchman.

“Lord Ezra, let Lord Ezekiel go and I’ll release Lady Raelynn,” said the henchman.

I recognised him as Lane, a hulking vampire with skin as pale as alabaster and large protuberant light grey eyes. His long black hair was disheveled and he was panting from the effort of holding Raelynn. She was stronger than she looked. I would rather die than lose her.

“Let her go! Please!” I beseeched Lane, softening my tone and quieting my voice. I sighed. “I won’t let my father go until you release Raelynn!”

Lane didn’t budge an inch. That sick bastard. I had always hated him. He had a thing for my stepsister Katrina and she was disgusted with him. I had threatened him many a time for prowling about near her chambers. The burn scars near his clavicle was from me. Holy water. I had gotten it from the vampire nuns at the orphanage my father provided for financially. They used to be regular nuns before my father set his warriors on the establishment and had everyone turned. Some had lit themselves on fire or walked into the bright daylight rather than be made to live as vampires. The holy water had burnt Lane’s body from his clavicles to his navel. I knew he hated me and I him but I had to plead for Raelynn’s sake.

“Lane, listen to me,” I said, trying to keep my breathing even. I was terrified for my Raelynn. “My father has done something with Katrina. I know how you favour her. I know your heart is set on her.”

Lane laughed. He cackled just as madly as my father. My father laughed with him, gasping with tears running down his cheeks due to the pressure I was putting on his throat.

“I have Katrina,” said Lane as though that were the funniest thing in the world. He guffawed.

“What do you mean?” I hissed.

My father coughed and wheezed a little. I loosened my hold ever so slightly so that I could hear what he was saying if he chose to speak.

“Your stepsister is too hung up over that Beta,” came my father’s raspy reply. “I promised her to Lane so she would be out of the way. She would meddle too much in my plans on that Beta’s behalf and he no longer wanted us to have his sister, the Luna Friday.”

“NO!” Shrieked Raelynn. “Please, leave Friday out of this!”

“This has always been about Friday,” said my father with a humourless laugh. “We had wondered if we’d suppressed both you and Friday’s wolves too deeply but it seems Friday’s experiment was a success! There is talk of her heat and her mind linking. Her wolf should surface soon. It was you who turned out to be a failure but I left you alive as my son found his predestined in you. It was a lucky coincidence that saved your life!”

“What?” I said softly. “What experiments?”

Raelynn’s eyes were filled with tears. “Friday told me that Farris sold us to Ezekiel to be experimented on. We’re really sisters, Friday and me. Farris told Felicity I was stillborn. I was injected with wolfsbane by Ezekiel as a child while Friday was injected with silver by Farris. Ezekiel wanted us to be super she-wolves. He even exposed you to sunlight ever since you were a baby, Ezra! That’s why it’s so easy for you to go out in the day, even more so than other highborns. I should’ve told you sooner!” Raelynn said, tears streaming down her cheeks. “But I was waiting on something.”

My grip on my father slackened. I was nothing more than another lab rat to him. He was a bigger monster than I’d even imagined.