Alpha Asher by Jane

Chapter 212 

We left that day for the safe haven, not bothering to pack or say goodbye to our families. 

It didn’t matter that I was on the verge of passing out, not when the place we promised would remain safe had been attacked. There was no more time to wait. I needed to use my magic to protect them, and I needed to do it now. 

Asher gave me enough of his blood to keep me standing up right. The only pit stop we made before peeling out of town was to pick up Tristan and Giovanni. Now that the sun was finally setting, they could safely leave the house. 

I cried out with relief when Giovanni  passed two blood bags into my hands and  quickly tore into them. It wasn’t nearly  enough, but it would have to be. 

We were just under a mile away and already I could tell something had happened. Smoke lingered in the air, crisp and heavy like someone had started a very large bonfire. Even coasting down the main road, the gouges in the forest were visible. Trees were knocked down  and bushes trampled into the dirt. It looked like a pack of very large beasts had charged through at full force. 

I wasn’t at all prepared for what I saw  when we arrived. 

There wasn’t a single part of me that thought the safe haven would survive an attack without any damage, but beyond all reasonable belief, I had clung to the hope that the damage would be minimal. 

We rolled down the main road intersecting the town slowly, giving me plenty of time to scour every single shred of damage the witches had done. 

From the number of houses that had scorch marks licking up the sides, it was clear Ember had been here. 

So many of them were crumbling, halfway torn down with families hiding inside, clinging to the shadows as the last hints of sunlight faded. 

It grew worse as we neared the center, so  much worse. 

Bodies were lined in neat rows, covered in white sheets stained grey with ash. There weren’t many, perhaps only a dozen, but it didn’t matter. Those twelve carried the same weight as a hundred as a thousand, would. 

The sidewalks and street were streaked  with black marks, kissed by Ember’s  flame as she pillaged the town. Cars were turned over, some halfway crumpled and smoking. The stench of burnt motor oil hung in the air, mixing with the scent of  death. 

Tristan cursed, and Giovanni made a  sound of agreement. 

“Fuck, my mother and father are here.” 

I craned my head to stare at him in the 

back seat. If we weren’t surrounded by so much carnage and death, I might’ve  laughed at how absurd he looked  crammed in the backseat with Giovanni. 

“Is that a bad thing?” I asked.  Giovanni snorted. “If you think Tristan is  unpleasant, wait until you meet his  mother.” 

I glanced at Tristan, waiting for him to snap or explode on Giovanni, but instead he actually nodded in agreement. 

There was nothing to say that would ease their discomfort. In truth, I wasn’t too worried about Tristan’s family or what opinions his mother would have. Seeing  what happened here with my own eyes, it outweighed everything else. 

Asher’s hand grazed my own, his fingers sliding in between mine. I glanced away from the carnage and into his eyes, not realizing how close I was to plummeting until I felt his presence glide down the mate-bond and into my troubled mind. 

‘It doesn’t matter how many times they destroy this place. We will rebuild.’ He promised, his eyes severe and set in  stone. 

More than anything, I wanted it to be enough, but it wasn’t. 

out of the car, barely noticing it had come to a stop. The slam of car doors. was

flash of brown curls flitted past as

launched herself into Giovanni’s  arms. She tangled her fingers in his hair and let out her sigh of relief

the next to approach. I imagine we all had the same expression on our faces,

safe haven, to the  community center that served as a sort of Town Hall. Children

we’ve heard so  much about?” A refined and almost nasal  voice

lifted as he turned. Dina and Spence locked eyes, something private passing between the two of them. Tristan made a sound low in

as a warning and

standing there,  the woman with soft blonde hair and an  upturned

  a single curl on her head that was out of  place.

swiveled to my face, recognition and disdain melting into one festering pool that I did not have the energy

you’re our new Monarch. Lola, isn’t it?” She purred, the obliviousness in her

spared her

you’re on her land, why don’t you show some goddamn respect and

another, emotions impaled me in the

reduced to rubble in  the span

live here, Tristan.” She scoffed; a delicate hand pressed against her bird chest. Her voice lowered to a whisper that wasn’t nearly quiet enough to be an actual whisper. “Think about your sister for Goddess sake. Do you expect her to

through mind-link, feeling him stiffen

this woman said was  meaningless, and empty words were

pouty lips were identical. The little girl was the spitting image of Tristan’s mother, only younger and not nearly as sour. She waved timidly  when we locked eyes, and I did my

clung to my face the most, and I wondered if he was naturally this curious

to invite you here, and you didn’t have to

either genuinely oblivious or had a talent for ignoring the things she found unimportant, because she didn’t seem to notice the tension in the air or how all of it radiated

sound apart from her nasal whine faded into white noise, crackling in my ears like the vicious flames that had eaten through over half of the houses here. The

damage and death the witches had  caused, all with Tristan’s mother

could live here, but I won’t risk your  sister’s life when it’s clear this place is undergoing attacks every other day. She might not

snarled, but he wasn’t looking at her.

“Lucinda.” 1 

I had assumed was Tristan’s  father approached. His hand was on his 

to calm down. The  shadows are

down the mind  link, but it was faint, muffled by white

had quickly taken over, but now  that I was paying more attention, it  seemed darker than normal. Many of

a million little eyes hit my skin one-by-one.

every nook and cranny, crawling over every piece of this earth that the moonlight failed to reach, the shadows writhed. They crawled beneath smashed cars and

  ground and circled around my feet, whispering sweet words of

tongue is not one of them.” Tristan’s father said in  a calm voice, one without the disdain and malice his wife’s held.

scowled at her

tirelessly on this place. No one cares about it more than we do. Seeing it like this is not easy for her.” Asher’s voice dropped low, and anyone

at the shadows pooling around my feet with eyes of ice. Her lips twisted and puckered, deepening the fine lines that circled her

stumbled back when a few tendrils of shadow got too

my neck cracked as my