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. 

the car, barely noticing it had come to a stop. The slam of car doors. was quiet in comparison to everything else, drowned out by the weight of the stares falling on

curls flitted

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

all had the same

to the center of the safe haven, to the  community center that served as a sort of Town Hall. Children clutching ash stained stuffed animals padded behind their mother’s and father’s, hiding behind legs and

  much

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

said as a warning and

even noticed her standing there,  the woman with soft blonde hair and an  upturned nose. She had a delicate

that matched perfectly with her powder blue dress and black pumps. There wasn’t  a single curl on her head that

my face, recognition and disdain melting into one festering pool

the obliviousness in her voice as flimsy

her a glance.

you’re on her land, why don’t you show

I tuned out everything else. Tristan’s mother’s reply was shrill and fell on deaf ears. One after another, emotions impaled me in the chest. The longer I assessed the damages, the more I realized how long it would take to restore this place to

rubble in  the

you can’t actually expect us to 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 live in 

I told Asher through mind-link, feeling him stiffen behind

was  meaningless, and empty words

away, clinging to the side of a man who had the  same facial features as Tristan. His hair  was much darker, but his deep-set eyes, angular nose, and 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

to person, he was observing everything carefully. They clung to my face the most, and I wondered if he

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

was either genuinely oblivious or had a talent for ignoring the things she found unimportant, because

faded into white noise, crackling in my ears like the vicious flames that had eaten through over half

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

safe, is it? What a pity. I was so hoping we could live here, but I won’t risk your  sister’s life when it’s clear this

he wasn’t looking at

“Lucinda.” 1 

father approached. His hand was on his 

got to calm down. The  shadows are reacting

it was

I was paying more attention, it  seemed darker than normal. Many of the streetlights

pinprick of a million little eyes hit

turned around, and there they were. There were thousands of them, perhaps even more. Within every nook and cranny, crawling over every piece of this earth that the moonlight failed to reach,

slithered across the  ground and circled around my feet,

My wife has many talents, but holding her tongue is not one of them.” Tristan’s father

mother, scowled at

than we do. Seeing it like this is

eyes of ice. Her lips twisted and

and stumbled back when a few tendrils of shadow got too close for her

my neck cracked as my  head snapped in her direction.