“Her name is Maddy. If anyone is the bitch, it’s you, so watch your goddamned tongue when you speak of her.”
Viola’s breath caught. I’d touched a nerve. She wasn’t used to being interrupted, and she definitely wasn’t used to being called a bitch. I grinned as I listened to the silence.
Finally, she said, “I want this over as much as you do. We can finish this, and I can finally have what I’ve always wanted.”
“Which is?” I asked.
“An end to shifters. I want the vial so that no shifter can ever take the mantle of werewolf again. Once that is gone, eventually, you all will do what mongrels do, and you’ll weed yourself out.”
I furrowed my brow, looking at Maddy. She shrugged, a deep crease between her eyebrows.
“I still find it hard to believe that you’ve done all this simply because you hate shifters.”
“Shifters infiltrated my family. They stole the throne from us. Diluted the blood when Edemas pushed his filthy cock into that traitorous queen. His progeny are a blight on the Earth and stole what should have been ours. They made a mockery of the royal name. My family has never recovered from having that animal blood mixed into our family line. That vial might hold the key to restoring the true royal family to what it once was. I want to bring about a renaissance.”
“And how do you want to do that? I’m not giving you the vial, and I’m not giving you Maddy. So, explain how you want to end this.”
“First things first. You have my son. I want him back.”
I jerked back like I’d been slapped in the face. The change of topic was jarring, and I had a hard time believing this woman truly cared for her son or had a single maternal bone in her body.
“Why would I do that, Viola?”
“I will release his siblings. I have no use for them anymore. Worthless as they are, they proved inefficient in my experiments. They are no longer useful to me. I release them, and in return, you give me my son back.”
Should I tell her that Maxwell was no longer our prisoner? He’d decided to stay of his own accord. There was zero chance I’d ever force him to go back to his mother. Not in a million years. Instead, I sidestepped.
“That might be possible, but I need to know where this final meeting will happen. What are the terms?”
Viola laughed again, dark malevolence in her voice. “I thought to make it like the olden days. Two armies on a field, facing one another. A battle that will seal the fate of the world. How does that sound?”
“It sounds like melodramatic bullshit, but I’m game. When and where?”
“Your pack lands. I’ll even give you the benefit of home-field advantage, as they say. One week from today. I’m sick of these games, and I want to get back to living my life the way I did before that mate of yours showed her pretty little face. Understood? My army against yours. We’ll see who has the last laugh.”
My stomach flipped and twisted into knots. An end to this whole thing… The very thing I’d been praying for from the start was in sight. At least, it was if she was telling the truth. It could be a trap, but could I keep living like this, standing around, running from fights because I was afraid we couldn’t win? No, this had to end. Even if she had some strange shit up her sleeve, we needed to do this. Sinthy was almost back to full strength, and my pack and the surrounding packs were ready. I’d make every call I could and bring in as many shifters as wanted to fight. This would be the end. Every instinct I had told me we would come out on top, but there were no guarantees. Win or lose, it was coming to a head now.
“Fine,” I said, “We’ll be ready for you.”
She clucked her tongue in disappointment. “I do hate that it came to this. I never wanted this blood on my hands. See you soon, Nico.”
She was lying through her teeth. This was exactly what she’d always wanted. Even with her living in hiding and being hunted, I had the feeling she was thriving on this. Almost like she’d been desperate for war all these years and was ecstatic that her plan would finally come to fruition.
Maddy bit her lip. “One week.”
I nodded. “One week.”
That afternoon, Viola released another of her videos. It was broadcast on every channel as usual. She called for every able-bodied member of her movement to get to Clearidge, Florida for a final confrontation that would determine the fate of humankind.
Taking a page from Viola’s own book, I had Luis help me release my own video where I called for the same thing. Any shifter who could make it to my pack lands would find safe haven here and would be welcome to fight alongside us.
Needless to say, the authorities were less than pleased, threatening to arrest anyone who took part in the fighting. Even as I watched them announce it, I had a sense that law enforcements and governments around the world were possibly a bit relieved that it was coming to an end. It had been disastrous for months, and if it could be settled in one day, they were more than likely to turn a blind eye when it all came down.
My phone was inundated with texts and calls almost immediately. Most packs couldn’t send their entire fighting force to me, but nearly everyone was sending at least a dozen men and women our way to fight. The local packs had promised nearly their full force.
A vague memory of a bible verse kept coming to mind. The one about the end of days. About a great battle between goodand evil. It was to take place on a field, and that field was named Armageddon. I looked out my window at my pack lands and wondered if that was what was about to happen.
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