Claimed by My Mafia Alpha King

Chapter 208: Chapter 208

Irina’s POV

"I don’t know."

The words drifted into the freezing mist. They hit my chest like a physical blow.

I stared at the wounded warrior. My bloody hands slowly slipped from his pale face. The dark void in my chest throbbed. He didn’t know if my mate was dead or alive.

Silence returned to the valley. It felt heavier this time. It pressed down on my shoulders, suffocating me. The howling wind sounded like a funeral dirge.

I looked up from the mud.

Roman stood a few feet away. His massive chest heaved. He stared out at the jagged hillside where Nicholas vanished. For the first time since I met him, the fierce Royal Beta looked defeated. His broad shoulders sagged. His dark eyes lacked their usual sharp focus.

Andrei stood right next to him. His heavy gun hung loosely at his side. He didn’t raise it. He didn’t scan the dark trees for threats. He just stared blankly at the endless sea of dead bodies scattered across the bloody snow.

"Roman?" I whispered.

He didn’t move. He didn’t even blink.

"We have to go after him," I said. My voice was raw, scratching against my throat. "We have to find him."

Roman slowly shook his head. He refused to meet my eyes.

"Luna... it’s a trap." Roman’s voice cracked. "They slaughtered hundreds of our best fighters. If they took the King..." He swallowed hard. The sound was loud in the quiet clearing. "He might already be gone. Or worse, they are baiting us to follow. They want to finish off the royal line."

"He’s not gone," I growled. My heart physically ached. A fresh wave of tears stung my eyes, but I blinked them away. I was done crying. "He’s out there. I know it."

Andrei finally turned to me. Tears streaked his dirty, scarred face. He looked broken.

"Irina, please. Look around us." Andrei gestured weakly to the bloody mud. "Our army is decimated. We are just three people and a wounded man. If we march into the Kossarov syndicate’s lair now, we die. You die. The royal pup dies. It’s suicide."

"So we just leave him?" I cried out. I pushed myself up from the freezing mud. My knees shook, but I forced my legs to lock in place. "You swore an oath to him!"

"We swore an oath to protect you!" Roman argued back. He took a step toward me. His hands curled into tight fists. "Nicholas gave me a direct order before we left. If the worst happens, I get you to safety. I am not letting you walk into a suicide mission for a ghost!"

A ghost.

The word echoed in my mind. It shattered the last bit of patience I had.

They were giving up. The two most loyal men in the werewolf empire were standing in the bloody dirt, accepting defeat. They believed the Alpha King was dead. They wanted to turn around and run back to the safety of the pack house.

But I felt it. Deep down, beneath the cold terror and the severed mate bond, a tiny spark flickered to life. My inner wolf scraped at the walls of my mind. She refused to bow her head. She refused to mourn.

I remembered Nicholas’s intense green eyes. The way he looked at me when he marked me. The possessive weight of his massive hands on my skin.

*You are mine, Irina. And I am yours.*

He didn’t leave me. I was not going to leave him.

If I was just the broken Omega from the Iron Thorn pack, I would run. I would hide in the shadows, curl into a ball, and cry until I faded away.

But I wasn’t just an Omega anymore. I was his mate. I was the Luna of this terrifying, bloody empire.

I slowly stood up straight. The icy wind ripped through my thin jacket. It bit into my pale skin, but the cold didn’t bother me now. A strange, burning heat spread through my veins. It wasn’t my golden healing magic. It was pure, unadulterated rage.

I wiped the mud and blood from my cheeks. I stood tall. I pushed my shoulders back. I refused to curl into my usual defensive posture. I refused to shrink.

"Luna," Andrei warned softly. He reached a hand out toward me.

"Shut up," I snapped.

Both men flinched. They froze in their tracks. The raw, commanding authority in my voice surprised even me. It didn’t sound like a terrified human girl. It sounded like a Queen.

I turned and looked at the jagged hillside. The dark shadows of the pine trees felt like a taunt. The enemy was hiding up there. They had my mate. They took my heart, and they dragged him into the dark.

"Look at these bodies," I commanded. My voice dropped into a low, dangerous growl. It carried easily over the howling wind. "Look at what they did to your brothers."

Roman clenched his jaw tightly. The muscle in his cheek twitched. Andrei looked down at the mud, his expression twisting in pain. The healed warrior at my feet stared up at me in awe.

"You think Nicholas would walk away?" I demanded. I stepped right into Roman’s personal space. I didn’t break eye contact. I stared straight into his dark eyes. "If you were the one bleeding in their dungeon, would your King turn his back and run home to hide?"

Roman’s breath hitched in his throat.

"No," I answered for him. My voice was razor-sharp. "He would burn their entire city to the ground. He would rip them apart with his bare hands to get you back."

I let the heavy silence stretch for a second. I let the words sink deep into their thick skulls.

I didn’t care about the Kossarov syndicate. I didn’t care about their brutal reputation or their endless soldiers.

"I don’t care about the odds," I said. My voice was steady and deadly cold. "I don’t care if there are a thousand of them waiting in the shadows. I don’t care if it’s a trap."

I turned to face the dark, misty forest. I raised my bloody hand and pointed my finger straight at the jagged hills.

"Go with me to the enemy’s lair," I ordered. I didn’t yell. I didn’t scream. It was a dark, unyielding vow. "Rescue the Alpha."

The words hung in the freezing mist.

For a long, agonizing second, no one moved. The wind howled through the dead pine branches. The stench of blood and copper wrapped around us.

Then, Roman took a deep breath. His dark eyes shifted from the bloody ground to my face. The heavy defeat in his posture melted away. His broad shoulders squared. A feral, dangerous gleam returned to his gaze. His inner wolf rose to the surface, answering the call of its Luna.

He racked the slide of his heavy rifle. The loud, metallic clack echoed over the dead valley like a gunshot.

"For the King," Roman growled.

Andrei lifted his head. He wiped his scarred face with the back of his tactical glove. His eyes glowed a faint, predatory yellow in the dark. He tightened his grip on his massive weapon, his lips peeling back to reveal his sharp canines.

The injured warrior at my feet forced himself up from the mud. He stumbled, but caught his balance. He reached down and pulled a bloody combat knife from a fallen soldier next to him.

Roman stepped forward. He stood right beside me, facing the dark trees.

"Rescue the Alpha!" Roman roared.

Andrei stepped to my other side. He raised his gun toward the freezing sky.

"Rescue the Alpha!"