Liyah's POV

As I sprinted out of the dungeons, I checked for any sign of life in the cells I passed, but there was no one present. I knew that most times Nanny Maria was either in the cells or in the servant quarters depending on which mood Mira was in. I needed to find her. She was the only member of this pack that I cared about. As I made my way up the passages where I knew she usually was, I prayed that she was still alive and well. I could feel the blood pump in my ears as I kicked the door down and stepped in.

My heart fell. The room was empty.

No, no. Where else could she be? "Maria!" I yelled into the deserted room. But there was no one around. My head spinning with different thoughts, I held onto the door to steady myself. Maria was alive. She is alive. And I was going to find her. I repeated the mantra in my head until I began to feel better.

As I walked out the door, I heard someone sniff. I froze in my steps. It was short and ever so light. But I was sure I heard something. My eyes roaming round the room, I realized it was coming from the bathroom. Slowly, my fingers curled over the doorknob, and with my claws at the ready, I swung the door open.

Maria sat huddled on the bathroom floor, her hands placed over her head as she shook all over, tears dripping down her chin to the front of her dress. "P-please..." She whimpered.

I felt tears prick the back of my eyes. She was so scared. Quickly I placed my arms around her. "Nanny, it's me."

Her sobs finally subsiding, she turned to me, her eyes widening in recognition. "Liyah?"

I nodded, laughing as I tried to wipe my eyes. I enveloped her in another hug which she slowly melted into. At intervals she would pull away to look at me and then she would laugh. "Liyah...you look amazing. I-I thought you were dead. I tried to look for you, but I didn't know w-where or how. I've never felt so helpless," A tear slid down her cheek as she shook her head. "I thought I'd lost you."

"Oh, Nana..." I pulled her into another hug, pulling her up as she wiped her tears. "There's a lot I have to tell you, but not right now. We need to get you to safety first."

She nodded shakily. "But where, Liyah? It's practically a war zone out there."

"My family is out there," I smiled. "They've been looking forward to meeting you too. With their help we'll surely get you to safety, okay? I already lost you once. I'm not losing you again."

When she nodded and intertwined her fingers in mine, I smiled at her, holding on tighter as we raced out of the room. I mindlinked Annalise telling her where I was and hoping she could find me in the middle of this uproar.

I saw Nanny Maria's jaw drop when I kicked down an iron door that separated us from the west wing of the mansion. I shook my head before she could say anything. "I promise I'll tell you everything. Let's get you somewhere safe first." She nodded, dumbfounded, but I could see her glance at me at intervals.

I was back to where I first began, close to the dungeons. I stood, trying to remember where the exit was. There was an emergency exit around here somewhere. I remember from when I was younger, I discovered it and since then anytime I wanted to escape Father's wrath I would slip out.

"Ah, look who decided to show up."

I instinctively pushed Maria behind me, looking up to see a smirking Barbara. She was clad in a leather bodysuit, brandishing what looked like a whip in her hand. "I mean, I knew you were stupid, but I didn't think you were that dumb," Barbara laughed, placing a hand over her mouth.

I chose not to respond to her taunts, an escape plan formulating in my head.

"I can't believe you got a chance to escape and you stupidly decided to come back?" Her eyes flew to Maria. "For her? You both won't even last a second on the battlefield. How stupid can you get?" She laughed again. "Well, I'm not complaining. I wanted to be the one to kill you, and I'm gonna enjoy every second of it."

As she approached us, I pushed Maria who had already begun to shake behind me. I knew she was Barbara's first target, because she knew hurting Maria would hurt me more. I'd die before I let her come near Maria. As I readied myself to transform, the sound of someone yelling grabbed my attention.

Before I could process what was happening, Mira had appeared, stretching out her arm to claw at me as she screamed curses at me. Before I had the chance to jump out of the way, a hand had already gripped her by the neck, kicking her back in and then dismembering her head from her shoulders in one snap.

"Mom!" I heard Barbara's piercing scream as she rushed over to where Annalise had kicked Mira's beheaded body. Annalise turned to me.

"Thank goodness I came when I did," She said, frowning and turning to face me whilst wiping her bloody hand on her shirt.

"Annalise," I yelled. I had never felt so happy to see anyone. Annalise was by my side in a second. She completely ignored Barbara's presence, leaning in to give me a tight hug.

"God, Liyah! I'm so glad you're okay. We were all so worried about you. Are you good?"

I nodded, then turned to Maria. "This is my friend Annalise. She'll take you to a safe place. Okay? I trust her."

Annalise offered her a friendly smile and I couldn't help but feel something warm in my chest despite the raging war outside.

"You fucking bitch!" I turned to see Barbara fuming. "I'll fucking kill you! All of you!"

Annalise regarded Barbara lazily, looking at her for the first time. "Want me to take care of this bitch?" She asked, looking Barbara over. It was weird watching someone else glare at Barbara like that. It was usually Barbara doing the glaring. But it felt strangely good.

I shook my head. For years I had let Barbara walk all over me, disrespect me and treat me like shit. But I wasn't running, not anymore. So I turned to Maria, placing her hand in Annalise's.

"Go," I whispered to her. "Go!"

Annalise held my hand. "Are you sure?"

I swallowed, turning to glance at Barbara who was still bent over her mother's body. "Yes. This is something I have to do on my own."

Pulling me in for a hug, Annalise squeezed my arm. "Come back in one piece," She smiled. Turning back, she gripped Maria's hand in hers and I watched them race out.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?" Barbara laughed, finally getting up and facing me. "Is this you attempting to put up a fight?" She chuckled. "I know you have some childhood trauma that includes me, but if you think you're the star of some cheesy television show then I'm sorry for you. But nevertheless, I'm gonna enjoy this."

Smirking, she pulled her hair away from her face and cracked her knuckles.

###Chapter 83 - End this

Nikolai's POV

'Nikolai?'

My heart skipped a beat when Anna's voice filled my head in a mindlink. I stopped in my tracks, my breath caught in my throat, praying silently that she was about to deliver good news.

'I can hear you Anna, what's up? Did you…' I paused, not knowing what exactly to ask. My insides churned as I waited for her response.

'We've found Liyah, she's alright.'

I felt my heart muscles loosen at the sound of those words, my clenched fists relaxed and I heaved a sigh of relief. Thank the goddess. Liyah was alive. She was safe. Everything would be alright now.

'Okay. That's very good.' I breathed

'Drew says our soldiers have already rounded more than half of the Monhowl pack, a lot are dead and the few who are wounded are surrendering.' She sounded in my ears.

I scoffed. So these were the best fighters of Monhowl. Pathetic.

'Okay. I'll need you to help him gather all the prisoners, maybe into their dungeon or something then wait for my command.' I said and broke the mindlink. It was time to settle old scores, once and for all.

I was tempted to think that Jonas had gone into hiding but I killed the thought immediately. He was much too egotistical to run away. If there was one thing I knew about Jonas, it was that he would rather die than give you the satisfaction of thinking you had won. And that was exactly why he was going to die today.

I had searched the entire mansion stealthily and there was still no sign of him. There was only one place left; the garden.

Cautiously, I took long strides, moving past the halls and toward the garden as I watched for any traps. This was beginning to get too easy, and it was a bit unsettling. I still couldn't believe we had taken over nearly half of the mansion. I knew the ambush gave us an advantage. But still, something seemed off.

And then I saw him.

Jonas Verbeck, sitting on the garden bench and drinking tea so peacefully, like his entire pack wasn't under siege, like all his betas hadn't just been killed, like he had no idea what was going on.

What the hell was happening?

But when he turned to look at me with an amused expression, I knew something was definitely up. I extracted my claws, anger brewing inside me at the sight of him.

"Ah, we meet again. For a moment there I thought you had ditched me. Care for some tea?" He asked, motioning to the jug. "It's cold now and the leaves are extremely difficult to pick but very refreshing. What do you say?" He asked, smirking while lifting the teacup by his side.

"VERBECK!" I growled, shaking with fury. He had the balls to joke? I would make sure his death was slow and painful.

He faked a frown.

"I'll take that as a no then. Oh well, I tried didn't I?" He smiled and adjusted on the garden chair. "You look good by the way, Slade. After our last meeting at the office, I thought your big head would have blown off your shoulders by now. So well done. Although I still think registering for anger management class would do you some good, don't you?" He said brushing a piece of leaf from his hair.

I gave a thin smile. "Staying alone out here was a big mistake, Jonas. You're going to regret it."

He laughed loudly.

"Oh Nikky. Nikolai Slade, still playing hero, even after all these years. How history repeats itself." He smirked again.

My head boiled hot and my heart clenched in agony. "Nothing is repeating itself you fucking bastard!" I growled furiously.

"What did you say?" He asked, dropping the tea cup. The pretentious smile had disappeared. "So you think that just because you brought a group of midgets here with you, that you'll walk out of this place alive?" He gave a cold high pitched laugh. "Then you must be more stupid than I give you credit for, Slade." He spat, getting to his feet.

"Play time's over, Verbeck." I breathed through gritted teeth. My eyes flew to his feet as I watched for any sudden movements. By now I already knew what a cunning bastard he was.

His eyes flashed.

"Don't worry, Slade, I won't kill you just yet. I'll make you beg for the mercy of death. I will make you watch while I take your lover's life. You'll see her suffer just like the woman before her. You'll watch her take her last breath and who knows? I might even get some of the boys to recreate Elle's death, if you know what I mean," He winked at me, his lips curling into a smile.

That was the height of it all. The sound of my wolf growling filled my ears. I felt my clothes rip as I transformed but it was different this time, my arms were much bigger, my fangs and claws were longer and sharper than normal and I felt much more stronger than I usually would feel after shifting. Even though I couldn't see myself I could tell that I was now about two times the size of Jonas. And he was a giant. I had never transformed into this beast before but I was too furious to think.

As I dived in his direction, I figured I was even faster now. I closed my jaw over the side of this stomach, my fangs digging into flesh and blood, spitting out the flesh from my mouth which was dripping with his blood.

He staggered back with one hand applying pressure on the wound now gushing with blood. It was was not healing. With a look of shock and pain in his face, he roared as his eyes changed into that of his wolf— bright red. His ears stretched out and his fangs appeared, he let out a loud angry growl, extended his claws and charged at me.

He made the first move. Using his now smaller size to his advantage, he landed a powerful scratch on my back.

I let out a groan and staggered back but quickly regained my balance. I couldn't lose focus. No.

He charged again but this time I was ready. We were locked in a wrestle, both of us breathing hard refusing to break eye contact, then I scratched him on the stomach, in the same spot.

He groaned and retaliated, scratching the side of my face. I lost balance and fell and Jonas pounced. Jumping on me and looking to land another blow.

But as he raised his claws to scratch, he let out a loud groan and fell over and a hand pulled me to my feet. I wiped the blood from my eyes to look at my helper. But instead of Drew's short, black hair, I saw the long light-brown hair of a man that seemed so familiar. I searched his eyes for any sign of recognition and when he smiled at me, it clicked.

It was him. The same man who had saved my life when I was stabbed by Jonas' traffickers with silver. The same man who had disappeared when I tried to thank him. I had almost forgotten about him. But what on earth was he doing here?

"You..?" I breathed still staring at him in surprise.

"You're welcome," He replied. "Let's end this." He said as we both faced Jonas who was struggling to get to his feet. He staggered back in shock when his eyes fell on the man by my side.

"Gabriel?" Jonas asked, his voice hoarse. "What the fuck are you doing here?! I thought I told those bastards to kill you." His chest heaved as he and the man stared each other down while I stood confused.

"Do I really have to do everything myself?" Jonas said coldly. "Oh you'll just have to die again then!" He growled.

Gabriel scoffed but said nothing.

"What are you waiting for you fuckers?! Come on!" Jonas yelled.

Gabriel growled as he transformed and extended his claws as we both charged. I was a big black beast and Gabriel was smaller, about the size of Jonas but his mane was light brown and huge.

We both pounced, landing blows at the same time, both of us catching each side of Jonas' face. The impact sent him reeling as he roared painfully, landing heavily on the grass. I could see the blood oozing from the gash in his head as I approached him.

It was time to end this.

It all happened too quickly for me to grasp. One second I was bending over Jonas ready to strike, the next he had somehow picked up the garden bench and dived towards me. I was caught off guard as he struck a defeaning blow to my back before I could block it. My whole body numbed from the pain as the bench was crushed into pieces on my back.

I fell to the floor, blood oozing from my mouth as I tried to crawl to my feet. The last thing I felt was my body shifting back to my human form, and then everything went black.