Reign Of The King The Falcon Ridge Series Book 10

I’ve been plastering on my fake smiles for over two weeks as I walk through the halls of the Phoenix Unit.

Alone in my office, I’ve silently cried I don’t know how many times.

Many of those times, I thought of just running back and fighting my way to Zander, but then reality crashes in. He made his choice and I have to respect that it wasn’t me.

I thought about what Fate said, but honestly, I can’t even look at other men. At least not in the way I looked at Zander. Not until this crushing pain in my chest goes away.

Seriously, this is the worst. I’ve never had a break up hurt this much. My wolf is going crazy. Her pain feels worse than mine.

But I continue to work and plaster my fake attitude on. Wishing I could just go to the roof and scream.

I head to the Comms unit to jump on with a report from Declan.

“Hey, D. How’s things?” I sit and slump into my chair as Declan’s image comes up on the screen.

“Hi, Rick. Pretty quiet here. Not sure what happened. It’s like the Vampires all went into hiding. Which I’m extremely thankful for.” He blows out a breath.

“Good. How’s the pool?” I ask.

“It’s stable, but we’ll have to come back for some more top up water. We just used the last of it.” He informs.

“Ok. I’ll have the team prepare the water.” I smile as I rock my chair.

“How are you doing?” He asks.

“I’m great! Couldn’t be better.” I grin.

He leans to the screen. “Rick.” He tilts his head.

“Ok. I feel like my chute didn’t open in time, alright. Is that what you want to hear?” I look at my shirt hem as I play with it.

Declan leans back. “If it makes you feel better, Zander looks like hell.” He crosses his arms.

I roll my head to him. “Really?”

He nods. “Oh yeah. He’s moping around here. He looks like he hasn’t slept in a month and he’s way more rip your throat out than usual. For a guy that landed his dream girl, he doesn’t seem too happy about it.”

“Oh…well…serves him right. The royal jackass should be miserable.” I hold my chin up and fold my arms.

“Any threats from the Nordics?” Declan changes the subject. He knows I’m not going to stop putting up my front.

“None. It’s all quiet…”

A computer starts beeping behind me.

I roll to it and press some buttons. “Shit! I really need to keep my mouth shut!”

I roll to another computer and press buttons. “Declan, the Nordics have breached the border again. I have to go.”

“Ricky! What’s happening?” Declan leans to the screen.

“It looks like they’re attacking the city. The dome is intact.” I roll to a Comms console. I press the buttons.

“ALL UNITS TO THE DOWNTOWN CORE. THIS IS NOT A TEST! ALL UNITS DOWNTOWN NOW! NORDICS HAVE BREACHED THE BORDER!” I announce through the paging system. I link our deployment leaders to tell them where the threats current location is.

“Ricky! What do you want me to do?” Declan says.

“Inform the Alphas. I’ll contact you when I have more information.” I say.

I go to a cabinet and pull out a heat gun. I check it’s charge. “I call in two hours. Be ready.”

“Right.” He hangs up as I run out the door and into the halls.

I burst through the stairwell door and practically jump down the six flights of stairs.

The main floor is filled with soldiers running for the deployment areas.

I burst through with them.

We jump into the trucks.

One soldier looks at me. “Alpha. Should you be here?”

“I have to help protect the dome. Besides, any chance to kick some frozen ass, I’m there.” I smirk as the truck peels out into the city.

We travel through the streets and people are running as the ice wolves attack.

I get out. “UNITS ONE TROUGH SEVEN, SIX BLOCKS EAST! EIGHT THROUGH FOURTEEN SIX BLOCKS WEST! FIFTEEN TO EIGHTEEN FRONT LINES! MOVE!” I yell through the link.

I run as heat guns and electric nets are fired.

The Nordics are firing their ice busters at us.

I run around fights and narrowly miss the pavement freezing at my feet. “Shit!” I mutter as I jump out of the way of the liquid ice.

I stop and fire my heat gun. The Nordics scream and run only to be jumped by our wolves.

I turn down a street as one of my fighters is thrown in my direction and he smashes on the road. His life sliding toward my feet in pieces. “Fuck.”

I look up and four Nordics are coming at me.

“Fucking roast.” I charge my gun and hit the trigger with anger on my face. A ten foot flame shoots out of front of the gun.

The Nordics stop and shield themselves from the heat.

I let out some heat blasts and they crash to the ground screaming. They shift and run down another street.

I continue to try and get to the dome.

I get jumped as I cross an alley open. We go rolling across the road.

I’m fighting the Nordic wolfs open jaws with my gun under his chin.

My jaw is clenched as I fight against the wolfs strength. Sweat beads on my brow and my arms shake.

I bring my knee up and slam it right into the wolfs junk. He falls and yelps.

“Man, wolf. You both have a soft spot for the jewels, don’t cha!” I yell as I get to my knees and hit him with my flame thrower. The wolf screams as his fur catches fire. He runs up the street on fire into more Nordics who avoid him like the plague.

I get to my feet and run again toward the dome.

It comes into sight and I see our fighters fighting tirelessly as the Nordics try to bust it open.

I come in on the west side and start firing heat blasts over and over. The wolves fall back, but keep coming in droves.

I slam myself on the glass next to a soldier. “I need a battery.”

He reaches into his sack and hands me one. “These guys are juiced to the max. They won’t stop.”

“Yeah, let’s see how they like barbecue.”

“THROWERS! NOW!” I scream down the line.

Me and the fifty fighters around the dome, get off the walls and we all turn on our flame throwers.

Like a burning flower blooming, we step forward, throwing flames at the wolves. Some catch fire as we continue to push.

“KEEP GOING! DON’T LET THEM CROSS!” I yell through the link.

The soldier beside me points. “Alpha?”

I look to where he’s indicating and I see five Nordics with bunker busters.

“INCOMING!” I yell as they all fire at once.

We duck and the bullets hit the dome. The liquid crawls across the massive dome at lightning speed.

“TAKE COVER!” I scream.

The dome explodes in shards of glass as we all hit the pavement.

The frame teeters from the force of the glass going into thermal shock.

“Ricky!” The soldier points. A Nordic has a fucking grenade launcher.

“Um…that’s new.” My eyes widen as he fires and the grenade explodes just in front of us and we’re thrown back into the dome.

My side hits the frame as I fly through one of the holes.

I’m in excruciating pain when I land on the deck of the pool which is now under its emergency cover.

I’m practically crying when I look at my side and see a giant chunk of glass sticking out of it.

I scream as I grab the glass pull it out.

Tears fall out of my eyes as I lay on my back.

I roll my head to the dead body of the soldier I was just talking to. Glass stuck in his head.

I choke and swallow as I hold my side. My legs squirming as I fight the pain and ringing in my ears.

The dome is filled with dust and smoke. The battle continues outside, but I still manage to hear heavy footfalls walk toward me through the piles of glass

“Ricky.”

I shakily raise my head to the voice. I hold my gaping wound as I stare into the maniacal eyes of the Nordic Alpha.

He eyes me and grins. I grip the floor and pull myself back as he comes closer. “I won’t give you the codes, Gabriel.” I grit as shockwaves of pain run through me. I’m sure I have severe internal damage from the glass because I’m staring to feel light headed.

He walks over to me and reaches down. He grabs me by the hair and pulls me to my feet. He grabs my throat and pulls me close to his face. “I need bait, not codes.” He snarls.

“Bait for what?” I growl.

“A much bigger fish.” He grins evilly, looking me over.

My eyes widen and my mouth goes small. “Zander.” I breathe.

“The King will come for his princess and when we kill him, the Nordics will be the most powerful pack on the planet!” He cackles.

“He’ll tear you to pieces.” I spit.

“We’ll see, sweetheart. He’s sweet on you. I’m betting he’ll do anything to protect your pretty ass.” He grins.

He tosses me to his men. I scream at the pain in my side.

He turns. “Call them back! We got what we came for!”

I feel a pinch in my neck and everything goes black.

****

My eye lid cracks open to grey light coming through slits in what looks like wooden slat walls.

My head is pounding like a jack hammer and my side is screaming like a banshee. I’m on my stomach with my arms tucked under my chest.

My eye comes to focus. I’m on a wooden floor.

I breath out a shaky breath and a fog leaves my lips. I slowly lift my head. I’m in a pile of furs.

I lift my upper body and my side screams again. “Ahh…” I roll and look at the bloody bandage taped there. That’s when I realize I’m naked. I feel the cold hit my skin like stinging razor blades on my skin.

I grab the furs and wrap them up around my shoulders. My face stings in the cold air. Cold fog shoots out with every panicked breath I puff out.

I get to my shaky legs and take small steps. I stumble holding onto the walls.

There’s a small door on the other side of the tiny box of a room I’m in. It’s like a shed of some sort.

I try the handle and it’s locked. I turn and assess where I am. There’s no windows. Just the odd slit between the wood slats.

I hobble to one of these slits and try to see through it.

I see snow. I see Nordics walking around. But what I see next is the most disturbing.

“No. Oh God no.” My heart races as I look up and see the towering peaks of Brynja Mountain. It’s sky dark. Menacing. Lightening strikes and snow falls at an unimaginable rate.

My eye widens. “I’m so fucked.”