Alpha's Dark Desires-Chapter 141: A Common Enemy

Dean’s POV:

I knew fighting Kane was useless. Stupid, even.

It was never a real fight—not in the way he thought. Kane wanted blood. He wanted to tear me apart, to destroy the thing he blamed for all his sins. freewebnσvel.cøm

But he wasn’t thinking. He wasn’t Kane anymore.

His movements were wild, his strikes reckless. The darkness had its claws in him, too deep this time, sinking into his bones, warping his mind. And I?

I did what I should have done a long time ago.

I let him swing. Let him chase me. Let him waste his strength while I focused on something else entirely.

The darkness.

It was everywhere now, like thick tar clinging to him, oozing from his pores. He had no idea what he was doing—he was too far gone, a rabid wolf frothing at the mouth.

But I? I handled it better.

I pulled it back into me. Slowly. Carefully. Each time he lunged, I dodged. Every time he threw a punch meant to shatter my ribs, I stepped just out of reach. And with every breath, I absorbed more of the darkness, siphoning it away from him.

It was a delicate balance—one mistake and I’d drown in it myself.

Kane didn’t notice. His vision was too clouded, his instincts too sharp. He thought I was just running from him, playing weak, playing prey.

Good. Let him think that.

Because the longer he fought, the lighter he became.

And the heavier I felt.

The game of cat and mouse continued—except Kane didn’t realize he wasn’t the predator anymore. He was the one being saved.

I felt it the moment it happened. The exact second the last shred of himself snapped back into place.

Kane stilled.

He stood there, chest heaving, muscles tensed like a coiled spring. His hands trembled—whether from rage or confusion, I couldn’t tell.

And his eyes?

No longer just pitch-black voids.

His irises flickered back to their usual stormy gray—clouded with something almost like... horror.

He staggered back. "What...?" His voice was hoarse, like he’d been screaming for hours and just realized it.

I smirked, exhaling as the weight of his darkness settled in me once more. It clawed at me, whispering the same sweet, vicious things it had whispered to him.

Give in.

Let go.

You like it, don’t you? The power. The hunger. The control.

I pushed it down. Hard. I was used to this game. Kane wasn’t.

"Welcome back, Alpha," I muttered, stretching out my stiff fingers. "Had a nice little trip to the edge of insanity?"

Kane’s gaze snapped to me. His fists clenched. I braced for another fight—only this time, it wouldn’t be feral rage. This time, it would be cold, calculated anger.

But then—

Elena.

Her scent hit both of us at the same time.

My head snapped to the side. Her scent was still fresh, but there was something off about it. It wasn’t just fear—it was wrong.

Kane smelled it too. He went still. "She’s—"

"Gone," I finished. "And she’s not alone."

Something else had touched her. Another scent lingered on her scent—one I recognized.

And for the first time in a long time, I felt something cold settle in my gut.

Kane turned to me, his expression unreadable.

"We need to get her back," he said.

And for once?

I didn’t argue.

Because for the first time in years, we wanted the same thing.

Elena.

I got there first.

Of course, I did—vampire speed always wins.

But it didn’t matter.

Because by the time I reached the edge of the highway, where her scent vanished, she was gone.

And she hadn’t just run. She’d been taken.

The second scent was unmistakable. A scent I knew better than I knew my own. The scent of a nightmare Kane and I shared.

Ace.

The bastard had her.

I stood there, fists clenched, rage boiling under my skin. The asphalt still smelled like burned rubber—a car had sped off, fast. I could picture it: Elena, tumbling out of the woods, desperate, terrified, running right into his hands.

Kane arrived a second later, skidding to a halt beside me. He barely looked at me before his nostrils flared, taking in the scent I had already confirmed.

And then—

He lost it.

A vicious snarl tore from his throat. He punched the ground, cracking the pavement, sending shockwaves through the air.

"FUCK!" His voice was raw, self-loathing bleeding into every syllable. He raked a trembling hand through his hair, his breathing erratic, like he was barely keeping himself from ripping apart the entire fucking world.

And maybe he should.

Because this was his fault.

If he hadn’t let the darkness take him—if he had just fought harder, stayed sane—we wouldn’t be here. We wouldn’t be standing on the side of the fucking road, staring at the empty space where our mate used to be.

I could have told him that. Could have shoved it in his face, could have made him choke on the guilt already eating him alive.

But I didn’t.

Because for once, it wasn’t satisfying.

Elena was gone.

And Kane and I?

We both wanted her back.

"Why the fuck would he take her?" Kane growled, pacing back and forth. His hands were still shaking, his entire body radiating barely controlled violence.

I ran a tongue over my teeth, thinking.

Ace.

That son of a bitch.

It had been years since we’d seen him. Years since we’d crossed paths, since he’d nearly destroyed everything we had.

Ace wasn’t just another random enemy. He wasn’t just some enemy lurking in the shadows.

No—he was personal.

He had been one of us.

Once.

Back when Kane and I were still learning to survive, back when we were still figuring out what we were. Back before the betrayal.

Before he showed us that some monsters are worse than us.

And now he had Elena.

"She’s leverage," I muttered, rubbing my temples as the darkness inside me twisted and burned. "You know what he’s like. He doesn’t take—he plays. He’ll make her a piece in whatever sick little game he’s running."

Kane’s eyes flashed. "Then we end the game."

I let out a sharp laugh. "Oh, sure. And how do you plan to do that, Alpha? You gonna track him with your wolf nose? Because in case you haven’t noticed—" I gestured at the empty road. "We have nothing. No trail. No leads. Just a whole lot of fuck-all."

Kane bristled, his rage dangerously close to snapping.

But then—

A scent.

Faint. Almost invisible under the layers of rubber and gasoline.

My head snapped to the side at the same time Kane’s did.

We inhaled—

And we smelled blood.

Not Elena’s.

But Ace’s.

A slow, sharp grin spread across my face. "Well, well," I murmured. "Looks like our mate isn’t as helpless as you thought."

Kane’s shoulders tensed. His expression was a mixture of pride and absolute fucking terror.

Because if Elena had hurt Ace—really hurt him—then that meant one thing.

He wouldn’t let it go.

This wasn’t just a kidnapping anymore.

This was war.

And for the first time in years—

Kane and I?

We were on the same side.

"What had possessed me back there...I know you know what was wrong with me" Kane asked? accused? I don’t know but I guess it about time he knows how the fuck I sacrificed for him with me absorbing his darkness while he got to run around a good perfect alpha he thought himself to be. So I told him the fucking truth, "That’s your fucking darkness stupid. You always had it but i absorb it from you so that’s why I am always...." I stopped he got want I meant, that why I was always dark with dark humour and careless attitude. He knew he knew how I always am and it’s because of his stupid darkness .

Kane stared at me, his chest rising and falling, still trying to catch his breath. The rage that had consumed him moments ago was gone, replaced by something uglier.

Confusion.

Denial.

And just the tiniest bit of fear.

He didn’t want to believe it. Didn’t want to acknowledge what I had just said.

But he couldn’t ignore it either.

Because deep down? He knew.

"You’re lying," he said, but his voice lacked conviction. His fists clenched at his sides. "I would know if—"

"If what?" I cut in, mocking. "If you were a fucking monster? If you had something so rotten inside you that it would’ve torn you apart years ago if I hadn’t been there to take it?" I let out a sharp laugh, shaking my head. "Face it, Kane. You’ve never been the perfect Alpha you pretend to be."

His jaw locked. "That’s not true."

"Isn’t it?" I tilted my head. "Tell me, Kane—when you were chasing Elena, when you were hunting her like she was nothing but prey—did that feel like you?"

His breath hitched.

I saw it then.

The moment the truth hit him.

Like a knife between the ribs, sharp and brutal.

I could almost hear the thoughts racing through his head, the memories piecing together. The times he’d lost control. The times he’d felt something in him pull him toward the edge—something he had always chalked up to me.

But it had never been just me.

It had been him, too.

"You always had it," I said, voice softer now, but no less sharp. "You just never had to deal with it. Because I was the one who took it. I took all your fucking darkness, all your rage, all your fucked-up urges, so you could run around being the golden fucking Alpha you thought you were."

I scoffed. "And you know what, Kane? I never even asked for a thank you."

Silence.

A long, heavy silence.

Kane looked at me, his expression unreadable.

And for the first time in my life, I didn’t know what he was thinking.

But I didn’t care.

Because I wasn’t looking for his sympathy.

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