Hugo's POV

An involuntary gasp left my lips when my body jolted in to the dining room as Damien's laughter mockingly rang throughout the mansion. Talia's ferocious roars of wrath could be heard from not too far away. Frieda peered at me with a troubled expression on her face as she hurriedly shoved the oldest concoction bottle roughly to my chest.

"Here, you need this" Frieda instructed. My eyes glanced at the bottle as I contemplated my move. I tried to remain composed and not explode in a paroxysm of fury. But a wave of rage swept through my body, making me determined to strike back which made me adamantly refuse to consume any drink to perk me up.

"I don't" I spat furiously, repudiating her offer. As the time ticked down, I turned to face Frieda. "But I'll need your help"

As I whispered the plan to her, she nodded in agreement. We swiftly teleported back to the living room of the mansion where Damien and Talia's wolf stood glaring up at me. I growled in irritation as I observed them side by side.

"Come on, Talia. Bring me his head!" Damien demanded as he admired the sight with a condescending sneer.

"Run, Hugo, please!" Talia mind-linked me out of a sense of urgency, but I had vowed to stand my ground. The hybridized form of Talia growled, bared her fangs, and clenched her paws, before charging directly at me.

"Frieda, NOW!" I yelled as Frieda called upon the combined might of her coven and let forth a blue hue that encircled Talia, trapping her inside the boundaries of a bubble. However Talia's strength was powerful even with the control of seven witches, as she retaliated by sprinting through the bubble continuously in order to smash through it.

"I . . can't hold her for much . . . long" Frieda muttered under her breath.

I then turned to gaze at Damien, who had yet to hide the smug grin from his face. He had the cocky expression of a person who enjoyed being completely in control and preferred it that way. There was an unspoken exchange between the both of us before I decided to break it off.

"Break your spell." I hauled my claws out and demanded imperiously.

"Or what?" Damien scowled sarcastically. I refused to accept that he was her true mate as he claimed to be, if their purported mate bond comprised him of compelling her at every wake.

"You're really going to let her do all your dirty work? Does that mean you don't have the balls to fight me yourself?" I smirked after slyly casting a sideways glimpse at Damien. My intention was to enrage Damien to the point where he would deliberately want to kill me off himself.

"Nah, I just enjoy the theatrics of it. And if I were to fight you, it'll be quick battle. You'd probably end up dying after just one blow. Where's the fun in that?" Damien shrugged his shoulders.

A devious smirk crossed his face as he presumed ways on how he could infuriate me with words alone. Thumps reverberated across the room as Talia plotted an escape route within the captivity of the bubble. Frieda shrieked, her eyes blind with tears whilst observing Talia's exposed fangs muffling a loud growl in a pitch of fury against her binding spell.

Damien observed Talia's struggle in the meanwhile, refusing to aid her against Frieda, almost as if he enjoyed watching our attempts at containing his compulsion.

Lifting up the small table, I threw it to the side managing to get his attention towards me. Damien's steely gaze fixed on me intently. He chuckled, his intriguing crimson eyes gleaming.

"Fight me and see for yourself because if anyone is dying tonight, it's you" I stared at him intently as Damien shrugged at my words whimsically. He took a few steps towards my direction, as though unprovoked by my threats. The very fact that I was a beta threatening him must have been comical to him. But I refused to allow our class disparity deter my will to protect my mate, in fact I dwelled on my instincts to fight him to death.

"I'm not going to lie, I admire your tenacity." Damien bowed slightly making a mockery of my words. As time was of the essence, I knew I had to pick up the pace. Frieda grunted loud before nudging me as she ran out of her magical mana.

"Hugo . . do something!" She whispered. I sensed her desperation as Damien scoffed at our amateurish attempts. Knowing there was only one person Damien actually cared about, I decided to make an apparent jab at her.

"Then fight me, you coward! Or did Jana Doherty raise you to be a pussy of a mate for Talia?" I hissed at him as the color from his face faded. His smugness quickly gave way to anger. But I wasn't done yet. I needed his anger to transmute into rage. Enough rage to want to kill.

"I'm curious. Was it a mommy and son kind of relationship or were you, you know, 'close' with Jana before she turned you into her experimental creature?" I continued as I smirked, seeing Damien's eyes erupt in rage at my insolent words.

"Don't you dare talk about my master!" He grunted while yanking out his razor-sharp claws.

"The barrier is going . .to . .break, Hugo" Frieda muttered. As the blue hues vanished in a cloud of smoke, Talia roared before sprinted furiously in my direction but Damien halted her.

"Stay here. I'll end this miserable beta's life myself" Damien stated explicitly. My gaze shifted to Talia as she transformed into a feeble human form and remained still on the ground rendering to his command.

"No, please. Don't hurt him." Talia pleaded, nearly sobbing, at first in silence and then out loud as she sprawled defenceless on the floor. I glared at Damien, who had grown into a wolf twice my size. With rage coursing through my entire body, I wasn't sure how this night would end but I knew I will fight to my death to ensure his demise.

"Let's go, Wolfie!" I nudged him one final time before transforming. Whilst both the wolves encircled each other growling ferociously, Wolfie wasted no time in initiating first contact. My claws gripped the marble flooring, lunging straight for Damien, and just as we made eye contact, he employed his magical powers to slam me up into the wall.

At impact, the wall frames that were imbedded snapped in half. Even if it wasn't a fair fight to begin with, I was well aware of how hybrids could exploit their magical abilities to their advantage. Thanks to all those trainings I got from Talia. This time, I chose to wait for him to approach me. Damien sprinted towards me, his claws elongated, and they struck against my chest. Wolfie howled in anguish, but I encouraged him to channel that pain into rage instead.

Lifting a wooden chair, Wolfie rams it onto Damien's head.

"That's the most you can do?" Damien mumbled as he linked to my mind.

"Oh you have no idea what I can do" I responded as our eyes glowed in unison. Alpha or not, I will do whatever it took to protect my mate. Even die fighting in her honour. But in this moment, I did everything in my power to come out strong. I didn't care if he was stronger than me. I didn't care if he was a hybrid. All I cared about was her. Her safety. Her life. Her future.

Damien rushes over to me, our bodies slamming against one another and tearing at one another. Our wolves demolished every furniture in the room, before eventually destroying everything in its path. My focus was diverted from the combat by Talia's cries, as Damien took advantage of the moment to bite into my unguarded shoulder. As my body soared, Damien hoisted me in the air and threw me against the door. My body burst through the mansion's door and plummeted on the garden grass. I fumbled to my paws as Damien jumped on my back haunches, barking at me.

With the full moon now hovered in the sky, I felt a sudden power surge through my veins. But with Damien towering over me, I struggled to overpower him. We were nose to nose breathing down each other's muzzles. He dug his claws deep as if he had a solid grasp on his prey. Just then Talia could be heard screaming in agony as her heat started to kick in. Both of our eyes glowed in attention glancing at the entrance of the mansion. Her cries echoed throughout the garden sending signals to my body that craved to relieve her pain.

"You hear that, beta? Her heat is calling for me. Bet she's amazing in bed" Damien spoke in a languid manner as he was hell bent on infuriating me.

"She is. Too bad you'll never know" I responded as Damien's demeanor transformed to a ferocious snarl. I made an effort to fend off his claws, which were deeply lodged onto my neck. However, he tightly heaved them on my fur, obstructing my airways. I struggled against him gasping for air, trying to retain control of the situation before he manages to separate my head from my body.

"Okay that's it, Goodbye pup. Die knowing that I'll fuck her right next to your dead body." Damien said before extending his steel grey claws. His ivory teeth protruded from between the jaws as his tongue moved around the mouth ready to devour me. My eyes glowed, remembering everything from my father's training as Wolfie got ready to use the one trick he's always taught us.

"Son, when you're left in an impossible situation where the odds are against you, always do the unthinkable. Something your enemy would have never anticipated. Something that would catch him completely off guard" Father's words resounded in my head like a mantra.

"SHE IS MINE!" I screamed at Damien, as the words echoed within the atmosphere.

Before Damien could react, I slammed my claws straight into his mouth in full force pushing through his canines, heedless to the excruciating pain. I used my other claws to pry Damien's jaw away from his face as his eyes widened in shock and rumbles emerged from his throat. He couldn't scream even if he wanted to. As his limping corpse slumped back into the ground, our wolves transformed into human form. But I wasn't done with him yet.

"GRRAAHH" I roared as I extended my claws, digging into his chest. "She's mine!"

"Hugo . ." Frieda's voice was hardly audible as she spoke.

Blood spattered everywhere as more clashing noises occupied the vicinity. As my claws dug deep into him nonstop, I growled "She's mine!"

"Hugo . . I think . . he's dead. He's dead, you've got to stop!" Frieda wailed.

But I didn't care as I carved into Damien's chest and stomach, pulling out his intestines and finally removing Damien's heart out of his body and shredding it into a million pieces. His blood and organ fragments rained down on my body.

"Hugo, he's dead. STOP!" Frieda screamed.

Finally I halted before turning to face her, Frieda gasped at seeing my face. I turned my gaze towards Talia who had managed to stand behind Frieda weakened by her heat. She grinned as her eyes fixed on me.

"Alpha . ." She murmured slowly before her legs gave out. Luckily I caught her in time. Lifting her in my arms, I stared at the love of my life. Proud that I had just killed a Hybrid to protect her. Proud that I wouldn't run away from a fight any more. Proud that she was indeed mine.

As I carried her in to the room, I took a quick glance at the mirror that corroborated her words earlier. My eyes were glistening in a scarlet red. I should have known it earlier. It was the full moon and the urge to protect my mate that had triggered the Alpha gene.

"Mine" I growled, pulling her closer to my chest.

"Yours" she whispered wrapping her arms around me as I whisked her to the shower to wash off Damien's stench.