"Well, if it isn't little Lexei," one of the more deranged ones coos as he makes for the house from which Davin rules. "We were just about to come looking for you. Have you finished cowering in your hole early today, puppydog?" 

He doesn't even look at her. "Where is my brother," He demands, his flat tone underlined by a growl. 

"Davin's got the little bitch in his rooms. Why, do you want to join him?" She stalks forwards towards him, a crazed, hungry look in her yellow eyes. "He doesn't like to be disturbed, you know," she giggles, knowing this from personal experience. "Why don't you stay with us, instead?"

"Why go all that way," a heavily scarred beta agrees, following on her heels. 

"-Carina, wait," interjects a slightly more observant sycophant, having noticed something off about Alex's eyes, "I think-"

His thoughts come too late. Scowling, Alex lunges at Carina, far, far faster than she had been expecting - she just barely manages to slip back from the swipe of his claws and avoid getting her throat entirely torn out, receiving only a single deep scratch on the underside of her chin instead. Now on the back foot, however, she isn't so lucky a second time - Alex's next swipe, aimed at her belly, carves right into it and sends her screeching to her knees. 

The more observant beta makes a run for it, but the scarred one makes to attack him, managing to leave a set of claw marks along the arm he raises to block. Alex snarls at him and slams a fist into the middle of his torso, sending him wheezing to the floor next to the other beta. Then, he keeps moving - they're out of the way, and thus no longer important compared to his actual objective. Into the house he goes. 

Ennis goes to town. Tearing through some of the more annoying loyalists and psycopaths is very cathartic. He can't wait to be done with this pack. Alexei and James deserve to be free of them. They're almost pack. He can feel it just like he can feel the blood dripping off his face.

Kali stays close to Alexei. Any betas that try to interfere past this point will fail to get past her.

With his recent increase in power, Deucalion is a hair behind Alexei.

That's not why he falls behind when the other alpha arrives. He wants to make sure the boy finishes this himself, or he'll lose his chance.

Davin arrives just as the party reaches the large, open room on the first floor, where large scale meetings take place. He's clearly just come from wherever he's keeping Jamie - he smells of blood and sex, his hands, arms, and bare chest splattered with blood, and his fingers coated with it. His eyes scrape over the three alphas waiting for him when he arrives, assessing. He makes a small, surprised noise.  

"-I should have expected this, shouldn't I," he realizes, his eyes landing on Deucalion. The trio of betas he'd collected on his way down make for Kali while he speaks, but he ignores them in favour of the other two.  

Alex doesn't wait for an answer, having already been moving to attack him when he'd started talking. 

Davin is older, calmer, and while not a gifted fighter like Alex is, he is an experienced one - enough so to hold Alex off while also keeping some of his attention on the other people in the room. He plays it very safe, for now, doing his very best to minimize the amount of energy he spends on the newly-made alpha, taking as few scratches as he can manage and aiming for blows that will wound but not kill his opponent, hoping to shut him down without killing him. 

"What have you done with him?" He directs at Deucalion after a few moments, a little breathless, "What alpha did he kill... unless, no, you did something else, didn't you?" 

"I'm tempted to draw this out. I almost admire you."

Every werewolf in the room except perhaps Alexei can detect the lie. He's not even trying to hide it how much he admires Davin.

"I am sorry, for what that's worth."

It's not his kill, but he's here. One wrong move from one of the betas or Davin, and he'll use his natural (earned, ill-gotten) abilities to squash any hope of survival.

Alex growls, pushing himself to raise the ferocity of his attacks, his vision going pin-pointed as he discards all the surrounding distractions to focus on his target. The ease with which he appears to be fending him off infuriates him, and he channels that rage into the fight. This has a more... obvious effect than it really ought to. As his anger grows, his movements start having effects on the environment, the concrete floor cracking under his feet. A single blow connects with Davin's arm while he's distracted by a sudden upswing in fascination due to Deucalion's transformation, producing a loud cracking noise as it breaks at the point of impact. 

Davin staggers back, sharply cutting off a howl of pain before it can go on too long. 

"You won't change your mind?" He calls to Deucalion as he dances out of the way of the follow-up blows, voice tight with agony, "Think of what we could do together, alpha of alphas! I offered you this one already, though the complications would need to be resolved-" he has to stop to focus fully on Alex at this point, as the tempo of the fight reaches a new level, the young alpha fuelling his attacks with his fury at being ignored. 

"Have you ever heard the fable of the scorpion and the frog? I know my mind, and my regrets are nothing compared to the swathe of destruction you would have wrought if I allowed you to come too close. Perhaps I'll show you."

It'll earn Alex a moment of reprieve and give him a few scratches that might not heal, but it's worth it.

He gives Davin everything-

-the youthful idealism that led him to trust a hunter, of all people, despite the warnings of cooler heads-

-the excruciating pain as his eyes were removed, and the dull throbbing that subsided weeks later-

-the hopeless, heartfelt moment of vulnerability at his beta's side before the betrayal, the attempt on his life-

-the rage, the fury, and the destruction of his entire pack at his own hand, only possible due to loyal Ennis, who was willing to do the same if it meant Deucalion's loyalty, which he could promise without having to give-

-the months of seduction and insinuation, manipulation and intimidation, until Kali finally admitted that she was afraid, more than anything else, that her credibility as an alpha would be lost the moment her relationship with her emissary came out and the thrill of joy he felt when he made her worst fears come true-

-he completely loses track of the fight, turning to stare at Deucalion with wide, enthralled eyes. If his goal was to be a distraction, that goal has been met. If his goal was to drive the man to actual tears- well. The sum of Deucalion's life experiences might be the most incredible gift he's ever been given. The man might as well be the walking, talking proof of Davin's ideals. Suffering so extensive it breaks the core of who you are, allowing power and greatness - true beauty - to shine through. 

"Beautiful," he breathes-

-and then Alex drives his claws into his back. 

He chokes, hand coming up to clutch at his heart. Alex jerks his hand up once, tearing him open further - he gasps, a spray of blood leaving his mouth - and then retracts his hand, stepping back to let him fall to the floor. 

It's beautiful. He shouldn't be admiring the way the man dies, he thinks. He should be grieving the loss of that potential, or preparing to comfort Alexei when the remorse hits, but...he watches the blood, and Davin's face.

Kali works to clean up the betas. She's hungry.

It's not a slow death. If it had been a beta who tore open his heart, it might have been, his healing attempting to repair the damage. The damage came from an alpha, however. His healing doesn't stand a chance. A few more seconds of life is all he has as he bleeds out on the ground.

...his eyes are on Deucalion when the light leaves them.

Alex stares down at his corpse, perfectly still, mind blank with shock, feeling empty as the vast majority of his anger deserts him, leaving only echoes. The room is silent, aside from the sounds coming from Kali's direction.

Kali leaves the bodies when she's hard her fill. There's one more thing to do.

"Do you care what he do with his eyes? I always take them."

She directs this to Alexei; Deucalion knows what she's planning on doing.

He jerks a bit when she speaks, his head snapping up to look at her. 

"...No, I don't care what you do with him." He pauses, head twitching in the direction of Davin's rooms, where Jamie most likely is. He grimaces, but- 

"...Leave his heart," he amends. What's left of it, anyway. He'd left it a bit shredded.