The fight is a haze of furious motion. Two Alphas locked in a brutal and wild dance. Cathal snaps and twists, trying sink hiscanines into any part of Rennick he can reach, but Rennick’s wolf is a different creature entirely. Faster. Stronger. Every attack calculated. He moves like a liquid shadow and is almost unsettling in his grace.
Out of the corner of my eye, I catch Cathal’s enforcers exchanging glances, their bodies tightening as if they’re about to interfere. As if this is a moment they can exploit to their advantage.
Before they manage a single step, a massive burnt-umber-and-gray wolf steps out from their blind spot. Canaan. One low, lethal growl from him freezes them in place.
I try to breathe through it, but my lungs refuse to cooperate. My chest is tight, my ribs protesting every inhale. My own wolf is frantic, pacing the confines of her cage. I’m certain she’ll absolutely lose her shit if Rennick sheds even a single drop of blood.
The healer side of my brain tries to reason that I can handle an injury. I’m trained for it. But the omega part of me—the budding and increasinglylouderpart—isn’t on board with exercising rationality at the moment, and suddenly my wolf isn’t the only one ready to unravel at the thought of him getting hurt.Well…shit.
At my back, Siggy shifts closer, and I reach for her. Her fingers are cold and trembling in mine. I squeeze once, trying to tether both of us to something solid. It’s not working.
It happens fast—Cathal suddenly weasels free of Rennick’s hold and pivots sharply, eyes looking at me. There’s no thought or humanity in them. Only seething hate. I freeze, shock and fear turning me into stone. Siggy tenses at the same moment Cathal charges.
I barely have time to flinch before another blur of movement crashes into us.
A wall of fur and solid muscle slams into my side, hard enough to send me sprawling. My breath rips out of me as I hit the ground, Siggy’s startled cry echoing from somewhere close by. The impact rattles through my bones, leaving my ears ringing and my vision spinning at the edges.
My palms scrape against the gravel as I start to push myself upright.
I freeze halfway.
There’s a massive wolf positioned above us.
The dark sable beast who’d been standing with Rhosyn before.
The alpha male plants himself between us and the chaos, his head low. He’s broad enough to cast shadows on my torso. He isn’t attacking. He’s guarding us, using his own body as a shield.
His molten amber eyes flick toward me, then to Siggy.
She whimpers at his direct attention, the sound small and terrified, the kind of noise that makes my chest ache because I know the root cause of it. I move without thinking, crawling forward to shelter her. My own body quakes with wariness but remains determined. I don’t know this alpha, but my job is to protect my Nightingale, my own wary omega instincts be damned.
The big male goes still at the sound of her distress, nostrils flaring as he breathes deep, no doubt taking in the scent of her fear. Something quiet flickers through him, something barely notable, but it’s enough to have him shifting his stance. Slowly, his posture softens.His black ears lift from where they’d been pressed flat to his skull and he stands taller, relaxing from his menacing, coiled position.
He doesn’t move any closer. Only watches, the weight of his sideways stare intense.
I help Siggy up slowly, guiding her back until we’re pressed against the wooden railing of the lodge’s porch. Hand firmly inmine, I make sure she’s solid on her feet before I risk another glance at the stranger. He’s already turned back to the fight.
I do the same.
Rennick now holds Cathal to the ground, the dark mass of him looming over the other Alpha. His teeth are clamped around Cathal’s throat, deep enough that blood has already begun to mat the fur there.
My heartbeat kicks up. He could end it now. Just one motion. One brutal twist of his head.
I don’t need to touch Rennick’s thoughts to know that he’s thinking the same thing—that the already threadbare line between justice and revenge is starting to blur beneath his feet. I just can’t tell which side he’s currently standing on. And I’m no clear where I stand myself.
Then Talis screams.
“No!Daddy, please!”
She drops to her knees in the gravel, shaking, sobbing, begging Rennick to stop. Begging her father to yield because the ancient law is absolute. Every wolf here knows it. Submission is the only thing that can save him now. And for men like Cathal, pride makes death easier to stomach than falling on his sword and admitting defeat.
Rennick’s wolf doesn’t move. His ghostly eyes hold a merciless gleam as his jaw tightens its grip enough to draw more blood. Cathal thrashes once, a weak, futile attempt to free himself. Talis continues to plead with her father. Then, finally, he goes limp. A low, broken whine spills from his throat as he exposes it further, stretching his neck as far as Rennick’s unyielding hold will allow.
Complete submission.
Rennick bites down just a little harder, just to prove his unspoken point and to draw out one more gush of crimson. Then he releases Cathal.
Rennick eases back half a step, his eyes staying fixed on the ruddy heap in the dirt. It’s the look of a predator hovering over a fresh kill that he’s aching to finish off.
