“For fuck’s sake, D. Submit.”
I wrestled with him on the ground, me in my human form, him in his wolf. I’d learned not to shift to my wolf form when Diesel lost his sense of humanity; it only made his wolf fight harder and dirtier. I punched his wolf in the ribs, heard the crack, got a swipe of his left claw across my chest, and felt the blood flow freely.
Rowen was going to lose her shit when she came back in. So much for saving the house.
His wolf bit into my shoulder again, tossed me back and forth like a rag doll, and then flung me toward the kitchen. I landed against the wall with a thud.
Enough was enough.
“Enough!” The roar of my Will echoed around the Hollow. “Submit.” My alpha power raced through my veins, my body vibrating with the hum of its power. “I saidsubmit.”
His wolf cowered. But the eyes, Goddess, it was all in the eyes. He lunged again, and my fist connected with the wolf’s muzzle. A whimper at the impact, and he was out.
I looked around the living room. “My wife is going to kick your ass,” I muttered, using my Will to force his change back into his human form. I tossed a rug over his naked body. Rowen didn’t need to see that. I didn’t need to see it either. I quickly pulled off my clothes, shifted to heal the wounds he’d inflicted on me, and then dressed again just as quickly. That was my plan until I held up my shirt and saw it was more or less scrap material.
“Asshole,” I muttered as I stepped over him and went into the bedroom to get fresh clothes. When I came back out, Killian, Brand, and Rowen were surveying the damage.
“Why didwego outside?” Rowen demanded. “We could have saved the house if you’d gone instead.”
“Giving him more space just makes the fucker wilder,” Killian told her, picking up a cushion from the couch. Seeing it in one piece, he plopped it back onto the couch, which was sitting ruined.
“Solana—”
“We know,” Brand said quickly. “I called Cale, too.” He didn’t look at Rowen, but the accusation was clear in his eyes. “I fell for it completely. How many others have sworn to you, Alpha, and lied?”
“You better not mean me,” Rowen growled at him as she tried to fix an overturned plant pot. “You need to do itagain,” she told me. “You need to use it harder and just like you did with him.”
“Use what? My Will?” I was already shaking my head. “No.”
“Then you’re a fool,” Diesel said as he sat up, shaking his head and looking around. “Who did I hurt?”
“Only yourself,” I told him. “Keep the rug on.”
Diesel looked over at Rowen. “She’s seen it before.”
“For your sake, that better be a lie.” I glanced at my wife, who was very carefully not looking at me. “I’m not a fool,” I told Diesel. “Forcing you to submit when your darker side comes out to play is one thing, forcing my Will on the pack? I did that.”
“You tickled them.”
Killian shrugged when he saw my look. “You used barely any of your alpha power, and it cost us. It will continue to cost us until you accept your birthright and own this fucking pack.”
“I am their alpha.”
“Are you?” Brand asked. He was looking at the damage in the room. “Or are you playing house?” He studied Rowen, then me. “A woman you believed was loyal to you got into our pack, into ourhomes, and then once she was settled, she went into our most precious of homes and tried to slash Grandfather’s throat open.”
“He’s okay,” Rowen told me, feeling my reaction through the bond. “Your grandmother. The grandmother?” She hurried on. “She stabbed her with her knitting needle.”
“You said submit,” Brand said, looking outward. “How many still stood when the command came out?”
I hated that they were right.
“Gather them all.” My tone left no room for argument. “Split them into three groups. Killian, Brand with one. Diesel, Rowen, with another. Axel, Cody, and I will do the third. I’ll issue the command tonight. We’ll see who falls.”
“Tonight?” Diesel asked, standing, dropping the rug, not caring, smirking at the speed at which my wife turned away. “No, now.”
“No.Tonight.” I looked around the room. “I have a young boy to find first.”
“I’ll come with you,” Rowen said, reaching for my hand. She turned to look at Diesel over her shoulder. “You owe me a couch.” When he said nothing, she turned to look at them all. “My pack is not one of traitors. I know it’s hard to believe that right now. But this is not who we are. Please, keep an open mind.”
