Wolfe lifted his head from mine and faced his beta. “Invigorating.”
Diesel swung, and Wolfe caught his fist effortlessly. “Careful, wild one,” he murmured, so low that I had to strain to hear him. “She’s still not happy with you.” Wolfe dropped Diesel’s fist and turned to the gathered pack.
“Kneel.”
I balked at his command, but one look at his profile, and I did as commanded by my alpha.
“I do not ask you to kneel from pride. I do not ask you to kneel because I can. I do not ask you to kneel to remind you of the power I hold.”His voice turned soft. Almost gentle. “I ask you to kneel so you do not fall.”
I watched him from where I knelt. His hair was pushed back, stubble lined his jaw, his T-shirt stretched across broad shoulders, sleeves tight around his biceps. His eyes still shone silver with the power of an alpha. The power gifted by the Goddess. I turned my head fractionally and looked towards the ridge.
I’d been up there many a time. I never met the Goddess. But then I wasn’t stupid enough to think I could jump across the yawning mouth of a mountain.
“Our enemies have been at our gates. They have been on our land, spilling our blood. They have used deception at every turn. Now they use our children.”
The pack murmured.
“No more.”Wolfe’s voice was as hard as granite. “I have been summoned to the Pack Council to answer for my crime of being an alpha to two packs. But I am alpha toonepack.”
Again, the murmur, a slight hint of fear that he was leaving us. I know they thought that, because for a moment, so did I.
“I hold two territories,”Wolfe continued. “Both strong with the land. Both strong with the hold of the Goddess.”Wolfe seemed to get bigger, fill out. “Iamyour alpha. By the claim of the named heir, by the claim of the land, and by the claim of the Hollow’s daughter.”
I swallowed nervously, not liking the fact that I could feel many eyes rest on me and not their alpha.
“I bow to no one.”He stood taller. “Not even the Goddess.”Gasps rang out, but he ignored them. “Luna does not ask me to bow. She does not ask me to yield. She commands me tolead.”
I felt it then. The pressure at the base of my skull, slight at first but growing stronger. I winced as the pressure grew but had nowhere to go.
“I did this once before, because I felt I had no choice. With the lies of this pack still being revealed, again you give meno choice. By my Will and the grace of the Goddess, show me your heart.”
The pressure increased so much that I cried out, my body fell forward, hands digging into the dirt as I fought to remain upright. I felt him in my head, in my heart, in my veins. His alpha power consumed me until I was crying. My body writhed trying to escape the pain, but there was nowhere to go. Nowhere to hide that he would not find me.
I was at his mercy.
And I hated it.
Wolfe was right. We shouldn’t have made him do this. This was too much. Too severe. I cried out again as the pain intensified. I was his mate; if the pain was this bad for me, what must others be feeling?
Something inside me ripped apart. I screamed as power filled me. Nothing I had ever felt before, it rushed into my body like water spilling into the ground, filling up everywhere, saturating my body, my blood, my very essence.
I had to stand. I struggled to push myself upwards, but I did. On shaky feet, I stood, my face wet with tears, and slowly I raised my head and looked into the eyes of my husband.
My mate.
My…enemy?
The thought made me stumble backwards. My hands at my mouth. No.No. I fought as the power raced to completely fill me.
No!
I pushed it down. Away. No more.
“Reject it.”
The whisper in my ear was loud, filling my silence with a shout. Panting, I closed my eyes.
“Reject it.”
