Vega scoffed, thumbing his nose. “You make me sound like a predator.”
“If the shoe fits,” Keon quipped, ready to force Vega to face reality. “Youarea predator. Always have been.” He wished he’d seen it sooner. Rejected Vega years ago. Drawn a line under this whole mess. He’d have stayed in Dnara, never coming home except to visit, and he’d never known Milo and Weston, his team, his friends. Never changing Vihaan for the better.
Vega sneered, scuffing a boot against the forest floor. “I bumped into Haley during the challenge. She’d escaped her father to watch the fight, cheering you on because she wanted Usher beaten bloody. To see her father lose, for once,” he explained, gloating like Haley’s anger made her like him. “We talked and I recognised the frustration burning under the surface. I let it fester, fed the fire, as you grew closer to Milo. Stealing his attention, his love, until she shared my hatred of you.”
For a teenage girl who thought her last remaining family was abandoning her, as everyone else had, it would be easy to believe. As Milo had found it hard to believe Keon wanted him, because no one had, why should Haley believe Milo was different to every other family member who left her?
Vega was a master manipulator, adept at finding a weakness, exposing it, and using it against people. It was cruel. Vicious. Everything Vega couldn’t see he’d become, long ago.
“You think I didn’t see? Didn’t know she was jealous?” Keon retaliated to keep him on the defence, relieved Haley wasn’t here to hear. “We did everything we could to include her and make her feel like she was part of our family.”
“Hmm, and it nearly worked.” Vega glared at Valora when she took a step closer. The silent order was instantly obeyed, the man uncaring as he played with his food. “I told her you’re my true mate and said we’d use your mating with Milo to take control of Thatcher’s pack, killing her, Milo, and her whole family to eliminate the threat. After that, she’d never hated you more.”
The gloating grated on Keon’s last nerve, but Haley was as feisty as Milo. He feigned disinterest to ask, “How long until she realised you’re full of bullshit?” He doubted her anger had lasted more than an hour. Long enough to plan but not follow through. Long enough for her to realise Keon wasn’t a killer.
Vega glared at Valora. “Until Valora stood outside her bedroom window. Jealous I’d be interested in a child. Haley crept out her window, and Valora smashed her head into the wall. Gave her a nasty nosebleed, but it knocked her out cold and we brought her with us. She woke hours into the trip and made trouble. Tried to run a few times.” He gestured absently to the man. “Evelo is good at hunting prey.”
Nausea rose at the disgusting words. “You see prey when you look at her, don’t you? Not a person. Someone to be used and discarded when she’s no longer of use,” Keon said, wondering when Vega had gone from a selfish egoist to this picture of insanity. Had it progressed this much while Keon was at college, unable to see the slow but steady unravel?
“Why not? You discarded me.”
“You’re insane,” he said, wishing he’d seen the truth years ago. “Youwerean irritation, clingy, and stupid, butnowyou’re a paranoid stalker, consumed by a superiority complex and sociopathic nature.”
“Enough talking!” Valora grabbed her dagger and rushed at Keon to point it at his neck. Though Milo’s paw twitched, needing to rush in, Keon held firm. Valora had already proven she wouldn’t act without Vega’s permission. “Gut him!” she tossed over her shoulder, unwilling to do it herself, holding him in place to let Vega have the honour.
“Gut me?” Keon spat in her face. She stumbled three steps, wiping at her cheek, as Vega grabbed her arm and pulled her aside. “Neither you, macho man, or this shithead would know how,” he promised, meeting Vega’s gaze. “You want me? Give it your best shot.”
Valora took a step as Vega’s gaze drifted toward Milo. Assessing, calculating. Probably prepared to attack Milo, in an attempt to weaken Keon through their bond. Which meant he’d recognised and accepted their mate bond.
Refusing to wait, Keon grabbed Valora by the throat, dragged her off her feet, and tossed her at Gale, who locked his jaw around her ankle, leaving Keon free to advance on Vega and take him by the throat. “If you touch my mate, I’ll kill you,” he warned, watching Vega as the threat sank in, amusement leaching into fear. “I’ll latch my teeth around your throat, put my paw on your chest.” He held a hand to Vega’s chest, over his heart, and whispered, “Rip out your larynx and watch the light fade from your eyes, knowing you’re gone from my life forever!”
When Evelo stopped eating and stood, Janet emerged from the darkness. He spun, dodging her attempt to latch jaws around his arm. He rolled across the camp, shifting into his m’weko as he rose on four sure paws. He lunged for Janet, and Valora slashed at Gale.
Stuck in the middle, Jude hesitated.
Go, Milo called, heading for Janet. Giving Jude permission to help his mate, by dividing the work. Leaving Keon with Vega, despite his need to rend the man limb from limb.
“See that?” Keon resisted the urge to dig claws into his neck. “He wants to rip you to pieces, but he’s putting this pack,ourpack, ahead of his desires. He’s doing what is right, because he cares about them, about me, and about what we’re building, more than he cares about satisfying his needs,” he said, which Vega had never been capable of.
While he’d never been meant for the Alphaship, it was his, and Keon would do anything in his power to be the best leader to his pack, for his people. Which meant he needed a mate to stand by his side, tall, proud, and strong. Reliable, trustworthy, dedicated, and smart. Everything Vega could never be.
Valora and Evelo broke free of their fights, Valora abandoning her ineffective knife and shifting to a brown m’weko that played dirty. Gale went into attack mode, as Janet and Jude herded the two strangers into the centre of the camp, shutting off their escape. Allowing Milo to limp to the edge of the camp, where it was safer.
Whether he was hurt from his condition or the fight, Keon couldn’t sense panic or fear through the bond. If he was hurt, Keon would dip into the herbal mixture to get him home.
“Kill me,” Vega murmured, choking when Keon’s hand instinctively tightened.
“No. You’ll live,” he promised, keeping one eye on the fight and another focused on Vega. “You’ll live to face Farley to be punished for what you did to Haley. You’ll face her to confess your crimes, so she doesn’t go to sleep every night, terrified.”
Jude snapped at Evelo’s neck, as Valora wriggled free of Gale’s hold to slam against Jude’s hip, knocking the m’weko off his feet. Janet rushed to help, while neither minion showed upset or concern over Vega’s predicament.
“You’ll be taken to the shevoo compound and left, like a criminal, because you can’t be trusted around your own kind. You’ll disappear into a place you can never run from or escape, and let Haley live without fear. Without feeling like she can never trust anyone.” It wasn’t the vengeance his m’weko wanted, but the shevoo compound in Pequij was where they put any Vihaan who could no longer roam free. Those who couldn’t be trusted. The last of the shevoo would guard them and keep them in line. If they survived the fight, his cohorts would join Vega to endure imprisonment and solitude until their last breath.
Valora and Evelo worked well as a team. Stronger, fiercer, and harder to separate when they pressed their backs and circled. Though his team were strong fighters, no entry point was visible. They had to wait for one of the strangers to emerge for a swipe, a bite, a lunge, creating an opportunity to fight. They took turns stepping close, letting Valora and Evelo hit out as the other two tried to attack. A dangerous game, baiting and attacking, but Keon couldn’t take the risk of focusing.
Vega was a squirmy bastard. Hoping to appeal to his better nature and escape, the coward would run at the first sign of weakness. Keon refused to show it.
“You did this to her. You’ve forced her to hurt her brother, to behave in a way she never would have without your influence. You’ve taken something that can never be recovered. You’ve taken her innocence, her ability to trust, her childhood.”
