Just in case a killer was making his way toward her.
The fire burned,smoke rising high to rest against the underbellies of the swollen clouds at dusk. For now, they held their contents, but the heated wind promised an oncoming storm—another one.
Seth stood, feet braced, watching his father’s soul climb into the heavens from the scaffolding that he and Erik had silently built together.
His people, or what had been his people, were all silent as they witnessed the end of this life for their Alpha. The rolling smoke obliterated their scents, but he felt their hurt and strength. His chest felt hollow, and the world around him seemed altered. More like the shadow of a moving object. Was this grief? So much anger boiled inside him that it was difficult to tell. His vengeance would be slow and painful when he found his father’s killer—after he got Mia to safety.
Alice stood closest to the burning flames, her bandaged body looking fragile. Tears streamed down her still-bruised face. Her pain was palpable even through the thickened air. Why had she and his father never mated? It was a pity, and now it was too late.
Seth’s body ached, and his wolf wanted to strike. He’d recognize the people around him in a darkened room. He knew their scents. While he’d never been in the center of anything, this was his home. He’d miss his pack.
Mia slipped her slender hand into his again, offering comfort. Offering herself. She barely reached his neck, yet he could feel her resolve. Her strength.
The embers began to die down before Seth caught his brother’s eye. Erik stood a pace away, watching his father, his chest forward, head up, his heart breaking through the breeze with a scent of such sorrow it banished the smoke. But gone was the lost kid or the fun-loving party animal. A fully formed and furious Alpha stood in their place, ready to exact vengeance on anybody who crossed him.
Seth would miss him most of all. They didn’t share a biological father, but they’d spilled and commingled enough blood through the years that theywereblood.True blood.
Erik’s eyes had darkened with pain. He lifted his chin.
Seth did the same.
Voices stirred to the right of the pyre, and Seth turned, his body freezing. Frank Barnby walked out from behind a tree, a gun pointed at Mia’s head. “We need to talk.”
Seth instantly plunked her behind him, shoulders back and chest broadened so he’d take any bullets. His growl reverberated across the distance.
Erik edged toward them, moving swiftly and gracefully from the other direction.
Frank swallowed, his jowls moving, his broken arm still in a sling. His hair was greased back, and dirt marred his shirt as if he’d been hiding under a rock. “You need to listen to me.”
“I need to rip off your head,” Seth said, his calm voice at direct odds with the fury beating through his chest and boiling his blood.
Erik kept coming, death in his eyes, his movements coordinated.
Snarls erupted all around, but everyone stepped back out of deference. A couple of wolves pushed pregnant mates toward the tree line, but even those females were snarling and looked like they wanted a piece of the Barnby brother.
Frank blanched, his meaty mouth moving, and sweat rolling down his face, even though the day had cooled. “I didn’t kill Ben. I’d never do that.”
So Fred had shot their Alpha. Seth let his fangs slide free. Good to know. “You tried to burn down his house.”
“I did not. It was just a warning. A gentle one that it was time to pass the torch.” Barnby snorted a snot bubble back up into his bulbous nose. “The pack is in flux because of you two, and somebody had to do something.” The last came out as a whine.
Fury centered Seth. “Youdidburn down my cottage with my mate in it.” He sounded more animalistic than human now. “I clearly explained that she was mine, and I said she was under my protection.” He looked around at the various pack members just waiting for Erik to take off his head. “My vow was absolute, and I will retaliate before any other business is handled. Say whatever prayer you need to, Barnby. You’ve got twenty seconds.”
“With the fire, she wasn’t your mate yet,” Frank said, shuffling his large boots in the mud. “Honest. Please—”
A squawk sounded behind Seth, and he partially turned to see Fred yank Mia up against his chest, a gun to her neck. The man jerked her purse free, which held her weapon, and tossed it behind him into the trees.
Damn it. Seth had put her against a tree, not smelling anybody.
Her eyes were wide. She swallowed, her gaze caught his, and she calmed. Trusting him.
Seth slowly tilted his head. “Apparently, your brother wants to precede you into the afterlife, Frank. I’m happy to oblige him.” The smoke had covered Fred’s scent. His eyes were wild, his hand shook, and his terror filtered through the oxygen. He was a foot taller than Mia and had the perfect angle to destroy her brain. Panic tightened his features.
Seth turned to face him more fully, his claws extending at his sides. “Let her go, and I’ll make your death fast,” he promised. Nothing but Mia existed in his mind—in his world. “Draw one drop of blood, and you’ll beg for what’ll feel like forever.” He let the killer inside him, the one he had once tried to banish, be fully visible.
Fred paled to the color of chalk. His mouth moved, but no sound came out.
Seth stalked closer to him, his chest filling with the power of the wolf. Behind him, Frank cried out in pain.
