“Got his gun,” Erik said almost casually.
Seth didn’t care. Right now, his mate was in danger. “One chance, Fred.”
Fred pressed the barrel harder against Mia’s soft flesh, and she levered up onto her toes, gasping. Fear wafted from her, along with determination. Even so, she kept her focus on Seth, waiting, faith glimmering there. She angled her leg back, no doubt to hook Barnby’s knee and take him down. He shifted his weight, halting her.
Wolf instincts were better than a human’s.
She swallowed and stilled, her gaze remaining on Seth. His woman trusted him to save her from one of his own, and he would. Always.
“You’re doing great, Mia. Just breathe and trust me.” He kept moving.
Fred shoved so hard with the gun that Mia winced, trying harder to stand on her toes. “Everything we’ve done was for the pack. For the good of the pack.”
“You shot my father,” Seth said quietly, moving closer.
“Just as a warning, and not to kill. I didn’t kill him,” Fred whined. “He survived the bullets as well as that silly fire at his home. I was just trying to make a statement that he needed to choose an heir and smooth things over for all of us.”
Seth let the animal take over inside him. Instincts would rule. “Let her go. Now.”
Fred’s jowls worked furiously. “This wasn’t our fault. You don’t understand. We have to make this right.” His eyes widened, and his desperation this close smelled like sulfur. “It’s all her doing. Mia Stone. She’s human. Everything was fine until she got here. Don’t you see? If you won’t save everyone, then we will. This is for our pack.” His finger tightened on the trigger, and his shoulders settled as if he’d made a decision.
Seth moved instantly, faster than any animal alive. He shoved his hand between the barrel and Mia’s flesh, pivoted, and twisted his wrist so the weapon flew through the air. In one smooth motion, he shoved his mate to the side and slashed out with his claws, digging deep into Fred’s neck, ripping down, and then back up. A quick side-swipe had the bastard’s head rolling off his body and beneath a huckleberry bush.
Mia gasped, stumbling back, her neck already bruising. Her eyes widened on the body as it flopped to the mud and fell sideways. She held a hand to her neck, paling until a thin blue vein showed on her temple.
A collective murmur rolled through the onlookers. Wolves were fast, but Seth was in a category all his own.
He turned for the next threat, only to pause at seeing Frank’s head roll across the mud, Erik’s claws out and bloody. A spray of red covered Erik’s chest and lower jaw, and if anything, he looked bored.
Seth had taught him that expression.
Erik focused and looked at Mia and then at Seth, giving a short nod.
Seth did the same. His brother had been there for him when he needed it, and he’d never forget it. Making sure he’d sheathed his claws, he reached for Mia and dragged her against his side. She shook violently but stood straight, her feet solid on the ground. “Anybody who touches her dies. Alpha or not, pack or not. Period.”
Nobody dared challenge him.
Ralph Fulsome looked down at the headless bodies. “So who killed Ben? Which one of them?”
Erik set his stance. “To take down our father, even though he had been shot several times the day before? It had to have been both of them.”
Seth didn’t much care at this point. They’d burned down his cabin, set fire to his father’s house, and then threatened Mia. They deserved the deaths they’d received. “They don’t get the pack funeral.”
Again, nobody argued.
Alice kicked Fred’s leg and then stumbled toward the trees, her head down, her shoulders stooped. A bite mark still showed on her neck, and the scratches and bruises from the fight with the Barnbys were still raw and painful looking.
The skies clapped with thunder, and then the clouds stretched and opened wide like the mouth of a snake. Water poured down in rivulets, not drops, squelching the fire and drenching the spectators.
“Under a tree.” Seth nudged Mia toward the tree line, motioning for Ralph to cover her back.
The man nodded, moving to her side.
For two beats, nobody spoke. A couple of the younger wolves looked at each other and shuffled their feet. Everybody else just looked at the brothers in the circle of death.
It was time.
Seth walked toward his brother in the middle of the clearing, steam rising from his clothing. They’d discussed this while building the scaffolding for the pyre, and even though Erik had argued, Seth was holding strong. He’d said his goodbyes then, leaving to set plans in motion during the afternoon. It was done. He didn’t even have the thought of vengeance to keep him going any longer since the Barnbys were dead. Somebody else would have to solve the recent murders, and Mia wouldn’t like that.
