“This is so fucking weak,” Caidrik said, and his voice shook with the effort of holding himself back, “take the silver off her.”
Bulwark wiped blood from his mouth and smiled, his canines already elongating. “She’s not yours, brother.” He shifted easily into wolf form, sending out a wave of energy.
That was it.
Caidrik felt his wolf roar into being wide awake, hard enough to steal his breath. He stopped fighting it and shifted into the animal at his core. The one he kept trying to tame. Bones snapped and reformed, pain flaring and then burning away as strength flooded his body. He went for Bulwark without hesitation, teeth snapping for the arm that had been on Nadia.
Luca shifted too, the air filling with snarls and the sound of bones reforming. Snow churned beneath them as the three collided, bodies slamming together in a mess of fur and muscle and violence.
Power thrummed through Caidrik, and the scent of Nadia, standing there caught in silver, drove all humanity to the abyss. He struck to kill.
Bulwark was strong. Stronger than most. He took hits that would have dropped another wolf and kept coming, driving his weight into Caidrik again and again. Caidrik tore into him anyway, teeth sinking into shoulder and flank, refusing to give ground even when pain blew bright and sharp along his side.
Luca darted in and out, snapping and retreating, looking for openings. Cowardly. Calculated. Caidrik caught him by the muzzle and crushed down until Luca yelped and tore free, blood spraying across the snow. The silver cuffs had to have been his. While Bulwark had no conscience, he didn’t need to use silver.
He was strong enough to kidnap anybody.
So Luca had been making a move? The Ravencall wolves had been with him.
Bulwark raked claws across Caidrik’s ribs, and white-hot pain tore through him. He barely felt it past the fury.
They broke apart for half a second, circling, breath steaming. Nadia had scrambled back against the SUV, cuffs glowing faintly, her scent sharp with fear and anger. Caidrik clocked it all even as he lunged again.
Bulwark drove him back, slamming him into the SUV hard enough to rattle it. Nadia flinched. Caidrik shoved off, fury burning through the ache in his body, and hit Bulwark with everything he had left.
Luca seized the opening and darted toward Nadia.
Something in Caidrik snapped.
He broke from Bulwark and slammed into Luca mid-lunge, taking him down hard. They rolled in the snow, snapping and tearing. Caidrik drove his weight down, teeth closing around Luca’s throat just enough to feel the pulse hammering there.
“Caidrik!” Nadia screamed, lunging for Bulwark before he could strike from behind.
Bulwark pivoted, in wolf form, and shoved her to the ground.
She couldn’t shift with the silver on her wrists, damn it.
Caidrik released Luca and turned, snarling, dripping blood onto the snow. Luca jumped on him from behind, his sharp teeth slashing into Caidrik’s neck. Caidrik lowered his head and jumped up, flipping them both over and landing on top of the Ravencall wolf. It was time to end this.
Bulwark spun and hit Caidrik, knocking him off Luca. The three of them collided again, a brutal tangle of bodies and teeth and rage that felt like it would never untangle cleanly.
Luca cried out, howling. Bulwark snapped his teeth into Luca’s ear, slicing half off. Luca quieted, gathering his strength, and snapped wildly with his fangs.
Bulwark disengaged first.
Howls echoed in the distance. Slate Pack soldiers. They were coming.
Bulwark’s head jerked up, and he sniffed the air. Then he backed off two steps, gaze flicking to the tree line, turned and ran. Luca followed a heartbeat later, bolting in the opposite direction and disappearing into the forest.
Caidrik took one step after them, then stopped.
Nadia.
He turned back and shifted without thinking, human again in the snow, breath steaming, hands shaking with pain and rage and the delayed crash of fear. He crossed the distance in long strides and grabbed her wrists, hissing as the silver burned him too.
“Which one did this?” he demanded.
“Luca,” she said.
