I squinted at his chest to see if it still rose and fell. Weren’t we more difficult tokill?
In a croaky whisper that barely carried over Liam’s barking, I asked, “Ishe. . .?”
Ignoring our Alpha, August stepped over the prostrate body. And then his arms were around me and his face burrowed into my hair. “Yes. He’s gone. He can never hurt you again. He’sgone.”
Both my neck and navel burned, one with blood and the other with fear and fury. The dregs of adrenaline made me shiver so hard my teeth rattled. All of my bones felt as though they wererattling.
“Are you sure?” Imurmured.
“Sweetheart, I severed his windpipe. Even we can’t—” A gutturaloomphsurged out of August as we rocketed forward, hitting the yellow painting on the wall. He cushioned the back of my skull with his palm, his knuckles getting the brunt of theblow.
What the?I peeked over his shoulder and found Liam back in skin, his incendiary gaze burning a hole into August’sback.
“Liam!” I gasped at the same time August wheeled around, muscles twisting beneath hisskin.
Our Alpha punched August in the jaw. “What part ofnodidn’t you understand,Watt?”
August growled, “Aidan was a threat to the pack, and to Ness. He didn’t deserve to live. He should’ve been killed six yearsago!”
Liam snarled. “You don’t realize what you’ve just done, doyou?”
“I neutralized athreat.”
“Neutralized a threat?” Liam snorted. “This isn’t the fucking Marines,Watt!”
“Liam, calm down,” Isaid
“Calm down?” He yanked on the roots of his hair as though trying to tear it off his scalp. “Do you not remember what we promised Morgan,Ness?”
What we’d promisedMorgan?
Whathadwe promisedMorgan?
Oh. . .
Realization hit me as hard as a kick to thegut.
“Yeah.” Liam bobbed his head a tad maniacally. “I hope you’re ready to duel, because now, it’ll be on theirterms.”
“What are you talking about?” Augustasked.
“I’m talking about the fact that we promised Morgan no harm would come to her son or her cousin until after the duel! I’m talking about the fact that if one of them died at our hands, then the choice of time reverted back to them! That’s what I’m talking about!” Spittle flew out of Liam’s mouth and smacked August’s grindingjaw.
“Lucy . . .” I whispered, my fingers coming up to my neck. Wetness slicked my shaky fingertips. “She’s the one who attacked him. She’s not a Boulder. We can pin the murder onher.”
Liam’s nostrils pulsed, and his shoulders still heaved, but his heart rate was slowing. I could feel the echo of it in my own chest. “Our smells are all overAidan.”
“We could burn him and his house down.” The new voice had me peering past August’s rigidarm.
Cole was crouched over Aidan’s lifeless form, fully clothed, which told me he’d come by car. Matt and Lucas, though, prowled beside him, both infur.
“Aidan said he called the Creeks,” I said. “That they were on theirway.”
“He was bluffing.” August’s voice was alarminglyflat.
“How do you know?” I stepped around August whose temper had bled into his eyes, stamping out their naturalbrilliance.
“I’ve been around enough people likehim.”
