Aleks leaned hard against the wolf’s side, half, I thought, because he needed to, and half to give the wolf a reason to stay still.
“The trees,” Aleks rasped, his eyes hooded from blood loss.
Grant had done this to him. His alpha. It was the only reason Aleks was still bleeding, and it was the reason Grant deserved every ounce of retribution coming his way.
“Watch the—” Aleks hissed, glaring now.
That was all I heard until a heavy, furry weight crashed into me. My senses had been filled with blood, the horror of seeing another wolf hurt and not healing.
I’d let my guard down, and Grant had taken his chance.
“Jax!” Dakota shouted.
We tumbled into the dirt. My shoulder hit first, and Grant’s claws raked my chest. They mostly caught on my shirt, but a sharp sting dragged across my skin in their wake.
He snapped his jaws at me, and I scrambled back.
He lunged for me, and it was all I could do to roll away and twist to get my legs under me. My arms.
I shifted, and then it was an all-out brawl.
Grant threw himself at me with every ounce of his strength. I was bigger, and maybe the better fighter in a fair one, so he’d only had the element of surprise to help him, and he was quickly losing that.
He darted in low, and his jaws locked on my front right leg. My bones snapped, and I howled in protest. But snapping bones? Yeah, our whole bodies reformed every time we shifted. It hurt, but the second I grabbed his neck in my mouth, jerking him around, he had to loosen his bite to adjust.
My bones stitched back together as fast as he’d broken them, and I was furious.
I jumped through the air and came down hard. His grunt when he hit the ground carried all the air that was in his lungs, and I tore at him with tooth and claw.
But even then, with him trapped beneath me, I?—
I didn’t go for his throat. Didn’t tear his belly apart.
It was a hard thing, to kill a werewolf, and even after everything, I didn’t?—
I didn’t fucking want to. I wanted him to submit, to admit defeat, to leave us the fuck alone, just like with Reeve. I’d never had that killer instinct people thought alphas needed. I didn’t want his blood on my fangs, in my mouth, on my hands.
As much as I wanted to be in this case, I was never going to be the kind of man to kill anybody.
I hadn’t killed Reeve.
I hadn’t killed Jiro.
I couldn’t kill Grant now, and if I couldn’t do what was necessary to defend my pack, what kind of alpha was I really?
This was the world we’d come from, and I was no more suited to it today than I’d been when we left.
38
Dakota
From behind.
Grant had attacked from behind.
The absolute sleaze of the man was incredible. It was a wonder he didn’t leave a slimy trail behind him when he moved through the world.
Instinctively, I turned my focus to him and called to mind the most destructive spell I could think of.
