“Then who is?”
“No one.”
My mouth opened but nothing came out.
I was stunned speechless.
I stared at him. Struggling to process the words he was saying because they made absolutely no sense. It was a good few seconds before I could speak. “You’re telling me he’s in his house. Alone. And no one is out in the forest checking the perimeters of our territory.”
“There might be the odd wolf out there, stretching their legs like they would on any other day. But essentially, yes. Things are back to normal.”
Rage barrelled through me.
White-hot and burning brighter by the second.
I cracked my neck as my fangs lengthened and claws slid out, slicing through the ends of my fingers. A half-shift was painful, more so than changing into my full wolf because it was gradual, harder to maintain, but in that moment I needed the pain to stop myself from lunging at Rys and taking out all my anger on him.
“Whose fucking idea was that?” I ground out, the words rough as I struggled to talk around teeth too big for my human mouth. Whoever was responsible for this, I was going to fucking kill them. I didn’t care if it was Dathal, Max, or Lady Sarhin herself, how could they—
“It was Axel’s.”
“What?” It came out as more of a growl, low and menacing, but Rys stepped into me instead of moving away.
“Talis.” He gripped my shoulders, and I roared in his face trying to shake him off me, but he was too fucking strong.
“Get off me.”
“No. You need to calm down.”
“Donottell me to calm down when Axel is out there all alone while some psychopath is just waiting for the chance to get to him.” I pushed against Rys’s hold, grabbing his hands to pry them off me, but I couldn’t move him and I hated it.
Hated him for ordering me to stay put when all I wanted was to run to Axel and ask him what the fuck he thought he was doing. “Let me go.”
“No.”
“What if it was Gabriel?” I hissed, getting right in his face. It was a low blow, but I was too far gone to care. “What if he was alone somewhere, using himself as bait, waiting for some nutter to come and kill him—”
Rys roared, eyes flashing, on the edge of shifting but his control was way better than mine. I hated that too, hated that he wouldn’t let go because and fight me because I fuckingneededhim to.
“I know this hurts,” he ground out, a hint of fang showing as he spoke. “But he’s tired, Talis. Tired of being a prisoner in his own home, tired of Zh’alek controlling his life yet again. I know you don’t like it, but if this is going to end any time soon, then it’s the only way.”
“No!” I snarled, lunging at him, desperate to break out of his hold, and this time he let me.
I was too far gone to think rationally, rage barrelling through me at lightning speed, and it needed an outlet. Rys stood in front of me, blocking my way to Axel with both his body and his alpha commands, and my wolf focused on him.
With a roar that startled the wildlife, I shifted, catching Rys off guard and barrelling him to the ground. He didn’t order me to shift back, or stop, or anything that would’ve put an end to this. Instead, he got a leg up, foot against my belly, and kicked me off him with enough force to send me flying through the air.
Sometimes I forgot just how fucking strong he was.
With a snarl of his own, he shifted to match me, torn pieces of clothing fluttering to the floor as the air shimmered and a huge black wolf stood in his place. He pawed the ground, teeth bared in an almost grin that dared me to come at him again.
So I did.
He met me mid-air, wrestling me to the ground, then backing off to do it all again.
I had enough control left that I didn’t try to bite or claw him, but I didn’t go easy on him either. Couldn’t, because I needed him to fight back just as hard.
We fought for what seemed like hours, Rys toying with me as I roared and snarled, throwing myself at him again and again until he finally pinned me to the ground with a blow that knocked all the air from my lungs.
