I grinned, couldn’t help myself. “You have no power over us anymore.” I waited for him to join the dots, but clearly he wasn’t aware of that particular old law. “You’re no longer my alpha. Or Jake’s,” I added, taking great satisfaction at the flicker of unease Xen was too slow to hide.
“How is that possible?” he hissed. “I never gave permission for you to join another pack.” He glared at Rys, teeth bared. “What did you do?”
“Nothing, you arrogant prick.” Rys cracked his neck from side to side, and Mase stiffened. “When you attack your own pack, break their leg hard enough that their bones are visible through their fuckingskin. When you almost kill one of them—my fuckingcousin—then that wild nature inside us takes offence. You no longer command the respect of their wolf. Whatever connected them to you as pack has been severed by your own actions. You don’t deserve either of them and they’re not fucking yours anymore.”
Silence filled the space between them.
My heart beat so loudly it was a wonder no one else heard it. Jake was unnaturally still beside me, waiting like I was for Xen’s reaction. The tension in the air crackled, primed and ready for one tiny spark to set off an explosion that we wouldn’t all recover from.
Axel and the others had crept closer. Still downwind of Xen and Frost, they remained undetected. We could do with Chylath’s magic about now. If anyone needed calming down, it was the three alphas currently in a silent stand-off.
“Max, Jake,” Xen hissed, voice so heavy with alpha power it vibrated around us. “Come here.”
Despite everything, I’d expected to feel the pull of his command, to be unable to resist. But I felt no compulsion to join him. Jake relaxed, his hand loose in mine. I let the smirk grow on my face. It was the worst idea ever to taunt him, but all I had to do was remember Jake’s shattered leg, seeing bone that had no place being outside his skin, and I added another layer of cockiness to it, because fuck him. “No.”
Xen’s eyes flashed, his body vibrating like Rys’s had earlier, the wolf inside him dangerously near the surface. “You have an obligation, Jake. Youagreed.” He slid clawed hands around John’s throat. “There are consequences if you refuse.”
“He’s not part of your pack any longer,” I said, stepping forward, ignoring Rys’s glare. I couldn’t stand behind them all and let them fight this for me.For us, I amended when Jake moved with me. “Whether Jake marries Myla or not, it won’t join your packs. Not now.”
That obviously hadn’t occurred to Xen, because his mouth fell open in shock, and everything we’d suspected about his reason for this marriage seemed to be founded in truth.
“Do the right thing, Xen,” Rys urged, voice deceptively calm, but I knew him too well to be fooled. “They’re not your pack any longer because you broke that link.Youfailedthemin the worst way possible. And you’re forcing Jake into a marriage he doesn’t want when you’d have to be blind not to see he’s in love with Max. Do the right thingnowand break the fucking pact.”
Love.
We hadn’t said the words to each other, not since we’d crossed the line from being just friends, but I knew deep inside that I loved him. I always had. It was justmorenow. Jake’s gentle squeeze of my fingers let me know he felt the same.
“Fuck.” Xen scrubbed a hand through his hair, visibly deflating like Rys’s words had sucked all the fight out of him.
Hope sparked inside me as I watched the resignation creep into his eyes. It was all crumbling around him and he knew it.
Elliot stepped around us, closing the distance between him and Xen. “This isn’t you, Xen. I’ve served as your beta long enough to know that the person that hurt Jake, that almostkilledMax? That isn’t the alpha I know.” He came to a stop in front of him, head held high, not a trace of fear visible when my heart was back to banging up a storm.
Out of all his pack, Elliot had been the one Xen trusted above all others, but I’d never been more scared for him than I was right then.
“It’s not too late to fix this,” he coaxed, voice soft.
Xen shook his head. “It is.”
“Xen,” Elliot pleaded. “Everything about this is wrong. Deep down you know that. The alpha I knew would never do this. What’s happened to you?”
With both hands fisted in his hair, Xen stumbled back against the car. He looked at Jake and me, at our joined hands, as if seeing us with new eyes. “You never said you were in love,” he whispered.
“You didn’t give us a fucking choice,” Jake hissed. “You held my dad’s life ransom. What the fuck was I supposed to say?”
“Break the pact,” Elliot whispered. “Whatever you’ve done, I’ll help you fix it.”
Xen’s gaze swung to Elliot, some of his composure returning. “What makes you think I’ve done something?”
“I’ve seen the accounts,” Elliot murmured, and Xen blanched. “Whateverit is, we’ll find a way to fix it. But this?” He gestured to us and then Myla. “This isn’t fucking it.”
Xen closed his eyes, and it seemed like everyone held their breath, until finally he sighed, long and resigned. And when his eyes opened again, I saw it for myself.
The breath whooshed out of me as Xen nodded.
“Okay.” He looked to Haylen. “They’re right, the old laws have no place here. I should never have used them.”
“No, you shouldn’t.” Haylen said, and something about his tone set me on edge. Rys too, judging by the way his whole body stilled. “But you did, and we made an alpha’s pact. And as far as I’m aware, that’s unbreakable. No matter how much you might regret your decision now.”
