A shadow stepped through the woods with slow, controlled steps. A man in a sleek black coat, dark hair swept back, and fury carved into every line of his face. Orin.
His eyes snapped to me. I was panting and bleeding, and his jaw tightened with something that looked almost like rage. But not at me, at Vito.
“I told you I wanted him alive,” Orin snapped.
Vito growled low in response, refusing to back off. His stance said everything. I almost had him. Why stop now?
“I said,” Orin repeated, voice cold and dangerous, “step away from him.”
Vito hesitated.
And in that hesitation, I saw it. The shifting of power. Vito growled again, reluctant, and stepped back, but only just. His eyes stayed locked on me, furious and hungry.
I tried to stand, legs trembling beneath me. I wasn’t out of this yet. Orin was here. And he was worse than Vito in his own way.
Then a thunderous growl ripped through the woods.
The trees to our left exploded.
A wall of fur and fury came barreling through, a blur of dark brown and righteous rage.
Vito didn’t even have time to react. Beau slammed into him like a meteor.
The force of impact lifted Vito off the ground. He flew backward, crashing into a thick tree with a sickening crack. His wolf form crumpled and hit the dirt hard. Unmoving. Unconscious.
Orin took one step back, his eyes narrowing, calculating. Beau stood between us, his massive form snarling over my crumpled one like a wall of teeth and muscle.
I collapsed fully then, relief and pain dragging me down into the dirt. Blood matted my fur. My breath came in short, shallow gasps.
But I was alive. Beau was here.
BEAU
I didn’t remember running. All I knew was the moment I scented Sean’s blood in the woods, the world flipped on its axis.
The bear in me surged to the surface, savage and hot with rage. Logic drowned in it. The trees blurred. My bones cracked mid-run, tearing through clothes, skin, humanity.
I was already shifting before I hit the tree line. Nothing else mattered. I found them by the river’s edge. Sean was collapsed, fur matted in blood. A fully shifted werewolf stood over him.
I didn’t think. I didn’t have to. I hit him. He flew like a rag doll, crashed into a thick pine with a sickening crack, and slid down in a heap. Unmoving.
Good. If he wasn’t dead, he’d wish he was when he woke. I barreled past Sean, throwing myself between him and Orin.
Orin’s eyes landed on me. Then Sean. Then Vito’s crumpled form.
He didn’t flinch. Didn’t hesitate. His lips curled into something too smug, too calm for someone about to die.
“I was hoping you’d arrive,” Orin said. “I can deal with both you and Sean.
Rip. His coat shredded. Clothes tore. Bones snapped. Orin shifted like lightning, too fast for most wolves. Wicked fast.
He lunged. I didn’t wait. We collided in a storm of claws and teeth.
His fangs grazed my throat. Mine snapped at his snout. His claws raked down my shoulder. I caught his hind leg in my jaws and twisted.
He yelped and went rolling.
My grizzly was howling in my skull, drunk on adrenaline. All I could see was red. All I could smell was Sean’s blood in the dirt.
