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Rowan doesn’t hesitate. He slams Samson’s head into the floor hard enough to crack the boards. But it doesn’t stop the notoriously unstoppable Alpha. Clothing tears as Samson lets out a menacing roar and shifts beneath Rowan into his monstrous, pitch-black wolf form, giving Rowan no choice but to leap off him.

My heart seizes in my chest, and I know it’s more than just the Mating bond straining with concern over Rowan. It’s fear and adrenaline, and all my worst nightmares come to life.

I can’t lose him. I only just got him back.

I cry out wordlessly, and I don’t know if it’s supposed to be a shout of warning or a pathetic human-howl of worry, but the noise is swallowed up by the violent cacophony of the two Alphas snarling and snapping at each other.

Then, before I can get my breathing under control, Rowan pounces.

Chapter 26

Rowan

My teeth sink into Samson’s throat, but not quite deep enough to finish it.

He twists beneath me like a viper at the last second, wrenching free with a growl and driving a hind leg sharply into my ribs. Something cracks, and pain rips through me, but I don’t loosen my grip.

He doesn’t get to walk away from this. Samson Blackburn is mine to destroy. He will not come out of this alive. Not after orchestrating the kidnapping of my son. Not after aiming a gun directly at my Mate’s heart. Not after everything he’s done in the past, all the lives he’s ended for no good reason at all.

I will kill him. For Alina, for Noah, and for everyone else who has ever suffered because of this man.

When Samson attempts to rise onto his haunches, I dig my claws into his shoulder and drag him back down, jaws snapping for his throat again, but he manages to buck up with a roar and throw me off. I hit the wall, hard. Wood splinters.

I think I hear Noah scream, followed quickly by Alina’s hushed comforting. I want to shout at them to get out of here, but I’m unable to speak in my wolf form, and I can’t communicate with my eyes whenI need all of my focus to be honed on taking down the Blackburn Alpha.

My paws scramble for traction as Samson gets his four legs underneath him and then charges me, faster than a shifter his age should be.

He knocks into me with all the force of a semi-truck, caring more about strength than gracefulness in his fighting style, and smacking the side of my head against a stray piece of wood before I can dodge it fully.

Everything rings.

Outside, I can hear the continued sounds of warfare: the clash of bodies, the crack of bone, and the snarls of Greenbriar wolves tearing through enemy lines. We’ve got the numbers and the skill. I know we’re winning.

But I also know that none of that matters.

Not if I lose this fight. Not if Samson walks out of this shack.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that Samson didn’t take Noah because he thought he could win a full-on battle against the Greenbriars. He took my son because he knew that it would trigger me and Alina into action and force us to come onto his territory. He wants the two of us, specifically, dead because we represent the future leadership of the Greenbriar pack.

And he doesn’t care how many of his own he has to sacrifice in order to accomplish that. That’s how much of a ruthless, terrible leader he is.

I shake off the blow and lunge again, teeth flashing, claws raking across his chest. Blood splashes across the floor. He growls, tossing me off, but I press harder and pounce, driving him toward the far wall.

Behind me, I hear the scuff of Alina’s feet. I catch Noah’s scent, laced with fear but ultimately untouched by the pain of injury.

I can also smell my ever-faithful Beta lingering on the fringes. Cal’s massive body emerges in the ruined doorway of the shack, and I’m vaguely aware of Alina handing Noah off to him in my peripheral vision. Cal is gone a moment later, and the entire exchange is so fast that I’m certain Samson barely registers it. He’s too busy baring his teeth at me, eyes glowing with mockery as he waits for me to make the next move in our deadly dance.

But Alina doesn’t leave.

She stays, even as the fighting grows louder and closer.

I smell her fury, the burn of it sharp and clear. I feel her eyes on us, waiting for the signal that I might need her, and I fight harder. The Mating bond pulses loud and clear between us, fueling me from the very depths of my soul.

This bastard threatened our son. He tried to kill the family I’d never dared to dream of having.

My family.

The wolf within my soul howls with rage, even more vicious than usual with Alina nearby.