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I’m going to tear his fucking heart out.

Samson roars and slashes at my chest. I’m not fast enough to dodge thanks to all the fighting I’ve already done tonight, and I feel the burn of his knife-sharp claws digging in a little too deep. I’m almost certain he’s nicked an essential organ, but the adrenaline racing through my veins is too strong for me to care about that right now. I think I might hear Alina scream, but the noise of this savage fight is too loud for me to focus on it. My vision whites out, but I blink hard and force the swell of nausea away.

Blood spills warm and fast down my side, soaking the wood beneath us.

Samson offers me a lupine grin, paws dripping with my blood.

I snarl and throw myself at him again. This time, I go low, sinking my fangs into his thigh. He yelps and goes down. I drag him halfway across the room, blood trailing behind us, and slam him into the wall. Wood shatters. The whole shack groans like it might collapse around us.

He lashes out, claws catching the side of my face. Blood blinds one eye.

I don't stop. I refuse to stop. I will destroy myself to ensure his destruction. It’s the least I can do for the people I love.

I slam my head into his chest and drive him to the floor again, front paws pinning him, my teeth at his throat.

He goes still.

Panting. Bleeding. Still grinning like a psychopath.

I bite deep, relishing the hot burst of gore that erupts from his artery. His windpipe crushes under my bite. He chokes, gurgles, and yet remains smiling through the pain. I hear his heartbeat stutter, and there’s a flash of regretful fury in his eyes.

He bucks against me, throwing every ounce of strength left in him, but I bear down hard. I am an Alpha. I am with my Mate. I am stronger than he is, and I don’t need to become a savage to prove it.

Samson lets out a mournful wheeze underneath me, and I hear the distant howls of his own pack as they sense their Alpha’s life force draining out of them.

And then Alina is beside us.

She doesn’t speak. She just lowers her face and meets my gaze, human to wolf. Eyes fierce and steady.

“Finish it, Rowan. Kill him.”

That’s all I need to hear.

I bare my teeth, and I tear.

His blood floods my mouth, hot and absolutely vile.

But I don’t let go until he stops moving. Until there’s nothing left of Samson Blackburn but ruin and silence.

I lift my head.

Alina is watching me. Her face is pale, streaked with dirt and blood, but her shoulders are square and her spine straight. She looks like a vengeful queen, ready to claim the bloody spoils of war. I can tell from the set of her shoulders and the ferocity in her eyes that she is ready to jump in and help me if I need it, but I can’t bear the thought of her having to brawl with this brute.

I twist my head to the side and do my best to hack up the bits of Samson’s flesh that have slid toward my throat. Alina lets out a breathless laugh that mingles with a less subtle sound of disgust.

This is the end of something, and the beginning of something else.

But outside, the war isn’t over yet. We aren’t done fighting. The Blackburns won’t just suffer the loss of their Alpha. They will lose everything tonight, whether they’re ready for it or not. Nobody gets to hurt the people I love without fatal repercussions. That is the Greenbriar legacy. That is why we are so mighty and revered, why our name is spoken with such respect even hundreds of miles beyond our borders.

Outside the shack, a particularly nasty snarl cuts through the din of the violent night. There’s a human shout, a lupine bark, and then a loud bang as another piece of the shack’s crumbling walls comes crashing down. In the space left behind stands a Blackburn in human form, chest heaving and stomach gouged so deep that he’s doing his best to hold himself together with one hand.

In the other hand, he holds a gun. The Blackburn takes one look at his fallen Alpha and lifts his teeth in a soundless growl. I rise onto my legs, but there’s a sharp twinge in my back paw and hind leg that suggests I’ve definitely broken something on my left side. With any luck, the newly healed Mating bond will help speed my healing, but first, I need to rally just enough to get rid of this final beast standing in the way of my family finding peace.

The Blackburn Beta aims the gun in the vague direction of my head, but his grave wound is causing his hand to shake, and if he fired it right now, chances are that I’d be able to dodge it.

He seems to realize that at the same time as me. He stumbles to the side, clutching at the remains of the building for support, and shifts the gun to point at Alina.

No.