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But Cam was the reason she could do that safely. Not that I thought our other pack mates would ever use their strength against her, but he was the one to keep everyone in line to make her job easier.

Thatwas the true power of the alpha.

And when assholes like Roland Thorne or the fae king were able to use it as a weapon, it weakened us. It pulled the pack bonds apart, leaving us aimless and confused. It left the weaker among us vulnerable.

No longer. Thorne and the Conclave were gone, and now we had to take care of the asshole in charge here.

I knew the king was strong—he had powers we’d never even heard of before, and we still hadn’t even met him yet to see him put those to use. But I couldn’t keep the adrenaline from coursing through me, ready to finally teach this fancy fae fuck a lesson for stealing my omega.

And for fucking up her brother.

Marlowe walked back to the two of them. “Okay, now that the pecking order’s been officially established, I need to rethink my plan. Because honestly, Ez? I thought we’d be fighting against you.”

He hung his head, his shoulders slightly less broad than they’d seemed just a few minutes ago. “I know. But we should discuss this on the way. We don’t have a lot of time.”

I stepped forward. “I don’t know how much help I can give towards strategy, so why don’t you guys stay in human form, and I’ll shift and scout ahead as we move. Just tell me what to do when we get there.”

I looked instinctively towards Cam, and his smile and nod of approval had me melting. It was almost uncomfortable how quickly my desire to please him had grown. He was already my boss and my pack leader, now he was basically my king?

Well, if it had to happen to anyone I knew, I was glad it was him.

74

MARLOWE

The smell of magic, terror, and burnt flesh greeted us as we approached the haven.

“Haven” my ass—it was a fucking prison.

A part of the wall was crumbling down, the damage appearing recent, and around a dozen bodies, all beta shifters, hung outside the front gates. Their faces had been mutilated so badly, even their own mothers wouldn’t have recognized them.

Bile and anger rose up through me, and Ezra placed a calming hand on my shoulder.

“We’ll avenge their deaths, don’t you worry.”

From what we could see, the king’s fae army had already arrived and the active rebellion was over. The betas, predictably, had lost. And the soldiers looked pleased as hell with themselves about it, too, as they laughed and tortured the defeated shifters.

I couldn’t wait to wipe those smug smiles off their faces.

Multiple whips cracked through the air, accompanied by tortured screaming and wails.

“Quiet, dog, or I’ll add another ten lashes!”

My hands twitched at my side, and I took a quick peek at my brother. “In all your time here, have you ever…”

“Done anything like this?”

I looked at him sternly. I appreciated that he was coming to terms with the atrocities he’d committed while under the king’s thrall, but even he’d admitted his own complicity in some of the worst of it.

“Never,” he whispered. “I can’t say I was never asked topunish someone, but aside from…”

“Mom and Dad?”

He swallowed. “Yeah, aside from them, I’ve never killed anyone.”

“Dude, I personally saw you kill twenty vampsandthe Conclave,” Cam snapped. “Don’t lie to Marlowe.”

Ezra’s nostrils flared in annoyance, clearly unused to being chastised by another alpha. “I meant innocent people. The vamps and the Conclave had it coming. No offense,” he added, looking at Kian.