Page 123 of Contested Crown

He whined, and I approached, lips pulled back from my teeth. I could feel the spittle dripping from my jaws.

I nudged at him with my muzzle. His shoulders hunched, but he didn’t go down on his stomach, so I nudged harder.

He turned and snapped at me, his teeth closing on nothing but air as I moved out of the way. Limping, he backed away, the hind leg I had damaged not holding any weight. When he turned, I knew he was going to run.

The alpha in me wanted to let him, send him crawling back to whoever his master was.

Human thought clawed its way through the mess of wolf instinct.Do not let him go back to Declan.

With another roar, I pounded down the street, my feet moving so fast that I was in front of him before he had made it a half dozen steps. We both were on our hind legs again, my body pressed against his, but his back leg gave out, and he went down on his back.

My teeth closed around his neck, and I shook him once firmly, the command instinctual.Give up. Give in. Submit.

There was a long, drawn moment.

JD’s whole body shivered, but then he went limp.

I shook him once more for emphasis but then sat back, letting him go. Around me, everything was completely still, no movement except the breeze kicking empty chip bags and trash down the street.

Then, all at once, the wolves that had been about to take Evelyn on went down, whining and showing their throats in submission.

I howled, and the wolves with me echoed it. Something inside me burst, and I was glad I wasn’t human, or tears would have been streaming down my face.

I finally had a pack of my own.

ChapterForty

Only three of the wolves we had just fought chose to come with me. The rest disappeared under a swirl of Cade’s tattoos before they could do anything damaging. When Evelyn texted them, Heather and Gabe showed up with their crews, and I corralled everybody into the apartment. It was small. There wasn’t enough seating, but most of the wolves lined the walls, arms crossed, eyes on each other as they tried to negotiate their position in the pack.

Evelyn, Heather, Gabe, and Joel joined me at a table. The chemists had cleared it of everything important, although they kept the raw Thorn to the side. Cade was examining a baggie full of it, his eyes narrowed as he held it up to the light.

“What’s the plan?” Gabe asked. His dark hair was lighter than his eyes, his skin a tawny brown. When he shifted into a wolf, his fur matched the color of his hair.

Almost everyone who had stayed was a werewolf, although there was a small pocket of humans that were clustered together, eyes narrowed on me and the four crew leaders. For now, they were my betas, although I wanted to see how they handled the change from crew to pack before making anything official.

“We need to find Declan. He and I need to have a conversation.” I let my lips twist up, implying something else. The wolves at the table chuckled, the sound dark. They all knew how a conversation with Declan would go.

I let my gaze slide to Cade, and his eyes caught mine, a dose of cold water. He was the only one in the room who knew that Ididneed to talk to Declan, that before I killed him, we needed to know what Declan was doing, what Leon was planning, and how to stop both of them.

“I heard he’s off the streets, but no one has seen him.” I raised an eyebrow, looking from beta to beta.

“I haven’t seen him since before you left,” Heather said. “For a while, JD was handling all the business, the same way you used to. But after he screwed us over with the cops, one of Declan’s meatheads started doing all the rounds.”

“Same,” Gabe said.

“Our crew was moved around after the business with the police,” Evelyn said. “I saw him… a few weeks ago?”

“Where?” I leaned forward, bracing my hands on the cool metal table.

“At one of his clubs. Lion. I think he was sizing me up for second in command.” She raised an eyebrow, pulling her lips to the side. “I guess I didn’t make the cut.”

“Lion is gone,” I said.

Joel swore. “Did you do it, or did those other wolves sniffing around get it?”

Frowning, I said, “What other wolves?”

With a shrug, Joel looked back and forth between Heather and Gabe. “We’ve all seen them, a new pack that moved into the city? I saw a couple hanging out around Luz. I tried pointing them out to JD, but he just got all alpha about it. ‘Don’t come into my territory.’”