Page 17 of Contested Crown

“Someone in our territory? Some alpha who thinks that he’s allowed to be here? Yeah. I’m seeing that.” Vito raised his chin. “What you think? You think we should show them what we do to wolves who wander into Skull Pack territory without permission?”

“We’re not in your territory,” I said, forcing my lips to stay down, not to pull back from my teeth, a threat I didn’t want to have to back up. “We’re on our way to Los Santos.”

“Sure. Some natural-born alpha is just passing through.” Vito jerked his thumb at me. “Well? Get, then.”

I could see how it would go down, as crystal clear as if it had already happened. We’d get in our car, and they would follow us. And they would follow us until they ran us to ground. It wouldn’t matter if we drove out of town, it wouldn’t matter if we drove all the way to Los Santos, if we drove all the way to the Oregon border, because they were itching for a fight, and Cade and I were easy pickings.

“We’re stopping to eat lunch.” I pointed at the bags. “We’ll leave after we finish.”

“He’s stopping to eat lunch,” Vito said.

“What are you, a parrot or a werewolf?” I grabbed one of the bags, shoving it in the back seat with Cade. “Because last I heard, it wasn’t illegal to eat fast food in a parking lot.”

“No,” Cade murmured. “But I’m not sure it should belegaleither.”

“Hey, you got a problem with eating food in the parking lot?” The other wolf squared his shoulders, his chin going up.

“Only in theory, practice, and result.” Still, Cade opened the bag, making a face at the paper wrapping on his sandwich. “Spicy chicken, really?”

“Well, you’re the one who said it wasn’t chicken. Might as well see if it’s spicy.” I kept my eyes on the wolves, but they didn’t come any closer, just cracked their knuckles and shook out their hair, the beginning of wolf posturing.

I caught a whiff of a sweet scent as though it came directly from their pores. Something was wrong here, but I wasn’t sure what, and until I could put my finger on it, I didn’t want to chance getting into a fight.

The two wolves bunched together, and something in me tightened. This was going to end badly, but I didn’t see a way out.

“You justhadto go out for lunch,” Cade muttered. He took a bite of the sandwich and made a face. “Forthis.Thiswas worth giving up safety.”

“Yeah, well, I’m certainly regretting it now,” I muttered. “Although watching you eat that sandwich gets pretty close to making it worth it.”

“I’m so glad my annoyance is amusing to you.” Cade’s eyes flicked over my shoulder, and that was the only warning I had.

Spinning, I raised my fist and brought it down hard on Vito’s face. I turned to where I expected to see the other wolf, creeping up on my other side. That was how packs worked—they moved together, each one a piece of a larger whole. But he wasn’t there. Instead, he was still at the car, watching hungrily.

Vito growled, launching himself up, and the sickly sweet smell hit me again, but I didn’t have time to wonder about it. Instead, I brought my knee up, then smashed in his jaw with my elbow, a one-two combination that kept him down.

Cade was up, his hands tense, but the other wolf was still hanging back.

In all my experience working with wolves, being in a pack and out of a pack, I had never seen anything like it. When your pack was in danger, you defended them. Cade wasn’t even pack, but he was ready to try and take down a werewolf for me.

“You got him?” I asked Cade.

“Yeah.” His eyes narrowed, his magic spreading between his hands.

I remembered when I had first met him, when he had sent me flying with a flick of his wrist, trapped against a wall with nothing more than a thought. Now, I could see the strain of working this small bit of magic. It wrapped around itself, spinning into a spiderweb that he threw on top of Vito.

I needed to take out the other werewolf before we found out if Cade’s magic would hold.

The wolf was finally moving toward me, but he was slow, out of step with Vito in a way that I felt in my bones. He should have been all over me, giving Vito a chance to recover. I didn’t understand it.

I bent low as the wolf swung high, using my momentum to crash against his leg, cracking something important. Screaming, he brought his knee up, but that just destabilized him further. I swept my leg out, taking him down. When I landed on top of him, I realized he’d been faking. Both of his arms came up around my neck, holding me close against him, squeezing hard.

My fingers scrabbled against his, but the angle was wrong. I couldn’t loosen them, even when I rocked back.

“Miles!” Cade threw something, and I reached up, trying to catch it. I expected it to be a rock or a bottle, anything I could use to get the wolf off me. Instead, I felt the invisible feet of a millipede on my hand. Cade had thrown the magic.

I didn’t have time to worry, instead pressing my hand on top of the wolf’s. His skin smoked, and he screamed, releasing my neck. I rolled away but didn’t give him time to recover, pressing my hand back against his face, leaping up and landing on him, one leg braced against his throat, the other on the ground.

He screamed again, and I pulled my hand back, swinging hard and knocking him out. Then I was up, sprinting toward Cade. Vito writhed on the ground, trapped underneath the spiderweb spell.