Page 154 of Knotted By my Pack

“You made it concern me,” Elias growls. “That’s my brother you’re pointing a gun at, so I would suggest you think twice before you do something stupid.”

Damien’s face twitches. His grip on the gun tightens.

Noah moves next, stepping into Damien’s line of sight.

“As head of development in this town, I’m shutting this down,” he says. “Construction’s halted. Beckett, get your men out.”

“No one’s authorized to—” Beckett starts.

“I said go.”

Beckett looks between us, mutters something, then nods to his team. They start packing up fast.

“This isn’t over,” Damien says, eyes wild now. “This is my life. I did everything right. I made money. I followed the plan. I carried the name.”

He starts pacing, hitting the side of his head with the flat of his hand.

“I built this. I built all of it. And you’ll tear it apart because you’re weak. Because you can’t handle what our father is all about.”

“No,” I say. “Because you’re still chasing a man who destroyed everything.”

Damien spins toward me, gun still raised. “Say that again.”

“You think he’d be proud of this? This shell? He’s not watching anymore, Damien. He doesn’t actually care about you. You think you’re a king, but you are a fucking pawn. I wish you could see that.”

Noah starts forward, but everything happens at once. Cora screams. The gun fires. Elias lunges into my chest and takes the bullet.

His body jerks against me. His knees hit the ground.

I drop beside him. There’s blood. Too much. Cora’s screaming my name, then his. Noah tackles Damien to the ground, slamming his fist into his face over and over.

“Call the medics!” he yells at Cora. “Now!”

She fumbles for her phone, voice shaking as she dials.

Elias is on his back, chest rising fast. His hand grips mine tightly.

“You idiot,” I whisper. “You stupid, stubborn?—”

“I’m not letting you go alone,” he says, voice thin.

The blood spreads under him as I press both hands to the wound, teeth clenched. “You’re not dying here.”

He smiles at me, eyes glassy. “You’d better mean that.”

Cora drops beside us, hands trembling as she cups his face.

“I’ve got you,” she says. “We all do.”

Siren wails echo across the harbor.

This was supposed to be a legacy.

Now it’s a war.

The hospital reeks of antiseptic.Cora hasn’t sat down since we got here. Noah’s pacing.

The blood dried under my fingernails won’t wash off, no matter how hard I scrub in the bathroom sink. Every second stretches out like it’s daring me to break.