Page 27

R owan

My teeth sink into Samson’s throat, but not quite deep enough to finish it.

He twists beneath me like a viper at the last second, wrenching free with a growl and driving a hind leg sharply into my ribs. Something cracks, and pain rips through me, but I don’t loosen my grip.

He doesn’t get to walk away from this. Samson Blackburn is mine to destroy.

He will not come out of this alive. Not after orchestrating the kidnapping of my son.

Not after aiming a gun directly at my Mate’s heart.

Not after everything he’s done in the past, all the lives he’s ended for no good reason at all.

I will kill him. For Alina, for Noah, and for everyone else who has ever suffered because of this man.

When Samson attempts to rise onto his haunches, I dig my claws into his shoulder and drag him back down, jaws snapping for his throat again, but he manages to buck up with a roar and throw me off. I hit the wall, hard. Wood splinters.

I think I hear Noah scream, followed quickly by Alina’s hushed comforting. I want to shout at them to get out of here, but I’m unable to speak in my wolf form, and I can’t communicate with my eyes when I need all of my focus to be honed on taking down the Blackburn Alpha.

My paws scramble for traction as Samson gets his four legs underneath him and then charges me, faster than a shifter his age should be.

He knocks into me with all the force of a semi-truck, caring more about strength than gracefulness in his fighting style, and smacking the side of my head against a stray piece of wood before I can dodge it fully.

Everything rings.

Outside, I can hear the continued sounds of warfare: the clash of bodies, the crack of bone, and the snarls of Greenbriar wolves tearing through enemy lines. We’ve got the numbers and the skill. I know we’re winning.

But I also know that none of that matters.

Not if I lose this fight. Not if Samson walks out of this shack.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that Samson didn’t take Noah because he thought he could win a full-on battle against the Greenbriars.

He took my son because he knew that it would trigger me and Alina into action and force us to come onto his territory.

He wants the two of us, specifically, dead because we represent the future leadership of the Greenbriar pack.

And he doesn’t care how many of his own he has to sacrifice in order to accomplish that. That’s how much of a ruthless, terrible leader he is.

I shake off the blow and lunge again, teeth flashing, claws raking across his chest. Blood splashes across the floor. He growls, tossing me off, but I press harder and pounce, driving him toward the far wall.

Behind me, I hear the scuff of Alina’s feet. I catch Noah’s scent, laced with fear but ultimately untouched by the pain of injury.

I can also smell my ever-faithful Beta lingering on the fringes.

Cal’s massive body emerges in the ruined doorway of the shack, and I’m vaguely aware of Alina handing Noah off to him in my peripheral vision.

Cal is gone a moment later, and the entire exchange is so fast that I’m certain Samson barely registers it.

He’s too busy baring his teeth at me, eyes glowing with mockery as he waits for me to make the next move in our deadly dance .

But Alina doesn’t leave.

She stays, even as the fighting grows louder and closer.

I smell her fury, the burn of it sharp and clear. I feel her eyes on us, waiting for the signal that I might need her, and I fight harder. The Mating bond pulses loud and clear between us, fueling me from the very depths of my soul.

This bastard threatened our son. He tried to kill the family I’d never dared to dream of having.

My family.

The wolf within my soul howls with rage, even more vicious than usual with Alina nearby.

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.

No.

I don’t think. I just move.

I launch myself between them a heartbeat before the gun goes off.

The crack of the shot punches the air apart. A blossom of fire blooms in my side. The impact slams into me like a freight train.

I hit the ground hard. My body jerks involuntarily. Pain detonates in my chest, worse than anything I’ve ever felt. Worse than claws, worse than broken ribs.

Worse than the thought of not seeing her face again.

It’s paralyzing. I can’t move, can’t breathe. Nor can I tell if it’s because the bullet has struck my spine or punctured a lung. I can’t differentiate anything right now. All I feel is pain, pain, pain.

Alina screams.

Her hands are on me, warm with my blood and shaking with panic. I try to shift back into my human form, if only to tell her I’m okay, but that would be a lie. I can’t shift right now. I can’t do anything .

Blood pools beneath me.

Around us, the Greenbriars roar into action. I hear Cal’s voice barking orders, hear the growl of six wolves converging on the Blackburn Beta who pulled the trigger.

But Alina doesn’t even let them get there. She pounces first, shifting in midair, razor-sharp teeth poised for his throat before he can even register the glorious avenging angel descending upon him.

When Alina’s teeth clamp onto his throat, I watch from my useless position on the floor as she bites down mercilessly and blood sprays in all directions. The fight is over in seconds, his screams cut short.

Samson’s body is just feet away from mine. His eyes are open and glassy.

Dead.

At least I accomplished that. At least…

Alina shifts back again, noticeably wincing at the effort required to go back and forth so quickly, then rushes to my side and leans over me. Her face is inches from mine, her hands pressed to the wound, trying to stop the bleeding, and whispering my name like it’s a lifeline.

I am in awe of her, even now as I feel myself fading. That final, vengeful blow was so beautiful, so vicious. She is a brilliant Luna.

“Rowan. Stay with me. Please, don’t you dare leave me. I love you. Do you hear me? I love you.”

Something inside me blossoms at her words, but everything else is fading fast.

Her voice echoes, hollow and distant. I try my best to hold on to it, but it slips through my fingers. The Mating bond loosens and sags, the glowing fibers fraying as Alina’s panicked cries turn into nothing more than white noise in the background of all this agony.

If this is the end, then at least she’s the last thing I see.

I can live with that. After all, I spent ten years thinking I’d never see her again at all. I’ll accept these crumbs with a smile on my face.