Page 2 of Never Tamed (Bad Wolves #3)

Torin

I smell blood before I see her fall.

The scent shouldn’t exist in this place, something sacred, something wrong.

Ren . Our mate bond ignites like a flare in my chest and pulls everything I am toward her. I’ve never felt anything like it. Not with Catarina. Not even when I thought I could one day love her.

We convince ourselves of all kinds of shit in the name of obligation, to ourselves and the people we care about.

I said I would one day feel something for the woman who was supposed to meet me on this altar.

Now, Ren is on her knees. Until she’s not.

She crumples like her body simply gives up, like her bones can’t hold her up any longer, falling flat on her stomach with her head tilted away from me. And something inside of me snaps .

My mate is hurt, blood leaching from the tears in her back and torso.

I roar.

The unrecognizable sound tears from my throat with enough force to shake the rafters above. Dust and debris rain down on the rest of the wolves butchering the sanctuary and stained glass trembles in the church’s iron window casings.

The world blurs. Wolves whip around at the sound, some mid-fight, some retreating, some still overflowing with bloodlust. None of them matter.

Only her. Only Ren.

Only the mate I never wanted to recognize. My ex-fiancée stands over the body with blood dripping from her hands and I lurch into action.

There’s no room for thought, no plan, no careful strategy. No more control.

Vengeance obliterates everything .

I tear through the first body that steps in my way like it’s made of tissue paper.

Fur, blood, teeth, screaming—all blurs of violence and motion.

A black wolf with a jagged scar across its face lunges at me from the side.

I grab him mid-air, half shifting my face so my jaws clamp down on his throat.

His yelp cuts off in a wet gurgle and I hurl him into the nearest pew.

Another wolf charges me, this one bigger, bulkier. Doesn’t matter . I plow through him and leave his ribs cracked, his legs twitching when he falls on his side. My claws rake through a third enemy before he can even turn to defend himself.

They thought they could overwhelm us. Ambush us. Touch her.

She’s mine . No one is allowed to touch what’s mine.

The word echoes like a thunderclap through my head. Every wolf here feels the force of the newly established bond. I don’t give a fuck.

I search my mind for some whisper of her, wincing when I feel Noble there, and Mathis, both of them connected to me now through her. But Ren’s voice is gone and her presence dimming by the second.

I have to get to her, have to do something—

More wolves step into my path and I’m on them like fire through dry grass, tearing through enemy after enemy. Starving for destruction and shifting as I go. The man falls away and gives rise to the beast.

I shift mid-run. Fur to flesh, snapping pain through my limbs, breath wheezing as the change robs me of air, but I don’t care.

I land on all fours and shake off the last bits of humanity. My wolf is bigger than I remembered. Stronger. Faster. Enhanced by the mate bond, by the rage, by the unbearable, all-consuming need to get to Ren.

A snarl comes from the right but rather than raise my hackles, my wolf pricks its ears, the sound recognizable.

Dax . The Grey Valley’s feral beta is painted in blood and panting, one of his arms hanging limp. He takes down a wolf trying to go for Mathis before the creature has a chance to touch my rival alpha. Still in human form, Mathis turns to me, his eyes narrowed and black.

Torin— His thoughts buzz in my head because he sees Ren too.

He goes still, like someone’s electrocuted him. A rival no more, but my brother in misery.

Ren’s unmoving, her face pale, a pool of blood flowering around her like a broken halo. Dark hair obscures her features and I search desperately for a pulse and only hear my own.

The growl that rips from Mathis’s chest mirrors my own. He claws through the mob to get closer with the two of us tossing bodies out of our way like leaves.

I fall to my knees beside her and force the change back to man. I brush my fingers against her neck searching for a sign of life.

“Ren,” I whisper, my voice hoarse and wrong in my throat. “ Ren. ”

“Speak to us, sweetheart, please.” I’ve never heard Mathis sound so broken.

She’s cold, too cold, and her blood is still flowing. My hand hovers uselessly over her, fingers trembling. Is that—I can’t tell if it’s her heartbeat I feel or mine.

I press my palm flat on the worst of the wounds, the one Catarina carved through her back like the woman was claiming her territory. My vision blurs.

No. No, no, no. I won’t lose Ren. I just found her. I just accepted what she’s been trying to tell me this entire time but I’ve been a stubborn fucking bastard.

Behind me, Mathis drops into a crouch, breathing hard. “Is she—?”

“She’s alive,” I snap. “But she won’t be if we don’t get her out of here.”

Our eyes meet and I see my own helplessness mirrored in his. This wasn’t supposed to happen. None of this.

Then I feel it. The awareness of another life, another bond, snapping awake, taking up space in my head and filling me with a warmth I didn’t know I was missing.

Noble .

A sharp gasp pushes past my lips. My spine straightens like a lightning bolt just tore through it.

“Holy shit,” I mutter. “I feel Noble.”

Where the hell has he been?

Helplessness crowds my veins.

Mathis looks down, eyes narrowing. “Me too. He must be awake.”

Wherever he is.

“We have to find him, but I can’t leave her.” I press harder against Ren’s wounds, trying to stabilize her.

“You think I can?” Mathis growled.

We stare each other down. “Well one of us has to be the bigger alpha here,” I say with a ghost of my usual sneer.

Where are you, big boy? Mathis asks in our heads.

I’m in a room. They got the jump on me. Knocked me out. Noble’s inner voice is faint, ragged, but steady. Mathis’s brows pinch. I think I’m underground. Chained.

I suck in a breath. “Mathis, go . Find him. I have her.”

Mathis doesn’t hesitate. For half a heartbeat, I think he’ll argue, but the unspoken agreement clicks into place.

He touches Ren’s arm once, then disappears into the fray without another word. I turn to Dax in shifted form, who’s limping now, blood streaking his side. Every time a wolf dares get too close, his wolf rips through them swiftly, with no effort at all.

He is a terrifying thing to watch when he’s like this. And I always thought Mathis was a fool for keeping him around, for choosing such an unhinged and unpredictable beast as a beta.

Now I see the justification in the decision, and fuck it, but I’m happy for Dax.

“We’re getting her out,” I bark. “Do something.”

He nods. No questions. No fight.

I haul Ren into my arms as gently as I can. She barely stirs. Her head lolls against my shoulder, her blood soaking through what’s left of my suit. I grip her tighter, wrapping my body around hers, as if that’ll protect her from anything else.

Catarina bolted.

I scour the church for some sign of her icy blonde hair and find nothing.

The battle rages around us. Wolves break through pews and instead of a holy choir, there are snarls and screams and cracking bones.

But there’s also a path ahead, narrow, but clear.

I don’t think. I move.

We run.

Dax guards my flank as a massive golden beast with his teeth bared, snarling at anything that gets too close. My focus sharpens on the path ahead and the wolves tearing at themselves to get to us. To make sure we don’t leave this church alive.

Dax is the only muscle we need, and he growls low in his throat, jerking his head to the left. I glance in that direction. A side hall. He launches himself at the nearest enemies from the Blood Moon pack to get us to the far side of the church.

My heart skips a beat. The doors are blocked—barricaded from the outside. We won’t make it that way.

We dart into the narrow corridor, Ren cradled in my arms, her shallow breathing my only focus. Dax takes point to clear the way with savage efficiency. One wolf lunges from the side, and Dax slams him against the wall, then keeps moving.

Down the hall. Around the corner. A door. An exit.

Almost there.

Then—

A shape crashes into Dax from the shadows. He goes flying and smashes into a pillar. Plaster and stone rain down on top of him, and he doesn’t get up. Acid fills my veins.

“No—” I start forward, but I can’t drop Ren. I can’t leave her.

It’s her or Dax and when it comes down to a choice, there really isn’t one. I grip Ren tighter to my chest, taking one step forward.

Sorry.

I never thought I’d see the day I’d start apologizing to a thing like Dax. Yet guilt clings to me as the dust starts to clear. And the attacker steps into view.

He stands as a naked man with a toothy grin streaked in blood, his gaze falling unerringly on Ren.

“You’re not leaving with her,” he says. “Andras will have the stone.”

I crouch, shielding Ren as best I can. “The only thing Andras is going to have is my claws ripping out the heart from his chest.”

“He’ll consider it a pleasure.”

The naked man steps over Dax and lunges for us. On instinct I twist, letting the momentum pull us backward into the narrow space between two pillars. He clips my shoulder and pain flashes down my arm, threatening my hold.

My wolf pushes at the edges of my skin again in a demand for release. I can’t risk shifting, not with her in my arms. A flash of awareness deepens in my head and I glance down.

Ren’s eyes are cracked open, blood in her lashes, but she’s breathing. Alive.

She murmurs something I can’t catch, despite straining to hear her. In the periphery of my vision, the attacker stretches and shakes his head.

Torin ?

She calls for me in my mind.

I set her down, bracing her against the wall. “Don’t move. I’ll be right back.”

For the first time since she went down, the veil lifts and my instincts are clear, adding a sharp edge to the moment.

Then I rise.

I call the shift again, my body transforming faster this time, with less resistance.

Fur. Claws. Rage.

By the time Andras’s man heads for me again, I meet him head on, our bodies driving together.

He’s fast—but as an alpha, I’m faster. He’s strong, but I’m fucking furious . My jaws clamp around his side and I drive him into the stone floor, going down with him. He tries to throw me off and I dig in. My claws rake across his chest, my teeth snapping at his throat. He gets in a single hit.

I barely flinch, barely feel it, my thoughts centered on my mate with her broken body. I made her crawl across the floor to me and call me sir. I put her through emotional hell and now she needs me to save her.

Growling, I drive the man into the floor again, using my teeth to push him harder. Again. And again. Until he stops moving.

The coppery scent of blood stings my nostrils and crimson pools underneath him where his skull cracked open.

Shifting back, panting, I stagger to Ren and scoop her up again. She’s pliant in my arms, and her head lolls back again, eyes closing. “Shh, you’re okay. I’m going to get you out. I promise.”

But my voice breaks at the end. Because she’s not okay. And this—this is my fault.

Plaster crunches under my foot. If I hadn’t fought the bond so hard, if I hadn’t shoved her away every time she got too close…

If I’d told her what she meant to me the first time I felt it instead of burying it beneath duty and fear and the ashes of a dead promise to Catarina, then maybe Ren wouldn’t be dying in my arms.

I pushed her away when I should’ve protected her.

I cling to her like a lifetime. Please, please, I’m sorry. Please, let it not be too late.

Whether the Moon Goddess hears me or not is another matter. But this time I’m not running. There’s no more denial.

I’m going to embrace this mate bond for the gift it is and rip this world apart before I let anyone take her from me. It’s a gift I do not fucking deserve.

She came into my life like a fire I tried to smother. But a wildfire can’t be tamed. It doesn’t die. It devours . And now that I’ve let her in, now that the bond is sealed between us, I’ll carry her through hell if I have to.

I will not lose her.

Not tonight. Not ever.

Standing straighter, I lock my knees. Mathis ?

I’m closing in. His scent is thin but the trail is there. They’ve got him someplace here . A pause, and then Ren?

I clutch her tighter and will the heat from my skin to seep into her. Her scent makes my wolf snarl low, feral with panic. I need to move.

Something makes me glance back—just once—toward where I last saw Dax crumpled beneath the pillar.

My breath catches. He’s gone.

The blood’s still there, smeared across cracked stone, but his body isn’t. No dragging trail. Just… vanished.

“What the hell is happening?” I whisper.

He shouldn’t be able to move. Not after that. Not with almost being crushed by the weight of the pillar. I—

BOOM.

The deafening sound rips through the church with an explosion that rattles glass and shakes the already loose rafters. The cracked foundation moans in protest, the floor beneath us trembling like the whole damn church might come down around us.

My heart hammers.

I stagger, tightening my hold on Ren instinctively as I glance toward the large doors leading to the nave. Smoke curls under the archway. Stone splits in the corners. Somewhere above, a chunk of the ceiling crashes to the ground with a thunderous crack.

Coughing, I grunt, “What the fuck was that?”