Page 33 of Never Tamed (Bad Wolves #3)

Mathis

W e never accounted for the snow.

It cuts sideways through the forest and blinds our sensitive eyesight until it’s impossible to see between the white and black spaces. The flakes are heavy and fat and stick to the ground.

It fucking figures.

I glance at Torin to find him deep in thought, his hands in his pockets and his shoulders hunched against the gale.

The weather is getting worse, and no matter how I try to wrangle my mind into something resembling optimism, worry digs its hooks into me. It deepens with every frozen breath I drag into my shrunken lungs.

Squinting, I try to make out literally anything, but there is only snow; through it, the vague black outline of forest.

They’re closing in on us .

Torin’s thoughts take up space in my head, and I want to lash out at him. I want to cut him down to size to make myself feel better.

Not too far now , I add.

I never would have thought it possible but the odds have been against us from the start, and it feels too impossible to be real or natural.

Pain spikes in my head and I blink, seeing spots when I close my eyes.

Too long staring at the snow.

Dax growls, stalking back and forth, snow filling the furrows as quickly as he makes them. “This is fucking stupid.”

“We have to wait for them.”

“I’m not talking about the waiting, I’m talking about Andras. I’m talking about waiting for things to reach a head when we all know where this is going,” he clarifies.

His voice has the gravelly tone of half shifted muscles. He’s trapped somewhere between man and wolf without choosing one form or another.

It’s a dangerous place to be. If he’s not careful, he’ll be caught that way, or worse. We’ll lose him to the wolf again, and we won’t get him back in time for our final showdown.

Just like when he was a child.

When my father found him.

“Hold,” I order. “They’re coming.”

He chokes on a laugh. “You feel it through your precious mate bond?”

Wolves run hot. Yet even the heat from my skin isn’t enough to melt the snow coming down and I stave off a shiver.

“Someone is jealous they don’t have a bond of their own? Maybe if you focus a little more on Andras instead of your lack, then we’ll actually get somewhere,” Torin barks out.

With this, I’m with him, but I keep the words to myself.

Worry for Ren and Noble blot out everything except the snow.

Let the two of them bicker if they want to waste precious energy.

Dax continues his frantic pacing. Torin might as well be made of ice. The flakes feather on his hair and the tips of his eyelashes but he’s unaffected.

His cool facade is only that. It’s a lie. He’s as worked up as we are because this is it. I feel it in my bones. We’ve reached the end and this final showdown is going to make or break us. The battle for our future ends tonight.

Then the mate bond goes tight. In the next breath, a slice of red separates from the snow and there’s Ren.

She falls into my arms, and the force of her sends me plowing back a step.

Boom. There they are. Ren is finally where she belongs and my arms ban around her automatically, my cold lips searching for hers. She lifts her head to meet them, and I steal a kiss, tasting her until she thaws my worry.

“We did it.” She’s breathless. “We did it. He’s coming.”

Those two words are a hammer blow to my head even when I anticipated them.

A glance over her head shows Noble and Torin clasping forearms. Even Dax stops, his face lifting and nostrils flaring, sniffing the air.

A howl fills the night from Andras and his people.

Much clearer than I thought.

Ren shivers against me.

He’s here .

Noble’s thought solidifies inside my head, and I turn to the trees they just came through. Although the storm obscures it, slowly shapes begin to separate from the shadows. The wolves prowl through the underbrush.

A surge of adrenaline spikes through me before my heart settles into a familiar rhythm. I’m an alpha. I’ve handled my pack for longer than these pups have been fighting and I come from a line of warriors.

This ends now.

And with the help of a silent goddess, hopefully no other pack will have to go through the hell mine did.

Ren pushes against my chest to keep me from moving, her body strained. “Wait, Mathis.”

There . A piece of darkness separates from the rest of the pack. The wolves stop at the edge of the clearing and Andras steps out, the only human among them. He holds his arms out to the sides with his cheeks pinked by the weather.

“This is a lovely welcoming committee y’all have here,” he says loudly. His southern accent sounds strange coming from him. “All of this for me?”

“The explosion, too,” Noble replies.

“I’m well aware of your little diversion. As far as tactics go, it was a cute touch.”

“We’re torching your empire to the ground and you call it cute.” Dax growls.

Andras only laughs. “Today, you’ll die.” His laughter rings out louder and shakes more snow from the trees. “You’re all goin’ to die.”

That’s when his wolves and men move. They fill in the space between us and Andras, and the only way to get to them is through the sea of Blood Moons.

Dax bolts straight into the fray.

The blizzard wraps icy arms around us, the snow sleeting sideways.

And without another thought, I transform, my wolf tearing out of me.

Overtaking the man. Fur sprouts along my skin and my teeth crowd my mouth before my jaw breaks, bones rearranging themselves.

The flash of pain is nothing compared to the pleasure of my increased senses.

The wolf is much more equipped for this weather than the man.

And the alpha is going to destroy anyone who touches his mate.

Noble is a large bronze male beside me, and the two of us cut a path of destruction through the Blood Moons. Torin, the fool, is still human. And Dax is nowhere to be seen.

Neither is Andras.

I glance to the left to see if Ren’s gone as well but a flash of claws swipes me in the side. The snow makes it hard for my opponent to see things too so the tips of his claws only clip my shoulder.

I turn with a flash of teeth and clamp down on his leg, biting until I puncture the skin and hot blood fills my mouth. The wolf yips, and in the next beat, Noble launches himself on the other’s back and takes him down.

Half a heartbeat later, another wolf takes his place. And another. Two of them come at me in tandem. Adrenaline rushes through me, scalding through my veins.

This is it. This is the last fight.

The finality of the moment hits with the force of a hammer blow.

Snarling, I tear my claws along the wolf’s back and snap at the other. They move with the practice of a duo who have fought together before. The snow doesn’t hinder them.

I keep my mind on Ren, on Flora. On the omegas who suffered because of these wolves and the actions of their insane leader.

Another snap sends one wolf onto his back, his belly bared for me.

They’ve got us surrounded. And through the blur of bodies and fur and flakes, I catch a glimpse of hair so light it seems almost silver. My stomach drops.

Catarina’s joined the fight.

She heads straight for Torin and jumps on him from behind, wrapping her hands around his throat. The hesitation of the glance costs me and the wolf at my front goes for my belly. He drags his rear legs against my stomach to tear me open.

I yelp, pain splitting through me. And in the distance, somewhere, Dax’s mournful howl fills the night.