Page 23 of The Beta’s Heart (Five Fangs #5)

Tyler

“Congratulations, bro!” Before he could protest or dodge, I wrapped my arms around Landry and lifted him off his feet in a big bear hug. “I’m so happy for you!”

“Thanks, man!” he laughed, not even trying to get free like he normally would. “I couldn’t believe it at first, but the alphas convinced me it was real. To tell you the truth, I’m still a little in shock.”

Dropping him, I turned to Grace Turnbull—ahem, Benson now—and held out my hand.

“Congratulations, Grace! You have one of the best men in the pack for your mate,” I told her as her soft hand shook mine.

“I know he’s a good man.” She ducked her head a little shyly, but her eyes never left Landry. “Thank you, Beta Ty.”

It had been a week since luna freed Landry from the curse, and he was on medical leave for as long as he needed, so I wasn’t expecting him to be leading the 10 a.m. fighter practice on Friday, and I certainly wasn’t expecting to see him with Grace, much less holding her hand!

Then he’d dropped the bombshell that they were Goddess-given mates, and I’d narrowed my eyes at him, wondering just how much caffeine he’d had today. Grace, however, had assured me that they both experienced the sparks, smelled special scents, and felt the mate bond growing strong and sure between them.

“So tell me how this was possible.” I planted my fists on my hips and looked from one to the other. “There’s no such thing as second-chance mates, so how can you two be fated?”

“The witches explained that Nia Hashimoto was the one who cursed me, and her spell had a few bonuses to it. Not only did it trick me into thinking she was my mate, it kept my real mate hidden from me.” Landry’s eyes softened as he smiled down at Grace. “After they told me that, I went looking for this delicious smell that Oak had picked up on earlier before he went too wild to talk. He picked up the trail and followed it straight to my Gracie.”

“That’s incredible,” I said and slapped him on the back. “Once I tell Peri, she’s going to be excited, too. Let’s get together to celebrate soon.”

“Sounds great!” Grace said with a grin. “I like hanging out with Peri.”

“Yeah, Peri , not you ,” Lan laughed and shoved my shoulder playfully.

Ty-Ty, Q here! River suddenly piped up, his tail wagging, but then it dropped. Uh-oh. Him got dah grumps.

“Yeah, he’s in a bit of a temper,” Lan muttered, then grinned at me. “Well, beta , since you’re higher ranking than me, looks like you’re his opponent today. Go say hi.”

“Any idea what set him off?” I grunted.

“Apparently, Lark wanted him to take her for a run this morning, but he told her no. That made Lark a little sad, and Q’s tail has been in a knot ever since.”

“Why didn’t he just go for a run with her?” Grace asked.

“Doesn’t want to take the slightest risk while those beta triplets are still visiting from Russia. I can’t wait until they leave tomorrow!” Lan scowled. “Then again, if they keep up their antics, we might have only three dead bodies to load on their plane.”

I nodded in agreement.

I did not like those triplets.

I did not like them one little bit.

King Modest of the Russian Kingdom had sent them on his private plane to collect a valuable Lamborghini that Dad had restored for him, and they became thorns in everyone’s sides the second they disembarked.

They were traveling as much as possible to look for their mate, which I could understand, but their minds were filthy and their mouths filthier. Gamma Adam Bishop—who was as mild as a lamb off the field—had picked them up from our airport the day they arrived, and he’d nearly shut them up permanently when they asked if he had any sisters, the younger the better, since they didn’t sense their mate at Five Fangs.

All this week, they hassled any she-wolf who crossed their path, including Landry’s older sister, Olivia. When I told Peri about them so she’d know to steer clear, she shook her head and frowned.

“Some people are just beautifully wrapped boxes of bullshit. You be careful, too, baby. Assholes don’t hesitate to use anyone as their toilet paper.”

And my mate’s words proved true when the triplets somehow heard about River and poked at him anytime we crossed their path. I didn’t know why they were so set on making him go off, but I did know they’d be lucky to survive if they were successful.

The alphas had a talk with them, we betas had a talk with them, and the gammas had a talk with them. None of it made an impact, and there were quite a lot of us who couldn’t wait until they flew back to the Motherland tomorrow.

“Better get going,” Landry prodded my shoulder with his fingertips. “Before Q creates an international incident.”

I sighed. Jay’s wolf was tricky to handle when he didn’t have ‘the grumps,’ as River called it. I’d have to find a few other shifters to help me offer Quartz enough of a fight to improve his day.

If I’d known that Em and Angelo were coming and bringing along Konstantin Russo, the half-dragon currently living with them, I would have been certain of it, but I didn’t learn that little fun fact until the fickle finger of fate had already flipped me off.

#

My first inkling that everything was about to go pear-shaped came when the Hall twins linked me as they were leaving the field.

Bro, there’s something going down between Misha Popov and those Russian triplets, Bowie said.

Don’t look good, Becks added. Put your butt in hustle gear, beta, because Bowie and me got to git to Combat Club.

I got it. Go ahead, I told them.

Watch yourself, man. You know they’ve been trying to get River to go off all week, Bowie gave me one last warning.

I won’t let them get my goat, I replied with determination, then closed the link because I’d arrived.

I didn’t know a lick of Russian, but from Misha’s red face and clenched fists, I knew the triplets were bedeviling him over something important and prayed it wasn’t about his late mate, Jeannie.

I broke through the circle of shifters, recognizing all of them, including Mike McFlynn, the head of the pack’s construction crew and Misha’s boss. I knew none of them spoke any more Russian than I did, but they had Misha’s back no matter what words were being tossed out, I was proud to see.

Quickly moving to stand in front of Misha, I faced the triplets, who laughed and gave each other fist bumps.

“Are they threatening you?” I asked, not taking my eyes off of the jerks.

“Not me, beta.”

“Then who?” Mentally rolling up my sleeves, I put a touch of moon power and beta bass in my voice so Misha would tell me the truth.

“Luna.”

That got my immediate and complete attention. River’s, too, which wasn’t good. He didn’t comment or push for control, but his ears were up and his hackles raised.

“We don’t tolerate threats against our luna,” Mike McFlynn told the triplets as the shifters around us rumbled their disapproval, too.

The triplets broke out in Russian again, and Misha gasped as they laughed.

“Speak English,” I commanded because I knew they could, but they only jeered at me.

“What did they say, Misha?” McFlynn demanded while I was telling River to keep it together and let me handle it.

“I do not want to profane your ears or anyone else’s with their vileness.”

“That bad, huh?” I raised an eyebrow.

“Yes. That bad.”

“Better tell us,” McFlynn said with the low burr of his wolf in his voice, and Misha began to translate.

“Yuri said, ‘We have heard your luna is quite the beauty. We must pay her a visit and find out if she’s beautiful when she’s begging under us.’ Then Mikhail said, ‘She will be nothing but a broken little wolf when we’re done with her.’ I am sorry. It makes me feel dirty to even have their words in my mouth.”

I couldn’t respond. In his innocence, River didn’t pick up on everything they meant, but he understood that they were being meanies about his luna, and now he was howling for blood. The fact that the shifters around us were also agitated wasn’t helping, but I had to focus on my own wolf, not theirs.

Calm down, Riv. They’re not going to really hurt luna. They’re just running their mouths. Besides, our luna is at home with Mase. He wouldn’t let anything happen to her. And don’t forget, she’s the most powerful she-wolf on the planet. Even if these jerks tried something, she’d put them on their butts.

Riv wasn’t listening, though. Teased and provoked all week, he’d had enough of these three and could see only one way to get them out of his life as well as protect luna.

Me kill them, he said in an eerily flat tone.

My eyes flaring gold, he nearly took me to my knees in his push for control, and I tried my usual bribe since logic hadn’t worked.

I bet you never tried cookie dough ice cream. If you let me handle this, we can —

Me. Kill. Them. Dead.

The triplets reeled off some more comments, and Misha continued to translate them, and I almost wished he wouldn’t because I wasn’t exactly in control of River anymore.

“Arkady said, ‘As for this beta’s little mate, we will make sure she knows what a real man is, too.’ Then Mikhail said, ‘Let’s go take both she-wolves now. While their mates play soldiers here, we can turn them into our little whores.’ ”

The triplets smirked, the challenge clear in their eyes, and the shift came over me, hot and raw, inevitable as soon as River heard the word whore. He clawed his way to the surface with an intensity I could no longer leash and, to be frank, didn’t want to. My blood boiled with my own desire to shred these bastards.

“Beta?” Misha called, but Tyler Quinn James was gone.

In his place stood a lethal beast with fire in his eyes and murder in his heart.

The triplets’ eyes gleamed as they shifted, too, and I almost felt bad for them in their ignorance. They thought they were ready for this fight, but they had no idea what they were in for.

River might have a lot of issues, but fighting wasn’t one of them. A single beta wolf taking on three might have seemed like a ridiculous mismatch, but not if that one wolf was River, and everyone in the pack knew it. In fact, I could hear McFlynn taking bets on how long Riv would toy with the Russians before he ended them.

Then all my attention zeroed in on the three brown wolves as they launched themselves forward, and Riv surged to meet them, a blur of gray fluff that was all raw, predatory power now. The four of them collided with a sickening crunch, and the tang of blood, coppery and hot, filled the air as one of the brown wolves yelped in pain and staggered to the side.

The other two pressed on, jaws snapping, but River dodged effortlessly, his movements precise and deadly. He swiped out with one paw, claws raking across the second wolf’s side, and sent it sprawling.

The third wolf circled, trying to find an opening, but Riv never gave his enemies any openings except the ones he wanted them to have. The other two wolves healed quickly and rejoined their brother, and soon the four of them were rolling in a giant fight ball that River relished, his superior skill evident in every calculated move.

They were strong, but they were no match for his deadly precision. If he was special-forces level, they were new recruits, and he designed his every move to inflict maximum pain and fear. He could end this fight whenever he wanted to, but he was having too much fun playing with them, and I reckoned the brown wolves knew it because a fume of fear and desperation began to roll off of them.

Just after River feigned a yelp to encourage one of his opponents to target his left flank, Thoreau Jones screamed, his voice high and thin and far too close to the fight.

“Stop it! Stop hurting River!”

Before I could pinpoint where the boy was, the wolves had him in the midst of their flashing fangs and slashing claws, and panic and fear nearly stopped my heart.

“MAMA!” Reau screamed, and that got through River’s battle-fogged brain.

Toro? he gasped, then roared, TORO!

With terrifying speed, my wolf skillfully maneuvered Reau under his belly, the best and only safe place for him at the moment, and the boy clung to his long fur and whimpered, probably scared out of his mind.

Just like I was.

Reau had no wolf, no defense, nothing but River to save him, and the brown wolves weren’t letting up.

There’s a pup here! I screamed at them, as did McFlynn and Misha and several others, but the triplets kept up the attack.

How could they not care about an innocent pup’s life?! He could die!

River did his best, but fighting three on one was a whole different situation when the one suddenly had an unexpected point of vulnerability. My wolf started taking heavy damage, which slowed him down, and one of the triplets even managed to get a claw on Reau. The boy never let out a sound, but I knew he was badly hurt from the bright red blood blooming along his arm.

River was in a tough spot now. If he stopped defending himself and Reau, they would both be dead in two snaps of the enemy’s jaws, but he couldn’t maneuver enough to kill them first, not without exposing Reau. Circling our fight ball, Spring, Firth, and Ocean—Archer Barlow’s and Wayne Black’s wolves—were just waiting for a clear shot to intervene, but we all knew that one wrong move on any of their parts could result with River or Reau or both of them dying.

Then Quartz solved the problem by smashing into the triplets like a bomb going off, their bodies flying as his massive weight slammed into them, and both River and I breathed a sigh of relief as Spring, Firth, and Ocean tore into the brown wolves.

The pup is hurt , Quartz growled as he whirled to face River. Get him to the deltas.

Blood slithering through his fur to drip on the grass, River snarled and hunkered low over Reau, far too deep into a protection mindset to register that the fight was over, his eyes too wild with fury to see that it was his alpha standing before him.

Riv, it’s okay now. Let’s do what Q said. Despite being overwhelmed by emotions myself, I managed to keep my voice low and even as I encouraged him to calm down.

When it was clear my wolf wouldn’t—or couldn’t—yield, Quartz bit down on River’s ruff and forcibly dragged him off of Reau. The pain finally snapped Riv out of his battle rage, and he whimpered, recognizing his alpha’s authority.

Then, because the morning couldn’t get any more surreal, a pearly white dragon swooped down from the sky, its scales shimmering like pearls in the sunlight. With a swift, graceful movement, it scooped Reau up in its scaly feet and soared out of the danger zone.

So that’s Chime Karma, I thought absently. Konstantin Russo’s dragon.

With Quartz monitoring his every movement, River made sure Reau was clear of the area, then collapsed where he stood, panting heavily as he fell unconscious.