Page 25

Chapter

Twenty-Two

M ia kept her voice steady despite the racing of her heart. "You've made a fatal mistake, Matthews." The crushed phone beneath his boot represented hours of planning down the drain. "You should have killed me while you had the chance."

Matthews' smile didn't reach his eyes. "Who says I won't?" He stepped closer, the scent of vampire blood stronger now, as if his agitation had intensified it. "I've worked too hard, Mia. Come too far."

"The Council will figure it out." She held her ground, though every instinct screamed at her to run. Through the bond, she felt Jim's desperation, his wolf clawing to reach her. Stay safe, she pushed through their connection. Trust me. "They already suspect something's wrong with the attacks."

"The Council," Matthews scoffed, "is a collection of old wolves too blind to see the future. Vampire blood is the future. The power it gives—you could feel it too."

"I'd rather die." The words came out with a wolflike growl, her canines lengthening despite her effort to maintain human form.

"That can be arranged." Matthews moved with unnatural speed, closing the distance between them in less than a heartbeat. His hand shot out, fingers wrapping around her throat with crushing force. "Such a waste of potential."

The world blurred. One moment she was standing, the next she was slammed against an ancient oak with enough force to crack the bark.

Stars exploded across her vision as her head connected with wood.

Matthews' hand remained at her throat, not quite cutting off air but making each breath a conscious effort.

"You know what I love about vampire blood?" His voice was conversational, as if they were discussing wine over dinner. "The precision it gives. I can feel your pulse beneath my fingers. Count each beat. I could keep you here for hours, right on the edge of consciousness."

Mia struck out with clawed hands, catching his face and drawing blood. Matthews didn't even flinch. The wounds sealed themselves before her eyes, leaving only faint pink lines that faded to nothing.

"Healing factor," he explained pleasantly. "Another perk."

She brought her knee up hard, but he shifted just enough that the blow glanced off his thigh. His free hand caught her wrist as she tried to claw him again, bones grinding together under his grip.

"You should have accepted me as your mate," he hissed, fangs extending where no werewolf should have fangs. Black veins pulsed beneath his skin like living tattoos. "Now you'll die as you lived—alone."

Wrong, Mia thought fiercely. I lived loved. I'll die loved. Jim taught me that.

The storm clouds that had been gathering all afternoon darkened overhead, casting strange shadows through the trees.

Thunder rumbled in the distance, and the first fat drops of rain began to fall.

A drop of blood trickled down Mia's forehead from where she'd struck the tree, warm against her cooling skin.

"Matthews!"

The voice cut through the tension like a blade. Reyes burst from the treeline, grabbing a thick branch from the ground in one fluid motion. He swung it with alpha strength, connecting with Matthews' extended arm.

Matthews released Mia with a snarl of surprise, spinning to face the new threat. Mia collapsed against the tree, gasping for air.

"This doesn't concern you, Reyes," Matthews growled, but his eyes tracked the heavy branch in Reyes' hands with unusual wariness.

"Run, Mia!" Reyes commanded, not taking his eyes off Matthews. He held the branch between them like a staff, and something about his stance—ancient, practiced—made Matthews hesitate.

It was just a branch. Any alpha could snap it like a twig. But Matthews circled instead of attacking, his vampire-enhanced features twisted in calculation.

"Interesting," Matthews murmured. "That's white oak, isn't it? From the blessed grove."

Reyes' grip tightened on the wood. "Your vampire blood makes you vulnerable to certain... traditions."

For the first time since his transformation, uncertainty flickered across Matthews' face. The branch shouldn't have mattered—but vampire blood came with vampire weaknesses, and white oak held power in the old stories.

"Mia, go!" Reyes urged, still maintaining his defensive stance. "Now!"

But Mia found herself frozen, watching this impossible standoff. Reyes, armed with nothing but wood and courage, holding back a monster.

"I can't leave you?—"

"You can and you will." Reyes' voice softened, though he never looked away from Matthews. "Need to tell you something first. Quick, before?—"

Matthews tested forward, and Reyes swung the branch in a practiced arc. Matthews actually stepped back, hissing.

"I entered the Challenge for you," Reyes said rapidly. "Not your pack. Not territory. You." Rain was falling harder now, streaming down his face. "Always admired you, Mia. The way you built yourself up from nothing. The way you lead with your heart."

"Reyes—"

"Let me finish." His voice was urgent but warm.

"You deserve everything beautiful in this world.

And that's Jim." A smile touched his lips even as Matthews growled.

"Not the strongest wolf—hell, he was dying two hours ago.

But Mia, the way he loves you? I've seen a lot in my years. Never seen anything like that."

Matthews was done waiting. He feinted left, then right, testing Reyes' defenses.

"He looks at you like you're his entire universe," Reyes continued quickly. "Like you're the reason the sun rises. That's not pack loyalty. That's not even mate bond. That's... cosmic. Divine. The kind of love that reshapes reality."

"Enough poetry," Matthews snarled.

"Almost done," Reyes said, finally meeting Mia's eyes. In that moment, something passed between them—not a mate bond, but understanding. Alpha to alpha. Wolf to wolf. "Be happy with him, Mia. Be so damn happy it makes the moon jealous. Promise me."

"I promise," she whispered, tears mixing with rain.

"Good. Now RUN!"

Matthews lunged. The white oak branch met him mid-leap, and for a moment—just a moment—it held. Matthews' hands wrapped around the wood, his face twisted in rage and something that might have been pain.

Mia ran.

She sprinted through the rain-soaked forest, branches whipping at her face, her alpha hearing picking up every sound behind her. The crack of wood finally giving way. Matthews' roar of fury. The sounds of renewed battle.

She'd made it perhaps a hundred yards when she felt it—a sudden, sharp connection that wasn't pack, wasn't mate bond, but something forged in that moment of shared understanding. Through it came pain, determination, and?—

The crack of breaking bone echoed through her mind more than her ears. Final. Decisive.

"No," she gasped, stumbling but not stopping. She couldn't stop. Reyes had bought her this chance with his life.

Behind her, a howl rose—not Reyes', but Matthews', twisted and wrong. The hunt was on.

She ran harder, tears streaming down her face. Reyes was gone. The wolf who'd loved her quietly, who'd seen the truth of her bond with Jim, who'd died believing in a love worth dying for.

Be so damn happy it makes the moon jealous.

"I will," she promised the memory of him, pushing herself faster through the storm. "I swear I will."

The pack territory stretched before her, and somewhere ahead, she could feel Jim through their bond—desperate, fighting to reach her.

I'm coming, she sent through their connection. I'm alive. Reyes ? —

She couldn't finish the thought, but she felt Jim's understanding, his grief mixing with relief that she lived.

The storm raged on, washing away the blood where an honorable wolf had made the ultimate sacrifice. Not for pack. Not for territory. For love—even if it wasn't his own.

Mia ran toward her future, carrying Reyes' blessing in her heart, Matthews' fury at her heels, and the absolute certainty that some loves were worth everything.

Even death.