Page 23 of The Wolf’s Bullied Mate (Moondust Hollow Wolves #2)

Through the open window, I looked down and watched Oliver, Father, Mother, Jeffrey, and the two enforcers from Lone Bite shift into their wolf forms.

Oliver had called me his, and now he would fight to protect me. The wolf in me danced happily. Mate, mate, mate, she chanted. Yes, Oliver was my fated mate, after all. I had to discuss bonding with him when this mess was over.

Worry gripped my heart, though, at the idea that Oliver might not survive the fight.

Mother wasn’t anything special as a fighter, but Father and Jeffrey and the two friends they had brought were strong enforcers.

The battle would be four trained fighters and Mother against one.

Oliver was an alpha wolf, but could he really win against such odds?

There was nobody else around to help him. Everyone was busy fighting the main force of Lone Bite at the edge of town. I had no idea how my parents and Jeffrey had sneaked into the town center. They were craftier than I thought.

Was I really the reason for Lone Bite’s attack or just a convenient excuse to break the peace?

Oliver finished shifting into wolf form, and I prayed to the Moon Goddess that he would finish the fight without major injuries.

I remembered the vision I’d had. It hadn’t come to fruition exactly as I had foreseen it—I wasn’t running, not yet at least, and Oliver had come to my side all on his own.

What had made him decide to return home and check on me, I didn’t know.

I was just so grateful that he had arrived when I needed him.

I watched Oliver and the enemy wolves circle each other. Oliver’s wolf was the largest of them all, his tawny fur glistening in the sunlight. My father’s black wolf and Jeffrey’s gray wolf weren’t much smaller, though.

Oliver waited until one of the enforcers launched an attack on him. He moved to the right, and then bit into the enemy’s leg. When the attacker fell, he bit into his throat.

Blood spurted, followed by a whine of pain.

The enforcer fell limp at Oliver’s feet. Dead.

Oliver wasn’t messing around. He was fighting to kill.

“Oliver!” I called out to him, suddenly afraid he would off my parents too.

I didn’t care what he did to Jeffrey, but my parents were a different story.

Even though they had abused me all those years, I didn’t want them dead because of me.

I didn’t want Oliver to live with the burden of having killed them. “Don’t kill them!”

Oliver’s wolf gave me a long look, then nodded; such a human gesture on a wolf.

He ran up to the next enforcer and bit into his side. They fought with each other for a moment until that enemy fell, too. Oliver left him bleeding on the ground but still breathing.

Father and Jeffrey closed in on Oliver at the same time, with Mother coming from the rear.

Oliver was stronger than them, though. He let them get off a few bites, pretending he couldn’t stop them, and then he whipped around at the last moment and injured Father.

A few bites later, Father and Jeffrey, fell to the ground, both whining but still alive.

Oliver turned on Mother, but she bowed her head low and pressed her ears flat to her skull. She surrendered.

Oliver was victorious.

Oliver shifted back to human form. He stood in naked glory on the battlefield.

“Shift back to human form,” he commanded the enemies in his alpha tone.

They had no way to refuse the order. They all immediately changed back into human form.

“Pauline,” he then looked up at me. “Bring me a rope from the garage.”

I nodded and put Ray down in the room. My son stared at me, wide-eyed. “Oliver is so strong!” he called out happily.

“Yes, he is,” I smiled. “He protected us.”

“Does that mean we don’t have to go back to the old pack with Grandpa and Grandma?” Ray looked at me with hope in his eyes.

I nodded. “We’re not going anywhere. We’re staying at Oliver’s side.”

“Yay!” Ray jumped up.

I took his hand, and we descended the stairs and went to the garage. The rope was easy to find. We came out holding a heavy coil of it. Oliver took it from me and got to work binding the defeated enemies.

“What will happen to them?” Ray asked, beaming at Oliver like he’d just become a true hero in his eyes.

“They will be put on trial,” Oliver exclaimed. “All but that one,” he pointed to the one who hadn’t shifted back to human form: the dead enemy.

Ray didn’t seem bothered by the body, so taken he was with Oliver’s strength.

I looked Oliver up and down, checking for injuries.

He had a bleeding wound on his side, but it didn’t look like anything major.

Still, I returned to the house and brought out the first aid kit and a change of clothes for Oliver.

Thanks to his wolf-shifter powers, his wound would heal by itself.

In an hour, there wouldn’t be any evidence that it had ever existed in the first place.

If it became infected, though, it wouldn’t heal at all, so I still insisted on tending to the area for him, just in case.

After Oliver bound all the enemies, who stared back at us with unhappy expressions, I cleaned his wound, and he got dressed. He approached Father, who winced in pain—the wound on his leg was bleeding.

Oliver had told me not to dress the enemies’ injuries. I didn’t want to be anywhere near Father or the rest of them right now, anyway.

“Anderson,” Oliver addressed my Father. “Was Pauline the reason for Lone Bite’s attack?”

My Father kept quiet, saying nothing.

Oliver waited for him to reply. When Father remained silent, though, Oliver sighed and walked over to where the group had originally shifted. He picked up his phone from his destroyed clothes and called a number.

“Ryder, you picked up,” Oliver said over the phone. “Is the attack over?”

After he got the reply, he said, “I have four Lone Bite wolf shifters here, defeated and bound. Pauline’s Father and Mother, the father of her child and one other.

Yes, it seems they wanted to bring Pauline back to their pack.

No, I don’t know how they got to the town center.

Yes, they are alive, and you can find out all the details from them and put them on trial.

Thank you. We’ll come to the townhouse soon. ”

Oliver turned back to us. “We will have to bring them to the townhouse.” He took Father’s rope and tugged on it. “Let’s go.”

I took Ray’s hand and, together with Oliver and the others, we walked to the red brick building that served as Fairlake’s townhouse and the seat of the alpha and luna seat.

Nervousness ate at me. What would alpha Ryder do with my parents?

All I wanted was for them not to be executed.

In my old pack, they would have been long dead by now.

Everyone fought to kill, much like Oliver had been initially doing.

I had to make sure my parents survived today so that they could live and reflect on their foolishness.