Page 118 of The Wolves of Forest Grove

Asly smile crept over his lips.

It was there only for the briefest moment, just before he erased all traces of it, but it was long enough to set my nerves on edge. To tell me that he had anticipated this. Was already ready for it.

“Allie!” Charity exclaimed, her voice rising above a barrage of heated whispers at my back. When I finally turned to face her, I found her stricken with fear, her face pale and bright turquoise eyes wide and rimmed with fresh tears. She brought a trembling hand to her mouth, suddenly speechless.

“I’m sorry, Char,” I told her. “It has to be done.” Charity blinked, and a tear fell. I looked away, unable to watch.

She wasn’t crying because I was going to kill the man she mistakenly fell in love with. She was crying because she thought she was going to lose me.

I hoped I was going to prove her wrong.

“There’s a reason a female shifter has never led a pack on mortal soil,” Ryland said, traces of that infuriating smirk still twitching through his mask of phony concern. “You aren’t strong enough. You will lose.”

Just like he so clearly wanted me to, I rose to the bait. “Try me.”

He sighed.

“Allie Grace,” Ryland said, his face placid, like a war general coming to terms with a decision he himself did not wish to make but was forced into. “I accept your challenge.”

A hush of silence went over the camp, broken only when Sam grabbed Ryland by the arm, wrenching it backward so he would face her. “You can’t,” she told him. “That’s my brother’s mate.”

He shrugged her off. “And like you said,” he replied, eyes sliding to me for the briefest second, making sure I was listening. “He will be better off without her.”

The blow stung, but I didn’t let it shake me.

Hell, if we were being honest here. I agreed with her.

“The others were right,” he said, this time lifting his voice for all to hear. “Allie isn’t like us. She’s…unnatural…and clearly unhinged.”

Oh, he had no idea…I was about to show him just how unhinged I could be.

“Well,” I hollered, vibrating with anticipation, paying the whispers no heed. “Are you just going to stand there?”

Ryland lifted his chin and stepped down onto the dirt, gaze fixed on me, flitting briefly to something behind me. I spun to look, catching what looked like the hem of a dark jacket as someone skated behind a cabin at the edge of camp.

The echoing snap of a branch in the forest yanked my attention back; my body jerked, anticipating an attack.

Until a dark shape burst from the trees and into camp. Clay. Followed closely by Jared, Viv, Layla, Kyle, and Destiny.

Clay skidded to a stop several paces in front of me, growling ferociously at Ryland. Jared came to stand next to Clay, taking up a similar protective stance at my front. Layla, Viv, and Destiny joined them.

Kyle floundered off to the side, unsure what to do.

Clay and Jared shifted at the same time, the snap and shudder of their bodies over in an instant, leaving me staring at two nude backs. The others remained in their wolf forms. Layla turned, pushing her cold, wet snout against my hand with a low whine.

“You fucking bastard,” Clay barked, every muscle in his body tense and rippling beneath a layer of sweat. “I’m going to rip your—”

“Quiet,” Ryland commanded, sending Clay skidding back half a step with the force of his alpha’s will.

“This is between us,” Jared spoke, eliciting a new wave of whispers from the pack, this time, their accusing stares turned from me to Ryland, where they belonged. “You will leave Allie out of it.”

Ryland frowned, steepling his fingers at his front as he regarded his nephew with a sorrowful stare. “Don’t tell me she has you believing all this nonsense, nephew?”

Jared stiffened. “I—” he stammered, his whole body shaking.

“I’m afraid you’re too late in any case. She’s already made an open challenge.”

Jared stilled, and Clay, still fighting against Ryland’s command with coiled muscle and low grunts, took two running steps at Ry, launching himself over the firepit.

My wolf reacted, rising to the surface like air trapped beneath water.

I growled, going to the balls of my feet for the sprint when Clay was knocked from the air mid shift. Harrison sent him tumbling to one side, and his skull knocked against a wooden bench before he could regain his footing, his body growing still.

“Clay!” I shouted, rushing toward him with Jared close at my heels. I grabbed him, using all my strength to turn him over. “You idiot. You complete fucking idiot. What were you thinking!?”

Clay’s eyes slitted open, showing whites as he groaned, his body working to quickly heal what was almost definitely a concussion. Harrison circled at a distance; his teeth bared.

The whispers from the pack had turned to shouts, all of them coalescing into one indecipherable hum of noise that made it hard to think.

Jared’s hand clamped around mine on Clay’s chest as he slowly blinked awake. “Allie,” he said in a harsh whisper. “Withdraw.”

“What?”

“You have to withdraw. Please.”

I shook my head, tugging my hand out from beneath his. “He’s been waiting for this, Jared” I whispered back, not caring if Ryland or anyone else heard me. “Even if I did withdraw, he wouldn’t honor it.”

A muscle in Jared’s jaw twitched, and he stood, turning to face his uncle and the pack. “Let me take her place,” he demanded, unflinching.

Ryland cocked his head at Jared, a knot between his brows.

“You would challenge me?” he asked, incredulous. “What has this…this filth put in your head? Would you really attempt to kill your own flesh and blood?”

“I could ask you the same question,” Jared spat. “But I already know the answer.”

Gasps sounded from the gathered pack members.

Someone shouted, “Is it true, Jared? Is what Allie said the truth?”

“Every. Disgusting. Word.”

Charity choked off a sob, sinking to her knees. “She’s lying!” Sam called, stepping forward to slip her hand into Ryland’s, showing their solidarity in a way that made me want to barf.

“She’s not,” Clay said, his voice garbled and distant as he pushed himself up into a half seat with my help. “He killed dad, Sam…”

Her complexion turned almost green before flaring back to a flushed pink. “That’s not true!”

“That’s about enough of this bullshit,” Ryland hissed, nodding to Harrison and Forrest who rushed to flank him left and right as he stalked toward us.

Clay’s upper lip curled back, and he winced as he rose, trying to put himself in front of me even though we both knew he wouldn’t be protecting anyone as unsteady as he was.

I braced myself, readying for the fight of my life, but Ryland stopped several paces away and his fiery orange eyes weren’t trained on me but on Jared and Clay.

Vivian came to my flank and growled, her hackles rising as she watched Ryland warily. I put my hand out, palm down, hoping she got the message to stay put. Stay calm.

If she attacked—if anyone attacked—this was going to get really ugly, really fast.

Clay clenched his right fist and slid his left leg forward, readying himself to swing. I gripped his arm, stopping him before he could.

“You will not interfere,” Ryland shouted at Clay and Jared, and even my skin bristled from the force of the words, laced with my alpha’s will.

“You will not speak. You will do nothing while I do what I should have done from the start.”

Jared looked like he wanted to scream, but with the command of his alpha holding him back, all he could do was breathe hard through his clenched teeth.

I put a hand on each of my mate’s backs, trying to soothe them.

“No,” Clay managed, his eyes bulging with the effort, shocking even Ryland with his ability to directly disobey an order by speaking.

“Ryland, please,” Charity said, coming to hover at my left. “There’s obviously been a mistake. Allie’s confused and—”

“Take her,” he ordered Charity before setting his sights back on me.

“You have ten minutes. Use Charity’s cabin. Say your goodbyes. When those ten minutes expire, I expect you to be right here,” Ryland pointed at the dirt at his feet.

He cut a hateful stare at his nephew. “This is a courtesy I extend for you, nephew,” he said. “Don’t forget it.”

“I don’t intend to say any goodby—”

“Come on, Allie,” Charity cut me off, tugging at my arm. “Jared. Clay. Let’s go.”

Ryland turned on his heel and stormed back toward his front porch, where he shouldered past a pale- looking Sam and went inside, slamming the door behind him.

“Come,” Charity repeated, her eyes wild. Something in my chest twanged with a sharp stabbing ache.

Layla, Viv, and Destiny padded along beside us as we weaved quickly through the cabins. If I grit my teeth any harder, I was sure they would crack.

I let Charity usher us inside, away from the curious eyes of the others, all of whom remained near the fire ring, waiting for the show to begin.

Jared and Clay made choked off and grunted sounds of exertion, the muscles in their faces trembling. I realized with a sinking in my gut and also a sliver of relief, that they still couldn’t speak.

Ryland had ordered them to be silent. He’d told me I could say my goodbyes. He said nothing about them saying theirs.

Couldn’t have them saying anything else that might incriminate him, right? Smart fucker.

If I died today, there was no doubt in my mind that he would have Grey compel them to forget everything I’d told them. Which meant that I had to defeat him. I couldn’t allow that to happen. They deserved the truth. No matter how ugly.

No matter how painful.

Layla, Vivian, and Charity shifted, rushing inside the cabin as Charity sealed the door shut behind them and turned, frantic, her hands shaking. “You need to leave,” she said in a low voice. “You can run. I’ll cover for you.”

“We can slow him down,” Vivian added, clearly liking this plan.

Layla, eyes welling with tears, made wild gestures with her hands. “You can get a head start and—”

“I’m afraid no one will be running away this morning,” the rich tone of his voice slithered into the room like a serpent.

Charity started, gasping loudly before Grey caught her by the mouth, stifling her cry. “Silence,” he commanded, and the room went quiet.

Jared and Clay rushed forward, poised for the kill, their wolves at the surface but not set free. In this tiny space they risked injuring more than Grey if they shifted.

“Sleep,” Grey said, and my mates stilled, unsteady on their feet for a moment before they began to list to one side. I darted forward, trying to break two falls at once. I managed to get an arm around Clay and just caught the back of Jared’s skull with the other before it would have hit the floor.

Layla, Vivian, and Destiny fell in a heap at the door and I winced, seeing Destiny’s wrist bent at an odd angle beneath Layla’s hip.

“Curious,” Grey hissed, releasing Charity and shoving her to a corner of the cabin, where she fell, stiff as a plank, to the floor. Grey’s stare strained as he took me in, still very much not asleep as the others were.

I set Jared and Clay down, rising to my feet, feeling the full weight of my wolf like a spirit possessing my limbs.

“You,” I said, my voice garbled from a partially shifted throat. My hands claws at my sides.

Grey looked down on me, his head cocked, pupils dilating as he said, “You will not fight Ryland.”

Grey’s expression tightened. His voice deepening, growing raspy with the force of his words. With how much compulsion he was trying to pump into them.

The hairs on my neck raised and my pulse picked up, a rogue thought crossing my mind for a brief second.

I tried to tear my gaze away from him, away from those entrancing dark eyes of his, but I couldn’t.

Maybe…

Maybe I shouldn’t fight.

My core loosened. My shoulders fell.

“That’s it,” Grey said, slithering across the bare swath of floor between us, bringing himself within my reach. “There’s a good doggy.”

Close enough for my nostrils to wrinkle from the cloying scent of his aftershave, he put a single finger beneath my chin, propping my face to his. “You will beg your alpha’s forgiveness for your unfounded accusations and then you will kneel before him and accept your fate.”

A slow smile turned up the edges of my mouth. “Like hell I will.”