Page 174 of The Wolves of Forest Grove

My skin itched as Devin’s blood began to dry, crusting on my forearm rapidly in the growing heat of the morning.

“Enough,” I demanded, rising to face the shifters still locked in battle behind us. “I said that’s enough!”

Yips of surprise and frightened yelps rang out all around as claws retracted and bodies moved, separating one pack from another under the threat of my command.

My chest heaved, feeling oddly hollow. Limitless. Like no amount of air could ever properly sustain my need to breathe. But still I tried, panting as I slowly regained control.

Countless sets of wolfish eyes turned to me, waiting. Some afraid, others still amped up and looking to spill more blood. They might just get their wish.

Through familiar and unfamiliar faces, I searched the features of both the living and the dead. Bile burned in my throat, finding Charity across the barrens. And next to her, Luke. And closer, Sara, and Tyler.

All of them dead. And there were more, though I couldn’t see their faces.

I found Layla and Seth re-emerging from the trees and sighed, nearly moved to tears when I found Vivian lying next to an injured, but alive, Destiny.

My jaw clenched as I considered the next move.

Pack law dictated that I was now the alpha of the wolves who fought under Devin’s command, but right now…

Right now I was just as likely to rip every single one of them to pieces than force them to bow to command. “Allie?” Jared hedged, rising on human legs to stand at my back. “We don’t have to do this now.”

“Yes we do.”

Uneasy wolves shifted on their feet, wistful gazes looking for escape. I fucking dared them to try it.

“Please,” came a soft voice, and I searched the crowd to find her. A girl about my age. With reddish hair and freckles over her nose. Not my pack. His. “Have mercy on us. He commanded we fight. He forced us.”

I shook my head, curling my hands back to fists. “Not all of you,” I corrected her, thinking of Forrest. Of the others who seemed all too keen to shed the blood of my family.

A middle-aged man shifted, casting his dark eyes down to the earth as he took a knee and bowed his head. “It would be an honor to be accepted into your pack.”

My teeth ground with the urge to tell him to go fuck himself. To look at what they’d done! Forced or not.

I didn’t even realize I was shaking until a steadying hand curled around my shoulder, lending me his support. “Breathe, baby. It’s over.”

I latched on to Clay, squeezing his hand as I fought for a full breath through the damnable flutter in my chest. “Not yet. I won’t put my family in danger again. I won’t let anyone hurt them. We’ve already lost too man…”

I choked on a sob, clearing my throat and forcing my spine erect to stop myself from being overcome.

Be strong, Allie.

The girl who first spoke knelt with the older man, and as we watched, the rest of them followed. Some shifted to kneel on human knees over the blood- soaked soil. Others remained in their wolf forms, putting their bellies to the earth in a show of submission.

My own pack followed, awaiting orders.

One thing was absolutely certain, I would not be letting anyone walk away from this field today.

Last time I allowed shifters to leave instead of bow as they were meant to, two of them returned to betray me.

If I’d never let Sam or Forrest go, Devin may not have had the intel or the resources to do what he did.

This may never have happened.

I searched the gathering, thinking there may be one possible way that didn’t end in the complete decimation of Devin’s pack.

“Piper!” I called out, worry creasing my brow when I didn’t find her.

“Has anyone seen Piper?”

“Here,” Trey called, and I rushed back across the field, my mates at my sides.

Trey and Todd muscled a large gray wolf off of a smaller, dark coated one.

Piper lay unmoving save for the slight rise and fall of her chest.

“Hey.” I pried back her eyelid, checking for dilation. “Piper?”

“I don’t think she’s fatally injured,” Todd said, the voice of reason in the maelstrom in my head.

Jared snatched me back as Piper came to, nearly taking my damn ear off as her eyes widened in panic and she scrambled to her feet, body trembling.

I held my hands up to her. “Hey, it’s okay.”

“It’s okay...” I repeated a second time, making sure she understood from the movement of my lips.

Piper’s gaze jerked over the scene, searching until they landed on Devin.

She shifted, falling to her knees, her big eyes watering as she blinked rapidly to clear them. She signed something, and Jared translated for me, kneeling to speak into my ear.

“She’s asking if it’s really over now.”

“Almost,” I told her, and her brows crinkled.

“There’s something I need you to do for me, and then it will be.”

Jared stumbled through signing my words, and I stopped him, placing a hand over his. “She can read lips. Really well, actually.”

Piper smirked and signed something else. “She says okay. She’ll do whatever you need.”

My chest squeezed, and something in my face must have given away my pain because she signed again, concern lining her forehead.

I didn’t wait for Jared to translate this time, launching into an explanation of my own. “I need you to read them,” I told her. “I need you to read each and every one of them and tell me if they did this willingly or if they were forced.”

Her lips parted and her face, already pale, became impossibly paler.

“This is bullshit!” Someone shouted behind me, moving to leave.

“No one leaves,” I hissed, jerking my chin to the retreating man, giving the order to stop him. “Restrain him.”

“You are not the executioner,” I assured Piper, swallowing past the hard lump in my throat. “I am.”

I felt the certainty in my decision, backed up by the solidarity of my mates through the bond. They agreed with me. This was the only way.

“It’s how it has to be. It’s the only way for me to keep everyone safe.”

Piper’s jaw flexed, considering her role in what would effectively be the murder of several of her previous packmates.

She nodded once, a sharp bob of her head and the full weight of what I had to do next crashed down on my shoulders. But at least I wouldn’t have to do it alone.