Page 70 of The Wolves of Forest Grove

Jared pulled himself in tighter to me, placing himself on my left side while Clay fell into place on my right, the three of us creating a wall of flesh in front of Layla and Vivian.

“He won’t hurt them,” Jared said, but the uncertainty in his voice would have been evident even if I didn’t know him as well as I did.

My mouth went dry. Unable to help myself, I shouted at Ryland before he could get any nearer to us—to them. They were only a stone’s throw away now.

It was already too close. “Stay where you are,” I barked, shocked by the steadiness of my voice.

This was no time to break down and go spiraling into a panic-fueled oblivion. I needed to keep myself level until both of my friends were safe.

Ryland shifted, revealing a patchwork of slow- healing injuries over his massive muscled frame.

A bite mark puckered his cheek on the opposite side to the long scar cleaving the right side.

Like the scars of the pups on his chest, I hoped the ugly gashes torn by Samson’s fangs would stay there in his cheek, making him as ugly on the outside as I thought him to be on the inside.

“You don’t give the orders here,” Ryland rebutted, his teeth bared. He turned to shout at the wolves following behind him, “Stay,” he growled, and bent to scoop up something from the ground. It glinted in the moonlight and my stomach tightened when I realized what it was. The flask.

“Ry—” Clay warned as his alpha approached alone. “Armstrong, you say another fucking word and I’ll have your head on a pike. Got it?”

Clay snarled, pressing himself in tighter to my side.

My wolf flared to life and a low growl churned behind my ribcage. I was ready to let her out again if I had to. He just had to give me a reason. One wrong move and I’d let my wolf out—let her do what she’d wanted to do since she first laid eyes on him.

I had no idea if I could beat him. But I would give it my best shot if he lifted a finger to either of my mates or either of my friends.

Ryland stopped in front of us and I had to push myself to standing so my eyeline wouldn’t be level with his cock. Ugh. I stood in defense, my left foot back and my shoulders squared.

“Allie…?” Vivian called tentatively.

Ryland peered through us at my friends swaddled in the long grass. “They’ve seen,” he said simply.

“It’s against the law to kill them,” I blurted, trying to remember what exactly it was Jared had told me about the law of the witch’s council.

The wolf who’d tried to kill them—who’d bitten them— was dead.

So, he wouldn’t be at their mercy for his crimes.

But if Ryland hurt them, I’d find this witch’s council and I wouldn’t hesitate to tell them what he’d done.

Ryland eyed me with barely concealed disgust. “This is on you,” he said, and it was like someone had twisted a knife in my gut.

I grit my teeth together.

I know it is, I thought, but I couldn’t say it. I wouldn’t admit it to him.

Ryland stuck his neck out, sniffing the air as the glow of his wolf returned to his eyes. He snorted and spat into the grass. “They’ve been bitten.”

It wasn’t exactly a question, but the alpha was looking at me, waiting for a response.

Ryland’s eyes flicker low, to the exposed skin between my breasts and I pulled Clay’s sweater tighter around myself, my body clenching as I once again realized I was completely naked beneath the sweater. “Yes,” I ground out.

The alpha’s lips pursed, and he nodded. “Nothing will be done until the next moon,” he announced, raising his voice so it carried not only to us, but to the whole pack at his back.

“You have my word they will not be harmed so long as they can keep the events of tonight and the existence of our kind to themselves. If they speak out about what they’ve seen here tonight, they will have to be…dealt with.”

“They won’t say anything,” Jared told his uncle. “See to it that they don’t.”

“And if they don’t shift?” Clay asked, glaring at Ryland. He took the words right out of my mouth.

Ryland paused.

“If they don’t shift?” I repeated, enunciating every word.

Ryland licked his lips.

“Swear to me they will not be harmed.”

A coy smirk and a raised brow twisted Ryland’s face into something that made my skin crawl. He stepped forward and pressed the flask into my hand, dipping his head low to whisper in my ear. “Complete the ceremony. Join the pack and I swear to you they will not be harmed.”

I shuddered as his putrid breath disturbed the small hairs behind my ear, making a shiver run all the way down to my toes. His peppery smell was laced with something metallic that made my nose wrinkle and my eyes burn.

I blinked and saw over his shoulder, at the edge of the woods, there was a woman in a white nightgown standing amid the grass. Her silvery hair danced in the wind. Her pale blind eyes watched me, unseeing, glowing.

Hazel nodded. Just once.

And when I blinked for a second time and Ryland pulled away, she was gone. As if she was never there at all.

“Do we have a deal?”

My heart beat like a war drum in my chest. My wolf didn’t like this. She was battering at my defenses, but she was weak. Subdued. She had given me back the reins willingly and wasn’t yet strong enough to take them back.

“Allie?” Layla asked groggily and I turned to find her coming to in Vivian’s lap. Viv hushed her and the fear returned to Layla’s eyes as what happened came back to her.

I swished the liquid in the bottom of the flask. Most had leaked out into the grass, but it wasn’t empty.

“Well?” Ryland snapped, growing impatient.

Jared and Clay both stiffened at my sides. Their outrage and uncertainty—their pain—poured into me.

“We shouldn’t do this now—”

Jared tried, but his uncle turned a malicious stare on him. “Dylan is dead,” he hissed at his nephew. Jared went a shade of green in response and dropped his eyes. “How many more should I sacrifice for your mate’s comfort? Hmm? Tell me nephew, how many would you put at risk?”

The answer was so simple now. My wolf gave one last forceful push before I locked her away completely, gaining back full control.

How had I let this happen?

Maybe Ryland was right. Maybe I was wrong.

“I’ll do it.”

The fire in Ryland’s eyes grew hotter. The excitement in them unmistakable.

“Of my own will, I enter into this pack.”

I repeated the words, careful to say them without wavering.

“With the moon and all in attendance here as witnesses, I hereby submit myself to the rule of the alpha.”

My throat tightened on the last four words, but I managed to grind them out, shaking with the effort.

“Now drink.”

I did. The blood and whiskey pooled like acid in my mouth and I coughed, choking on it as it snaked down my throat.

A heaviness settled in my stomach and I blinked past a lancing pain behind my eyes, wincing.

Your will is mine to command, the alpha’s voice rang in my skull, clear and all encompassing.

I groaned, forced to my knees beneath him. I knew I shouldn’t be able to rise again until he released me, so I didn’t even try. This is what Ryland wanted. This is why he killed the other alpha. And if I didn’t give him what he wanted, there was no guarantee my friends would get out of this.

Blood of my blood, his voice whispered in my mind while he sniveled down on me.

Then, saying loud enough for all to hear, Ryland released me and lifted his arms as though he were a showman announcing the next act. “Welcome to the pack, Allie Grace.”