Page 49 of Cruel Alpha

The initial flood was overwhelming. Arbor wolves had no fear and no hesitation, plowing into our ranks without mercy. They were fast, too, and vicious: within seconds, a Beta hunter came straight for my throat. He dodged the snap of my jaws, crouching to go for my underbelly—he knew how to use my size against me—but my claws were out before he could reach me. I felt his flesh rip, but the cut was shallow, and it didn’t deter him. Every one of his moves was sharp and practiced, but I was stronger and faster than any other wolf of my size I knew.

By the time he was on the ground, blood from a great slash down his side dark against the icy grass, there was another to take his place, then another, and another. It felt like a second and an age before I could take a breath, scanning the battlefield for Slade. To my surprise, there was no sign of him: the other Alpha was a lot of things, but a coward wasn’t one of them. What the hell was going on?

There was a nip on my back leg, and I whirled around, teeth bared, but it was only Leonard, head bowed in supplication. Leonard? I’d sent him with Jace and Noah to patrol the outskirts of town. If he was here then—then something was wrong. Leonard jerked his head back towards the town, pawing the ground urgently, and there was no one to call upon. I howled twice, one short, one long, as I had agreed with Xander, and then I set off after Leonard. There was no time to do anything else. Xander would know. He would follow my scent into town and come up soon after us. I only hoped he would be quick enough.

My mind swam with possibilities as I raced after Leonard and back into town. I’d never before resented my wolf form, but the inability to speak, to communicate anything more complex thanfollow, angry, play,was frustrating beyond belief. What lay in wait for us back in town? Slade, almost certainly—but what was his plan of attack? To come from behind and attack while we were unawares? If that were the case, surely Leonard and the other patrol wolves would have engaged them rather than running for me.

Then I noticed which direction we were headed in: right towards the town square. My stomach dropped. Had I misjudged Slade that badly? Was he really willing to threaten our females and our young for the sake of this stupid fucking vendetta? I picked up my pace, not caring that Leonard was audibly wheezing ahead of me. We had to go faster, we were so close—

We burst into the square, skidding to a halt in the center. It was deadly quiet, and grief ripped through me at the sight of five Lapine shifters lying dead in front of the doors to the hall. Was that where Slade and his hunters had gone? No screams were coming from within the hall—were they all already dead? Taken? I was distracted, so consumed with rage that I didn’t notice the circle forming around me until it was too late.

These hunters were larger and more gnarled than the ones who had led the frontline attack, with scars running down almost every snarling face. Disgust coiled in my abdomen as I noticed that more than one was a Lapine wolf. Leonard fucking Pearce’s cronies, every single one. Sure enough, when I turned to look at him, Leonard himself had joined the circle of wolves keeping me trapped in the square. This was a trap.

Only once he knew he had my attention did Slade himself make an appearance. This guy sure had a flair for the dramatic, and I might have called him pathetic for it if he and his goons weren’t about to kill me. My ears flicked, listening for the sound of someone—anyone—approaching, but there was only silence.

I wasn’t going to let it end here, not when I had so much to lose. I should have been thinking of the Pack: Liam was a good guy, a solid second in command, but he didn’t have what it took to take down someone like Leonard in the power vacuum that would destroy Lapine in my absence. The thought turned my stomach and made me cringe with guilt, but it was far from my main concern.

What would happen to Alyssa? What would happen to my children if I died now? I’d seen what happened to shifters whose mates died young: it wasn’t pretty. I wasn’t going to let that happen. I wasn’t going to let Jack and Emmy grow up without their parents. I was going to be there every fucking day. I was going to make them breakfast in the morning and teach them to run as their wolves. I was going to tell Alyssa I loved her every day from now until we were old and gray, and if I had to fuck up twenty wolves by myself to do it, then I would.

Slade stepped forward into the circle. He was smaller than I was—only about three-fourths my size if that—and his dark brown coat was salted with white. His lips were pulled back to expose his yellowing teeth, and I recognized the challenge for what it was. Some challenge, I thought, with twenty of his guys there to back him up and me completely alone. They weren’t going to let him lose.

It was hopeless, but I squared up to Slade regardless, telling myself that I could do this. I would take him down, and then I would take the twenty other fuckers watching us. Snarling, I lunged forward, taking Slade by surprise. He’d thought I would try to draw it out, to buy myself time, but I wasn’t smart enough for that. I was furious, and I wanted his blood.

I got it, too. My first attack tore through his shoulder, leaving a ragged red gash in its wake, and he yelped in pain, whipping around to snap at me in return, but I was too fast for him. I turned and lashed out with my claws, only just catching him on the flank as he tried to dodge out of the way, underestimating my reach. I would have enjoyed this if I didn’t know that the quicker I killed him, the quicker the others would descend. Then again, if I was going to have any kind of chance against them, I needed to get this finished quickly. I was already growing tired from the first wave while these wolves were fresh and baying for blood.

On my third attack, I went for the throat. This time, he was ready for me, and my jaws closed around air as his front paws hit me in the chest. I was strong, though: I only needed to push forward to get him on his back, and this would be finished.

I didn’t make it that far. A set of jaws clamped around my hind leg, dragging me back. I tore my leg free, whirling around to face my attacker, but then there were claws slicing at me from every direction. My world became a blur of teeth and claws and blood, and I ripped and clawed for freedom, but every effort cost me another wound.

This couldn’t be it. It couldn’t be the end. I had to see Alyssa again, to hold her and our children in my arms. I needed to smell her intoxicating vanilla and jasmine scent again; even though the stink of blood and wolf, the memory of it endured.

Then came the flames.

It was as if some long-dormant volcano we’d never known existed had erupted beneath our feet, sending several wolves to the ground as they yelped and dropped onto their backs, attempting to dampen the fire that had taken hold of their fur. Miraculously untouched by that vicious flame, I spun around to find its source.

Alyssa’s wolf stood at the edge of the square, small and brown and absolutely glowing with power. For a second, I almost didn’t believe it—she was gone, I’d ordered her away—but really, it made perfect sense. Alyssa never did what I told her. There wasn’t time to admire or admonish her, though: some of the Arbor wolves had already extinguished their flames and were rising to their feet, smoking but still alive, and every eye was fixed on her.

It was stupid, so stupid of her to come back, but if she insisted on fighting with me, then we both would fight to the end. Two against twenty—maybe fifteen, between my desperate fight and her searing flames, there were a few who weren’t getting back up—was still terrible odds, but it was a hell of a lot better than before.

For a brief moment, I caught Alyssa’s eye: for all her power, she looked terrified, and I let out a rallying howl before diving back into the fray. My wolf was slavering for another taste of Slade’s blood, and I wasn’t feeling any less vicious. In the chaos of the hunters’ attack, I’d almost lost track of him, but it was hard for him to hide among the smaller wolves, and I was on him again in an instant.

This time, he wasn’t so brave. For all his posturing and his arrogance, Slade wasn’t an idiot: he knew that I had size, speed, and stamina on my side. I might have admired the fight he put up if he hadn’t been trying to murder my mate and my children. He was already favoring his right side from my first attack, and it was an easy weakness to exploit. I feinted right, then came at him from the left, sinking my teeth into the joint where his leg met his shoulder, and he howled in pain.

I braced for his hunters to respond, but there were no claws in my side or teeth around my legs. With Slade whimpering on the ground before me, I looked up just in time to see Xander’s pure black beast lunge into the square, followed by Noah and Jace and a dozen Lapine wolves. Howling my victory, I leaned down and ripped out Slade’s throat.

With the Arbor Alpha’s body cooling in front of me, his blood decorating my jaws, I cast around for my mate. I knew she was here, knew she was alive, but I needed to get to her. The battle was won—everywhere I looked, an Arbor hunter was going down or bearing his neck in submission—but it wouldn’t be over until I had her in my arms again.

A glow from the east, the scent of jasmine in the air, had me sprinting through the remaining fighters, arriving just in time to see Leonard on his back, whimpering in pain as Alyssa’s glowing paws burned deep marks into his chest. The smell of burnt fur and charred flesh hit my nose as she pulled away, not even hesitating before she sank her claws deep into his belly.

When she turned to face me, her paws were dripping blood, and Leonard was unmoving on the ground before her. Suddenly, all the rage in my wolf was gone, replaced by a sharp and all-consuming desire. My mate was strong; she was fierce—she might not need me to protect her, but she wanted me anyway, and I was the luckiest bastard in the Nightfire archipelago.

I was only allowed a second of that overwhelming joy before Alyssa trembled, shifted, and then fell to the ground, unconscious.

Chapter 23 - Alyssa

“Alyssa! Alyssa!”

Caleb’s voice pulled me out of the darkness. Blinking awake on the cold ground, I reached out for him, desperate to see his face, to know I had succeeded, that he was really alive, really there.

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