Page 71 of Mating Mia
“Still feisty,” he purrs. “It’s what I always liked about you, Sarah. Even when you were chained to my bed.”
“Let her go!” My father’s voice cracks the night in two.
Orion’s gaze is pure evil. “You were always so sentimental, Liam. Pathetic, really, for an alpha. You’re lucky I let you live as long as I did. That ends tonight, though.”
Kane leans down, lips by my ear, voice so low I barely catch it over the sound of the waterfall. “When I tell you to run, you go to Ash and don’t look back. You understand me, little omega?”
I nod, or maybe I just shake. My entire body is vibrating with terror, but Kane’s grip around my waist is steel. His other hand is on my hip, and I realize it’s the only thing keeping me upright.
Orion addresses the pack behind him, his voice carrying through the woods. “Liam is a thief and a murderer. He stole my omega. Tonight, we restore the order of things.” He raises the knife and licks my mother’s blood off the blade, slow and deliberate. “Sarah comes with me. The rest of you can die together.”
A dozen growls echo from the trees. Kane’s chest presses into my back as his growl rips from his throat, vibrating my bones.
Then, in one fluid motion, Kane, Finn, and Jace are gone—human forms dissolving into fur and muscle and teeth. The change is so fast, so violent, it leaves their tuxedo remnants drifting like smoke in the lamplight. Bones stretch, joints snap, claws erupt from fingers.
Orion’s pack transforms as one, their bodies writhing and shifting until the clearing is a mass of fur and bloodlust.
I have never seen a pack war. The brutality of it is beyond anything I can imagine.
Orion uses the chaos to drag my mother backwards, knife still pressed to her throat as he retreats toward the trees. My father doesn’t hesitate. He shifts, tearing through his skin with an agonized howl, and is instantly on Orion’s heels, a massive gray wolf streaking through the brush.
Finn barrels into me, knocking me sideways and out of the circle of carnage.
The wolves collide in a blur of motion, teeth sinking into flesh, claws raking, bodies slamming together with sickening, bone-breaking force.
My heart races as I watch Kane launch himself at a giant russet wolf, jaws clamping down on its spine and snapping it in two. Blood sprays across the grass. Jace circles, darting in and out with surgical precision, hamstringing his opponents before moving on.
The air is thick with the metallic stench of blood and the reek of aggression. Screams echo into the night. I can no longer tell if the screams are human or animal.
My heart stutters. I can’t breathe. My lungs won’t work. My baby.
I need to get to my son.
A huge wolf, slate-gray, with scars crisscrossing its snout, breaks from the brawl and charges straight for me.
I backpedal, slipping in the dew-slick grass, but before I can even scream, Finn intercepts it, slamming his entire body into the beast and sending it tumbling. The two wolves roll, jaws locked on each other’s throats, until Finn rips out the other’s jugular with a wet, sucking sound.
Nearly puking, I’m crawling now, my knees and palms stained with blood and mud. The waterfall is a white roar in my ears. I can’t see my parents, nor can I see Orion, but I can hear the shrieks of pain and rage coming from somewhere deeper in the trees.
I lurch to my feet and bolt for the cave entrance behind the falls, my legs rubbery, every step a struggle against gravity and dread. I glance back once. Jace is limping, blood streaming from a gash above his eye, but he’s still fighting.
I’m worrying now.
My alphas are getting hurt, and there’s nothing I can do about it.
A flash of movement draws my gaze up. Kane has his jaws locked around the head of a massive white wolf, possibly Orion, shaking it with such force that the neck finally gives way and the head tears free from the body.
The black wolf spits it to the ground, then howls, the sound vibrating through my chest.
The fighting doesn’t stop. It just gets uglier. Fur and flesh fly in clumps, bones snap, the grass is painted red.
I keep running. I have to.
My vision is blurry, my body numb. I follow the path by instinct, hands trailing the damp walls as I slip and stagger deeper into the system.
All I can think about is Ash. My baby. The only thing that matters.
I reach the sleeping chamber, and there he is, curled in a nest of blankets, thumb in his mouth, oblivious to the carnage outside. His chest rises and falls in soft little breaths.
