Page 48 of Howl For A Kiss
They moved as one unit through the narrow service tunnel, Damon's imposing frame leading the way while Elena coveredtheir rear with the three male rebels flanking the rescued captives. The young rebels might have been beaten and traumatized, but they moved with the desperate determination of people who had already accepted death and found themselves gifted with unexpected salvation.
The tunnel soon opened into the stables, moonlight streaming through the tall windows and illuminating scattered hay bales and horse stalls. Elena's enhanced senses picked up the familiar scents of leather and animals, but underneath it all lay the metallic tang of weapons and the musk of aggressive males ready for violence.
"Well, well," a cold voice echoed through the stables. "Elena Walsh. I wondered when you'd crawl back to finish what you started."
Elena's blood immediately boiled in her veins and her vision blurred red. Beta Marcus Tidewater stepped out of the shadows with ten pack enforcers, their weapons gleaming silver in the moonlight. His cruel face wore the same expression of cold satisfaction she remembered from that terrible day when she'd been forced to abandon Fiona.
"Marcus," Elena said, his name dropping from her lips like poison. Behind her, she felt Fiona press closer, trembling with remembered terror.
The Beta's calculating gaze shifted to Damon, recognition flickering across his hardened features. "Beta Gray. I should have known the Silvercrest pack would be involved in this rebellion nonsense." His lips curved in an ugly smile. "Walk away now, Beta Gray. Give them over to us. Come back to our side where you belong."
Elena felt her heart stop. This was it—the moment that would define everything between them. Through their half-completed mate bond, she could feel Damon's internal struggle, the weightof fifteen years of duty and loyalty warring against something deeper and more primal.
For the briefest moment, Damon hesitated. His eyes met Elena's across the moonlit stable, and she saw the storm raging behind his carefully controlled exterior. The Beta who had served his pack faithfully for fifteen years stood at a crossroads that would change the course of his entire life.
Then something shifted in his expression—a hardening of resolve that made him look more dangerous than Elena had ever seen him.
"You're right about one thing, Marcus," Damon said, his voice filled with absolute authority that made even the Tidewater enforcers shift uneasily. "I am Beta. But I'm notyourBeta."
He stepped forward, placing himself between Elena and the armed Tidewater pack enforcers with the protective instincts of a mate defending his chosen female. "I, Damon Gray, officially renounce my position as Beta of Silvercrest pack."
The words rang through the stables like thunder, carrying the weight of an oath that could never be taken back. Elena felt her breath catch in her throat, understanding the magnitude of what Damon had just sacrificed for her.
"I declare my loyalty to Elena Walsh, to the rebellion, and to truth and evolution over lies and oppression," Damon continued, his voice growing stronger with each word. "The old ways are broken, Marcus. It's time for something better."
Marcus's face twisted with rage and disbelief. "You're throwing away everything for a half-breed rebel whore?"
Damon's voice cut through the air like a sharp knife. "Call her that again and it will be the last words you ever speak."
The deadly quiet in his tone made several of the enforcers step back involuntarily. This wasn't the controlled Beta theymight have heard about—this was a warrior unleashed, protecting the woman who had become his entire world.
Marcus hesitated for just a split second, clearly thrown by Damon's unexpected defection. That moment of uncertainty was all Elena needed.
"Now!" she shouted.
Chaos erupted in the moonlit stables as two forces collided with bone-crushing violence. Elena's tactical training merged seamlessly with her primal fury as she moved through the battle like a force of nature, her weapons finding their marks with deadly precision.
Daniel and Maggie burst through the stable doors with perfect timing, their arrival turning the tide as Elena's rebel fighters fought with the desperate courage of people defending their freedom. The young rescued rebels grabbed improvised weapons from the stable tools, their traumatized rage giving them strength they didn't know they possessed.
But it was Damon who became the rallying point of the battle. His public renunciation of his Beta position had transformed him into a symbol of everything the rebellion represented—the choice to break free from oppressive traditions and fight for something better.
Elena found herself fighting back-to-back with her mate, their movements synchronized through their growing bond as they cut through the pack enforcers like twin forces of retribution. She could feel his protective fury through their connection, and his absolute determination that no harm would come to her or Fiona.
When the dust finally settled, eight of the ten enforcers lay wounded and groaning on the stable floor. Marcus himself was on his knees, clutching a deep gash across his ribs that Elena had opened with surgical precision.
Elena stalked toward the fallen Beta, her weapons still drawn and her blue eyes burning with the rage of years of suppressed vengeance. This was the moment she had dreamed about—Marcus Tidewater helpless at her feet, finally facing justice for his cruelty.
"You held a gun to my sister's head," Elena said, her voice carrying the cold finality of an executioner. "You threatened to kill her while I watched. You made me choose between her life and her freedom."
Marcus glared up at her with unrepentant hatred. "I was following orders. Pack law?—"
"Pack law is wrong," Elena interrupted, pressing the barrel of her gun against his temple. "And you enjoyed every second of it."
Through their bond, she felt Damon's steady presence behind her—not trying to stop her, but ready to support whatever choice she made. The power of that unconditional acceptance nearly brought her to her knees.
Elena looked down at the man who had haunted her nightmares for years and suddenly found that her thirst for revenge had transformed into something else entirely—pity for a broken system that created monsters like Marcus Tidewater.
With deliberate care, she shifted her aim and put a bullet through his shoulder instead of his skull. Marcus screamed and collapsed fully to the stable floor, clutching the wound.
