Page 167 of Claimed By the Rival Alpha
He had barely had time to think the words when three of the ferals launched themselves at us. Night growled as two of them came at him. That left me with one. I sidestepped its charge and butted my head against its body. When it stumbled, I rushedforward, slamming its body into the cave wall. It bounced off and lay still, but it was still breathing. Behind me, the two ferals had managed to get Night onto his back.
Before I could move in to help, one of the other ferals noticed my opponent was down. The wolf whirled on me and sprinted my way. My mind raced, but I didn’t have enough room to maneuver. There was no time to react.
Night roared, bucking off the feral that held him on the ground, and launched himself at the feral that was coming after me. He tackled it before it could reach me, and his teeth, just as they had with the other feral, darted down to imbed themselves in its throat. Blood spurted from the wound to stain the cave wall.
I turned from the sight, my stomach turning all over again.
“Are you alright?” Night asked, spitting blood.
“I’m fine. Just pissed that I let myself get trapped like that.”
He moved so he stood slightly in front of me. “Use that anger to your advantage, Bryn,” he said. “Harness it into usable power.”
I narrowed my eyes at his back. Two more wolves split off from the group of gleaming predatory eyes and sprinted our way. I braced myself for the attack, but Night rushed ahead to meet them, leaving me behind.
The first feral lunged at him, and he met it head-on. It tried to tackle him but couldn’t get him off his feet. He bit its shoulder, sending more blood spraying into the air, and tossed him away. The second feral slipped past him and headed my way, but Night didn’t let it get too close. He bit the back of its neck and shook until a sharp crack split through the cave.
More death. It was too much. Too wrong. Too awful. And it was my fault. If I was stronger, maybe I could show Night that there was a better way to?—
“Using your frustrations as power isn’t as hard as you think,” he told me.“That’s what’s holding you back. You’re overthinking this.”
I’d almost forgotten that we were having a conversation through all this.Focus, Bryn,I thought.
“So your answer is just to stop thinking?”
“Yes. Let your wolf take control. She’s strong, just like you, and she knows how to fight.”
After telling Night that I trusted my wolf to protect me, here I was, stifling her all over again. My wolf wanted to be let loose. And she wanted to help. We weren’t attuned enough to be able to coexist in a battle without getting in each other’s way, so my only option was to take a deep breath and let her take control.
So I did just that, receding a bit into the background so she could lope forward. As she took over, the remaining six wolves came toward us at once. With three ferals for each of us, Night wouldn’t be able to help me if I got stuck, but if my wolf’s battle howl was any indication, she wasn’t worried about it. The ferals circled around us like sharks, like they were planning out how they wanted to take us out.
My wolf didn’t want to wait. She lunged forward and bit the haunch of the closest feral until bone shifted and collapsed under her teeth. Another feral peeled away from the circling group to try and attack. With her teeth still embedded in the feral, my wolf shifted the feral’s body into the way of the other’slunging attack. The feral yipped in pain as its own comrade bit through its shoulder.
Night made a sound that was something between a laugh and a pant.
“That’s the spirit!”
He dove into the fray. The ferals pounced on us. My wolf let go of the wounded feral to face off with two others, one behind, one in front. The shifting of paws on the ground behind her told her that the one behind was the more immediate threat. She crouched low at the last second, turning the biting leap into a tackle that would roll both herself and her attacker into the path of the feral in front.
She dug her forepaws into the chest of the feral that had tackled her, using the momentum to kick it into the other. The two ferals became a pile of snapping teeth and flashing claws until they realized that they were attacking each other, not me. By that time, they were both scratched up pretty badly, and my wolf had the upper hand. She lowered her head, growling with her hackles raised.
Behind us, my wolf sensed that Night had just put down the last of the three ferals that had attacked him. He shifted his attention back to us, and ran to stand at our side. These last two ferals, understanding that the tables had turned, didn’t sprint away. Instead, they put all they had into one last rush.
We surged forward and met them there. My wolf, mimicking the attack that had finished Troy, bent low and launched one of them up into the air. It bounced off the ceiling and crashed into the ground behind us. Night simply overpowered the wolf thatran toward him, putting his weight into shoving the feral until it fell onto its back. Then Night ripped its belly open.
Again, I turned away. I had commented on the fact that most of the women in the pack had never seen that much blood and death before, but here I was getting squeamish about my mate’s methods. How could he stand being covered in so much blood? How could he keep going, knowing that he’d taken so many lives? I wished I could understand.
“I hope you’re fucking ready,” Night said, growling as he faced Harlon and Samson. The two had been standing off to the side of the room during the battle, watching instead of participating. Disgustingly, they each had a bottle of beer in hand.
Though Night and my wolf had taken care of their ferals, they didn’t seem at all upset now that they were all dead. In fact, if anything, Harlon and Samson looked disappointed that it had ended so quickly. This felt wrong. This felt like a trap.
My wolf, sensing the same thing, began to recede so I could take over. “Night, wait. Something’s not right.”
“Don’t worry, Bryn. Even if there is a trap, even if they have an escape plan, they won’t get by me. I can promise you that.”
His words were comforting, but the longer the two wolves ahead of us stayed silent, the more eerie the situation felt.
I heard scraping noises behind me. I glanced over my shoulder to see Evan slipping from the hole that Night and I had found. I relaxed a little as I turned my attention back to Samson and Harlon. With Evan here, the three of us could face whatever trap was coming togeth?—
