Page 42 of Pack Rage
“Don’t move,” he murmured. It was a soft sound, but filled with Alpha command, and the words hit me like a leaf skittering past. My allegiance was to my mates now, and myself. I didn’t have to obey his commands.
But she did.
I lifted my steak knife, waiting for the right moment.Mama?I mouthed, but she still wasn’t looking at me. “Mama,” I whispered. She twitched like a fly had landed on her face, but didn’t even glance at me. Callaway’s nostrils flared, and he swiveled his head, but his gaze slid over me.
Mama stared up into his face, her features hazy. She looked like she had for most of my life again, and I hated it. Slowly, casually, he reached down and tapped the sword blade. “I smell silver, but this ain’t it.”
“No silver. We don’t believe in it.”
“Where’d ya get the blade? Tell me.”
“This sword is my pack’s,” she said, her voice monotone and raspy, like she didn’t want to speak. “I found it in the woods. I hid it in a cave. It belonged to the Alpha Mother. It belongs to me now. It’s a family heirloom.”
“Huh, looks expensive. And here I thought you weren’t worth the shit on my shoes.” Callaway plucked it from her hands faster than I could reach them, and backhanded her as he took it away. “What’s yours is mine, ain’t that it, Lily?” he jeered as she fell on the ground, crying out in pain. “What’s yours is?—”
He was probably going to repeat himself, like he usually did. That fuckhead always did love to hear his own voice. But before he could finish, I’d lunged at him from the side, and had my steak knife buried up to the handle in his gut.
“Hey, Dad.”
Chapter 20
The Source of Strength
FLOR
Some moments in life were perfect. Not perfect like when Brand showed me his lake, or when Luke told me he loved me. But perfect in a petty, vengeful way.
Seeing the shocked look on my father’s face up close as he realized I was there, with my knife in his gut, was that kind of perfect. It was just a shame it couldn’t last a little longer.
In his shock, he broke one of Del’s cardinal rules: he let Mama’s short sword fall. It clanged to the floor, and his empty hands flew up and clawed for mine, his eyes boring into my face. “Back away!” he commanded, the Alpha command in his voice as heavy as a sledgehammer.
I didn’t even blink. Instead of moving back, power pinned my feet to the floor, energy that tasted like Brand and Grigor and all the others. I was so much stronger than I had ever been, far stronger than him. Something was happening in the bonds, something that made me think that a vast pool of power was just one thread, one thought, away. It wasn’t there yet, but the energy that thrummed through me felt similar to when Brand had taken on the Alpha position.
“I said, back off!” The Alpha’s hands, tipped with sharp wolf claws now, landed on my shoulder. He twisted at me, gripping me and trying to force me away, though I’d wrapped one of my legs around his to stay close. His blood spilled over my hand and arm, and mine poured down from cuts that seemed to heal as fast as he made them. The blood made things slippery, but I had a solid grip on the knife, and the Alpha couldn’t get a hold on me, no matter how hard he tried.
For a split second, I was a helpless child again, his hands bruising me, his foul breath in my face. The times he’d whipped me, beaten me half to death, flashed through my mind in the space of a heartbeat. Back then, I hadn’t been able to defend myself.
Now, it was time for payback. He was still physically strong, but I was already well inside his guard. And I had a hidden pool of strength from my mates, pressing up like a bubble rising to meet my need. So the next time he tried to reach for me, I slipped my hand out, grabbed his arm, and used that power, twisting hard. His arm popped out of the shoulder socket, and he howled loud enough to make my ears ring.
Maybe I was the right mate for a serial killer. The sound of his pain was like sweet music.
But I had a feeling his dying breath would be sweeter still. All I had to do was deliver the final twist of the knife, and it would shred his heart.
But before I could do it, Mama fell to the floor, screaming in agony. I flicked a glance down at her. She was holding her own abdomen, and blood gushed through the bandages.
Shit. Shit!For a moment, I’d forgotten that she would feel this in her bond. “Toadfucking son of a rat bastard,” I snarled up into his face.
I wanted nothing more than to finish him off, but I couldn’t kill Mama. I knew I would lose her soon, but I couldn’t bear for it to be now, at my hands. I couldn’t lose her yet.
“Flor, baby, do it,” Mama wheezed from the ground. “Finish it.”
I didn’t answer, my mind scrambling to find another way, searching through all of Del’s advice, all of my knowledge. Callaway had to die. Hedeservedto. But maybe there was some other way.
“You don’t wanna kill your mama, now, do ya?” he dared to ask. “Let me go, and we can talk about this.” He was still trying to use his Alpha voice on me. He twitched again, like he thought it might have worked, and I twisted the knife, snarling as the blade cut into his heart.
“Shut up and lemme think, asshole!”
We all went quiet for a moment, until Mama let out what I thought was a laugh. “See what you did, Calvin? See what you did to our baby?”
