Page 43 of Pack Rage
“I didn’t make her crazy,” he muttered.
“No, you made her strong.” Mama dragged her hand to her face, wiping away the silver hair that had fallen across her eyes. “You made her stronger than she ever could’ve been otherwise.” She set one bloody hand to the floor and tried to rise, but couldn’t. Instead, she speared my father with her gaze—no, her wolf’s gaze—and spoke. “You tried to break our bond, and forgot that you were on the other end. You ruined your wolf in the process. Weakened him. When you learned she was in my womb, you tried to sell your own child to the darkness. But you forgot it was your own line she cursed. You didn’t want me because I had magic, and you were afraid.”
The Alpha was breathing hard, and fur was sprouting and shrinking back into his arms. His scent got stronger, wilder.
“I was raised in a magical pack. If you’d stopped to ask me what using magic against your own mate, your own child, would do, I would’ve told you. My line, Flor’s and mine, is the most powerful one in existence. If you’d stayed true to me, you could’ve been the strongest Alpha alive.” She gasped. “But you’re… nothing.”
“Fuck you, crazy bitch,” he spat. I yanked at his dislocated arm to shut him up.
Mama started dragging herself across the floor, stopping where the sword had fallen. “When you break a bone, it heals stronger. Harder. When you break a bond… you offend the moon.”She wrapped her hand around the hilt and opened her mouth to say something else, but shouting in the hall had her pausing to listen.
Someone yelled, “What thehellis going on down here?”
Mama nodded to me, her eyes panicked. “Do it now!”
But it was too late. The door slammed open, and an angry Aidan McDonnell stared through his glasses and down his narrow nose at me. In one hand, he held a silver knife. In the other, his son… or what was left of him. Aidan had Finnick’s arms behind him, and was holding him up in what had to be an incredibly painful position. Both of Finnick’s arms could be broken, or dislocated.
“You.” Aidan’s smile was the coldest thing I’d ever seen. “Now this is a welcome surprise.”
My heart raced, and for a moment, I felt like I might pass out.
Finnick was a mess, and I thought he might be an unconscious one, until I saw his head move, like he was trying to look up at me. He wore the tattered remains of a business suit that might have been dark gray, but was as soaked with blood as the rest of him. There was a long slice along his neck that had to have been made with a silver blade. It wasn’t healing, and everytime his father shook him—which he did now, like a dog with a rabbit it had caught—blood oozed down onto his collar.
“Averywelcome surprise. Calvin, looks like you got yourself into trouble again.” Aidan lifted an eyebrow, but didn’t drop Finnick or the knife. “Let him go, girl, and I’ll make your death quick.”
I adjusted my grip on the steak knife and shifted my grip to Callaway’s thick neck. “Call me girl again, and I’ll make his slow,” I replied as calmly as I could, trying not to let my eyes fall to the floor, where a pool of red was collecting under Finnick’s sagging head.
I wasn’t successful. Aidan sneered. “I should let you kill him and save me the trouble. But I have an Heir upstairs who’s insisting on facing his father tomorrow night under the full moon.” Callaway went very still at that.
Something wasn’t making sense. “You want Callaway alive. Why?”
“It’s not your problem. But if you don’t let him go, I’ll give you a real one. I can head down to the cell and kill that Mountain mate of yours.” He tilted his head curiously. “I wonder if you’d even die from it. You fuck around, from what I hear. The Northern Heir, the Mountain Alpha…” He kicked Finnick in the side of one leg. “This disappointing piece-of-shit son of mine probably had you. I can’t think of any other reason he’d betray his pack. He always did love pussy. Wasn’t particularly picky about whose, either. Whores, both of you.”
Finnick drew a dangerously liquid-sounding breath, but managed to speak. “Don’t... call her… whore.” Aidan kicked him again, hard enough that I thought I heard a bone break.
“Stop hurting him!” I demanded. The Eastern Alpha’s watery green eyes narrowed, and I knew I’d given too much away. I struggled for calm, tightening my grip on my father. “I’ll makeyou a deal. You put Finnick down and leave, and I’ll give you this sack-of-shit Alpha.”
“You’re not leaving this cell,” Aidan said slowly, like he was looking for a loophole. Did he still not know that Finnick was my mate? “I’m locking you in.”
I nodded, trying to keep my expression blank. “Take it or leave it.”
“Aidan, you oughta kill this little bitch now. You don’t know—” my father started, but Aidan cut him off.
“Done.” He dropped Finnick and shoved him the rest of the way through the door, glancing at Mama as he did. “We’ll never get the smell of Southern out of this room,” he snapped, and I let Callaway go, stepping well away from him in case he tried to attack.
I didn’t need to worry. He scurried away, his dislocated arm hanging limp at one side, his other hand pressed on his bleeding wound. I guess a savage stab to the heart might make even a stupid ass like that think twice before picking another fight.
Aidan let Callaway past, then shut the door, never dropping his gaze from my face. I made sure to drop mine, though I didn’t feel compelled to. I’d already let him see too much of what I was capable of. There was no need for him to know I could stare him down.
And Finnick needed me. As soon as the door closed, I snatched up a clean napkin from the table and rushed to his side, cradling him on my lap as much as I could without making him bleed even more, and pressing the wound closed as much as I could.
“Fuck, Finn, this is bad,” I said, my voice too high.
His head lolled to one side, and I thought he was going to speak, but it wasn’t his voice whispering. “Let me see him, baby.” Mama was at my side, her arm pressed over her abdomen. She was almost as wrecked as he was.I made room for her, though,and she placed a hand on his throat. “Not good,” she murmured. “When they’re that deep, the silver can get into the blood. Still, maybe…” Closing her eyes, she hummed low.
Her body gave off a surge of heat, like she’d turned into a space heater or something. Static electricity made all of the hairs on her arms stand up, and then she went rigid, falling over on top of Finnick.
“Mama?” She didn’t answer, but she was still breathing. I lifted her carefully off him and carried her over to the sofa. She was so light, it was like her bones were hollow, and when I put her down, I noticed how much paler she’d grown in just the past few hours.
