Page 70 of Pack Rage
His head fell, but before I could tell if he’d died, Aidan was there, dragging him back into the ring by one leg. Brand dropped to one knee, holding Margarette back when she tried to throw herself over her mate.
It seemed cruel, but I saw why he’d intervened. All around us, Enforcers had their guns in hand, barrels pointing at her. They would love the excuse to kill her for interfering with the Alpha challenge.
Though the challenge was already over.
In a second, Aidan had Bradley on the ground in the center of the ring again, the bad arm twisted farther behind his back, tearing it so thoroughly, I was almost sure nothing but skin was holding it on.
“Bradley!” Margarette screamed, trying to crawl toward him, intent on reaching her mate even if it meant she pulled her own arm off to get away from Brand. I dropped next to her, taking that arm, both arms, and wrapping my own around her. If she interrupted now, she would die, too.
“You have to stay strong, Margarette. You need?—”
She snarled up at me, her eyes bloodshot, her wolf ascendant. “Why?Whydo I need to be strong?”
I wanted to tell her all the reasons. Because she was my mate’s mother, and losing her would mean he’d lost both of his parents in one hour.
Because I’d just had that happen to me, and I didn’t know if I could bear to feel that pain again, through my bond with Glen, and in my own breaking heart.
Because she was the first woman who’d ever approved of me. Who’d thought my fighting and training was commendable, and not some sort of failing.
Because she had a pack that at least for a while would have no Alpha, and the women and girls there didn’t deserve what would happen to them if Aidan and his pack were allowed to hold onto their rule.
Because even after all the shit we’d gone through, I loved her, and I couldn’t lose the only other woman I thought of as a mother tonight. I needed her. Our world needed her.
None of that would convince her wolf. But I knew what would.
I bared my own teeth, allowing my wolf’s growl to fill my voice. “Because I don’t know if I can kill them all without your help.”
Her eyes lit up with a fire deep within, her decision made. “I’ll stay. I’ll stay until every last one is dead.”
I held her hands as tight as I could as Bradley’s final whimper reached our ears. Then a howl went up from the ring, followed by an answering one from the wolves in the crowd, then a few scattered half-hearted human cheers.
“He’s dead,” Brand breathed. “May the moon light his journey to the other side. May he run with his pack from now until we join him in the skies.”
I grunted as Margarette crumpled in my arms. Had she fainted? She was still alive; I could see her breath in the frigid air, her pulse moving under her skin.
“The moon’s justice has been served!” Aidan’s voice was a crow of victory.
I was on my feet, my steak knife in my hand, before I knew what was happening, the familiar, uncomfortable buzzing in my head that had started at Southern long ago filling my senses. I would kill him. I would cut off his head and?—
“Flor.” Brand’s voice was as filled with despair as I’d ever heard. I blinked, noticing his hands were on my arms now, holding me like I’d just held Margarette, keeping me from throwing myself toward Aidan.
Aidan, the snake, had won. He stood, his teeth bared in a maniacal grin, with one foot on top of Bradley’s neck, and a fist in the air, like he’d achieved some great victory, rather than defeating an opponent who he’d tortured and starved beforehand. He called out to someone, asking for… a sword? Why? Bradley was dead.
His laughter split the night as he lifted a sword—it had to be silver, from the stench that wafted from it on the wind. He was going to… cut off Bradley’s head? That was the death reserved for shifters who died without honor, who betrayed their pack, or dishonored the moon.
And this fucker thought he was going to do that to Bradley? To Margarette and Glen?
A rage began building inside me that didn’t resemble the fuzzy madness that I’d felt in battle, and I pressed one hand to my chest.
But the rage wasn’t coming from me, or not just from me. It was Brand, and Luke, and Finn, their emotions echoing through me. Growing in silence, only requiring one breath of wind to fan the flames of rage into a firestorm so destructive, no one would survive it.
Aidan could not be allowed to do this, but how could I stop him?
Del’s voice echoed softly in my mind.Surprising your enemy won’t give you a lot of time. But it might give you enough.
I couldn’t move, not with all those guns on me. But maybe. I took a chance, throwing back my head, and let loose a howl of equal parts pain and threat. It worked. The sound was high and haunting, a wolf’s promise of death made with a human throat, and Aidan’s arm wobbled just long enough.
Then another voice split the night. “I challenge you, Aidan McDonnell!”
