Page 91 of Pack Rage
“—me twice, shame on me,” I finished for her, though I wasn’t sure that was what she was saying. I drew my steak knife—not silver, just plain Southern steel, swiped off the Alpha’s own table at Southern—across her neck. “Oops.” My wolf had channeled all of her strength, and Grigor had sent a burst at the same time, so the knife had more than done its job.
Elina’s head fell to the earth and rolled away.
A split second later, I was lifted up into the arms of my mate.I smelled two of them close, bright ginger and cold, sharp magic. A shadow moved on the ground behind me, and Grigor was in my mind whispering,Well done, little behrserk, but I was cradled in Finn’s arms.
“Thank you,” he whispered as he pressed his face to my hair. “Thank you for doing that for me. I know she was evil, but… it would have been hard.”
I swallowed hard. How had I not put that together? That if I hadn’t killed her, Finn would’ve had to kill both parents in one night. My heart ached like it was breaking in a way that would never heal, and I wasn’t certain if it was my own pain I felt, or his. He’d grown up in a pack every bit as bad as mine, just indifferent ways. Alone in a way I hadn’t realized until I stepped foot onto these packlands.
At least I’d had Del to show me what love was supposed to look like. Finn had only had Tana, and she was gone. I prayed we would be enough to help him heal.
You’re more than enough.His thought was feather-soft, but his pain was still sharp and fresh.
I didn’t know what to say, so I just took his face in my hands and leaned up to press a soft kiss to his mouth. It tasted of blood and salt from his tears, but his gingery scent warmed, covering the stench of the battlefield, and my spirit warmed with it. When I saw the moon shining on his face as he lifted his head, silver beams illuminating his red hair, his eyes sparkling with blue specks of magic among the green, I wondered how such a sweet, quiet moment could exist in this cold, angry world.
“Quiet,” Finn whispered. “Listen.” We both held our breath. He was right. The battle was over. No more swords or knives clanging, no more wolves howling for blood. Shifters began to creep out of the trees, fear keeping their footsteps silent, but hope bringing them into the moonlight.
“Little flame? Brother?” Grigor’s soft question had Finn turning. My other mates stood there, Luke, Glen, and Brand, all in their wolf forms. Luke’s wolf was a shimmering pewter gray, with black tips at his ears and paws. He was as handsome as he was in his human form, and with the same blue eyes. Glen’s wolf was grinning with sharp white teeth and gave a short yip of greeting, but Brand… The vicious scars that marked him now had my throat tightening.
“Let me down, Sparkles,” I said, squirming to get to them.
“Really? Sparkles?” Finn grumbled, but let me go.
My arms were around Brand’s neck first, his fur soft on my face as I hid the tears that wouldn’t stop flowing. “I thought…” Guilt swamped me. I’d encouraged him to shift into his wolfform, thinking it would save him. But it had just given Ivan the chance to torture him.
Brand changed in my arms, instantly holding me to his broad chest. “Shhh, wildflower. Shush, no tears. I’m alive. We survived.” He didn’t say we’d won. Victory had come at a cost none of us had wanted to bear, that would haunt us all for the rest of our lives. “We’re still alive.”
“How?” I asked, pushing back and placing my hand gingerly over the massive scar that began at his neck, where my mating mark had been, to his chest. An enormous, roughly star-shaped scar sat over his heart, and I blinked. It was so much like mine, but bigger and with raw edges. “How?” I repeated. There was no way he should be alive.
“Grigor gave me his life,” Brand answered, though his voice was rough, and he sounded… confused about it. “He gave up his?—”
“Something I had no need for anymore, brother,” Grigor interrupted.
“Oh, yes. I see,” Brand murmured, his silver eyes gleaming brightly.
“You see?” I asked, swallowing hard, not understanding.
“He gave up his immortality.” When I gasped, Brand cupped my chin in one massive hand and smiled sweetly, though the fresh scar that ran from his temple across one cheek made me think of a pirate. “I wouldn’t live a single day without you, beloved. None of us would. What use is forever, if you’re not there?”
Though his eyes shone like twin moons, his words fell onto my sore heart like a warm ray of sunlight. “I love you, too.” I smiled back at him, then let my eyes move over every one of my battered, tired, perfect mates. “I love you all.”
Chapter 44
Consuming Evil
GRIGOR
No one in the clearing besides me knew what could happen when a powerful hybrid witch died. I’d killed dozens over the years, from weak ones who’d preyed on humans, to a coven who’d slaughtered the very last of the bear shifters in Russia for their pelts and power.
One like Elina McDonnell—who’d committed evil deeds for decades, who had sacrificed her own lover that very day for more—would still be filled with tainted energy for weeks or months after her death.
Unless someone consumed it.
My wolf side recoiled, remembering the ones we’d hunted before. The feral beasts who’d preyed on the innocent, and whose remaining power had needed someone to hold it, rather than let it seep into the land and end up feeding more evil.I didn’t want to be the one to swallow Elina’s death. Didn’t want to go to my little queen oozing residual corruption.
But already, Elina’s magic was leaching into the earth. If I didn’t act quickly, she would make an indelible mark on the packlands, situated as her corpse was at its very heart.
Itsdeadcenter, such as it was.
