Page 54 of The Kill

Instead of stepping forward to meet us, his warriors hesitate. It’s enough to convince me that these men don’t deserve to die today.

“Stand down.” Blake raises his hand and calmly utters the words without growling or snarling.

Offering no resistance at all, the three wolves immediately relax and ease back, distancing themselves from whatever’s about to happen.

Wilson’s crazed gaze watches me closely as I edge to one side and Blake walks casually to the other, boxing him in. We move in tandem, perfectly synchronised as we make sure Wilson has nowhere to go. My breath catches when he presses his sharp claws to Mandy’s belly and reaches one hand up to her shoulder, clamping down hard to keep her in place.

We might have him cornered, but he has my mate.

And I have no doubt that if he knows he’s going to die, he’ll gladly take her with him.

Mandy’s lip twitches in the hint of a snarl. She’s not the scrawny, beaten-down woman he remembers. Back then, her only concern was her unborn child. She was running away because she was brave enough to risk it all to keep him safe. Today, her child is six-foot-four, but he’s still her top priority.

But now she knows he’s far away and protected. Running is no longer her only option. She can fight.

Her big, dark eyes meet mine, absolute steel in her gaze. “I love you,” she mouths with a tiny smile, and my stomach drops. In the blink of an eye, Mandy disappears.

In her place is a giant, pissed-off she-wolf.

As she transforms, Wilson slices across her exposed underside with the arm banded around her torso, but that doesn’t stop her as she twists free of his grasp and lunges. Unable to do a thing to stop her, she’s on him; her jaws snap viciously, inches from his throat.

With an inhuman bellow, I charge toward my bleeding mate while Blake peels off toward Weston. We can’t let him slip away because we’re distracted. He has his own penance to pay.

Wilson manages to toss Mandy across the ground, using his legs to push her off of him, and I blur in front of Mandy with lightning speed, preventing him from getting closer to her and bear my teeth. He’ll have to go through me.

Behind me, I hear the tearing of flesh and the gnashing of teeth as Weston and Blake battle it out. There’s a dull throb in my side, a ghost of Mandy’s injury through the bond. She darts past me, determined to tackle Wilson on her own, and, though I’m tempted to intervene, I can tell from Wilson’s grunts of pain and laboured breathing that she has the upper hand. He’s tiring quickly. One look at his enforcers tells me they’re in no hurry to come to his aid.

Across the clearing, Blake and Weston circle each other, crouched low, ready to pounce.

“When Zoe worked out that it was Jenna, I thought it might be you who helped her,” Blake growls, his wolf shining bright in his eyes.

His anger is like nothing I’ve ever felt. Without my vampire, I wouldn’t be a match for him. It’s a good thing I never got the chance to challenge him, because he would have kicked my ass.

“You almost cost me my mate. I thought I was going mad. I was going to give her up!” Blake advances slowly, moving back and forth so it’s not as obvious that he’s eating up the distance between them.

Before Mandy, I would have thought it absolutely absurd that he’s more pissed-off about losing a woman than being poisoned, but now I understand it completely.

Weston realises Blake is practically on top of him, and steps back to re-establish the gap between them, eyeing my brother’s movements carefully. It’s like watching a game of chess.

Two strong alphas; neither will give up without a fight. Growing impatient, Weston is the first to break the standoff. Leaping into the air, claws extended, his teeth aimed at Blake’s neck. Blake dodges to the side, tumbling across the dirt, his thick coat picking up leaves and twigs on the forest floor as he rolls. When Weston skids past where Blake was, he stops and turns, racing toward Blake again at speed, his silver eyes flashing with fury.

They clash, loud and vicious, biting and snarling. Weston bolts for the cover of the trees with Blake hot on his heels.

As the sounds of their battle get further away, I focus my attention back on my glorious mate, just in time to see her tear another strip out of her former alpha’s flank. Much as I’d love to rip his head off, revenge is hers to deliver if she wants it. My job, for the moment, is to make sure Wilson doesn’t get a helping hand from his conflicted warriors, who might suddenly feel duty-bound to intervene when they realise this isn’t just a scuffle.

“You’re bleeding, Alpha,” I call. “Lucian, when was the last time you fed?” Lucian makes a gagging face but Wilson can’t see his expression, just mine, and I make a point of flashing my lethal fangs at him. The idea of drinking from him makes me violently ill, but he doesn’t know that.

"Stay the fuck away from me.” Instead of focusing on the pissed-off female in front of him, he gets distracted by the thought of vampires coming for his blood and is slow to react to a vicious blow from Mandy, her claws raking three long wounds painfully along his belly. The writing is on the wall as Mandy sinks her teeth into his torn skin. Wilson wails in agony, but I feel no sympathy for him.

He brought this upon himself.

Addressing the six men watching on in horror, “Mandy was the future Luna. Lee was going to murder her and his own unborn child within her, the future heir to your pack. Should that go unpunished? Or should she have the chance to challenge him,” I nod towards Mandy and the fatally wounded Wilson, “like she’s doing now?”

There’s something no one had considered, not even Mandy. This isn’t an outsider attacking their alpha, but the woman who should have been their luna, challenging to take her rightful place from a selfish, abusive alpha. Protecting the boy who should be their leader.

One by one, the warriors nod, dipping their heads in respect to their luna as she stands over a defeated Wilson, who bears his neck in submission. Pride swells within me. She’s strong and powerful, the woman she was supposed to be before Lee tore her down. These men can see that, and they’re choosing her and her son, whom she raised on her own, instead of the man who has ruled over them with fear.

As she steps away, he grabs at her, trying to get his teeth into her thigh. I blur in front of him and grab him by the neck, my extended claws precariously close to his jugular.

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