Page 60 of Cruel Mate

Shit! he thought as he realized just that. He had only gripped fur. And fur was not going to save him. Christian’s grin was clear, and his healing eye gleamed with triumph as he shoved his paws hard into Zander’s stomach, throwing him away like a ragdoll.

Zander flew higher than he ever could have imagined, hitting the bottom most branches of the tree that overhung the clearing before he dropped back to the ground, landing so hard that the wind was knocked out of him.

“No! Please, stop this! Let go of me!” Layla screamed as Christian landed on top of him again. “He’s going to kill him!”

Out of the corner of his eye, Zander saw the grim faces of his friends. Their gazes were filled with concern, yet their lips were pursed in determined lines. They would not intervene. They were, as he knew, loyal to a fault; they would let him die with honor.

In the last second, before Christian landed on top of him, Zander managed to roll onto his stomach, protecting his underbelly and his throat just in time. Yet Christian’s claws raked down his shoulder as he landed atop him.

“No!” Layla screamed again. “Christian! Please! No!”

But the wolf paid her no mind as he lunged and sank his fangs deep into the back of Zander's neck. If he bit down any harder, it would all be over.

Zander knew it was coming. He knew he was about to die. Christian had won. He prepared himself to meet his maker with dignity, relaxing every inch of his body as he breathed out one final breath.

And true to Christian’s arrogance, Zander felt the wolf smile against the back of his neck. Hot breath warmed his fur for a second longer before Christian released Zander’s neck and threw back his head in a triumph howl, preparing to deal the killing blow.

Yet this was Christian’s most fatal mistake. Zander was fast, agile and clever. He did not think so himself, but his friends often told him so, and so he used it to his advantage, waiting until the very moment when Christian started to lunge for him again before he surged upwards, meeting Christian’s chin with his head.

The impact was jarring and painful even to him, but it made Christian howl out again, this time not with triumph but with agony.

Zander rolled, knocking Christian’s legs out from under him. Wasting no time, he was on top of the alpha in an instant, pinning him to the floor the very same way that Christian had pinned him, gripping the back of his neck.

Though he was no killer, the thought did cross his mind to bite down just a little harder and severe the wolf’s spinal column. It would be over quick and damn near painless. Yet he knew he could never look Layla’s in the eye again if he were ever to do such a terrible thing to a wolf who was clearly beaten. He could feel the way that Christian trembled beneath him, how he tried to force Zander off again, yet his strength was gone, his energy sapped finally after a long fight. Blood was oozing from his injured eye again, and Zander realized he must have gotten in more than one successful blow after all.

It was time to finish this. Zander bit down just hard enough to draw blood, not enough to kill, but enough to warn that he would if he had to.

When he felt Christian going limp beneath him, he continued to hold the pressure, sickened by the taste of the other wolf’s blood in his mouth. He could hear Christian's breath beginning to slow and knew the man was losing consciousness.

“Enough, Zander,” Jack said, and he knew he wasn’t imagining things. He had won. Christian was subdued. It was over.

Half-stumbling, half-falling from his opponent’s back, Zander dropped down onto his haunches beside him. And when Christian started to shift back to human form, Zander knew for certain that it was all over. The man was barely conscious as he struggled up onto his hands and knees.

Shaking off his own wolf form, Zander rose to his feet and held out his hand.

“Fair is fair,” he said, meeting Christian’s eye without blinking. “This is over. She is mine.”

Christian continued to glower at Zander, perched on his knees. He smacked Zander’s hand away and snarled, “Take her then! She’s soiled anyway.”

Zander dropped his hands to his sides, tightening them to fists. It took all he had in him not to grab Christian’s head and snap his neck. He could do it. He’d had to many a time before during his army days. But he would never kill an unarmed, unclawed man without real need.

And so he turned toward Layla, smiling as Kane and Eddie released her. She immediately came running toward him, but in the seconds before she made it into his arms, she screamed, “Zander! Look out!”

Christian’s arm wrapped tightly around Zander’s neck even as he knocked Layla defensively out of the way. His own life did not matter, but if Christian laid one finger on her, he could never forgive himself.

“Get her away!” he snarled through gritted teeth, his eyes pleading with Jack and the others, and they did just that as Zander tried desperately to twist out of Christian’s grip. Even half-blind and wounded as he was, Christian was strong. His grip tightened and tightened around Christian’s throat, and he knew he had less than a minute to get himself free or suffer the consequences.

Reaching back around his head, he grabbed hold of Christian’s and planted his thumb hard in the socket of his injured eye, pressing harder and harder until Christian screamed and his grip on his throat loosened.

In a second, Zander twisted in his grip, forced his hands off and reset his grip on the man’s head. Then, in one swift movement, he snapped his neck and watched the life bleed from his one good eye, as if someone had turned the dimmer switch on a light.

“You fucker!”

The cry came from one of Christian’s men at the edge of the clearing as Layla was released from the grip of Zander’s packmates once more. She was in his arms in an instant, her face buried against his chest as she wept.

Zander held her close, covering her ears so that she would not have to hear the vile things Christian’s men were shouting as several of them struggled to their feet. Having watched their leader die, they were furious. Zander met the eyes of every single one of them as they threw their taunts and promises that their leader would be avenged.

Not one of them had lifted a finger to try and help him when he had been alive, but they were vocal enough now. Jack and his other packmates circled in around Zander and Layla, protecting them from the onslaught as Christian’s defeated pack melted into the trees with the knowledge that they were too wounded and outnumbered, some of them dragging away dead packmates as they went.

---