Page 5 of Wolf's Endgame

Landon turned on him so quickly that I gasped. Landon’s hand was around the male’s throat. “Clean up this room, take that shit out of here, and get my mate food. Now.” Landon watched him for a few minutes before he turned back to me. “Your face looks like a car crash.”

“Because I got punched in the face. What’s your excuse?”

He bit back his smile, but the glance he gave me strangely settled me. Carefully, Landon took the first handcuff off me. When I held up the other wrist, he gently but firmly pushed it back down onto my thigh.

“Afraid?” I murmured so low that only he could hear.

“Fucking terrified, babe.”

His simple admission scared me far more than anything that had happened since I woke up here.

He cleaned my wrist and then bandaged it before putting the cuff back on. He did the same with the other, leaving it off longer, and we watched my skin sluggishly heal itself.

“You always were a quick healer.” He spoke softly but loud enough to be heard by whoever was listening.

“Good thing.”

Landon took my hand, ignoring my attempt to pull away. “I have something to tell you.”

“I don’t think I can take any other revelations from you.” My voice was heavy with bitterness, and I took small satisfaction when Landon flinched.

“It’s about the Blackridge Peak Pack.”

Everything inside me froze. I was sure my heart stopped beating. “What about it?”

Landon cleared his throat. “It gives me no pleasure to tell you this…”

“Landon!”

“Alpha Cannon is dead.”

The words hovered in the air between us with a finality that I couldn’t quite comprehend. Eventually, I found my voice. “You’re lying.”

Landon looked at me with pity. “No, Kez, I’m not. He was attacked. They took him out with a silver knife.”

The room was spinning. I was on my feet, and the room spun around me in a frenzy. I stumbled, my knees giving way as I crashed to the ground.

A knife?

Silver?

He was dead.

No.

“No.” Panting on the floor, I fought for breath to fill my lungs. “No. He wouldn’t… No! He isn’t, you’re lying!”

Landon knelt beside me, his hand smoothing over my hair. “He’s gone, Kez. They held a service for him. That’s where I was, paying my respects on behalf of the pack.”

“Respect?” My teeth gnashed together as bile rose in my throat. “You didn’t respect him!”

I lunged for him, but Landon caught me and tried to soothe me. “I know, I know you’re hurting.”

Tears poured down my face, and somehow, I was sobbing into his chest. “Tell me it’s a lie.”

I felt him take a deep breath. “I wish I could,” he whispered, “but I can’t. They burned his body yesterday.”

I couldn’t stop the tears. At some point, Landon left me.

---