Page 45 of Reformed Wolf

He lost his son, just as I lost my mothers, my sister, and most of my pack. I understood better than most how a violent death left a hollow, unquenchable grief inside. It ate at you, whispered lies to you late at night. It changed who you were and who you thought you would always be. And I didn’t even blame him for looking for vengeance.

Too bad he was looking for it in the wrong place, though.

We waited, breath held, not moving an inch, long past what I had the patience for, but my wolf kept saying, Wait… just wait… I wondered what he was waiting for. Avi was right fucking there! But the second it happened, I knew.

Off to the right, I heard a rustle, a wet snap, then quiet, and the other hyenas froze as the air sang with the scent of copper and rust. Avi’s lips pulled back in a snarl. Before he could command his cackle, though, there was another struggle, this time to the left. Heads whipped back and forth as they realized they were no longer alone in these woods.

And they were surrounded…

There was a younger hyena, barely out of his teens, who started to back away, letting a nervous chatter escape as he broke from formation. Avi snapped his powerful jaws at the youngling, trying to get him back into line. He was distracted, though I wasn’t sure he was all there to start with. He had to have known he wouldn’t walk away from such a bold and reckless attack. Maybe that was his plan all along…

Running headlong at a hyena was… not my brightest moment. He had a good 50 pounds on us, and even unprepared, he barely staggered from the hit. My wolf, on the other hand, bounced off him and kept going, which was probably the only thing that saved us from his jaws when he swung back around and snapped at us. We ended up behind him and bit into his hindquarters. He flinched away but did not make a sound, not even as his blood painted my tongue.

I could sense the other hyenas closing in to defend their Alpha, so it was a good thing we weren’t here alone. We grinned as the night was split with the sound of battle as our packmates brought chaos into our woods. We were fighting not just to protect Dylan but our land, our family, and our right to peace.

It was a cause worth dying for.

Avi didn’t seem surprised, and likewise, he didn’t seem at all concerned that his friends and family were dying. He simply gave an eerie laugh, head dipped low, his muzzle stretched in a mad grin. The two of us circled each other, weighing each other up. Then, when he decided he’d taken enough of my measure, he attacked, and he did. Not. Stop.

He was fast, faster than the others I’d fought in the ring for Dylan, and he knew what he was doing. There was no bluff or bluster to his actions. Each move was planned strategically, three steps ahead. I felt like it was as much a game of logic as it was a match of strength. With every lunge, every snap of his teeth, he was moving us into position, and there was nothing we could do to stop it from happening.

The sky above opened with a bolt of lightning, leaving us momentarily blinded, the afterimage of Avi burned into our retinas. Not even a full second later, thunder boomed right on top of it. Freezing rain pelted down through breaks in the overstory, like tiny icicles hurtling down from the heavens. I was grateful for our thick fur. The hyena seemed less equipped for the weather, ducking his face to protect his eyes.

I had to hope the advantage it gave me would be enough.

My wolf lunged, but Avi evaded easily. It was like he was toying with us! He was inching us backward, into a hollow between trees, with tightly woven branches. It was a kill box. If we went in, we wouldn’t come out. It would be our grave.

Every move, every feint, it was like he already knew what we were going to do. I thought back to how we’d beaten the kangaroos, and I knew the only way to win was to do the unexpected, to act contrary to every single instinct screaming at me to stay alive. And so, when Avi snapped his teeth on the left, expecting us to move out of the way, we stayed right where we were.

We were close enough to see the surprise register in those dark eyes, right before his teeth sank into our forelimb, the crack of the bone loud enough to be mistaken for thunder. I registered the pain, catalogued it, then set it aside to be dealt with later—there was no time now. We had one chance to act, and we needed to take it.

Avi’s face was right there, just inches away from our muzzle, still locked on our leg. Now! I shouted inside my wolf’s mind, urging him to move fast. Without hesitation, we snapped down over the hyena’s face, his eye surprisingly soft, giving only a gentle pop as our fang punctured it.

He wasn’t quiet this time. Avi’s jaw clamped tighter for a second, stars bursting behind my vision as the pain demanded my attention, then he released with jerk, yelping and swatting at his face with a paw. He backed up but couldn’t see his way out.

Back when I’d been inside the ring, I’d shown mercy. I’d spared the twins, Oliver and Noah. I’d gone so far as to save Andreas’s life, but that was all because they were good men. As my wolf stood over the Alpha hyena, our teeth bared, saliva dripping, I felt nothing but contempt for this monster.

My wolf and I had spent years disagreeing on how I chose to live my life, but since I first caught Dylan’s delicate floral scent in that packed club, my path had been certain. And in this, my wolf and I were one and the same. There was no man versus beast. There was only an alpha doing what needed to be done to protect his mate.

He needs to die, I said, and in reply, my wolf opened his jaws and snapped them shut on the hyena’s throat. He balked and thrashed, but we held firm. We could feel his pulse on our tongue, deep beneath his coarse fur, his warm flesh and muscle. And when we tore his carotid artery clean through, his heart released his blood from his body in fast, pulsing spurts.

Avi kicked a few times before his legs gave out, his head lolling. My wolf sat right there by his side, and we watched as the arcs of blood slowed, the pulsing stopped, the trickle reduced to a sluggish drip. We did not look away until we were sure he was dead. The wind died down, and the freezing rain changed to a light snow, the white flakes turning red in a stunning corona around the Alpha’s body.

I snorted without humor. He wasn’t an Alpha anymore.

I was distantly aware of the nervous cackles as the remaining hyenas retreated. Not all of them had made it through this night alive. The night air was ripe with the stink of their blood, gamey and unwelcome. I could hear that some had yielded, and we would have to figure out what to do with them tomorrow. For those of the cowards who ran… I had no doubt, as soon as Dylan’s father heard about what happened, no corner of the world, no matter how distant and remote, would be safe.

Our progress back to camp was slow as we held our injured leg off the ground, limping as best we could, but the pain didn’t matter. Only Dylan. The others had run ahead back to camp, but Shan stayed back, his fur bloody but only from a few minor injuries. He sniffed at my wound, whining, and gave it a few licks. Then he propped me up on one side, offering his support. It might’ve been faster to shift back and walk, but my wolf form would speed healing.

By the time we reached the camp, the bone in my foreleg had begun to knit back together, the skin sealed. Taking my skin stung like a bitch, and I collapsed onto my knees on the grass, my arm cradled against my chest. “Oh shit, that hurt,” I grunted, breaking out into a sweat.

Shan shifted back and knelt beside me, wrapping an arm around my waist to help me up. “I’ve got you.”

“Oh, come on, it’s not that bad. Suck it up,” Jude taunted from the door to our Alpha’s cabin, where he was leaning casually, arms crossed over his chest. He couldn’t fool me, though; there was genuine concern in his green eyes.

“Dylan?” I panted, feeling no shame in accepting Shan’s help as I pushed up to my feet.

Jude nodded. “He’s awake.”

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