Page 93 of What a Wolf's Heart Decides

He held her gaze, and when he spoke the tips of his fangs showed. “I can’t hold you both.”

Abruptly, she realized he was using every ounce of his power—and he was at his breaking point. His arms were steady, but lines of strain bracketed his mouth. Despite the cold, sweat beaded at his temples.

“Do you understand?” he asked.

He meant he didn’t have enough power to stop both her and the latent from rushing him. If he was forced to drop his hold on Sam, he could be killed. She managed a nod.

He lowered his arm, and the force holding her in place fell away. The change was so sudden, she almost pitched forward. Dizziness swept her, and she dug her claws into the ground to keep herself upright. Even with the latent steps away, exhaustion tugged at her, urging her to curl up on the forest floor and sleep. Her eyelids grew heavy.

“Haley.”

She straightened, Bard’s voice jerking her back to full consciousness.

His stare bored into her. A second later, soft voices seemed to whisper around her. The words were unintelligible, but she sensed they were kind. Warmth spread through her, as though someone had lit a candle inside her chest. The fatigue lifted, and the ache in her muscles faded.

When Bard spoke again, his voice thrummed with power. “Do not interfere.” The words snapped around her like manacles.

He’d given her a direct order with all the power of the Alpha behind it. She could no more disobey than she could stop breathing. All she could do was sit, helpless as he turned and walked to the latent.

Her heart sped up, the thumping rhythm almost painful as he stopped in front of the boy and put a hand on his shoulder.

No! What was he doing? Her throat went dry. She wanted to yell at him to stop, but she could only scream it in her mind.

He moved his hand from the latent’s shoulder and cupped the boy’s cheek.

She tensed, but the latent turned his head into it, his eyes closing.

Bard stroked the boy’s face. Even from a distance, it was easy to see his touch was tender.

Haley held her breath as another scene—one from her memory—entered her mind. Bard had touched his patient in the ER the same way, his hands gentle and reassuring as he comforted someone in pain.

As snow flurries blew and the trees swayed in the wind, Bard pulled the latent into his arms. The boy rested his head on Bard’s broad shoulder, his eyes closing as his body relaxed. His expression smoothed out, the mix of anger and rage fading into something like contentment.

Wonderment filled her. No one knew for certain what a latent felt when moon madness took them. It was always fatal, and none stayed sane long enough to communicate. But based on the stories she heard, it was an agonizing existence. When the wolf took over completely, latents lost their humanity. They were animals trapped in a body that didn’t match their primitive brain. Instinct drove them to hunt, but they lacked the ability to find and kill prey. As they slowly starved to death, they attacked anything that got too close.

The pair turned a little, giving her a view of their faces in profile. Bard passed a hand down the boy’s hair, holding him as tenderly as a father.

Or an Alpha with one of the wolves entrusted to his care.

He bent his head, and his lips moved as he spoke into the boy’s ear.

The boy let out a sob, his shoulders heaving, and wrapped his arms around Bard’s waist.

For a second, utter despair shone on Bard’s face. Then in one fierce, violent motion, he grabbed the boy’s head and wrenched it sideways.

A pop echoed across the forest, the sound as loud and startling as a gunshot.

The boy slumped, and Bard caught him and lowered him to the ground.

Stunned, Haley could only watch as Bard knelt next to the boy, his touch reverent as he pulled the gray hood over the boy’s head, smoothing the red hair down. Then he drew the hood down the boy’s face as far as it would go, covering eyes that would never see again.

Her stomach twisted into knots. She couldn’t go to him. Couldn’t move. But even if she could, she didn’t know what to say.

“Being Alpha isn’t the glamorous job some imagine it to be, Miss Michaels.”

She hadn’t really understood that when he said it.

Now she did.

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