Page 112 of What a Wolf's Heart Decides

“What?” Ben recoiled. “Mom, no.”

Haley’s heart jumped into her throat. Her suspicions were right. Glenna wanted to unseat Bard.

So why the hell was he just standing there?

“Yes!” Glenna gripped Ben by both lapels, nearly lifting him off his feet. Rage emanated from her small body, and her eyes blazed blue fire. “We have served too long. You were born to rule!”

Ben grabbed her wrists. “I don’t want it!”

“Challenge him!”

“No!”

In the distance, more glass shattered.

Glenna drew in a deep breath. “If you won’t, then I—”

“Stop.”

The word, spoken by Sabine, echoed around them, the single syllable rippling with power.

Instantly, Glenna and Ben ceased their struggle, their arms falling to their sides.

Bard gasped like he just emerged from a long time underwater, his chest rising and falling in jerky movements.

For a second, a high-pitched whine filled Haley’s ears, the sound so sharp she squeezed her eyes shut. As quickly as it came, it stopped. She opened her eyes and looked around at the others, but they didn’t seem to have heard it.

Fists still clenched, Bard turned a hate-filled look on Sabine. He seemed to catch his breath, but his voice was hoarse, as if he hadn’t used it in a long time. “You’re not supposed to come here.”

In response, Sabine lifted a slender shoulder.

Bard growled low in his throat. “You have no authority over me and mine. Leave.”

“Circumstances change, wolf.”

Haley looked between them, her mind whirling. What were they talking about? Latents often stayed away from pureblooded werewolves. Ben said Sabine chose to do so. But the idea of a latent having authority over an Alpha was laughable.

Without breaking eye contact with Bard, Sabine raised a hand and pointed directly at Glenna. “This one would issue a challenge.”

Bard kept his gaze on Sabine. “He won’t win, Glenna. You know that.”

Glenna frowned. For a second, she looked hopelessly confused, as if she struggled to remember something important. Then her expression cleared. She glanced at Ben. “He would do a better job.”

Ben glowered at her. “I don’t want to be Alpha.”

Bard’s scarred mouth lifted in a bitter smile as he faced off with Sabine. “It holds, then. Go.”

She returned his smile. “You think to outsmart me.” In a blink, she dropped the smile and her voice went flat. “You will fail, you will lose, and you will die.”

Haley held her breath as alarm sirens blared in her head. Out of nowhere, Joel’s pale, ravaged face flashed in her mind. Snow and dead leaves surrounded his head, and his bloodied lips whispered a single word. “Danger.”

Bard leaned toward Sabine and hissed, “That’s the plan.”

Haley’s stomach dropped. The way Bard said it, he wanted to die.

She couldn’t bear it if that happened.

The knowledge struck like an arrow thwacking its target, the thud of it hitting her brain and reverberating through the rest of her body. At the exact same moment, the rose stained glass window exploded.

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