Page 61 of Junk Magic

“They can kill you,” I said, gripping his arm before I thought. It wasn’t a great idea to touch a wolf you barely knew, but he didn’t react.

“They can try.” The bright blue eyes were steady on mine. “Let’s see how well that goes for them.”

The other two were nodding along, and I felt something rising in me, threatening to stop my throat. Fear, but not for myself. For a moment, I couldn’t even speak.

Luckily, Cyrus could.

“No.” He didn’t raise his voice or offer any explanations, but he didn’t have to. An Alpha’s word was law.

But I wanted to make sure they understood, that they got this. “Nothing happened, so there’s nothing to avenge. And the Corps is a lot more formidable than you’re giving them credit for, not to mention that there are all kinds of wards throughout that facility that make it into a death trap. And there are Weres on duty now—”

“Yeah, Jace told us.” The growl was evident in the black Were’s voice now, too.

“—from at least four different clans! So, assault the Corps, and you’re assaulting them—

“You assaulted them,” Noah pointed out. “Or one anyway.”

It looked like Jace had spilled everything. And why not? I’d been too out of it to ask him not to and Cyrus had been too focused on me. It was safe to assume that everyone knew everything, at this point.

“I challenged,” I corrected. “And won a fair fight—”

“Then maybe we’ll challenge,” the black Were said, glancing at Cyrus, who didn’t say anything. But he didn’t have to. The atmosphere, already oppressive, thickened to the point that I felt like I was about to choke on it.

And I guess the boys did, too, because they almost visibly shrank as their Alpha did the Were equivalent of banging their heads together.

“Lee’s just talking,” Noah said quickly. “You know how he is.”

“Talk about something else,” Cyrus growled. “This discussion is over, you understand?”

The boys nodded and he left after giving my shoulder a squeeze. Because talking privately in this house wasn’t possible right now. They started after him, but I pulled them back.

It kind of surprised me that it worked.

They’d just been publicly slapped by the man they considered their clan leader and probably wanted to go off and lick their wounds. But at a call from me, they paused. I decided not to question my luck, and drove home the point while I had the chance.

“You can’t challenge,” I told them. “You’re vargulf—”

“You think we don’t know that?” Lee said bitterly.

“Based on what I just heard? Yeah, I think you don’t. Those wolves who watched my fight did nothing but stand there because clan law says they have to. Challenge was issued; challenge was accepted. Nobody interferes with that.

“But clan law doesn’t apply to you. If you had challenged, they wouldn’t have merely watched. They’d have torn you to pieces—”

“They'd have tried!” Lee’s eyes flashed yellow in the darkness, brightly enough to shed a golden glow over his dark skin.

“They'd have succeeded!” I snapped, wondering what I had to do to get through to them.

“We know that,” Noah interjected, shooting Lee a warning look.

“Yet you’re still talking like it would be a fair fight. It wouldn’t be. Clan law—”

“Yeah, only maybe we’re tired of clan law.” Lee said. “What has it ever done for us? What is it ever going to do, but keep us down? It doesn’t protect us? Okay, then it doesn’t protect them, either.”

“Meaning?” I asked carefully.

“Meaning, if you hadn’t been there, if they’d torn Jace apart, a young guy just trying to get his brother’s body back? Yeah, then all bets are off. Those fuckers should be glad you were there. You protected them as much as Jace, maybe more. But if they want a fight? We’ll give them a fight!”

I stared at him, nonplussed for a second, and Noah cursed. “That’s great. Bring that up here—”

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