Page 115 of The Wild Wolf's Rejected Mate

Every Salt Mountain wolf but one forms a line to lasso the Last Pack males, their two strongest quickly engaging Khalil and Alroy’s wolves while the others outflank our males to the left and right.

Salt Mountain’s line can’t possibly hold against our numbers, but it’s holding for now, and their lone wolf, a supernaturally large beast, is loping unchallenged for the sycamore tree. For the pups. Efa.

Run!

I race for the females’ fire.

Faster!

My wolf’s lungs and legs burn. The air rings with guttural growls and screams and howls.

On your left!

I dodge right, narrowly missing a Salt Mountain male. Two of ours were on his tail, and they tackle him, rolling together in a ball of fur and fangs.

My wolf’s paws eat up the yards to the sycamore, but the lone wolf is already there, herding the females and pups together under the canopy. He bays and snarls, pacing and darting until our people are huddled together.

Diantha, Nessa, and Elspeth have shifted into their wolves and stand shoulder to shoulder, blocking a dozen pups behind them. Lilliwen cradles two babes, crouching to shield Auggie, Efa, and Leon with her body. A grizzled wolf that must be Mabli’s stands with her front on an overturned rocker, howling, baring her toothless black gums.

The lone wolf lifts his massive head and lets out a bloodthirsty, mad roar. The female wolves snarl back while the females in human form do their best to block the pups with their bodies, but there are too many little ones to hide them all. The babes wail, the pups in fur whimper, and the pups who can speak, cry for their mothers and fathers.

Kill him.For the first time in my life, the pecking voice is perfectly calm.

My wolf skids to a halt several feet away and then slinks forward, keeping the fire between her and the Salt Mountain wolf, letting the smoke block her scent. When she’s too close to dare creep closer, she huddles close to the ground, staring up and up at his tremendous mud-caked haunches. She’s a miniature in comparison. All the females are, and we all stare, powerless, as the wolf’s bones crack and a strapping man rises from the hulk of his beast.

His blond hair shines through the dirt. I’ve seen him. Leith Munroe. The new Salt Mountain alpha.

He rests his hands on his hips as if there isn’t chaos all around him as his wolves play a game of distraction, breakingafter our slower, smaller, or older males and mauling them until our strong males are forced to turn back, away from us, to rescue them.

Leith takes no notice of our wolves, even when they get close, or me, skulking behind the fire. Why would he? I’m no threat—skinny and small and stinking of fear.

Instead, he’s intent on someone behind the line of female wolves.

“Lilliwen Boyle, is that you?” he says. “Imagine finding you here. Are those pups all yours?” Lilliwen shifts to hide Auggie, and Leith cranes his neck to see around her. Auggie doesn’t help by poking his snout out and growling. “Oh, that one’s yours for sure. And his sire’s a Munroe, too, if I’m not mistaken?”

Leith squats and reaches out a sculpted arm, wiggling his long fingers. “Come say hello to your uncle, pup.”

Lilliwen snarls. The female wolves press tighter together, lowering their haunches, readying themselves to attack.

“L-leave us alone,” Lilliwen stammers, shoving Auggie behind her. Efa peeks out her other side. My heart lodges in my throat.

“Ah, but your new pack won’t leaveusalone, will they? Always thieving our females. Pissing on our territory and running away.” Leith rises back to his full height and spits in the grass. “I think turnabout is fair play, don’t you? Don’t worry. If you want to stay here, Lilliwen, you can. We don’t have much use for a—used—female.” He makes a show of peering past her. “But this pack of dogs can’t keep stealing our good females with impunity. I think you’ll understand if we help ourselves to a few of these pups to balance things out. Seems a fair trade. Don’t worry, we’ll raise them right.” He winks.

Our females break into a ferocious snarling and howling that raises my fur.

Leith is unconcerned. There’s no tension in his stance, no shred of anxiety in his scent. He knows, as we all do, that we’re no match for him.

His back is turned toward you.

He flashes the female wolves his eerie fake smile and coos to Efa’s wolf where she pokes out her head. “Come out, come out, little lady. Don’t make me come through your dams to get you.”

Nessa’s wolf snarls and glances over her shoulder, gauging the distance between her and her pup, weighing the danger of breaking the line to protect her.

Leith snarls back, louder, longer, with all the force of an alpha at the height of his powers.

Efa’s wolf whimpers and hides her muzzle in Lilliwen’s skirt.

That won’t save her.

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