Page 27 of Howling With Wolves

“I’m going to rip your throat out.” He stared coldly at the male who’d spoken then included those with him. “I’m going to gut every single one of you and leave you where you drop.”

Clayton Richards laughed. “No, you won’t. Do you want to know how I know you won’t?”

No one said anything, but Richards didn’t keep us in suspense.

“Because if anything happens to me, his bitch of a mother will die.” He nodded toward Cyan.

“She stopped being my mother the day she chose you,” Cyan snarled.

“She did choose me. Me. Not your father. Not you.” Richards couldn’t hold Cyan’s gaze as he said that.

“Hard to choose a dead man,” Cyan said with a shrug as if discussing his father’s murder and mother’s abandonment was nothing. I knew better, though. I saw the tensing of his neck, the flex of his fingers, though his expression never changed.

“She matters to you. You think you can lie to me? I know she looked out for you. Had people helping her, like fucking Wallace. A worthless wolf. Made her watch while I beat him. While I dismembered him.”

He’d killed Wallace then. Not that I cared. He’d dumped Emma and fled with no explanation. He should have stayed with her. Should have reached out when he was on the way. Of course, it was possible Richards was lying.

“Who cares?” Cyan shrugged. “Not me. I left behind you and her and the rest of the pack a long time ago.”

“Bullshit,” Richards said. “I know you want this pack. You think you have a claim on it, just because your father was alpha before me.”

“Do they all know how you stabbed him in the back? How you smiled and embraced him before you sank in the knife?” Cyan asked.

More rustling among Richards pack.

“Did they all stand with you when you killed Jonathan?” Bastion asked. “A brother. A son. Hurting your wife and daughter. That’s real alpha of you.”

A phone rang. No one answered. It started up again immediately. Then again.

Cyan smiled. “I’d get that if I were you.”

Clayton jerked the phone to his ear. “What? Gone? What the fuck do you mean?”

“He means they’re gone,” Nico Volkov said as he strolled up, black military-grade clothes, blending into the darkness around us. “I appreciated your earlier hospitality. Appreciated the answers even more.”

“You son-of-a-bitch!” Clayton roared, throwing his phone.

Nico gave a negligent shrug. “Claire Richards send her regards. I believe she said you could rot in hell. Is that what you heard?”

He turned and glanced toward another male who stepped out to join him. With one look, I knew he was Emma’s missing brother. He looked rough. Wherever he’d been, he hadn’t made it out unscathed.

“You.” Clayton Richards gave his surviving son a cold, hard look. “You should be dead.”

“Sorry to disappoint,” Sam said. “Then again, that was all I really did, wasn’t it?”

“You’ll pay for this, Volkov. This wasn’t your fight. All you had to do was walk away.”

“You forgot one thing, Richards.” Nico’s gaze was filled with controlled rage. He looked mean and dangerous. “I was never your friend. I was Jonathan’s.”

“I’ll kill you all. All of you!” With that, Clayton Richards shifted.

“Richards is mine,” Cyan snarled. “I want him alive.”

He shifted midleap, racing to meet the other wolf as he flew off the porch. Anthony and I were close behind, shifting back into our wolves and going after the ones who’d wanted to share Emma. Roars filled the air as fur and muscle were shredded under the rip of brutal claws. I tasted blood and kept biting, using my jaws to tear chunks of skin and muscle free. I ripped the throat out of the next wolf and moved on to a third. I was heading for another when Anthony cut me off.

Listen!His voice was loud in my head.

“Circle up!” Bas yelled, and I shook my head before shifting back. I noted several of the wolves who’d been with Richards lay motionless around us and knew I’d taken the lives of more than a few. Blood coated me from the fighting.

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