Page 28 of Howling With Wolves

A circle had formed, made up of Rowan and the Rigton wolves, Nico and a few of the wolves that seemed to move in and out of his life, depending on what he was doing. Sam was with him, and so were the rest of the James Pack wolves who’d comewith us. Cyan circled a wounded Clayton Richards. Anthony and I joined the perimeter of the circle.

“This ends here and now,” Cyan said, and I noted a few of the wolves who’d been with Richards were still alive. They’d been forced to their knees to watch their alpha’s execution.

Clayton Richards was back in his human form, but he wasn’t moving. He was on his back, bleeding from multiple wounds. Unfortunately, none of them had been to his neck and his guts were still inside his skin when I wanted them falling out to litter the ground.

“Your pack is no more.” Cyan flicked his glance to Sam, who merely nodded.

“He was going to mate her.” We all stilled as Richards rose slowly to his feet while he spoke. “Cooper.”

“What?” Cyan demanded.

Richards tried to laugh and ended up coughing up blood. “Your father. He was going to mate your mother. Had a whole thing planned. I congratulated him. Hugged him and promised to be there, to help, to watch over you, and drove my knife into his heart. Watched him bleed out then took his life the way he took mine.”

“How the hell did he take your life?” Cyan yelled.

“I should have been alpha. I just had to wait for him to be stupid enough to get himself killed with that self-righteous nature of his. Always playing the hero. Then she came along. She should have died giving birth to you, but no. She had the fucking brat who’d take everything from me.” He paused to spitblood at Cyan’s feet. “So I took it.” He pounded his chest. “Me! Fucker never suspected a thing. Hugged me while I killed him. Died while I took your mother and showed her what a true male was capable of.”

“Fuck,” Nico muttered, locking his hand around Sam’s elbow to hold him in place.

“I was going to kill you. Sure, I told your mother she could send you away, but I was always going to kill you.”

“Fucked that up, didn’t you,” Cyan taunted.

“I’m the winner here. I took his mate and made her mine. Made her give me three children.”

“And you tried to kill all of us.” Sam shrugged off Nico’s hold and stepped in to stand beside Cyan. Half-brothers whose fathers were brothers. They looked so much alike with the same height and coloring. I wondered if Sam would have the same striking green eyes as Emma and Cyan. If their mother did.

“You should have died—”

It happened so quickly there was no time to stop it. One moment, Sam stood beside Cyan. The next, his claws were buried deep in his father’s neck. Clayton punched his claws into Sam’s upper arm, trying to shake loose his youngest son’s grip. It didn’t work. Sam’s claws only sank deeper.

“You should die,” Sam said, then he tore his grip free, ripping out his father’s throat. “You should die.” He kept repeating those words as Clayton Richards fell, his sightless eyes wide open.

Cyan put his hand over Sam’s shoulder, stemming the blood flow there. “I’ve got you.”

Rowan stepped forward. “We’ll take care of clean up.”

Bas nodded and glanced over at Anthony and me. “Let’s go home to our mates.”

The threat to Emma was gone. For the first time since we’d met her, I felt as if I could breathe. I met Anthony’s gaze, saw the relief in his eyes, too.

“Let’s get our mate.”

Chapter Thirteen

~ Emma ~

I couldn’t stop crying. My mom was here. Battered and bruised but alive. We hadn’t moved apart since she’d walked into Bastion and Raina’s house. Raina had looked her over, asked if she needed anything, then led us to a private room. We’d spent the last ten minutes crying and clinging to one another. We’d cried for Jonathan and Sam and all of us. Ivy had brought in drinks, and when I’d told Mom that Ivy was Cyan’s mate, Mom had wrapped her in a tearful hug. Now, the three of us sat together while we waited to find out what was happening.

“You’re mated? To two wolves?” My mother couldn’t seem to get past that.

“Anthony and Donovan,” I said with a nod.

“They’re strong, reliable wolves,” Ivy offered. “Two of the fiercest enforcers in our pack. You’ll like them.”

Mom kept her gaze on me. “I’ll love them. I just can’t imagine being mated to two wolves.”

“They love me,” I assured her. “And I love them.”

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