Bram wrapped his hand around Montag’s neck, letting his claws out fully so they dug into the other man’s skin.
And squeezed
When the other man fell, Bram didn’t let out a sigh of relief. He didn’t scream in joy and purpose that the man who had all but taken everything he could from the wolves was dead.
Bram turned his back on the body of the former General who had taken it one step too far and growled. “Give me your hands.” He held out his own, and Charlotte and Bram put their palms in his without asking why.
“Now pull on your bond,” Bram ordered. “That bit of energy that you feel? It’s for us. For right now. Push it out and take out that fucking tank.”
Charlotte’s eyes widened. “Are you sure?”
“We can do that?” Shane asked.
He didn’t know why he knew it, but he did, and he wasn’t going to ignore the instinct thrumming through his veins.
“We can. And we will.” His mates let out a collective breath, and the two of them turned toward the tank with him. He did as he’d told them, pulling on the energy that had allowed him to find Charlotte, the one that had brought him into the Talons when he had been afraid it wouldn’t work.
Light shot from the sky as fire erupted from the earth. He had never heard of this before but knew this was a gift from the moon goddess herself.
A gift.
One he could never repay.
The fire engulfed the tank, and the lightning broke it into pieces. The machine that had almost taken out their entire den, their elders, their submissives, their children, their future, was gone.
There might be more, but for now, this was what they had been able to do.
Cheers erupted from the battlefield as the wolves shouted out their victories, the human soldiers either dead or surrendering. Montag’s evil would be no more, the idea of a serum and what Shane could do for him hopefully dead along with him.
This wouldn’t be the end. It couldn’t be. They’d just had a major battle in the middle of a forest where people had to be watching. The government would come with questions, but Bram knew they would have their own answers. His people had defended themselves, and that would have to be enough.
Shane grabbed his shoulders and shook Bram from his thoughts. “You did it. You fucking did it.” He kissed him hard, and Bram growled.
“We did it,” he corrected before pulling Charlotte into a kiss. “We all did it.”
“I love you,” she whispered to both of them. “I…I am so fucking glad I get to say that again after what just happened.” Dirt and blood covered her face, and Bram used his thumb and her tears to try to clean some of it away.
“I’ve never been happier to hear it,” he said honestly. “Now, let’s go see our people.”
“Our people,” Shane said softly as he looked over the field at the fallen men and women he had once fought alongside. “I…I think I need that.”
Charlotte wrapped herself around Shane’s middle as Bram did the same to his side. “We did it. We really did it.”
“Now, let’s clean up the mess,” Bram added.
And they would. They would clean up not only the bodies on the ground and the burnt metal littering the forest floor, but they would also have to find a way to work through the atrocities Montag had committed.
It wasn’t over.
Not by a long shot.
But for now, Bram would take this small victory. He’d hold his mates, learn his new Pack, and let his wolf come to the surface through it all.
Because he’d discovered something he’d known all along.
He was wolf.
He was Pack.
And he was theirs.