Page 73 of Elven Crown

Rowan stooped to wipe his dagger’s blade on the giant griybreki’s sleeve, then straightened. When he found Rebecca standing there among the others, he smirked. “How’sthatfor confirmation?”

She huffed out a wry laugh and shook her head. “It wasn’t the plan, but I guess that’ll do it.”

A deep growl made her turn to find Maxwell’s wolf behind her, his teeth bared in a warning snarl and his thick hackles raised all along his back.

His glowing silver eyes had fixed intently on the elf inside the truck.

The rest of the team noticed the gray wolf as well, each of them taking a careful step back before Titus cleared his throat.

“Dude,” he said, looking back and forth between Rowan up in the trailer and the gray wolf preparing to pounce at any second. “I wouldn’t make any sudden moves if I were you…”

Sheathing his dagger at his hip, Rowan stared down the gray wolf and raised an eyebrow. “That’s real cute and all, but sorry, pal. I’m fresh outta dog treats.”

No one laughed.

Rebecca didn’t think anyone would have even if Maxwell were in his slightly less-threatening form. But Rowan taunting a shifter like that before the heat of battle even wore off?

Only a complete idiot would try something that stupid.

Rebecca knew Rowan Blackmoon wasn’t an idiot.

At least, he didn’t used to be…

The Blackmoon Elf chuckled again and waved away the snarling wolf with a flippant toss of his hand, as if the whole thing were still one big joke from which he could walk away whenever he wanted.

Rebecca should have seen it coming. She wasn’t surprised by it, either, but that didn’t stop her heart from leaping right up into her throat when Maxwell’s wolf let out one more vicious snarl.

Then he leapt up into the back of the trailer, his powerful jaws open wide, fangs glistening under the exterior lights along the dock, pouncing straight for Rowan Blackmoon’s throat.

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Rebecca’s ears rang, drowning out all other noise along the docks as she watched the impending catastrophe play out.

Everything moved as if in slow motion, this time, including her. She was powerless to stop the inevitable.

Her only option was to watch in mute horror as Maxwell and Rowan converged on each other inside the transport trailer. Despite knowing far more about what Rowan was capable of, a fresh wave of horror gripped her.

The horror that if Maxwell’s wolf closed those powerful jaws around Rowan’s throat, even if it wasn’t on purpose, he wouldn’t be able to stop himself from ripping the elf’s head right off his shoulders.

“Hannigan!” His name burst from her lips before she realized what she was doing, but by then, she’d already taken off toward the back of the eighteen-wheeler. She couldn’t have stopped herself, even when she grew acutely aware of the rest of her teamstanding motionless on the docks and watching in dumbstruck confusion.

As soon as she reached the trailer, Rebecca vaulted herself up through the open door and landed with a clang of her boots on the trailer floor. At first glance, it seemed she was already too late.

Rowan lay on his back, inches away from the corpse of the enormous griybreki he’d brought down all on his own. This time, though,hewas the one who’d been tackled.

Maxwell loomed over the Blackmoon Elf, both massive forepaws pressing most of his weight onto Rowan’s chest and pinning him down. The gray wolf snarled furiously, his hind paws scrabbling across the floor for purchase.

Rowan was still alive only because he’d caught Maxwell by the jaws with one hand to hold the crushing power of the wolf’s fangs at bay. It wouldn’t last forever, though, which was why his other hand fumbled desperately toward his belt and the dagger hanging there at his hip.

Before Rebecca could intervene, Rowan drew his dagger, grunting at the effort of holding off the hulking beast intent on killing him while Maxwell’s terrifying growl echoed between the trailer’s narrow walls.

The second that dagger was free of its sheath and in Rowan’s hand, a violet light erupted beside him, and Nyx appeared in a flash of purple sparks and the overwhelming scent of vinegar.

The katari gazed at the elf and the shifter locked in their little struggle, then whipped out her hand to snatch the dagger right out of Rowan’s grasp.

“What?” he shouted.

One more violet flash, and Nyx traveled in half a second from stooping at the elf’s side to sitting on top of the stacked weapons crates at the back of the trailer, well beyond his reach.

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