Page 38 of To Challenge a Wolf

Robert said, “Given what I saw tonight, I agree with Trevor. It’s my belief something was averted that we’ll never know about. It’s no accident you moved the way you did, Rhett. It’sno accident you were the first of us to change form as an alphabound wolf. You shouldn’t have been able to do that; even Malachi didn’t know about it until it happened. Fate stepped in.”

Rhett looked around and for the first time seemed fully to see the open faces of each member of his pack. The tension in his shoulders relaxed, seemed to cave in. Slowly he nodded. “Okay.”

Occupied with keeping their pups quiet, Jeremy and Lucy hadn’t said much so far. Now while Jeremy held both twins Lucy said, “What about the other two rogues? Won’t they want revenge?”

“They won’t return,” Malachi said.

“How can you know that, Mal?”

“My wolf and I made certain of it.”

“But…you didn’t kill them.”

“No.”

April set her hand on Malachi’s arm. “Can you tell us what you did?”

“It’s another ability I wasn’t aware of until I used it. Essentially I forced them to meet my unshielded gaze.”

“But wolves don’t have to acclimate to each other,” Willow said.

“No, but if I choose to, my gaze can leave a permanent instinctive warning in the mind of a wolf. They’ll avoid our territory for the rest of their lives. They now fear me too much not to.” He looked down at April and said, “It didn’t only protect the pack. It also felt like justice.”

“Because of what they did to me, forcing acclimation,” April said.

“Correct.”

A long moment passed. Surely everyone needed time to process what had happened tonight, as well as to process their safety. Vivian couldn’t imagine living from June to October knowing a wolf pack would be back to try to harm you.

“It’s over,” April whispered. She shut her eyes and leaned into Malachi. “It’s over.”

The pack tightened the ring around the alpha and his mate. Sometimes while spending time with wolves, Vivian wished she could smell what they did, understand a person’s mood instinctively without needing to rely on inflections of voice, expressions of face and body. This was one of those times, as the wolves seemed to sense that both Malachi and April needed them near. Malachi wrapped April in his arms and rested his chin on top of her head.

“Do you know how long you’ve been here, beloved?” His words were so quiet, Vivian had to work to decipher them.

“Four months, give or take,” April said.

“One hundred twenty-six days.” He let out a long sigh. “But it’s over now. You’re safe. So I can stop counting.”

Beside Vivian, Rhett’s chest rumbled with a low growl.

“What?” she said quietly.

He shrugged as though unaffected, but the tick in his jaw gave him away. “They’ve been through a lot together.”

“And?”

“And nothing. It’s an observation.”

“Uh-huh.”

He bared his teeth in a way that was supposed to put her off but only tugged at her curiosity. What was he trying to tell her andnottell her? Why did he have to be the kind of wolf who tried to be both known and unknown?

“So you don’t need the full moon to change form,” she said. No use trying to force more out of him on the other topic.

“Well,Ido. Can’t give myself permission.”

“I still can’t believe I just saw a wolf. In person, in his wolf form. Being a wolf.”

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