Page 80 of Hunter Moon

“No. If you fight him, it implies you respect him more than he deserves. It lends him credibility as a leader, and makes them fight us harder. I can do this, Lin. Pull him out, and the Reids scatter. I’m sure of it.”

He turned to me, our eyes meeting for a long, tense moment before he nodded. “Take him down, big brother.”

52

Brook

Everybody in the clearing heard the words, “Take him down, big brother.”

Aspen’s responding smile was downright vicious. He even took the time to shrug off his jacket and flick open the button of his jeans before he transformed.

The Reids weren’t so casual about it, shifting on the spot in an explosion of cloth scrap and fur. Cain Reid stood in the middle, a big, black spot in the middle of his drooling, snarling pack.

Aspen focused right on him when he’d shifted. Stepping out of the pile of his discarded clothes with a low growl.

Left beside Linden, I froze, the pace of my breath ratcheting up until Linden’s hand settled on my shoulder. His jaw was hard, but standing there in pink, human skin, wrapped in clothes straight from a Lands’ End catalogue, he was making a statement—the Reids weren’t a serious enough threat for him to bother with claws and fangs. Not yet. Not with Aspen and Birch and Juniper and Zeke and Talin and even my snarling little sisters, small but so goddamn fast and angry as hell, finally ready to take some revenge on these assholes. They darted through the Reids and kept them off balance.

“Whatever you need to do,” Linden said lowly.

I had my pack alpha’s support, and my family was fighting. I could stay here, by Linden, and let them protect me. After everything, no one would even hold it against me. Hell, Aspen would be delighted by the idea of me taking the back seat and letting him handle this, circling Cain with his fangs bared.

But the second they clashed, going up on their hind legs and snarling and snapping at each other’s throats, I jerked.

I couldn’t just stand there. And Lin knew it too. He gave my shoulder a squeeze and let me go. That was all it took for me to shift, barreling right into a beta wolf that was trying to bear down on Harmony.

I growled, biting the side of his neck and sending him into the dirt. Blood burst hot and metallic against my tongue. The wolf loved it, but me? Yuck.

I sputtered. Harmony had no such compulsion, prancing around us as I pinned him down with my full weight on the wolf’s flank. She scratched a nimble paw across its neck, splitting it open with a vicious grin.

The Reid wolf didn’t get up again, but there were more. Always more.

I was no fighter, but I wasn’t slight either. And this was instinct. I had it, even as I felt powerful, competent, vengeful like some kind of old god, my pack crashing like a wave over the Reids.

A claw hit my lower back, above my tail, and raked down my hip. I spun to see the bright, toothy snarl of Cain Reid, his lips split in a smile in the middle of his black-fur face.

Somehow, he’d lost Aspen in the fray, his own pack closing in on our best fighter to try to get the upper hand. My eyes rolled, flashing toward Linden. His face was pale, but he hadn’t gotten involved, so—so Aspen was fine. Linden wouldn’t let him die and stand there and do nothing. He trusted Aspen could handle this, so I had to too.

My attention narrowed on Cain as he stalked toward me. I stepped back, growling. This was Aspen’s fight—he’d said—but Cain was coming at me because he hadn’t succeeded in hurting Aspen alone.

That was what Cain thought of me as—Aspen’s weak spot, not his partner or another set of claws and teeth at his back.

The last time I’d faced the Reids, I’d been alone and isolated. Locked in a house with only my tormentor for company.

Now, I had my pack with me. I had Aspen. No matter how this ended, it wouldn’t be the same.

The enormous, black alpha crashed into me. His teeth dug into my shoulder, his front claws went for my belly, but I’d gone slack when he hit me. Expecting some resistance, Cain had lost control of our topple and I kicked out hard with my back legs, claws biting the flesh of his lower belly, sending him skipping back through the dirt and underbrush.

He growled, clawing to his feet, but I lunged at him with a snarl, dodging his own teeth to try and get at some weak point—anywhere his skin was soft and his bones didn’t protect the vital parts of him.

We rolled over each other, locked together and snarling, a mess of claw and instinct. I ignored the sharp pain in my side, was hardly aware of my own high keen when he clamped onto my arm and jerked his head, like he meant to tear the whole thing off.

But he was focused on me—the omega putting up more of a fight than he’d ever given me credit for.

He didn’t see the enormous gray wolf coming his way, spit pink with blood dripping from his fangs. My pained whine put Aspen over the edge. His shadow fell across the tangle of Cain and me, and by the time Cain realized it, it was too late.

Aspen’s jaw opened wide over the back of Cain’s neck. A smaller wolf wouldn’t have dared go for his back, for all that bone, but Aspen was huge and furious.

There was the catch of Cain’s breath, his eyes all the sudden wide with fear, and then a gurgle. I watched Aspen’s bright eyes as he squeezed his jaw shut, heard the sharp crack of bones rending and crumbling under the impossible vise of his bite.

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