Page 56 of Brutal Alpha Bully
Not reaching for me, he asks, “Is Nora—?”
“She’s fine,” I say, scooting toward the edge again, stretching my shaking hand out to him. “Please, Xeran, take my—”
“Watch out.” Lachlan and Soren are at my sides, kneeling down. Felix tries to pull me back, and when I turn my head, I see Kalen with my daughter, a hand on her back.
“We’ll get him, Seraphina,” Soren says to me, and I relent as he pushes me back from the ledge, his hands firm but gentle, like he’s herding a scared cat. Soren and Lachlan reach down, but before Xeran can grab their outstretched hands, another voice cuts through the air, high-pitched. Terrified.
Just below his nephew, Declan clings to a narrow outcropping, his fingers white with the strain of holding onto the rock. There’s blood smeared on his face, and I feel some satisfaction in knowing Xeran got a good shot at him.
Normally, I’m a forgiving person. But that man tried to throw my daughter over a cliff—he deserves to hang here until he eventually plummets to his death, a victim of his own weakness.
“Help me!” Declan’s voice is desperate, strangled, all sense of bravado gone. “Declan—I’m going to—I’mslipping!”
I stare down at this man who has disregarded so many lives in starting these fires. And yet, now that it’s his life on the line, his body slipping toward death, he’s aware of the consequences.
He’s daring to ask forhelp.
“Please,” he adds when Xeran doesn’t move from his spot, looking down at his uncle with disdain. “Please,” Declan says. “Help me, and I’ll give you whatever you want. All those acres—yours. The alpha supreme position. I’ll give it all up.Please!Just don’t let me fall!”
“Xeran, man,” Soren urges. “Grab my hand. Leave him.”
“Come on,” Lachlan says, pushing out forward. All Xeran has to do is swing one of his hands up, and he’ll be safe. But for a long moment, he doesn’t move, just hangs there and stares at his uncle as Declan starts to slip.
The older man starts to whimper as he slips and scrabbled, readjusting and trying to regain his hold on the rocks.
This man threatened my daughter. Participated in kidnapping me. Offered me up like a piece of property. Terrorized us and sold our town out for profit. Took any number of lives with the fires heintentionallystarted.
He deserves whatever waits for him in the darkness below.
But, just like I knew he would, Xeran moves, taking one of his hands off the tree and shifting his body to offer it to Declan.
“Take it,” Xeran orders, his voice carrying the authority of an alpha. “Swear on your life that you’ll step down. Peacefully.”
“I swear,” Declan practically sobs, reaching up, his fingers closing around Xeran’s wrist. “On my own blood. On the pack bond.”
Xeran hauls Declan up, his grip never wavering as he helps him get a grip on the tree. Kalen and Felix reach down, hauling Xeran up, but when they move to grab Declan, Xeran shakes his head.
“Just me,” he says, getting down on his stomach and reaching for his uncle, who reaches up and takes Xeran’s arm, letting his nephew pull him up over the side. I retreat as he does, moving back to my daughter, who lets out a low whine when she sees Declan crumple to the ground, pushing with his heels to get away from the edge.
“Seraphina,” Xeran says, walking toward me, and when I look up at him, I decide I don’t mind the sound of him using my full name. His dark eyes are leveled on me, his concern evident. It makes something in my heart spark, something in my stomach turn over. “Are you hurt?”
“We’re fine,” I say, running a hand over Nora’s head, then putting a hand on my knee and shakily getting to my feet. “Are you—”
But I don’t finish my sentence because at that moment, something comes hurtling at Xeran from behind, hitting him with full force.
I scream his name, but it’s too late.
Declan has shifted into his shining black wolf, and he’s pinning his exhausted, human nephew to the rocky ground, his teeth bared just over his throat.
Chapter 29 - Xeran
Declan’s yellow eyes burn with madness as he snaps at my throat, foam flecking his muzzle, and I realize my assumption upon seeing him that first time I came back home was right—the man is on something. Something that makes him frenetic and unthinking.
Something that really makes him believe, even with a surprise attack, that he would ever have a chance against me.
Shifting beneath himispainful, and he manages a swipe of his claws over my ribs, which feels like liquid fire, tearing through the muscle and scraping at the bone. Hot blood runs down my side, but the pain just makes me angrier.
Declan’s wolf is smaller than mine, and he fights with a desperation that gives him an edge, but I’ve been training since the day I was born. I’m better than him in every way. More focused, stronger, bigger, more strategic. There isn’t a neuron in my brain that believes I am going to lose this fight.
