Page 78 of Mate Night Snack
Emmett moved before conscious thought could interfere, his own shift flowing like water as his wolf surged to the surface. He hit Ashwin mid-leap, both of them crashing to the earth in a tangle of fur and fangs that sent up clouds of ancient dust. They rolled across the clearing, snarling and snapping, each trying to find the killing hold.
Ashwin was smaller but faster, using his weight advantage to slip out of Emmett's initial grapple. His teeth found Emmett's shoulder, tearing through muscle and scraping bone. Pain blazed white-hot through Emmett's system, but he used it, let it fuel the protective rage that had been building for weeks.
"Is that all you've got?" Ashwin's voice came out distorted through his wolf form, words twisted by fangs and fury. "I've waited for this moment. To show you what real strength looks like."
They circled each other now, both bleeding, both ready to die before backing down. Around the clearing, Emmett could sense the other pack members shifting restlessly, but the ancient wards held them back, forcing this to remain a battle between alphas.
"You want to know about strength?" Emmett snarled, feinting left before driving forward with claws extended. "Strength is choosing love over hate. Choosing protection over revenge."
"Weakness!" Ashwin dodged, his claws raking across Emmett's ribs, opening wounds that immediately began to bleed. "Just like always, you choose sentiment over survival!"
They crashed together again, this time near the base of the Hollow Stone. The ancient granite hummed with power, but itcouldn't interfere directly. This was a challenge as old as wolves themselves, alpha against alpha, and it had to be settled with tooth and claw.
Ashwin was fighting like a creature possessed, his moves erratic but deadly. He'd abandoned any pretense of honor or pack law, using every dirty trick in his arsenal. When Emmett tried to get a clean hold, Ashwin twisted and bit at his legs. When Emmett pulled back to avoid the bite, Ashwin lunged for his throat.
"You cost me everything!" Ashwin screamed, his jaws snapping inches from Emmett's neck. "My pack, my purpose, my place in the world! All for one pathetic whelp who would have died anyway!"
"She was innocent!"
"She was weak! Just like you! Just like your precious mate!"
For a moment Emmett's concentration slipped. Ashwin took immediate advantage, his claws finding the old scar on Emmett's shoulder and tearing it open. Blood poured down his side, hot and thick, and suddenly he was fighting not just Ashwin but his own body's limitations.
Through the mate bond, he felt Katniss's terror and determination, her desperate wish to help tempered by the knowledge that interfering would only make things worse. The ghostly seers still hovered at the clearing's edge, their forms growing more solid as Ashwin's control continued to fracture.
"You're getting slow," Ashwin taunted, circling like the predator he'd always been. "Old wounds opening up, old failures bleeding through. Soon you'll be too weak to protect anything."
Emmett could feel it, the gradual weakening as blood loss took its toll. His movements were becoming sluggish, his reflexes just a fraction slower than they needed to be. Ashwin had always been cunning, and now he was using time itself as a weapon.
"When you fall," Ashwin continued, "I'm going to take my time with her. Break her slowly, piece by piece, until she begs for the release of madness. And you'll watch every moment of it from whatever hell awaits failed alphas."
"Never." Emmett lunged again, but Ashwin slipped aside, his claws opening another wound across Emmett's flank.
"Always so dramatic. Always so certain that love conquers all." Ashwin's laugh was pure malice. "But love makes you weak, makes you hesitate, makes you choose mercy when you should choose victory."
They clashed again, and this time Ashwin's superior speed told. His jaws closed around Emmett's front leg, crushing down with enough force to snap bone. Emmett roared in pain and fury, but couldn't break free. His vision began to gray at the edges, blood loss and agony combining to drag him toward unconsciousness.
For a terrifying moment, it seemed like Ashwin might actually win.
But then, through the haze of pain, Emmett felt it. Katniss's love, her faith, her absolute certainty that he was worth fighting for. Not because he was perfect, not because he'd never made mistakes, but because he'd chosen to be better than his worst moments.
The old guilt that had haunted him for years suddenly felt different. Not a weight to be carried, but a lesson to be honored. Those three pack members hadn't died because of his mercy. They'd died because Ashwin had used that mercy as a weapon, had twisted compassion into a tool for revenge.
The girl he'd saved was still alive somewhere, still free because he'd chosen to see her as a person rather than a problem to be eliminated.
And Katniss was here, whole and brilliant and fierce, because he'd learned to choose love over fear.
"You're right about one thing," Emmett said, his voice steady despite the pain. "Love does make you choose."
"Weakness over strength," Ashwin sneered. "Sentiment over survival."
"No." Emmett's eyes met Katniss's across the clearing, seeing his own determination reflected in her hazel gaze. "Love over everything else."
The bond flared, and suddenly Emmett felt stronger than he had in years. Not physically, but spiritually. Centered. Complete. Fighting not just to survive, but to protect the future they were building together.
When Ashwin lunged for the killing blow, expecting weakened prey, he found instead a wolf who'd remembered what he was truly fighting for.
Emmett met the attack head-on, accepting Ashwin's claws in his chest in exchange for the perfect position. His jaws closed around Ashwin's throat with crushing force, and this time he didn't hesitate.
