Page 7 of Defiant
“Disputed territory,” he contradicts me, one of his hands sliding around to my ass and gripping it without hesitation so he can push me up another few inches higher. In disputed territory, there are no rules. Pack law doesn’t apply. It’s the Wild West of the shifter world, where there are the quick … and the dead.
“You still don’t feel your wolf, right?” Black asks.
I search for her, but she’s less than a ghost. It’s like she was an illusion or worse … delusion. “No. No wolf.”
“Then climb the fucking tree. You have less than a minute.”
Fear stings me like a bee and makes my chest swell. I turn my eyes up to the closest branch and snake my right arm up the mottled trunk but I’m still at least a foot shy of that branch. “I can’t reach.”
I hear a low growl from him. “Plant your feet on my chest and slide them up.”
I wrap both arms around the trunk to balance myself as my feet reach back from where they’re dangling in midair to find his pecs. I begin an awkward, backward walk up his chest like I’m a shitty circus performer trying to climb up onto her partner’s shoulders. I try to ignore the fact that I’m giving my pack alpha a prime view of my lady bits and just thank the moon goddess I got waxed a week ago so that I can better focus on my fear instead of my utter humiliation.
Once my feet are firmly planted on Black’s muscular shoulders, I reach up for the branch again. But I’m still about three inches shy. I hear a sound in the distance and instinct makes me turn.
“Don’t look. Jump!” Black orders.
I leap from his shoulders, my stomach dropping even as my body flies up. My fingers wrap around the tree branch, my black nail polish chipping, nails digging in so hard I can feel little curls of bark form underneath them.
The branch sags from my weight and I dangle for a second before I quickly realize that’s the quickest way for me to drop. I might run track, but my arms aren’t prepared for this intensity and won’t be able to hold my full body weight for very long.
I carefully bring my knees up to my chest and then kick one leg out to the side, snagging my foot on the top of the branch and slowly pulling myself up.
My chest heaves by the time that I’m balanced along the branch and trying to ignore the little shoots poking at my bare belly. But when I look down at the dim forest floor as night casts its shadows, I’m swept away by gratitude that Black tossed me up here.
Because he’s surrounded by four wolves, all of them growling.
My alpha lets out a sultry chuckle that the wind catches before whipping up to trail that sound over every inch of my exposed skin. It’s a dark chuckle, the dangerous kind. But it’s also incredibly hot.
The wolves leap at Black as one unit and I inhale sharply, fingers digging into my perch.Fuck.I’m about to witness a fight and my alpha is outnumbered.
I will my wolf to come back so that I’m not stuck here, useless. I want to help, even though I have no idea how to fight. But of course, she’s gone like the wind, the bitch.
I watch Black shift in less than a second. One moment he looks like a tanned Italian mobster. The next, he’s a huge white wolf.
I expect him to dart away, to jump and twist in midair so their teeth can’t latch onto him. I predict he’s going to run and lead them on a chase away from me, but he doesn’t. He stands with his feet wide and watches as four opponents land on him with snarls. I hear the chomp of teeth clamping down and my stomach churns as I realize two have locked onto his shoulders, one is on his side, and another is trying to get at his neck.
But that one gets distracted by something, glances up, and leaps into the air, snarling … at me.
A cyclone of cold fear starts swirling inside my ribs.Shit.I cling to the tree’s limb hard, thankful it’s so fucking high, as my thighs and arms both tremble.
Black lets out one sharp bark and the sound spreads across the sky like black oil blotting out the stars—my vision literally tunnels so I can see only him after that. Somehow, I can feel Alpha Maddox’s bark coat my chest and liquefy my bones. I nearly lose my grip on the branch.
Beneath me, the four wolves release him, their jaws widening, detaching from his fur—they’re also clearly affected. A chorus of whimpers erupts from them and my jaw drops as I watch them bend to the ground and then roll to show their bellies one by one.
What is happening?
Alpha Black jumps onto the first wolf and there’s a yelp before a ribbon of red erupts from the downed wolf’s neck. Bile fills my throat as the tangy scent of blood fills the air and the other three wolves yelp and scramble to their feet, darting off into the night, disappearing into the brush of the forest so completely that I can’t even hear the sounds of their footfalls as they run away.
My heart drills me like a woodpecker; I’m pretty sure it’s burrowing right through my chest in its panic and will burst out my back any second. I’ve seen death before, but never like this. It’s been a calm and cold affair. Not red and gory, steam rising from a broken neck as the life inside evaporates. I realize that I’ve seen death, not dying. Dying is much worse. I close my eyes and wonder,Is this the life I hoped for all those years? Is this why no one talks about shifting?
I always imagined the secrecy about the wolf world was something glamorous. Enchanting. But maybe it’s not. Maybe shifters are tight-lipped because they’ve seen too much of what I just witnessed. Maybe their silence shields innocence and hope, keeps kids from understanding the darker realities of life before they have to face them.
“Get down,” Alpha Black’s command interrupts my revelation and my eyes pop open. He’s shifted back to human and used his forearm to wipe a good deal of the blood from his mouth. Most, but not all.
I clutch my branch as ragged fear cuts into me like a serrated knife—the knowledge that he could do to me what he just did to that other wolf, the realization that he can kill without a second’s pause. My understanding of Black’s power, of how and why he runs the Lobos, just magnified.
“Those were just scouts. The alphas from the Dark Night pack will be headed this way,” he warns. “They won’t roll over.”
