Page 44 of Wolf Claimed
She tried to pull away. “Don’t say that! He’s strong. He wouldn’t give in to his wolf.”
Rafe held her tightly, so she’d listen to him and face the truth. “Several of the other shifters tried to capture us. They told us you’d been taken, and one of them went into detail about what they planned to do to you. Tiernan couldn’t handle it. He panicked, which gave his wolf the opening he needed to take control. He shifted, or rather his wolf forced a shift, and went berserk. It was a blood-bath in there.” With his chin, he pointed toward the dorm.
Alyssa felt as if she were walking through a fog as she approached the dorm. She couldn’t smell blood from this distance like Maddox and Rafe, but Rafe wouldn’t lie.
As she wrapped her hand around the metal handle of the dorm’s main door, Rafe’s hand covered hers. “Don’t.”
“I have to.” Alyssa pushed open the door. She nearly threw up at the sight. Blood splatter covered the walls, the windows, even the damn ceiling. Dead men—and body parts—lay everywhere.
“Please, Alyssa. I’ve been in there. Trust me, you don’t want to go in,” Rafe pleaded. He stood right behind her as if he thought she might collapse from the sight.
She wanted to. Then she wouldn’t see all the death, all the ruined lives. But that feeling deep inside her roared in triumph at knowing what Tiernan had done, forher.
And it had been for her. He’d been desperate to reach her, to protect her.
“All shifters. No humans,” Rafe added.
“Does that really matter? Men aredead.”
“Shifters are dead, not men, which is why this won’t endanger the treaty. Human laws don’t cover what happens within the shifter community, only when it crosses into human society. What happened here was a shifter problem. I’ll explain it to the DSA. They’ll understand.”
“How could they? I don’t even understand and this was because of me.”
“You’re at the center of this, but none of this is your fault. Kingsley, Barrett, and the other shifters brought this on. They knew Tiernan was close to going feral and that he’d mated you. They knew the risk of what taking you might do to him, especially if doing so kept you from blood-bonding him, and yet they were too arrogant, thinking he was no match for them given their numbers. And the males here, the ones who taunted him. . . Maybe they’ve never encountered a feral wolf to know how dangerous he’d be. Make no mistake about this, Artemis. They started this.”
“Where’s Tiernan?” she asked, afraid to look too closely at the bodies in the dorm’s lobby for fear she’d see Tiernan among them.
“He ran off. I’m guessing to find you.”
“He’s alive?” she asked, shocked and relieved at the news. “Save him. Please.”
“Alyssa. . .” Rafe stroked her hair as he looked her in the eyes. “You must prepare for what may happen. For whatwillhappen.”
“You can catch him, give him a chance to take control again. He can do it, Rafe. You know he can.”
“I’m sorry, precious. He has to be put down.”
“No! You can’t! Promise you won’t.”
“Even if I make that promise, there are other shifters out there hunting him.”
“Survivors?” Maddox asked as he walked through the bodies, identifying which shifters had died.
“The two shifters I took down, Lincoln and Xavier, stayed down when they realized Tiernan had lost control of his wolf. Tiernan didn’t go after them, only the shifters who tried to keep him from leaving. Four retreated to the woods, to heal.”
“How many dead?” Maddox asked as he returned to Alyssa’s side.
“Eight. Three shifters stayed out of the fight altogether.”
“I left one dead a few miles back, where Barrett and his team had taken her. Four more got away, including Kingsley.”
They spoke in numbers and strategy, and all Alyssa could think about was Tiernan and what he’d gone through. . . what he was going through now, while they stood here talking.
“We need to go, Rafe. Now,” Maddox said as he placed his hand on her lower back and turned her toward the door. “Before Tiernan encounters any humans. If he kills even one, this could go way beyond destroying the treaty.”
“I know. It could start a war.”
* * *
