Page 172 of Claimed By the Rival Alpha
He gave me a half smile. “Always.”
As Dom headed out, I continued to pet Night in his sleep, watching the occasional twitch of an eyelid or the corner of his mouth. If he so much as gasped in his sleep, I would be there to smooth his brow and soothe his worries.
Hours later, after a night of fitful, dreamless sleep, I rolled out of bed. Night was still lying on his side. Bandages were still stuck to either end of the bullet wound and spots of blood had seeped through while he slept. I’d need to change them, but first I needed to wash off my own grime and sweat and blood.
I climbed into the shower, made the water as hot as possible, and stepped in. It burned, but I didn’t turn down the temperature. It needed to be boiling if I wanted to scrub my skin free of thememory of what I’d done. The ripple that went through me as Evan’s bones snapped in my jaws, the flash of heat as his blood hit my tongue.
I shivered in spite of the temperature and scrubbed myself almost raw.
When I finally felt clean, I stepped out. My skin was bright red, but I still felt dirty. In the mirror, I could see no trace of the wounds I’d sustained during the fight, and there was no evidence of the life I’d stolen. I brushed my teeth until I spat blood with the toothpaste in the sink, and then I brushed more. It had been only hours since I killed Evan. Through the window in the bathroom, I saw that the sun had only just begun to rise. It was a blessing that I hadn’t had any nightmares last night, but I was sure that they would come to haunt me soon enough.
There was a knock on the front door. I spat more red-stained toothpaste into the sink, pulled on another robe, and jogged downstairs to answer. Already, my skin had healed from the abuse I’d put it through.
Dom was there when I answered the door. “Hey, how are you holding up?” he asked.
I couldn’t give voice to the emotions that plumed like thick smoke in my mind, so I said nothing.
Dom, correctly interpreting my silence, gave me a sad smile and moved on to the next topic. “The ferals finally retreated.”
“That’s great news. What were our casualties?”
“Dozens are injured, and about ten of those injured are in critical condition. As for deaths, we lost five Wargs and twenty-five Kings.”
I should have been braced for the news, but I wasn’t. Last night, I’d seen fifteen total dead, but that number had now doubled. I knew that in the grand scheme of things, these numbers were only a fraction of the populations of either pack, and I knew that things could have gone a lot worse. But that didn’t make me feel less guilty. It was a win, but to me, losing even one life was a huge loss. How could I not feel responsible? I’d failed my pack because I hadn’t been prepared for this to happen. I hadn’t even been able to help in battle because I wasn’t trained for it.
If you had been trained, you wouldn’t have had to kill Evan.That cruel voice slithered into my thoughts and left me feeling raw and restless.I need to learn how to fight. ASAP.I refused to let this happen again. I owed it to my people. Even when I was no longer Alpha, I would still be the Den Mother, and that carried almost as much responsibility.
“I heard that the council wants to speak with you when you’re available,” Dom said.
“Of course they do.” As much as I wanted to spend the day watching over Night, I couldn’t exactly take the day off. We’d just had a war. “Did they mention a time?”
“Around three.”
“I can make that work.”
“Good. Us Wargs will be there too, so you won’t be alone.”
“I’m glad.” My smile felt a bit more genuine. “I’ll have friends there.”
The rest of the conversation was brief. Dom let me know that Violet, Tavi, and my mother weren’t among those injured, andthen he left to help deal with the injured. I returned to the bedroom.
Night had still been snoring when I left to answer the door, but as I entered the bedroom I found him not only awake, but trying to sit up. I rushed to his side.
“Wait, wait.” I adjusted the pillows behind him and helped him lean back against them. “Be careful, you’re still injured.”
“Yeah, I feel like shit.” His voice was raspy. “What happened?”
“You were shot with a silver bullet. By Evan.”
As I spoke, I watched confusion change to surprise on his handsome face. The memories slowly came back to him until his emerald eyes darkened with sorrow. I wished I didn’t have to remind him.
“I’m so sorry, Bryn.”
Those four words clutched at my heart and made my eyes sting with tears. “Wh-why wouldyoube sorry?”
He touched my face and caressed my cheek. “I never wanted to put you in the position of having to take a life, especially someone that we knew.”
His touch sent me over the edge, and I couldn’t stop the tears. “He was going tokillyou,” I hiccupped. “And before I could stop myself or think things through, I had him, and I-I?—”
