Page 66 of Wolf of the Storm
For a long moment, nobody moves.
Then Tessa's voice explodes through the radio: "South fallen! Kian's down, I can't reach him. The fae-blood carrier...” Static. “...dead. Repeat, the fae-blood is dead. Six seals broken!"
Six seals. All Connor needs is Eliza..
The wolves in front of me hear it too. See my attention split. The grey female's eyes gleam with renewed determination. She's calculating whether she can reach Nessa before I can stop her.
I bare my teeth—not quite human, not quite wolf. "Don’t even try it."
A vehicle engine roars in the distance. Retreating. Connor's people at the southern peninsula are pulling out now that they've succeeded.
My radio crackles again: "Jax here. Docks secured. Some damage, but fires contained. Where do you need me?"
"Village," I snap. "Now."
But I can already feel the enemy wolves' resolution crumbling. They came for an easy target, not a Storm Alpha who can call lightning. Not whatever the hell I've become, standing here wreathed in rain and wind and power that makes the air itself bend.
One by one, they back away. Then turn. Then run.
I hold my ground until they're gone, until I can't sense any hostile presence within half a mile. Only then do I let the storm-form dissolve, shifting back to human. My legs nearly give out from exhaustion.
Jax arrives seconds later, human and covered in someone else's blood. He takes one look at me—naked, shaking, rain-soaked—and tosses me his jacket.
"You all right?"
"No." I pull the jacket on. "Connor won. Three locations—North, South and West. Six seals broken."
"But not here. Not the village."
Small comfort when people died today while I was splitting my focus, trying to be everywhere at once.
The inn's door opens. Eliza appears, Nessa clutched in her arms, the little girl's face buried against Eliza's shoulder. Moira Flynn stands behind them, her expression shell-shocked but grateful.
"You saved her," Eliza says quietly. Our bond thrums with her relief, her love, her terror at how close we came to losing.
I cross to her, to them. Cup Nessa's small head gently. "You're safe now. I promise."
But even as I say it, I know it's not true. Connor has broken six seals. He only needs one more death to complete his ritual—and then he'll come for the woman I love, the seal she strengthened, the final key.
My phone buzzes in Jax's discarded jacket. A text from an unknown number. I open it, and ice floods my veins.
A photo. The standing stones. And carved into the largest stone in letters still wet with blood:
One more to go, Storm Alpha.
I show it to Eliza. Watch her face go pale. Watch her jaw set with determination.
"Let him come," she says quietly. "We'll be waiting."
But as we head back to Clifftop House, the storm finally clearing overhead, one thought circles in my mind like a predator:
Connor’s forces just killed three people in a coordinated strike that we couldn't stop despite our best efforts.
And next time, he's coming for the woman I love.
How do I stop someone who's already proven he's faster, smarter, and more ruthless than I am?
How do I protect her when he's willing to sacrifice everything to win?
